Have your customers left you behind?
Left-handed people have spent their lives adapting to a right-handed world. Some were forced to switch to their right hands others were cursed with a life of uncomfortable scissors and smudged writing. But in 1970s San Francisco, a hero emerged. Pier 39 had a new store opening called Lefty’s. It would meet all the needs of this niche (niche?) customer group. But then one day…it all disappeared.
In this episode, we’re tackling some major subjects. First, how to correctly pronounce niche. And second, how to find your target audience who’ll become obsessed with your company. Our guest, Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela, Global Customer Service Director at Printful, brings insight into finding the perfect customer, creating subtle yet effective CX, and what reality TV can teach us about customer experience.
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“Only one third of CX is actual physical experience—the other two thirds are about emotions.” - Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela
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Time Stamps
* (0:00) A left-handed utopia
* (5:06) What is Printful?
* (6:11) Who’s your target audience?
* (7:45) Printful’s CX
* (10:22) How to find your niche
* (12:03) Creating an undetectable CX
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Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
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Links
Connect with Ineta on LinkedIn
Narrator: It was 1978, and I can’t stress enough how much Emily’s hand was just covered in ink. The smudges had grown unbearable and she was at her limit. Wanting to quite literally cut her losses—she went to find scissors. She forced her hands into the uncomfortable holes and shakilly attempted to cut off the ink smudges on her paper. Realizing her report was now wrecked, she went to get a cup of tea to calm down. She maneuvered her hand into a mug not designed for her, and awkwardly drank her cup. She had spent her life adapting to the world of right-handers, but this was the last straw.
She grabbed the San Francisco yellow pages and tore through the book. Her mom had told her of a new store that was built for people just like her. She ripped past the Js and the Ks…skimming the Ls until she found it. Lefty’s: The Left Hand Store right in the middle of Pier 39. A store just for her.
The next day, with the faded ink smudges still on her hand, she trekked over to the pier. Once she walked in, she knew she was home. There were famous lefties lining the walls. Although left-handed people only make up 10% of the population, that 10% includes Leonardo da Vinci, James Baldwin, Babe Ruth, and Paul McCartney. They smiled down on Emily, validating her presence there.
Lefties have often been vilified throughout history. They were accused of witchcraft and working with Satan. Even today some are forced to use their right hands in schools. Heck, the root word for “sinister” is the Latin word “sinistra” which means ‘left’!
Emily walked the halls of Lefty’s and found left-handed scissors. There were notebooks, and can openers…mugs and novelty signs. Finally, her demographic was being served and celebrated. But then…one fateful day it all went away…
Welcome to Often Imitated, a podcast about remarkable experiences from the past, and how they inspire people to create great customer experiences today.
This episode is all about finding your niche customer. How Lefty’s did that for left-handed people, and how you can do it today. In this episode we’ll hear from Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela, Global Customer Service Director at Printful, about how she helps customers everyday focus on their niche. But first, a word from our sponsors.
Often Imitated is brought to you by the generous support of our friends at Oracle. Make every interaction matter with Oracle Advertising and CX. Connect all your data and empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences from acquisition…to retention…and everything in between. Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at oracle.com/cx.
As quickly as Lefty’s came into her life, it was taken away. It closed in the 80’s and Emily was again left—pun intended—without her community. For years, every time she was at Pier 39 she would mention Lefty’s to store owners. Begging them to bring it back. Lefty’s had been the first store in the world to cater to her niche community, and all of a sudden they had been forgotten. After years of the lefties of San Francisco demanding representation with their taxation…the original Lefty’s store front went back on the market, and Pier 39 gave in to the pressure.
In 2008, Lefty’s reopened. The now store owner, Margaret, says that although it’s her least profitable store…it’s the one she likes the most. It’s a crowd favorite and they quickly opened a satellite store in Disneyworld. Although nowadays you can get left handed scissors and notebooks on Amazon, the camaraderie that comes with a niche audience is difficult to replace. They created a safe haven for Lefties. A place where the 10% reign supreme and no one judges you for having hands covered in ink smudges.
When you have customer experience catered to you specifically—it’s hard not to become a fanatic. The brand loyalty soars as customers feel proud to be a part of your experience. Is it alienating to righties? Maybe. Lefty’s even has a signature mug that spills if you attempt to drink it with your right hand. But with each spilled drink, a lefty grows their wings (lol jk).
Someone who’s passionate about catering to niche customer segments is today’s guest. Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela is the Global Customer Service Director of Printful. Her and her team help thousands of customers find and explore their niche everyday. And she can help you too. First, let’s hear a little more about what Printful is.
