Customer Delight Strategy For Retail – Steps, Examples and Ideas

Suppose a consumer visits 20 stores and sees 100 messages on his smartphone in a day. How do you make sure you stand out? That customers are so delighted that they mention your shop in conversations. The best way to do this is to exceed customer expectations. That’s easier said than done. Especially if the customer already has high expectations. In this guide you will discover the best examples and ideas of customer delight in retail. But first, let’s discuss meaning and importance. After that we look at a good strategy and practical tools you can start with in your store.

In this article we cover:

• Definition
• Why it is not for everyone
• The importance for most businesses
• Checklist and framework
• Strategy steps for retail shop
• Examples and Ideas

Meaning: Customer delight is the highest level of customer satisfaction. You reach this level if you exceed customer expectations. Also in a survey, the client gives the company a score of 9 or higher on a scale of 10. The power of this is that the customer will recommend your company to others. For this you should do something remarkable and personal. Discover ideas and the strategy below.

To get straight to the point; many companies will not achieve customer delight. It also may not be the gold you are hoping for. Therefore, we would like to share two reasons why you shouldn’t include this in your strategy.

Do you strive to offer the lowest price to customers (Operational Excellence)? In that case, you want to make all processes as efficient as possible. Then it may not make sense to get started with exceeding expectations. Because for this you have to do something extra, which further increases the costs.

Still, only one company can be the cheapest. As a small company, you would rather not focus on this. Because it is difficult to compete with a large company on price. In that case, it is better to include customer delight in your strategy. However, there is another reason why it is better to wait with this.

With a smile and good advice you may meet expectations, but exceeding it requires something extra. This is a creative challenge, because before you know it, this service has become the new standard. As a child, for example, I expected a balloon at McDonald’s and now a handwritten card from an ecommerce company. If you don’t get that next time, you will have a less good experience.

Maybe that’s why it’s better to put more energy in having the basics in order. Because the negative effect of not meeting the expectation is 4 times greater than exceeding the expectation. Therefore, put at least 80% of your time to get the basics right . For example, doing what you promise, answering questions quickly, giving good advice and support in case of problems.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to continue to improve the customer experience, because as a retailer, the distinctiveness is mainly in the services surrounding the product. It’s also much more powerful when someone recommends your business rather than promoting yourself.

Customer delight is therefore the way to stand out of the crowd and to get real attention through ambassadors. This will help improve your brand reputation and increase sales.

Happy customers will be more loyal to your store. By making this part of your strategy, you can make sure that the same customer is coming back more often. They trust that you can help them with their problems.

On the other hand, it is a stronger force against detractors. If someone talks negatively about your company (which of course you should try to avoid), an ambassador maybe will respond to this to nuance it.

Happy customers will spend more in the long run. Furthermore, it is way easier to sell something to someone who already bought from you than to someone who never heard of you before. That is why we can say that the cost of sales can also be reduced if the customer is satisfied.

When they recommend your store to friends and family, you also increase your brand reputation. This can lead to more customers without having to invest more in marketing. In the next chapter, let’s look at ways to practically implement this in your strategy.

In this framework you discover all actions we should take to exceed expectations. To get to the level of customer delight we should get to number 9 or 10. Therefore, you first must get the basics in place, so the customer is already satisfied with your shop. We could divide this framework into three levels:

1 – 4 The customer is not really satisfied yet: Be enthusiastic, Respond quickly, Be helpful, Do what you promise.

5 – 8 The customer is satisfied: Offer value for money, Help them succeed, Show empathy, Listen to feedback.

9 & 10 Customer delight: Be unexpected, Build a community.

For every of these subjects you get a point within the framework. Let’s briefly discuss them:

Be enthusiastic – Welcome the customer and smile. Be cheerful and enthusiastic about the day. Happy people make happy people.

Respond quickly – Is there a question or does someone need something? Respond quickly. Whether in-store or by email.

