How to keep your customers happier for longer
How can you make sure you keep your customers happier for longer?
For months I've been telling you that people don't buy products, they buy experiences. But what if you sell a product? How do you ensure that your product delivers a great experience?
Products that no longer spark joy
I've been watching Marie Kondo's Netflix show, called Tidying Up. And as I watch people discard products that no longer spark joy in their lives, I've been wondering how we, as marketers, can do a better job of keeping people happier with the products they buy for longer.
I took some time out recently to go to some garage sales in Palm Springs to find out what are the three or four most popular high-ticket items that people are selling.
In amongst the clothes, random pieces of artwork, magazines and books, the three things that jumped out to me as the high-ticket items being resold were:
Kitchen appliances – think waffle irons, lots of waffle irons.
Exercise equipment – lots of bikes and Nordic Tracks, and bouncy balls.
Tools – lots of saws, and car waxing machines like the Waxmaster 900.
Now, these items are being sold because they no longer spark joy, to use Marie Kondo's words.
But why?
Products don’t make us happy, experiences do
Because products don't make us happy, the experiences they deliver make us happy.
Take all those waffle irons that I saw, for example. When you first purchase a waffle iron, or you get one as a gift, you're so excited about the waffle iron that you dive in that Sunday and make some amazing waffles for the whole family. It’s a great experience.
But, two years later, that waffle iron is shoved way back in a cabinet that you can't even get to, and you've forgotten all about it – you're no longer making waffles.
Before you know it, you're hosting a garage sale and there it is, your 23-year old waffle maker that hasn't been used in 21 years – it no longer sparks joy.
You see, the key to ensuring your product makes people happier for longer is to re-inspire them to engage with the product. You have to help them create a new experience more often than we do.
We often think that purchasing the product is the end of the marketing cycle, but it's not. Because the truth is, you don't sell waffle irons, you sell the joy of making waffles on a Sunday with your family. You sell the experience. And you don't sell a NordicTrack, you sell a morning exercise routine that invigorates and excites you. And you don't sell a tile saw, you sell a years worth of awesome tile projects. You don't sell a Waxmaster 900, you sell a beautifully clean car cruising up and down the avenue every single weekend.
If you want to stay out of the garage sale pile and want to continuously spark joy, you have to remember that we sell an experience. Which means that we need to continuously re-inspire our audience to re-engage with the products and services we sell so we make them happier for longer.
Create a loyalty loop experience around inspiration
The more experiences you inspire, the longer your product will spark joy.
What might you do to re-inspire your clients or customers to engage with your product on a regular basis?
No matter what you sell or when you sell it, the sale is not over when they take your product home. It's just the beginning of a loyalty loop designed to re-inspire your audience to engage with the product and tell people about it more often.
Create a loyalty loop experience around inspiration.
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