As marketers, we’re often so focused on the acquisition, lead, sign-up, impression, and purchase. So much work and money goes into getting someone to learn about and eventually buy a product or service but the job is barely done. What about the post-purchase relationship?
Retention marketing and customer service help keep customers coming back and happy, respectively. But someone who is thrilled or delighted by your brand can help carry the word-of-mouth beyond what we can do with any marketing approach. With many brands, the creative or unique approach that initially drove someone to choose that brand often disappears once someone has become a customer.
People are much more vocal about their negative experiences than their positive ones. So the positive experiences need to be that much more frequent and ultimately, delightful. These small moments of delight connect us deeper to a brand and spark conversations we have amongst our friends, family and co-workers. By doing so, a brand fits naturally into these exchanges, both in real life and digitally. They’ve given us the perfect platform to market their brand for them.
Dollar Shave Club
Launching with a video that went viral (10,000,000+ views and counting), Dollar Shave Club’s approach was irreverent from the very beginning. They have a great concept that solves a real customer pain point. It’s been about a year since they released that video. I’ve heard plenty about them, they’ve come up in conversation multiple times since then, and they’ve recently had a very aggressive radio campaign running. For whatever reason, I had never signed up. As a target customer of theirs, they certainly did their job when it came to reach and frequency.
A coworker stopped in my office to show me the card insert that came with his Dollar Shave Club:
We had a laugh, talked about how their sense of humor makes us have an affinity for the brand, and he proceeded to show several other people in our office.
A day later I signed up. Got my razors in no time and had a great shave with them this morning. That little card, which cost them pennies (or fractions of), was the thing that pushed me over the edge to sign up. That small moment of delight switched me from passive mode to active mode.
Warby Parker
I needed a new pair of glasses and figured I would be parting with several hundred dollars as a result. I heard about ordering frames online at a major discount but without trying them on it seemed like too risky of a proposition. Enter Warby Parker. A complete pair of prescription glasses for $99. They’ll also send you five frames at a time to try on with no obligation to buy. Free shipping to you and free return shipping. If you buy a pair, they give a pair to someone in need. After a great experience on their website I was in. When my five frames arrived to try on, they were accompanied by the following:
It just put me in the right frame of mind. I was going to have a great experience finding my new glasses. I picked my frames, received them a few days later and was a little disappointed they didn’t feel like they fit perfectly on my face. I contacted Warby Parker via email and they immediately got back to me. I could return them and they’d send me a new pair right away or I can take them to a local glasses retailer and see if they could fix them. And they’d reimburse me if the store charged me for getting them adjusted. I tried to get them adjusted locally, but when it didn’t work out I contacted Warby Parker again. They immediately got back to me again letting me know that they were already making me a new pair. Their tone in the correspondence was great, I loved my new glasses, and will be purchasing a second pair soon. I’ve posted to my Twitter feed and Instagram. I’ve probably told that story to a dozen people. I know three people who have purchased from Warby Parker as a direct result of those conversations. Warby Parker gets it.
Both of these brands have great products and deliver on their brand promise. No amount of clever marketing can circumvent a bad experience with a product that doesn’t meet your expectations. Remember, it is much less expensive to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one. So how are we, as marketers, providing small moments of delight to our customers?