It’s hard to believe, but my #WordNerdWednesday series has been going for almost five years. During a recent spin through the archives I found a few older but evergreen entries that people loved at the time and are worth sharing again.
â‘ Watermelon – A watermelon is a customer journey that seems green on the outside (i.e., customers are happy) but is a bright red mess for employees behind the scenes. This got the more discussion than any other WNW in 2024. I’m not surprised. It’s a a simple, memorable way to talk about what is clearly an under-appreciated issue!
â‘¡ Support – One of the most pervasive of what I call “vague verbs,” the word “support” causes an amazing amount of frustration. People ask for “support” because it feels safer than asking asking for what they really want – funding, people, attention, enforcement, etc. Obfuscating is a recipe for disappointment; if you want something concrete you have to ask for it.
â‘¢ Consistent – For years I’ve said that the best customer experience strategy is to be “Consistently Good, Strategically Amazing.” Consistency doesn’t get as much air-time in executive meetings or strategey planning because it’s boring; “wow” moments are more fun to think about and deliver. But consistency is the bedrock of trust, and trust is the fuel that drives growth.
â‘£ Priority – This word means “the thing that comes first.” For most of it’s history, the word didn’t have a plural form. Only one thing can truly come first. Now, though, we tell ourselves it’s okay to have 3, 5, 10 priorities. This post shares the question I ask myself when I need to figure out the ONE thing that should be at the top of my list.
⑤ Management – A variation on the Vague Verb concept, “management” is a lexical crutch that causes so much confusion and angst – it’s mind boggling. We’d save ourselves a lot of hassle if we built the discipline to replace “management” with more specific verb-noun pairs (e.g. approve a design, report metrics, adjust a strategy). Check out the full post for more examples of clear, useful word pairs you might want to use instead of “management” in your next conversation.
I’m curious — which of these resonate most?
