Klára Fedorová

Eye-tracking is a behavioral research method that uses special technology to monitor eye movements. This recording is then converted into data about human behavior, which helps us understand how users interact with a specific interface. Whether digital, such as websites, software, or applications, or physical, such as advertising flyers or spatial navigation.

In retail, eye-tracking analyzes how customers scan shelves with their gaze. Based on this, a brand can design better packaging or placement of its product. In outdoor advertising, it determines whether people even notice a billboard and what they manage to read from it. In some cars, eye-tracking is used for driver monitoring. The technology tracks whether the driver is looking at the road, not checking their phone, or is at risk of microsleep, and in case of danger, the car can intervene by triggering an alert, slowing down, or making slight steering corrections.

The outputs of eye-tracking research can vary – it depends on what you want to find out based on the posed hypothesis and research goal.

Heatmaps provide a visual representation of parts that attract the most attention on a page.

Scanpath, i.e., tracking eye movement paths, helps find common patterns in participants viewing and the sequence of how they browse the page.

Video with gaze visualization on the tested interface can offer additional helpful insights.

Based on recurring behavioral patterns, eye-tracking can reveal specific improvement opportunities: for example, better placement of conversion buttons, clearer arrangement of elements in an application, or position of additional services in the shopping cart.

Eye-tracking simply shows everything that users subconsciously perceive, but often cannot express in words during usability testing.




When is it appropriate to use eye-tracking?

Eye-tracking is a valuable method especially for projects where you need to test complex interfaces and determine users' natural visual movement. The best examples are various dashboards, e-commerce solutions, or robust applications. Eye-tracking will help you discover whether users see important elements and necessary information at first glance, or conversely, whether they overlook them.

It can also be useful if you want to test the first impression and visual hierarchy of a digital solution. With eye-tracking, you'll find out where users' gaze naturally goes and easily verify whether the content layout is functional. That's why it's often used as a supplement to user testing to verify and refine data.

A third important example is testing products or pages with high business impact or risk, or critical call-to-action (CTA) elements. With complex designs, even a small change in layout can significantly affect customer retention and conversion. Eye-tracking is extremely useful, for example, for campaign landing pages focused on conversion or when optimizing the purchasing journey.

Thanks to eye-tracking, you can also precisely identify places where confusion or distraction occurs and find the specific point where the customer abandons the process. You'll better understand what causes this pain point, why the customer has a barrier to continue purchasing or complete the required action.


When not to use eye-tracking?

If the project goal is not clearly defined, eye-tracking can lead to inefficient use of resources. You must account for limitations such as time-consuming evaluation, possible technical complications, or higher budget compared to other methods.

Using eye-tracking may not be suitable if you need a cost-effective solution or quick testing. The problem can be solved by methods that require fewer respondents and shorter time for data analysis.

Alternatives include usability testing and behavior observation, which can reveal similar, though less detailed, insights about how users interact with digital products. Web analytics tools like Hotjar capture user interactions without the need for special hardware, while Google Analytics provides detailed data on visitor behavior.

Hotjar heatmaps are often confused with eye-tracking heatmaps, although there is a fundamental difference in data sources between them. While Hotjar analyzes mouse movements and clicks on a website, eye-tracking monitors direct eye movements of the user. Heatmaps from Hotjar are less accurate and can only estimate visual attention based on cursor movements, but they are easily implementable and cost-accessible for most projects.


Examples of eye-tracking use

At Lighting Beetle*, we conduct eye-tracking research to achieve various goals. We use an eye-tracker from Tobii, which is a leader in eye-tracking technology.

Telekom approached us with the goal of increasing sales of offered products, improving website usability and information structure of individual pages. Eye-tracking data helped us supplement and verify findings from previous usability testing. Based on heatmap and scanpath findings, we developed a prototype incorporating proposed changes, which was then validated through user testing.

For ČSOB, we verified the flow of a new customer journey when opening a business account. User testing using an eye-tracker helped us discover that the onboarding process is long and unclear in some places. Similar to the previous case, the outputs were heatmaps and video with eye movement on the tested product. Eye-tracking revealed, for example, which key texts customers didn't pay attention to at all during the purchasing process. We provided the bank with a series of recommendations for improving the onboarding process.




What to consider when choosing eye-tracking

With an eye-tracker, you can reveal unconscious user interactions and hidden problems of digital products, especially with complex interfaces. It helps verify visual hierarchy and critical points in purchasing journeys. However, it's not suitable if you need to make design decisions for your product quickly and with a small budget.

Eye-tracking requires time and budget, but can be very beneficial for critical interfaces. Decide based on how big an impact well-verified design will have on your business performance. It's a worthwhile investment in cases where you have a user flow that brings a large portion of profit or high conversion rates.



Eye-tracking: Effective tool or unnecessary expense?

Kamil Zahorjan

How does it feel like to turn into a beetle for 2 weeks? We talked to Diana Rustemová, our recent intern who joined us from her UX & UI Design studies in Trenčín. As part of her studies, she needed to complete an internship and decided to apply with us. During her time here, Diana got to observe real projects, sit in on discussions, and see how different roles come together in a design team. Her reflection: “After a long time of learning, I started to feel a bit of stagnation... But thanks to this experience, I realized I was wrong - it really is something I would love to do.

What drew you to Lighting Beetle? And how did reality compare to your expectations?
I applied for an internship at Lighting Beetle as part of a mandatory practice for my UX & UI Design studies in Trenčín. Although I sent applications to several companies, my main goal was to join LB. I had heard many positive recommendations and that it’s one of the best firms in the field. After doing my own research, I was convinced it would be the right fit for me. I expected it to be a lot scarier than it actually was. In reality, it turned out to be an amazing opportunity to meet new people who are passionate about the same field I want to work in. 

What does your day looked like as an intern at Lighting Beetle?
Each day was filled with learning and new experiences. The team at LB was incredibly welcoming. Every day, different employees took the time to show me what their work involved. It gave me a great opportunity to see how they approach projects and create new products. 

How involved did you feel in real projects? Did you get hands-on experience or mostly observe?
While I mostly observed I still felt very involved in the projects. Even though I don’t have much experience yet, the team regularly asked for my opinion and included me in discussions. Having the chance to discuss real projects with experienced designers was incredibly valuable, and I learned a lot from those conversations.

What surprised you most about our work? Maybe something you didn't expect?
What surprised me the most was how enthusiastic everyone was about their work. You don’t often see people genuinely smiling at work. Some employees even mentioned that it doesn’t feel like work at all. It was also good to see how each person has a clearly defined role in the projects. At school, we learn a bit of everything, so I hadn’t realized how specialized each position can be in a real team.

"What did you learn here?" "Technically and personally - your biggest takeaways"
I learned a lot about how to organize projects effectively and keep track of every task and its progress. I especially appreciated being involved in the research phase, which was never my strongest area. This experience really helped me improve. Now my projects are more structured and thoughtful.

On the technical side, as simple as it may sound, I’m really thankful to Lukáš for showing me the importance of auto-layout :D Since then, I’ve continued learning about it on my own, and now I honestly can’t imagine working without it.

How did this experience shaped your career goals? 
Honestly, the whole internship was a big game-changer for me. After a long time of learning, I started to feel a bit of stagnation and wasn’t even sure if this was something I wanted to keep doing. But thanks to this experience, I realized I was wrong - it really is something I would love to do.

I can truly see myself continuing in this field after I finish my studies. I had the chance to observe how everyone fulfills their role in the team, and it helped me start thinking about which part of the work might suit me best in the future.

Anything else you would like to share?
Just that I’m really thankful to everyone at Lighting Beetle. I had such a great time, and I truly appreciate how kind and welcoming the whole team was. I learned a lot and I really hope to see you all again! 

Inside the internship experience

Lucia Ciranová

On one hand, we see brands like GymBeam or Alza that grew rapidly through online sales but are now opening stores to be closer to customers and build relationships through services that customers perceive as valuable.

