Its About The Experience!

It’s About The Experience!

Don’t get me wrong, the quality and purpose of your product is very important, but consumers today are looking for something that sets your product apart from others.  That feeling, that difference that consumers are looking for is the experience or experiences they have with your product.  I have outlined 5 different stages that affect the overall experience customers will have with your product.  The 5 different stages are labeled ambiance, value proposition, customer service, feedforward and feedback, and change.  Each one of these stages is uniquely important and work in concert to ensure that the customer receives the desired experience from the product that you are looking to deliver.  Today’s customer brings each of these together with your product to determine whether they will keep or continue to use the product you are offering.  Let’s look at each one of these stages in creating the ultimate customer experience.

Ambiance

Ambiance is defined by Dictionary.com as “the mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., particularly of an environment or milieu.”  Many times we think of ambiance as the lighting in a restaurant, the colors on a wall, the music that is being played in the background, and the way food is served on a plate.  While all of this is true and very important, I would like to expand what ambiance means to the product being offered.  Imagine you are implementing a new marketing plan for your organization, and are working with a third party to ensure the success of the plan.  The third party comes to HQ to assist with the plan, and the immediate vibe they give off is one of being cold, and not looking to work hand in hand with you.  This is the “ambiance“ that the vendor is giving off about their product.  It may not be a color on the wall, but it certainly leaves an impression of that organization in your head.  It is likely to say that you will probably not be doing business with them now or in the future.

To look at excellence in all around ambiance, you need to look no further than the theme parks and resorts at Disney World.  From the moment you step into your hotel you have the ambiance of hotel theming, as well as the friendly “Welcome Home” you receive when checking in.  Organizations that thrive today understand that product is important, but the ambiance around the product is just as important.  The way the customer perceives the product and is treated goes just as far as the product itself.  When looking at your product, make sure that you are providing the proper 365 degrees of ambiance you want your customer to perceive.  Providing the proper ambiance is the first step in ensuring the immediate and continued success of your products.        

Value Proposition

Value…it’s that word that has different meanings for different consumers.  For some consumers, the value is how cost-effective can they buy a product.  For some businesses, value is how cost-effective you can make a product, sell it to the customer at the best price, and still turn a profit.  Value means different things for different people.  To ensure that customers receive the value they expect, a value proposition is very important.  A Value Proposition helps customers understand exactly what they should expect from your product, framing the entire experience.  A Value Proposition also helps those on your front lines understand exactly the experience they are looking to deliver.  Without a Value Proposition, the value that your product is looking to deliver can get confused and lost in the overall experience.

I have two experiences I can think of off the top of my head where I understood the value proposition, and the value exceeded my expectations.  The first is of a steakhouse in Scottsdale, AZ called City Hall.  City Hall prides itself on providing a fine dining experience, with the ambiance, customer service, and steak being excellent.  Was City Hall more expensive than other steakhouses?  Absolutely.  Was it better?  Absolutely.  The ambiance was amazing, the customer service was fantastic, and the steak was one of the best I have ever had.  I had a bone in filet mignon, and it was still the best steak I have ever had.  If I return back to Scottsdale with my wife, this is certainly a place I would take her.  I understand it is expensive, but I see the value in what I am paying for.  The second experience I had was at Walt Disney World with my daughter.  Walt Disney World prides itself on giving you a vacation you will always remember, and I will always remember this moment.  It was 100 degrees with the heat index, and my daughter had one of those fans you can carry to cool yourself off.  She held the fan a little close to her hair, and it became stuck.  She was crying her eyes out (she was 3) because we had to cut a little bit of her hair off.  In that moment, a Disney employee came up with a teddy bear, cut the tag off, and gave it to her right there.  It changed the mood 180 degrees, and Alyssa had nothing but a big smile on her face.  Understanding your value proposition will help you provide the value and experience your customer is expecting!          

Customer Service

Let’s not even pretend to beat around the bush, customer service can make or break the experience the customer has.  Let me ask you, what is the amount of time you will wait for a waiter or waitress to show up at your table in a restaurant?  I may be extremely picky, but if I don’t have somebody at least stopping by asking me if I want something to drink within 5 minutes, I’m a little edgy.  You don’t have to ask me if I’m telling the truth, you can ask my wife.  Who else besides me is completely annoyed with the idea of going car shopping?  I absolutely hate the experience of car shopping.  I would rather drive around my 15 year old car making strange loud noises than purchase a new car.  The customer service you provide an individual around your product will completely change the way they view it.  I will gladly return to a restaurant that provides friendly and well-paced customer service.  I would purchase a car more often if the process itself wasn’t a painful 3-6 hour back and forth. 