Be helpful – Sometimes people need advice or a helping hand. Show that you like to help and want to be there for them.

Do what you promise – Keep a promise and actually do it.

Offer value for money – Make it clear what people get when they buy something to set the right expectations.

Help them succeed – Help the customer to get the most out the service or product by explaining best practices.

Show empathy – Deeply care about the feelings of your customer. Whether they talk about something or if they have experienced something. It is also great if you for example recognize a returning customer.

Listen to feedback – It is not always nice to hear, but make sure you take note of it and try to improve the product or service. When they had a bad experience, really apologize for it.

Be unexpected – Surprise customers to really amaze them (see below examples).

Build a community – Easier said than done, but involve your customer and try to make them part of your business.

Alright, enough reasons to start adding customer delight to your retail strategy. Let’s get to work! Discover below the 5 practical steps how you can implement it in your business. Save or share this page so that it can provide guidance during implementation.

As you can see in the framework above, it are often logical points that form the basis of customer satisfaction. Yet it is precisely on these first 8 points that things often go wrong. So what are the best steps to implement these into your store:

Exceeding customer expectations is something you should do every day to make it a success. That is why it is important to align customer delight with the company philosophy. For example, serve a higher purpose and really help people solve their challenge without expecting anything in return. Because it’s hard work, if you’re only doing it for word of mouth and more sales.

Simple examples:

Change ‘Selling jewelry’ into ‘Boost the look of people’.
Change ‘Selling bread’ into ‘Inspire people to eat more healthy’

As a store owner making more sales will probably be enough motivation (it is your business), but employees like to serve a higher purpose. Therefore, draw up a mission and vision and write down some values and principles that you stand for with the company. Then print them on a piece of paper and hang it in a visible place in the coffee corner or in the store so that every employee can see it. This creates a framework for the team and creates more clarity and inspiration to get started.

Also make it a goal to amaze one customer per day (so put in that extra effort). It doesn’t sound like much, but think about doing this 5 times a week? Then after a year you still have 260 ambassadors! Are you doing this with 10 people? Then you have 2600 delighted customers after 1 year. You can’t have better marketing!

So to amaze customers, you need to personalize it as best you can. Therefore it is essential to give employees the freedom to act accordingly. Because the people who have contact with the consumer make the difference. They must have a feeling for the people in front of them. That is also why step 1 is so important; the team needs to know when they meet and when they exceed expectations.

Furthermore, give them the responsibility. For example, you can give (certain) employees a small daily budget to amaze a customer. For example, to send a personal card or to give a customer something as a gift. In the next chapter you will find more real-life examples.

The most important thing is that the employee is involved in the process. They have to know why it is important to exceed expectations. Most time you see that the manager or store owner is coming up with the idea. He or she than expects that the employee understands the associated behaviour. Unfortunately, in most cases it does not lead to a structural change, because the team needs more guidance. Therefore the next steps are so important.

As you could discover in the framework, it is mainly about astonishing and surprising the consumer to get to level 9 or 10. This process requires creativity. Fortunately, if you sit down for a while, there are countless ways to get started with this. So after working out the store philosophy and setting up the idea to give employees more freedom, the next step is to explain it to your team.

Plan a meeting and brainstorm session to inspire employees to get started. Use the real-life examples below as a starting point and let them come up with ideas as well. Also provide simple tools, such as smiling, customer recognition and quick responding. Note that the means by which customer expectations have been exceeded does not set the new standard. So make sure that you don’t get yourself into structural costs with certain ideas.

Alright, than just start to amaze customers! It is always a game of learning and trial and error. Therefore, it is important to measure all efforts. In that way you can see results. Here are a few tips for measurement:

Nothing is perfect from the beginning.  Reflecting on the results will motivate the team to move forward. This is very important in the first months, before it becomes part of the business identity and a routine in day-to-day business.

Set up a short reflection meeting after one week, two weeks and one month. Show the results during this session and don’t forget to celebrate every good action together.

