As a restaurant owner, providing the best possible customer experience is essential for both retaining current customers and attracting new ones. In today’s digital world, customers have more choices than ever when the restaurant’s customer experience is enhanced.
Therefore, providing a memorable experience that stands out among your competitors is crucial. In this article, we will discuss 10 ways to enhance your restaurant’s customer experience that can help you outrank other restaurants and become the go-to destination for your customers.
#1 Develop a customer-centric culture
A customer-centric culture is a mindset that places customers at the center of everything you do. It means making decisions based on what is best for the customer, not just what is best for the business.
To create a customer-centric culture, start by hiring employees who share your values and are passionate about providing excellent customer service. Train your staff to prioritize the customer’s needs and to anticipate their expectations.
Also, create a feedback system that encourages customers to share their experiences and insights, allowing you to continuously improve.
#2 Personalize the experience
Personalization is all about making the customer feel special and valued. A personalized experience can be as simple as greeting your customers by name or remembering their favorite dish.
Using customer data to personalize the experience is also a great strategy. For instance, if a customer has a food allergy, ensure your staff knows and accommodates that accordingly. You can also send personalized emails, coupons, and promotions to your customers based on their preferences and behaviors.
You will also find, over time, that personalization is a form of competitive advantage, as your customers will feel loyalty towards your restaurant.
#3 Offer a unique menu
Your menu is the centerpiece of your restaurant. Make sure that it stands out by offering unique and delicious dishes that your customers cannot find anywhere else. Collaborate with your chefs to create innovative and seasonal menus that keep your customers engaged and excited to try something new.
Using a menu design tool or a free menu template is a failsafe way to provide an enticing menu, as well as benefit from the other list of features that these platforms provide.
Did you know that when asked, “when choosing a restaurant, what is most important in making their dining decision?”, 49% of respondents chose menus.
#4 Create a welcoming environment
Your restaurant’s ambiance can be as important as your food. Ensure that the decor and lighting reflect your brand and provide a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. Playing appropriate background music can also set the tone for your customers’ dining experience.
#5 Invest in technology
Investing in technology can make your restaurant more efficient and improve your customers’ experience. Offer online reservations, mobile ordering, and delivery options. This can help reduce wait times and make ordering more convenient for your customers. Using digital signage can also showcase your menu and promotions in a visually appealing way.
If you need any more convincing of the impact of tech on the restaurant industry, check out this article from Forbes.
#6 Train your staff on customer service
Your staff can make or break your customer’s experience. Train your staff to provide exceptional customer service from the moment they enter the restaurant to the time they leave. Encourage them to be attentive, personable, and proactive in meeting customer needs. Consider implementing a rewards program that recognizes outstanding customer service.
#7 Build relationships with your customers
Building a relationship with your customers can help increase customer loyalty and attract new customers through word-of-mouth marketing. Encourage your staff to engage in conversations with your customers, learn their names, and remember their favorite dishes. Collect customer feedback, use it to improve your offerings, and show your customers that you value their input.
Building relationships also help with the personalization point we shared above.
#8 Offer a loyalty program
A loyalty program is an excellent way to incentivize repeat business and reward your most loyal customers. Offer discounts, free meals, or exclusive perks to customers who frequently dine at your restaurant. This can help increase customer loyalty and encourage them to refer friends and family.
#9 Engage with Customers on Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool for restaurant owners to connect with customers, build relationships, and promote their brands. Restaurants should be active on social media and use it to engage with their customers.
Here are a few tips to help restaurants engage with their customers on social media:
Post regularly: Restaurants should post regularly on social media to keep their customers engaged and informed. They can post about new menu items, events, specials, and other news.
Respond to comments and messages: Restaurants must respond promptly to comments and messages on social media. This shows that they value their customers and are committed to providing greatservice.
Run contests and promotions: Contests and promotions are a great way to engage with customers on social media. Restaurants can run photo contests, giveaways, and other promotions to keep their customers engaged and excited.
#10 Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Customer service is an essential part of the restaurant experience. Customers want to feel valued and appreciated, and restaurants that provide exceptional customer service are more likely to retain customers and earn positive reviews.
Here are a few tips to help restaurants provide exceptional customer service:
Train staff on customer service: It’s important for restaurant staff to be trained in customer service. They should be knowledgeable about the menu, be able to answer customer questions, and be friendly and helpful.
Listen to customer feedback: Restaurants should listen to customer feedback and take it into consideration when making changes. They can use customer feedback to improve their menu, service, and overall customer experience.
Go above and beyond: Restaurants that go above and beyond for their customers are more likely to earn their loyalty and repeat business. This can be as simple as offering a complimentary dessert or providing a personalized experience for a special occasion.
Social customer care and service has and continues to evolve. No question about it. Instead of returning to a store or calling a helpline, people are increasingly turning to social media to resolve their gripes. It is called social customer care.
Social media is transforming customer care as we know it. The change really began with the shift in focus from customer care as a case triage tool to customer care as a strategic vehicle for delivering excellent customer experiences. Social media has accelerated this transformation.
