Give Your Customers a Story To Tell
Give Your Customers a Story To Tell
Happiness Delivered
I was at an after hours party (yeah, I get invited places) a few weeks ago when my friend, Andy, mentioned that he prefers to shop online. He went on to say that he buys his a lot of his apparel from Zappos, a company who had made a strong impression with their free shipping upgrades and one year return policy. I was amazed. A few months ago I had seen Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos, present at Big Omaha. There, he spoke directly about creating great impressions with customers.
Rethink Marketing
One of Tony’s main points was to rethink marketing. Marketing isn’t just a separate department, but everyone in the company. The more impact an employee has on a customer, the more marketing influence they have. So take the money you would have invested in traditional advertising, and instead, invest it back into customer service and product quality. The surprisingly exceptional service creates a WOW experience for customers. An experience that they pass along to their friends. By adopting this strategy, you’re getting more mileage out of your marketing dollars. You’re still marketing through word of mouth, and you’re also improving your product. Listening to Andy’s WOW story made Tony’s speech hit home. Then it dawned on me, in terms of customer service, I should be mimicking Zappos.
WOW Your Customers
Recently, I reacquired my previously sold business dealing with international clothing sales. I decided to reward my repeat customers with a free, high-end, leather bracelet. The first surprise gift went out two weeks ago to my best overseas patron. He received his package this last Friday and was ecstatic. Not only was he absolutely blown away that a company would send a customer a surprise gift, he also thanked me several times over for having great customer service. I had delivered my first WOW experience.
I felt good and not just because I thought he would spread the story. I felt like I was actually able to reach through the internet and deliver a mini-explosion of the unexpected. An authentic surprise these days is few and far between, which makes it all the more powerful. When’s the last time any business has pleasantly surprised you?
Then I started to think, why doesn’t this treatment become a staple of service? There’s a lot of businesses out there that take my money on a frequent basis but never deliver something better. I get treated like everyone else, every time. Hell, a lot of them don’t even know my name. If one of these business’s went beyond the expected just once, I’d talk about it. Just as Andy had echoed his great Zappos experience.
The Bottom Line
We rely on repeat customers to turn the wheels of our business but we often fail recognize and reward them. Reallocate a healthy portion of your advertising budget back into customer service and product experience. Give your best customers something better. Give them a story to tell.
If you liked this blog post, you may like:
1) Delivering Happiness Review
2) Focus On Your Customers and the Money Will Follow
3) Be Exceptional and People Will Market For You
-Brian Lambelet
If you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter. Follow @jprichardson
-JP