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The Art of Exceeding Expectations in Your Industry

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Haley Kieser
The Art of Exceeding Expectations in Your Industry

I once went to the dentist, a place where you never expect to have a superb experience, and was handed a hot lavender scented towel to relax me while I got my teeth cleaned. It was unexpected, making my experience there more than something just bearable. Not only will I continue going to that dentist for their attentiveness to my experience, but I’ve also shared about that lavender scented towel with many friends looking for a new dentist.

Have you ever ordered from Chewy.com? On this website, you can make a profile for each of your pets. You enter in their birth date, their date of adoption and if your pet passes away, you can let them know on the website to which they will respond with a card and some flowers to help ease the pain of a difficult time. Of course, when you’re ready to adopt a new pet again, where will you get your pet supplies? Plus, you might share a picture of the flowers on social media to rave about their kindness. How many new customers has Chewy gotten from these types of referrals?

Or what about You Move Me, a company that enhances their customer experience by bringing you a cup of coffee and a plant for moving day. There’s no other day where those two things are more relevant or more needed and this tells you that the people at You Move Me were thinking about you days before your move to help you get through it - a human to human connection made this a valuable transaction for everyone.

These are all examples of companies who exceeded expectations. They didn’t stick to the bare minimum of their offerings when it comes to their offerings. Each one is memorable and worth talking about.

Honest referrals

Providing a unique and thoughtful experience to your customers will not only leave them satisfied, but it will also give them the tools to easily share about their experience with friends. The difference between, “The moving company was really helpful and efficient.” and “The moving company brought me coffee and a plant for my new space!” makes this moving company unique and relatable. Bringing a cup of coffee and a plant is something a good friend or family member might do. How awesome is it that you received that from such an unexpected source?

Social Transmission

Social transmission is the transfer of information or behaviors between people. To leverage this for marketing would mean creating a noteworthy idea as it relates to your offerings and get people to start talking. And when it comes to talking, sharing about the human experience is much easier and much more likely than sharing about a brand. We all love going to Target, but when we talk about going to Target, we don’t talk about the company and the fact that it’s a department store. We talk about the Target experience, the way it seamlessly meets all of our needs and how difficult it is to get out of there without a quick stroll through the candle isle. Why shop anywhere else when I can walk into a Target and have THEM tell ME what I need?

90% of consumers believe the brand referral of a friend.

When you get people talking, you build a reputation of trust. Creating a “lookalike audience” and marketing to them can be done much easier by thinking of the customers you already have and honing in on their individual experience. This is how brands and ideas grow and become bigger than the needs and wants they meet.

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Haley Kieser
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