How to Create Exceptional Experiences

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0:52Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Chance, And my guest today is Neen James. She is a globally recognized leadership and customer experience expert, sought after keynote speaker and author. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies and fast growth businesses alike, helping them turn ordinary interactions into extraordinary results with a focus on attention, intentionality and luxury levers that we're going to talk about today. Neen is passionate about making businesses more memorable, profitable, and impactful. And we are going to unpack her latest book, Exceptional Experiences, Five Luxury Lovers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business.

1:37So Neen, welcome back. G'day. What a treat it is to be back with you. It's been a minute since we got to play like this. That's right. So we need to start here, I think, because you kind of opened the book by saying, okay, let's talk about this word luxury, what it actually is, right? Because I think we think Ritz Carlton, we think Rolex, we think Mercedes, whatever. I'm not sure those are the most luxurious brands, but you get the point. That's how people think. So if I'm an accounting firm or I'm a remodeling contractor, what does luxury have to do with me? Yeah, I think luxury is a divisive word, John.

2:11I think to your point, some people think it's expensive or it's elitist or it's unapproachable. And yet I'm on this mission to really reframe and change the narrative around that. It's my belief that luxury is both inclusive and exclusive. So inclusive, John, meaning I think luxury is for everyone every day. It's just that our definitions of luxury are different. We can get into that. But I think it's exclusive because we all have the privilege of being able to roll out, a red carpet experience for our clients, for our team members. And so if you look at my body of work, you mentioned intentionality and attention.

2:49So if you think back through the books that I've already written, Folding Time, I said to the world, you can't manage time, but you can manage your attention. And then I published Attention Pays, where I said it's really intention that makes attention valuable. And I had shared that attention's about connection, right? And I see my new book, Exceptional Experiences, is the evolution of all of those things. Because what I believe is that it's really luxury is about the human connection. And now more than ever before in our digital AI world, John, I think we're all craving that human connection.

3:24So really to me, luxury, what it means to me and what it means to you could be different. And so what I did was a research study on that very topic. So even luxury as a word, John, it is one that we all need to kind of think about what it means to us personally and what it means to brand. Yeah. And I think a lot of people jump immediately to, you know, gold plating or something. I mean, you know, like the tangible things, right? And I think I may have read this actually in your work. It's really more, luxury is more of a feeling or how you make somebody feel, right? Or how whatever the product or purchasing the product makes you feel.

4:02And I think that's probably the, I mean, should we even say luxurious? Does that sound more like a feeling? Yeah, and I think it is. But John, I think too, what makes you feel special and feels like luxurious to you could be different to someone else. But we all have this power. I assure you it is. I assure you it is. We have this power to create these experiences for others, which is why the book has been called Exceptional Experiences, because I think one of the things that I did when I did this proprietary research study, the only one of its kind in the world. And while people had different versions of what luxury is, they have different mindsets, John.

4:42What they all agreed was that luxury could be defined as high quality, long lasting, unique, authentic, and indulgent. Now, indulgent is the word that most people will be like, well, you know, some people are like, oh, I don't know if that's me. But think about all the other four words, John, they could apply to leadership, high quality, long lasting, authentic and unique. And so that's truly how luxury is defined. So then what we do is we take it a step further and say, well, what does luxury mean for you? And that would be different. So also in the subtitle, five luxury levers, attention, anticipation, personalization, generosity, gratitude.

5:23Did I get that right? Yeah. So we have taken these five luxury levers and what we've said is because of all the consulting that I do with global brands, whether it's as a keynote or whether I'm a confidant to the CEOs working with their teams, what I realized was this experience elevation model, which is the framework is inside the book. You can all see that in the book is what I realized is my CEOs are measured on two things. And so are so many of the small businesses listening to this or the marketing professionals. And that is they're measured on mindshare and market share. The model has been designed so that you do everything from capturing the attention of the clients you want to work with, right?

6:03Which as marketers, we always were in the attention business, right? How do we capture the attention? And so that is really top of mind. How do you really grab that mind share all the way through to the pinnacle of the model is how do you create advocates of those same people, which is really about driving revenue, which is about market share. So if you think top of mind, top of market, what my experience elevation model does inside the book, it's just a framework that anyone can apply as you entice people to do business with you and invite them into your community. You get them excited about what you're offering and then delight them with all the different ways you can do that.

