“The Experience Maker” with Dan Gingiss: How to Apply the WISE Concept
Word of mouth marketing is the Holy Grail. It’s the most credible and authentic kind of marketing, better than any other marketing channel. There’s nothing better than having other people talk about you.
In his book, The Experience Maker, Dan Gingiss talks about the WISE aspects of creating a remarkable customer experience.
WISE stands for witty, immersive, shareable, and extraordinary.
1. Witty
Being witty is not about being hilarious nor is it about telling jokes because humor can be dangerous. In fact, there are only certain brands that have permission to be that kind of humorous. Rather, being witty is about being clever and using language to your advantage. In other words, refuse to be boring. Each time you communicate with a customer, figure out how you can be different and stand out in a witty way.
2. Immersive
Being immersive is about creating experiences that affect emotions so you can get people to feel something. It’s also about consistency. Transitions happen all the time (gaining a new employee, policy changes, COVID, etc.) and those can affect your customers. Therefore, you need to create a consistent fluid experience so that your customers feel the experience.
3. Shareable
Shareability requires some subtlety. The more we ask people to share, the less they are willing to share. Therefore, being shareable is about giving a nudge or intentionally creating a naturally shareable experience. You have designed it that way and you don’t have to explicitly tell your customers to do anything.
If you make it the customer’s idea, they will love it. On the other hand, if you try to force them to go follow you on some channel, they won’t be interested.
4. Extraordinary
Extraordinary simply means a little bit better than ordinary. Unfortunately, the vast majority of experiences that we as consumers have with companies are average, ordinary, or so-so. Nobody shares that kind of experience.
Being extraordinary, on the other hand, is about taking the vast majority of your experiences that are just on par or average and elevating them just a little bit.
It’s all about that little action that you take to remind your customers that you care about them and understand that there’s a human on the other end of the line. People crave human interaction. This doesn’t have to be hard, complex, or expensive.
You don’t necessarily have to use all four of these things in every experience. However, the more you use any of them, the more remarkable of an experience you will provide.
For more information and resources on “The Experience Maker” with Dan Gingiss, check out The Customer Service Revolution podcast. If you’d like to listen, head over to Episode 054: “The Experience Maker” with Dan Gingiss.
