Moments matter. Little things that create delight in the customer experience can be revenue gold…
Research shows that companies focus 80% of their time on fixing problems instead of only 20% on creating peak moments. Peak moments matter because they hold value according to authors Chip and Dan Heath. The revenue opportunity from raising peaks can be as much as 9x greater.
In addition to increasing revenue, why would you want to create these little extra magical moments? I believe there are three distinct reasons and corresponding benefits of the status gained by delivering little extras:
1. Positioning – Stand out from your competition. If everyone is providing x, the fact that you provide x + y (little extra) differentiates your offering. Less than 30% of customers buy mainly on price. And competing on price is a race to the bottom. You want to tap into the more than 70% of customers who are looking for value and a strong customer experience.
Benefit: Differentiation
2. Loyalty – Giving a little extra enhances the customer experience. It creates a bond between the business and the customer. The benefits of that bond include increased loyalty and ultimately patronage as a form of repayment.
Benefit: Retention
3. Reciprocity – Part of giving extra is to create goodwill (inequality). That inequality is repaid by positive word of mouth, spoken or digital. The best form of marketing is referral marketing. By giving a signature extra you provide something for your customers to talk, tweet, blog, or post about.
Benefit: Referrals
I call these little extras Purple Goldfish. They are signature elements in the customer experience that help you stand out, improve retention, and drive positive word of mouth. They are little consistent extras that either add value or reduce customer effort.
These little extra moments can deliver tremendous ROI. In their book “The Power of Moments,” Chip and Dan Heath share a story about visiting Southwest Airlines headquarters.
They asked Southwest if they knew the impact of funny flight safety announcements. The team said no, but added they had the data to figure it out. They came back a week later. It turns out that humorous safety announcements take place on 1.5% of all Southwest flights. The data shows that passengers on those flights flew on average one leg more the following year. That additional flight represents $138 million of revenue for Southwest. And I bet you dollars to donuts that those passengers spoke about the funny flight safety announcement to friends and colleagues.
Sometimes little things can make a big difference. And the difference between ORDINARY and extraORDINARY is just a little extra.
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Stan Phelps walks the walk. He stands out in the sea of sameness by modeling his own Differentiated Experience (DX) message: Differentiation isn’t just about what you say, it’s about what you do and, more importantly, how and why you do it. Stan leverages his unique collection of 5,000+ case studies on customer, employee, and brand experience to engage audiences with informative learning-based experiences. He believes purposeful DX wins the hearts of employees and customers, and differentiation ultimately boosts loyalty, retention, referrals, and results.
Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.