Whether you are a business owner, an employee, an internal training specialist, a keynote speaker, an event organizer or an organization designer, you are being impacted by a trend some refer to as “experience innovation.” This new discipline moves away from only being concerned about improvements in product and service design into designing the entire customer experience from first to last touch point. In essence, creating enjoyable experiences for ‘internal or external customers’ along their entire journey with a brand establishes relationships, relevance and retention — the Holy Grail of marketing.
Not half an hour ago, I made an ‘experience innovation’ relationship choice between Amazon and Apple while shopping for a specific ebook. Amazon’s copy of the book cost $14.80 while Apple’s came in at $13.99. However, I opted to purchase from Amazon. Why? Because with one click my book was paid for, downloaded to my Kindle account and a receipt of the transaction sent to my email account. After four clicks related to getting account ID, password and birth date, I gave up on iTunes and returned to Amazon to purchase. By the way, I am still awaiting Apple’s email confirmation that my password is correct. Up to this point, you would have called me a loyal Apple customer. For a company like Apple that prides itself on its customer service, all I can say is, “Oops, another one bites the dust.” What are the chances I will search Apple for ebooks in the future? What opportunity does Apple have to learn about my poor customer experience (unless of course they read my blog) and to make it more relevant to my needs? Slim to none!
Shifting over to ‘experience innovation’ in the conference planning industry, Velvet Chainsaw, assures us that what delegates most desire when they attend a conference is connections and community. Such deeper levels of engagement and greater opportunities to network, at the very least, converge into expectations for the following experience —
1. Cutting edge, real-time information
2. Customized solutions that solve current problems
3. Time for reflection and meaningful discussion
4. Time to create an at-home implementation plan
5. Entertainment and Fun
Those of us contracted for conference keynotes and seminars can incorporate the above expectations in our designs by engaging the whole person in the learning experience. Appealing to all five human senses — taste, touch, sound, smell, sight — as well as engaging all five personal aspects — spiritual, physical, intellectual, communal, emotional — assures meaningful connection and community and adds SPICE to the delegates’ experience. And, we all know that variety and meaningfulness are the spice of life.
In celebration of meaningful, spicy connections, in particular those remembered on Valentine’s Day, here is what Mindvalley designed as its new definition of work — Love Week Innovation. Concrete illustrations of love and appreciation are part of everyone’s job description for five days surrounding Valentine’s Day. As company founder, Vishen Lakhiani, states, “After all, love and appreciation lead to happiness. And happiness is known to boost productivity.” In fact, 56% of sales people perform better when they are happy, that is, socially supported. Lakhiani and his employees discovered that Love Week was their greatest engagement intervention into their own cultural or experience innovation. As many of us already know and Mindvalley confirmed, the act of giving often creates more happiness than the act of receiving.
Join Mindvalley’s Love Week challenge and become someone’s Love Angel. Even if for only one day, what one loving act can you carry out for someone that expresses your appreciation?
When the power of love exceeds the love of power,
the world will know peace. Jimi Hendrix
Click here for more tools and techniques that redesign lost opportunities and fear into happy, healthy, humane connections and innovations.
