Before We Start
This isn't an April Fool's Day post; it's an actual article. If you'd like to understand why we ignore April Fool's Day prank posts, you can review our article on why we think they are generally a very bad practice.
Seriously Considering Customer Experience Strategy
What seems like eons ago, Stephen Lahey, the self-professed #1 Brainzooming fan, and I were discussing customer experience strategy and doing some strategic thinking on how to create a pre-purchase experience for an intangible service.
The point was with a product, a potential buyer can pick it up or demo it with minimal economic impact on the product’s delivered cost.
With an intangible service that has to be created to deliver the full experience, however, the economics and practicality of a full demo fail quickly. There typically has to be a huge upside and pretty firm assurance of some level of remuneration for a demo of any significance to make sense for an intangible service.
11 Ways to Demo an Intangible Service
Despite this potential customer experience strategy limitation, there are possibilities. We did the strategic thinking to suggest these eleven possibilities:
- Describe the service experience in multiple ways from multiple perspectives
- Have someone else provide a descriptive testimonial about using your service
- Record (whether audio or video) you providing the service for a real customer
- Create a demonstration that many potential customers can experience at one time
- Develop a simulation of your service experience
- Offer samples of the service’s typical outputs or outcomes
- Sponsor a contest for a potential customer to receive the service free in for a large number of testimonials, reference conversations, etc.
- Offer the first step in your service free or at an introductory, low cost
- Demonstrate the service for someone else that will allow a prospect to become immersed in the service experience
- Create rich, easily-grasped comparisons to describe what the service experience will be like
- Align with an appropriate sponsorship and donate your in-kind service in exchange for inviting your prospective customers as guests
I’m certain this isn’t a comprehensive list, but they are ones our strategic thinking yielded that we have either considered or tried.
Specifically, we used number nine to help a local non-profit enhance its strategic planning. The mini-strategic planning session we designed and facilitated was designed around the organization’s objectives, but the objective for us was to create a real-life experience for a potential client who offered a large upside in actual business and referrals.
Additionally, the Building the Gigabit City event we created several years ago with Social Media Club of Kansas City was an example of number eleven. The large-scale Brainzooming event provided the opportunity to expose what we do to scores of potential clients as we sought to gain greater awareness and buzz within the city.
What customer experience strategy ideas do you think we missed?
If you sell and deliver intangible services, what do you think we missed on this list of potential ways to cost-effectively create a service experience demo for what you do? – Mike Brown
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If you’re facing a challenging organizational situation and are struggling to maintain forward progress because of it, The Brainzooming Group can provide a strategic sounding-board for you. We will apply our strategic thinking and implementation tools on a one-on-one basis to help you create greater organizational success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around your organizational challenges.
