One of the most powerful ways you can enhance your customer’s experiences with you is through the creation of special customer moments. In our third and final part of Creating Wow Customer Moments (read parts 1 and 2 here), we will take you through how to take those personas and segments and create customers’ journeys and how to create memorable customer moments along the way.
Know Thy Customer
The first step in creating memorable customer moments is better understanding your customers. In part two we looked at personas and segmentation to help you get started. It is really important to understand your customers - their desires, wants and needs - so that your customer moments really have impact. Consider this: according to Accenture, 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase from an organisation that knows their name, their purchase history, and/or recommends items based on their purchase history. This is why segmenting and personas are so vital; even with just these pieces of data, you are well on your way to building great customer relationships.
Next, we need to understand the customer journey so we can identify key points along the way where we can add in a little wow moment.
The Traditional Customer Journey
Whether you are managing a theatre, cultural organisation, festival or venue - your customer takes a journey to you.
If we were to look at a traditional customer journey here is what we would probably describe:
The customer . . .
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buys a ticket
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shows up on the day of the event
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sits down at their seat
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watches the performance
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applauds, stands up, and goes home
This is a really narrow definition of this customer’s journey. It ignores four big things:
1. What is going on before and after their visit?
2. What is happening when they are not watching the performance?
3. These events are connected. They may appear independent - but they aren’t.
4. It treats all customers exactly the same.
What is Really Going On?
Your customer’s journey starts long before they buy a ticket (and ends well after the show). While each of your audience segments may have a slightly different journey, it is likely some parts will overlap.
You can get as specific and detailed as you want on these customer journeys. Below we have briefly outlined some things to think about when mapping your customer’s journey. But there are some quick customer moments wins you can get even without doing a full customer journey map (Scroll down to Getting a Quick Customer Moments Win With Data).
Creating Detailed Customer Journeys
In order to create a detailed customer journey you need to:
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Profile your personas and define their goals - choose your target customer segment.
- Consider customer feedback forms if you don’t have enough information from your data to create a detailed map.
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List out all the touchpoints.
- Using data from Google Analytics and Ticketsolve, these are all the places your customers can and do interact with you. List any areas you would like them to interact with you if they currently do not. Consider if your customers are using more or fewer touchpoints then expected. Remember this is your website, but also social channels, ads, email marketing, third-party sites, word of mouth, etc.
- Once you are clear on the touchpoints examine the actions that customers are taking. Perhaps they doing google searches, clicking on an email, following a social post - whatever these actions are note them down.
- Identify the emotions/motivators, obstacles and pain points. Alongside each of these actions and touchpoints is a feeling or a pain point. Understanding the emotions along the journey can help you to present the right content at the right time. Understanding the obstacles (why are they abandoning the cart at the last moment) can help you mitigate the problem.
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Map the journey and actions you will take to address each element.
Your customer journey is a living map. That means you should be looking at your data regularly to refine the map as more information comes to light - and make changes as needed.
With this map in hand, you can begin to optimise the customer journey and create wow moments along the way for your customers. Keep in mind, these customer moments need not be expensive or resource-heavy - even a simple, yet thoughtful email can work wonders
Looking for a quick win on your customer moments? Here’s how you can do it.
Getting a Quick Customer Moments Win With Data
Building a complete customer journey for each segment takes time, but there are some quick wins you can start with right now.
If we agree that our customer moments need to have a big impact, then it makes sense to anchor these moments to times during the customer journey where lasting memories are being forged. There are two main points that drive lasting memories, the beginning and the end of a show/performance. How do we maximise the experience at both of these points?
Our aim is to move people from “unknown” customers to true ambassadors for your organisations.
In the age of the customer, the idea of “show me you know me and show me you care,” rings so true. If we take the time with our data to really drill down into our audiences we have the opportunity to create special moments for attendees at each step of their journey.
Let’s take a look at some common examples you might see:
- One of your top 50 customers Nuala Freeman is attending an event tomorrow she was last here 3 months ago.
- A group of 12 people are attending an event from Manchester, They appear to be first-time visitors.
- Julie Jones is attending a production for the second time on Thursday.
- Brian McFarland bought multiple tickets for multiple shows.
In each of the above examples, there is a clear opportunity to wow these customers and either deepen a relationship with them, welcome them back or welcome them as new customers. What could you do to make each of these customers feel special?
One of your top 50 customers Nuala Freeman is attending an event tomorrow she was last here 3 months ago.
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Welcome back, we missed you note on her seat with a free drink voucher and a free ticket for the next show she books
A group of 12 people are attending an event from Manchester, They appear to be first-time visitors.
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A welcome sign in the foyer with a front of house staff to show them directly to their seats
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1st-time purchasers - pick up a gift at the box office
Julie Jones is attending a production for the second time on Thursday.
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So happy to see you again note on her seat and a free drink
Brian McFarland bought multiple tickets for multiple shows.
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Multi-buyers receive a thank you note - with a push on buying subscription/membership
How about a simple win: at your next sell-out show - leave a note on each seat “Thank you for making this the most successful show that we have ever programmed in the history of our theatre!”
Here is a concrete example that has worked:
Take for example Jersey Boys. For 610 selected attendees, a branded chocolate bar was left on the seat. Those attendees that received the chocolate bar were marketed to again - they were able to get them to return within the next 3 months as opposed to 12 months.
As you can see in these examples, it isn’t complicated. But it does take some data digging!
Getting Started Quickly With Wow Customer Moments
With a few steps you can get started with creating impactful customer moments.
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Dig into your data - who are your best customers? Who are your repeat customers? First-timers? Start with them. Build some personas so you can see their wants and needs. Remember: loyal customers account for only 20% of total customers but are drivers for 80% of revenue. Customer retention is less expensive than bringing in new customers.
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Talk to teams across your organisation. Brainstorm ideas on how to make customers feel special - what customer moments would create big impacts?
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Set a budget - this will help create some boundaries on what you can do (boundaries can help you get creative too)!
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Working with a tight budget? Trial some simple automations. Using Ticketsolve’s MailChimp integration you can send pre and post-event emails, thank-yous and lots more (contact us for more information we can help you get started). Even handwritten thank yous on seats is a powerful way to create memorable customer moments.
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Track your results and change what isn’t working. Experiment, be creative.
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Make sure what you do is sincere and humanises your customers - if it comes from the heart, your customers will feel it.
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If you can make it personal - do. Show me you know me and show me that you care.
