Join us Mon., Jan. 13 for 2014 SHOT Show University. With a theme of Aiming for Excellence, this day of seminars provides unparalleled training and insights for operating businesses more effectively. If you haven’t already done so, apply today. 
Speaker Chip Bell hails from 20-plus years of working with top leaders from the world’s leading brands and helping them stay ahead of the competition by maintaining world-class customer-experience strategies. We’re pleased to share a blog post by Chip that provides a closer look at service innovations that can set your business apart from your competitor’s.
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Imagine a hotel proposing that the housekeeper put a goldfish in your guest room in a basketball-sized bowl filled with colorful rocks. All they ask is that you give it a name so you can have “your” fish join you again on your next stay. Visualize the bathrobe in the closet being zebra or leopard-colored, and not the boring white; or, the turn-down item left on your pillow being something completely unexpected–a foreign coin, a flower, even a lottery ticket–instead of the proverbial mint. Welcome to the Hotel Monaco!
Hotel Monaco is my favorite hotel. Not only because of its over-the-top service, but also because it provides a clever cacophony of sensory stimulation. Your colorful guest room radiantly greets you with garden-fresh flowers, peaceful fragrances, unusual artwork, and restful music. Bathroom amenities range from scented soap to your very own rubber ducky! As a super pet-friendly hotel, the Monaco provides a turn-down bone and nature videos for guests’ furry roommates, and every property has a dog concierge in its lobby. Their complimentary late afternoon wine party in the lobby might include a handwriting psychic quietly reading palms for a small fee.
Customers love innovative service that awakens their senses. Famous bars have been transformed into light shows; bakeries pump tantalizing aroma from their kitchen onto the sidewalk, and modern hospital lobbies provide a babbling fountain with tranquil music, not glaring TV soap operas. Walk into the lobby of any Westin Hotel, and your nose will notice the scent suddenly shifts from the “smell of the street” to a signature fragrance called “White Tea.” An antique and memorabilia shop in Memphis plays oldies music; an upscale jewelry shop in Chicago has all employees wear formal evening attire angle.
Customers today are bored with ho-hum, pretty good, nothing-special service. They want their service experience to have a cherry on top! As customers, we like rich stimulation; we ignore plain vanilla bland. And, finding innovative ways to make your service experience different from others can be the key to building loyalty! When realtors suggest baking an apple pie before holding an open house and when upscale retail stores put a pianist at a baby grand on the sales floor, they are using their best sense.
Conduct a sense audit–what should your service experience smell like–sound like–feel like–look like–taste like, if you wanted to excite the customer’s memory with an enchanting experience? What messages are being sent by the color, font, tone, images, or language used on your website? What does your parking lot, lobby, waiting area telegraph about your attentiveness to your customer’s experience? Examine your customer’s experience through the lens of organizations, known for a sensory-driven innovative experience–Disney World, Ringling Bros., Cirque du Soleil, or a great museum. Innovative service is memory-making; make yours extraordinary.
Chip R. Bell is a customer loyalty consultant and the author or coauthor of several best-selling books including Take Their Breath Away, Service Magic, Managing Knock Your Socks off Service. His newest book is The 91/2 Principles of Innovative Service. He will be a keynote speaker at the 2014 SHOT Show in Las Vegas.. He can be reached at www.chipbell.com.
Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.