Yesterday I had a meeting at Gillette Stadium as part of planning the Inbound Marketing Summit. As we took a tour of Patriot Place, a collection of shops and restaurants attached to the stadium, I was shown the Showcase Cinema de Lux. It was explained to me that this movie theater offered a “lux level” ticket which allowed you private access to a balcony level of the theater with private servers, full food and liquor menu, oversized plush chairs, and a handful of other amenities.  Yeah, ok, right.

Being someone who loves going to movies, I ventured back out later last night to see “The Hangover” (hilarious movie!). Once I walked into the theater I was floored by the technology and how nice everything was but I had no clue what I was in store for. We went over the stairs leading upstairs to the “lux level” and were greeted by 2 friendly staff members. First, we were carded because no one under 21 is allowed in the lux level (a huge plus!). Then we were escorted upstairs. Since we were a little early, we were invited to have a drink at the trendy restaurant and bar. Seriously, this was nothing like a movie theater restaurant. After watching the Red Sox game for a few minutes a staff member told us our seats were ready and escorted us into the theater.

Upon reaching our seats, he wiped them off for us, told us the features of the lux level and then presented us with our menus. Again, these were trendy menus with everything from chicken satay to pizza, burgers, entrees, martinis and just about anything else you could want including standard movie theater snacks. A few minutes after being seated we were greeted by our server who chatted with us for a few minutes and then immediately got our order taken care of.  Ok, private server, full food and liquor menu…check.

The seats were incredible!  Imagine the huge all encompassing leather recliner that you could fall asleep in. Now picture it with an elegant tray attached, server call button and enough leg room for this tall lanky guy to fully stretch out his legs. It was like a slice of heaven in a movie theater. Throughout the movie the server made sure we were taken care of and then thanked us at the end of the movie  Oversized plush leather chairs and a fantastic experience…double check.

This entire experience cost $10 additional but you received $5 credit towards food/drinks so it really only cost $4.50 more than a standard ticket.  That’s a little extra to pay for an experience that should cost much more than that.  Plus, we will ensure that we go back there from now on so they have gained a pair of regular customers.

What’s the point of this story?  Well, besides the fact that if you live in the Boston area, you should visit the Showcase Cinema de Lux, the point is that National Amusements (owner of the theater) is providing a velvet rope experience to their guests.  Even if you choose not to get the lux level seating, the movie theater is incredible.  But, if you are willing to pay a few extra dollars, you’ll never want to watch another movie any place else.  National Amusements took something as simple as going to the movies and thought outside of that standard box to come up with this velvet rope treatment.

We typically see this with the airline industry who is constantly trying to add increased value to their first-class services.  Look at some of the recent changes that Cathay Pacific, Virgin America and others have made that will push the envelope on flying experience…yet another experience that usually is pretty dull especially for those who travel a lot.

Are you looking for ways to provide your customers with a velvet rope experience?  If you are, then let’s chat about how you provide that experience in the comments.  If you aren’t providing a velvet rope experience, or at least the option of one, why not?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photos by: lolololori

Is it possible to provide great customer service without ever speaking to your customer?  I think so.  Actually, I know so.  Since its inception, I have been a regular customer of Netflix.  There have been a couple times where I’ve canceled the membership because of traveling, moving, etc but I’ve always come back.  Why?  Well, beyond the fact that it’s a genius system for a great price, I have always loved their care for the customer experience.  I’ve never talked to one representative at Netflix.  Do they even have customer service reps?  I’m sure they must have to but I’ve never had a need to go looking for a number.  Yet, I always feel like they are continually trying to improve customer service thus improving the overall customer experience.  How so?

One of the big ways is through the below email I get randomly from Netflix.

It usually comes about once every couple weeks.  It simply asks what day I dropped the movie I was returning in the mail.  But, it is so much more than just remembering that you dropped it 2 days ago.  Netflix is using that data to track the delivery time from mailbox to shipping facility.  Sure, that allows them to know it takes 1-2 days from the greater Boston area because they have a shipping facility in Worcester, MA (about 1.25hr drive from Boston).  It also allows them to strategically determine where to open new shipping facilities.  If they see that the average delivery time moves from 1.3 days from Boston to Worcester up to 2.2 days, that will show them that maybe the Worcester shipping facility is overburdened because of the number of customers in the area.  Netflix could then build a new shipping facility closer to Boston using their customer address data and the average return time of a movie based on what customers tell them on these email surveys.

