Introduction
The most important thing a business owner can do is to surprise and delight their customers. Surprising and delighting customers is the best way to build a loyal customer base and differentiate oneself from competitors (Kim & Park, 2019). It creates an emotional connection between the company and the customers, which makes them feel valued and appreciated. In addition, surprising and delighting customers is a great way to increase sales by helping the business build trust with potential customers (Weinstein, 2020).
When people feel valued by the business, they are more likely to want to purchase from them again. For example, when they order a hamburger, they get a free milkshake. Or when they buy a new pair of shoes from the store, one can throw in a free hat. It is about making them feel they are getting more than they paid.
Delighted customers are happy because their expectations were exceeded. Therefore, businesses must constantly be innovative; new ideas are essential to staying relevant. A business that comes up with a product or service that genuinely delights its customers will certainly see a boost in their success. One crucial part of the article that this paper is based on is how explaining the reason for a surprise impacts the experience and increases customer delight.
Discussion
A surprise and delight strategy is a marketing approach that aims to create a positive emotional response from customers by exceeding their expectations. This strategy has become increasingly popular in recent years as companies recognize the importance of customer experience in driving loyalty and advocacy. Further, a customer experience management technique aims to create lasting customer relationships by surprising them with unexpected gifts, gestures, or actions (Gyung Kim & Mattila, 2013).
The strategy is based on the theory of reciprocity, which states that people feel obliged to give back after receiving something from someone else. This explains why many companies focus on giving away free stuff to their customers as one of their strategies for building a solid relationship with them. Surprise and delight can be seen as positive reinforcement, encouraging customers to continue engaging with your brand because they feel appreciated and valued.
Advantages of the Surprise and Delight Strategy
Surprise and delight can be used in many ways to improve customer experience. First, the strategy creates a memorable and positive interaction with the brand. According to a study by Parasuraman et al. (2021), customers with a positive emotional experience with a brand are 80% more likely to return and recommend the brand to others. By creating a surprise and delight moment, a company can leave a lasting impression on its customers, leading to increased loyalty and advocacy.
In addition, it fosters a sense of emotional connection between the customer and the brand. According to research by Luo et al. (2019), customers who have an emotional connection with a brand have stronger loyalty and are more likely to forgive the brand for mistakes. A company can tap into the customer’s emotions and create a stronger bond by creating a surprise and delight moment, increasing loyalty and advocacy.
Finally, this strategy can contribute to the customer experience by creating a sense of differentiation from competitors. Companies creating a unique and memorable customer experience in a crowded market are likelier to stand out and attract repeat business (Kim & Park, 2019). Companies can differentiate themselves from competitors by offering surprise and delight moments and creating a competitive advantage.
A surprise and delight strategy can be applied to multiple elements of the Customer Experience (CX) framework to impact the customers positively. It helps to create a memorable experience that exceeds customers’ expectations and reinforces their loyalty. Customer Experience is about how customers feel due to every interaction with an organization.
Emotional Drivers of the CX Academy Framework
Organizations must understand and recognize these feelings to deliver CX Excellence and engage with customers emotionally. The CX Academy Framework is made up of six Emotional Drivers. These six Emotional Drivers in The CX Academy Framework enable companies to build emotional bonds with customers and create deeper relationships between the customer and the company to deliver CX Excellence.
I Trust You
First, a surprise and delight strategy can strengthen the I Trust You driver. This emotional driver is about demonstrating that the company values customers and cares about them. It happens when a company surpasses expectations to ensure customers trust its products or services. Offering loyal customers a personalized gift or service for their birthday can help build trust and strengthen their bond with them (Kim & Park, 2019). Also, this emotional driver can be linked to the explanation in the article. Explaining to customers why they have given them something extra can build more trust.
You Know Me
Second, the You Know Me driver can be reinforced by personalizing the customer experience with a surprise and delight approach. A company can gather information about customers’ preferences and offer personalized recommendations or promotions, demonstrating that they know their customers and value their shopping preferences (Parasuraman et al., 2021). Customers want to feel like they understand their needs and wants and have thought of something they might not have even realized they needed or wanted.
You Make It Easy
Third, the You Make It Easy driver can be enhanced by streamlining the customer experience using a surprise and delight approach. This emotional driver is about understanding where and how you can make things easy and reduce customer effort. A company can offer a complimentary service, such as free shipping or gift wrapping, to create a hassle-free experience that saves customers time and effort.
You Get Me
Fourth, the You Get Me driver can be reinforced by a surprise and delight approach that tailors the experience to customers’ emotions and values. Offering a surprise gift or service, such as a free ticket to an event they want to attend, can create a connection with customers on an emotional level (Karaağaoğlu & Çiçek, 2019). However, surprising customers is not necessarily about giving them something extra. It could be about the way one treats them. For example, if there is a long queue and a mom is there with a crying baby, a staff member could help her get her order done faster.