6:40So you ignite them to be advocates. That's the five luxury even. All right. So let's unpack them, each of the words, can we? Yeah. You say lever, I say lever. Yeah, we can go with whatever makes you feel comfortable. But I know our listeners are probably saying, what did she say? Lever? Lever? We can go with lever for today. Okay. So attention is kind of a loaded word for marketers, you know, right? Because it's getting really noisy. There's so many distractions because everybody's trying to get our attention. So what are some practical ways that attention is more about being present rather than being loud?

7:17It is. and I mean John think about it as marketers we're brilliant storytellers but what I think we need to do is and while the book does mention storytelling as a system of elevation of course because we need to be able to tell stories one of the stories that can really capture people's attention is origin stories if you look to luxury brands like Chanel if you've even walked into a Chanel makeup counter in your department store every product every piece of merchandise every name is associated with Coco herself. And as the sales associate explains the name of that lipstick and why it is the way it is and that the merchandise has been designed like the staircase in her apartment in Paris.

7:58All of a sudden, as a consumer, you're like, oh, I need that lipstick because I want to be closer to Chanel. So when it comes to attention, it's not just about storytelling. It's also about the origin story so that people get to understand why you as the small business owner, why you as the marketer are so passionate. But another system and a practical thing we talk about here as far as capturing attention, John, is being more collaborative and being very creative. Billy Car Samon, one of my favorite champagne houses, they partnered with Huntsman Seville Row, a bespoke suit tailor. Now, what do those two businesses have in common?

8:34Well, they share the same kind of clients. But what they were able to do was to create a tweed that was based on champagne, The white flowers, the white foam of champagne, the steel vats or the silver, the green leaves of the vines. And so they created a tweed based on their partnership that they then sold to their clients. So understanding that if we want to capture attention now, John, we have to do it in more creative ways through the origin stories, through the collaborations we have. But being present for some of us in the most practical sense is sometimes just putting our phone down. Sometimes it's just actually looking at the person and saying hello and making them feel seen and heard.

9:16That's a very easy way for all of us, no matter what business we're in, to be more present. Right. I want to go to another one, and we don't have to unpack all five of these, but one that I thought was kind of curious, or I'm curious about, was anticipation as the hallmark of luxury. Can you maybe use an example of that one? Yeah. Oh, I love this. Case studies. Yes. When you think about it, the luxury lever, to use your word, of delight is, you know, how do we anticipate needs that people don't even know they have? And let's think about this. If you, I think too often as marketers, as small businesses, as managers of businesses, we act like the bellhop.

9:55And a bellhop in a hotel is vital. They move the bags quickly through the hotel lobby and up to your room and efficiency is key and it's very transactional for them, right? But if you think about it, we don't want to think like a bellhop. We want to think like a concierge because a concierge, John, they're the most well-known, revered position in a hotel. They're the go-to person, which is what we want to be as a small business or a marketer, right? And what they do is they get us that ticket to that particular concert or that table we couldn't get that reservation. But here's how a concierge is different.

10:28The concierge anticipates needs we didn't even know we had. They make suggestions in our community or in the hotel or things we didn't even know we wanted. But what that requires is a fascination. Luxury brands are genius at personalization and customization. Personalization is really about information. And as marketers, we have a lot of information data points. Customization is about connection. How do you connect in a deeper way to the clients who already love you or want to do business with you? But I think it is fascination that requires that anticipation. We have to be so curious about the people we want to serve, John, that we ask the extra questions, that we get to give them our undivided attention.

11:15So personalization, customization, fascination, this anticipation, we need to have systems in place to do that. We need to teach our team to be more curious, to spend more time, to capture those data points so we can use it in our conversations later. It might be the simplicity of a newsletter that you have and actually using the person's name and capturing their first name in your sign up form. So that's the simplest, easiest way and get it right. So the spelling is correct. But less like at the simplest form, we love the sound of our own name, John. You know, if you go into your coffee shop and they know your name or your favorite restaurant, you just smile a little bigger because someone saw you.

11:56That's what anticipation. You know, it's funny. I mean, some of this is right out of, in some ways, is right out of How to Win Friends and Influence People, right? Dale Carnegie said it himself in the early 1900s that when he wrote that book, he says, a person's name is the sweetest sound. And it was right back then, and it's as right today as it was back then. But the stealth message, don't tell anyone, but the real message of this book, John, is how do you make people feel seen, heard, and valued? Luxury brands do that so, so well. My whole body of work is about how do you create these moments that matter for people?

