Discover why customer experience is the 6th crucial factor in business success. Learn the psychology behind making customers like you, the 3 elements of every sale, and how to create seamless experiences that generate loyalty and referrals.
The sixth key factor to your marketing blueprint for success is absolutely delivering the most brilliant customer experience possible. Now this might seem obvious, but here's the problem... it's not obvious to most businesses, and I'll give you several examples of what I'm talking about.
Here's what you need to understand: price is only relevant based on the experience, and most people don't take the time to study the psychology behind this fundamental truth. I spend considerable time researching customer psychology because it directly impacts your bottom line and long-term business success.
Let me break down something crucial for your business growth. There are only three things you need to do to make a sale, and understanding this psychology is essential for your marketing blueprint success.
We provide comprehensive sales training for our customers and clients because their sales teams need to understand the connection between all marketing elements. If their message differs from the information you're putting out in the market, that breakdown will cost you money and lose customers.
Here are the three fundamental elements of every successful sale:
It really is that basic conceptually, but the execution requires understanding human psychology and customer behavior patterns.
The one element that happens in the middle... which acts as the glue between finding and filling customer needs... is the hardest to teach and the most crucial for business success. That middle element is getting people to like you.
Think about this logically: you're an electrician, landscaper, roofer, contractor, or service provider. You find customer needs every day. Someone contacts you because they have a problem that needs solving. You can fill that need once they've decided to hire you. But the way you connect those two elements is through the relationship you build in the middle.
Here's the best-kept secret in the entire world of marketing: you've got to get people to like you. Because if potential customers don't like you, it doesn't matter if you have the best product or service in the entire world.
Think about your own purchasing behavior. When was the last time you bought something of significant value from somebody you didn't like? It doesn't make sense because you don't spend time with people you don't like. If they offend you or upset you, you're done with that relationship.
Occasionally you might have to buy a product or service from someone because they're the only option available for that immediate need, but the reality is we want to buy from people we like... people who are like us, who we want to be like, who sound like us and understand us.
This psychology connects directly back to [your authentic business story]. Customers will like you because of your story. When they get to the point where they've identified their need and you're positioned to fill that need, they absolutely have to like you for the transaction to happen smoothly.
This is the simplest concept to teach every sales team and marketing team, but it's the hardest to execute because it boils down to creating an exceptional customer experience from start to finish.
You've got to make the entire process seamless and easy for your customers.
Let me share three key psychological principles that impact every customer interaction. You need to understand these concepts because they affect how customers respond to your business.
The majority of people will do the same things consistently when given the same situations. This is the psychological foundation of sales and marketing success.
We've been conditioned since we were very small to respond in certain ways. There's one word we've heard more than any other word, and that word is "no." This connects to the psychology I discuss in my red light, green light video about [business mindset and conditioning].
Think about all the conditioning phrases: "Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't touch this. You can't have it. You can't be that. You can't do that." These are all "no" phrases that create automatic defensive responses.
When somebody approaches your business, they immediately sense whether you're going to be a "red light" experience or a "green light" experience. This is a conditioned response that happens faster than conscious thought.
Here's how conditioning works in real situations: if somebody runs into a room and yells "fire," everyone runs out except firefighters who run toward the fire. That's a conditioned response based on training and experience.
The same conditioning affects customer behavior. If customers have a bad experience with a business, they're definitely going to share it. But very rarely do people spend time sharing good experiences unless you make it incredibly easy and worthwhile for them to do so.
People buy emotionally and rationalize logically. This is fundamental to understanding customer psychology and creating effective sales processes.
Customers want to feel connected to your business and the people behind it. If they like you, they'll buy from you, and then they'll justify that purchase based on the value you provide through your service or product.
The more value you build throughout the customer experience, the easier it becomes for customers to rationalize their decision to choose your business over competitors.
The third and most important psychological principle is to make the entire customer experience easy and seamless. Let me give you a perfect example of how this works in practice.
McDonald's provides an excellent case study in customer experience optimization. For those old enough to remember, McDonald's used to operate differently. You'd walk in and order: "I'd like a Quarter Pounder with cheese, please."
Then they'd ask the most powerful marketing question in history: "Would you like fries with that?" And immediately customers would think, "Of course! Who has a burger without fries?"
After that: "Would you like a drink?" Well, of course you need something to wash down the food.
Then: "Would you like an apple pie for dessert?" Sure, why not.
Finally: "Would you like to upsize your fries and drink for $0.29?" Absolutely, more food for a small additional cost.
Through this process, McDonald's sold five different items to one customer based on the experience they created. But this process took time and required multiple decision points.
