NO SURPRISE!

Last issue, we talked about the power of surprise: how customers will tell their friends if you do something unexpected (like the steak knife menu at La Boucherie restaurant).

However, that principle only applies if the surprise is viewed as a positive by the customers.

Positive surprises win you customers.

Negative surprises.....cost you customers.

I'm an investor in a fantastic, direct-to-consumer company called Happy Head. They provide custom, topical hair regrowth medicine. 

It's more effective than the off-the-shelf stuff because it's bespoke to your hair issues, and the medicine itself is made fresh.

Happy Head was having some trouble with customers abandoning the signup process, and asked me to take a look.

Because it's customized medicine, an actual physician must prescribe the treatment for each Happy Head customer. To do so, they have to see your head.

Happy Head asks customers to upload photos of their hair (or lack thereof) to the website. 

Sounds reasonable, right? You couldn't get hair medicine in the real world without someone gazing at your noggin. 

BUT, in the subscription process flow, the need to take and upload hair photos was a SURPRISE to new customers. It wasn't mentioned until AFTER the customer had already paid for the product and filled out a complete online questionnaire.

People with hair loss are often sensitive about it, and thus some were concerned about uploading photos to a website, ESPECIALLY when they didn't know about it until the very last step.

This is the quintessential negative surprise, and consumers routinely hate it. 

We've all heard the maxim: underpromise, then overdeliver. 

Yet, when it comes to communicating to customers, we often do the opposite. 

I ordered a pizza for delivery a couple weeks ago. The website had a helpful "estimated time of arrival" widget. 25 minutes?! Right after a home football game, in a college town? Way to go, local pizza place! 

55 minutes later, sans pizza, I was less enthusiastic. 

Would I have been a bit non-plussed had I known at the outset it was going to take an hour? Sure. Might I have tried a different pizza place altogether? Maybe. 

But, by setting realistic expectations up-front - and eliminating negative surprises - the pizza place (and Happy Head) do not create a poor customer experience that imperils the entire relationship. 

Setting accurate expectations (even if they aren't what the customer wants) lets you survive with your brand intact. It gives your business the opportunity to win that customer at a later date. 

But negative surprises, whether they be rooted in communication, responsiveness, price or any other component of your business, can sever the relationship swiftly, and permanently. 

What negative surprises can you eliminate for your customers this month? 

THE BOOKS REPORT

Creating videos is a core component of the content and communications playbook for many, many companies. (as it should be) 

But once you decide to make videos, you end up with a lot of questions about HOW to do it.

Tony Gnau addresses them (and a lot more) in this terrific, useful new book: Lights, Camera, Impact: Storytelling, Branding, and Production Tips for Engaging Corporate Videos.

If you make videos for your business, or have been thinking about doing so, grab this book! 

Jay's Faves

This launched in March, but I didn't know about it until this week.

I love it so much.

Kindergarteners from West Side Elementary in Healdsburg, CA created a motivational phone line called Peptoc. 

Give it a ring! You can select what kind of pick-me-up or motivation you want. I loved having a 5 year-old tell me..."BRO! You Got This!" 

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