On the other hand, there are local and established retailers like Albi, ExiSport, or Sconto, that are trying to embrace the new role for long-standing stores. Their competition is growing through digital channels like e-commerce and marketplaces, where they compete on price and breadth of assortment that is hard to achieve in physical space. Moreover, at a certain scale and number of stores, it becomes an organizational challenge to create a unique shopping experience or additional services.

In both cases, brick-and-mortar stores represent a significant investment or cost. From conversations with our clients, it's clear that many brands don't know how to holistically approach the role of stores beyond products on shelves. They simply cannot envision other ways they could be commercially meaningful.

Brands most frequently approach us with the following challenges:

 * They don't understand why customers come to brick-and-mortar stores: what quantity and selection of goods they expect there, what services and advice they need, where the store is placed at the customer's shopping journey (i.e., how they shop before and after visiting the store), and therefore cannot determine what the key conversion point is (which may also be online).
 * How to ensure quality and consistency of service in stores: what should be the roles of employees? What information and digital tools do they need for specialized service?
 * How to identify customers in stores: how to connect them with their digital purchases through email or loyalty programs. How to design an omnichannel customer journey so that digital and physical channels complement each other rather than cannibalize?
 * How to gain additional margin through services: what services would customers consider valuable and be willing to pay for?

Stores are still a key point of customer experience; physical space and personal contact offer value that digital channels will never be able to fully replace. However, many brands don't know how to use this potential in a way that reflects customer needs.

Therefore, we at Lighting Beetle* decided to explore this topic thoroughly. We drew from experiences from retail projects (Martinus, NAY, Optika ZITA, Dr.Max), from internal qualitative studies on the development of customer behavior and mapping global retail trends.


Store as a space for product discovery

A place where customers can get to know products discovered online and navigate themselves in options before making a final decision.

The first way is to use the store as a space where customers can gain inspiration, discover new products beyond their online algorithm, or physically verify a product that appealed to them online. The store is perceived as one of several touchpoints on the shopping journey; it's therefore important to connect it with digital behavior before visiting the store (e.g. pre-selection, what the customer has already seen and is looking for again, their preferences) as well as after visiting the store (e.g. conversion on the desired online channel). This is possible, for example, through a mobile app or loyalty program.

A store as a space for product discovery responds to the customer need "I want to find out what my options are" or "I want to find out if the product really suits me.” The goal is to help the customer orient themselves in the breadth of the offer and help them find what they're looking for or what might interest them.

In addition to the mentioned possibilities, digital kiosks in the store can also be a solution, allowing customers to better understand the parameters of a selected product and options for its configuration or customization.


Where to start?

 * Conduct customer research to better understand how customers think about your product category and what services and assortment they would appreciate in the store.
 * Understand what loyalty program and app content customers would consider valuable for onboarding as well as long-term use beyond one-time discounts.
 * Strategically, effectively, and ethically analyze data from loyalty programs.
 * Design new customer journeys and service models that motivate customers and sales assistants to actively use digital tools in the store.
 * Adapt customer service to their shopping mode.


How successful brands make it work

 * IKEA: supports product discovery through life themes (better sleep, sustainable living) and the IKEA Family loyalty program connects online/offline behavior through personalized services like special prices, connected shopping lists, or digital receipt archives.
 * MODIVO: introduced a store built on digital kiosks, that replace traditional product displays. Customers select products digitally, enabling faster service, wider selection, and more efficient use of space.
 * Sephora: provides sales assistants with mobile devices with access to customer data for personalized service.
 * Nay: electronics retailer, we helped design a platform, for sales assistants that increases seller efficiency and helps the entire sales team improve conversions and earn fair compensation, thereby also increasing customer satisfaction.


Store as center for expert help

A place of personal contact with an expert who helps narrow down options and select the right solution for a specific customer.

The second way to use stores is connected with expertise, customized solutions, and specialized services that make the decision-making phase easier. This can involve advice, parameter explanation and category orientation, breaking down complex purchases, help with size or material selection, or curatorial selection.

This opportunity responds to the customer's need "I want to make sure I'm making the right decision." It involves more complex and specialized products where the customer is mostly a layperson and has trouble evaluating the correctness of a solution without additional expert information. The goal is to narrow down the customer's options, help them choose what's right for them, make a decision, and retrospectively assure them they made the right choice (this can be addressed by services related to product returns).

Customers come to stores for personal contact. Digital tools that provide sales assistants with quick access to all necessary information about products as well as the customer and their preferences can serve to ensure advisory quality.


Where to start?

 * Offer services optimized for both customer experience quality and seller needs.
 * Identify what advice, information, and forms of service the customer needs in the store.
 * Ensure a stable level of expertise and service quality from salespeople.
 * Try to keep the customer in the ecosystem after consultation and/or convert them to purchase again.
 * Don't underestimate the quality of tools for salespeople - slow, complicated, and unintuitive interfaces require training and adaptation, demotivate salespeople from using them, and ultimately worsen the customer experience.


How successful brands make it work

 * IKEA: offers comprehensive kitchen planning services with personalized consultations and custom designs, strengthening its role as an expert for customers.
 * Optika ZITA: sells exclusively through pre-booked personal meetings, where trained opticians ensure precise eyewear selection based on diagnostics and customer personality.
 * Martinus: booksellers provide expert advice through thematic tables with curatorial selection that allow customers to find suitable books.


Store as complex service center

A place where customers solve all "problems"related to the product - from installation to recycling.

The third opportunity is connected with providing services that customers can use just before or after purchase. This can involve services like variable delivery or pickup options, installation or personalization, as well as post-purchase services like easy product returns, repairs, or recycling. The scope and ease of using these services is usually an important selection factor when deciding on a purchase, despite the fact that many services are used only after buying the product.

This opportunity responds to the customer need "I want to start using the product." Its role is to facilitate all tasks, newly arising problems, and obligations connected with purchasing, setting up, launching, and properly using the product, as well as disposing of the product when the customer finishes using it.

Services or their parts can be digitized, for example, selecting bicycles online and subsequent testing and calibration in the store as offered by MTBiker, or pricing surplus books online and subsequently buying them back and collecting them at the store as offered by the Knihovrátok service from Martinus.


Where to start?

 * Try to understand obstacles, needs, and obligations of customers related to purchase, logistics, and proper product use.
 * Offer services that respond to these needs at the right point in the shopping journey and are simultaneously valuable to the customer, whether from the perspective of willingness to pay for them or perceiving these services as a competitive advantage.
 * Create services that suit different customer segments with different preferences while being cost-efficient.
 * Implement reliable digital tools and infrastructure that support ordering, tracking, and service management in real-time.


How successful brands make it work

 * IKEA: offers comprehensive services including financial loans for furniture purchases, assembly, a circular hub for returning or recycling products.
 * Decathlon: besides selling sports equipment, provides services like sports equipment rental, bicycle service, and product testing directly in stores.
 * Hornbach: provides project planning services, tool rental, and the possibility of cutting or processing materials, available as both self-service and paid services for customers.


Store as community space

A meeting place for sharing interests where customers gain new experiences and connect with the local community.

The fourth opportunity focuses on strengthening customer relationships through experiences that go beyond the purchase itself. The store functions as a "third place" - a semi-public space where customers have the opportunity to spend time, gain new experiences, and connect with other people in their vicinity with similar interests.

This opportunity responds to the customer need "I want to experience something new and connect with my surroundings." The store thus becomes a place for courses, community workshops, shared hobby activities, cultural and artistic collaborations driving emotional connection with the brand.

A key element is hyperlocality - the brand's ability to adapt to the specifics of a particular market, neighborhood, or customer group and function in cooperation with local culture, artists, influencers, or organizations.


Where to start?

 * Conduct customer research to better understand local needs and interests of customers so the store can offer relevant activities and programs that truly appeal to the local community.
 * Make the brand a facilitator and connector of authentic experiences that don't come across as marketing events or advertising.
 * Collect and use data to strengthen CRM and keep customers in the brand ecosystem.
 * Work with customers' positive emotions after experiences with the brand to support their long-term loyalty and engagement.