12:33And he had it right when he wrote that book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. And we all crave that. This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Morningmate. Morningmate unifies communication and task tracking and puts all your projects in one place. It's used for everything from internal meetings to client projects. The advanced plan, which gives you up to 300 members, is a fixed price of$199 a month. It's totally scalable for growing teams. Get a free 30-day trial today at MorningMate.com. You talk about something, because I'm sure there's some people that are starting to say, okay, this is great.

13:16How do we start thinking this way or bringing this around? You talk about something you call experience audits. You want to walk us through that? Yeah, I think it doesn't matter. You don't have to have a luxury product to provide a luxury level of service, right? So you could be running a mechanic shop. I use the same consulting model when I'm working with the emergency rooms for some of my hospital clients. So you can apply these five luxury levers at any business. It's really about finding the system of elevation that makes the most sense for you and what you're trying to achieve. But an easy experience for it is maybe you could even find out what the luxury points are not.

13:54What doesn't feel like luxury in your business? If there's too many forms to fill out, if the lines are too long, if there's weeds in your garden, if there's dusty old magazines in your reception area. It's very easy to see and look around what's not luxury, John. That's a really easy starting point. I do encourage businesses, regardless of what type of business you have, to if you want to upskill your team to provide a more luxury level of service, send them to a hotel lobby, give them a budget, get them to order a coffee and sit and observe what's going on. Do they notice the way the staff move, they dress, they speak, the sounds, the smells, the touch points, the service they receive?

14:36Allow your team members to enjoy some luxury so they understand it and then get them to come back and debrief it with the team. What did they see, hear, smell, touch? What was all the senses that were engaged in that experience so they can do an audit out into the world as well? I also really encourage my teams, the clients I work with, to mystery shop, have someone mystery shop their business. Now, this is an old technique, yet it's still valid for today, right? Right. Mystery shop your competitors. Mystery shop, have someone mystery shop your business and then do a bit of a readout so the team get to hear this was their experience.

15:14There's so many ways you can do an experience audit. it you know it's funny some when i think back in hindsight some of the best experiences luxury experiences i've had it wasn't the place wasn't trying to be that they weren't trying to put that on as like oh we're very like you said exclusive they just did everything in some ways you don't notice luxury right and it's easy because one of the things that often is associated with luxury is ease. The Ritz has a, they have a preference that you only ever enter your information once. Now let's think about this. Like I was at a hotel this week. I mean, I travel for a living.

15:51That's my job. Some people drive, I fly. It's the same thing. It's just a different form of community. So I stay in a lot of hotels. And every time I opened my computer, I had to add my hotel room and my name for the wifi. I mean, multiple times, think of how often we open and close our computer. And so the Ritz has got it right because they're like, let's just enter your information once. So now the system says, I see you, Mr. Jantz. I'm so glad that you're back with us. And then that's all you have to do. So sometimes luxury is easy. How do we make it really easy for people to do business with us?

16:22Yeah. So, all right. If you were going to, I loved, I love doing this to people that write books and they have like five key things or seven key things. And I asked them to pick the fit, not only their favorite, but like if somebody came to you and they probably do this at the end of a talk, right? Okay. That's all great. I mean, but. Like, what's the one thing I need to focus on for the next 30 days? What would you tell them? I can tell you what my favorite thing is that often gets overlooked. And that is, how do you really engage the five senses? Because, John, we all know this, especially as marketers, that our sense of smell gives us a deeper emotional connection to a brand.

17:01We can smell a meal or a fragrance from someone who's important to us, and all of a sudden we're transported back. Look at something like the Edition Hotels. they have a signature fragrance. If I walk into the Tampa edition, the Madrid edition, or the New York edition hotel, every time I know exactly where I am because they have a signature scent. I would invite people that regardless of what business you're in, how do you engage the five senses? And if you're a digital business, if everything's 100 % online, think about how you're using the language of sight and smell and touch and think about how do you elevate that.

17:36Look at IKEA. 60 % of the purchases at IKEA are unplanned. Why? Because they deliberately appeal to all five senses. You smell the meatballs, you walk through the store, you touch the fabrics, you build it yourself. And then$500 later that you didn't even know you needed to spend, you've got a whole lot of to-do list items because you've been shopping at IKEA. They're geniuses. So I would say to people We'll just start with thinking, how do we engage the sensors in the lobby, the reception, the collaterals, all of those things? Yeah, I was going to ask you, not just digital businesses. I mean, every type of business is using more automation.

