The verb turning implies that you actually turn something. I believe it is impossible to “turn” a visitor of your website/store/product/service into a “Loyal” evangelist. It is hubris to believe that we caused a “turning” to happen on a person. So, instead, we must console ourselves by giving our visitors/customers every possible reason to decide to turn themselves! Here is a short-list of things I’ve tried to “turn” visitors into evangelists…. and the success thereof.
- Make the website/app look good. Result: fail. Opinion: good looks are not enough… they are expected.
- Make the website/app easy to use. Result: helps. Opinion: combined with good looks… it is definately a “reason” someone might turn themselves into an evangelist.
- Cheap Rewards. result: fail. Opinion: cheap rewards (such as useless points, etc.) are not effective.
- Expensive Rewards. result: so-so. Opinion: if combined with other “reasons” it can push some % of visitors/customers over the edge. *See loyalty cards.
- Charity involvement: result: fail. Opinion: Charity connections really don’t motivate like they used to.
- Delight the customer… underpromise, overdeliver. result: WIN. Opinion.. if there is ever any reason that a person might have to “turn” themselves into a loyal evangelist… this is the one.
An anecdote: I am a fanatic about Audible.com. I use it for 2 hours every day (on my drive to/from work, I listen to books). It’s super easy to use website is reasonably attractive, and never fails me. I always find new books I want to read, and the simplicity of sending them to my iPhone is delightful. I am a delighted Audible fan, and for that reason (and maybe a few others), I am a loyal evangelist for audible.
The question: how can a Marketing Company (like Karmaback) help other companies DELIGHT their customers? (and how can we measure it)?
