Successful marketing is more than just a great visual advert or a hard hitting radio advert. Attracting and retaining customers is all about the total experience of dealing with your business. That’s why it is important to stimulate all five of your customers’ senses every time they come into contact with your business.
Car companies recognise this and do it well. When you are in the market for a new car, you start by entering the sparkling, modern showroom packed with their best, buffed vehicles – that’s the visual appeal. You walk up to one of the cars on show and lean through the open window to take in that inviting scent of a fresh, new car – that’s the smell. Next the salesman comes over, opens the car door and invites you to sit inside. You sit back in the plush leather seat and wrap your hands around the steering wheel – now you are experiencing the touch. The salesman starts up the engine so that you can hear the purring of the V6 motor and turns on the integrated, six speaker music system – now you’ve experienced the sound. Finally, you are invited into the office to enjoy a freshly brewed cup of coffee and discuss the attractive finance options – so there’s the taste.
Whether you decide to buy the car or not, you will remember the customer experience you had for a long time as all of your five senses were stimulated. It works the same as well in reverse, though. Just imagine what your experience would be like if the showroom was old and dusty, the place smelt musty and the tea tasted like dishwater.
So take a look at your business and how you interact with your customers’ senses. Do you have soft, welcoming music playing in your office or shop? Do you have mints or chocolates at reception when customers arrive? Is your signage, brochures and website modern and visually appealing? Do you have a fresh, newly cleaned office smell or, if not, do you burn some relaxing incense?
Create a total customer experience and you’ll have them coming back for more – it really does make a lot of sense.
Tony Eades is the creative director for BrandManager and DesignShop, Australia’s fastest growing online design and print solution provider. He is a business marketing expert, with more than 20 years experience in design, advertising and client media campaigns.
Photo: peasap (flickr)
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View Comments
Michel Hogan
June 17th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Great point.
I would take it one step further. Align your customer experience across your organisation and make sure it is an authentic reflection of your Brand. Anything less leaves you at risk that customers will get mixed messages. For example service firms in particular totally forget that you can be great in person but if your contracts require a translator and your billing practices would make the CIA proud then you’ve just undone all the ground you made.
Think about the whole chain of customer experience, not just the obvious things.
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