18:14We're using AI. We're becoming more efficient. We're in some ways distancing the customer. How do you take advantage of the fact that I think people are craving that more because they're losing it? because I do things like I still write handwritten notes I'm a big fan of a handwritten note and so that's an easy way to say to a client we really appreciate doing business with you and it costs me a stamp and two minutes of my time I'm also a fan of sending like what I call lumpy mail so like actual packages in the post so that someone opens it because if you get your mail at the end of the day I don't know about you but all the white envelopes generally equal some sort of bill or invoice.

18:56So if I get something that feels like a present, it's awesome. It's a credit card. Okay, I'm going to go. There you go. There you go. So I think what we need to think about is how do we bring the human connection back into those opportunities? How about instead of just sending an email, what if you got out your cell phone and you shot a short video and sent a text message and said, I love doing business with you. By the way, we just got this new set of tires in. I think They'd be great for your car. I just wanted to let you know about them. Here's a picture of them. Send. Like imagine if we brought our voice, our human voice back into business through video messaging, through the text messaging, through voice notes.

19:37There's so easy ways. It still feels like a system of elevation, but instead of just sending yet another email that's going to land in someone's inbox and get cluttered up by the 200 other emails they have? What if you leverage that personal touch? That's the type of thing. If you see something and say, hey, I saw this and I thought of you, that's a very easy line to say to a customer, I see you, I hear you, I know you're important to me. That's why I think luxury is about human connection. And I do think, I mean, I personally recognize when somebody, I mean, it's easy to hit like you said, send to 20 ,000 people at once, right?

20:14That's why it's appealing because you can Sure, it's efficient, but that's thinking like a bellhop. I was going to say, but I personally notice when somebody does something that I know they can't automate. Yes. And it's more obvious now, John. And so when you think about it, if you really want people to pay attention to what you're doing, you don't want to be like everybody else. You want to think about, for example, I use Pink. My brand is Pink, if people didn't know that and you're listening to this. I use Pink Mailers for books that I send out. Does it cost a little more? Sure. But when people get it, they say, I know it was from you immediately because there's a consistency of the brand, right?

20:53But I still have to ship things. So I might as well just choose something that feels a little bit more unique. I handwrite labels so that they know that it's my handwriting that I took the time to send it to them. That's why I like to write a handwritten note. That you can't, I mean, you can, that's not true. You can automate that kind of thing now. But I feel like we have to think about, especially those top tier clients that we're serving, what is it that we're doing for them? It could be the simplicity, John, of having a private event. Maybe let's say you're working, going back to the tire shop example.

21:27You might be running a tire shop, which does not feel like luxury, but you know what you could do? You could open a little bit earlier for your top tier clients. They could meet the mechanics. They could explain more about the tires and the wheel balancing and how you take care of them and what to do in bad weather. And all of a sudden, you're getting more of an exclusive luxury experience from your local tire dealer. It doesn't take a lot of thought, but it does take effort. Yes. And it's also interesting. I mean, you expect a luxury experience from the bespoke tailor. I mean, that's the bar of entry for them.

22:04Right. So imagine this business that you're not really expecting that from. What a differentiator. Right. Yes. And then because it's so differentiated, the client can't help but tell other people. We used a Tyler for a home project many years ago. I cannot tell you how many times I have referred that Tyler. They had perfectionism like I've never seen before. They cleaned up. They were so lovely, so polite, well-groomed. And people want that level of service from anyone who's in their home. but this Tyler, he went above and beyond all of that. And so what I want people to think about is luxury, that connection point.

22:40What is it you could do to anticipate things people didn't even know they needed, therefore thinking more like a concierge. We can all do that. We just have to invest the time and energy to think about it in advance. Then you can systemize it. And now we're back to attention. Always about attention, John. So Dean, I appreciate you taking a few moments to stop by. Where would you invite people to connect with you, obviously find out about your work and your latest book. Neenjames.com. You can find out everything there. You can also download a free self-assessment to find out what your own luxury mindset is.

23:12It'll take you less than five minutes to do it. It's free. So go to the website, neenjames.com, grab your copy of the book and download the assessment. Awesome. Again, I appreciate you taking a moment and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road. I would love that. Thank you for everything you do in the world, John.

23:38We'll see you next time.