How successful brands make it work

 * IKEA: Westbahnhof in Vienna is an urban store concept without parking and warehouse, designed with local residents with emphasis on community and sustainability, functioning as a showroom and public space with a green roof and panoramic view of Vienna.
 * Isadore: a cycling brand connects hobby cyclist communities at various levels through the Black Wednesday event - evening bike rides combined with informal meetings in the brand's premises.
 * Miele: has special experience centers that serve as product showrooms while offering cooking courses with local chefs, creating experiences beyond shopping.


How to evaluate what makes sense for your brand?

We don't perceive these opportunities as 4 different stores, but as functions and services that a store can offer. While for some brands it will make sense to cover all 4 opportunities in one store given their broad customer base (like IKEA), others will win by choosing one opportunity into whose design and development they strategically invest as a competitive advantage.


3 Steps to a better brick-and-mortar

 * Start by understanding your customers (beyond demographics): how they think about the product category you sell; what their shopping attitudes and habits are; where the store is placed on their omnichannel shopping journey; why they visit brick-and-mortar stores and what they expect from them.
 * Identify untapped opportunities: what are the named customer expectations you're not meeting? What are obstacles, obligations, and customer needs that could be solved by services? Which solutions would give the greatest commercial meaningfulness for your brand?
 * Don't invest from the desk, test: test new ideas for solutions and services through store interventions and measure and evaluate the impact.

The goal is not to offer as many services as possible from the desk. On the contrary, through research and understanding your customers, focus only on those services that give customers a reason to visit the physical store again.


Not sure where to start?

Download our Experience Identities framework, a report that uncovers the new consumer funnel, and learn how to redefine your brand's position in the market.

































The Future of Brick-and-Mortar: 4 strategies for success in the digital age

Korin Mitrová

AI-powered synthetic data is gaining attention due to its ability to simulate people's behaviour and preferences at a lower price. According to a recent survey, 81% of marketers said they use or intend to use generative AI to generate synthetic data. Synthetic data forms the basis for creating 'synthetic users' that model how your actual users could respond or interact. These methods can be handy for rapid testing, pattern recognition, and generating hypotheses when time, budget, or user access is limited.

As this topic gains traction, it's helpful to ask: What are we learning from synthetic data? How reliable are synthetic users' answers? And can they ever replace talking to real people?

In user research, we aim to understand why and how people make sense of their context, which they continuously co-construct while it simultaneously shapes their behaviour, expectations, and decisions. Each of our methods, from lab experiments to ethnographic fieldwork, uncovers different insights and has its limitations. With this in mind, our team has recently compared synthetic and real respondents during research activity, reviewed emerging studies and the latest tools, and examined what synthetic users can and cannot tell us.


How Synthetic Users Are Created

Synthetic users are built by AI models trained on existing data. Some rely on statistically likely patterns to generate "typical responses"; others use large language models (LLMs) trained on vast datasets. In practice, these two approaches are often combined. The process begins with data based on observed human behaviour, which is recorded, cleaned, and usually interpreted before being fed into the model. The theory is that LLMs encode general behavior patterns, with the proper prompts and data inputs, and can mimic how real people might respond.

Companies enrich AI with their internal data, like customer records or past research logs, to make these simulations better reflect a particular audience. However, insights from synthetic data are shaped by the training data, not by observing live events in real-time, treading a fine line between simulating and discovering new insights.


The Reality Check on Validation

Validating synthetic users against real behaviour remains challenging. Minor changes to how they are built or trained can produce different results. There are no clear industry standards for testing the quality of the models, and little transparency regarding how commercial versions are developed.

A 2023 analysis by researchers at Columbia and Stanford found that OpenAI models tend to exhibit liberal, educated viewpoints, which are likely influenced by the training data and human feedback used to fine-tune them. Another study by James Bisbee in 2024 showed that synthetic users tend to exhibit less variety. They can be susceptible to the wording of questions (prompts) and may not remain consistent over time. Similarly, our recent side-by-side comparisons revealed significant differences between commercially available synthetic users and real users, particularly in response to experience-based or category-choice questions. They tended to mimic simple rating-scale answers more closely.

A 2023 study from Stanford and DeepMind trained AI 'digital twins' on 1,000 in-depth interview transcripts to "develop" their personalities. When tested using well-established psychological surveys such as the Big Five, the digital twins' responses matched those of their human counterparts 85% of the time, outperforming simpler persona or demographic-based models.

Rather than true "thinking", the twins relied on pattern recognition, drawing on well-known correlations in Big Five personality psychology and interview cues. While they performed well on standardised, research-backed assessments, they struggled to generalise beyond them (e.g., predicting behaviour in strategic games). Yet this is precisely what strategic product and service design demands: insight into shifting realities that rarely fit standardised frameworks.


Understand the Trade-Offs


Bias in, bias out

A primary concern is that synthetic users are trained on existing data. If that data is skewed or incomplete, synthetic models risk recycling and amplifying it.


Missing Outliers

Synthetic users reflect statistically likely "average" behaviour. However, in user research, breakthroughs often come from understanding the outliers—users with uncommon needs or edge-case frustrations that expose hidden issues.

Think of Netflix: Their game-changing decision to drop late fees (and eventually pivot to streaming) was sparked by listening to a handful of frustrated users, not a broad trend. Synthetic users often miss these margins where innovation might thrive.


Plausible Answers, False Assumptions

Suppose a factor relevant to your research was not included in the AI’s training data, whether because it was overlooked, unmeasured, or not yet recognised. In that case, it will remain invisible to a synthetic user. They cannot anticipate behaviour in new contexts or identify emerging needs. The catch? They may still produce plausible answers but lead to misguided design decisions.

In a simulated pricing test, real users reacted directly to a price. By contrast, a synthetic user inferred meaning (e.g., a higher price equals better quality) because this association appeared in its training data. Even if a key variable isn’t present, they may still generate confident responses; if a pattern is typical, they might wrongly apply it to new situations.


No Contradiction and Emotional Depth

Synthetic users lack connection to the broader social and cultural context real people shape and are shaped by, a relational dynamic inaccessible to models trained solely on data. Humans change their minds, contradict themselves, and find it hard to explain why. Synthetic users don’t experience emotion, hesitation, or cognitive load, nor can they reflect tonal shifts. While this 'smoothness' and ‘sycophantic’ responses lacking critical nuance may seem appealing, contradictions often provide the most valuable insights. Unlike humans, they don't have lived experiences such as tensing up when an interface recalls a past mistake. In our comparative study, participants linked voice interface frustrations to past failures, a link absent in synthetic responses.


The Validation Gap

When a synthetic user supports your assumptions, how do you validate them? In user research, we triangulate findings using diverse methods and follow-up questions. We are looking for gaps between what people say and what they do, as behaviour often diverges from self-reported intentions and values. You get a narrative with synthetic users, but there's no actual behaviour to observe, limiting your ability to verify the "insight."


Missing the bigger picture: why relationships are key

Our study explored whether real-world habits (like using meditation or language apps outside cars) would translate into interest in new settings, precisely, in-car functionalities.

Real users revealed strong connections: established habits and recent relevant experiences in cars (like needing urgent information) boosted interest in related new car functionalities. However, not all strong habits carry over to a car—context matters—and understanding this nuance helps to pinpoint what will and won't work.

Synthetic users showed none of these patterns. Their answers lacked internal coherence—correlations were flat or missing as if different people answered each question (Figure 1).

Without these relational links, it's hard to answer key strategic questions like "Who is this for?" or "What drives their interest?" While simulations might mirror general trends, they miss the coherence crucial for segmentation and targeting. Habits, expectations, and context and their interconnections shape actual user behavior—connections that synthetic data can't yet replicate.


How to Use Synthetic Users

Don't replace—augment. Use synthetic users to complement research. Use them to generate initial hypotheses and prepare more effectively for fieldwork and studies with actual end users.

Beware of the efficiency illusion. Creating a reliable synthetic user set still requires a solid base of actual user data. Use triangulation to identify contradictions, gaps, and creative workarounds that synthetic insights will likely miss. Consider the efficiencies you are gaining and where you are adding necessary (or extra) steps.

