To give you a hint as to where we’re going here, “passion” is a loaded word.
It literally means “to suffer.”
Are you and your team willing to “suffer” for customers that aren’t rich, famous or cool?
I’m not talking about prejudice, where you judge a potential customer as not serious because of their dress, gender, age, etc. If you need help with that, I can share some stories where car dealerships didn’t just lose out on selling a car … they lost out on selling a truckload of cars.
I’m thinking more about my amazing client, the independent shoe store Soft Shoe. Like all retailers, they have to deal with grumpy customers. But they do it while, literally, kneeling before them. While touching their sometimes-stinky feet.
And they win them over. In December, they won the Gold Medal Service Award in Footwear Insight’s secret shopper contest. Soft Shoe is, literally, one of the top 25 stores in the country.
You may not be kneeling directly in front of the customer. But you can still keep that customer in mind when you do your work. You can still have passion in your service.
As an example, check out this Sports Illustrated article on Jason Mayden. He designed Air Jordans and shoes for lots of celebrities. But along the way he did something else:
And then I got a project that no one wanted and that was this white leather shoe for J.C. Penny. And I put the same amount of energy and care into that product because I knew that shoe was for the everyday hero. The high school football coach, the dad that works in factories, or the grandfather that picks you up after school and walks you home. So I focused on celebrating these men and fathers that we often overlook because they are not athletes but they are performing.
In CX work, we talk about “persona mapping.” Let’s get inside the head of the customer. What are they experiencing? Thinking? Feeling?
Understanding those things allow us to figure out how to best serve them.
The “dad shoe” gets lovingly mocked all the time. I asked a shoe enthusiast about Air Monarchs, and he said, “Nike Monarchs are the perfect shoe for the guy who isn’t afraid to wear sweat pants out to dinner. The guy who can’t walk by a bag of dog food without smacking it, or a new tire without kicking it. They’re not for just any guy, but are perfect for the guy who has just given up. … If you enjoy blisters and only want respect from dudes over the age of 60, the Nike Monarch is the perfect shoe for you.”
He was a New Balance guy and did concede that it was a “Coke vs. Pepsi” situation. (😂😂💀, as the kids used to say.)
Based on the quote and the meme, you can see why a J.C. Penney shoe would not exactly be the dream job of a designer.
But would you be willing to have Mayden’s passion, to get into the customer’s head? Could you reframe your customer as the everyday here who isn’t an athlete but is still performing?
It’s the kind of thoughtful work that you don’t have to do. But if you choose to take the time and do it, the long-term rewards are great. Pay now or pay later.
Mayden chose to pay now. And it did indeed pay off later:
And everyone clowned me because I took so much care and I put so much effort into the shoe. Mr. (Phil) Knight and the leadership at Nike saw that and saw the effort and they rewarded me by giving me the opportunity to return to Jordan so I can work with professional athletes. I tell everyone excellence is the small things you do consistently over the time. I pulled myself into this small project and it gave me the biggest impact of my career.
I have seen numbers online estimating that the Air Monarchs brought in eight figures annually for Nike.
Take the time to serve that customer today.