The bottom line is that service isn’t a silo. Organizations need to leverage social channels for the delivery of customer care, and customer care extends beyond the customer service department. At the same time, your brand extends beyond marketing—customer service has become your brand.
And when you hit that sweet spot and create a well-oiled social customer service machine, the pay-off is huge: 71% of customers recommend a brand that gives them a ‘quick and effective’ response on social media.
Almost 50% of social media users have used social customer care.
Shift in Customer Focus
Brands are emphasizing their focus on the people behind the posts, putting great effort into building platforms that allow for open, honest communication that supports superior customer service, not just the bottom line.
As customers expand their use of different channels to satisfy different needs, many companies continue to build out their support capabilities across various channels, including social. As companies gain more experience with social support, many contact center leaders are trying to strike a balance between the expectations that customers have for problem resolution and response times and what’s practical from a cost and resource standpoint.
Customer Expectations
According to research by The Social Habit, 42 percent of consumers who contact a brand, product, or company on social media expect a response within 60 minutes. While 25 percent of consumers in the same study expect a response that same day, some customers are more demanding, with 20 percent expecting a response within 15 minutes. Many companies scale back or discontinue social support at night or on weekends. Yet The Social Habit study finds that 57 percent of consumers expect the same response time during these intervals as during normal business hours.
Reason for the importance of social care
71% of customers who experience positive social customer care are likely to recommend that brand. That compares to just 19% of customers that don’t get a response.
90% of upset customers can be retained with great customer service and social care.
Lots of opportunity here, isn’t there?
NM Iinate – The State of Social Customer Service 2013
Social customer service challenges
Only 36% of consumers that make customer service inquiries via social media report having their issue solved quickly and effectively. More opportunity.
Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study 2012
Our theory why
What business groups are involved in social media:
Marketing 70%, Public Relations 69%, Customer Service 19%
The Regan / NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions Survey
Need cross-department communication and new integrated roles and tasks.
Organizations must respond to the splintering of conversations across service, and marketing. The bottom line is that service isn’t a silo. Organizations need to leverage social channels for the delivery of customer care, and customer care extends beyond the customer service department. At the same time, your brand extends beyond marketing—customer service more and more is becoming your brand.
Remember … social isn’t a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of doing business.
Simplicity … the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means. Have you noticed that the world of marketing is changing with the best strategy examples? A big cliché, yes? Yes, it is, but it is having a significant impact. And the change is rapid. Traditional media vehicles are losing effectiveness as people communicate in new and different ways. Mass audiences are fragmenting into small segments. Developing a point of difference is harder than ever.
Let’s consider a couple of examples to illustrate.
Don’t let what you know limit what you imagine.
Guinness marketing campaign shows their creativity
This Guinness marketing campaign demonstrates that Guinness marketing has certainly noticed.
And Guinness marketing has adapted and come up with some cool new marketing ideas. This new ad from Guinness proves that beer commercials can be so much more than guys and bars.
“Empty Chair,” tells the story of a bartender who leaves a pint of Guinness at an empty table every night amongst birthday celebrations and sports team victories. No one sits at the table, and the woman shoots a dirty look at anyone she catches eyeing one of the empty chairs.
Without fail, the frosted glass is there each and every night. It’s a powerful image that serves as a sign of hope for the bartender. But we aren’t exactly sure who the beer is for until the very end. Everything comes together when a soldier finally returns home to claim his Guinness.
The spot finishes with the tagline “The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.”
Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template and telling a story – a real emotional story – that connects with people. The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. They remind us that a true test of character is what you do when no one’s looking.
The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Guinness has made the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly grasp and fully appreciate. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. Guinness certainly gets it and tells an interesting story as it weaves the message together.
Many business leaders are uncertain about the future. What will great marketing look like in the years ahead? Guinness’ spot shows the way.
Marketing works in many ways.
First, it breaks through the clutter. It is visually arresting, surprising, and beautiful. After watching it once, I wanted to watch it again. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. And enhanced with a great dose of curiosity.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
Second, it has solid branding; it is clear that this is for Guinness and the brand’s personality.
Third, it communicates a benefit. The entire spot revolves around the Guinness commitment to people. It is very clear that Guinness has something special and remarkable that they want to share.
The ad has generated an astonishing amount of buzz and attention. It is engaging, well-branded, and focused.
The ad was serious and emotional. It is like the advertiser left a note that says:
… there will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on. (6)
It touches deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Guinness and its values.
Example takeaways
Stories and emotions are the future of great marketing strategy, aren’t they?
Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, make your absence felt.
12 Lessons from Ben and Jerry’s Marketing Strategies
Ben and Jerry’s marketing is changing the game of social.
What are your favorite brands? Which ones do you follow closely and learn the most from? When choosing to learn from others’ marketing successes, it is always helpful to choose great brands to follow. We follow Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies because of their creativity and unique approach to customer focus.
Meet Ben and Jerry’s. They have been successfully executing their social marketing strategy and plan for the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 20 years their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ben and Jerry’s is unnecessary, isn’t it?
