Sales Strategy
The Muffin Test: Are Your Customers’ Experiences Profoundly Remarkable? October 10, 2018 (0 comments)
New York, NY—Loyal customers buy more, buy repeatedly, and give a wider berth for mistakes. Profoundly loyal customers might even become brand advocates or walking billboards for you—think about the ones who wear a brand’s or retailer’s logo merchandise—but how do you create these intensely loyal customers?
In this article in Retail Customer Experience, author Chip Bell writes that it stems from making an emotional connection with the customer. This goes beyond mere “customer experience,” he writes—it’s about treating them like friends, not like customers.
He tells the story of going to a different bakery than his usual stop to buy a dozen muffins for a meeting. The associate asked which one he was going to eat. “I have no idea,” he replied.
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked. When he responded that it was purple, she whipped out a purple candle and stuck it into a muffin.
“That’s yours,” she said. “Make your day glorious!”
Since then, Bell has told the story many times and become a loyal patron of the new bakery. That, he said, is the difference between providing a good customer experience and creating a profoundly remarkable one.
Top image: iStockPhoto via RetailCustomerExperience.com