How to Surprise and Delight Customers

Today’s episode is all about surprise and delight. Hopefully, the title concept of this episode already has you in a happy and delightful mood (that’s priming for you!) and you are ready for some fun. I love thinking about experiences and incorporating fun, delightful moments. It can be with customers or employees and in totally unexpected places (that is the best strategy) like an error page of a website or the legaleze people agree to. 

Little moments of thoughtfulness are my favorite, and they help us to have fun at work (we should!) as well as help our customers and employees to enjoy interacting with us (which will make them want to do it more). And, while I don’t need much of an excuse to talk about surprise and delight, there is a specific reason I chose to refresh this episode from 2019 today, and that is as a lead into this coming Friday’s conversation with John Sills on his new book The Human Experience. 

His book is all about creating better experiences. He features brands that are already doing an amazing job and how companies can make big leaps by remembering their humanness. Great experiences shouldn’t be surprising, but sadly they are as too often the experiences with brands are more of a pain than a pleasure. But it doesn’t have to be this way! This episode will share why delight is so critical to companies, why surprise matters, what it all has to do with loyalty and profitability and so much more. It’s a fun one and I can’t wait to share it with you Friday (if you aren’t already subscribed to the podcast, take a moment to do so now). And, in the meantime, let’s talk about surprise and delight.

Show Notes:

• [00:38] Today’s episode is all about surprise and delight.
• [02:12] Great experiences shouldn’t be surprising, but sadly they are as too often the experiences with brands are more of a pain than a pleasure.
• [04:18] If a customer has an expectation they will either be satisfied or dissatisfied by the level at which that expectation is met or not. Expectation can’t lead to delight.
• [05:15] Ideally you are living in the satisfied territory most of the time with a few delights popping up here and there. Delighting customers takes extra work and it can be expensive, though it doesn’t have to be. 
• [05:38] Delight is much more likely to drive loyalty than mere satisfaction.
• [07:31] It is important to not get stuck in the traps of false loyalty. 
• [10:13] A 5% increase in loyalty can increase your profit by as much as 85%. 
• [11:03] Loyalty is huge for businesses and delight is a big key to earning it. Loyalty isn’t the only awesome thing to come out of delighting customers. 
• [11:57] The biggest issue is that there is no standard scale for measuring delight. 
• [14:14] Customers can’t tell you what would cause them to be delighted because they have to be surprised. They can’t be expecting it or it isn’t going to hit the delight scale. 
• [17:46] Finding someone who is influential and loves your brand and then finding a way to work with them can both delight that person and their following. 
• [19:39] If your delights become standard then they become expected. Surprise is key to delight. 
• [22:33] Having a great first encounter helps set the relationship off on a good start. Having a dose of delight every now and then keeps customers happy. 
• [24:09] Empowering employees to help customers and go the extra mile can make a big difference in loyalty scores and profitability. 
• [26:02] Sometimes the most delightful “WoW” moments happen in the blink of an eye. If employees are not empowered and need to cross layers of approval these moments could be lost forever. 
• [28:27] In other businesses this could be as simple as changing the radio station on a loaner car to match the customer's vehicle when it is brought in for repairs, or knowing when a client comes to your office for a meeting drinks chai tea lattes and having one waiting on them when they arrive. Little things can make a big difference and delight your customers. 
• [30:01] Businesses always need to be watching the market to see what the status quo is and how expectations have changed to keep up with delight. 
• [32:33] Melina shares one of her favorite examples of surprise and delight. 
• [34:35] There are countless other ways your company can implement surprise and delight for your customers.  
• [36:34] Listen to customers to understand what’s important to them. 
• [38:08] Delight is not something you do one off and hope for the best. It requires time and strategy, but it is absolutely worth it. When you give a little bit to people often they want to give back. 
• [40:45] Don’t let herding make you feel like you have to send stuff at the same time as everyone else. That is precisely why you should send something at another time because no one else is. 
• [41:37] Melina’s closing thoughts
• [43:41] It is important to take a step back and look around and disassociate from the current experience. Working with a consultant can be very helpful to bring fresh eyes to the situation.  

Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Android. If you like what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and share what you liked about the show. 

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Get the Books Mentioned on (or related to) this Episode:

• What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, by Melina Palmer
• How Customers Think, by Gerald Zaltman
• Alchemy, by Rory Sutherland
• Engaged, by Amy Bucher
• Choice Hacking, by Jennifer Clinehens 

Top Recommended Next Episode: Get Your D.O.S.E. of Brain Chemicals (ep 123)

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• The Pain of Paying (ep 240)
• Overview of Memory Biases (ep 48)
• Apple Card (ep 42)
• Herding (ep 19)
• How to Create Remarkable Experiences with Dan Gingiss (ep 185)
• Anthropology, Market Research & Behavioral Economics with Priscilla McKinney (ep 196)
• Choice Hacking, with Jennifer Clinehens (ep 141)
• Engaged, with Amy Bucher (ep 164)

Other Important Links: 

• Brainy Bites - Melina’s LinkedIn Newsletter 
• How to Delight Your Customers
• Customer Delight: Foundations, Findings, and Managerial Insight
• Delight by Design: The Role of Hedonic versus Utilitarian Benefits
• Ed Sheeran Launches Own Heinz Tomato ‘Edchup’
• Ed Sheeran Edchup on Instagram
• Ed Sheeran on Instagram @teddysphotos
• The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful of Employee Empowerment
• Turkey Talk Line