I still remember riding the Disney bus to what is now called Disney Springs.  Alyssa continued to complain that her stomach hurt, and we did our best to soothe her.  As soon as we got off that bus, my daughter became sick.  My wife and my daughter were both in bad shape as I found a Disney employee that could help.  Not only did the Disney employee help us, she offered both my daughter and my wife new free clothes at the Disney store.  While I know this didn’t cost them much, how many places are there where if something like that happens, the humane in an individual shows?  The customer service they provided my family was not only first class, it was classy.  Southwest is another company that has always provided excellent customer service.  Now that we live in Orlando we schedule regular flights back to the Chicago-Land area, as it is a big part of our life.  We schedule flights out 6 months in advance, and pay whatever the price is at that time.  Many times, the price has dropped, and Southwest has always credited us back to our credit card, or for future flights.  As silly as this sounds, it means a lot to us as it helps us to book more flights.  Southwest understands this, and they know we will be booking more flights in the future.

Customer Service is crucial to the experience a customer has with your product, and will determine if they will continue to return!

Feedforward and Feedback

Feedforward, there is that crazy buzzword that so many people seem to be using.  There are certainly some benefits to not being the first mover in an industry, but there are some benefits as well.  Feedforward is the idea that a company is able to determine a benefit the consumer will want before it is provided through feedback.  Feedforward is very important as it means you are taking a risk by investing in something that consumers have not provided through feedback, but that an organization views as a way to differentiate itself.  Being able to gauge the consumer and determine what they are looking for is a tactic that can provide you with the first mover edge over others.  Fitbit is one company that was able to predict a consumer’s response before feedback started.  The company used their idea and helped to change the way consumers experienced fitness.  Not only did their product make the fitness experience more interesting, its consumers sometimes made it a friendly battle. 

Not only is Feedforward a way a business can change the experience their customers have, listening to feedback is also extremely important.  It wasn’t too long ago that a majority of business journalists were writing off JC Penny.  What happened was JC Penny stopped listening to the feedback from its customers, and had decided to make changes that their customer base was not looking for.  The company removed holiday discounting, started focusing on an entirely different demographic, and completely changed the brand of products it was offering.  The changed JC Penny made left its customers confused.  Fast forward about 2 years, and JC Penny is back.  Sure, they still posted a loss in their last fiscal 4th quarter, but the gap is shrinking.  JC Penny listened to its customers and started offering discounts again, returned brands their customers were used to, and added appliances to the list of products it sells (customers wanted it!).  If the trend continues, JC Penny will be back to profitability due to listening to their customers’ feedback, and improving their JC Penny shopping experience.  Feedback is crucial in ensuring that customers experience with your product is what they are expecting (back to value proposition).

Change

 Change…it is that one word that seems to scare many of us, but it is the one thing in life that is constant.  You graduate school, life changes.  You get a new job, life changes.  You get married and possibly have kids….well, maybe a stronger word than change should exist J.  But either way, change, oddly enough, is the one part of life that never changes.  So what makes us think that running a business is any different?  Do we expect to throw a product on the market, have our customers experience it a few times and then the experience becomes dull?  Are we not listening to any customer feedback mentioned in the previous section, and make the changes that will keep them coming back for a new and interesting experience.  Look at McDonalds…while things occasionally changed, the burger chain somehow did not see the writing on the wall.  Individuals were moving to a fast casual dining experience that, while a little more expensive, provided better quality food and atmosphere.  The EXERIENCE was better.  And I’m still lost on how they did not see this coming, as they owned a large stake in Chipotle, a chain that was leading the revolution!  Either way, McDonalds was a victim of not changing the customer experience…hoping that individuals would continue to come back for the same exact dining experience over and over.

Here in Orlando we have a change war going on between both Universal Studios, and Disney World.  Both theme parks realize that if they want to continue to bring guests back they will need to change, to provide new and exciting experiences.  Disney is in the middle of upgrading Hollywood Studios (current name) and Animal Kingdom to provide new and exciting experiences for its guests.  It is also renovating its Disney Springs area to provide new restaurants and shopping for both visitors and locals in the south Orlando area.  Universal studios is adding new experiences that it hopes will bring more visitors, competing with the Disney behemoth.  Another company that changed the credit card landscape is my old employer, Discover.  Discover was the first card on the market (introduced when the Bears won the Super Bowl!) to offer rewards.  Not only were rewards something new, it enhanced the experience that people had with the Discover brand.  I can put things on my credit card and get points for it?  That is awesome!  Now we see so many cards doing the same thing, which, on another note, is why I predict MCX will never be mainstream.  That is another topic.  Discover continued to enhance the customer experience by offering other free products, such as free FICO scores on a monthly basis.  Discover continues to change the credit card industry, and at the same time, enhances the customer experience.  Change is needed for your product to continue to be successful over time.

 The Experience!

In today’s marketplace, the experience with a product is just as important as the product itself.  When looking at your product, evaluate the five conditions written about in this article.  Ambiance, Value Proposition, Customer Service, Feedforward and Feedback, and Change will assist you in creating a product that will thrive in this new experience oriented marketplace.

Best of luck moving into the future!