Customer Experience Superstars

Michael Jordan, Mohammad Ali, Brett Favre, Dale Earnhardt, and Hank Aaron, an impressive list of sports superstars who excelled in their areas of expertise and have created lasting memories not soon to be forgotten. I would also add Mike Keen and David Holmes to this list.

Mike Keen and David Holmes aren’t necessarily household names and if you asked somebody on the street corner to identify them, chances are few would be able to. In my book however, these two individuals are superstars…customer experience superstars.

Wikipedia defines superstar as a term used to refer to a celebrity or person who has great popular appeal and is widely-known, prominent or successful in some field. It also states that people are often willing to pay higher prices to see superstars even though their performance may only be marginally better than someone else’s.

So who are Mike and David and why do I consider them superstars? Mike is a Barista at Studio 6 Coffee House in Denver where he creates “portraits” of his customers in the milk froth on their morning espresso.  David is a Stewart for Southwest Airlines who entertains and captures his passenger’s attention by rapping the flight safety briefing. Their job titles and place of employment aren’t any different than thousands of other people around the globe and yet they’ve found a way to differentiate themselves and their place of employment from their competitors. Not only are they creating memories for their customers, they are creating buzz and positive word of mouth that will bring customers back again and again.

Mike and David are breaking the mold for what customers have come to expect in these seemingly ordinary customer interactions. They’ve found a way to make it fun, to connect with their customers at an emotional level. In doing so, the customer is receiving something more valuable than the physical product or service they purchased, they now have a positive memory that will be used for comparison when making future purchasing decisions.

Think about your own favorite sports team roster, who stands out? Likely the superstars come to mind first. You’re more emotionally attached to the superstars on the team than you are the other players. Just like in sports, you want to be on your client’s superstar list and to do so you need to create an emotional connection with them. While this can be a daunting and complex process, it doesn’t always have to be, as demonstrated by Mike and David. Small company or large, it starts with the individual client interaction and grows from there.

What are doing in your daily client interactions to become a Customer Experience Superstar?