With more than 600 retail locations in 34 countries, the ice cream scoop shop is the picture of success.
Ben and Jerry’s rode the baby boomer trend in the late 1980s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need where people could share and enjoy a unique ice cream dessert with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper scale of the ice cream market, competing on product quality rather than convenience or price, which is the case with its closest competitors. They target customers with high-end ice cream tastes and unique flavors.
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes great ice cream, unique flavors, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their focus on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social Media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Ben and Jerry’s has certainly taken a leadership position in social engagement. Their social media strategy is built on their company website and six additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, and YouTube.
Adaptation and Innovation
Ben and Jerry’s have clearly embraced the social realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social commerce.
Ben and Jerry’s ability to wear so many hats on corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants close examination.
What makes this company so good at being social and executing a great marketing strategy? And what can it teach us? Here are our thoughts on these questions:
Customer collaboration
Collaboration with customers is used to obtain customer ideas on new flavors. Fans inspired the best-selling Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.
Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board: in-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Interactive customer engagement
Engagement is a high priority for the brand, and they continually look for new ways to collect input from customers. A good current example is their ‘Scoop Truck’, which travels around the country giving out free samples of new products and soliciting customer input.
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourage sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, frequent promotions garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Social mission focus
Ben and Jerry’s brand has always chosen a social mission … to stand for and stand behind. One great example of an issue they got behind was supporting the push to get corporate dollars out of politics.
Experience customization
Ben and Jerry’s provides its unique experience through programs such as personalized ice cream flavors and localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular, Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Ben and Jerry’s moments’ which are shared on all their social sites.
Taking a stand
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that ice cream cone or package is beneficial for all. The takeaway from Ben and Jerry’s is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world … so, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending topics.
Showing customer appreciation
Appreciation for their customers. The lead quote to this article from Ben Cohen says it is all about their culture and success at showing customers appreciation.
Whether we are discussing businesses that are social, the best at engaging customers, or being great at a social commerce business, there are few businesses in the class of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Being social is a core component of Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy. It is the integrating ingredient of their online and online to traditional marketing/media.
Not all businesses can go to the extent that Ben and Jerry’s does. But they can support local issues and do weekly online promotions to increase customer engagement, gain new customers, and convert good customers into advocates.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy for your business?
Do you have a focus on the requirements for customer engagement? Especially the ones that are essential for a social commerce business. Here we define a social commerce business as the use of social engagement to personalize and energize the shopping experience. It provides a social context to shopping and is both a channel and a way of doing business.
Want to see some great tips on how to build customer relationships?
So how do we propose to build a world-class social commerce business with consumer engagement?1 Here are 12 essential requirements we believe you must pay strict attention to:
Start with observations
Consider starting questions with this phrase: “I noticed that you …” What happens when you are forced to think about this is that you start to consider what you know about someone before you meet them based on where you are, what they look like or what you know about them already.
One of the best conversations I had at an event recently was because I noticed that someone was using two different phones at the same time. Asking why led to an amazing conversation about time optimization and technology.
Message relevance
People have many priorities and rarely enough time. So pay attention and don’t use it with irrelevant messages and conversations. Engage them with only the messages and topics that are relevant to them.1 Strictly avoid broadcast messaging.
Interrupt with questions
Many people think good listening means always letting someone finish every thought and nodding along. Instead, active listening requires that you ask questions WHILE you are listening.1 Sometimes this means interrupting – but this isn’t something to be afraid of. Often the interruptions will lead to tangents that create more intersections for both of the people in a conversation.
Be credible
The most important element that people rely on the most? It is trust, hands down in my opinion. Relationships breed trust so they are a good place to start, People prefer to do business with people they know and have established relationships with. Those are the ones they trust the most.
Seek stories instead of answers
There are questions that lead to answers, and then there are questions that lead to stories. Here’s one way you might start a story-seeking question, “What inspired you to …” When people share stories, they go beyond feeling like they are being interrogated. They open up and they connect. The more stories you can hear, the more connection you’ll feel to everyone you speak to.
Be human
People are human. It is as simple as that. They are real and want to be treated as such. They dislike being treated as a number. And they prefer relationships that work best for them.
Friendly and social
Be friendly and socialize your business. People do business with people, so make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers ‘feel at home’.
You may have a great location, cool displays, great value, etc. That’s all great, but if your people can’t make your customers feel welcome and appreciated, all of the other doesn’t matter so much.
Communication
People like to talk with and be around friendly people. In such situations, they share quite a bit about themselves. And it obviously makes sense they expect the same in kind.
Customer care
Assume you are the company owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees, and then follow their lead.
All the time
Amazing companies don’t always deliver ‘Wow!’ type experiences, they are just better than average all of the time. Consistently all of the time is the secret sauce.
Experience
People are always looking for memorable experiences in their lives. They tend to remember both the very best and the very worse experiences. They prefer those they treasure and will share with friends.
