Creating a Community of Raving Fans & an Unforgettable Customer Experience

The pre-Christmas release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” offers us a case study in how to cultivate an eager and enthusiastic community that finds a “buying experience” (in this case, immersing themselves in this captivating film) so compelling and rewarding that they barely notice that they’re parting with a few dollars in the process.

Based on twenty years of experience as a producer for ABC News and a number of other national television news organizations, plus ten years in the field of public relations, I’m convinced that there are three keys to creating this kind of passionately loyal “raving fans.”

 

Succinctly and Effectively Separate Yourself from “the Clutter.”

To create a loyal and enthusiastic community around your product or idea, the first step is “simply” to emerge from the crowd, and stand out from the competition – which is, of course, easier said than done. As early as 1964, a number of media experts acknowledged that we had begun to experience the effects of “information overload,” and futurist Alvin Toffler popularized the phrase in his 1970 bestselling book, “Future Shock.” (As a publicist, I’m keenly aware of how true this is!) Another visionary, architect Buckminster Fuller (who invented the “geodesic dome” and spoke about what he called “Spaceship Earth”) coined the term “the Knowledge Doubling Curve” as a way to describe his theory that the amount of information available to us literally doubles every 12 months. More recently, experts at IBM have speculated that the world’s accumulated knowledge will soon double every 12 hours! That’s a lot to keep up with, and attracting the public’s attention has become harder than ever.

Keeping all this competition in mind, each of us should be grateful when we attract even a brief moment of attention from new prospects and followers, and we need to make sure we’re making the most of that opportunity – not by responding with a high-powered “fire hose” of information when our new contact has expressed interest in a modest sip. Instead, we need to know what little “nugget” of helpful information can make this new friend feel that their tiny expression of interest was well worthwhile, and make them eager to absorb a little more. (This is a principle I always keep in mind in my PR work, when I’m writing press releases and pitching newsworthy story ideas to journalists at a wide range of media outlets. The journalists I connect with are always looking for a new opportunity to provide their audience with useful and actionable information and ideas.)

One way to separate yourself from the crowd is to offer your customers and those in your community an opportunity to feel that they are making a difference. For example, The Prospector Theater in Ridgefield, Connecticut is a reflection of my friend Valerie Jensen’s commitment to providing jobs for adults with disabilities, who frequently have a very hard time finding employment. Earlier this year, Valerie had the chance to tell executives attending a conference on customer service how fulfilling it is for the theater’s patrons to know that they’re supporting a business with this empowering mission. Choosing to see a movie at The Prospector has given moviegoers a chance to feel part of something larger, a community that is making a difference in the lives of those with disabilities. Because the world needs more of this, a number of producers and reporters have embraced this story, happy to be able to share a positive example of what’s possible in terms of people helping others.

In a recent Forbes.com article, the organizer of this conference, my friend Robert Reiss, host of the online “CEO Show,” noted Sam Walton’s challenge to those seeking to offer a product or service that is thrilling and memorable. Walton, the founder of the world’s largest company, said, “The goal of a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary.” What follows is a number of ideas that may help each of us rise to Walton’s challenge.

 

Offer Each Member of the Community Genuine and Personal Attention.

Those of us who own and operate small businesses or are “solo-preneurs” can benefit from the enormous research that some of the nation’s largest corporations have put into what makes for an outstanding customer experience.

The names of the companies that “do it right” – ranging from Apple to Zappos — have been mentioned so frequently that they’ve almost become clichés.

Joseph Jaffe, CEO and co-founder of Evol8tion, an innovation agency that connects early stage startups with established brands, has said that when those in the business community complain that they’re tired of hearing the same companies repeatedly singled out for praise, his response is always, “Why don’t you go emulate them and come back and tell me about it?”

In his book “Flip the Funnel,” Jaffe reminds business owners about the enduring wisdom of “the 80/20 rule” and how it applies to the customer experience. Most companies put 80 percent of their money, time and attention into customer acquisition. Jaffe suggests that they “flip” this approach, and instead put 80 percent of these resources into customer retention – keeping their customers delighted.

