The Soulful Experience

The big business buzzword for the two-thousand teens is "Experience." Glance at agendas for conferences over the past few years and you'll see breakout sessions on "customer experience" or "brand experience" and entire expos and think tanks dedicated solely to the discussion of Experience. User Experience (“UX”) is discussed daily at the IT level, but thought leaders at organizations who have been at the forefront of this evolution were part of the UX strategic development early on, and brought in marketing, operations and human resources for a unified approach. It is not a coincidence that these same early-adapter leaders are running the most successful companies in their competitive landscape. Executives who dumped “Experience" into the customer service bucket and gave it no attention after relegating it to the existing customer service team, are now chasing their tails and trying desperately to play catch-up.

The Soulful Experience isn’t just the sum of two descriptions from the dictionary. Delivering a Soulful Experience involves a conscientious effort to deliver an unforgettable memory to customers. It describes anything from a visit to your website, shopping in your store, using your salon service, dining at your restaurant, staying at your hotel, or even a branded event or party. It can only be accomplished by cohesive team who genuinely cares about the customer. Companies that consistently get it right with leadership, company culture and giving the customer above and beyond what they expected, deliver The Soulful Experience.

During my time served as marketing director at two of America's largest privately-held jewelers, I was privy to what made one company a Soulful place for customers and employees and the other organization a painful place to work that fought change in most areas, especially when the suggestions came from someone who hadn't “served their time” for at least a year. Most marketing leaders are (or should be) having weekly meetings with the head of operations to find out how well the in-store, restaurant, hotel, amusement park, or web experience is for the customer. Better yet, they should be working the front lines at least monthly to get an accurate pulse of what the customers see, hear, feel, touch and taste. Unfortunately, many CMOs, marketing directors and VPs get stuck in the office (by choice, not by force) and create campaigns and promotions inside a box.

Southwest's founder Herb Kelleher is a legendary leader, not only for starting what is the most financially successful airline in history, but for how he conducted market research. Herb is famous for flying on his planes and sitting in the cabin with all the paying customers. (Anyone who has flown Southwest knows there isn't any segregation with first class, business class and coach cabins.) While in the air, and without revealing his role at the airline, Herb would chat up passengers to find out why they chose to fly Southwest, and what they liked and disliked about the airline and the service. Focus groups and surveys were all fine and dandy, but the one-on-one conversations with the folks are what helped to define the Southwest brand and the Experience that we all know and love (or to use Southwest’s spelling – LUV) today.

Some organizations assume that customer experience is no different from Customer Service, but oh, how we have progressed as consumers. Customers who expected average service five years ago have raised the bar, and it isn't enough to have a dedicated toll-free customer service rep to answer calls, nor is an in-store customer service manager going to satisfy the needs of a client. A soulful experience is one where the entire team is unified to take care of the customer.