Attention to details
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you. Be vigilant … always listening and learning. Try and remember things customers tell you and then show them you listened. Trying new ideas. Put your social commerce business in motion by being adaptable.
Here is a story that helps me with better customer engagement:
When my son was about two and a half, he developed a funny habit of walking around the house from time to time, chiming out, “I’m here.”
Although this little boy was strongly connected to his family and his small class of school friends, he still had that need to express it.
I’m here. I exist. I want to be seen, and heard. I want to be recognized.
And as human beings, we never quite lose that. We might get a little more sophisticated about how we say it, but ultimately we all want to let the world know:
I’m here.
If you intend to market something — to ask for someone’s hard-earned money and irreplaceable time — you must begin by seeing (and honoring) who they are. And clearly acknowledging their presence.
Now it’s up to you. Choose one customer service strategy to start with. Have a meeting around it. Discuss how to implement it. Then, do it and repeat the process, creating something good for your customers to talk about! Soon you will have a much stronger social commerce business.
More reading on customer engagement from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Be a Customer Focused Business through Consumer Engagement
Whole Food’s Customer Engagement Using Social Media
Influence Consumer Behavior through Personalization Strategies
Customers don’t care what you do. They only care what they are left with after you’ve done it. Especially with Dunn Tire and customer experience design.
Do you notice the customer experience you receive at a business you infrequently visit? With most customers, the answer is yes if the experience is bad. The extreme endpoints of the service experience. Occasionally however customers make note of a customer experience design that far exceeds expectations.
My wife and I experienced such a design at our local Dunn Tire store, where we had taken our car for our annual New York State safety inspection. I don’t know about you, but I notice a design set up like an awesome online experience, with all the information you will need all around you on the walls. Simply expressed and is very easy to speed read.
See our article on the 9 truths to improve customer experience and service design.)
What are the ways Dunn Tire uses its store design and employees to create the best possible customer experience? Consider Dunn’s explicit operations and design principles:
Educate your customers
Show the value
Create customer relationships
Stand tall on customer issues
Build trust
Care for Customers
In front of nearly every ride was stroller parking … and in Magic Kingdom, there were plenty of strollers because nearly every group had some small children. There were areas set aside for stroller parking, and clear instructions for where to park your stroller. Guess what? Customers still managed to ignore them.
In most places, this might create chaos. Not at Disney, where they have a ‘stroller guy’ whose entire job was to pick up after lazy customers. We have seen them organize strollers into lines, put errant Sippy cups back into cup holders, and keep his little area of the park neat and organized. All customer-facing employees are responsible for ensuring parks remain clean, friendly, organized, and most of all, fun.
Immerse Customers in Brand
At Disney, you can’t look in any direction without seeing the Disney branding all around. In the park, it works to surround you with the Disney experience at every moment … even when some parts of the park are under construction. Not to mention the side benefit of Disney likely negotiating some discount on the construction work from businesses in exchange for allowing them to put their brand on the signage seen by millions of park customers.
Lots of help and directions
All stage employees are encouraged to be ‘assertively friendly’. They are to seek out those who look like they need help before they come looking for help.
Learning Center
The parks at Disney are very large and directions can be confusing. The last thing customers need is to not be able to find what they are looking for. As a result, signs have to be super easy to navigate and offer simple ways to get from one place to another. Disney does a great job keeping their signs easy to understand. They also have logical layouts for parks and plenty of places to pick up copies of maps as you’re walking around their parks.
Be flexible with rules
Many of the rides take photos of you while you are on board. Those photos are sold to riders after the ride … a classic amusement park upselling technique. At Disney, they show you the images and put a person below those images just standing by to answer questions.
Of course, some people will just take a cell phone photo of their image instead of buying one. Many places would put up big signs preventing that. Disney, instead, puts a person there working under the photos to make it a little more socially awkward to take a photo of your photo … but they don’t outlaw it. The result is that they probably still get a high percentage of people buying the photo who really want it, but they don’t need to have the typical rule outlawing the inevitable group of people who are happy with the lower-quality photos they take themselves.
Educating while getting the job done
In many places in all the parks, Disney provides educational material on signs around the parks. This is particularly true in EPCOT and the Animal Kingdom … and special events like the annual garden show. Can’t be too much of this in our opinion.
Offer Reassurance
Everyone ‘on the stage’ has a cast role, and as such, is responsible to contribute to the positive customer experience by being as helpful and assuring as possible.
When we traveled to Australia, we frequently ran into the expression a ‘nervous nelly’ used to represent a timid or always apprehensive person. We all know people like that. They check a map constantly even when they are going the right way, and usually find a reason to worry about something. Disney does a great job of making sure those people feel at ease, with plenty of places and people to answer questions.
Show Ready
Each customer-facing employee is expected to be ‘show ready’ whenever they are on stage. Everyone has a part to play as a component of the show. On stage, the show is on … everyone follows costume and customer interface guidelines. Breaks and relaxing are ONLY allowed in areas unavailable to guests.
Disney certainly knows all there is to know about customer immersion and customer experience, don’t they? It’s a culture handed down by Walt himself.
