Episode Recap
In this episode of the podcast, we’re taking a deep dive into some very simple and practical ways you can create a more remarkable experience for your customers in real-life.
A few recent trips to local coffee shops has me scratching my head at why they can’t provide a better overall experience for their loyal customers.
5 ways to quickly improve your real-life customer experiences.
1. Create a mood that suits your brand
We want to feel like we’re someplace special, remember that all 5 senses are at play here. What does it look like, smell like, feel like, sound like? It’s a great idea to hire a professional commercial interior designer, one with experience in your category to create the right mood. We don’t want it to be too loud and not too quiet either; it’s not a nightclub and it’s not a church.
2. Encourage communication
People come to your place because they want to talk to each other. You should encourage this by providing large open areas for social gathering and mingling, but also intimate spaces where people can talk quietly. Lots of small tables vs a few big ones is something Starbucks has done recently to provide more intimate seating.
3. Provide amazing WiFi
People come to hang out, do work, surf the web, check in on social media, etc. and there is no excuse for poor WiFi connections. It’s a utility expense like water or electric, and you should treat it as such. I’ve met with clients at coffee shops and tried to show them their new website or maybe a website I built for another client and they are ridiculously slow. It’s actually embarrassing.
4. Keep things tidy and in good working order
The entire place needs to be impeccably clean at all times. Dirty bathrooms seem to be an afterthought but they are definitely a part of a customer’s overall experience of your brand. Wobbly tables and rickety chairs are seriously uncool. Fix that stuff right away. Because wobbly tables and full cups of boiling hot coffee isn’t just an annoyance, it could be the makings of a lawsuit.
5. Hire great people
This is a huge one and is often easier said than done, but it is critical to the life of your business. Hiting great people is probably the most important factor in a customer’s experience with your brand. Remember that your people are the main contact point between your brand and your customer, in essence, they ARE your brand. A server or barista having a bad day can ruin a customer’s experience forever.
Don’t hire for experience, hire for personality. You can always train someone to do a job, it’s much bigger challenge to train someone to be a nice person, or positive, upbeat, friendly, or not a jerk. They should also wear clean clothes, they should not smell bad (cigarettes, too much patchouli, not enough patchouli [read BO]).
They should know their stuff. They are representing your brand so they should have a wealth of knowledge about your food, your coffee, the roasting process, the origin of the beans, etc.
Podcast
The Building a Remarkable Brand podcast is all about giving you valuable insights and practical tips to help you build a remarkable brand.
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