At Mythology, one of our pillars is "Surprise", defined as unexpected value (emotional and/or functional) that exceeds expectations and builds into a dependence that customers won't be able to live without.
Apple Computer has a history of surprising and delighting their customers with innovation. Singapore Airlines continually surprises fliers with their level of service.
In fact, you could argue that when a company is unable to find new ways to surprise customers (in a positive way, of course), their era of dominance is over. In that way, Surprise and Innovation are quite similar.
However, surprise does not have to rest on the next breakthrough technology. It does not have to be expensive. It just has to exceed expectations. It is in the over-delivering that loyalty and advocacy are built, which in turn builds the ever-elusive positive word-of-mouth.
One of the easiest ways to creatively identify opportunities to surprise and delight customers is to map out the customer experience. A customer experience map enables your team to walk in the customer's shoes from the moment they learn about your product/service to the final act of consumption (and customer support, if that applies to your situation). NOTE: Forrester has an on-demand web conference on the topic of customer experience process if you're interested, and here are some free insights from Forrester.
Where could your organization sneak in extra value in the pre- or post-sale process?
Emotional value is often over-looked in these scenarios. Most firms assume that the extra value has to be a new function, which can often be expensive. The folks at Mini are experts at building in emotional value through their pre- and post-sale efforts, making their customers feel smart, witty and more fun in the process. Starbucks infuses emotional value in their customer experience, to the point of putting thought-provoking quotes on their coffee cups.
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