We all have those favourite brand experiences that make us happy and keep us coming back for more. It might be how your favourite coffee outlet surprises you with a bite-sized biscuit with your coffee, or when your accountant offers to personally bring your paperwork around after hours, or the tactile nature of the packaging when you unbox your new phone - whatever the moment, it's a little bit of joy in your soul, and you want more of it!
These addictive moments of delight can connect us so strongly to a brand that we not only return for more, we become loyal brand advocates and refer our family and friends.
Designing moments of surprise and delight into brand experiences taps into human emotions to influence buying decisions - a powerful strategy to keep your customers returning and earn yourself brand loyalty.
So how can you inject moments of emotional connection into your customer experiences?
The very first thing you need to do is to look at your brand through the eyes of your customers. Seeing your brand from this perspective allows you to discover which of your brand values are most important to the people who want to buy from you. If you haven't yet defined your brand's core values, now is the time to say hello and get started. Defining your brand's core values helps you better communicate what your business stands for so that you can attract customers who have similar values.
Customers who have chosen your brand before care less about how your products or services fulfil their functional need, and they care more about emotional benefits - how owning or using your brand makes them feel special or unique.
Once you understand why your customers love having your brand in their lives, you can allow your brand to communicate with more relevance and heart.
Every touch point is an opportunity to delight - no detail is too small to create a memorable brand experience. Consider every point of communication and interaction from the moment your customer first encounters your brand. How can you incorporate surprise into their experience even after they've purchased from you?
By finding unique and unexpected moments to surprise and delight your customers you can create lasting impressions that become highly memorable and talked about long after the experience has occured.