Don't leave a candy bowl on your CX front porch!

Nobody has accused me of going half-assed when it comes to Halloween costumes! I enjoy Halloween because for one day there are very few boundaries and rules about who or what you can be.  I personally prefer the costumes that make people uncomfortable like Raafi the IT exchange intern, or a homeless drunk CSM in search of MRR and lastly the creepy old coworker. (One note: once I'm in character I don't break...not even for company meetings) Ask my poor "young whipper snapper" coworkers at  InMoment who I harassed all day about how to "googlee" on my brick phone while handing out root beer barrel candies from my jump suit. All this Halloween fun made me think about customers and how they compare to the Halloween experience.

As we all know, creating emotion is key to an experience and that applies to a night of trick-or-treating or the interactions you have with your customers on a daily basis.

Think back to your days as a kid on Halloween. There is always that one house on the block that is blaring spooky sounds of ghosts and clanking shutters in the wind, with cob webs in the trees, strobe lights flashing on the graveyard in the lawn and scary shadows walking around in the big front window! They answer the door in character as a vampire in full costume and hand out a generous and delightful selection of bite size candy bars! They created an emotional experience. One that you will remember because it touched multiple senses of sight, sound and taste. You will be excited to visit that place next year and will tell everyone about it.

Next, you leave the "awesome" house and proceed next door because you see the front porch light on and a nice carved pumpkin on the front step (they tried). You yell, "Trick or Treat!". They answer the door in their normal clothes, with the TV blaring in the room playing game 6 of the World Series. They barely glance at you as their attention is on the game and hold out a bowl...well you aren't feeling much of anything here...just another run of the mill house. But wait...to your utter surprise the bowl contains full size candy bars! The holy grail of Halloween candy! These behemoth size chocolates really saved the whole experience at this house. They created a temporary excitement but will soon be forgotten. You will tell your friends about finding the mother load but will probably use the reference of the house "next to the cool house". By next year you probably won't even remember if it was on the left or right but will give them another chance.

Then there is the third house. The light is on and there is a chair on the porch with a big plastic bowl full of hard candies (yuck), and a sign (with rules) "just take one!" They not only failed in creating a good emotion but were successful in creating a bad one. They have now pissed me off by making me think I am a jerk and would take it all! They got an emotional response, but the wrong kind! They thought they were doing the right thing by participating but in the end they did more damage than good. They will be talked about but in the negative way.

I wonder, does your company go "all in" and focus on the details that others don't "worry" about. Are they like my dirt stained, sweaty, double breasted suit for my homeless drunk CSM outfit or is your company just putting the bowl of candy on the porch and simply having a customer serve themselves with no interaction?

Assignment: 1) I want to see your amazing costumes over the years in the comments and 2) I'd love to hear what out of the box experiences your company has implemented. What do you think has elevated you beyond a candy in the bowl experience when it comes to your programs? What emotions are you creating that will elevate and separate your company as being a leader in customer experience?