Ineta: so Printful is an on-demand printing and fulfillment company. Um, and basically our goal is to help people turn their ideas into Brunson products, um, in a more simpler terms. Uh, if you have a great design idea, Um, we can print it for you on one of our 300 products and pack it and ship it to your customers.
at the moment we have actually delivered over 40 million items, um, globally. Um, we have, uh, 10 in-house fulfillment centers around the world. Um, we consist of approximately, um, 2,800 employees. And, uh, we just celebrated, uh, 1 billion in our customer's sales. So that's a really cool milestone for us as an eight year old company.
Narrator: Passing $1 billion in customer’s sales is an incredible achievement. And it comes from customers knowing exactly who their target audience is. Ineta says there are only two things you need to be a successful Printful user.
Ineta: there are only two things required from the person. One is the idea and the actual design. Um, and the second is. Some marketing skills. How are you going to sell this? I think if, if, if I think what the customers are struggling most one day actually decide, Hey, I will try to, um, establish.
Print on demand store with Printful is that, um, sometimes they don't have the story. Um, they don't have, um, defined the niche that they want to approach. And then obviously it's not going so well. They are struggling getting sales. They're struggling to understand why am I not successful on paying Facebook ads, et cetera, et cetera.
Um, but what is important and where we can't help you, um, is to understand what this going to be, your target audience. What is your story you're trying to sell? Um, I think nowadays the e-commerce is so oversaturated with all of the options that you need to be a bit more unique and you need. Have that sense of community and you need to be trustworthy and we will take care of the quality of the shipping equipment and everything behind, but, uh, it all boils down to the individual on what they have to stay and how are they going to say it with our technical opportunities?
Narrator: Having a unique story to share with your customers is crucial. It’s what Lefty’s perfected in the 80s, and why so many customers demanded their return for decades after it closed. Once you have your niche identified, Printful’s process is seamless.
Ineta: So let's take a typical customer. It's usually, um, a creator, uh, an artist who is, um, a designer, um, and, uh, they have these extremely cool designs. They would like to make variable or available for a wider use. So all the customer needs to do is create a design uploaded on Printful platform and then sync it with.
E-commerce stores. Um, we, uh, offer a synchronization with, uh, around 22 different platforms. E-commerce platforms out there. So whichever is comfortable for our customers. So we will be ready to integrate with, um, one of the most common, uh, his binder, Shopify or Etsy. I think those are well best known. Um, and, uh, when you have.
Great. Did your design uploaded in a chose the product you want to upload it to? Um, Posted on your store? Well, we will basically be taking care of everything else. Uh, we are a white label company, meaning that when the end user of the product is actually going to receive the product, they will not know that the task been graded by Printful.
Um, because it will be branded with all of the original store owner brand and personal. And I think that's a blessing in disguise burst as well, because it might be that already you have some of the Printful products, um, but you don't even know about it.
Narrator: Who knows? You could already be a Printful fan and have no clue. Which is the goal of both Printful and their customers. They both work tirelessly to make sure their niche buyers are being catered to.
Ineta: what, uh, our customers are constantly thinking about is, um, their target audience and who are they actually approaching with their store?
At Printful, we can help you with different tips on how to communicate, how to interact with your, uh, your own customers. Um, but at the end of the day, it's your own decision and your own calls. So what niche and what customer base are you approaching?
we do see a lot of Uh, customers failing by defining what their niche is. Um, their stores are set up without the story. Um, and, uh, we see that the most successful customers are actually the ones who have previously, uh, created this community and their own online presence and only then introduced products, that they want to sell.
Narrator: If you’re struggling to find your niche, Ineta has some advice.
Ineta: So if you think about the source of inspiration, I personally have found that there are, for me, there are two sources of being of inspiration that are really strong. So one is, um, Passion what that habitat that doesn't have to be a lifetime passion, but as you mentioned, lakes, or walks into forest, or we'd just got to dogs.
So suddenly my passion, our, our, uh, our dogs. Right? Um, so those passions where your eyes start this sparkle and you got the tingling sensation. Oh, I love this. This is the bright source of inspiration you can tap into actually become successful, because if you're passionate for it, I can guarantee you.
They're definitely more people out there who are passionate toward the same thing. And the second source of inspiration for me, it's, it's completely opposite things that I really hate to think things that irritate me. And, uh, um, how, how, how do I deal with it? And, and obviously, Irritation is a great place to look for inspiration as well.
