Builders: Consider Value-Unique Customer Experiences

Good Customer Experience is Appreciated; Noteworthy Gets People Talking

Have you run across Chip Bell? He's an author, speaker and consultant focused on customer loyalty and service innovation.

Bell suggests that good Customer Experience is appreciated.

We knew that, right? Yet, good service rarely results in people mentioning in -- or posting or Tweeting about it.

However, when a noteworthy customer experience moment occurs, people talk, post and Tweet about it all the time.  

So..how does your customer service become Tweet-worthy?

Move-Up to Value-Unique Experiences

Today, customers expect their experience to be value-added.

Taking what your customers expect and just adding more isn't enough to generate anything beyond satisfaction and.. that's why it isn't generating posts or Tweets.

When customers get more than expected and it's unique and innovative, Bell suggests, that's value-unique.

And, value-unique has a lot more value.  That's when people start talking and Tweeting about it!

Customer Focus Also Drives Revenue Growth

A recent McKinsey & Co. study concluded that customer satisfaction also correlated with company revenue growth. One idea that emerges from that study is the importance of employees as brand ambassadors. What is your organization doing to foster this concept?

Encourage Employee Engagement

One idea is to make sure you're providing the tools to facilitate employee engagement. Implement tools, in other words, to foster employee engagement and, in turn, you'll see value-unique service.

What sort of tools? Keep in mind your customer's expectations are changing at rapid speed. 

Builders must now account for an increasing number of factors ranging from having more information on the website to conversational commerce to providing an engaging in-sales office experience. And, your employees need to take advantage of  those digital engagement tools so your brand emerges as value-unique!

Wouldn't you want to walk into a sales office featuring the Brisas interactive touchscreen system highlighted above -- and see not only gorgeous creative but interactive floorplans, what's happening in the neighborhood and an up-to-date sitemap? Leveraging digital tools such as CPS' SalesTouch doesn't diminish your sales agent's role; it amplifies it by associating the brand with a value-unique experience! 

Does the Term "Digital Transformation" Make You Anxious?

There's a recent McKinsey & Company article by Karel Dorner and Jurgen Meffert highlighting the key questions surrounding the concept of digital transformation. You can take a look at Nine questions to help you get your digitial transformation right on the McKinsey Insights & Publications page.

The article suggests there are few organizational stressers greater than digital transformation. Why? There are so many possibilities -- on so many levels.  Digital is ubiquitous.  Digital impacts core businesses (think about connected cars), opens new frontiers (e-health, anyone?) and suggests the need for fundamental change (do you have the type of staff needed?).

Comment Board -- proactively reaching out to the consumer

The authors suggest, when putting together a digitial transformation plan, it is helpful to consider  the customer journey as a way to initiate your planning. The Blog has reviewed this concept (take a look here) which can be summarized as the sum of an individual's interactions with a company's brand at all levels previously. 

Unpacking your customer's experience not only will help you map the journey --  it highlights how digital can make each customer/brand touch point more effective.

Take another look at the Whole Foods Customer Comment Board image to the right. We can all agree it is a transformation of the old style comment board with bits of pieces of paper stuck to it.

 In addition, doesn't it positively change the business touch point with the consumer interested in making a comment?

With its dynamic and visual design, the Board proactively solicits feedback -- and, at the same time, transforms the notion of a comment board providing valuable information with calendars, video and weekly specials.  Wouldn't you leave the Board with an enhanced experience?  That's the journey behind digital transformation!

Social Media Engagement -- try it in your sales office!

A recent Kyle Wong article in Forbes makes a strong statement regarding the value of social media:

 Tradigital: adding digital engagement to traditional marketing

There is a near consensus that social media marketing is valuable because it allows companies to directly engage with their customers, build brand presence and ultimately sell more products.

Social Media is big and, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report, is growing faster than any other technology before.  Just to put that thought into perspective, broadcast radio took almost 40 years to reach a 50-million listener audience; TV took more than 10 years.  Both Twitter and Facebook made it in less than 1 year.

Yes, but...is social media corporate-friendly? McKinsey suggests social media has become a commercial force to be reckoned with. Social media drives consumer empowerment though increased levels of corporate accessibility -- which becomes brand engagement which turns into purchasing.  Did you realize 66% of consumers say they trust online opinions/comments/likes -- second in trustworthiness to recommendations from people they know in real life!

We'll be blogging about Social Media throughout 2015.  For now, we wanted to showcase CPS' Social Media Wall -- a unique combination of traditional marketing media (photographs, video) and social media to create an ever changing display highlighting a new home neighborhood, its homeowners and prospective buyers.  Definitely tradigital!

How does a Social Media Wall function?  A set of images (lifestyle, homes, community amenities, schools, etc.) is established.  Twitter and Instagram hastags are established and whenever there's a related Tweet or post, it appears on the Social Media Wall interspersed with the "static" images.  The Wall goes beyond traditional marketing as it actively engages both current and potential customers!

How can the Wall be put to use in a sales office? Think of a neighborhood-wide July4th party and #July4MyCommunity. Every picture posted or tweeted will have the opportunity to be displayed as party of the sales office Social Media Wall.  It's curated, of course; an administrative website provides a mechanism to review every item before it appears on the wall. Your audience is generating marketing materials for you!

Social media, according to McKinsey, affects the entire value chain -- from product development through marketing, sales and service.  Contact us for Social Media Wall details and get your sales/leasing office and information center engaged!