Companies that are proactively managing all elements of their customer experiences are most successful in achieving customer loyalty.
For as long as anyone could remember, the current and previous owners were extremely positive happy people.
Most folks assumed it was because they ran a successful business.
In fact, it was the other way around…
A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying Business Is Great!
The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other company. What never changed however was the owner’s positive attitude, and the badge saying Business Is Great!
Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, “What’s so great about business?” Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed.
Anyhow, the Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:
Be human and show your personality
Businesses are made up of people … always show your enthusiasm and passion.
Listen to me
Help me complete my visit as quickly as possible, without seeking other help, or ‘handing me off’.
Be easy to work with and exceed expectations
…whenever you can. If you don’t have what the customer wants, offer alternatives, including recommendations to other businesses.
Be honest
Always do what you say (promise). Credibility and trust really matter.
Always follow through promptly
… keep me informed until you can close.
What more design elements can be added?
What can your business apply from Disney operations that would improve your customer experience?
Please share a story about a creative customer experience design strategy with this community.
Remember, customers, create the most value for you … when you create the most value for them.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your customer experience design. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer experience from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
10 Laws of Customer Experience Design
What Little Things Small Businesses Can Do To Build Customer Relationships
Customer Experience Improvements Begin with Understanding Their Value
The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well. It is awesome marketing.
J. D. Rockefeller
A secret? No, not really. Small things? Yes, certainly. Sometimes small actions or inactions by a business can have a big impact on awesome marketing. And it is usually due to a lack of an explicit strategy. Certainly not the case with Millefiore’s customer experience.
Millefiori certainly appreciates how customer experience design has grown in the importance of brand marketing and consumer influence. They have made astonishing the customer the centerpiece of their marketing strategy. Certainly, a real discriminator, isn’t it?
Today we will examine 10 different ways Millefiore employs customer experience to stand out above the noise and become a significant contributor to their brand marketing.
The end-state quality of the product or service the customer receives is what counts. However, this includes the experience the customer remembered while he purchased the product or service. Often that is what is remembered the most.
Let’s examine 10 smashing examples to discuss:
Deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers are influenced in the marketing process. Millefiore staff goes out of their way both in the store and online to be happy. They want their customers to also experience this feeling. So you will see lots of smiles, happy faces, and positive attitudes.
Product/service presentation
Have you ever been to the Millefiore store or their website? If you have, you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their quality. Draws your eyes to many finer elements of design and products, even if you are not looking for them. Helping customers visualize the products and more importantly the end results of the services offered.
Best technology
Customers really don’t care about the technology per se, do they? But they care that the results of the technology result in the best impact on the services received, including performance, fewer treatments required, safety, and of course lower cost.
For example. Laser tattoo removal has been in practice for the past 20 years. Until recently there have not been any major advances in the field. This past year a newer technology was FDA-approved and now there are two players in the game; the older technology of the Q-switch YAG and the new kid on the block the PicoSure. So what’s the difference between the customer and the experience they are looking for?
PicoSure uses photomechanical/pressure waves which do not use heat and eliminate the risk of damaging the skin and scarring.
PicoSure breaks down the ink into smaller particles which get absorbed faster meaning fewer procedures to eliminate tattoos. (PicoSure can fully clear a tattoo in as little as 4-6 treatments, while the Q-switch can take up to over 20 treatments).
Easy to do business with
The definition of easy varies by customer base including generations, occupational focus, etc. Everything may seem easy to one generation and maddening to another. Nonetheless, easy will always be at the top of the list for customer experience. Millefiore puts a priority on avoiding passing on tasks to the customer, either online on at the store, doing everything they can to simplify actions required for the execution of their services.
Attention to detail
Giving customers the ability to create uniqueness in the products or services they want to purchase is a great way to discriminate against the brand. This technique is probably the most difficult for most businesses to employ. The standout here is bundling services together over time to optimize the end result for customers.
Flexibility
When company procedures can flex and bend to the customers’ needs, customers experience the ultimate in care. Why? Because it fits them, their lives, and their businesses. It’s obstacle free. Whether it is the combination of services offered and their sequence of applications or the option of payments, Millefiore strives to pass on maximum flexibility.
Provide utmost care
Customers are glad when you don’t have problems in delivering service. They are elated when your knowledge, experience, and foresight, prevent disasters in their business or life.
Memorable in uncommon ways
In everyday life, customers like to rely on themselves. When they must reach out, they wonder what will happen. When the happening is beyond their expectations, the experience shines.
Quick story: My wife goes for a yearly mammogram. She asks for the same technician each time because her interpersonal skills and sense of humor turn a stressful dreaded ritual into a memorable experience. She makes a difference. My wife could go to a center closer to my house yet I might end up with Betty the compression robot. I’ll pass on that thanks. (My wife will see you next year Maxine!) Many of Millefiore’s customers feel the same way about their staff.
Your customer insights are essential to this effort. We’re not talking just satisfaction surveys—good customer understanding doesn’t come just from spreadsheets and data crunching. Instead, we’re talking about customer sentiments and needs through detailed customer observation, listening, and relationship building.
