Everyone in my children’s school knows that the end of year trip in fourth grade is the dairy factory tour and at the end of fifth grade you go to the Coca-Cola plant. The dairy factory you can savour all the milkshakes and puddings, and at Coca-Cola, the kids can try all the drinks under the Coca-Cola brand. We can learn a lot from these branded experiences to generate repeat business.
When the kids returned from these tours, the response was euphoric compared to other visits throughout the year. They had become brand ambassadors, and I had paid for their training. Their passion for the companies lasted months, and it will be interesting to see, the subconscious impact, the experiences had on them.
The companies structured the tours in a very similar and intentional balancing the experience between a dose of education relevant to the brand and giving the kids a fun time along with enjoying the products.
Six central ideas came to mind.
1. You need to give customers an experience whatever your business might be. Don’t be confused by gizmos or fluff to provide them with an experience. Focus on giving your customers a valuable and enjoyable time.
When customers come into your business, you have a unique opportunity to create a significant lasting impact. They might not buy something, but their experience can make them ambassadors. Any experience in your business will pass on a particular sentiment. You can decide if that’s positive or negative. Either way, they’re likely to pass it on and share it. We’ll come back to this later, but let’s look at what else we can learn.
2. Companies that carry out these programs are spending a considerable budget making sure everyone is entertained and receives the brand’s communication.
3. It’s a beneficial way to allow people to get a firsthand experience of a product, hear from the company and connect with the brand in a lighthearted environment.
4. In a typical day, people see communication from many companies. Brands are jostling for greater exposure while aiming to beat the competition. These experiences allow for brands to get close up and personal for a few hours in a fun-filled environment without any other companies or brands posing opposition or diluting the impact of the communication.
5. With many hundreds of people enjoying the experience and becoming unofficial spokespeople, companies must view this approach as a fully fledged, well thought out strategy that can increase brand absorption in the market.
6. It’s clear that companies take the competition seriously and they will do anything to dictate the terms of the game from local dairy manufacturers to global brands like Coca-Cola. In fact, Coca-Cola has developed this marketing channel where they have expanded the number of museums, tours and centres around the world. That is a huge global impact and many thousands of trained brand ambassadors.
7. Not everyone has the budget for elaborate customer centres and factory tours and in many instances, financial considerations aside, it’s just not practical. There are still ways elements can be creatively integrated.
Which brings us back to the first point, the experiences we can provide to potential customers, clients and consumers.
Your direct and even indirect competition challenges all the other marketing and promotional work you might pay for, this face to face meeting has no one interfering in the exchange. The potent meeting can count for a lot positioning yourself as someone that cares enough to deliver a valuable exchange. That might translate as going out of your way to find a product that’s particularly suitable for the customer or making sure you know a lot about your products or services.
It’s the transfer of this personalised, sincere service that creates ambassadors. If you strip down all the marketing and promotional activity, it’s trying to develop a relationship and make people connect and love whatever you do.
Examples that have made an impression
One of the first experiences I had with a store with a strong customer experience was on a business trip. I had gotten to the lunch meeting early, so I was looking around in a nearby store. The salesmen were not interested in me window shopping and ended up coercing me into the store to test drive a lot of products with me. We struck a repour, and I was enjoying seeing all these products. While testing some products, a crowd formed, and the experience converted into sales. I ended up leaving with an unexpected purchase. The experience stayed with me, and I was sharing it the rest of the day.
A hardware store I use is known to treat their customers exceptionally well. They always make sure you have what you need from the choices compared to what you requested even if it costs less or they lose money. They have saved people money by assuring their customers that the product was the one they needed. Their genuine care has impressed a lot of people. They have dedicated customers who enjoy the experience and the implicit trust. People talk, and a lot of the business coming through the door is word-of-mouth. I was referred by a friend to use this store, and many of my friends have been going to the store for years. The experience has created a following and repeated business.
Downtown there is an intersection with three hotels on each of the corners. I had a series of meetings arranged and needed a business centre to conduct them. So I went to the first hotel, was rudely dealt with, and a lasting negative impression of the hotel. The second hotel just over the road treated me like royalty and allowed me to use the business centre. The business centre was only for guests, but the concierge understood my requirements gave me access. In a competitive environment, positive experiences can create long-lasting partnerships and referred business; lousy experiences are rarely forgotten.
What experience do you provide for your customers?
