Exceed Your Customers' Expectations With a Little Magic
This week, I'm wrapping up our series on connecting with clients and customers with stellar customer service and experiences.
In "Connecting with Customers,” I've been looking at five personal customer experiences I’ve had that call to mind larger best practices for your small business.
We’ve spent a few weeks on this because customer service is one aspect of your brand and there are many ways to improve yours, and in doing so, make your business more successful.
In today's story, we'll look at:
Adding magic to your customer experience.
As business owners, sometimes we forget that the people who work with us or buy from us are just people - and they like to be entertained. Part of having a great process and client experience is remembering that we all value a little magic and surprise. Let’s dive in.
Adding a little unexpected magic can go a long way with your clients and customers.
I was thinking about this a few weeks ago when my husband Gus and I were both in a wedding party. Our friends who got married had spent over a year planning a really unique and creative wedding reception - full of games, trivia, even cardboard cutouts of themselves!
One thing I really loved about their wedding is that they chose to defy expectations.
Live at the reception, they asked that everyone fill out index cards to share favorite memories and stories of the bride and groom. The DJ collected them and then proceeded to read them throughout the night.
Ever been bored at a wedding reception? We weren’t bored at this one! It was so much fun hearing stories throughout the traditional, boring downtime of a wedding. We learned new facts and laughed to things like, “Wait - I thought this was the Cohen Bat Mitzvah!”
I can’t wait to use this same idea for a future party or vow renewal because it was so entertaining and so unexpected. What I took from this was that there’s always room for unexpected magic and it can have great impact on others.
To exceed customer expectations, look for ways to do things differently, to the delight of your clients and customers.
As we close out this series, I want to encourage you to brainstorm what magic and entertainment you could add to your services or products.
Is there anything that you do just because it’s how everyone does it? For those things, is there anything you could change or twist about it to make it more fun, magical, or impactful for your clients?
Some ideas to get your started might be:
Designing and/or creating client gifts (a welcome gift, an end of project gift) that you send as a surprise
A phone call you make to follow-up about a purchase or completed service
Incorporating a creative way to share your product or a story about your client on your social media (maybe a blog post spotlight on a past client or project that you share and tag them on)
EXERCISE
Take 5 minutes today and to analyze your process and identify 2-3 changes, tweaks, or improvements you could make to add a little creativity or magic to what you’re doing.
Looking to Next Week
I’ll return next week with another story from the world of business and branding. Enjoy this Connecting with Clients workbook covering all the exercises of the past few weeks, perfect if you missed a post or two.
What are your questions about small business branding? Let me know - I'd love to help in a future story or series.
For Further Reading:
How To Exceed Client Expectations (Huffington Post)
Four Ways to Exceed Clients' Expectations (Harvard Business Review)
Mind the Customer Expectation Gap (Forbes)
