CX Excellence – Contours, Apple, Zappos and the cast of StarWars

5 more examples of best in class CX

Stroll a mile in your babies buggy

contours adult buggy

 

Empathy is the art of letting the customer know that you genuinely understand what it is like to be in their shoes. Contours really demonstrated their understanding of this when they designed an adult sized buggy for one of their most popular selling models.

This allowed parent’s to actually experience what it’s like to be pushed around in a buggy from their child’s perspective. This isn’t just a fun idea for a viral video, but is actually an empathetic solution to a purchasing decision. Normally the factors involved in buying a buggy would revolve around ease of use for the parent, i.e. maneuverability, storage and folding. Now they can put their child’s comfort first.

Find out more Here

Apple take their in-store experience to the next level

 apple

Over the past few years Apple noticed their sales falling. This is due to strong competition and because people are holding onto their gadgets longer than before. With this in mind, Apple are designing their new stores to keep customers coming back. Each room is designed to be a different environment, aimed to feel like a town square. It is a place for customers to enjoy their Apple products and hopefully convince them to stick with Apple when the time eventually does come to upgrade. As these stores aren’t exclusive to Apple users, they should convince people who are on the fence about switching over to make the decision. This is a great example of how to keep customers loyal by delighting them with an experience they’re not expecting. Apple as always, are disrupting the market. Expect others to follow.

Find out more Here

An ‘inside the box’ approach to creativity

zappos-box-hed-2016

Exceeding expectations is key to your customer satisfaction. Zappos are masters in setting expectations and then exceeding them.

Zappos wanted their customers to get creative with their shoe boxes. Using fun instructions and illustrations it allows customers to utilise every square inch of these boxes. They can be used to make a smartphone holder, a funky 3-D llama or a Geo Ball planter to name a few. The idea is to eventually inspire customers to literally ‘think outside the box’ and go beyond this funky box and into aspirational territory.

Zappos scored number 1 in the US for Expectations in the 2016 US CXi Report. When purchasing a pair of shoes the box is usually thrown in the bin or stored away under a bed. With this, the experience goes beyond the purchase and challenges the customer to do something creative and engaging.

Find out more Here

An experience even James bond would be proud of

Aston martin

Building a relationship with customers can be a very difficult challenge in the luxury space. Especially when your product can cost a customer over €250,000! That is why first impressions mean a lot to Aston Martin. Most customers will only ever buy one vehicle so they make sure to give them the “full service experience”. Aston buyers are given access to the CEO’s personal number and given the opportunity to see the full process of their cars assembly, meeting everyone in charge along the way. Buyers are also invited to one of Aston’s many event’s where fans and owners are taken to unique spot’s around the world to drive. One experience involves driving new DB models on a frozen lake in New Zealand with a professional driver in the passenger seat! Simon Sproule, Aston’s CMO said about the ice event “that’s the whole point of luxury, It’s about those special experiences – giving you those memories, giving you those experiences.”

Find out more Here

 

 

An out of this world fan experience

Chewie

 

The Force was certainly with the children of Scoil an Fheirtéaraigh in west Kerry when a special visitor from a galaxy far, far away called for a visit. After two of the pupils found out that the movie was being shot close by, they designed a book and a Star Wars pottery sign and sent it on to the crew. This obviously caught their attention because Chewbacca himself made an appearance at the school a few days later. The kids greeted him with a tin whistle rendition of the Star War’s theme and even attempted to teach him a few words in Irish. Resource teacher Míchéal Ó Cinnéide said “Disney Lucasfilm wanted to do something nice for the community because everyone had been so helpful and cooperative and they wanted to give something back”. This was done outside of their movie PR and done solely to amaze the 65 pupils of Scoil an Fheirtéaraigh. Disney Parks who scored second in the 2016 US CXi Report are known for their magical experiences and this shows that they are willing to continue to give those experiences outside of their walls.

Find out more Here 

If you would like to explore how your company can activate CX excellence e-mail Michael Killeen to discuss further.

