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The HubSpot Flywheel revolves around customers feeding growth. To turn strangers and prospects into customers, you need to work through the Attract and Engage stages. But to turn them into promoters, you need to delight them - the final stage. Customer delight is all about making sure your customers are happy and that they stay loyal to your brand.
Here’s why you should care about it.
What is customer delight?
Rather than chuck a load of my own wisdom your way about what customer delight is, here’s how HubSpot defines it.
“Customer delight is exceeding a customer’s expectations to create a positive customer experience with a product or brand. By going above and beyond to create a memorable customer experience - with things like discounts, gifts, promotions or spontaneous outreach - you can foster an emotional connection and sense of goodwill among customers that will make them more likely to be loyal to your brand long-term.”
This basically means to achieve customer delight, you need to provide a remarkable experience by focusing on the users’ needs, wants, interests and wishes. You need to make sure your consumers are happy and they stay that way after buying your product or service.
The end goal of customer delight is to leave these people so satisfied and happy that they go out of their way to shout about you - telling your best friend’s colleague’s cousin’s great grandad’s next door neighbour just how good your brand, product or service is.
But to build a relationship with them that can stand the test of time, you need to focus on delighting both your existing customers and potential ones. You also need to delight them within each interaction they have with your business, such as checking out your amazing blog, downloading your prices, using your chatbot and anything in between.
Do this consistently and you’ll enjoy the rewards. You’ll build a stronger relationship with your customers that will make them want to stay loyal brand advocates and promote your business.
Hang on a sec… Isn’t that just customer satisfaction?
Nope.
Although they sound a bit similar, customer delight is all about surpassing expectations to build a long-term, positive experience around your brand, product or service. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is when you simply meet expectations - not exceed them.
Sure, satisfying customers is great. But it’s those delighted customers that are more likely to stay loyal and shout about you to others.
Why is customer delight important?
It’s crucial to delight your customers. They can be your biggest advocates and get more eyes on you but they can also be the loudest detractors and let others know about their bad experiences with you. You need your customers to feel like they’re important and you genuinely care about them post-transaction.
It’s cheaper to retain delighted customers
No business can afford to disappoint its customers or ignore the importance of delighting customers with the goal of retaining them. In fact, a study from The White House Office of Consumer Affair found that it costs businesses 6-7 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.
If you’re not delighting customers, chances are they could run to your competition instead which leaves you with the extra cost of trying to attract and engage new prospects and turn them into customers. Keep them delighted and sticking around is more cost-effective in the long run.
Need some proof? The Harvard Business Review found that it’s anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one.
Discover new opportunities
A good way to delight customers and show them you care is by listening to them. Feeling appreciated is the number one reason customers switch away from products and services, which suggests they tend to stick with brands that listen to them.
Active listening shows you’re paying attention to their needs which makes customers feel good. When you listen to them, you’ll discover new opportunities to build on your current relationships which can improve your business at the same time.
Expand sales opportunities
Delighted customers can pretty much be walking billboards for your company. Whether it’s friends and family or anyone else listening online, you can take advantage of delighted customers sharing their satisfaction with others.
Today, people take online reviews seriously and platforms like Instagram and Google Reviews have raised those expectations. People are looking for recommendations outside of their circle of friends and your delighted customers sharing their positive experiences can help you drive more sales.
The more loyal advocates you have, the more people your customers’ experiences can reach.
Maintain loyalty and credibility
Once a customer becomes loyal, you want to make sure it stays that way. Why give them a reason to leave? Continue to offer them valuable information, amazing experiences and enticing incentives as these perks can remind customers that they’re appreciated.
It’s reported that 51% of customers will never do business with a company again after just one negative experience. Maintaining your reputation and delighting customers all the time by keeping them engaged only strengthens your relationship with them.
If you don’t take good care of your customers, someone else will.
Customer delight is massively underrated in inbound marketing. Building trust creates lasting, meaningful relationships with your customers and helps to create a well-rounded, human experience. The best way to develop that trust, though, is by cementing a killer marketing process that excels in each stage of the buyer’s journey.
To help with that, you’ll benefit from reading our guide.
Take your inbound marketing efforts to the next level
We’ve created Inbound 2.0 to make sure your marketing efforts are still relevant and effective. It covers everything from buyer personas, eye-opening inbound marketing statistics you need to know, best practices, delighting customers and so much more.
To get your hands on a copy, click the link below to explore the many new avenues for inbound marketing.
