Creating a good buying experience will make your customers come back to you over and over. If your customers are happy with their purchases and their overall experience, you’ll have no problem getting them to buy other products and services from you in the future.
But if their experience was bad, they’ll most likely never come back.
In the list-rental business, whenever I rent a list for one of my private clients, I’m always looking for lists that have very similar characteristics as my client’s current buyers. For example, if I’m selling software to event planners, my ideal list would be made of up event planners who have purchased something through the mail. Even better, would be event planners who have purchased software through the mail.
This type of list selection works because in MOST cases, if people have raised their hands and said, “I’ll buy xyz through the mail,” there is a good chance they’ll do it again.
It’s interesting, however; there is one niche that I do a lot of mailings in where this method does not work. In the real estate niche, I’ve found that offering a real estate offer to a group of prospects that have purchased a real estate course from someone else, will not work.
WHY? In most cases the buying experience was NOT a pleasant one. There are a ton of real estate offers out there and unfortunately many of them do not work. Many of the prospects on those lists have lost money or wasted a ton of time because the product they purchased was not very good.
Bad experience equals customers who will become non-responsive.
If you want your customers to purchase from you again and again and again, then you need to create a wonderful buying experience. And whenever you think about creating a great experience for your customers, you would do well to consider the extent that the Disney people go to for their customers.
The Disney Way
I recently took my family to Disneyland. We spent the week going on rides, watching shows, and having a blast. I know we’ll be back because we had a great experience.
Disney goes all out to make your experience perfect, even down to their call center. When I called Disney to make our hotel reservations and get our tickets, the sales representative was outstanding! She was extremely well trained and knew how to sell, upsell, and give me a taste of the Disney Experience immediately.
For example, when she was confirming the spelling of names and addresses she didn’t simply say, “P for Paul,” “C for Craig,” “I for Isaac.” Instead, she said, “P for Peter Pan”, “C for Cinderella”, “I for Indiana Jones’ Great Adventure.” Every letter was linked to a Disney character, ride, or theme.
She also did a great job pitching things to do in Disneyland as I was making the reservation. She’d say things like, “Make sure to visit the new Cars Land. They have ….” Then she’d tell me all about specific rides, special places to eat, and locations to get the best souvenirs.
How can you make YOUR customers’ buying experience like going to Disneyland?
Disney’s detail may seem out of reach for your business. You may think you don’t have the time or resources to put into improving your customers’ buying experience. I say, you can’t afford not too!
Of course I don’t expect you to rent a theme park or train your sales staff to say, “R for Root Canal,” “C for Crown,” “P for Payment Plan” … this obviously will not work for all businesses.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative. Have your sales people call your customers by their names. Give a small free sample with a purchase.
You must be willing to go the extra mile to make sure your customers have a wonderful buying experience. If you do, they’ll be more likely to buy from you again! This will have a HUGE impact on your Customer Lifetime Value.
Put the extra effort into creating an unforgettable buyer experience. Your customers will thank you – and your bank account will too!