Social skills that identify and share unspoken or latent needs. A process of gaining good insights and then acting on them. Experimenting at first and then fully ahead. Having a governance mechanism to act on insights is critical…otherwise, there will be no positive change.
Solving customer problems
Being very good at solving customer problems is a great way to create a good experience. And an honest opinion you can always trust.
Key takeaways
Here’s the thing, social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s really a new way of running a business. Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business. Count Millefiore in that camp.
Give Millefiore a try and spot the customer experiences differences.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of customer experience as a key way to discriminate. And put it to good use like Millefiore.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing, and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your customer experience?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
Have you been fooled by a company you have done business with for many, many years? When I say fooled, I mean the broken kind of trust fooled. And yes Seth, I do want to talk about it. It involves bad customer experiences that my daughter and her husband had with their credit union. Turns out it is our credit union also.
You can’t fool people all the time, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
–Seth Godin
Michelle and Matt are the victims here. They were in the process of a mortgage approval with another bank (purchasing a new home and the builder’s company offered a good deal and speedy approval). During the process, they received a telephone call from the new banker wanting to know what the payments of $836 over the past 9 months to their credit union were for. They had no idea.
But here was the deal. The credit union was charging them $3 each to transfer money from their savings to their checking account for the first 6 transfers each month. After the first 6, the fee for the transfer was $25 for each transfer. This was going on for 9 months with no communication from the credit union whatsoever (totaling $836 in fees during that time). So $836 in fees for using their own money. When they called for an explanation, the bank’s only response in that was their policy on fees for that type of transfer. End of explanation.
Their next move was letters to the bank CEO and the member services committee, explaining the situation. Here is a copy of their letter:
We have been Visions Credit Union members since we graduated from college 15 years ago. Until now, Visions is the only bank with whom we have done business. The same is true for my husband. That is something that will change. Let us explain.
Over the last few weeks, we have been in the process of buying a new house and selling our old one. As a result, we have been in the process of a loan certification process. One question that surprised us was why we had paid Visions $836 over the last 9 months to use our own money. In doing research on the question, we realized you have charged us a $3.00 service charge to automatically transfer from our savings account to our checking account. And to top that, once we reached 6 transfers per month the service charge went to $25 per transfer.
We went back over our correspondence with Visions and could find no notification of the change in your process of adding service charges to move our money from one account to the other. We accept responsibility for not reviewing our account on a regular basis. But to our defense, a sense of trust was involved on our part. That was obviously a big mistake.
After our research on the issue, we immediately called Visions to discuss the issue and seek a refund. Your response: there was nothing you were going to do because your process was to respond to appeals only and we had 30 days to appeal each service charge. This is a very poor response for 15-year loyal customers holding a mortgage, home equity loan, and a respectable amount of money in our savings and checking accounts. We asked why this had happened and your response was that this was according to your policy. We asked why, when we had over $10,000 in our accounts, we were being charged anything. Again, we were told that was your policy.
We are sending this letter to you, as bank CEO, because we feel it was important for you to hear concerns such as these, directly from your members and not your staff. We believe it is a crucial reason you are losing valuable customers.
We accept responsibility for not checking our account each month. But we trusted we would hear from you if there were issues. But that was not the case.
Given that we have researched what other banks do in similar situations (nothing close in terms of fee policies) and our lack of trust in your bank, we will be selecting a new bank.
Why are we sending this letter directly to you? It is simple. You apparently are the only one with the ability to deal with this issue and consider changing your policies.
Sincerely,
Matt and Michelle Ellis
So what was the response? The Vice President in charge of Member Services called our daughter and could not have been more apologetic. He said that he and the CEO had been with the credit union for a little over a year and were in the process of reviewing all fee processes and putting them in line with their competitors.
These fees were clearly not good policy or in line with the competition. He returned the $836 in fees completely. He also stated that they were giving the branch manager much more ability to make decisions with customers. Certainly much needed, don’t you think?
(Want to see how another company handled a bad situation? … How Marriott Courtyard Turned Customer Failure into Service Recovery)
All we can say is that good customer experiences start and end with effective communication. In this case, the absence of communications created the significance of the surprise, didn’t it? They also greatly depend on keeping up with the competition … it is a comparative thing. And finally, employee empowerment is a necessity. Without good empowerment, things can get out of hand in a hurry.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons. When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
More reading on customer focus from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
10 Laws of Customer Experience DesignWhat Little Things Small Businesses Can Do To Build Customer RelationshipsCustomer Experience Improvements Begin with Understanding Their Value
Random acts of kindness ideas? You can make great strides in customer service and customer experience improvement through seemingly small but very thoughtful actions. Remember that customer experiences are the new marketing tactics.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.
David Freemantle
Check out this video on a memorable customer service experience from popular customer service speaker Ross Shafer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T54rQrMleA
Quite an impact for a simple can of Coca-Cola, isn’t it?