Beware of black-box solutions. Ask how and by whom the synthetic users were generated, what datasets the model was trained on, the modeling techniques used, and the tool’s capabilities and limitations. Assess credibility by examining its validation processes and any third-party peer reviews.


Conclusion

While synthetic users offer speed and scalability, they are not yet capable of fully replicating the complexity of human behavior, including emotional and strategic responses shaped by evolving context.

Synthetic user platforms show promise for early-stage tasks such as exploring trends or generating hypotheses, but their value depends on the quality of real-world data. Many of these platforms are still in the experimental stage. As researchers, we assess where and when they can be integrated into our research toolkit. Considering business goals and risks, we evaluate what they can deliver — and, equally importantly, what they cannot.

Without validation and scrutiny, synthetic users may overlook game-changing insights, leading to costly strategic missteps. In high-stakes situations like new domains, critical user flows, or early-stage innovation, insights based on real human experience remain invaluable.

Need help setting up your research activities? Feel free to reach out.




Go further: Download our synthetic data research checklist

This checklist guides the critical evaluation of models that simulate user behavior or generate insights. It emphasizes the importance of high-quality, inclusive data, sound modeling, internal consistency and transparency.











Can AI-powered synthetic users replace research with real humans?

Dominika Babulicová

While nutrition is one of the factors that can support a patient's recovery, in post-Soviet hospitals, it's more of a bad joke. That’s why I was surprised when news started spreading from the small Czech town of Nymburk that the local hospital cafeteria started serving salmon, bun bo nam bo, or Jerusalem artichoke soup. Despite having to meet the same nutritional and financial constraints as any other facility, their kitchen managed to significantly improve the food service and the overall experience for both patients and staff. So I looked into what they did differently.


Food as a systemic symptom

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced restaurants to shut down, Nikolas Kratěna's new restaurant was no exception. A cook who had previously worked at the chain Ambiente and the Hilton hotel, decided to bridge the difficult period by taking a job in a hospital kitchen. But the environment he encountered was completely different from the commercial kitchens he knew. The hospital kitchen relied heavily on pre-made and instant ingredients, accepted near-expired supplies from vendors, lacked standard procedures, and everyone did things their own way, regardless of outcomes.

The unappetizing food was just a symptom of broader systemic issues – the kind you’ll find in most organizations, even commercial ones. On the surface, things might look like they’re working. The brand delivers a product or service, but a great deal of value is being lost. Focused performance eludes because employees waste energy on inefficient tasks, and innovation stalls due to lack of motivation or support for experimentation. Ironically, productivity and creativity as essentials for long-term success are what every company expects from its workforce. Yet few know how to measure and consciously improve these factors.


From chef to system designer

Kratěna initially tried to teach restaurant techniques to his colleagues, but they resisted. His talent and the growing tensions were noticed by the head of HR, who, together with the hospital director, offered him ownership of the kitchen operations. That sparked – albeit unintentionally – what turned out to be a textbook example of how employee experience can be transformed.

Employee experience (EX) is a holistic approach to talent management that considers everything an employee encounters throughout their time in an organization. It isn’t about massages, darts, or a fridge full of beer in the corporate kitchen. It’s about the conditions that directly impact an employee’s performance. Whether the workflows they follow are optimal, whether they have the right tools for the job, and ultimately, whether their work creates value for the end customer and contributes to the viability of the company.

EX can be purposefully designed, just like customer experience – by shaping the environment, tools, and interactions that support employees in prospering in their work. Designing employee experience means consciously crafting all touchpoints to support performance and engagement. Only when employees have their needs met (tools, procedures, training, recognition, collaboration, meaning) can they create value for customers and, by extension, for the business. While Kratěna isn’t a designer, his intuitive approach after taking over the kitchen closely followed design principles.


How to design employee productivity

When something’s not working, workers usually feel it – it drains them, slows them down, or complicates their performance. But articulating the problem in a way that colleagues or superiors understand and are willing to help solve is a different challenge. Here are a few tips to identify and address problem areas, no matter whether you’re in a managerial or operational role.


1. Create an employee service blueprint

Start by mapping the employee journey, similar to how you’d map the customer journey. Go beyond the basic phases of recruitment, onboarding, development, and exit. Instead, detail the actual workflow or create a service diagram of how employees interact with customers. This helps reveal blind spots where productivity drops, costs rise, or errors occur.

Download our service diagram template and map out what your employees experience during their workday: what tools they use, where they encounter obstacles, and where energy or motivation is lost. This is exactly what Kratěna did – he analyzed the current state of the kitchen and identified where skills, structure, and human potential were lacking.


2. Look for frustration points

Focus on why things are happening. Instead of asking “Are you satisfied?” try to find out which tasks are unnecessarily difficult or confusing – and why. You can also observe your colleagues at work, but make it clear you’re not evaluating their performance. You’re there to understand obstacles and unmet needs, so you can design better tools, processes and channels they use.

Kratěna had the advantage of firsthand experience in the kitchen. He knew where the pain points were, and his commercial background helped him implement quick fixes. He changed suppliers, hired professional cooks, and introduced simple but nutritionally balanced recipes.


3. Ask for feedback from colleagues

To ensure your changes will actually improve things, ask for feedback. It proved eye-opening for Kratěna as well. Encouraged by early wins, he rolled out the new menu across the entire hospital – only to be told by nurses from long-term care that elderly patients weren’t eating his modern dishes and had to be served nutritional supplements for three days.

That’s when he realized the kitchen needed partners like nutritional therapists to perform well. He also trained the staff at individual hospital departments in proper food service techniques, so patients could fully enjoy the dining experience. That’s how good employee experience spills over into customer experience.


4. Loosen decision-making constraints

Identify where employees need more freedom, resources, or information to make good decisions. This works both ways. Top-down, like when the hospital leadership put their trust in a motivated and capable chef, and bottom-up, when Kratěna advocated for increased investment in ingredients and staff.

In Nymburk, food began to be seen as part of patient care. Today, the hospital allocates twice as much budget to meals. The team regularly attends internships in top restaurants, and Kratěna helps his colleagues grow by giving them more competences. He handed over the head chef role to his colleague Mikuláš to help him gain leadership experience, while stepping into a more supportive role himself.


5. Test small changes quickly

Don’t start with big projects, test small tweaks and measure what actually helps. This approach makes process, tool, culture, communication, and leadership changes more acceptable and easier to implement.

Together with dietitians, Kratěna worked department by department, tailoring menus to specific needs. Maternity patients got meals supporting lactation, also diabetics and patients with swallowing difficulties got appropriate diets. He focused on clearly defining expectations and gathering regular feedback, from both colleagues and patients. This created an environment of mutual trust and shared responsibility, prepared to flex with whatever the future brings.


EX as a base for business growth

Today, Kratěna’s hospital kitchen produces meals on par with quality restaurants. The result isn’t just satisfied patients, but new revenue streams as well. The trained staff have improved the operation and menu of the hospital cafeteria, which now enjoys greater attendance, and its good reputation has brought interest in delivery. The hospital sends 50 portions a day to the local nursing service, which has also expressed interest in covering the entire operation, for which the kitchen is not yet dimensioned.

Designing the employee experience has significant potential to scale services and deliver tangible business impact. We saw this in our work with electronics retailer NAY, where improving the sales platform helped unify and boost omnichannel performance. Merging service design with employee experience design is a powerful way to drive successful change:

 * Using employees as a limited sample of users enables you to validate concepts and test solutions in a controlled live environment and identify gaps.
 * Introducing an internal tool or process first allows the employees to become familiar with the system before it's rolled out to customers.
 * Focusing attention on employees sends a positive signal to the organization and helps increase their loyalty and commitment to the employer.


A recipe against stagnation

A design-led approach offers proven methods to intentionally and systematically improve internal processes. Employee experience and better services don’t have to be a matter of luck or gut feeling like in the case of the chef from Nymburk. You can start on your own and experiment with various design tools, such as our Service Blueprint. You’ll get faster results if you bring in experienced experts. Or, take the longest but most sustainable path by building your own in-house team of experience designers who will improve both the customer journey and the experience of their colleagues. You can assess what the best approach is for your company in this short 6-question CX maturity test.

