It's all about the Dressing

Or, how Thanksgiving and Experience Design are kinda the same thing

Of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is serious business. Or I should say, seriously most like crafting your customer’s experience with your business. 

“What!” you say. “My business has nothing to do with cranberry sauce and green bean casserole!” While that may be true, your business does need to let folks know you’re cooking for them (you understand their problem), what’s on the menu (you have what they need), and they’ll leave the able satisfied (you’ll solve their problem). And much like planning a fun and successful Thanksgiving dinner, planning your customer’s experience with your business will ensure they want to come back for seconds. 

So let’s dig in, shall we?

Here’s my 8 steps to ensure that your Turkey Day (TD) and business eXperience Design (XD) are properly pinned and executed…

1. Who do you want at the table?

(aka Define your ideal customers)

The first step of planning ANYTHING is determine who is coming to the party. For Turkey Day, that means determining who you want to invite: family only, Friendsgiving, or the whole neighborhood. In business, taking the time to think about who your ideal customers are that you want to attract is key. Just like knowing that Aunt Ida these green beans and cousin Mikalea will eat 3 servings of mashed potatoes, you want to deep dive into your customer’s needs and backgrounds, so you work with them instead of against them.

“I just want to help people” is the cranberry sauce of answers…we all know it’s there, but it’s not enough to bring customers to the table.

2. Is this your party or theirs?

(aka Why are you doing this?)

Turkey Day typically is the one time of year we (attempt) to set aside our differences and meet up to celebrate togetherness. Some folks do it because “duh, it’s a holiday, you have to”, and others just love a reason, ANY reason, to have a big shindig. In business, WHY you are doing your thing has become as important as WHAT you are doing. “I just want to help people” is the cranberry sauce of answers…we all know it’s there, but it’s not enough to bring customers to the table. Maybe you are having a holiday specific offering, or maybe you know a better way to solve a complex problem for your customers – either way, let them know WHY they should come.

3. What’s on the menu and will they eat that?

(aka What are you offering?)

Now that you know who you’re inviting to the party and why they will want to check out your spread, you need to tell them what’s on the menu. The last thing you want to do is reinvent the Fyre Festival, promising a killer spread with all the trimmings only to have folks show up and eat moldy baloney sandwiches. (True story, check it out here) Or worse, dinner is an allergy bomb and full of things like jello salad – you may love it, but no one else does. Since you know Mikalea loves the mashed potatoes, then be sure to make those so she comes. Same for your customers…thinking about what is the best item on your menu for them and making sure it’s being served up front and center is key for folks to be interested.

4. Whose time is it anyway?

(aka When is it happening?)

Families have gotten bigger over the years, and that means that in some cases folks get 8 or more invites to Turkey Day ALL ON THE SAME DAY AND TIME. Depending on your location (or tolerable level of guilt?), that may mean you do 4 thanksgivings in a day, staying only an hour or so at each and barely getting past hellos before moving to the next one. Or, you may just pick one and decline the rest…in any case, someone misses out. The same can be true for your business, if you plan a webinar during peak work times, when it’s only convenient for you, or on a weekend when folks just don’t want to think about work – your attendance and experience will suffer. Think about when is best for your customers to participate or attend, and plan accordingly.

Where you are serving your Turkey Day or your customer experience matters, both for accessibility and enjoyability. If your guests have to go way out of their way to make it, they probably won’t bother.

5. Your place or mine?

(aka Where is this happening?)

If you live in a 400 sq. ft. apartment, having a Turkey Day extravaganza for 20 is not going to work. Or perhaps you have a kitchen that a professional chef would drool over, so whipping up a 10 course meal is no biggie. Where you are serving your Turkey Day or your customer experience matters, both for accessibility and enjoyability. If your guests have to go way out of their way to make it, they probably won’t bother. If they are uncomfortable at the location in some way, or you can’t handle the turnout, they may have come but won’t be back. Just like planning the time that works fo your customers, you need to plan the place that works best for them (and you) too.

6. Don’t be an idiot raising a village

(aka How are you doing to do it?)

Your grandiose idea of a Turkey Day with 30 people may have the perfect time, the perfect place, and the perfect menu, but if you are the only person prepping this shindig you’ve cooked up a recipe for disaster. Maybe you’ve decided this is the ultimate excuse to try out that recipe you’ve never made, or a brand new kitchen tool a buddy recommended…either way, executing it the day of without any practice means you’ve invited Murphy to the party as well. The HOW in business is just as perilous, so making sure you have taken the time to determine if you need new technology, a partner in the process, or additional materials to make your experience happen smoothly without killing yourself is important. Who wants a host too frazzled to visit with the guests?

Your dinner invite on the Insta will never be seen by your favorite nephew Dale who proudly owns a flip phone.

7. This is not Field of Dreams

(aka Don’t forget to invite your guests)

You are not Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will not come…unless you tell them to! Folks aren’t going to magically come to your Turkey Day without some sort of invite (except for Creepy Uncle Jon) and they won’t come to your business without one either. It’s also critical HOW you invite your guests as well – your dinner invite on the Insta will never be seen by your favorite nephew Dale who proudly owns a flip phone. Reach your customers where they are at, with an invite they can’t refuse because it speaks to them.

If you follow all the above steps, chances are good (barring any unexpected kitchen fires) that your Turkey Day shindig will go as planned and all who attend have a fabulous time! Even if things get a little bumpy and the bird is a bit more toasted than you hoped (and so is Aunt Rose, AGAIN) there’s one last piece to that well planned experience…

At the end of the day, it’s all about creating something that folks say “I’m grateful I did that!”

8. BE THANKFUL!

(aka BE THANKFUL!)

You did it! People came, it happened, and you probably learned some things for next year! Take the time to reflect and really be proud of what you accomplished! Send a Thank You to those that participated as well. So many folks start rushing about after the Big Meal to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and more…a quick “Thanks! It meant a lot you came, let’s do it again!” will keep you in their hearts a bit longer. And in business, that means you have their attention for the next big thing you plan, whatever it is! 

At the end of the day, it’s all about creating something that folks say “I’m grateful I did that!”

And because this is right around the corner….

Tish Gance is an Experience Designer specializing in helping small business change their approach from product centric to customer centric. She lives with 5 cats, drives Italian Sportscars, and can be found drinking martinis while dishing up amazing customer experiences LIVE from the Bar on Thursdays. Give her a call today to change your customer outreach from cold turkey to Smooth as PIE. 720-215-5315 or [email protected].