What Experience Do You Provide Your Customers?
You’ve got two challenges. Keep you current customers very, very happy. And, find your next customer.
But customers are not like they used to be. They get to choose – everything! And most of all, they get to choose whether or not to be your customer.
I was re-reading my handout from the intriguing book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? – Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa Davis, and read this:
The experience economy… signifies the final blow to the notion of mass marketing. Today, the experience of the product or service – the experience of the exchange itself – defines delight and ultimately spells success or failure for the business and the brand. Experience is not objective. And it is your customer’s perception of the experience that you must strive to improve… The increased intimacy of that experience is what allows customers to ascribe a deeper connection and more value to products and services. The structuring of that intimacy is the goal of Persuasion Architecture.
At the heart of the experience economy is this. Was the customer’s experience memorable (in a good way)? Here is a quote from The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage by B. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore:
Companies stage an experience when they engage customers in a memorable way.
Customers remember two kinds of experiences. The really good ones. And the bad ones. You don’t want the bad, and you don’t want the “neutral.” You want your customers to have good, memorable experiences. Those are the only kind that will keep them coming back, and spreading the word, in this era. Why? Because they simply have too many choices…
(By the way, they will also spread the word re. the bad experiences – whether you want them to or not).)
So, ask this – over and over again:
are my customers experiencing good positive experiences when they come to my event or buy my product or service?
If not, you’ve got some better experiences to create.
(By the way, the one guarantee of a bad experience is an experience filled with “hassles.” Aim for hassle free experiences!)
