We Completed Our 50th Service & WOW Experience Audit

We just completed our 50th Service and WOW Experience Audit, and over the next few posts, I will be highlighting some of the prominent trends that we have seen across all this data.

Why should any company study WOWs or be concerned about their performance in this area? Because done correctly and operationalized for scale, these experiences have measurable ROI that is significant.

BUT…. Only certain types of WOWs will produce significant ROI.

Unfortunately, most companies have based their ideas about WOW on principles that are OLD. They masquerade as “time-tested”, but often that is just code for “outdated”. And guess what? When we ask customers if these are WOW moments anymore, they are clear in their answer 😉...... It’s just good service now.

So what is a trend we have seen? I’m starting today with one that ties back to this ROI concept, but not in as positive a way as desired:

I’ll call it “WOW-by-Numbers” or “Fake Personalization WOW”.

Don’t get me wrong, these are still nice moments for customers. But they don’t score highly on our memory scale for a number of reasons, and they require investment that often doesn’t produce a multiplier payoff.

Here is an example of what I mean:

A couple books a room for their anniversary, the hotel finds out, and places a bottle of wine and some chocolate-covered strawberries in their room for them to enjoy upon their arrival.

Is this nice? Yes. Will they remember that 5 years from now? Unlikely.

But here is the biggest catch: If another couple was also staying in that hotel and celebrating their anniversary, it’s likely that the hotel would do the exact same thing for them.

So is this really personalized? Is it really crafted from the heart of an employee for this specific couple? Will it elicit a deep emotional response that lasts? From my perspective, this is more like a free amenity package than a WOW moment, and we see these types of moments used most often in luxury hospitality, luxury aviation, luxury retail etc. I hear moments like these called "WOWs" all the time-- by the company providing them. Not the customer.

There are a number of great ways that this could be a scalable, low-cost WOW moment that would meet the criteria that maps into ROI.

As a brand you might create a nice moment with this strategy, but modern consumers want and expect more - the science on this is clear. And so is our audit data. 😉