It is known that our cherished memories are created with moments and not material items. Memories remind us of certain tastes, smells, jokes, songs, people, and conversations. Not material items. So if you are in the business of selling a product, you should also be creating a memorable experience. How would you do that if you:
- Own a boutique selling womens fashions?
- Sell photocopiers and fax machines?
- Sell protective cases for electronic devices?
Easy shmeezy. Well, kind of…
To make it memorable, you will have to first do the following:
1. Consistency
Make sure that your products are always available, that your shop is clean, your customer service bang on (more on this next), you deliver over-and-over-and-over consistent operations.
2. Customer Service
Every person that is associated with your brand needs to understand who you are, what you are doing, and how you want to be understood. From sales associates, vendors, mail delivery guys, neighbouring stores, etc… EVERY PERSON you (and your staff) talk to is potentially a customer of yours. Always smile, be happy, friendly, and helpful.
3. Hire the best
An ‘experienced’ employee isn’t always the best employee. Tasks and job duties can be taught, personality and cultural fit cannot. Make sure that the people you hire fit in the company culture, believe in the company, are friendly and courteous, and can pick up on the things they may not have ‘experienced’.
Those are the basics, now to get to the meat.
Memories and great experiences are created when companies go above and beyond expectations. Today, customers expect 24 hour availability, expect to be able to talk to upper management, get freebies, and value value value! In order to do this effectively, you must align the experience according to the product. For example, if you run a boutique womens fashion store, offer tea or coffee to people while waiting for others to try on clothes, grab their contact information after they made a purchase and send a PERSONAL email to them telling them how happy you are to have them as a customer, offer samples or discounts, and the list goes on.
Tid Bits:
- Always try to provide a take away such as a brochure, business card, or coupon when they leave. A happy customer is more likely to pass that material on to someone else.
- Smile and be fun and funny. Treat everyone that walks in the door as a king or queen, regardless of their age, gender, or clothing. People talk. So even if a couple people you wouldn’t consider as your target market or mistakenly came in, they will remember the experience regardless.
- Never be too busy to tend to your clients/customers. I personally hate the rules of many large retailers, the one that they must answer the phone within 3 rings regardless of who they are helping in store. Make sure you have a great voice mail set up for just this reason. And CALL THEM BACK within 30 mins.
- The customer isn’t always right, but you have to assume they are…in most cases. If something unfortunate happens ALWAYS apologize first, then seek to understand their problem. Don’t point the blame at someone else, unless you have concrete evidence that someone is responsible. Regardless of the issue, remember to be quick to respond. Whether it’s an email, text, phone call, or face-to-face conversation, always be sure to reply quickly. A simple “I apologize for this mistake, please allow me a moment of your time to see what went wrong.”
To get to the ‘measurable’ part of this conversation. To be memorable in providing a great experience is something you should strive for. Why? Because this produces results. It produces sales, loyalty, and happiness. If you create a good memory, you ultimately create results that can be measured.
