Customer satisfaction has become a very important criterion in digital marketing to evaluate a business's performance.
Today, beyond customer satisfaction, we talk about the concept of customer delight.
In a few words, all your competitors are now trying to ensure customer satisfaction. You have to go further and work on creating a wow factor by giving more than what you promise or what customers expect.
But how? How and why?
We'll share everything you need to know below, but above all, as you read on, keep in mind that it depends on your own willingness to not only offer a great product or a service but to want to please your customers!
What is meant by wow factor? The definition of this effect
The wow factor represents an effect of surprise, wonder, or enthusiasm felt by the consumer.
This effect is often generated by an advertisement or an online customer experience. It’s something that’ll touch internet users’ different senses and provoke this admiration.
It's a bit like when you're traveling and you find yourself in front of a beautiful landscape. You’ll often have this reaction, and the word “wow” is naturally going to come out of your mouth due to the impressive sight!
Stimulators of customer delight and examples of wow factor in marketing
We could define customer delight as the result of the following addition: the best service + emotion.
But unfortunately, it’s not necessarily a rational concept.
Enchanting customers is about pleasing them or even making them dream. It's about making them experience a surprising moment. Here are four characteristics that stimulate people's attention and can generate a wow factor. Feel free to take inspiration from these examples as you work to build your brand!
1. The expression of positive emotions
Through a smile, enthusiasm, humor, and liveliness, positive emotions are often very effective when it comes to creating a favorable climate with the customer. Website design, unique packaging, new logo, surprising user experience, even your About Us page... Show the greatest creativity to help stir emotion and generate a sale just with WOW content!
For example, the website of American clothing company Patagonia can help visitors feel positive emotions through high-quality nature imagery, a clean and user-friendly interface, and messaging focused on environmental conservation and sustainability, which resonates with the brand's eco-conscious customer base.
Source: Patagonia
2. New sensations
These emerge from sensory marketing with music, an atmosphere, a pleasant smell... to maintain a warm relationship.
Starbucks excels in sensory marketing by creating a distinctive atmosphere with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, consistent and comforting interior design, and background music tailored to enhance the customer experience.
This multi-sensory approach not only attracts customers but also encourages them to linger and enjoy their beverages, reinforcing brand loyalty.
@starbucks It’s a great day for coffee. \u2615\ufe0f
\u266c original sound - Starbucks
Source: Starbucks on TikTok
3. Exceeding expectations
The idea is to take the time to go beyond the client's expectations. It’s about surprising and astonishing by being creative with innovative means.
Offer offbeat branded content, highlight your products in a different way, create surprise with an unexpected collaboration...
One of the most striking examples in recent years was the advertising campaign of the luxury house Balenciaga before its fashion show in Paris: a video featuring the brand in the famous animated series The Simpsons!
Source: Balenciaga on YouTube
4. Customer-oriented communication
This involves exchange and communication through empathetic listening, while remaining attentive to what the customer can teach you.
Many advertising campaigns and products and services use the direct relationship with the customer to develop.
This is the case with social networks: interactive contests or surveys are used to integrate the people in their audience in the life of the business.
The results of the polls can allow the business to choose the new design of an article for the next season or to draw lots for the person who’ll have the chance to win a certain amount of money to spend on the business's website.
Including the customer directly in the heart of your marketing actions is always going to bring a wow factor, especially to reward their loyalty!
Take Chewy, for example. At the beginning of 2023, they asked people what they'd like to see from the pet supply company in the upcoming year, using the simple Instagram Questions feature in their Stories. The responses gathered from users allowed Chewy to better ascertain where its resources would be best allocated to suit the desires of their target audience.
Source: Chewy on Instagram
Benefits of achieving the wow factor in marketing
Why focus on delighting your customers?
Quite simply, it brings you three main benefits that are critical for the success and the sustainability of your business.
Increase the loyalty of your customers
Providing a WOW factor means that your customers are more than satisfied, pleasantly surprised by their shopping experiences on your site.
They’ll have a more than positive memory of your business, and there won't be any reason for them to buy from your competitors. And we know that building customer loyalty matters!
Encourage word of mouth
Customers become ambassadors of the brand or site.
Today, customers expect to be satisfied. It’s now necessary to go beyond satisfaction.
Differentiate yourself from the competition
If your competitors only focus on satisfying their customers, you and your wow factor are going to be ahead of the game!
How do you create a wow factor for your ecommerce customers?
To cite just one example of a wow factor, we can take the case of Amazon with its ecommerce delivery that sometimes arrives one or two days before the expected date.
This principle is a pleasant surprise for the consumer and can have an undeniable impact on their relationship with the online store.
The creation of a WOW factor is accessible to all sizes of physical or online businesses, from the smallest shopkeeper who will help you carry your groceries to your car to the restaurant where the service is remarkable.
Of course, it’s easier to offer this factor in traditional commerce than in ecommerce, but let's see what you can do.
An impeccable shopping experience
This goes without saying and is the foundation of the user experience in ecommerce.
But everything has to run smoothly, from the moment you arrive on the site to the moment you receive your package.
Pages must load quickly, all links must work properly, users must not encounter any errors, all the information they’re looking for must be accessible immediately, the live chat in ecommerce must be ultra accurate, among other things...
After the purchase, delivery times must be respected (or less than what was announced), the package must be in perfect condition, etc.
Personalized touches
It’s not necessary to spend a lot of money to provide your customers with little personalized touches.
For example, a short handwritten thank-you card can be a very nice gesture.
You can consider a small gift in your package as well.
Your competitors, the biggest ones, likely can’t afford to provide this kind of attention, being focused on optimization and costs... You have a great card to play!
Careful packaging
E-merchants often see packaging as a cost that must be kept to a minimum, whereas packaging can be carefully designed and in harmony with your brand image to surprise your customers.
Think about the media impact of sharing unboxing stories of your packages by your customers on social networks or on an influential blog!
Be proactive
Anticipation is the key word! By knowing your products inside out but also your ecommerce customer, the wow factor can only be anticipated or provoked in the best way, flawlessly!
For example, if there are delivery delays in an order, whether it’s your fault or not, the important thing to remember is that you don't want to wait for the customer to come and complain. Take the lead by explaining the situation and offering concrete solutions to support shoppers. You can add it to your homepage, for example, if the ecommerce period is busy, like during the Christmas season.
This way, the customer is going to be pleasantly surprised, and it's a sign of your seriousness. You’ll be able to surprise them in a positive way. The impact of ecommerce on traditional trade has changed the rules with consumers who are increasingly demanding on the internet.
As you likely have come to understand, you have to show empathy and put yourself in your customers' shoes, get to know your target audience as well as possible, take customer feedback into account, and anticipate these shoppers' needs. Then, take the time to detect the different ways where you can stand out and make your products memorable.
Online sales is an ultra-competitive field: the wow factor is essential to trigger emotion and stand out in the long term! It's up to you to make your business the revelation of your sector when building an ecommerce brand.
