Recently I had a great experience while out to dinner with my family, which got me thinking... What is it exactly that makes us feel so good, and what's the value or potential impact in caring about other peoples experience?
Here's how this particular experience went... Our family had just enjoyed a relaxing evening at our local hot pools, and having stayed a bit later than planned, we needed to organise a quick convenient meal. The teenagers predictably wanted McDonalds, but the adults not so much. We looked up the local Vietnamese street food restaurant Rice Rice Baby and made a phone order, "it'll be ready in 20 minutes" they say.
While we kill 20 minutes we proceeded through the McDonalds drive through then looped back to the restaurant to pick up our food, knowingly arriving a few minutes early. As I raced in to grab the food, I was greeted warmly by our friend from the phone call, who said "foods not quite ready, but how about you take a seat and I'll grab you a beer?". After about .5 seconds of consideration I thought, "Yeah, why not!".
The friendly staff member arrives back with half a glass of beer and a can of Garage Project (great kiwi craft brewery) and says, "Do you want the good news or the bad news? Bad news is, our keg ran out half-way through pouring your beer, but the good news is, we had this can of Garage Project in the fridge so you can have that..AND.. I wasn't going to charge you for the beers anyway..." He also had our food ready! Amazed, I tucked the can of GP in the bag and thanked them as I left.
As I left I left feeling really good, a bit special I guess. Why did such a small thing make me feel so good?
Thinking on this it reminded me of quote that I think hits the nail on the head.
"OUR BEST EXPERIENCES ARE SERENDIPITOUS, SHARED, AND FREE."
There is a lot of content & focus out there on "user experience", "employee experience" or "customer experience" which are all great things, but when weconsider the human inside of these experiences then that's when the magic happens.
As a company we continually strive to deliver great experiences to our customers and their team inside of what we do. Not only does this drive engagement and loyalty it builds great products, brands and gives us a kick as well!
As our friendly waiter perfectly and authentically achieved, he understood us and what it would take to make a moment that "stuck", was memorable and most importantly something I will go back for as well as encourage others to enjoy. For what was only the price of a beer or in Flex Parkings case a car park, you can share love through a small gesture and in return create long lasting relationships with customers or your team.
The Flex Parking app is a low-cost solution that helps you to manage your staff / tenant car parking as well as offer reward to employees / tenants while creating a positive culture. Get in touch for more information or click sign up in the menu for a free trial.
