Be Different or be dead

March 28, 2011

Why surprising customers is better than satisfying their needs

Source: Unsplash

Why surprising customers is better than satisfying their needs.

What’s the focus of your business plan? I expect that somewhere in your strategy it refers to satisfying customer needs.

The challenge, however, is that most people already have what they need, and to be a needs satisfier is a tough assignment.
The better mousetrap approach usually leads to offering a lower price. Follow this route and you’re CoMMON, FoRGETTABLE and InVISIBLE.

Should you meet customer expectations? Where’s the juice in that? I am not blown away when someone gives me what I am expecting.
Fall below my expectations and I am annoyed and I leave telling all and sundry how crumby you are.

Meet my expectations and I am satisfied but no more than that (how many of you are thrilled when the flight you are on actually arrives at the correct destination?)

Should you exceed customer expectations? This is at least notionally the right course of action. Go beyond what I expect. Give me more of what you led me to believe I was getting and I might talk you up you to others.

The real power has little to do with what people expect; rather it involves giving them what they don’t expect; to surprise them.

The surprise strategy is effective in dazzling someone, WOWING them, delighting them, and blowing them away and results in converting them to devoted fans who are prepared to spread your word far and wide.

Here are examples of what you can do to introduce the surprise factor in your organization.

▪️Know the customers secrets.
Secrets represent the fuel for the unexpected strategy. If you knew I loved Italian red wine, you might have the ability to present me with a gift should the opportunity arise.

▪️Opportunities flourish in any organization to deploy secrets.
Marketing — enhance one of your packages with a secret you discover about a particular group of customers.

▪️ Customer Service — when a service blunder occurs and you have screwed a customer around, build your recovery action plan around the secrets you know about them.

▪️ Product fulfillment — take a page out of Zappos’ book and send the product ahead of when it was promised.

But don’t use the same surprise element for every customer. Personalize the surprise and you will have the customer for life.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.28.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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