Employee experience is about systematically removing barriers and creating an environment where performance happens because of the system, not despite it. It can also serve as a lever for raising market standards or as an ESG tool. Although Nikolas Kratěna no longer works in a hospital, he’s now being invited to other healthcare facilities because food has become an informal indicator of how well an institution cares for both its patients and its staff. Which part of your internal process could be such a game changer?

Want to improve your customers' experience? Start with employee experience first

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most widely adopted metrics for measuring customer satisfaction. Its cornerstone question—"How likely are you to recommend us?"—yields a straightforward numerical result that companies find easy to analyze and act upon. Proponents value NPS for its ability to identify trends and pinpoint brand advocates among their customer base. However, its relationship with revenue growth is more nuanced than many realize.


Connecting NPS to revenue growth

Net Promoter Score continues to demonstrate a strong connection to revenue growth, according to multiple research studies. The London School of Economics' 2019 study revealed that companies in the top NPS quartile achieved 20 % higher revenue growth than those in the bottom quartile, while Frederick Reichheld's seminal research in Harvard Business Review showed businesses with NPS scores between 50-80 experienced revenue growth 20-60 % higher than competitors. In the retail sector specifically, research by the Temkin Group (2016) found that every 7-point increase in NPS correlates to a 1 % revenue growth.

The financial impact of promoter customers is equally compelling. The Temkin Group's analysis revealed that promoters generate 1.5x more revenue than detractors, while LSE's study found they stay with companies 50 % longer (6.2 years vs 4.1 years) and demonstrate 2.6x higher customer lifetime value. Particularly striking are findings from the B2B software sector (de Haan et al., 2017), showing that companies with high NPS (>70) achieve 23 % higher renewal rates and 13.9 % average revenue growth compared to 6.1% for low-NPS companies. These findings collectively reinforce NPS's position not just as a satisfaction metric, but as a reliable insight into business growth and customer loyalty.

In other words, a company’s NPS can be a good insight into future growth. Measuring this metric not only serves as a measure of the success of your CX investments, but also helps predict future sales, revenue growth, and bottom line retention. However, this relationship is stronger in some industries than others. That’s why it’s important to benchmark your results against your competitors.


How companies use NPS

Taylor & Hart: A London-based custom engagement ring jeweler, adopted NPS as their core metrics. Further research revealed that "detractors" and "passives" were reluctance to purchase online without seeing rings in person, prompting the company to focus on exceptional service through dedicated consultants. By acting on this feedback, they enhanced customer satisfaction, leading to a doubling of their revenue.

Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific: By analyzing their NPS data, Wolters Kluwer identified a significant correlation between rising NPS and improved customer retention. This insight enabled the company to implement targeted initiatives, resulting in increased profitability and revenue. For example, developing proactive check-in protocols at strategic points in the customer journey.

Dr. Max: In our recent Minimum Viable Podcast episode, Chief Marketing & Customer Officer Jana Kutlíková talked about how their chain of pharmacies uses NPS to benchmark individual stores to identify under-performing customer experience. To understand the "detractors" better, the company follows up the rating with a qualitative call with the customer. This process allows them keep the experience across the chain consistent while driving revenue growth.


Downsides of NPS as a customer metric

While NPS is widely used, there are common concerns regarding its reliability. Critics often point to response bias and its impact on company goals. NPS has limitations that must be understood and communicated effectively. When used in isolation, without qualitative data and behavioral metrics, it fails to capture the complete customer experience. Additionally, it requires a sufficiently large sample size to obtain statistically relevant results.

NPS can also overlook valuable insights by categorizing ratings into three groups (promoters, passives, detractors), thereby ignoring passive respondents who may still contribute significantly to revenue. Passive customers are often on the verge of becoming promoters or detractors, making them critical for targeted interventions. Furthermore, if measured only at a general level, it cannot capture satisfaction with specific product or service aspects.

However, companies that effectively implement NPS focus less on the absolute score and more on identifying patterns by combining it with other metrics. This approach provides a more complete picture of customer experience, allowing businesses to use NPS as an early indicator of growth.


How to avoid NPS being a vanity metric?

As mentioned earlier, measuring NPS is just the beginning. Knowing how to leverage this data effectively is crucial. The score itself is merely an indicator, not a complete solution. Here’s how to extract genuine value from your NPS:

1. Look beyond the numbers: If you focus only on numerical evaluations, you may miss the bigger picture. Always include a follow-up question: "What led you to give this rating?" These qualitative responses reveal more accurate customer experience and provide context for your numbers. You can also supplement this with user interviews. The story behind the score holds more value than the score itself.

2. Pay attention to passive customers: Analyze why they're not fully convinced of your value proposition. Their feedback can highlight opportunities for improvement and reveal subtle enhancements that could convert them into promoters.

3. Analyze trends over snapshots: Tracking trends over time is more valuable than analyzing single data points. A declining trend demands immediate investigation into root causes. On the other hand, when scores improve, identify the successful initiatives driving this change and replicate them across your organization. Regular trend analysis helps predict future customer behavior patterns.

4. Link NPS to business result: Integrate NPS with other business metrics by linking your NPS data to concrete business outcomes like retention rates, repeat purchase frequency or average order value. This correlation helps validate whether higher scores truly translate to improved customer loyalty and business performance. Understanding these relationships can guide more effective resource allocation.

5. Take action: Don't just measure. Act. When detractors consistently criticize specific aspects of your service, acknowledgment isn't enough. Develop a structured action plan to address these issues, set clear improvement targets, and monitor the impact of your interventions. Create a feedback loop where NPS insights drive tangible improvements in your customer experience.


Key takeaways

 * Research shows a strong correlation between NPS and revenue growth – companies in the top NPS quartile achieve on average 25 % higher revenue growth, with promoters generating 1.5x more revenue than detractors.
 * While NPS is valuable, it shouldn't be used in isolation. NPS alone may not be the most accurate predictor of specific customer behavior, but provides valuable insights when combined with other metrics.
 * To extract real value from NPS data, companies should look beyond raw scores by collecting qualitative feedback, monitoring passive customers and trends over time, connecting NPS to concrete business metrics, and implementing targeted action plans.

NPS is not just a number – it's a tool that, when used effectively, can unlock critical insights into customer behavior, loyalty, and business growth. Companies that go beyond the score, leverage qualitative data, and take meaningful action will see the greatest returns. The real power of NPS lies in how it is implemented. Are you making the most of your NPS insights, or is it just another vanity metric? The choice is yours.


Go further: Choose the right CX metric

Customer experience metrics are key performance indicators used to assess and understand the quality of interactions between a company and its customers. Although there are many articles on the topic, they often lack guidance on choosing the right form or metric and may even contradict each other. That's why we've compiled all the essential information into the CX Metrics Cheatsheet to help you get started.

How does Net Promoter Score impact revenue growth?

The term "omnichannel" treads on thin ice—some see it as just a marketing buzzword, while for others, it has been a game-changer in saving their business. I believe this mixed perception exists simply because many entrepreneurs misunderstand the concept. While in the past, all businesses operated through a single channel; today, it seems natural that every brand is “everywhere”.

Omnichannel customer experience is about integrating all sales and communication channels into one interconnected ecosystem. A customer can start shopping online, continue in a mobile app, complete the purchase in-store, and even return the product via courier—all without losing context, information, or convenience.

However, many brands enter multichannel customer service the wrong way and for wrong reasons. Sometimes, they do it to mimic competitors ("We immediately need an app, too!"), other times, it’s an attempt to jump on a potentially trending channel ("Trust me, voice assistants are THE future!"). And more often than not, brands view omnichannel as a cost-cutting measure—trying to automate customer support, reduce in-store staff, and so on.

Omnichannel is about value addition, not cost reduction.

— Harvard Business Review

The real value of omnichannel only emerges when customer interactions across all platforms are designed to create a smoother overall journey. Those who implement it correctly are not just building a sales system but an ecosystem where customers feel comfortable and want to come back.


