How to move your satisfied customers to DELIGHTED customers – a story

What do you do to delight your customers?  Your biggest opportunity to delight comes when you do something totally unexpected.

Today I want to share a story about doing that for one of my clients.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was working with a large telecom company in the midwest.  They had asked me to put together a custom project leadership curriculum for their enterprise project team.

The program combined

• Simple Methodology,
• Key principles to “influence without authority,”
• Actionable communication ideas, and
• Specific tools to improve projects

We started with their team, their terminology, and their processes.  I brought in some simple and memorable ideas and tools that they have already begun to use to improve their projects.

We’re also doing a follow up coaching program (calls every 2 weeks) to help reinforce the ideas from the class.

The team loves it and the leadership is very pleased with the successes that are coming from the training.

They are happy with the outcome, and so am I.  That’s enough, right?

That’s what most businesses call a success – but isn’t that what you expect when you buy a product or a service?  That it will meet your technical requirements and accomplish the goals you set for it?

Does meeting expectations bring delight?  It won’t.

I decided to do something fun with them.  While I was there I captured some photos and a little video of the class going through the program.  Just this week I worked with my intern to create a 1 minute promo video commemorating the class.  It was fun to create the video.  What was more fun was listening to my sponsor as he watched it for the first time.  It was unexpected, fun and done well.  He laughed out loud.  I could tell that I had delighted him.  I made a memory for him – and gave him something that he could share with his team and an unexpected surprise for THEM.  Here’s an example of a simple video (it’s my family at Christmas 2012.)

What can you do to delight your clients?  It doesn’t have to be expensive.  Be creative!

FYI – I’ve got a phenomenal podcast coming up soon with Joey Coleman on creating amazing, memorable customer experiences.  I can’t wait to share it with you!  Be sure to subscribe to my podcast so you won’t miss out!

Doing something fun and unexpected can yield results like this!