Let’s take another example, this one coming from Fred Reichheld, a Fellow at the management consultancy firm Bain & Company:
One of my favorite examples of this happened at Rackspace, the managed hosting and cloud computing company. An employee on the phone with a customer during a marathon troubleshooting session heard the customer tell someone in the background that they were getting hungry.
As the employee tells it:
“So I put them on hold, and I ordered them a pizza. About 30 minutes later, we were still on the phone, and there was a knock on their door. I told them to go answer it because it was pizza! They were so excited.”
Our takeaway
While the cost of the gifts/actions is quite small, the human mind simply cannot refuse the construct of simple reciprocity. Reciprocity can be summed up as our natural inclination to feel grateful for favors and our desire to “pay them back,” no matter how small they are.
The other thing that we consider about reciprocity is that research has shown us that the intentions of the ‘giver’ can affect the perceived value of the gift. This is why random acts of kindness ideas work so well:
Customers perceive the service as a genuine act of kindness rather than as you trying to buy their affection with costly gifts.
So remember, it doesn’t take huge expenses to win customers over!
You can’t over-prepare to continually improve your customers’ experiences.
Remember, customers create the most value for you … when you create the most value for them.
Like this story? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, and stories per week.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer experiences? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas to make your customer experiences better.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on customer experience from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Building a Remarkable Home Depot Customer Experience
Simplify Customers’ Lives for Remarkable Experiences
Learning From the Best Customer Experience Case Studies
How to Make Customer Care the Heart of Customer Service
Have you noticed the remarkable success of online shopping recently? It has been nothing less than phenomenal. That’s why we have been scouring the latest research lately to see what some of the new insights are. The online shopping report has some very interesting insights for us in Brevard County. Some interesting thoughts on how to shop online.
Just because we’re marketing things doesn’t mean we know the science behind what makes people buy. But marketing without that information is like walking outside with a blindfold on — it’s going to be very hard to end up at your destination without a scratch.
To catch up on the latest and greatest research about online buyer behavior, keep on reading. Below, we’ll cover eight data sets on buyer behavior, their key findings, and the lessons you should apply to your businesses, both online as well the brick and mortar guys.
Take the ones that apply most to your business and then use them to make smarter business and marketing decisions. For example consider building or tweaking data-driven buyer personas, designing a new experiment for your website, or maybe even making a case for your boss to hire someone new.
So let’s dive right in.
How to shop online … why customers shop online
In this study, Shopper Approved set out to understand why consumers purchase online, rather than through brick-and-mortar stores. Their survey included 25,660 individuals who were asked “What key factor influenced you to buy online instead of locally?” immediately after they purchased from 207 online retailers in a variety of industries.
Key Findings
The following factors came out tops regarding encouraging online purchases:
25.4% said a larger selection
25% said better pricing
24.7% said more convenient
7.2% said time savings
3.6% said easy to compare
3.3% said no sales tax
What to put to use
If you’re an online business, you have an advantage over traditional retailers in that you aren’t limited to the amount of shelf space available when considering which items to stock. Adding selection, therefore, may help you appeal to online buyers, as can keeping your prices below traditional competitors. You can also streamline your purchase process to create a convenient experience for shoppers.
This study, carried out by Quirk’s Marketing Research Media, interviewed nearly 2,000 U.S. buyers in 2014 in an attempt to understand how consumer attitudes and behaviors have changed after the Great Recession.
Key Findings
Consumer debt is at its lowest point since 2006, indicating that buyers are prioritizing thoughtful purchases over conspicuous consumption.
79% of survey respondents report at least sometimes checking reviews before making an online purchase.
Consumer rank “a person like yourself” as a highly credible source of information, indicating a shift of trust towards individuals and away from institutions.
How to shop online for clothes.
What to put to use
Encouraging satisfied customers continues to be an important priority for businesses. However, this data reveals more than that. It says that businesses should look for other opportunities to empower their buyers. For example, this includes allowing buyers to control the number of options available for consideration. It also includes stimulating feedback during all stages of the buying process and seeing how other customers have used your product. As well it concludes how to learn about consumer distrust of larger institutions.
A recent study by Vanessa DiMauro and Don Bulmer in conjunction with The Society For New Communications Research indicates that the quality of a company’s products is the most important factor contributing to consumers’ perception of the company. To reach this conclusion, DiMauro and Bulmer presented survey participants with a list of several different factors and asked them to rate their importance in forming their impression of a company.
Key Findings
The following percentages represent the number of participants giving “very important” responses to the prompt above:
Product quality – 80%
Cost of products and services – 55%
Company’s customer care program – 37%
What trusted contacts say about the company – 34%
Customer reviews – 30%
Ratings on social media sites – 30%
What the media says about the company – 13%
What the company says in ads – 10%
The company’s social media presence – 7%
What to put to use
Product quality is king when it comes to boosting perceptions of your company. Fortunately, that’s one of the few factors in the list above that’s completely under your control. If you’re not sure how to improve your product, the easiest way to start is to ask your customers. Check your reviews for suggested improvements or use social media and other consumer-focused web tools to ask prospective customers what changes they’d like to see.
