I help brands and customers interact with each other through static, interactive, and human touch points. I look especially at the crossing of online - offline, focusing on what makes a customer experience shareable & remarkable.
I lead the Singapore office of Antics - Digital Creative Agency
Email me: erik@erikposthuma.com
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I like this. It's remarkable. It could have been better.
Where is the shareable component? Any remarkable event begs to be shared. Lynx could have taken all the videos, chopped it up into per interaction videos. Placed them online where the consumers who interacted with the video could share it via their social networks.
When you make something remarkable, do you make it shareable?
Having done all the basics right the true remarkable differentiator was it's focus on coffee, and the manner in which it was brewed. If you check their website you see all the different ways they finish their home ground coffee, but the true remarkability was in the Syphon method of coffee brewing.
What a remarkable contraption. For coffee laymen as myself this syphon filtered coffee was a memorable and remarkable way of experiencing coffee. I won't go into the details of how it works, you can watch the video below instead (btw. The video was not taken at Two for Joy bus is merely present to give you an indication of what the process is like).
So what is so great about this?
I have already told all my friends. What's remarkable in your experience?
Call it the 105% Rule. From a word-of-mouth perspective, it's virtually impossible to discuss an experience that is 5% better than the norm on all dimensions. People don't talk like mystery shoppers, reporting diligently on each relevant feature. People talk about the exceptions, the unexpected, the highlights.
So you have just revamped your customer experience process. You took a look at your touch points and made them more fluid, you have made your communication more transparent and real. You think you've made it. In fact, mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys show that you have increased customer satisfaction by a whopping 5%! That's great!
But it is not.
Ok let's take the edge off this, it is actually good and kudos for getting this far. Great that your company is thinking about the customer experience and great that you have improved it.
But that is not all.
I stumbled on this quote (see above) by the guys behind "Switch" (beware, affiliate link, but it's a great book so buy it anyway!), Dan and Heath. They wrote it in 2007 and it keeps on resonating. It's about creating remark-ability, it's that one percent that makes people talk, the one that sparks conversation. So how do you spark that? Dan and Heath name a few good examples:
...consider Doubletree Hotels. In the lodging spectrum, Doubletree is a "medium"--nicer than La Quinta but not as full service as Four Seasons. It should be hard to find something to say about a medium player. And yet there's a conversation everyone has about the Doubletree: When you check in, they give you delicious, fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. These conversations provide a concrete symbol of warmth and homey service. (We baked cookies for you!) Cost aside, Ritz-Carltons would likely outrank Doubletree hotels in every conceivable survey dimension. Except the one that creates conversation.
And.
...If you go to Portland, Oregon, everyone wants to talk about Voodoo Doughnut. They talk about the caffeinated doughnut. Or the chocolate-glazed chocolate doughnut rolled in Cocoa Puffs cereal. Or the voodoo-doll-shaped doughnut that bleeds raspberry filling when impaled with a pretzel pin. Oh, did we mention that a Voodoo founder will conduct your wedding--with doughnuts and coffee for 10--for $175?
Sy Taylor has a thought about communications which is labeled SHOQ, now I don't know the details yet but I do know it stands for Simple, Human, Open and Quirky. So look at your brand, it's communications and SHOQ it up. Make something quirky and shareable. So something unexpected.
How will you quirk up your brand? How do you make your customer experience one that is shareable and remarkable?
When a customer comes into contact with your brand they take away a part of it in the form of a seed. Is this seed remarkable, the message will spread. Is the customer a close connection to your brand, the message will spread.
I just re-stumbled over a note by Scott over at Scottgould.me. I have always liked Scott's approach and am always spurred to think differently when reading his posts. Definitely read his writings. A few months ago Scott wrote a piece following the likeminds conference about the spreadability of situations, concepts, anything basically.
1. There will be failure. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tweeted something with the #likeminds hashtag, expecting it to get taken up, only for it to fail. I’ve wrote blog posts I thought would capture the hearts of readers that get no comments. I have gone from having a massive event to running the followup which has been poorly attended. You have to factor in and expect a percentage of failure.
2. You need to prepare the soil. You have greater chance with your seed with good soil. You soil is your community, your network, your brand, your reputation, your customers, etc – and the more connected you are with them, the greater chance your spreadability seeds have. (But of course, still expect some to fail.)
3. There are always unknown variables. Like inclement weather and unforeseen circumstances, there are always variables that you don’t know. This isn’t necessarily bad – because an unknown variable can be what rockets you to success. If anyone has read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, you’ll understand that this is the law of context - which is made up of so many variables that can you never be 100% sure.
4. You don’t know what will succeed. The above three points should help us understand that we actually don’t know what will succeed, for sure. Now I know that, yes, we can be certain about somethings, but let me illustrate with the #likeminds hashtag example again. When I put something out on that hashtag, I never know if it’ll take. Sometimes the things I think are best, get no mentions, and sometimes the worst things do. Even worse is when other people seem to always have their stuff on the hashtag retweeted when mine arent’! Knowing this, I then follow this final fundamental:
5. You have to keep scattering. Spreadability is accumulative. As you build upon your network, your failures at the least add to the soil – teaching you lessons and at least keeping your network nurtured.
These are great points and very applicable to experience creation. When structuring the physical engagement points with your customers keep a particularly keen eye on point two and five.
Prepare the soil.
Think about your current customers, and strengthen your current relationship with them. The closer you are to your current customer the more willing they are to share and spread your message.
Keep scattering.
When creating your brand experience, think of your touch points as the seed scatterers. Every time you come into contact with a customer/prospect you give them a seed. Give these contacts a remarkable seed and they will share it with others. Think of how Cold Stone Creamery took the touch point of the waiting customer and created a remarkable moment.
Do you prepare the soil? Do you keep scattering?
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