This is a guest post by Stefanie Amini, Marketing Director, WalkMe

Where’s the “WOW!” That’s a common question that customers can legitimately ask when they are constantly offered a multitude of products and services which all eventually start fusing into a grey morass of look-alike, nondescript and totally uninteresting offerings that make more noise than actual viable promises.

To attract customers, company’s need to offer exceptional, stand-out, totally unique features and benefits. To make those customers leap up and cry: “I Want It and I want it NOW!” those products and services have to WOW the customer, totally off his or her feet.

When asked the meaning of “news” Mark Twain once wrote: “News is when the reader jumps to his feet and shouts: ‘Oh my God!’” Exactly the same principle applies in marketing and sales. I repeat: You have to WOW the customer.

Now let’s look at how we go about achieving this.

There are a number of elements to the “Wow”:

Among them are product excellence, service, price, relationship, ease of acquisition, delivery, back-up and knowledge…the total adding up to customer experience.

Each of these elements, and a few more besides, have to exceed the customer’s expectations, and frankly have to exceed your promises: “Promise little, deliver much…” But make sure that your promise at least follows the four main principles of good marketing – the AIDA principle:

• A – Attention: grab their attention, make them sit up and shout “Oh my God”….
• I – Interest: once the customer is over the initial excitement he has to remain interested.
• D – Desire: make him or her want the product or service so badly, they can hardly wait to implement…
• A – Action: BUY it: pick up the phone, click the “Buy Now” button; enter the store.

The customer is looking for something different, something new, something exciting and something that delivers more benefits than any other product or service: exceptions to standard policies and procedures which he or she can obtain at any one of a thousand competitive businesses.

Developing customer loyalty depends on creating ease and comfort through the purchasing cycle. Make customers feel at home, give them an outstanding customer experience. Customers are creatures of habit:make them happy and they will keep coming back for more.

Here are few tips for creating that “Wow” effect:

Ease up your procedures:

Do your standard procedures WOW customers to your brand or do they make them run for the hills? Make the procedures easier, more user friendly, fewer clicks, more understanding, more FUN.

Try to personalize the service:

Even though people have become used to disembodied voices telling them to press this number and then that one, to anonymous web site instructions guiding them here and then to the next page and then the next and then the next…if you can make this element easier, more friendly, and more personal. Customers will be more inclined to trust and accept your procedures. Use technology to enable each interaction to be personalized.

Make the brand fit the customer, not the other way round:

The essence of good marketing is to deliver the product or service that the market wants – too many companies have forgotten this time-honored and simple rule. Too many companies try to shoehorn customers into want the product delivers, rather than designing the product and its delivery methods to what customers want and understand.

Deliver care and flexibility. Are your call center teams and procedures agile enough to teams agile enough to deliver the WOW?

Seamless and trustworthy Service is another key element. Providing everything the customer needs, not just the minimum standards. Make sure customers don’t rush into contacting a call center for a relatively minor query, wait on the line and wonder what’s happening. Customers appreciate a having their needs addressed smoothly and seamlessly; and they have to feel they can trust receiving the right information – and receiving the right products. It’s about fulfilling promises.

Promising everything and delivering nothing is the quickest way to lose a customer, and to ensure that “word of mouth” destroys your reputation.

As we stated earlier, promise less, deliver more: Promise a solution and then go the extra mile to satisfy the customer and gain their appreciation: get that “WOW” response. “I ordered a set of green widgets and they promised delivery within a week – they arrived the next day AND with a Christmas card attached!” Then word of mouth will bring in new customers.

There is so much more to WOWING your customers, but one of the surest ways to make a great start is to use smart technology. WalkMe, a self-help tool that reduces the need to contact a call center, enables you to meet and greet your customers right off the bat. The minute they enter your site, they are treated like kings and queens, given all the guidance they need, walked through sometimes difficult but necessary procedures and enabled to find all the information they need, when and how they need it.

It seems to be a vital part of the customer remaining loyal.The customer experience in fact is why customers come back.If they have a great service, they won’t need anyone else.

This was a guest post by Stefanie Amini, Marketing Director, WalkMe

Stefanie Amini is the Marketing Director and Specialist in Customer Success at WalkMe, the world’s first interactive online guidance system.She is chief writer and editor of I Want It Now, a blog for Customer Service Experts. Follow her @StefWalkMe

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