Earn Your Place in the Story of Customers’ Lives

In my Daily Dose video series, I explore the topics that chief customer officers must grapple with on a daily basis. Join me as I discuss what I’ve learned over the course of my 35-year career, so that you can more effectively do the work that needs to be done.

Today’s video is an excerpt from my online course, inspired by my book, Would You Do That To Your Mother? Click here to learn more about the course and enroll. 

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the video below.

In the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, George and Mary Bailey create a memory for the Martini family when they help them take possession of their new home. Focusing on celebrating the new life of this family, George Bailey gives his iconic toast, offering the Martini family a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a box of salt. And with this support, George and Mary Bailey become a part of the story of the Martini’s lives.

And if the Martini’s were real people and not actors, they would soon forget all of the process and the experience of moving and mortgages, et cetera, as time passed. All of that would fall away and what they would remember is their joy and how the Bailey’s took care of them and made them feel in that moment, in that historic part of their life.

Do you create memories that will last a lifetime?

Make memory creation the currency of your brand. This is our opportunity to understand and to craft memories that will earn our place in customers lives.

In fact, Gallup research validates that these moments—that connect our experiences with customer memory—are a major opportunity to create lasting bonds with customers. Memory creation is a choice. In every interaction with customers, you can choose how you’ll deliver a memory and if you’ll deliver a memory.

The great news is, often, that choice comes at no cost. All it requires is that people act on the power they have to deliver that memory.

Memory creation is a choice. In every interaction with customers, you can choose how you'll deliver a memory and if you'll deliver a memory. #MakeMomProud Share on X

In fact, a warm and compassionate call or compassionate tweet; how a bag is handed to someone or how a sale is ended; even the sound and the tone of how information is delivered can make someone’s day, can deliver a moment—a memory of who you are as humans and bring people back to you, show that you have warmth and compassion.

Design experiences that are worth remembering

When you focus how you design your experiences on memory creation, not just executing tasks, customers will remember you and with those memories will come the opportunity to earn the right to business growth because you improved lives.

For example, in that mortgage experience, would you be more likely to take all of your banking business to a company that really helped and cared for you through one of life’s biggest purchases? Or would you like to get a “George Bailey” moment, as you took possession of your home?

With that kind of a memory, would you connect with the company? Would you stay with them?

Here is the opportunity we have in our work, through deliberate actions. Starting with customer needs, we can become a part of their lives. What do you do to identify and improve moments in customers lives and embed a memory?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet at me @JeanneBliss or connect with me on LinkedIn. 

How do we cut through the rigmarole of business to give customers the treatment they desire, and employees the ability to deliver it?

In her latest book, customer experience expert Jeanne Bliss recommends making business personal to get the traction you need by focusing on one deceptively simple question: “Would you do that to your mother?”