With hope that our business economy will reopen in the coming months, it’s time to start thinking about your business in a post-pandemic environment. How will the world change? How will your industry be different? How will your business be different? How will your customers shop, buy and visit? How will you and your business adapt to some of the new circumstances that we all may be facing?
The sheer volume of unknowns can feel overwhelming, making it difficult to even know where to begin planning your next move. With so much uncertainty, an ideal starting point is your customer. Your customer is at the center of any business, and the COVID-19 shut down is a perfect time to re-imagine the ways you serve your customers.
I always recommend the FUN approach to my coaching my clients when doing this exercise. Get your entire team together for a remote brainstorming session around the ideal Magical Customer Experience. In other words, if you didn’t have to worry about previous rules, policies, costs, logistics, staffing or any other pesky constraints, what would a Magical Customer Experience look like? What would you need to deliver such an experience that would wow your customers so much that they’d never even consider one of your competitors in the future? Think of experiences so memorable, that they become the subject of coffee conversations and social media sites.
Start by looking at every and all customer “touch points.” These may include the experience a customer has when they call your business. Or the experience of walking into your business for the first time. Maybe it’s the experience of opening your product after receiving it in the mail, or the time your new client gets their first invoice. One at a time, put each touch point under the microscope to examine how it can be upgraded into a Magical Customer Experience.
Here are four questions to get the conversation started with your team:
- At each completion of a specific touch point, what do you want your customer’s to say about you and their experience. In other words how would they think, know, do, and feel?
- Since humans have five senses, is there anything you could add to elevate their sensory experience?
- Looking outside your business and industry, what ideas could you “borrow” that would be groundbreaking and a “wow” factor in your own business?
- When leaving Gerald’s Tire and Brakes car service centers, the fresh rose they give you is that surprise-and-delight that you didn’t expect. Are there any other unexpected little extras of value you could surprise your customer with to make their experience unique and special?
The Covid-19 pandemic and sheltering in place stinks, but it does allow you more time than usual to think about the future. Taking this opportunity to re-imagine how you can wow your customers with a better customer experience is an exercise that can pay dividends for years to come. Imagine your sights on a Magical Customer Experience as the best vaccine for your business to attract more customers, beat out your competition, build customer loyalty for life, and reinvent your business. Now that is Magical! Do you need help in re-booting and reinventing your business during and after the pandemic? Contact me to schedule your FREE Discovery Call today!