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Recently one of our readers posted a comment on Amazon.com in reference to our book. The following blog post is our reply and is at the heart of one of our most talked about subjects at Strategic Marketing Advisors (SMA).
We would love to hear from all of you in reference to this subject. Mary and I will be writing another book talking about the value of our own experience and your input is welcomed. Please tell us about your experiences as a customer both good and bad.
Enjoy
David and Mary
Thanks so much for spending your most precious asset – time – to write this thoughtful comment.
Thanks also for purchasing our book and hope you’ll let us know if you find it helpful. And yes, the fact that it’s a “paperback” does imply that it’s been around for a while (we’ve heard that comment before). However, that’s Entrepreneur Press’s standard delivery method and was actually one of the reasons we chose them over other publishers who saw it as a hardback. David and I wanted to make sure our readers felt comfortable highlighting ideas, dog-earing pages, and writing notes in the margins.
Now on to more important things...
Unfortunately, Bakari, the consumer experience you described is all too common. (As a matter of fact, David and I feel so strongly about this topic – what we call “the value of your own experience” - that we’ve recently developed an outline for another book on the subject.)
I’ll try to keep this short, however, it won’t be easy because I could talk about it for hours on end (and as my son so often reminds me, it’s my soapbox :>).
In our minds it comes down to this:
We are all consumers. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. And each time we “transact” with a company there is a moment when we “log” – or judge - the experience based on our own criteria and expectations. It’s like making deposits and withdrawals into our emotional bank accounts. And these “moments” usually fit into one of these three categories:
1. Mediocre: When your “expectations” (and these vary widely) are met. In other words, the experience was okay – not bad, not great.
2. Misery: When you’re disappointed – for example, checkout lines are exceptionally long; the sales people were uninformed; no one offered to help; and that sort of thing.
3. Magic: This is when your expectations are exceeded and you walk out (or leave a website) surprised – in a good way – because this person, or company, understood the value of your time and truly appreciated your business... they made you feel important because they understood that no matter what “business” they were in, they were there to serve you.
And you’ll know you had a moment of magic when you say to someone, “You’ve just made my day”.
Understanding and applying concepts that create these “moments” are the best-kept “secrets” in marketing! Why? David and I think it has most to do with pervasive misperceptions on what the term “marketing” really means... in other words, most people assume that it’s just another word for “advertising” – which couldn’t be further from the truth. Business owners think they can advertise their way to success and fail to realize that one of the quickest ways to go out of business, is to advertise a shoddy product or service. In other words, if you’re going to tell people how great you are – get great first!!
And what makes it even more fascinating, is that the difference between “moments of misery” and “moments of magic” is less than a centimeter and usually costs nothing to implement... it could be a simple as a smile, walking someone to their car, asking a photographer what type of work he/she does (by the way, please share that with us!) or showing up to a job on time... those seemingly tiny courtesies that can make all the difference.
So, I encourage you – and anyone else who may read this – to continue learning from your own consumer experiences and use your insights to improve your relationships with others – personally and professionally. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What happened and how did this experience make me feel?
2. What could this person/company have done to make this a better experience?
or
What did this person/company do to make this a memorable experience?
David and I would love to hear more and ask anyone else who reads this blog to share their own moments of mediocrity, misery and magic...
And thanks again, Bakari, you’ve made our day!
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