Every product or service has some sort of experience attached to it. Everything from the initial contact, to the way the sales person talks to you, to how the ordering or purchase process takes place, to how the product or service is delivered, to how the company follows up with you and everything in between is all part of the experience.
Ever purchased a great product, but had a bad experience around it? Ever purchased a product or service, and had such a great experience it almost didn’t matter how good the product was?
I’m sure you’ve experienced both.
Apple is a great example of a company that has built an experience around their products. Buying an Apple product, an iPad, an iPhone, an iMac… it’s just plain FUN! The Apple store is different and exciting, their reps are friendly and helpful and the packaging is designed so it’s even fun to open the darn thing! The support, setup and followup is also a pleasure. Most people I use this example on are smiling at this point and saying they want to go to the Apple store now.
I have an iPad and I love my iPad, but I’m of the firm belief (uh, oh, I’m about to start a fight aren’t I?), that the Apple products aren’t proportionately better in quality than their counterparts, yet they get away with a higher price and create fanatics, in part, by the great experience tied directly into every aspect of their brand.
When it is all said and done and the product or service has been provided, what do people remember most? How they were treated… how the experience was. Take a look at the average review left for a product or service and you will find many references to the experience provided. If there any bad experiences with staff or the process, you are bound to hear about it.
Long afterwards, you remember the experience. How it made you feel and if you enjoyed it or not. I hear many many stories from people about their experiences with products or services. Some good, some bad… but overall, people talk about their experiences because that is what they remember. The trinket they bought might be long-broken and gone, but they remember how much fun it was to buy it and how friendly that woman was at the counter.
Does your client or customer have a great experience when they buy from you? What will they remember from the experience of working with you or buying one of your products? Was it enjoyable? Were you friendly? Professional? Was there something unique about the process that made it memorable? Did they have fun or learn something?
You will always sell more, retain more existing clients and get better word of mouth if you create an experience around your product. Experiences sell!
If you have not taken a look at your experience, give it a look and make sure it is memorable… in a good way! It doesn’t need to be rocket science or cost you an arm and a leg… but it does need to be different and memorable and it does need to be a process or system that you put into place and make policy.
For example…
Here at Rock Paper Simple, we strive to make every new website an experience that our clients will enjoy and remember. It’s something that one might think might be boring or disinteresting for one of our clients, but we found creative ways to keep them engaged and on-board.
We start with our energetic welcome email that takes the new client to their “Development HQ” where they are greeted with exciting copy and directed to very clear steps detailing what they can expect next so we dispel any fears, confusion or apprehension right away. We provide them with an online questionnaire form, a form to send us files directly and a scheduler to schedule phone meetings with one of our staff. We also include links to easily share that they are getting a new website on major social media platforms and graphics for them to use to share the excitement as well.
We schedule an initial planning call where we strategize about their website and how to present their messaging, call to actions and lead capture methods. We explore their brand and unique offerings to find the best way to build their website. And of course, we are always personable and pleasant.
They also continue to receive educational and fun emails from our system through-out the development process so they stay connected, learn alot and have fun even when they are waiting for us to send the next revision.
When the project is over and we deliver, we ensure everything is just right and double check they are pleased with their website. We follow up with a thank you and a small gift and finally we send them some cool business cards with their website address on them too.
We know that people remember experiences and they will pay for good experiences… so we do more than just sell websites; we sell an experience as well.
How can you make experiences sell for you?
So how can you build an experience around your brand; your product or service? Can you add some fun or education? Can you improve the pleasantness of initial contact or continued contact? Can you add a followup policy? Perhaps you can setup a series of email autoresponders? Is your website easy to use? Do you have a customer login or dashboard that makes it easy for them to engage and stay updated?
Ultimately you need to make sure the client or customer feels engaged and cared about and has a unique and enjoyable experience. If you can do that… you’ve got a happy customer who will tell others and probably buy from you again.
A final thought
One final thought on the experience you are offering your clients. How is the user experience on your website? For some of your prospects and clients, your website is where the experience with your company begins. The experience should be a good one. How does your website make people feel? Is it easy to use? Is the navigation clear and concise and can they find what they are looking for quickly? Does everything on the website work properly?
If you deliver your product or service directly through your website, it becomes even more critical that your website is designed and developed with the user experience in mind. So many parts of the customer experience are directly related to the web presence and some of the great ideas we have seen for customer experience can be creatively accomplished via an enhanced website.
Remember… experiences sell!
Oh yea… we made it! We’ve gotten through all 10 pitfalls and with plenty of time to spare… and here’s #10! 
We had a blast at the fourth annual Entrepreneurial Summer Camp sponsored by the Women’s Business Center and Junior Achievement of the Space Coast at 
Your brand is one of your single most valuable business assets. It embodies everything that your company is and how your prospects, clients, customers, peers and even your competition views you. Some brands are even worth more than the companies they are attached to!
Great! You have your brand together and are ready to get online. Now be true to that brand! The website should look, feel and read in a way that conveys your brand, your benefits, your uniqueness. If you want people to take note, you have to prove to them that you are noteworthy. If you want people to begin to identify with you and your brand, you have to be consistent.
Now here is the important part. If you take NOTHING else home with you after reading this… take this. You WILL irritate people, you WILL scare people off and you WILL rub people the wrong way if you are doing it right. Your brand and likewise, your website, should not be “all things to all people”. It should be hyper-targeted to your target demographic; to the people you want to sell to. Stop trying to make everyone happy and focus on making your ideal prospects super happy!
Case in point. In the past, I owned a company that was straight-laced. We were incredibly professional, clean and… well… boring (which is nothing like me: I’m loud, goofy and energetic). Our website was all about us, it talked about our services and we generally presented ourselves in a dry fashion that didn’t really speak to anyone. Now… we didn’t scare anyone away, but we didn’t create fans or people that were passionate or excited about our brand either. We didn’t talk about what was in it for our prospect and we didn’t identify to anyone.