You Deliver on Your Promise
Fifth, the You Deliver on Your Promise driver means that customers want companies to manage, meet, and exceed their expectations. Understanding customer expectations is a challenge as they continually rise and change as customers compare their most recent experiences across all the companies they deal with. However, this driver helps deliver surprising and delightful experiences that make customers feel appreciated and confident in the brand (Koetz, 2019). Surprising customers increase delight, but the company may not want the surprise to become the expected level of service from the company; this is not sustainable for companies. Offering explanations for infrequent surprises can help manage customer expectations.
You Fix Things
Lastly, the You Fix Things driver is about going the extra mile to fix things when they go wrong. This driver has been used successfully by companies like Apple and Amazon, who have succeeded in creating products that people did not even know they needed and then sold millions of them (Parasuraman et al., 2021). A customized gift or gratitude may convert a bad experience into a good one and establish loyal consumers, thus enhancing the driver. Ultimately, customers should be delighted by surpassing expectations and feeling special. The strategy might encourage repeat business or reward loyal consumers. Companies that use surprise and delight strategies provide free shipping, expedited shipping, or gift wrapping at no additional cost to the customer (Karaağaoğlu & Çiçek, 2019).
Disadvantages of the Surprise and Delight Strategy
However, one of the most significant pitfalls of a surprise and delight strategy is the possibility of inconsistency in the delivery of customer experiences. Customers may lose confidence if the procedure is not consistently used; thus, loyalty and brand reputation may suffer (Gyung Kim & Mattila, 2013). Companies should provide clear instructions on when and how to utilize surprise and pleasure to avoid this problem.
The strategy may sometimes increase expenditures; it generally entails giving away or adding items or services that might hurt a company’s bottom line (Kim & Park, 2019). Companies should use budget limitations or other methods to avoid overspending on surprise and delight approaches.
A third pitfall of a surprise and delight strategy is that it can be challenging to sustain over time. Customers may become accustomed to receiving the same rewards or special treatment, decreasing the strategy’s effectiveness (Koetz, 2019). Companies should regularly review and refresh their surprise and delight tactics to mitigate this pitfall and ensure they remain effective and engaging for customers. For example, Delta Airlines’ surprise and delight strategy has successfully created customer loyalty.
However, a pitfall of this strategy was inconsistency in delivering the experience. Delta established guidelines for their employees on when and how to use surprise and delight tactics to mitigate this (Karaağaoğlu & Çiçek, 2019). Additionally, they implemented a budget cap for surprise and delight tactics to address the cost pitfall (Weinstein, 2020). According to Weinstein (2020), the explanation can be an excellent way to mitigate raising customer expectations; the author also showed that it increased client delight.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when businesses and customers work together, good things happen. Customers are happier with the products they purchase, and the companies make more money because of the increased satisfaction. With so much to be gained from fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between these two parties, it is no wonder companies spend so much time trying to do what they can to keep their customers happy. Everybody loves a great surprise, whether as a grand gesture or a freebie like a birthday candle on their ice cream. Going above and beyond to delight customers can be easier and less expensive than one might think. Companies should consider surprising their customers with extra value, such as putting extra touches that go above and beyond standard customer service. However, companies should also be careful not to do this constantly as it raises customer expectations. It should be done in a studied matter, and it should be done very frequently.
References
Gyung Kim, M., & S. Mattila, A. (2013). Does a surprise strategy need words? The effect of explanations for a surprise strategy on customer delight and expectations. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(5), 361-370. Web.
Karaağaoğlu, N., & Çiçek, M. (2019). An evaluation of digital marketing applications in airline sector. Journal of Human Sciences, 16(2), 606-619. Web.
Kim, M. J., & Park, C. J. (2019). Does customer delight matter in the customer satisfaction-loyalty linkage?The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics, and Business, 6(3), 235-245. Web.
Koetz, C. (2019). Managing the customer experience: a beauty retailer deploys all tactics. Journal of Business Strategy, 40(1), 10-17. Web.
Luo, C. C., Wang, Y. C., & Tai, Y. F. (2019). Effective training methods for fostering exceptional service employees.Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 2(4), 469-488. Web.
Parasuraman, A., Ball, J., Aksoy, L., Keiningham, T. L., & Zaki, M. (2021). More than a feeling? Toward a theory of customer delight. Journal of Service Management, 32(1), 1-26. Web.
Weinstein, A. (2020). Creating superior customer value in the now economy. Journal of Creating Value, 6(1), 20-33. Web.