Or call Michael directly at +353 1 6622277 

 


CX Excellence – Jet Blue, Manchester United, Chick Fil-A, Teddies Ice-Cream and Disney Parks

Your weekly dose of CX Excellence


How to get passengers to greet a crying baby with a smile

JetBlue Flybaby

There can’t be many ways to convince someone that a crying baby on their flight can be a good thing, right? Well Jet blue may have found a way. 4 babies, plenty of angry glances, what to do? Make each baby a potential 25% off everyone’s next flight. So when the tears inevitably do come, instead of rolled eyes, they can be greeted with smiles and applause. This is a brilliant resolution to an unavoidable hindrance for passengers. And shows great empathy towards the dreading mothers, who are stresses about being in a small space surrounded by angry people. 

Find out more here

Making a dying fans final experience one of his best.

MEN

William Moore, a lifelong Manchester United fan was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. He made it his dying wish to see his team one last time in their upcoming FA Cup final. Manchester’s local newspaper featured him in one of their articles and within a couple of days his dream came true. One of United’s injured first team players; Luke Shaw read about this and jumped on the offer to get William to Wembley for the final.

It is very refreshing to see a superpower brand like Manchester United take interest in an individual fan like this. Even though they don’t have to, they are willing to exceed expectations to help out a fans request.

Find out more here

 

A new meaning to being ‘cooped up’

Phone Coop

Chick-Fil-A branch owner, Brad Williams was fed up, seeing friends and families alike come into his restaurant and, instead of making conversation, sit in silence glued to their phones.

He came up with an idea to put customer’s phones into a box, (‘Phone Coop’) on their table and if they go the entire meal without going for it, they all receive a free ice-cream. The idea was an instant hit. He found that groups who failed the challenge even returned just to see if they could actually do it.

Brad had no intention of  his idea spreading like it did, and didn’t invest a penny in publicising it. Yet, over 350 Chick-Fil-A restaurants have now taken on the ‘Phone Coop challenge’.  According to KPMG Nunwood’s ‘Customer Experience Excellence Center 2016 US analysis’, US leaders realise that every experience is the sum of several smaller experiences and it is the attention to detail within each micro experience that makes a competitive difference. Chick-Fil-A describes this as ‘second mile service’, the tiny things that add up to a great experience when you put them all together.

Find out more here

 

An ice act of kindness from Teddies

Teddy's ice cream

On one of the first sunny days of summer, Danielle Meagher walked up to the one and only Teddies Ice-Cream and asked for a 99 cone. She didn’t have the €2.50 though, and asked if the shopkeeper could just put it on her card. But instead of charging, he handed her a 99 with 2 flakes in it and said “it’s a pressie, because the first 99 of the summer season is the best!” The experience made her so happy that she had to share it on Facebook and the post received 1.5k likes! Such a nice way to kick off summer for their customer by exceeding Danielle’s expectations and giving her a reason to share her experience.

Find out more here

Deaf child gets a wonderful surprise when she visits Disney Parks 

minnie-mouse-asl-hed-2016

The Mansfields, a family that consists of multiple Deaf family members, recently visited Disney Parks. Their youngest daughter, who doesn’t expect anyone she meets to know sign gets the nicest surprise when she realizes that Tinkerbell and Mini Mouse are able to.

“Walt Disney viewed his theme parks almost as ‘factories’ that produced delight and entertainment. His belief was that the backbone of quality service was built on designing perfect processes and then repeating them at scale. Disney Parks has seemingly held true to these beliefs with the close attention to detail in constantly improving processes. It’s safe to say that they always sweat the small stuff”. -KPMG Nunwood

Find out more here 

Disney Parks scored second in KPMG Nunwood’s USA 2016 CEE analysis. You can view the report here

If you would like to explore how your company can deliver CX excellence e-mail Michael Killeen to discuss further.

Or call Michael directly at +353 1 6622277