5 Revolutionary Business Ideas – Consumer Experience – Pici & Pici Inc

For your review…A Case Study

Blockbuster video was an industry giant. For almost 3 decades they dominated the video rental industry in the United States. How could a company that was so solid for so long be dismantled in such a short period of time?

We could blame technology. That the company was made obsolete with the development of digital media and internet streaming.

We might also look at the competition. Maybe companies like Netflix and GameStop out competed them in the market place.

We could even take into account business structure and high overhead. With a large inventory of physical material and so many storefronts, the overhead was just too much.

While all of these factors contributed to the downfall, none of them was the true achilles heel of the super chain. So what brought down the giant?

Poor Consumer Experience and Customer Service

The economy is uncertain. Technology is always changing. It can be hard to keep up. However, at the core of business failures lies a lack of deep adaptation and resistance to much needed changes in culture.

We have looked at many different successful businesses and compiled a list of 5 revolutionary business ideas that allow the best  companies to survive and thrive.

This article is the third in a series of 5 revolutionary business ideas.

Click here to check out the first article in our series: Embracing Technology.
Click here to check our the second article in our series: Connecting Customers.

Today we’re going to address the third business practice that most successful businesses are adopting today.

Businesses that Thrive Focus on Customer Experience

Why focus on experience?

In today’s world, consumers are more experience focused. The internet has allowed consumers to become more informed. They have also begun to trust less. Consumers are beginning to trust only what they personally experience. What a company says they do no longer is enough.

Consumers have to see and EXPERIENCE what the company does before they will buy.

One of the contributing factors is the increasing population of millennial buyers in the marketplace. Millennials currently make up 50{db95e0fd77ae6d141d4535e2bf7b464d98e4151322120f553d7786be9a7303be} for the market and spend $200 billion annually! Despite all the varying opinions about millennials, they are here to stay and their influence is only increasing.

The reason this is relevant to this discussion is because millennials are experience driven. They watched their friends and loved ones lose everything during the 2008 economic crash. This means they don’t want to spend all their time working for tangible items that may be taken away from them. They instead want the experience and the memories that they know can never be taken away from them.

Why did Blockbuster fail?

Blockbuster failed to create new experiences for their customers that would improve the way they rented and matched video.

Okay, so experience is important. How do we create this type of environment?

You have to care about the client.

The idea of the experience is to pull people out of their current situation, show them the flaws of it, and allow them to experience how much better life is with your product or service, and then allow them to choose which experience they prefer. The whole shopping experience to reflect the kind of life/feelings they will have once they purchase your product/service.

We do this in 3 WAYS…

Build Rapport through Authenticity

Start by building a relationship with the people in your target market.

Listen to them! What pain are they experiencing? What solutions can you offer them? Be aware, this may not always mean a direct sale. If you do not offer the thing that will help them most effectively, this may be giving them a quality referral for someone you know, like, and trust. This type of interaction will build rapport and set you up as their trusted advisor. Now, when the time comes that they DO need your product or service, you will be the first call they make.

Do what you say you’re going to do!

In any interaction with a current or potential client, you always need to follow through. Remember, consumers are trusting less and less in lip service and big claims. They want to know they can trust you to follow through and deliver results. Nothing will break rapport faster than failure to deliver.

Remember Your Employees

Building rapport means treating clients with respect. However, you may not always be the person interacting directly with your clients. This means that you need to use care when choosing those whom you employ. Steve Wynn, the owner of the Wynn and Encore hotels in Las Vegas shared some great insight on choosing employees. He stated, “You can’t teach people how to smile or how to care.” Employ those who will go the extra mile to care for your customers, because ultimately, they are the relationship builders. On the flip side, you also need to make it a point to take special care of your employees. This is because how they are treated will directly effect how they treat your customers. Choose employees wisely and treat them kindly.

Listen to Feedback

Lastly, you need to listen to feedback. You cannot hope to build lasting relationships that turn into repeat business without listening and being responsive to what your clients have to say.

Blockbuster failed to build rapport by setting themselves up in an adversarial relationship with their customers. Because Blockbusters main source of income was collecting late fines, their revenue depended on the failure of their customers. This created a tension that prevented true rapport and loyalty from being built.

This lack of rapport kept Blockbuster from being able to introduce their clients to a new experience and features that would keep them relevant and cutting edge.

However, once you have rapport, you can move on to the experienced based sales that is so effective today.

Introduce the Experience

Once you’ve built rapport, your clients will like and trust you. Only then will you have the opportunity to truly introduce the experience to the customer.

An experience is meant to be immersive. Your job is to first pull people out of their comfort zone. Have them step outside their status quo. They may love their current pair of shoes. They’ve bought the same brand for 20 years. But now, they are experiencing back pain or blisters. You need to introduce the possibility that they may need to change their routine and find a new brand. And for many of us, change of any kind can be stressful and unwanted.

But ultimately, you are pulling customers out of their comfort zone to introduce them to an experience that is better. One that will alleviate their pain. You want to allow them to experience the pain-free life they could have if they purchase. In this case, a comfortable pair of shoes that fit well and support their posture.

Give Them the Choice

We can only offer a customer the door to the improved lifestyle we are offering them. They are the ones that must decide and walk through it. We are the trusted advisor, and as such, can only offer advice. Never push customers into something or rush a decision. This could create a remorse buyer and/or break rapport. Even if these people buy, they will never come back or refer friends.

This stress and pressure is also the fastest way to destroy the atmosphere of the experience you have worked so hard to create. Part of a great consumer experience is a friendly, low-stress environment.

Was this article valuable? Check out the other articles in the Revolutionary Business Ideas series: