What Do Your Customers Want?

Let me start by saying that I am not trying to upset anybody with an MBA, because having people like that on your team can be a real asset. With that PC’ness out of the way, giving your customers what they want is not rocket science.

 

 

I hope you have had your morning coffee, because you need to be really, really prepared for this little business nugget. Ready, set, simple. They want you to make it easy for them to complete their tasks and reach their goals. They want you to know their needs, their terminology, their lives.

 

 

Wait, what? That’s right ladies and gentlemen. Customers want exactly what you want, they want you to add some kind of value to their lives and they want you to make it easy to add that value.

 

Yup, those selfish little monsters. How dare they make it all about them. Well, I hate to be the one to talk about the GIANT elephant in the room, but IT IS all about them.

 

Ok, to demonstrate how simple this concept is, let’s take a walk in Jenny’s shoes.

 

 

Jenny is a ‘basic’ Pinterest mom. She lives in Venice, California with her children and her professional surfer husband. She stays at home with her three beautiful little angels: Sailor, Scarlett and Sawyer. They are perfect children, but one of them has a pesky little life threatening allergy to……everything.

 

 

Sawyer, her Fortnite obsessed, Xbox loving little boy is turning 7. Jenny needs to throw a party for this allergy ridden little angel and of course, Jenny has to impress all the other SAHMs. SAHM? What in the Sam Helliot is that? It’s a stay at home mom. Gosh, where do you live? Under a rock. Get it together. 

 

 

Jenny has her ‘tribe’ of other SAHMs and they all try to outdo each other with their little ones birthday parties. Now, Jenny knows that cake pops are the bees knees right now, so Jenny wants cake pops. If you don’t believe me, just ask Jenny’s husband. Jenny gets what Jenny wants. Well, that explains the Range Rover and the Mercedes in the driveway.

 

 

So Jenny has this dilemma. She needs kick-a@# cake pops, that are Fortnite themed, but they need to be nut free, gluten free, vegan and taste and look amazing. (Basically, flavorless colored balls with sticks and a Fortnite logo) Easy, right? Wrong!

 

So, what’s a Jenny to do? She hits up Pinterest, you know, where basic moms get everything and she tries to find a recipe that fits the bill. Alas, she can not find anything. A larger problem is that Jenny has been so busy attending PTA meetings, spin classes and mommy and me play dates that she has put this task off until the last minute. She literally has three days left. Ok, Jenny decides to just order cake pops, not try to make them, but now she is freaking out because she doesn’t know where to go. Insert panic here!!!

 

Ok, Jenny, calm down. We’ve got your back. After Jenny dries her tears with her overpriced, moisture infused brand name Kleenex, grabs a $9 latte from…..oh come on, you know where Jenny gets her coffee, she opens up her archaic (purchased last year) Macbook and with her perfectly polished little fingers, she begins her search. 

 

 

It’s now 4:20 and the hubs will be home in about an hour. She still hasn’t put together a 5 course meal for her man, so she has to fix this problem with her son’s party and fast. Jenny is questioning her worth as a wife and a mom. How did she let her life get to this point? Just how? Bad Jenny. Where did it all go wrong?

 

 

 

Feeling guilty, she pops a Xanax and begins to try to fix this clearly life or death problem, literally. Well, I did say it was an allergy. Come on guys, pay attention. Anywho, she types in ‘Vegan Cake Pops Venice CA’ and Google delivers the goods.

 

 

Google returns a list of potentially viable alternatives and Jenny begins to put together a short list in her mind of who will create these magical Fortnite Yummies for Sawyer’s party. She quickly narrows her list down to three options.

 

1. Cakes and More
2. Vegan Vittles
3. Merry Poppin (Get it, see what I did there? Pop…Poppin….tough crowd..tough crowd)

 

Jenny clicks on the first one Cakes and More. They don’t have a website, but they do have a Facebook page. Gasssppp. They only have 3 stars….Boom. You’re gone. Nope, Jenny is not even going to read the reviews. She is going to remove you from her list, because there is no way you are giving her little Sawyer 3-Start cake pops. Forget about it…and then there were two.

 

 

Next, Jenny clicks on Vegan Vittles. Hooray, they do have a website. Sure, their name makes us think of the Beverly Hillbillies The Clampetts, but their website is surprisingly modern and cool. She searches their site. They have cake pops. Score! Ok sure, based on the name, the cake pop sticks might be pulled from the backyard’s kindling pile and the pops may be wrapped in old potato chip bags, but they have them.

 

 

There is no way to order on the website and she doesn’t know if they do Fortnite themed pops or if they can make them nut free, vegan and gluten free. Guess what? Vegan Vittles, you just got voted off the island. You can keep your kindling stabbed cake pops for another party. Not gonna happen, because Jenny doesn’t have time to call you and she doesn’t speak Hillbilly, so you’re out. Now there is only one choice left and Jenny is really hopeful that they can deliver the goods.

 

Alright Mary Poppin (that’s a great name, I don’t care what you say), it’s time to deliver the magic. Jenny pulls up her perfectly highlighted caramel blonde hair into a messy bun, turns on some gangsta rap and prepares herself to bring home the gold. She clicks, she looks, she scores.

 

 

Mary Poppin’s website has beautiful images of cake pops of all kinds. Their gallery is perfect. Their pricing is perfect. She doesn’t have to call because everything is built into their order form. Their order page is perfect. Guys, come on, this is Mary Poppin we’re talking about. Did you expect anything less?

 

 

The order form allows her to stipulate any allergies that need to be factored in, the number of cake pops, the style of cake pops that Jenny wants for this little bash. What more could a Jenny want? She checks out without even another thought. She places her order for 50, Fornite themed, vegan, gluten free and nut free cake pops and is able to specify that she needs them within 48 hours.

 

Now, that’s a happy Jenny. Within five minutes, Mary Poppin was able to take her from Xanax supported mayhem to Mother of the Year. She didn’t have to call anybody. All of her questions were answered. Click, bam, boom. Cake pops ordered, dinner is now being prepared. Order is restored and Jenny’s husband may not divorce her for preparing his dinner late, because now she has time to get all dolled up and get that 5 star meal on the table by 5:30.

 

 

 

 

Mary Poppin helped Jenny to manage her life, save her marriage, correct her oversight and to get what she wanted; allergy sensitive Fortnite cake pops that made the other SAHMs green with envy. See, Mary Poppin really is magical. I knew it all along.

 

If Mary Poppin delivers the goods on schedule, they will have earned not one customer for life, but all of the other SAHMs at this party will want to know where she got these magical spheres of deliciousness. That’s the whole point of this article. Their amazing customer experience IS their marketing.

 

Jenny will post pictures of these pops and her fabulous party on her Instagram and Facebook pages to brag, oops, no I mean, celebrate her wonderful Sawyer turning 7. That’s free publicity for the company. She is going to say where she got them, because this company made her look amazing.

 

 

Well, OK, a Jenny may try to pretend that she baked them herself, but we all know better. Even if she doesn’t post it to social media, she is going to recommend this company the next time one of her Pinterest Perfect, latte drinking SAHMs asks her about cake pops while they are connecting in the downward dog position at Bikram yoga class. 

 

 

The point is that because Mary Poppin made it easy for Jenny to accomplish her task, they earned her business. This is not an oversimplification. This is life. This is business. Sure, their cake pops still have to taste and look amazing for this new found relationship between Jenny and Mary Poppin to go the distance, but the take away is that they earned a shot at that relationship by meeting Jenny’s first needs, information and convenience.

 

They are not just selling cake pops. They are selling customized experiences for real people, some of whom have allergies and are pressed for time. They understood what their customer was really looking for, help. Cake pops are the icing. The convenience was the cake.

 

I always think it’s more fun to walk people through an actual customer journey, then to just give you boring facts. The whole point of this article is to get to know your customers. Figure out what they want and then give it to them in a way that makes it easy for them to choose you, recommend you and return to you.

 

I hope that made you laugh, but also really think about whether your business, your social media pages and your website are helping your customers to complete the tasks of their daily lives. I hope it helped you to see the value in building for your customers. They are busy. They have a lot going on. Make their life easier and they will make your pockets deeper.

 

Gratefully,