Those are just a few examples of the many possibilities for using the data that Netflix receives just by you telling them what day you sent back a movie.  Also, that’s only one way of many that Netflix is working to improve their customer experience and they’re doing it, at least in the above example, without ever speaking via phone to their customers.  Furthermore, they’re making the customer feel as though they’re valued by the company.  Remember, every customer matters!

So, how are you working to improve your customer’s experience?  Do you analyze every touch point that your customers have with your brand?  Do you strive to continually improve those touch points?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

We interrupt this blog for a very important post about customer service and the importance of word-of-mouth.

Saturday while in Manhattan to take care of some wedding appointments, we decided to head over to Chelsea Market where the Food Network has its offices and most of their studios.  Since I’m at a restaurateur and foodie at heart, I was very excited to visit Chelsea Market and it had been something I had been meaning to do while in NYC for a while now.  Though there was no access to the Food Network, there were a lot of fantastic little markets and shops.  As we meandered in and out of them we decided to stop at a little tea shop called T Salon.

Our group totaling 7 people bought a variety of drinks and small items. We thought it would be nice to sit down and enjoy our drinks before venturing back out into the frigid, windy city.  As we sat down we placed a couple shopping bags and drinks on the tables which were set up with couches and chairs around them.  After a few minutes of enjoying our drinks a woman who did not identify herself and was not wearing anything suggesting that she was an employee came over to our table.  She asked us how we were doing and then proceeded to say to us: “You need to remove your bags from my table because they cost $1,500 each”.  As she said this she took a couple of the women’s purses and put them on the ground without asking if it was ok to touch them or anything.  There were several other people sitting around, one who was working on their laptop and another couple who had a bag on another table.  She never said anything to them but instead asked them how their days were going.  After this all happened she proceeded to offer us the services of an on-site astrologer and samples of soup that they were selling.  She acted as if the incident that had just happened about 5 minutes earlier never happened.

A few minutes later my fiance’s mom told us that prior to the rest of us placing our orders, she had sat down outside of the shop on one of the chairs that was there.  There was a sign which stated that you couldn’t sit there if you were talking on your cell phone or had a beverage.  She wasn’t talking on her phone and didn’t have a beverage (yet) so she sat down.  The same woman came outside and told her she had to move because she wasn’t drinking any tea.  The way she spoke to my fiance’s mom was rude and she said she felt as if she was being talked-down to.  Had we known about that none of us would have gone inside and ordered anything from this shop.

Now I can understand how expensive furniture can be and that some furniture can damage easily.  If that is the case, wouldn’t it make more sense to post a sign stating so?  Or she could have come over, introduced herself, asked politely and not mentioned the cost of the tables and we would’ve been more than happy to move our stuff.  But she decided that we weren’t important.  She decided that she did not value the 7 of us, 2 of which work and live in Manhattan, as customers.  She doesn’t care whether we return or not.  If she does care about all of that, then she failed at the chance to have a positive interaction with 7 new customers.

We will never go back into that store or any other locations that may be open or may open in the future.  Why? Because whether she’s an employee, manager, or owner, she is representing that entire company with every interaction she has with every single customer.  Every customer is a chance to build a lasting relationship and to continue building loyal fans of your brand, your product, and your company.  Every single customer matters! Bottom line.  Word-of-mouth is everything!

What are your thoughts?  Have you had a positive or negative experience that has burned a lasting memory?  If you’re an owner, manager, or employee, what do you do to ensure every customer interaction is as positive as possible?

Update: I just wanted to clarify that besides my experience at T Salon, Chelsea Market is beautiful and a great place to go when visiting NYC.  I visited many of the bakeries and other small shops and had a lot of fun.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo by: Chris Breeze