Early last year I wrote a blog sharing my experiences of running a live event at Bridgeclimb in Sydney and what it taught me about the power of client experience.
You can read the full blog [here], but the key point to share is about the two forces at work that make Bridgeclimb work, and how they relate to the way your market, engage new clients and manage existing ones.
BridgeClimb works because of two things.
- The promise to take you to the summit.
- The experience on the way up and back.
To me, this explains perfectly what client experience will do (and what it won’t), where it should be put to work (and where it shouldn’t).
The promise to take you to the summit is the value proposition.
Without it, the number of people paying $300+ to go halfway up a bridge is slashed. Your value proposition is to help clients reach their financial “summit”.
What happens between the day they start working with you and the day they get there will define how they feel about the journey, how they work with you, and what they tell others.
It’s the glue that keeps them engaged.
However, I feel it’s important not to confuse the two.
- The summit attracts.
- The experience retains.
I recently sat down with a business to work on their first appointment process. It was good, better than 90% of firms out there, but there was one inescapable fact I couldn’t ignore.
It was a two and half hour meeting without a decision at the end.
It created a great experience but didn’t move clients to decide to buy a ticket to go to the summit.
It’s inevitable that with so many apps and innovations being released every month, we’ll want to try adding things here and there.
I’ve always bought into the Japanese sensibility around continuous improvement…
“Perfection is when you can no longer take anything else away”
If your first appointment is about anything other than helping clients understand what they want to achieve intangible and emotional terms, where they are in relation to them, and the things they need to do (with your help) to bridge the gap…
…it’s time to trim and get back on purpose.
