We have interactions every day with various businesses from coffee shops to hardware stores to beauty salons and everything in between. Many of these experiences are exactly what we expected, and some of the special ones are even memorable for a period. But what we don’t encounter every day are unforgettable experiences. Experiences that make us tell friends and family what it was like and why they should go experience it too, even years after their story happened.
Publix grocers are great. They have all the food we need, it’s fresh, and the staff is extremely friendly. And it’s always like that, it’s what we’ve come to expect. There’s usually a slight grin on people’s face as they walk out of the automatic doors pushing their buggies full of groceries and household supplies. But we rarely go out and continue to talk about how great Publix is to our friends and family. We rarely attempt to convince someone to switch from Harris Teeter or Bi-Lo to Publix because Publix is so far superior. Instead we go there each week and we get our groceries and we smile and have small talk with the employees and we go home. We have memorable experiences that fade out after time.
There is nothing wrong with this, Publix is a great company and has a great model. They have one very loyal customer in me, but they don’t stand out head and shoulders above the rest. Many people go to Harris Teeter or Bi-Lo and experience the same thing, it often comes down to preference and geography.
Then there are companies that create unforgettable experiences. These are the places that we walk out of with an open mouth because we’re in awe. These are the places that prompt us to call friends and ask, “Have you been here before? Why didn’t you tell me about them earlier?” These are the unforgettable experiences that people talk about, not just smile about.
When I did sales training I would preach about a ‘wow experience’ for customers from start to finish. Since it was not a traditional furniture store the possibilities were endless, people did not know what to expect so the bar is relatively low for newcomers. The sales people had great influence on how to create that experience and the best ones took advantage of it; combining personal charm with a bit of smart-aleck customer service, and great values in the furniture. This paired with the methods people would find the stores like 
Craigslist, word of mouth, and even seeing paint markers on someone’s back windshield made for an unforgettable story that customers could tell their friends. Plus when people find a great bargain, they are ready and eager to boast to their neighbors about how much money they saved. This made for the perfect storm of referrals for the company.
So how is that replicated in large stores that have been around for years? Or in places like Publix whose customer base might frequent the store multiple times per week. How can they continue to create those ‘wow experiences’ for customers?
Continue to push the limits. Continue to experiment. Continue to make our organizations stand out. The risks are worth the reward to create something that is unforgettable.
What if Publix gave out “Customer of the Month” to the person they see the most or the one that spends the most? Will that be a customer for life? Will that make some people want to win that and frequent the store more often? What if the furniture store sales people all wore bright green polo shirts to work EVERY day with no exception? What if they then added bright green hand-written thank you notes in the mail to their customers after every sale to reinforce their experience? They would begin to stick out even more to customers and encourage them to keep talking. These types of things reinforce the experience and can turn a memorable experience into an unforgettable one.
What can we add to our businesses that will make us unforgettable?
