5 Things a Business Should Do to Create a Wow Customer Experience

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I moved to Silicon Valley in 1998 during the first dot-com boom to work for a startup that ended up getting acquired six months later by Microsoft. I had a great couple of years at Microsoft post-acquisition, but always felt a calling in the startup world. It was from that point that my entrepreneurial journey started.

After leaving Microsoft, I led sales and marketing for companies that got acquired by Comcast and Motorola, and then co-founded my first startup in 2009, called Truedomain. It was in the email security space, and it actually helped inform what the big email providers like Google, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo! ultimately implemented with the DMARC standard. We helped shape the direction there.

I moved to Arizona in 2014, and within a couple of months, I partnered with a neurologist to co-found BeckonCall, which is a mobile on-call communication platform for doctors. We started it in 2015, and it’s still going strong with customers in about 20 different states. As that business hit its stride, that’s when I got involved with LighthousePE in late 2019.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

My biggest mistake was taking a cost accountant job right out of college. I was very strong quantitatively and did really well in math throughout school, so I naturally thought my career should revolve around numbers. But it took me all of about two weeks to figure out that I had absolutely zero passion for being an accountant. It didn’t seem funny at the time, but with the benefit of a few decades of hindsight, it just shows how much I didn’t understand what my professional passion would be.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’ve had a handful of mentors throughout my career, but I’d say the most influential was probably Jeff Barco, who I worked for at Microsoft. He helped me develop the confidence to strike out on my own down the entrepreneurial path.

Jeff was one of the first people to bet on me and put me into a position that was maybe a little bigger than my experience might have warranted at that point. That was both a little scary and incredibly motivating, so I took advantage of that opportunity to demonstrate what I knew I was capable of. His mentorship and that experience are what encouraged me to start down the entrepreneurial path.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

I truly believe it boils down to one fundamental reason: with few exceptions, there are alternatives to any product or service. Unless you’re a monopoly or the government, other companies can offer what you offer to your customers.

This is a philosophy that I learned from my dad growing up, and it stuck with me. After retiring from flying fighters in the military, he became a commercial airline pilot and ultimately an executive for multiple carriers. I remember him always saying that the biggest mistake carriers make is thinking they’re in the transportation business. And despite the fact that they make money moving people and things from point A to point B, they’re not. They’re in the customer service business. Southwest Airlines is the perfect example of a company creating massive success in a highly competitive commodity business by maintaining a relentless focus on providing the best customer experience.

I think that applies to any company, regardless of what product or service your company sells or how you make money. Customer experience is the biggest factor in separating the winners from the losers, and it’s what builds loyalty and turns customers into brand advocates.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

I believe it really comes back to the leadership of the company. They must make an effort to engrain customer experience from top to bottom within the organization as something inseparable from the product or service itself.

Back to the airline analogy — in the aftermath of deregulation, Herb Kelleher built Southwest entirely around a mission to make it easy and enjoyable for anyone to fly. Yes, low fares were a part of that, but the enjoyment and experience has always been what sets Southwest apart. In the almost 50 years Kelleher led the company, it never had an unprofitable year. Airlines used to go bankrupt all the time, but Southwest always made money.

There is no shortage of examples of how companies across the spectrum disrupt the status quo and become market leaders with the same commitment to customer experience — Apple, Netflix, Hubspot, Starbucks, Amazon…the list goes on. The takeaway here is that customer experience has to be an integral part of whatever it is you’re trying to sell.

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

I think competition is far and away the most powerful external force in driving the customer experience.

You could look at regulatory pressures as something else that will influence or force focus on customer experience. Healthcare is a great example of this, where readmission rates at hospitals are a huge factor in determining their reimbursement rates from the insurance carriers. That’s a different kind of customer experience, but it’s customer experience nonetheless. That regulatory pressure has forced organizations and providers across healthcare to take a hard look at the patient experience and start to prioritize it.

I think any regulated industry has elements of that, but in terms of external forces, competition is by far the biggest forcing function.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

The mission of LighthousePE is to help businesses create those ‘Wow’ customer experiences every day, so there are a lot of examples to choose from. One of our customers Ella Bliss Beauty Bar, a Colorado-based chain of salons and spas, created a promotion that targets people coming and going from Denver International Airport. Because our technology can track patterns in location data when consumers opt-in, we’re able to identify when someone returns home from a flight. Based on that data, we’ll send a signal through Ella Bliss’ mobile app to that weary traveler with a message along the lines of “Air travel can be stressful. Why don’t you come in for a massage within the next week and your hot stone upgrade is on us!”

So it’s a ‘wow’ both in that Ella Bliss is able to engage their customers with an offer that’s very timely and relevant to what they’re doing, and also in a way that shows they understand what that specific client wants. The client is ‘wowed’ because Ella Bliss is speaking directly to their preferences, and Ella Bliss is ‘wowed’ because it’s consistently an extremely successful campaign.

It’s worth noting here that unlike what we’re seeing with the increasing scrutiny around consumer privacy with things like cross-app tracking and 3rd party cookies, we routinely see upwards of two-thirds to three-quarters of our customers’ app users opt-in to receiving notifications and sharing location data. They do this for two reasons. One, because it’s made in the context of trust with only that specific brand, and second, because they know they’re going to receive value in return. That’s also an important ingredient in consistently delivering the Wow.

