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🪪 License to Delight - And what we can learn from $400 perfume. 

Twin2 is back in her "Corporate Girly Era" with Neiman Marcus and "Patrick 2" - and here's what we learned from their customer experience manager that will help you delight your own customers all the way to the bank.

Waiting up in the (fancy) corporate office of Neiman Marcus - a department store so expensive that my hands instantly got sweaty - we had a chance to speak with their CEM - Customer Experience Manager. When I mentioned that it was rather nice of a department store to throw parties for customers with custom cookies included - he said, "No one needs anything at a department store - let alone one this expensive. But what they want is to feel special. And that's what we're really good at." 

You see - Neiman's CEM had placed an order for 8 dozen or so cookies shaped like a $400 bottle of perfume (all praise Eddie the Edible Food Printer for coming in clutch). Here's Corrie's Creed cookie collab (shoutout to Darcie Heater Designs for the stencil too).

🍪 This high-end department store in the heart of Northern Virginia was givin' folks who planned to drop 💵💵💵💵 4 HUNDOS a cookie that cost around $7 (don't forget that Corporate Girly Era + rush fee + customization surcharge, kiddos). And he said they were ECSTATIC over getting this edible representation of their good-smelling investment. 

Why? ✨ Because it made them feel special. ✨

😥 How many times have you felt like a burden attempting to give your money to a business? 😞 How many times has a business left you feeling like you were robbed at the check-out line? Neiman Marcus gets it - by making their clients feel just a little ✨ special✨  spending their hard-earned money, they'll get more of that hard-earned money. 🤑

You know what Neiman doesn't do? 📉 Lower their prices to compete with the likes of Sephora or Ulta (😖 I can't believe I'm even pretending those places are affordable - but comparatively speaking). Rather than compete on price, they compete on customer experience - and they have the check-out receipts to prove it. I didn't see one "SALE" sign during my 🖐️ sweaty-hand-heist at the perfume counter (👃 hey - I absolutely had to smell what $400 was like - for those wondering, it smells like "Heather, you have to file your taxes next month - the answer is no"). 

🤔 So ask yourself this week - how do you delight your customers? We have a few ideas to build on. Heads up - it'll all sound like great marketing tips because marketing and customer relations go hand-in-hand.

• 🎀 Up your packaging game - pretty packaging equals a pretty bottom line.
• 📧 Respond quickly - set expectations with auto-responders and then follow-up as a human as quickly as possible.
• 📦 Have a forgiving return policy - makes you seem like a safe choice when it comes to things going right if they go left.
• 🚗 Throw in a few "car cookies" - probably the most "delightful" thing group members mentioned when asked how they delight their customers - a car cookie is a snack for the order-placer (who often doesn't get to taste test their gift). 
• 🗒️ Have bendable policies - but make policy exceptions. Policies are meant to protect us - but they can also make us look like the good guys when we bend them for the right kind of client. 
• 🎂 Wish them a happy birthday - a good CRM program can help you track customer "big days" and really make them think "wow - this business cares about me." 

Being delightful doesn't have to cost a lot - but it does require being intentional and always looking for wa