One example of a company that looks at operating costs and customer satisfaction in a way that would please Joseph Jaffe is Zappos, the online shoe retailer. (Until Zappos burst upon the scene, most people assumed that buying shoes was a sales transaction that could only be effectively conducted in person, certainly not via the Internet.) Many companies would see the wages of their telephone sales personnel as a cost to be controlled, but not Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. Instead, he says, “we believe that it’s a huge untapped opportunity for most companies, not only because it can result in word-of-mouth marketing, but because of its potential to increase the lifetime value of the customer.”

The successful results of this strategy are clear in the company’s sales figures, which reflect an enormous degree of customer loyalty. An impressive 75% of all purchases made at Zappos come from returning customers, and repeat customers order more than 2.5 times every 12 months.

When it comes to creating an extraordinary experience for one’s customers, my friend and business coach Jeri Quinn has literally “written the book” on this topic – “The Customer Loyalty Playbook.” Jeri says there are numerous benefits to creating a great customer experience, and notes that a 5% increase in customer loyalty can add an additional 25 to 100% profit to a business owner’s bottom line. In this useful book, she also tells readers how to achieve this goal. Jeri also agrees with Joseph Jaffe that if more business owners put a greater focus on customer retention rather than customer acquisition, they’d be delighted with the financial rewards.

Experts with the global consulting firm A.T. Kearney have studied this topic in depth and agree that a shift in the customary approach to customer service hold the key to some major benefits. The experts at Kearney have concluded that “creating a unique customer experience is one of the best ways to achieve sustainable growth … If a [company] can create a highly differentiated customer experience that turns dissatisfaction or indifference into delight, it will recruit an army of vocal advocates online and offline, gain market share, and generate revenue growth.” Clearly, over the years, those behind the “Star Wars” films have nurtured this kind of passionately loyal community – and have the box office sales figures to document their success.

The benefits of “pulling out all the stops” to create an outstanding and unforgettable customer experience are clear, but how exactly do we do this? Here are some suggestions from a number of experts who have studied this topic.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, McKinsey consultants James Allen, Frederick F. Reichheld and Barney Hamilton observed that only eight percent of a vast number of companies have been found to deliver a truly superior customer experience, and they asked what qualities set this small group of companies apart from the rest. Most notably, these companies recognized their customers as unique individuals, not one big “faceless mass.” The authors wrote, “The companies delivering a truly outstanding customer experience divide customers into segments and design experience-focused value propositions for each one. They tailor and design customer experiences for different customers.”

Often, ideas and approaches that customers appreciate are the result of younger members of a team shaking up the traditional way a company or business does its work. In a recent podcast interview with “The Art of Charm,” author Brad Szollose, author of “Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia – Multigenerational Management Ideas That Are Changing the Way We Run Things,” noted that many large companies are still slow to mobilize in terms of implementing new customer service solutions – especially those using the latest social media tools. The Baby Boomers who often lead these companies are resistant to the solutions that seem so obvious to those of the Millennial generation. One example of the kind of innovative ideas from “the younger generation” that delight customers is Best Buy’s “Geek Squad,” the SWAT team that stands ready to help with any technological challenge. Zappos CEO Tony Hsiesh says that he makes a point to listen to the ideas and contributions of younger members of his team, and he gives them the freedom to implement their ideas. Of this supportive approach, Hsieh has said, “Your corporate culture is your brand.”

Solo-preneurs and the owners of small businesses can tailor their approach to each individual customer or client, and larger enterprises would be wise to focus on different types of customers, rather than send the message that they think their customers are all the same. In this regard, small business owners can often claim a “competitive advantage.” This is a point that Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School, made in praising the book “Taking Down Goliath: Digital Marketing Strategy for Beating Competitors with 100 Times Your Spending Power.” Cole noted that small brands can “use their size as a market advantage to strategically out maneuver the big guys.” Digital technology, he says, “has changed the rules of marketing and has tilted it in favor of the smaller, innovative player.” What message are you sending your potential customers?

