The Magician’s Formula: 4 Tools to Create Legendary Customer Experiences
Magicians are masters of customer perception. Learn their 4 techniques to get inside customers' heads, exceed expectations, and create legendary service experiences.
Customer service has the power to make or break a business. While competent service satisfies customers, legendary service enchants them. It transforms one-time buyers into raving fans who excitedly refer others.
The principles of magic provide a framework for creating experiential, emotion-driven customer interactions that feel nothing short of magical. Master magicians are masters of perception - they know how to get inside the heads of their audience to delight and astonish them.
Let’s break down 4 techniques straight from a magician’s playbook that empower companies to stack the deck in their favor and win the customer service game.
Know Thy Audience - Uncover Their Assumptions
In magic, the secret to successfully astonishing audiences lies in understanding their assumptions and perspectives. Magicians leverage people's natural cognitive biases to their advantage.
They also pay close attention to body language and subtle verbal cues to uncover what beliefs or expectations audience members may hold. This allows them to deliver tricks in ways that defy assumptions and blow minds.
Savvy businesses should similarly analyze the assumptions customers are likely making about their company and industry. Consider:
What biases might they have about your field? Are there any negative stereotypes or misconceptions?
How do they perceive your specific brand? What qualities or emotions do they associate with your company name and logo?
What expectations have they already formed about the type of experience they will have when interacting with your salespeople, service agents, etc?
Thoroughly identifying customer assumptions allows companies to better empathize with client perspectives. It enables them to tailor messaging and interactions accordingly to address unspoken concerns, surprise in just the right ways, and ultimately deliver service that exceeds expectations.
Meet Them Where They Are - Acknowledge Assumptions
Once customer assumptions have been explored, the next step is to openly acknowledge these assumptions during interactions - even if they seem incomplete or misguided from the company's point of view.
Making statements such as "I understand your hesitation about our industry..." or "You likely have high expectations for customer service. I promise we will deliver an exceptional experience" demonstrates authenticity, creates rapport, and clears the air to move the relationship forward.
Other examples include:
"I know some customers question whether we offer truly premium services. Our white-glove service experience is top-notch - let me walk you through the details."
"Many people wrongly assume we don't customize our products. We actually pride ourselves on tailored solutions - tell me your unique needs."
These simple acknowledgments allow salespeople and service agents toaddress the elephant in the room. Once assumptions are voiced, companies have the power to prove themselves and provide amazing experiences that shatter preconceived notions.
Increase Engagement - Build Anticipation
A cornerstone of magic is heightening anticipation and engagement before the final payoff. Magicians use tension, emotion, vivid narratives, and other tools to capture attention and get the audience invested in the outcome.
Smart businesses take a page from this playbook and build excitement for the customer journey ahead. Savvy salespeople paint a compelling vision of how the customer's world will transform after purchasing their product/service.
They highlight how major pain points will vanish and dreams will be fulfilled as a result of partnering with the company. This serves to emotionally invest customers in the sale.
Post-purchase, companies can continue nurturing anticipation by sending intriguing e-mails or surprise calls teasing upcoming announcements that will bring even more value to customers. The key is keeping clients engaged, intrigued, and feeling like insiders privy to exclusives.
Done right, building anticipation taps into customers' emotional brains where decisions are made and brand attachments form. It primes them for an even more delighted reaction when expectations are ultimately exceeded.
Orchestrate the “Prestige” - Knock Their Socks Off
In a magic trick’s final act or “prestige”, the magician shocks the audience by going above and beyond what anyone believed possible. This moment of astonishment elicits cheers, applause, or demands to “do it again!”
Companies can similarly orchestrate "prestige" moments and wow customers by exceeding expectations in delightful ways:
Add unexpected free gifts or generous upgrades for a surprise bonus
Follow up post-purchase with special handwritten notes or video messages from the CEO himself
Share gushing positive feedback or reviews from a customer on social media (with permission)
Send referral or loyalty rewards to delight repeat customers when they least expect it
Brain science shows that emotional surprises release dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and satisfaction. The more companies can tactfully trigger this rush of feel-good dopamine through unexpected delights, the more addicted and loyal their customers become.
While satisfying a customer's baseline expectations is the price of entry, astonishing them is what earns heartshare and turns one purchase into a lifetime of loyalty.
The Complete Magical Formula
By masterfully stacking all four techniques of uncovering assumptions, acknowledging openly, building anticipation, and staging prestige surprises, companies wield tremendous power to enchant customers and cascade word-of-mouth referrals.
This framework equips sales teams with the psychological tools necessary to steer each client’s conversation for maximum positive impact. Just like magic, customer service done right happens not just on the stage, but long before in understanding the audience and mapping out perceptions.
There are no quick fixes or shortcuts when it comes to legendary service. However, companies that invest in strategically delighting their customers - much like great magicians invest in astonishing their fans - will reap the long-term rewards of an army of devoted brand ambassadors and invaluable loyalty.
The curtain has been pulled back. Now it’s time for your company to take the stage and implement this magician’s formula to create truly first-class customer experiences. Soon, your delighted customers will be asking, “How did you do that?”
Take the First Step Toward Legendary Service
If you're ready to equip your sales team with the skills and mindsets necessary to create magical customer experiences, let’s talk.
Get in touch with myself and my team today to inquire about booking an interactive keynote presentation for your next company sales meeting or event.
I will personally work with you to customize content around your specific goals, audience, and industry. My high-energy sessions draw upon anecdotes from years of experience as a magician combined with concrete psychological techniques to inspire and empower your team.
Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to transform service delivery, along with a renewed passion for leveraging their innate creativity.
Now is the time to think like magicians. Let's usher in an era of astonished customers and delighted raving fans together.
Tell me about your upcoming sales meeting, conference, or what you’re planning here.
