Making Your Negative Messages a Positive Experience

It would be nice if you never had to tell Customers anything negative, to share bad news or list off rules and regulations. Unfortunately, we all have to do these things. The good news is that you get a choice in how you do it. Many times with humor you can put a positive spin on a negative part of your experience.

One area that gets overlooked sometimes are signs. Signs are meant to mark and inform. But what many organizations forget is that the signs are part of the experience.

Why do signs that say not to do things feel so negative? Perhaps they trigger my inner rebel, but I feel annoyed when I read signs that start with the words “Do Not …” However, I was pleasantly surprised on a recent trip to California. I saw a couple of signs turning what was a potentially negative experience into a positive one.

For example, consider the following photo I took in Muir Woods near San Francisco.

Typically, you see a sign that says “Don’t Feed the Animals!” which is neither funny nor effective. The park took a different tack. The “picture” is a mirror and me looking into it. Instead of saying don't feed the animals, they use humor to make the point. And it was effective as I didn’t feed the animals; I enjoyed an immediate recovery from my “condition.”

Here is another one from a store in the area:

They didn’t want unattended kids in their store so they said they would be sold. Obviously, it was an empty threat, but parents get the message, and kids get the supervision the store manager desires. So everyone wins.

These are just a couple of funny examples from my trip. But the Parks Department in California and San Francisco retailers are hardly the first to embrace this concept. Southwest Airlines has long had fun with their regulatory announcements. Most passengers enjoy the announcement, which let’s face it, is a lot of information about what is forbidden aboard the airplane and what to do in the event that the flight is in peril—not exactly cheerful topics! Many of the other airlines have followed suit, with fun and humorous versions of their safety announcements.

What’s important to note from these examples is that when you have an outside-in approach to your Customer Experience, you can use these moments—even the “Do Not…” moments—to deliver a Customer-centric experience. The most successful companies look at their experience from the perspective as a Customer and deliberately design them to be positive, especially when the moment is a negative one. We call this Moment mapping.

However, the best organizations don’t stop there. They also share a belief throughout the organization that every part of the experience affects how the Customer feels about the experience. From how you accept payment to how you deliver the service, and even to the signs you post, all of these moments come together for the Customer and create their feelings about your experience, and help them decide whether or not they will be a returning Customer.

Companies that excel in their experience are also experts at exceeding expectations. We all know that we can’t smoke in the lavatory on the plane, but the Southwest employee makes you laugh about the fact that you can’t. It’s common knowledge that letting your children run amok in a store in unacceptable, but the sign reminds us in a light-hearted way that it’s against the store’s policy. And seeing yourself as having a “condition” like Chipmonkiosis makes you smile while at the same time informing you of the park’s wishes and policies regarding feeding of the animals.

Look hard at your experience and what your signs say to Customers. Consider your organization’s rules and regulation or terms and conditions and how they make you feel when you read them as someone outside the company. Then, I encourage you to determine how you could deliver the same message in a better way, a way that exceeds Customer’s expectations.

What funny signs have you seen that communicated a negative message in a positive way? Please share them in the comments.

If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in the following blogs:

• Southwest Employees Know How to Add Fun to the Customer Flight Experience for Free
• Fixing a Lemon: The Car Buying Experience

• Are You Inside Out or Outside In?

Colin Shaw is the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world's first organizations devoted to customer experience. Colin is an international author of four bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker.

Follow Colin Shaw on Twitter @ColinShaw_CX