The core (customer) problem

The American brand Warby Parker launched in 2010 as an e-commerce platform aimed at providing an alternative to expensive prescription glasses. Customers could choose five frames, have them delivered to their home for five days, and return the ones they didn’t like. By eliminating intermediaries in the purchasing process, the brand significantly lowered frame prices, and its customer base grew rapidly—but not just because of the cost savings. The Home Try-On concept addressed a fundamental customer pain point that competitors had overlooked: How do you choose frames from home when glasses look entirely different on a real face than on a model? If you wear prescription glasses, have an asymmetrical face, or a crooked nose (like me), you know the pain is paining.

A few years later, when traditional eyewear giants were questioning whether to maintain physical stores in the age of growing e-commerce, Warby Parker did the opposite—it opened its first physical store. Today, they operate nearly 300 stores with a goal of reaching 900. This seemingly counterintuitive move wasn’t about following competitors but about meeting unfulfilled customer needs. Conversations with customers revealed that many wanted to buy from Warby Parker but lacked a valid eye prescription. This insight led the brand to invest in physical locations—not because competitors had them, but because competitors were failing to meet market expectations. The eye diagnostics service, added to the low frame price, further strengthened Warby Parker’s competitive advantage. After its success in stores, the brand also designed an eye diagnostics alternative for its app, removing the last barriers to purchase for fully digital customers.

Warby Parker develops other services in its omnichannel experience based on the challenges faced by significant customer groups. For example, they discovered that three-quarters of in-store visitors had previously browsed the online shop. Store associates noticed that customers would bring handwritten notes with frame names—or, conversely, would save links to glasses they liked in-store as notes or in an app to consult with someone or check their insurance coverage. In response, the brand better connected the customer and sales environments. Store associates can see which products a customer has added to their favorites and send links to selected frames or face photos via email. All of this contributes to Warby Parker’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 86, the highest in the segment and far above other categories.


Two examples from Slovakia


NAY

We tackled a similar situation with NAY, Slovakia’s largest electronics retailer. The brand had two key advantages: knowledgeable and helpful sales staff with deep product expertise and a wide network of stores, making expert consultation easily accessible. Customer research confirmed that visiting a store was a crucial part of the decision-making process. Buying electronics is often a major investment, so customers wanted to compare specifications, weigh options, and get expert recommendations.

However, the purchasing decision didn’t always end in-store—customers often needed time to discuss their choice with a partner, consider financing, or decide on extra services like transport and installation. This clashed with sales staff incentives, as their commissions depended on in-store purchases. If a customer left undecided, they were often left without further assistance, disrupting the customer journey. To address this, we redesigned the sales application to integrate seamlessly with the online store—similar to Warby Parker.

Now, sales staff could email customers their selected products, allowing them to complete the purchase online with one click while still earning a commission for the assisted sale. In-store sales platform revenue doubled, upselling of additional services grew by 101 % and total year-on-year revenue across all channels increased by 20 %. Learn more in the full case study on NAY’s service design.


Martinus

Our collaboration with Martinus, the most popular bookstore in Slovakia, started from the opposite end. The brand wanted to redesign its online store to align with the experience of its physical bookstores, for which Martinus has been renowned and still is. To gather inspiration, we went directly to the stores—talking to customers and shadowing the staff to design an online store that functions like a knowledgeable librarian.

This led to the creation of thematic book collections curated by experts in different genres. We revamped the catalog, search function, reviews, and alternative product recommendations to make discovering new books as effortless as it is in a physical bookstore. Additionally, we improved the implementation of supplementary services, such as selecting a book format or sending it as a gift, which were previously lost in the old design. As a result of the redesign, mobile conversions increased by a quarter, upsell in the shopping cart grew by 160 %, and in-store order reservations surged by 380 %. You can read the detailed process in the case study on Martinus’s e-shop redesign.


A truly consistent experience

The goal of an omnichannel ecosystem should be to provide a consistent experience wherever customers naturally interact with the brand. However, consistency doesn’t mean using the same layout and brand elements across all channels, nor that services should be identical in all environments. Instead, they should be complementary—designed around the specific, and often surprising, expectations customers have for each channel or platform.

We’re surrounded by bad examples. Some traditional retailers simply turned their e-shop into a digital version of a paper catalog—without the functionalities customers rely on in the online space. Many companies have completely replaced customer support with chatbots that can’t handle complex issues, leaving customers frustrated. And my personal favorite—government services that allow you to start a process online but still require you to visit an office to complete it. That is not an omnichannel experience.

I believe that if brands focused more on understanding their customers' deepest needs and expectations, they could create better-connected services across all channels and assess the true value of their physical stores. They could also make better decisions about the relevance of their physical stores. And conversely—as Dave Gilboa, CEO of Warby Parker, highlights—one of the key benefits of operating a retail network is the wealth of customer insights a brand can gain through direct interactions.

If the role of physical stores is a pressing business challenge for you, join our discussion on the future of retail. On Thursday, February 20, at the Lighting Beetle* venue, strategic consultant Lucia Ciranová will present an analysis of emerging trends in retail and, in a panel discussion, will interview leaders of Slovak brands MTBIKER, Dr. Max, and Optika ZITA, who are successfully developing their brick-and-mortar stores even in the digital age.

Three case studies on omnichannel consistency

Alžbeta Ivanovičová

In the world of digital design, the Double Diamond model is most commonly used to describe the product development process. It represents perhaps the clearest depiction of how to optimally approach product development. The first diamond represents the process of exploring an idea, and the second focuses on the targeted creation of a solution.

I covered the first phase, the exploration of development ideas, in a previous article. During this phase, the product team evaluates each idea through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The outcome of the exploration is a comprehensive understanding of the idea, including a set of confirmed problems and opportunities, and even prioritization of ideas. Today, we will look at the second phase—how to determine which of these ideas are worth incorporating into development.


How to validate product ideas

Product development ideas should always be validated with respect to your original intent. Validation should be examined from these four aspects:

 1. Do you want to introduce a new service but are unsure if there will be demand? Validate market demand.
 2. Do you want to change the functionality of an existing product and are unsure if it is feasible? Validate feasibility.
 3. Do you want to verify whether a newly designed conversion method makes sense to customers? Validate solution approach.
 4. Do you want to know if your new design will generate more conversions? Validate solution performance.

Clearly define the idea's goal, the opportunities it opens, and systematically confirm (or disprove) individual possible solutions.

Let's look at a simple example:


Idea Definition

[What] What are we solving? What key problem or opportunity does the proposed idea address?

Add the option to pay with Bitcoin in our e-commerce store. We want to be perceived as a progressive e-shop and potentially capitalize on the high value of cryptocurrencies, given that their value increases over time* (*or maybe it doesn't, this is just an illustrative example).

[Who] Who is affected? Who is the target group in this case?

All e-shop customers, but primarily targeting tech-savvy or progressive customers.

[Why] How will we know if we have successfully solved the problem? What exactly do we expect from the idea, and how could we measure it?

Given the high transactional costs of this idea (high cryptocurrency volatility, complex integration into internal processes, security, and reputational risks), we need to estimate whether implementing this feature is worthwhile (what the demand for it will be) and under what conditions we would want to keep or maintain it.


Idea Validation

In this case, we need to identify demand for Bitcoin payments. We create a Fake Door Test and measure whether we achieve at least a 10% CTR when selecting the payment method.


Techniques for Idea Validation

So how do you validate the different aspects?


1. Market demand validation


Fake door test

The goal of a "fake door test" is to determine whether a solution is viable and whether users are interested in it. You integrate a clickable option for the new feature into the existing customer journey. However, the feature does not yet exist, and when users click on it, they are transparently informed that it is still in development. During the test, you measure the CTR (click-through rate).


Landing page test 

Create a landing page showcasing the new service or product. Explain its benefits and prompt customers to take action (call to action). Then drive as much traffic as possible to the page within a set budget and measure the conversion rate. The rate should be at least at the level of your usual conversion rate.


Recruiting early adopters

"Earlyvangelists" can be helpful in idea validation. When planning a new service or product, assemble a group of 6-8 enthusiasts who will provide feedback on a test version. They are a valuable source of regular feedback and likely a gateway to more customers.