What Influences an Online Purchase Decision
Looking at the research to determine what causes consumers to buy gives internet retailers the insight needed to improve their offerings and boost sales. Using a collection of studies, online store provider Bigcommerce identified ten primary factors that contribute to purchase decisions.
Key Findings
Product quality – 56%
Free shipping – 49%
Easy returns – 35%
Customer reviews – 33%
Visual search – 30%
Great navigation – 26%
Checkout ease – 24%
Multiple options – 24%
Special size – 12%
New product – 10%
What to put to work
As in the DiMauro and Bulmer study referenced above, product quality comes out on top in Bigcommerce’s infographic. They begin to differ after that, with free shipping and easy returns taking an expected second and third. You perhaps have noted the success of Amazon Prime and Zappos in this regard.
If you aren’t already offering free shipping, see if a small price increase might cover the cost without affecting sales too significantly. And if there are any resistance points that complicate your returns process, minimize them as much as possible.
Consumer Psychology & The E-commerce Checkout
Online savings code hub voucher cloud compiled the results of some studies to create its “Consumer Psychology & The E-Commerce Checkout” infographic. While the entire thing is worth a look, the key findings below should give you a starting point for making meaningful changes to your checkout or conversion process.
Key Findings
How to shop online with cash.
57% of online consumers will abandon a website if they experience more than three seconds of load time.
80% of these could-be customers will never return.
Products are assessed, and initial purchase judgments are made within 90 seconds.
41% of shopping cart abandonments occur because consumers encounter hidden charges at checkout.
53% of consumers say that low-cost shipping is a sufficient reason to change online retailers.
What to put to work
The statistics showcased in vouchercloud’s infographic make one thing clear: Anything that adds resistance to your checkout process reduces your sales. When it comes to boosting online sales, consumers look for streamlined experiences that give them the best possible deals with the smallest amount of hassle.
To see how your checkout process stacks up, go through each of your competitors’ shopping carts and try to make a purchase. Anything that makes your system more complicated than theirs should be noted and revised.
The Psychology of Stuff and Things
“Fanboys” — those who will purchase any product offered by the companies they follow — are an interesting phenomenon that most businesses should strive to understand. Why do you ask? It is simply given their implications for brand awareness and future sales. A 2010 study by Kyungmi Kim and Marcia Johnson shows that strong associations underpin this “cult-like following.
Key Findings
By scanning participants’ brains as they viewed boxes full of items labeled “mine” compared with containers labeled with others’ names, Kim and Johnson were able to identify extra activity in the medial prefrontal cortex — the area associated with the way we think about ourselves — when the owned items were viewed.
What to put to work
Many consumers subconsciously view the brands they associate with as signals of their membership in certain groups. Some great examples are the fanatical Apple buyers and the video game console wars. Both of these show evidence of how owned items can be used to convey certain personality traits.
If you want your customers to identify as strongly with your products as they do with these notable brands, look for ways to encourage buyers to claim ownership of their purchases.
MDG Advertising developed this compelling infographic, which drew data from the National Retail Federation, BrightLocal, PR Newswire, Skyword, Web Liquid, Alexa, and The New York Times. It does an awesome job of highlighting how important images can be in the buying process.
Key Findings
67% of consumers say that the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product (compared to 54% who feel the same way about long product descriptions and 53% who give ratings and reviews the same credence).
Content featuring compelling images averages 94% more total views than content without images.
What to put to work
This one’s pretty easy. If you don’t have good images on your website and product pages, add them now. And if you have images on your site, but they aren’t high quality, upgrade them now to appeal to today’s internet buyers.
An interesting study by Forrester Research that demonstrates consumer attitudes toward email marketing is becoming less negative. This is good news for marketers that rely on this powerful channel. This trend comes from a survey of 33,546 U.S. online adults and is based on the following data points.
Key Findings
42% of U.S. online adults delete most email advertising without reading it, down from 44% in 2012 and 59% in 2010.
3 in 10 respondents agree that they often wonder how the companies sending them messages got their contact information.
The percentage of respondents agreeing that most email ads don’t offer anything of interest fell from 41% in 2012 to 38% in 2014.
What to put to work
Consumers seem to be feeling better about email promotions, but there are still some weak spots. As a result, it is important for marketers to balance promotions with other more engaging messages.
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on business lessons from our library:
7 Surprising Things to Know About the Zillow Business Model
Competitive Strategy … the Story of In-N-Out Burger
10 Lessons for Successful Entrepreneurs You Need to Know
When you make an accidental mistake with a customer, your primal response is to immediately say ‘I’m sorry. That’s OK.
What’s not OK is to say ‘we apologize for any inconveniences we may have caused”.
Mistakes happen.
How you apologize matters.
Don’t BS people … just say ‘I’m sorry.
And mean it.
Do you have an apology story to share with this community?
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on customer focus from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Extraordinary Targeting from Generational Differences
Use Customer Insight for Remarkably Effective Adaptation
