Word-Of-the-Week #719: Delight

May 17, 2018 by  

Delight something that gives great pleasure or enjoyment. 

When was the last time you felt delight? Did it make you want to come back? Did you come up with any ideas last week on creating a defining moment for one of your guests, clients, customers, members, family, or friends?

This is the follow up to last week’s Neil Senturia article “Elevating the ordinary into life-changing stuff”. To recap he wrote, “Why do we remember things? And how does memory influence customer retention and satisfaction? 

The Heath brothers had discovered the power of “elevation moments” that transcend ordinary experience. The “I didn’t see that coming” moment – a special glass of wine on the house, a surprise at work, where the cost of the surprise, or the over-the-top delivery is de minimis compared to its effect. They call this the “Power of the Free Popsicle.” 

Heath then goes on to mention three other kinds of defining moments – “insightful moments,” (e.g. the discovery of Velcro), moments of pride (think employee recognition) and moments of connection (think weddings and graduations). 

Rule No. 554: Surprise! It’s the little things, stupid.

The key is that all of these need to be in the service of the customer or your employee. Heath says, “You don’t have to excel at everything, you only have to excel at a few things that are going to be memorable.” He calls these “peaks.” We know that getting a customer is hard, but once gotten, you should never lose one, never. Whatever it takes. Think about your own relationships with vendors. There are some that you would never switch from. They own you, they have a “connection,” because they never let you down, and occasionally, they just dazzle you. Heath tells of a bank manager who personally delivers the deed to your house when you have paid off the mortgage. 

Heath also looks at the power of “pits,” what he calls negative experiences, put downs. He tells the story of Sara Blakely, whose dad would ask at dinner, “What did you fail at today?” And a few years later, when the old white guys told her that footless panty hose was stupid, she went and started Spanx and became the youngest self-made billionaire in history. I love these stories. 

You can learn from experiences (pits) and you can create them for others (peaks). But in the end, Heath focuses on one word – delight. You do not need to be perfect, you can apologize for mistakes, but every once in a while, if you just blow their doors off, they never leave you.”

And here’s a great idea on creating a defining moment that delights from Bill Marvin, The Restaurant Doctor from his April 27 post, “Hospitality is about giving, right? Mother’s Day is two weeks away. What would happen if you announced that all Moms would be your guests on Mothers’ Day? The odds are they’d come in with a big family group so the numbers would work … but if they came in alone, they live lonely lives and need to know somebody (you!) still cares about them! 

Your local media isn’t going to pay any attention to one more Mothers’ Day buffet, but approaching it like this could be a human interest story worth talking about. The more you give, the more you get. 

As an added enhancement, what if you asked the Moms to bring a photo of their family you could borrow for a week? At the least, they’d enjoy sharing the picture with you and your staff, but imagine the impact, the connection (and the message about motherhood) if you put up a huge bulletin board for a week or so and filled it with family photos!”

This week’s focus is on delight. What gives you great pleasure and enjoyment? How would it feel to be able to delight your guests, clients, customers, members, family, or friends? Can you think of just a few things that would make you more memorable?

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