2. Feasibility validation

To validate feasibility, you must first gather and analyze requirements and constraints to understand implementation complexity and potential risks. Then, conduct testing on a small sample of users to reveal technical and business risks and determine implementation difficulty. After evaluating the data, propose an optimized implementation plan along with risk mitigation strategies.

Example: Changing the order of search results based on different product scoring parameters in an e-shop (e.g., older products with higher stock availability appear higher in search results).


3. Solution approach validation


Prototypes

The purpose of prototypes is to quickly verify the feasibility of a solution. Prototype validation typically includes:

 * First impression test (does the solution address the problem?)
 * Usability test (can users complete the task?)
 * Value test (does the solution have proven value for the user?)
 * Value discussion (under what conditions would the solution be valuable to the respondent?)

Prototypes should be tested with minimal time and investment. Sometimes, even validated prototypes fail in real operations.


Wizard of Oz

Provide the service as if it were functioning, but perform all the work manually in the background. This method allows you to realistically test how users would interact with the real service without fully developing it. Users should not detect the trick during testing.


4. Solution performance validation

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is more of a company culture question, but for businesses with at least 1,000 conversions per month, A/B testing design changes in performance channels makes sense. The goal is to prove that the new solution is statistically better or at least does not worsen performance.

A/B Testing is one of the more expensive methods in Product Discovery but is still cheaper than implementing a non-functional or suboptimal solution. Live Data Prototypes can also be used for performance validation. However, this requires implementing the solution and testing it in live operations with a limited number of users (e.g., 10%).


From ideas to the roadmap

There are many ways to validate a new idea. We have compiled 30 experiments that we use daily. Among them, you will find both complex and simple methods that can help you validate your ideas.

In the sea of product ideas, how to recognize the most beneficial ones?

Viktor Šmidák

Dr. Max has the largest network of stores in Slovakia, but it is also known for bringing innovations. How do they manage the satisfaction of 1.5 million customers, how do they use data and what are their plans for the future?

Today's guest on the Minimum Viable Podcast is Jana Kutlíková, who is in charge of marketing and customer experience at Dr. Max.


Do you know your organization's CX maturity level? Find out in few seconds by answering these 6 questions.




Minimum Viable Podcast is brought to you by the CX design studio Lighting Beetle*. It's usually recorded in the Slovak language, however, you can read an English transcription of this episode below. For more English content, including case studies and handouts, visit our Journal.

To start, a little bit broadly, how big is Dr. Max and how many customers does it serve?

So overall Dr. Max consists of online and offline. Within offline, it's our pharmacies. Currently we have 421 and we can say that we are in every district, which we are very proud of. Then within online we have of course coverage within the whole of Slovakia in terms of delivery. In terms of the number of pharmacies, we are the largest in Slovakia.

How many customers do you serve?

We can measure this by the number of receipts. And then of course we measure how many customers we have in our loyalty program. An active customer for us is a customer who buys within twenty-four months and currently we are above the number of one and a half million. Customer care is a motto for us, we try to be number one in care and always bring something more to our patients and customers.

I hear a little bit in that that one of your goals is to cover the whole country, to have dominance in the market.

Yes, it is a long-term goal. Of course, the competition is still there and is big, but for us it's still like bringing something extra. For us it's availability, of course price and always bringing something extra in care. Currently, the pharmacy is the most accessible place of healthcare.

So when I'm sick and I have a runny nose, where do I go, I go to the pharmacy, only then do I visit the doctor. So this is how we approach it, that we are like the first entry point in case of illness.

What types of customers do you perceive, how do you categorize them?

We categorize online customers on the one hand. Secondly, there are our customers, whom we divide into 2 largest segments, namely prescription customers, then there are ordinary passers-by and last but not least, those who are dealing with some non-acute problem - they need nose drops, vitamins and so on. So we also have our pharmacies divided. We have pharmacies that you see on the street, then there are shopping pharmacies and then there are pharmacies that are in hospitals or clinics, so there is also a different group of patients there.

Do you also divide these customers socio-demographically, that you have them precisely named, that this is some kind of profile of his? Or are they rather shopping modes, that these people simply move from one mode to another?

When we talk about pure age, pensioners are more sensitive to the price. So we try to adapt the offer to them. But as for over-the-counter customers, we of course sort them into customer groups based on their shopping behavior, value and basket composition.

When the NPS is below 70, we really actively work with it

How do you know how to put together the product portfolio at a specific store?

So those outpatient pharmacies are more prescribed, there their stock availability is also adapted based on what doctors are in the given hospital. But on the other hand, when our pharmacies are in the shopping mall, we try to have a wider offer there and there, for example, we also place dermocosmetics and there the portfolio is larger. So we monitor the purchases of each pharmacy and we are also enabled by such a system that you can reserve medicines online with us.

This means that the pharmacist will issue it to you within an hour. There you can see which pharmacy has it and if there is a greater interest in some medicine, we will pre-stock this pharmacy.

What data about customers do you process? How do you know they are satisfied? What are your pillars based on which you make action plans?

As part of our customers, we have the Dr. Max Club. Whoever is a member of the club, of course, receives benefits and we "interview" these members after each purchase through a satisfaction questionnaire. Based on this purchase, we ask him about the NPS, whether he was satisfied with the purchase and whether he would actually recommend this pharmacy to his friends. And then there are things like whether he was satisfied with the pharmacist's approach, whether the pharmacy had the product that she needed and so on and so forth. So we have it divided into larger sections.

I personally don't think that a pharmacy, for example, is the place where we would now place tablets. The goal is, of course, to convert as many patients as possible who are not members to become members so that we have data about them. Then we subsequently work more with the phase of those "detractors". We then communicate with those detectors through our call center.

What else can you do with the data other than calling detractors?

Each pharmacy has its own NPS and we are dedicated to improving it. When there is long-term dissatisfaction in some pharmacy, then of course we work with the regional director to continue working with that pharmacy and it is not just some kind of fluctuation. When the NPS is below 70, we really actively work with it to make it as good as possible. We talked a lot about the data and I'm interested in how important this data is for Dr. Max's top management. It's definitely the topic of the week and I can say that we have it in our annual goals.

We have a very nice example from the beginning of last year, when we were changing our loyalty club, while canceling the previous loyalty points. And by forcing those patients to apply points, it happened to us that we sent those x new customers to the pharmacy to apply those points so that they would not lose them. There, such a thing happened that those customers who shopped online were suddenly dissatisfied with the approach of that pharmacy. At that time, the NPS of pharmacies dropped and it turned out that it was because of online customers who were not used to waiting in line, they had to talk to the pharmacist...

Dr. Max Club has 1.5 million customers. What is the mechanics of how you got so many customers into the loyalty program?

Members have better prices, especially for medicines. Another benefit is our private label, where there are 2+1 promotions only with a loyalty card. They can also participate in competitions. However, the main motivator is the price of the product. Being a member brings benefits and based on the feedback data we can offer customers a tailor-made offer.

For example, if someone regularly buys vitamin C, we will send them information about the discount. The classics are birthday and name day discounts. At the end of the year, we send a summary email about the amount saved, which evokes a good feeling in people.

Is the main primary benefit for you customer data or do you track something else as well?

We definitely monitor commercial parameters. Then definitely also within the measurement of market share. I'm not saying completely, but we can look at it this way. You are making quite significant innovations at Dr. Max, at least that's how it seems to me. I will mention the new Super Dr. Max concept, you do sampling directly at the pharmacy, you have robotization...

Why are you actually doing these innovations?

To put it simply, these things you mentioned give us something extra for patients and secondly, time to devote to them. For example, the robotization of expedition work in our pharmacies. Our ROWA robot saves the pharmacist a trip to and from the warehouse, so he can take care of the customer. Secondly, there are examinations, again something extra.

When you go to the pharmacy, you can measure, for example, CRP and only then go to the doctor if the CRP is elevated. The service we would like to have is vaccination. It will also relieve doctors, because it is something we can do at those pharmacies. So when you go to pick up the vaccine, you can get vaccinated right away with us.

Is this more a matter of increasing revenue for you or is it more a matter of customer care?

