How much thought goes into the customer experience you provide?  Not just customer service, but the whole relationship experience?

Earlier this month, I received customer experience beyond anything I’ve ever encountered or expected!  Let’s be clear, I’m not talking service, it’s much larger than that.  Every business claims to have great customer service, especially when there is a complaint or something that needs to be fixed.  Customer experience spreads beyond just the service.  It’s more about the perception that your customers have about you.  This perception has a direct impact on your relationship, so it deserves attention and needs to be thought of in all aspects of your business.

The customer experience begins when a potential customer first hears about you.  They do their research, compare you to others and make their decision to give you a try.  Every interaction afterwards is part of that customer experience.  If you provide great customer experience it will protect your relationship with that customer in the event of a competitor trying to steal them away.  When you provide great customer experience it will strengthen your relationship with that customer at every interaction.  Here are a couple examples:

Think of your favorite restaurant.  Obviously you go there for the food, but why else do you choose to go there?  Excellent servers?  Cool ambiance?  After you leave, you are not only satisfied, but know you’ll be coming back.  Maybe it’s that after dinner mint that does it?

In my last blog I talked about the EntreLeadership event I attended.  Instead of going there for food, I went for knowledge and was blown away by the experience.  The #entreleadership team made me feel like family.  They thought about every interaction during the event and really made an impact after the event.  One of the ways they made this so memorable were all the AMAZING gifts that added value to the experience!  There was a notepad and luggage tag from Belay, a water bottle, BBQ sauce, sweet treats, popcorn and gum!  Those things by themselves made me feel special, and then the books took it over the top.  Here is a list of the books with clickable links to the author’s websites so you can get your own copies!  After the list checkout ways to upgrade your customer experience.

The Ideal Team Player – Patrick Lencioni

A powerful framework and easy-to-use tools for identifying, hiring and developing ideal team players in any kind of organization.

Building a Story Brand – Donald Miller

Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

How can you step up your customer experience?

The majority of customers are perfectly content with the standard.  Similar to “General Admission” at the event, the majority of people still received a great customer experience and were treated like family, but they didn’t get some of the other perks that really provided value.  Since I wanted to get the absolute most out of the event, I sprang for “Platinum Level”.  The upgrade not only gave me the fun surprise everyday (swag), it also provided a one-on-one mentoring session with a Ramsey Solutions Executive, extra sessions with valuable content and special evening receptions all over Nashville.  A group of us even got to pick Dave Ramsey’s brain!  It was so amazing to have that exclusive interaction with him.  When you seek out ways to add more value to the customer experience, to make it truly memorable, it creates loyalty to you and your business.