Winning The Moments of Truth
One of the essential
elements in every business is to recognize where the Moments of Truth are
for your guest. One could make a case that every moment is a crucible which
may tip the consumer up or down the Raving Fandom Ladder, which looks something
like this
Ultimately, it takes that kind of fanaticism, where every moment is "The
Moment of Truth", to create masterful brand experiences, where your guests
are committed Raving Fans, evangelizing to the world the wonders to be
found with your brand. It may seem daunting.
The truth is most of the world is asleep, so actually starting somewhere
puts you ahead of the crowd. Branding is emotional work, or more precisely,
work on the emotions. The consumer most likely already has their conception
of your brand personality, flaws and all, firmly embedded in amygdala,
the brain's center of pleasure, passion and buying. Your place on the
ladder of Raving Fandom is firmly set there. The beauty and curse of the
amygdala is that logic will not penetrate its walls. Emotion created through
human connection and dynamic aesthetics is the only means to get through.
To shift your status up the ladder of Raving Fandom begins here,
Every business needs a Brand Story, a linear description of the ideal
branded experience. Within that story are the critical Moments of Truth
that drive it. These are the ones with which to start. Regardless of your
business, I suggest you have at least five Moments of Truth. They are
captured by these sentences:
-- "Hello, come on in."
-- Welcome, what can I do for you?
-- I will do what it takes to make this experience WOW.
-- Thank you.
-- Good bye and come back soon.
Look at these five moments beyond the social niceties, which, by the
way, are powerful unto themselves. Look at them through the brand prism.
Hello
This is the shorthand used to staking your brand purpose and values
into the sand. Hello isn't just a means of greeting, but a way to establish
your brand's essential attitude toward your guest. I don't care what has
happened to your guest prior to "Hello", when done properly, it will change
poison into ambrosia and be a catalyst to lift your guest up the Ladder
of Raving Fandom What are the brand benefits of "Hello"?
"Hello" gives the functional brand benefit of starting the brand journey;
the place a guest transitions from 'what has come before' to a new reality.
A hello that is genuine and consistently offered eases the guest through
that transition. We often think that it is only kids who have trouble
with transitions. Don't kid your self. We grown-ups have just gotten slicker
at hiding our anxiety.
Hello also offers the emotional brand benefit of confirming that emotional
state your guest is really seeking, the one that supercedes the mechanical
gain of a particular product or service. Think of Starbucks, whose emotional
brand benefit is all about enhancing and deepening their guests feeling.
Their Starbucks is a refuge, a Safe Place from the madness of the Outside
World. It's not about the coffee.
Lastly, it is an opportunity to make an aspirational brand benefit hit
home. For Lexus, hello can connote not just the emotion of elegance and
luxury, but of "Having made it and living the Good Life"
Welcome, what can I do for you?
Here the initial emotional impact of 'Hello' (remember we're fighting
to penetrate the amygdala) is broadened, deepened, giving you the chance
to expand your hospitality from the handshake of hello to the spread arms
of 'welcome'. It's a Moment of Truth, where you take this basic social
nicety and up the ante. Have it pack a wallop. When Harley says "Welcome",
it's to the promise of a ride on the open road with brothers and sisters.
"Welcome" is never just "Welcome", but an invitation for your guest to
enter your brand's story, in all its color and glory. The "What can I
do for you" is the natural follow through as you want the guest to know
that they are Captains on this trip. The fastest way to the brain's brand
central is to have it feel like it's in control.
I will do what it takes to make this experience WOW.
Here's where the overture of Hello and Welcome is followed by the Show.
This Moment of Truth is long, indeed. But the key is responding to the
guest's essential emotional and aspirational benefit needs, rather than
only the functional. Many operators spend much of their time with their
'actors' focusing on the mechanics of this portion of the Brand Story,
but not on the emotion. Mechanics are important, no doubt. A WOW brand
is premised on superior product and service as a pre-requisite. The real
WOW, the propulsion to lift a guest up the Ladder of Raving Fandom, is
rooted in the attitude that you are committed to doing what it takes to
make the experience WOW - defined in whatever branded emotional and aspirational
way you've devised. If I feel you care that I have a WOW experience, I
will overlook a good deal of human frailty.
Thank you.
Few businesses say thank you. The several that do, tend to wait until
you're on your way out. You're missing a golden opportunity to WOW. When
I get the bill, it is a Moment of Truth. Here the guest makes an instantaneous
evaluation of all that has come before. It is rife with pure emotion,
the kind that goes to the amygdala and has a party. I would venture to
say that if consumers were wired up so their chemical brain activity was
recorded; this Moment of Truth would rank high on the Richter Scale. Take
this moment and acknowledge the exchange of money and thank the guest
for their patronage. Whatever may actually occur at 'check time', recognizing
your guest's payment at the moment they give you their cash or credit
card is a mighty potent act of thanksgiving.
Good bye and come back soon.
Here, the brand story gains closure and the brain's pleasure center
recalibrates its feeling toward your brand. It is a moment where you can
intensify the golden feelings of delight you hope to have created for
them. It is a moment they recertify (or not) the emotional and aspirational
benefits they sought in buying your brand. At the Ritz, it isn't just
good manners, but affirmation that I am royalty - at least for that moment.
There are plenty of other Moments of Truth to look at, but I suggest
you take these five to heart and really consider how each fits into your
brand's story and reflects your Guiding Principles. By revisiting and,
perhaps more powerfully imbuing your brand's mechanical, emotional and
aspirational brand benefits into these five Moments of Truth, you have
a shot at elevating your guest up a rung or two, toward Raving Fandom.
Richard K. Hendrie is the Chief Experience Officer of Link Inc., a restaurant consulting and coaching firm.