Authors including Gary Vaynerchuk (“Jab, Jab, Jab; Right Hook”) and Timothy Ferriss (“The 4-Hour Workweek”) have stressed the loyalty and appreciation that can be generated when customers are truly recognized and appreciated as individuals, but they do admit that this level of “hyper-responsiveness” can place a heavy burden on those of us committed to responding to each and every email message or Twitter tweet. Still, this approach really does generate extraordinary customer loyalty and appreciation.

As marketing expert David Vinjamuri noted recently in Forbes, a number of new advertising campaigns reveal that many major companies are finally recognizing that not all customers are the same. He points to Campbell’s Soup as an example, as the company’s latest ads for their “Star Wars” tie-in soups feature a same sex couple, and he also notes that new commercials for Kohl’s include multi-racial families. In his article, Vinjamuri asks the rhetorical question, “What’s the advantage of a wider variety of gender, ethnicity and sexual preference represented in media and advertising?” And he provides the logical answer. “Simply put, we are more likely to identify with someone that looks like us.” Vinjamuri also adds, “it goes well beyond physical appearance to include attitudes, values and a variety of subtle cues. … To identify with a product, you must first imagine yourself using it. That’s harder when the advertising shows someone different from you.”

Vodafone, for example, offers younger customers features they are more likely to appreciate – games and pop-song ringtones. Customers more interested in keeping costs to a minimum appreciate the offering called “Vodafone Simple” which is described by the company as an “uncomplicated and straightforward mobile experience.’”

Those companies singled out in this Harvard Business Review article as being among the eight percent who deliver an outstanding customer experience have discovered how to systematize the ways they achieve that result. The first step is to understand what each customer needs and wants. They then “reverse-engineer” the process to attain that goal, keeping innovation a continuous part of the process.

Another important point these McKinsey consultants mention in their article relates to the idea of seeing the customer experience as “a journey” rather than a series of “touch points.” Especially for larger businesses, it can be tempting to analyze “the metrics” at each step of the customer experience, but the authors of this article caution that too much useful information can “fall between the cracks” and the true feelings of each customer can be overlooked or unintentionally distorted. “Companies that excel in delivering journeys tend to win in the market,” they write, because “better performance on journeys correspondents to faster revenue growth.” As an example of a company that “gets it right,” the authors cite yet another familiar name – Disney, the studio that produced the latest “Star Wars” film and purchased the rights to the franchise from creator George Lucas.   The entertainment giant is known for its storytelling ability and for building its entire culture around delivering a great guest experience, and an enthusiastic and loyal community of repeat customers is the result.

 

Express Your Gratitude – and Be There Each Step of the Way.

Responding to that initial email note or call (or face-to-face meeting) with a potential customer or client is just the first step, of course. Over time, they’ll see if you’re as dedicated to their satisfaction, growth and success as you claim to be. The good news is that for those of us who truly appreciate the loyalty and business that comes our way from these individuals, nurturing and serving them over time can really solidify the relationship – and is clearly the best way to generate excellent “word-of-mouth” marketing.

Although we don’t often think of medical care in quite the same way as a traditional “sales transaction,” Sharon O’Keefe, President of the University of Chicago Medical Center, says that her hospital considers it very important that the doctors and staff always keep their patients in mind, even after they head home. As she told Robert Reiss in is Forbes.com article on the customer experience, “The nursing staff within 24 or 48 hours after discharge actually calls the patient and family member to check how everything’s going and if there are any questions. This really reduces anxiety and makes people comfortable.”

I hope these ideas will be useful to you. I appreciate the fact that you took the time to read this (lengthy) blog post, and would love to hear about the steps you may have taken to build your community – and I also welcome any specific questions you may have on this topic. One of my greatest satisfactions as a publicist is “brainstorming” ideas that will help a message reach the widest possible audience.

The idea of growing and nurturing a community is a subject I frequently discuss in my weekly newsletter. Here’s a link, if you’d like to add your name to the community that receives my newsletter each week.

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Thanks – and I look forward to hearing how you’ve cultivated your own community!