“In today’s world, meaningful differences between businesses are rarely rooted in price or product, but instead in customer experience.”
― Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers
I’ve been reading and following Jay Baer for about 10 years and have seen him deliver several keynote presentations. He is an outspoken advocate on the heightened importance of providing helpful customer service in creating excellent customer experiences. Today this may not sound like a revelation but in the early days of social media, a brand providing customer service on Twitter was almost unheard of. And those that did, stood out and received high praise.
Baer’s philosophy has guided a lot of what Spodek & Co. recommended to our clients over the years.
Marketing in 2022
Let’s fast forward to the eve of 2022. How are your marketing plans coming along? A year ago, you may have been wondering whether or not you should bother with plans at all after the ups and downs caused by the pandemic. Or perhaps you were one of the luckier ones whose business thrived in 2020. And if that was the case, did you consider how your business would fare when the need for pandemic-related services subsided?
Either way, since you’re still here, you’ve learned how to weather the COVID-19 storm, adapted to a new “business as usual”, and have been planning for the new year, regardless of what Omincron or other new variants bring.
Congratulations, that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating!
What about celebrating our clients and customers?
In marketing, we usually think about how to attract new business, new clients, or new customers. But what about our existing clients and customers? That’s where cultivating “Superfans” can help.
What is a superfan?
“a customer or stakeholder who is so delighted by their experience with you that they will be back and will advocate on your behalf” – Brittany Hodak
Let’s face it, after the past 22 months or so, who wouldn’t want to be delighted by a brand that gave them a reason to smile?
Hodak takes the concept of brand advocate to the next level. After watching her keynote presentation Creating Superfans With An Ultimate Customer Experience at last month’s Catapult conference, I was reminded a lot of Jay Baer. She had my attention, in fact, she had everyone’s attention and almost instantly created an audience of new superfans.
Get started with storytelling
Before you can create superfans and develop an ultimate customer experience, you need to master your own story, or “Origin Story”, according to Hodak. You need to explain why you’re inspired to help take your customers from where they are now to where they are going… and how you’ll help them get there.
You also need to understand your customer and their story, but first you’ll need to determine your customer avatar, in other words, know who your ideal customer is, before you can attract customers who you can relate to and who in turn can relate to you. Hodak uses, the acronym “…S.T.O.R.Y. – their Struggles, the Transformation they’re looking for, their Options, their Reservations, and how You can help.”
These are the first steps to making a stronger connection with your customers (or clients) and setting the stage for converting them to your superfans.
Need help with telling your story and attracting your ideal customer? Book a free consultation now and let’s discuss creating superfans as part of your 2022 marketing plans.