Did that Wow! experience have any long term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Absolutely. But that’s just one of many examples of how we help Ella Bliss deliver the Wow customer experience day in, day out. Since we partnered with them, they’ve been able to cut attrition in their subscription membership program in half, and keep their appointment schedules booked with similar types of signals that target clients based on things like past service history, current location and time since last visit. Conversion rates from their clients have consistently outperformed all other marketing channels. This has been incredibly powerful in the post-pandemic rebound because they’ve been able to attain revenue and utilization targets much faster than their competitors. They’ll be announcing some exciting new growth plans shortly, and it’s a fantastic testament to the role that LighthousePE played in helping them achieve that growth.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Show you know your customer. This is so foundational, but in many ways it has been overshadowed in digital by the quest to create flywheels of high volume frictionless transactions. ‘Old school’ businesses have to embrace this to survive and thrive. For instance, my dry cleaner knows me by name and I rarely have to order anymore at our favorite sushi restaurant — … the right food just comes out. Lower prices or one-time promos aren’t going to get me to switch. ‘Batch and blast’ broadcast tactics have their place in the digital marketing toolbox, but they’ll never deliver the Wow. The technology exists to replicate that kind of ‘old school’ 1:1 engagement in digital and at scale, so use it.
2. Always deliver value. All marketing is an interruption at some level. If you’re going to ask for someone’s attention, then you had better be delivering value along with the interruption. That value could take the form of anything from helpful information to a timely and relevant offer to a simple ‘Thank you for being our customer.’ It doesn’t end with the marketing message, though. Ultimately what you deliver to your customer has to be as good or better than what you’ve promised, otherwise, you get the opposite of Wow. If you’re already on top of #1 above, then this is easy(ier).
3. Don’t be annoying. This is what happens when you’re not doing a good job with #2. With all marketing — and especially when we’re talking about interruptions like SMS or mobile push notifications — there’s a not-so-fine line between a useful nudge and annoying the customer. I don’t need a push notification every time I’m within 50 yards of a coffee shop (are you listening Starbucks?), but I’d love a prompt for my favorite grande flat white at the price of a tall when the temp drops below freezing in my neighborhood.
4. Ask for feedback. I see so few companies do this consistently well. If you’re not asking your customers what they think about their experience, you’re always going to be guessing. I think so many leaders — and especially early stage entrepreneurs who are trying to create momentum — don’t do this because they’re afraid of what the answers might be. This is the exact opposite of the correct mindset. Feedback is so critical, not only when things go wrong, but also in helping understanding when and why things go right. Having that first-person perspective from your customers is the only way to consistently deliver the Wow.
5. Be authentically generous. In my mind, generosity is fundamental to delivering the Wow, and I’m not only talking about dollars and cents. Generosity can take many other forms, from exuding an attitude of welcome and gratitude to your customers for giving you their business (Southwest Airlines), to investing as much time and attention as necessary to resolve questions or concerns your customers might have (Apple Genius Bar), or by consistently sharing useful information and best practices to help your customers get the most out of your product (Hubspot). None of these cost your customers a penny, but all will build strong loyalty and create customers for life.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

Creating that Wow experience is the most important first step. If you don’t do that, then nothing else you do will matter.

The less expected that Wow experience is, the more likely it is that a person will take it upon themselves to share about it. That Wow could be in the form of a perfect offer the customer didn’t even know they wanted, like the massage after a long flight. It could be, after something went horribly wrong, your customer support team was incredible and solved the problem. Or better yet, that the team recognized an issue before it became a problem and communicated to the customer how it was being corrected before they were even aware of it.

From there, make it easy for your customers to share their experiences. That might be features built into the app or software that make it easy for them to amplify messages. Or it could be by giving them incentives to share. Provide a coupon when a customer refers five friends or buys a product and posts about it on Twitter or Facebook.

The important point is, though, none of this will work if there’s not that genuine Wow to begin with.

My particular expertise is in retail, so I’d like to ask a question about that. Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?

I remember the Sears catalog as a kid. Anything you wanted, that’s the first place you went. It was almost as much fun spending days picking things out of the Sears catalog as it was opening presents on Christmas morning. That lasted for decades. But Sears is in bankruptcy now and it’s been a while since I’ve seen a Sears catalog.

Amazon is the digital Sears catalog. Whatever you want, you can get it on Amazon. Their scale has become such a competitive advantage that, absent some kind of regulatory intervention, I’m not confident any other company — or country for that matter — could compete head-to-head on that basis alone. That scale not only gives them incredible economic advantage, it allows them to consistently deliver a level of convenience that is just about impossible to replicate. Attempting to out-Amazon Amazon is not a high probability path to success.

So let’s go back to the premise of this entire conversation — how to create that Wow! experience. Would it be fair to say that few, if any of us, could truly say we’ve ever had a Wow! experience with an Amazon order?

I believe that at some level, consumers still value that feeling of walking into the locally owned shop where they know your name and what you like. But today, that must also be coupled with convenience that modern-day technology can deliver. Again, it goes back to always delivering value. Since every consumer’s value lens is a little (or a lot!) different, I believe that the retailers who can use data to crack that value code on an individual level and ultimately deliver that authentically personalized Wow! experience can grow and thrive in Amazon’s shadow.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I’d like to spark a generosity movement. We’re in a time right now that is incredibly divided and confrontational, and guided by a zero-sum game mentality, which says that if you win, I lose, so I don’t want you to win. In reality, very few things are truly zero-sum. If we could inject a healthy dose of generosity into our interactions, I think we’d go a long way toward crowding out the antagonism and divisiveness.

That’s been one of the really amazing things about moving to Phoenix from Silicon Valley. That sense of generosity is pervasive, especially in the startup and entrepreneurial culture here. I think in many ways, it’s out of necessity — we’re still in the nascent stages of building our ecosystem here and so there’s a general recognition that a rising tide truly does lift all ships. Organizations like the StartupAZ and Arizona Commerce Authority, both of which I’ve been involved with almost since moving here, are really moving the needle on that mission.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

LinkedIn is the best place to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsteele/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!