We don't charge much for the services. It's really like offering the patient something extra.

We talked about these innovations, how do these innovations help you win in the competitive market?

In loyalty. We know how long the waiting times are for those doctors and when I decide that I'm going to solve some problem, I can solve it in one place and thus build loyalty. And on the other hand, we then have data about the customer, so we can always offer him something extra.

What are the responses to these extra services?

We managed to do the CRP, but the other tests still need time. It is a long-term journey and strategy that the pharmacy provides something extra.

I would like to go back to Super Dr. Max, because it is quite an exceptional concept. Try to tell us what it actually is.

Super Dr. Max is our pilot project of the pharmacy of the future. On an area of 715 square meters, we offer more than 6,000 products from various categories - in addition to medicines and nutritional supplements, there is dermocosmetics, children's products, healthy food, products for animals, electronics, sports aids and much, much more. It was also a test of what the customer and patient are willing to buy in that pharmacy, what wide portfolio can they go to.

We are still trying, rotating the products, looking at the customer behavior. There are consultation zones, we offer body composition analysis with the InBody device. Furthermore, what is there is an additional service of dermo-advice, where we do an analysis of the skin and hair. So it's a comprehensive care of my well-being, that you not only sell me a product, but also give me some analysis of how I'm doing.

What are the first reactions from customers? How do you evaluate Super Dr. Max internally now?

For us, it was a test of the assortment, what we learn and what we don't learn. And I can still say that we are still trying. It was quite a challenge for us to grasp and sell it in terms of marketing, that we have such a thing at all, because customers in Slovakia are not used to it at all, which is the opposite abroad. In the future, we will then open something between a classic pharmacy and Super Dr. Max.

What is the primary mode of purchase? Who is the e-shop for?

For everyone. Of course. But what works very well for us and I can say that it is growing are precisely those reservations at pharmacies, where it is a classic omni channel approach. This means I order online and have it in the pharmacy within an hour. Furthermore, we launched Marketplace in May of last year. There we are still learning what is and what is not, how to do it. We also offer reservations for prescription drugs.

Are you also thinking about expanding services within digital?

We have the Dr. Max consultation, where you can ask the pharmacist a question. It's not instant, but a real pharmacist answers you. Even our articles, which are all on the web, are written by experts. We would never let some copywriter or AI write it.

Do you plan to continue to perhaps bring the pharmacist closer, have a faster response, bring the online space closer to the offline one?

My personal goal is to have a pharmacy in the Metaverse. Today, the legislation will not let go, but definitely yes. We also try to involve pharmacists on maternity leave, and this is not possible in the offline space. So this is how we try to motivate the staff to stay with us, even when they go on maternity leave. We would definitely prefer to have it online 24/7, but currently, in terms of capacity, this is the maximum we can give to patients.

What is your biggest challenge that you would like to solve somehow? We call it a design challenge, i.e. a complex problem that stands before you and you would like to get through it.

As I mentioned, to have a pharmacy in the Metaverse. So for that you need a dose of better legislation. If the legislation wasn't so discouraging, that one could really get carried away and make some kind of pharmacy of the millennium, where everything would be grasped in a different way, that would be very nice in terms of what you nicely called design character and so that our pharmacies really offer something extra, so that patients go there for those services.

So that we are the first choice, that I don't just go for some of my vitamins and for some of my prescriptions, but that I go there because I want advice. I want care and it's also a more pleasant environment than in the doctor's waiting room. Raise the awareness of the pharmacy to a higher level as well. It's more than just a pharmacy, but it's somewhere where that comprehensive care is provided for our patients.

Minimum Viable Podcast is brought to you every two months by the design studio Lighting Beetle*, which focuses on creating an exceptional customer experience.

In Minimum Viable Podcast, we use relatable language to dive into customer experience design. We invite unique guests to chat about how Customer Experience influences business success. A special thanks to Mojmír Procházka for his production support.

We are looking forward to every listen, follow, share, and suggestion for improvement. You can send us your tips for interesting personalities with whom we can talk about design to podcast@lbstudio.sk.

Enjoy!

Minimum Viable Podcast #30: CX in pharmacy

Consumer brands are facing new sources of pressure. Traditional funnels are now crowded with new competitors, including online marketplaces that push prices down. Market leaders set high standards for customer experience, pushing consumer expectations to a new level. AI and algorithms give an edge only to those already strongest. And social commerce has turned even consumers into brands’ competitors.


Positioning through Experience identities

Although brand interactions are evolving, many consumer experiences fall short. Inflation and corporate cost-cutting often mean consumers are paying more, getting less, and dealing with lower-quality services. With rising inflation, consumers are much more picky about which brands deserve their attention and money. Our consumer behavior research reveals that consumers’ decision-making has shifted substantially in the past five years.

In a constantly changing society, evaluating information is increasingly challenging, and the market is oversaturated with products and brands. Therefore, consumers nowadays assess a brand's relevance based on the role it plays in their lives. From our research, we’ve identified how consumers build brand affinity, and based on that, we developed the concept of Experience identities. This model helps brand leaders (whether they’re CEOs or managers at the intersection of product–marketing) understand and respond to these new consumer expectations.


A scale from convenience to surprise

Experience identities reflect a range of customer needs – from simplifying choices to breaking away from monotonous experiences – and suggest the role a brand should play in consumers' lives:

 * Problem solvers make decision-making and daily tasks easier for customers. Think of leaders like Amazon, Ikea, or local company Alza, which offer services that handle as many purchase-related concerns as possible, covering everything from financing to delivery, setup, and returns.
 * Empathetic experts are trustworthy partners who build communities around shared passions. Through their expertise, they engage consumers also beyond the buying phase, securing their place in customers' lives. Examples include Miele's cooking classes or Isadore's community rides for cycling enthusiasts.
 * Responsibility enablers guide consumers to make responsible purchasing decisions, addressing their increasing sensitivity towards ethical business practices, social impact, and product lifecycle. This explains the rise of circular solutions like Vinted, Recup, or Martinus’ book return program, as well as brands with lifetime guarantees like Patagonia.
 * Magic makers bring back a human touch to an increasingly automated customer service. Instead of bland, templated online stores and customer service bots, they deliver a more human touch. For instance, in the fashion industry, you’ll find magic makers offering personal stylists as shopping curators or smart wardrobes in fitting rooms with selected items appearing upon request.

Deciding which experience identity a brand wants to excel in is a challenging strategic decision. One that enables a brand to deliver a clear and meaningful value to the customer, that will be irreplaceable by any other brand.


Brand = communication + experiences

Customers perceive a brand not only through its communication but also through the feelings it evokes through all interactions. This holistic perception of a brand is called brand experience. Brand experience is built on strong analytics – understanding consumers and competitors and identifying untapped opportunities. The experience identity framework allows brands to identify the right approach, whether they’re focused on revenue, market share, or customer retention.

Our report on new consumer expectations offers a deep dive into shopping behavior, key trends, and numerous examples of world-famous and local brands that understand where they stand on the experience identity spectrum. We’ll show you how these brands innovate based on the needs and future expectations of their target audiences, tailoring their entire service portfolio accordingly. After all, it’s the design and quality of customer services that shape how consumers resonate with a brand, giving it a real competitive advantage.

If you'd like to discuss Experience identities in person or have them explained to your colleagues, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

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Minimum Viable Podcast #30: CX in pharmacy

The new reality shapes how consumers perceive brands. How to stay relevant?

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Your journey
starts here

Get inspired!

All

Podcasts

Events

Newsletters

Eye-tracking: Effective tool or unnecessary expense?

Inside the internship experience

The Future of Brick-and-Mortar: 4 strategies for success in the digital age

Can AI-powered synthetic users replace research with real humans?

Want to improve your customers' experience? Start with employee experience first

How does Net Promoter Score impact revenue growth?

Three case studies on omnichannel consistency

In the sea of product ideas, how to recognize the most beneficial ones?

Minimum Viable Podcast #30: CX in pharmacy

The new reality shapes how consumers perceive brands. How to stay relevant?

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

Your journey starts here

Your journey
starts here