“When return on investment is measured by delight instead of sales or conversions, there
is a lot more freedom to be creative, to be bold, or maybe even to be creative and bold.”
Lain Shakespeare, Nonprofit Brand Manager at MailChimp
The Intangibles Matter
Going the extra mile shows your client you care about them, how they experience your business and how they feel when they do business with you.
You are telling them, “I see you amid the masses...and I care about you.”
Years ago, we had an illustrative artist on staff. We tasked him to draw each of us as a cartoon that we could turn into a coloring book for the kids that came to visit. The storyline was a visit to Walden’s. I especially loved the page that showed a family in their car with the kids in the back seat holding black turtlenecks out the window, blowing in the wind. It was another layer of marketing our black and white Relationship portraits.
We eventually added a word search page and a maze. It is part of the staging we do when kids come in for a portrait-see photo above. Added to the coloring book (which is in the yellow bag) are crayons, lip balm, Smarties, a page of stickers and a handwritten note on our custom cards to them to let them know we are so excited they are coming. Everything bought from retailers such as the crayons and lip balm is labeled with our own custom stickers to that it has a cohesive effect.
Tip: When you please the kids, you have the parents!
A bakery I read about called By The Way Bakery in Hasting-on-Hudson has a rolling pin for a door handle. Even before a person steps inside, they are given a clue as to what to expect and a higher level of experience is anticipated even before they step inside.
A cupcake bakery in Colorado has a fantasy storytime each week where the owner dresses up in costume and reads to the kids who are also encouraged to dress up in a favorite costume. Each child receives a free cupcake to eat while a favorite story is read by Cinderella or Snow White:-) Creative and wonderful, this bakery creates buzz and brings customers in week after week for very little effort and expense and creates loyalty that would be difficult to beat.
Going the extra mile pays off! Customers know you care. It creates an “emotional point of difference” that no amount of money can buy.
Do people really notice these things?
YES, YES, YES!
We worked with a high volume children’s photography studio a few years ago that needed more good clients and wanted to build loyalty. One of the first things we did was advise them to purchase bubble gum soap for the restrooms and offer bottles of water to each client automatically.
Unfortunately, they decided to use cheap soap refills from the Dollar Store and never offered water to their clients unless asked-then it was brought out in a small paper cup. No cute staging was ever done. It was a very sparse and unexciting experience to go there and it felt “cheap!”.
Of course, we also worked with them on their photography and sales, but I believe the little details (they thought unimportant) they failed to do was part of what led them to eventually close.
What’s the ROI of experience? How can you measure the intangible? How many dollars can love, caring, experience and connecting with people earn?
For years, companies were not able to measure these things, but it’s a new day and with it, the realization that the things we cannot measure may just be far more valuable than we ever imagined.
It is time for a change.
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