So if I don't like something, if it tries to be insane, I can always create an awesome design out of it because it's going to cause emotion, um, or trigger emotion. I think that's probably the key to success as well. So how do we, how do we trigger that specific emotion in different ways? Whether it'd be lakes, let it be dogs, let it be, you know, new music or, or, or your favorite.
Narrator: We know irritation is a great source of inspiration. Lefty’s was founded on the pains felt by lefties adapting to a righty world. Once you’ve chosen your niche, then you can start exploring CX. Ineta’s take on customer experience is one we haven’t tackled yet on Often Imitated.
Ineta: the best customer experience is wherein our customers. Don't need to think about experience at all. Uh, and looking from a customer support perspective, I think that generic company goal is to make customer support.
Non-existent, it's an unreachable goal, obviously, but it's, it's a goal that drives the customer experience per Printful. Um, because if you think when you actually end up contacting someone from Printful it's, when you are stuck with something, when you, when they're on. Uh, per year is that you can't overcome.
And, uh, whenever we are launching new products, thinking about campaigns or, uh, improvements at our website or dashboards, we always need our thinking. Okay. So how do we make this so that there is absolutely no need for customers to reach out to us for additional. It's not that we don't like to talk to our customers.
We obviously loved that. Um, there, as I said, it's, it's a very limited opportunity for us to actually see our customers face-to-face, but that's go that whatever you do, wherever you are in whatever role you are, um, the customer experience needs to be completely seamless and comfortable enough so that the customers can.
On their own, the responsibilities of the store management. And they shouldn't be thinking about Printful at all.
Narrator: If your goal is to have an undetectable CX, the first step is observing how your customers are engaging with your product. Then, maybe watch some reality TV.
Ineta:So the first question is how close are you to the customer? Um, myself coming from a very big corporation. I could see that the large order to get those accompany. Um, the further people are drifting from the actual customer. And if somebody wants to reimagine their customer experience, you just need to get down, um, back to the customer and.
See how it, how exactly does it feel like it's no wonder there are these popular TV shows out there, bosses in disguise, or I'm not sure what the names of those episodes are, but that's where you get the real experience. Do you even talk to your customers? Do you get there? Do you hear her? Obviously you need to be a bit careful as well.
Um, especially if the customer had just have started with a company, um, they ha ha that could have an expectations that probably you can't meet at all, but you need to make sure that you're also asking the right questions to your customers, um, to help you with this. That's why I love the mystery shopping more than the typical customer satisfaction survey.
Um, I guess the mystery shoppers, they are tasked with certain goals, what they want to. Investigate, um, while the customers they're looking at more generic experience, more feeling and feelings are important. Um, if you look at statistics, one, uh, only one third, uh, of customer experience consists of actual physical experience and two thirds it's about emotions, right?
So how would this. What's your perception of the company and what's your expectations. What's your previous experience with the company and, and the, and those are emotions that you need to work with. But if you want to get to those emotions, you need to fix the technical part and the technical part.
Usually it's much better evaluated if you kind of take those emotions a little bit, the way.
Narrator: Once you’ve taken off your undercover shopper disguise, you’re ready to reframe your CX. Ineta has some advice on how to do that too.
Ineta:when we think about the customer experience, we, um, always think about this as, as some kind of, um, 10 on bubble or some mysticism is around it, but actually it's pretty simple. Um, I, I've tried to define over the years what the customer expectations are and it's, it's nothing more than.
Having a seamless process, a quick response and trust. And the only thing that has changed during the last two years is the people want that human aspect of experience that they want to be seen. They want to be heard. And I, I think it's, it's something that we can be thankful for. I think it's taking us, uh, that's making a lot of companies change the way, how they present.
Um, their communication with the customer and I can only be thankful for Printful already having all those values embedded in there in our DNA
Narrator: When we listen to people and cater to their needs…we won’t have customers—we’ll have fanatics. So this week, your homework is to find your niche. Figure out how to make your customers obsessed with the community you’ve built. Whether that’s by finding a common enemy like right-handed people, or something else. Find what your customers are obsessed with. Then maybe their next obsession will be you.
This podcast is brought to you by the generous support of our friends at Oracle. Make every interaction matter with Oracle Advertising and CX. Connect all your data and empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences from acquisition…to retention…and everything in between. Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at oracle.com/cx.
This is your host, Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios. Thank you for listening to another episode of Often Imitated. If you like what you’re hearing, tell one friend. This podcast was narrated by me, Ian Faison, written, produced and edited by Mackey Wilson, Scott Goodrich, and Jon Libbey. You can learn more about our team at CaspianStudios.com.