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The Walking Fed: When a Zombie Just Wants Lunch
What happens when a hungry customer meets a business that's serving up everything but what he came for?
Last week, I wrote about a hungry zombie trying to navigate today's marketplace. I started feeling a little sorry for the poor creature. All he wanted was brains. Not a loyalty program, not a personalized dining experience, and certainly not another app.
Just brains.
The story was inspired by my own experiences playing a zombie in a community performance of Michael Jackson's Thriller. Twice. Somewhere between the makeup, choreography and shambling around looking half-dead, I began wondering what life—or rather, the afterlife—might be like for a zombie attempting to do something as ordinary as ordering lunch.
But then another thought occurred to me. What if we actually followed him? And what if there was a movie featuring Morty?
Meet Morty.
He's Dying for Lunch.
Morty has been dead for years, but he's developed quite an appetite. His order couldn't be simpler: brains on a bun. Unfortunately, Morty finds himself at The Brain Barn, a fast-food establishment that seems to have everything a modern restaurant could possibly want.
A mobile app. A loyalty program. Endless customization. Automated ordering. Artificial intelligence.
Everything, apparently, except a straightforward way for Morty to get his lunch.
First, there's the technology to navigate. Then the menu choices. And finally, an enthusiastic AI drive-through assistant that hears "BRAINS" and cheerfully offers him "GRAINS."
You can imagine how that goes over.
And just like that, a customer with one very clear need is trapped in an experience designed around everything but that need.
So, naturally, I made a movie.
When the Customer Journey Becomes a Horror Story
Morty's predicament is ridiculous. That's the fun of it. But take away the zombie makeup, the craving for brains and the unfortunate dietary misunderstanding, and his experience starts to feel awfully familiar. How often do we encounter businesses that make simple things unnecessarily complicated?
We download an app to complete a transaction that once took a minute. We navigate endless menus to reach a person who can answer a question. We provide the same information multiple times, enroll in programs we never wanted and get asked to rate an experience before we've even determined whether our problem was solved. None of these systems is inherently bad. Technology, personalization and automation can make experiences dramatically better.
But they can also become barriers when a business loses sight of why the customer showed up.
And that's where Morty comes in.
He doesn't care how sophisticated The Brain Barn's technology is. He doesn't appreciate the investment in digital transformation. He isn't impressed by the number of menu combinations available. He wants brains on a bun. It isn't a complicated insight. But it's one that organizations can spend considerable time and money overlooking.
Sometimes You Need to Shake Things Up
I've spent much of my career listening to customers, employees and stakeholders, asking questions and looking for what's hiding beneath the obvious answers. And I've learned that sometimes a different perspective is all it takes to make a familiar problem impossible to ignore.
That might mean bringing people together to co-build a better experience. It might mean challenging a long-standing process, asking an unexpected question or stepping into somebody else's shoes. Or, occasionally, climbing into the shoes of a hungry zombie
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Making The Walking Fed was my way of taking an idea from an article and giving it a little life. Or afterlife, as the case may be. The humor makes it entertaining. But underneath the absurdity is a question worth asking in any organization:
Are we making it easier for customers to get what they came for, or are we making them work harder to navigate what we've built?
Because a customer doesn't necessarily want to experience your technology, your processes or your latest innovation. They want to accomplish something. And if they leave hungry, it really doesn't matter how impressive your ordering system was.
As for Morty, I don't think he'll be recommending The Brain Barn anytime soon. Although I'm sure a survey is on its way!
Ready for a little Halloween horror-comedy?
And if you missed the story that started this little adventure, read What Does a Hungry Zombie Really Want?.
Laura M. Nozicka is a customer insights strategist, qualitative researcher, trained facilitator and speaker, and the founder of Big Idea Tango. She helps organizations get beneath the obvious answers, challenge assumptions and turn conversations into strategies and experiences that matter.
Big Idea Tango Talk It Out. Shake It Up. Make It Real.
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