Now when you go to McDonald's, you simply say "I'll take a number one, number three, number five, number seven"... everything's packaged together in easy-to-understand combinations.
As a customer, it's easier to say "I'll take combo one" than to make five separate purchasing decisions. This is brilliant customer experience design that makes purchasing effortless.
I don't know exactly how this McDonald's approach translates to your specific business because there are countless variations depending on your industry. At Exposure Marketing, we know how to apply these principles immediately to whatever business we're working with, but the fundamental concept remains the same across all industries.
The easier you make it for someone to buy your product or service, the more likely they are to make that purchase.
This customer experience principle explains why you need [multiple types of websites], why you need [your authentic business story], why you need [compelling video content], and why you need [strategic advertising and content] that connects all the dots for potential customers.
By the time prospects complete their journey with your business, they should feel genuine value, feel valued as customers, and trust that you know what you're doing because you've made everything easy for them to get their roof repaired, deck built, room painted, or whatever service they need.
This integration is challenging to teach because customer experience isn't your area of expertise... you're focused on running your business and serving customers. But understanding these psychological principles saves you time and money while dramatically improving your results.
When you implement these customer experience strategies correctly, you save yourself time and money by knowing exactly what to do. If someone pitches you marketing services or suggests approaches that contradict these principles, you'll know exactly what questions to ask.
You'll find that many marketers have lots of theoretical information about how things are supposed to work, but companies like ours have invested tens of thousands... if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years testing everything to ensure it actually generates results.
The most important part of any customer experience is measurable results. If you're not getting results from your marketing and customer experience efforts, you're wasting time and money.
But here's the benefit: your customers feel exactly the same way about results. When you create the best possible customer experience through a seamless system that makes everything easy, that becomes the experience customers will enthusiastically share through [video testimonials] because you made their entire journey smooth, efficient, and stress-free.
In home services businesses, managing expectations becomes crucial for customer satisfaction. Projects typically take time... maybe two weeks to complete a job. Delays happen when materials don't arrive, team members get sick, or subcontractors face scheduling conflicts.
The faster you communicate about potential issues, the better the customer experience becomes. When you proactively address challenges and keep customers informed, it demonstrates that you care about their project and their feelings throughout the process.
Customers want to know that you're paying attention to their concerns and treating their project as a priority. This communication becomes especially important on social media, where customers increasingly share both positive and negative experiences about businesses.
Remember this fundamental truth: you don't buy things from people you don't like. If people are sharing negative comments about your business online and no one responds to address those concerns, you're missing critical opportunities to show your commitment to customer satisfaction.
You need to respond as quickly as possible to give your side of the story so potential customers have complete information instead of just one perspective. When you actively engage with feedback... both positive and negative... you demonstrate transparency and accountability that builds trust with future customers.
If you don't actively manage your online reputation and customer communications, you're essentially shooting yourself in the foot and closing doors that should be wide open for new potential customers to build trust and become clients.
The more you focus on exceptional customer experience, the more you concentrate on these psychological principles we've discussed, the more powerful your business becomes for long-term success and sustainable growth.
Exceptional customer experience connects to every other element in your [marketing blueprint for business success]. When customers have outstanding experiences, they naturally want to share those experiences with others, creating organic [social proof] that attracts new customers without additional advertising costs.
Outstanding customer experiences also support your [email marketing efforts] because satisfied customers eagerly open and engage with communications from businesses they trust and appreciate.
The key to delivering consistent customer experience excellence is creating repeatable systems rather than relying on individual performance or luck. Every interaction point... from initial contact through project completion and follow-up... should be designed to reinforce your commitment to customer satisfaction.
This systematic approach ensures that every customer receives the same high-quality experience regardless of which team member they interact with or when they engage with your business.
When you combine systematic customer experience excellence with [compelling offers], [strategic content marketing], and [authentic business storytelling], you create what we call "magnetic marketing" that naturally attracts ideal customers who appreciate quality and value.
Don't let this information sit idle. Start by examining your current customer journey from the perspective of the three psychological principles we've discussed:
Remember that exceptional customer experience isn't just about being friendly or providing quality work... it's about understanding human psychology and designing every interaction to build trust, demonstrate value, and make everything as easy as possible for your customers.
The businesses that dominate their markets understand that customer experience is a competitive advantage that's difficult for competitors to replicate. When you consistently deliver experiences that exceed expectations, you create loyal advocates who generate referrals and positive reviews that fuel your business growth.
Your customer experience strategy could be the difference between struggling to find new customers and having more qualified referrals than you can handle. The choice is yours, but the psychological principles we've discussed are proven to work across every industry when applied consistently and strategically.
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