I had just entered an airport after turning in my rental car when I heard someone running up behind me, shouting “Mr. Bingham! Wait!” I turned around, wondering what could possibly be so important that someone was running and calling my name. The Avis agent, clearly out of breath, handed me my cell phone that I had mistakenly left plugged into the car. I thanked him profusely–this could’ve been a huge disaster, with all my contacts, calendar, and email missing I’d have been in deep trouble. I tried to tip him for his efforts, but he refused.
So many people believe that loyalty can only be created by “surprise.” In other words, loyalty is engendered through a constantly escalating series of unexpected “above-and-beyond” experiences. This notion is erroneous and hugely dangerous. Customers don’t need to be “surprised” at every turn, and trying to do so rapidly creates an unreachable and unprofitable standard.
I was “surprised” by this Avis agent going above and beyond the minimum required of him, but in truth, he was not trying to surprise me, he was instead treating me like I would want to be treated. Despite being a perfect stranger, he treated me like a best friend would, knowing how important my cell phone is to me as a lifeline to my customers, my business, and my family. Avis did a fantastic job of treating me the way that I want to be treated. National Car Rental did similarly well until they sent me a follow-up notice that I talked about on my customer strategy blog at curtisbingham.com.
Customers need to have their basic needs met in spades. The product must function as advertised, it must be delivered, installed, and maintained as advertised. These are the building blocks of satisfaction. However, to engender loyalty, a company must know their customers well enough to understand and anticipate higher-order needs and desires. Companies must be able to treat increasingly smaller customer segments the way they want to be treated. The surprise may come as a side-effect (“Gee, how did you know that I was struggling with this problem?”), but it shouldn’t be the primary goal and desired outcome.
Consumer-package goods companies used promotions and coupons to drive behavior and in so doing have trained their customers to only purchase if something is on sale. They’ve commoditized their own products. In the same way, seeking solely to surprise is a sure way to commoditize your service. You train people to raise their expectations and soon what was once surprising becomes commonplace. It becomes more costly at every turn to address outrageous and unnecessary expectations in this game of one-upmanship. No, you need to simply treat them the way they want to be treated–as though you were a best friend looking out for them. Your customer strategy must involve understanding your customer segments’ needs at an increasingly granular level and meeting stated or anticipated needs. Let the surprise come from sometimes knowing more about the customers than they know about themselves.
What do you think? Can loyalty only be created through "surprise"?