Now let’s look at some of the best examples of customer delight and ideas in practice. You can see them as marketing promotions to really create ambassadors. People who talk about your company to friends and family.

Remember, it’s important to make this as personal as possible. In addition, make sure that the basics to meet expectations are in place (which can sometimes be difficult enough). For this, see the chapter on strategy above.

Say what?! As a retailer you are not a bank, right? Despite this, we once heard this story from a customer who had forgotten his wallet. The shop said she could take the product with her and come back the next day to pay. When the customer said out loud that she couldn’t go to another store for groceries now, the shopkeeper took money from the cash register to lend it to the customer. Now there is a chance that the money will not come back the next day. But in many cases it is, especially if it is someone who has bought from you before. Think about, how often will this be mentioned on a birthday or in the family circle?

Let’s just say it went all wrong with a delivery. The customer had to wait a week longer for a sparepart before the product could be repaired. Of course this was the supplier’s fault and not yours either. How nice is it if you still meet this inconvenience. For example, by first making a sincere apology that this is not the speed you stand for. Than you say; “Dear James, here you go. This is a gift for you today.”

My wife and I were looking for a new floor. We found a company where they had good deals. It was quite a drive to get there, but you would like to see a floor in real life before you buy it. When we arrived, it was very busy. Apparently more people came here for a good deal.

The nice thing was that you could have hamburgers and drinks for free! This gave us a good feeling after the long drive and the funny thing is that we have told this experience more than 5 times to others. For the retailer this didn’t cost much in terms of purchasing. Especially if you compare it with a new order.

It is great if someone knows your name and can remember a previous conversation. This is easier for smaller businesses than big stores. Mainly for shops where you have to make an appointment, like a barber. For example, my barber is always greeting me with my first name when I come in.

When I moved to a place an hour away, I went to another hairdresser for a while which is also cheaper. I started to miss ‘my hairdresser’, so now I combine it with a day at the office.

Is it your customer’s birthday? Is there a wedding coming up or did a loved one just passed away? Maybe you can show a little bit of love by sending a personal card or message. It can just be something simple and does not has to be time consuming.

Another idea I heard in a video from Garyvee. He saw on twitter that a customer was a big fan of a specific sports team. So he bought a promotional item and sent it along with the order. He didn’t heard anything from the particular customer in question. But a few weeks later, he got a big order from a friend of that particular customer.

A few years ago I bought a suit, because I was getting married. In the store I was helped extremely well during the selection. A date was then agreed to pick up the order and try on the suit again. On the particular date we found out that an extra shirt had not arrived. Without hesitation, the store salesman decided to drop it off at my house a few days later.

Even afterwards my expectations were exceeded again. The day before the wedding I received a WhatsApp message from the store employee. He wished me a nice day. You don’t forget moments like this so quickly, because you don’t expect it. I sent him a photo of the wedding day afterwards. With constant attention you create loyal customers.

Honest advice is valued by a customer. This is much better than making him feel like he’s being ripped off by something expensive. A good example is whether the cheaper product also meets the customer’s wishes. Perhaps this is already part of the basics of customer satisfaction rather than exceeding them.

Eliminating friction can also turn a customer into an ambassador. For example, installing a new laptop that has just been purchased. The more you can unburden the customer and help them on their way to success, the happier they will be with you.

It is great if you can create a connection a personal level. There are examples of employees who, in addition to the work-related topic, take ample time to discuss personal matters. This gives the customer the feeling that he is understood. This is a good step forward to build loyalty. So give employees the freedom to do this and reserve some extra time for a customer.

I know several people who drive past different stores to visit a specific shop. The argument is then that precisely that store has so much choice. That’s why I thought this it also an interesting example to mention. It’s about being distinctive enough from other stores. Whether that is through the selection of the assortment or by building up a personal connection.

Now it’s your turn! Share this article with colleagues and use the ideas and examples to delight customers. I’m also very curious about your opinion, so leave it in the comments below.