Tell me about it.
The last elevator ride you had. Where was it? Was it awesome? Don’t remember? OK, then tell me about the best experience you had in the grocery store.
If that’s difficult, tell me about the best thing you read online this week.
Still having trouble? If so, I understand.
It can be kind of tough to pull up experiences like these. Although these are activities we do all the time, it can be hard to pick out an experience that sticks out in our minds, because so many of them are blah blah. Nothing special. Forgettable.
And let’s face it, when something is forgettable, we’re not exactly shouting from the mountaintops about how awesome it is and how much we love it. Really, when was the last time you heard your friends gushing about how much they liked that guy or girl who’s name they couldn’t remember?
I’m guessing never. Because there just isn’t much to say. There isn’t anything worth remarking about.
When something is forgettable, there’s no real reason to go back, or even to give it a second thought. And why would you? The rewards for doing so can’t be that great. As a result, customers aren’t loyal to the forgettable.
So what do you do? How do you ensure your business isn’t forgettable? How do you make sure your customers don’t have an indifferent attitude about the things you give them?
For the answer, let’s take a short ride.
The best one ever
When you see there’s a camera on you, what do you do? Strike a pose? Cover your face? Kiss the person next to you? Those are just some of the things people do when they realize someone is ready to capture their image.
When I noticed there were multiple cameras on me, and the images they were taking were projected on the wall of the elevator, I responded in the only way that seemed reasonable.
I struck a pose. I gave good face. I had my own personal photo shoot. All within the confines of that elevator. It happened on my ride from the lobby up to my room on the 5th floor. And not just once. Every time I got in that elevator! It was at the W Hotel in Los Angeles-Westwood. That elevator is the best one I’ve ever been in. Hands down. No doubt about it.
Next time I need to go to L.A. where do you think I want to stay? The W Hotel in Westwood! I’ve stayed there twice already, and haven’t yet had enough. I’ve got another photo shoot to do. 🙂
And why wouldn’t I want to go back? The W Hotel paid attention to all the details. The big details for sure. The room was great, the staff was lovely, and the bar was cool. But they didn’t stop there. They took special care in tending to the small details as well. Those are what made my stay with them a delight. Those are the details that made my experience with them unforgettable.
How to command the attention of the world
Remember, lesson one in this series was all about you investing your time working on increasing your awesome game. Investing the time to ooze so much awesome that your customers trip over themselves for the chance to work with you.
That’s imperative to make you irresistible to your customers. It’s what makes them want to be your customer.
But once your customers actually do choose you, if you want to get them to love you, you’ve got to deliver on the goods. You’ve got to delight them. You’ve got to give them a fabulous experience in all aspects of your business.
That’s what the W Hotel did.
Yes, they solved my primary need of comfortable, clean lodging for a few nights while I was away from home. A million hotels could have done that.
But that X-factor that set them apart and will make me remember them for always was their attention to detail. Their meticulous focus on making every aspect of my stay memorable, comfortable, and enjoyable for me as a guest. The paid attention to even with the most mundane of tasks, like riding an elevator.
George Washington Carver totally nailed it with this sentiment:
“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”
Because the W Hotel made my experience with something very common, uncommon, they made it so I couldn’t not pay attention to them. They made it so I couldn’t forget them.
Think about it. How many elevators have you ridden in your day? Too many to count I’m sure. All of my elevator experiences are are totally forgettable. Except that one.
But when you’re able to shake things up, and make something as ho-hum as riding an elevator an experience that makes you want to get in again and again, that’s when you’re on to something. That’s when you’re creating an experience that delights your customers. That’s what’s gonna make them come back for another dose of what you got. That’s what’s gonna get them to tell their friends about it (like I am with you now).
How to kick forgettable to the curb
Being unforgettable takes work. And planning. And effort.
So don’t take for granted that everyone is just going to automatically love all the things you do. To be unforgettable and do awesome things, you’ve got to think first about how to make the common, uncommon. And then you’ve got to plan for how to make it happen.
To create that rock-star elevator experience, there were probably a group of people at W Hotel headquarters who sat around thinking about all the different places their customers went and how they experienced the hotel. And once they had that list, they had to spend some time brainstorming how they could make every aspect of that experience memorable.
In your quest to make the experience your customers have with you a delightful one, ditch the standard way of doing things. You’ve got to be uncommon. You’ve gotta shake things up a bit. Reject doing things the way everyone expects them to be done.
That’s when you’ll stand out. That’s when your customers take notice. That’s what will spark them to want more doses of what you got. Something they can’t get anywhere else.
So the question for you is, what is it about your business and your products that’s unforgettable? How are you being and doing awesome to the point that it’s noteworthy for your customers?
Think about it, and let me know.
And if you need some ideas to jumpstart your thinking, I’ve got your back. Here are 26 ways you can be awesome, do awesome, and make it so your customers will never forget you.
Check them out, and then send me a note to tell me which you’ll implement in your business (or already have used).
