Part III- Your Product, By Design

Design. How can such a tiny seven-letter word have an impact of such epic proportions? Design is perhaps the meekest of all business virtues, and yet, hands down, the most powerful. Ironically, it is at its pinnacle of power when you are not aware of it at all. The opposite is also true. It is the most loud and obnoxious when it is glaringly absent.

Design touches everything. Think about everything in front of you, right now, at this very moment. Every thing you see is designed, from the screen on which you are reading this post, to the website where you found it, to the pen and the coffee cup on your desk. Every part of every design affects experience. The design of a thing determines whether you perceive that experience as positive or negative.

Think of your favorite website. Every click of your visit is predicted, analyzed, and researched to create a fabulous experience. Good marketers do this as easily as breathing. And herein lies the difference between the business that outshines the competition, and the average shooting star business–you know, the ones that burn out just before hitting the ground? The successful entrepreneur plans the entire customer experience as if they were giving you a gift. The experience is designed to create magic–if at all possible–the kind of magic that makes you want to return again and again for more.

Let’s imagine you are planning a gift for a special someone this Holiday Season. Got that special person in mind? Good. You know what they like. You may have already gone out of your way to purchase a surprise, and make sure it is just right. It cannot be just anything. It must fit their personality. And it must be the perfect color and size. You spend time to wrap it just so. You think about how you will give it to them. Then you synchronize the whole experience–it must be delivered at just the right moment to create the maximum impact.

When the big day arrives, you cannot wait to present it. You make sure you can be there when they open it, because you care about what they think about it, and whether they like it or not. You are almost in pain as they slowly remove the ribbon. Your eyes are locked upon theirs. You are hoping to catch some nuance of expression, some clue of delight–or, catch the absence thereof if you are unsuccessful. If they do not like it, you will take care of it for them.

How many of us think of our customer experience in this way? How many of us have designed our entire customer experience, to the point that we are 99.5% sure that they will like what we have prepared? How many of us are super excited to present it? And are we presenting it in such a way that the presentation itself will delight them? How many of us hang out after the sale to make sure the customer is satisfied, even smiling?

For many small businesses, as long as the sales goals are reached, everything is awesome. But only if you live in a plastic world. If you want to stay awesome in business? There is something far more important than meeting simple sales goals.

When you prepare a special gift for your special someone, you design the entire experience. The same is true with your business. If you desire to provide the perfect customer experience, you must plan for it, as if preparing the perfect gift. This preparation is called a marketing plan. Your marketing plan chooses the who, plans for the what, the where, and the how. Most importantly, to provide maximum depth of experience, it carefully designs the why. 

Have you thought of your customer’s experience this way? Have you thought about designing your product as if it were a gift? Have you planned the entire experience around your customer’s personality, to show them that they are valued? How is your product wrapped? How is it delivered? It is important to present your product in a way that will set the expectation of all that is inside. (More on this next week!)

Customers are special people. They are so special, in fact, that you will not survive without them. Instead of focusing on your sales numbers, focus on them. Work to deliver true value in exchange for the trust they place in you and your company. That is what money is after all–a tangible manifestation of trust.

As you are scurrying about to create special surprises for the ones you love this Holiday Season, think about how you can apply that same mindset to your business. Rethink your product as if it were a gift.Design your product to delight.  Make your product all it can and should be and you may never have to worry about meeting your sales quotas again. 

Read Part 1- Rethinking the Gift Economy

Read Part II- What Were You Born to Do?

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.