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It's Only Common Sense: It's the Experience, Stupid!

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading..Customers think they want our products or services. They think they want us to deliver good products on time. They think they want good quality, a great price or a great value, when they want it and how they want it. They think that if they can get these things from a vendor, they will have everything they want and that all will be right with the world.

To a certain extent, they're correct, and it is our job to give them these things. But, in the end, these things will not make them happy. There is one thing that will delight them, that will send them running down the street excitedly telling everyone how great your company is: The experience itself.

Experience is that intangible that can make the difference between a good vendor and a great vendor. It's that certain je ne sais quoi that makes Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, Disney, and Apple the super great companies they are when it comes to delighting customers.

It is the delightful experience of doing business with your company that will motivate buyers to actually pay more just for the delightful experience of doing business with you--even if you're selling the very same product with the very same quality and delivery as the other guy. In the end, it's always the experience of doing business with a company that wins out.

What is experience? It's made up of all those intangibles you do for customers. It’s those small but extremely important things you do that a customer does not even realize you are doing until he does not get them anymore. These things are priceless--the things people cannot buy at any price, from anyone else, but they really value (to borrow from Seth Godin).

Here's a list of the intangibles listed on one of Seth’s blogs from his new book, Watcha Gonna Do with That Duck?:

• Participation: Brainstorm with the customer about how you can work together to create the thing they need. Participation is priceless. After all, if all you’re doing is meeting my spec, why exactly should you be rewarded?
• Enthusiasm: You’d be amazed at how much people value enthusiasm. Genuine transparent enthusiasm about the project you’re working on.
• Speed: Don’t forget speed. If you are overwhelmingly faster than the alternatives, what’s that worth? For some people, more than you can imagine.”
• Focus: Focus and personal service are invaluable.
• Generosity: Generosity is remembered for a long time. People remember what you did for them when you didn’t have to do a thing, when you weren’t looking for new business, when it was expensive or costly for you to do it.
• Peer Pressure: Peer pressure is another silent intangible. What will my friends think if I choose you? What if I don’t choose you? Is it fashionable to pay a lot? How hard are you working to establish a connection across your market so that choosing you is the right thing to do, regardless of the price?
• Hope: Hope is probably the biggest. Hope. Do you offer hope for something really big in the future? Maybe it is just around the corner, but perhaps in the long run. What does it look and feel like? Are you drawing a vivid picture?

And there is one more, one that I feel in our business is the most important intangible of all: How you handle things when you mess up or make an error. A mistake actually means a huge opportunity to deliver a great customer experience, especially in a business-to-business setting.

If you examine the relationship you have with your very best customer, I can guarantee that somewhere along the line you've had a problem with that customer’s product and the way you handled the situation is what formulated the great relationship you have with that customer today. Great business relationships are often forged this way.

If you want to be a great company, a company that customers brag about, just delivering good product on time is not enough. You must deal with these intangibles and give your customers a great experience they won’t want to live without. You must be priceless. It’s only common sense.