The other day I flew back to Sydney from New York and just as I was dreaming of unicorns, rainbows and shooting stars, someone suddenly jolted me out of my sleep by yanking my seat up.
'It's dinner time,' the flight attendant said. 'Brilliant' I thought, I'd much rather hang out with my unicorns.
But seriously, he could have tapped me on the shoulder rather than abruptly waking me as if there was an emergency (wow, I sound like a total princess here! It's not that I was dreaming of being kissed awake by a prince. Or maybe I was?). Airlines are an interesting business to study and since I fly a lot I see many differences between airlines. The level of service varies so much between them and most have the consistency thing figured out, they are either consistently bad or consistently excellent. I won't name and shame.
The thing is that it doesn't take a lot more effort to provide an outstanding customer experience. But it does leave a lasting impression and people will most likely talk about you and your business. They also talk if the experience is bad! Even more so. And it's so easy for people to share their experiences with the whole world thanks to social media. This is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to step up and shine. You don't need a huge budget to be seen and for others to spread your message, you need an outstanding experience, one that is remarkable and worth talking about.
So let's take the 's' out of 's***' and create positively memorable experiences that make people talk. Hit experiences (sorry, couldn't come up with a better word, but you get what I mean).
From greeting people with a big smile when they enter your business (even if you don't feel like smiling), to sending your clients surprise postcards in the mail to remembering someone's name. It's all in the details. And as entrepreneurs we have to pay attention to them if we want to get noticed and be seen.
So here is a small challenge for you, look at your own business and brainstorm ideas on how you can provide even more 'hit' moments for your clients every single day. What areas of your business can be improved?
At Basic Bananas we have a team meeting every Friday (I admit it, I'm not a big fan of meetings but this one I love) where we celebrate the week and discuss one aspect of the business that can be improved to create even more awesomeness for our business community. Maybe you could do the same in your business?
Let me know your ideas, I'm sure together we can come up with some brilliance and lift the entrepreneurial game. It's the entrepreneurs that invest in providing outstanding experiences that will always be at the helm.