Sound and Smell: The Crucial Missing Aspect in Your CX Design

What do the song “Fine Line” by Hootie and the Blowfish and the scent of air conditioning have in common? They are two things my family associates with taking holidays in the US. Once they hear the song or walk into an air-conditioned building, they are transported to our family trips in the US when they were young. However, these examples also represent critical areas for your Customer Experience design. Sound and Smell are an area often overlooked by organizations when it comes to the details and how it supports your brand image. 

In this episode, we speak with sound and smell design expert Simon Faure-Field, CEO of Equal Strategy. He shares his expertise and examples of how organizations can use both sound and smell to deliver the experience that evokes the proper emotions that can lead to customer-driven growth. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

Many organizations have their focus on other areas of the experience, so when it comes down to choosing hold music for their call center, they are likely to say, “just play whatever comes with the system.” While this decision is simple, it reflects poorly on your brand unless you want to be a whatever-comes-with-the-system-type company.  

Likewise, smells can be distracting from your experience. For example, many casinos allow smoking at their tables. It’s great for the casino because smoking tables often result in a higher take than non-smoking tables. However, it’s terrible for the guests who don’t fancy the odor cigarettes tend to leave behind. Faure-Field and his team at Equal Strategy addressed this problem in a Singapore Casino by developing a fragrance that cut through the smell of tobacco, and everyone won—just not as much as the house.

Addressing moments like these in your experience are examples of how you can use the areas of sound and smell to elevate and improve your experience. 

Here are a few key moments in the discussion:

 

• 03:39 Faure-Field shares how your hold music at the call center can affect the Customer Experience more than you think.
• 05:11 Faure-Field shares how music reflects the brand personality that you want to show your customers.
• 10:24 We hear how Faure-Field’s team attacks sound design for a brand and examples of what worked for some of his company’s clients.
• 24:19 Faure-Field describes the types of scents they use to manage customer behavior and how they work together to create atmospheres.
• 26:09 We hear how a casinos in Singapore let their customers enjoy a cigarette while gambling without letting the environment go up in smoke.
• 31:47 Faure-Field explains how you can combine scents with opposing effects on customer behavior to provide an elevated experience.
• 34:10 We share our advice on how you can apply these concepts to your own Customer Experiences with any type of budget. 

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

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