Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop, placing your order, paying, and leaving. Nothing out of the ordinary. A simple routine you follow throughout the week…
Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop, placing your order, paying, and leaving. Nothing out of the ordinary. A simple routine you follow throughout the week…
Now imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop and your order is ready because they know when you come in. They call you by name, and ask you how your day is going (if you’re in a rush, they notice, and don’t take up your time). You pay and leave with a smile on your face – it is, after all, your favorite coffee shop.
At Open Design we tell everyone that good marketing is good marketing, and outstanding marketing is something people feel part of. This concept is the foundation of your customer experience and plays a role in everything you do in your business. From the materials you output, the verbiage you use, the colors you use to evoke certain emotions, the list goes on. It all comes down to, what path are you leading your customer down?
First, you have to build your ideal experience. Put yourself in their shoes and visualize how you want to be engaged as you meet this company for the first time. What did they first say to you to get your attention? What’s their style like? How do they interact with you?
It’s easiest if you think big picture about your experience, then dive into refining the details. It’s important you write these ideas down as well since your mind will be essentially daydreaming of the ideal scenario. Don’t just think about it; write it down so you can take action on it later.
The next step is: understanding your customer so you can connect with them emotionally. This step is often underrated, but it is the most important part of your process. Otherwise, how can you give someone an experience if you don’t even know who he or she is?
To understand your customer, you have to literally imagine who you believe should go through your experience (buy your product/service or work with you). Remember this: every community starts with one individual. If you’re trying to build a community around your brand or company, start by understanding the individuals that comprise your community. Start with one individual. What’s their demographic? Interests? What do they like to do?
After you’ve learned about who your ideal customer is and build your experience around their information, now it’s time to build an emotional connection with them. You already know what they like and what they want, now just give it to them. At this point, you’ve built your experience so take someone through it! This is going to involve your brand, your content, your message, how you engage, and everything you output towards them.
Now the last step in this process is to get feedback. This process will allow you to refine and revise your customer experience based on who’s already gone through it to see what people liked, what they didn’t like, etc. This information is key to revamping your customer experience so instead of a 5-star experience, now you’re going above and beyond for your client… you're giving them a 10-star experience.
This is a quick overview of what you should know and the basic concepts behind your customer experience. Each step is a lesson within itself and can be expanded into much more complex detail. Understanding that you need to learn how to cater to one before you can cater to many is integral to this process. Once you’ve made one connection, build more based on your feedback. If you need help with the process or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at scale@opndsn.com and we’d be more than happy to guide you in the right direction.
