Have you ever had an experience turn quite differently to what you were expecting?
We had such an experience recently where we were invited to a wine tasting event taking place on an evening cruise on the river Thames in London.
On previous Thames cruises we’ve been standing, glass in hand, chatting and mixing with other cruisers. So we expected a similar thing, but… when we were ushered on board, we found that we were seated at tables of eight, complete with a rather stout ‘wine pouring person’ shoving his big belly in our faces, standing at the top of the table.
We happily started sipping a glass of French sparkling wine – not champagne, as the grapes were grown just outside the Champagne area – whilst we headed up river sailing past the Palace of Westminster and the Houses of Parliament.
Next, we got to taste a couple of white wines, which were pleasant enough, but had no depth of flavour, in our opinion. So were nothing to write home about. One Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand had some gooseberry and passion fruit flavours in it – but our knowledgeable wine pourer said that those fruit essences had been added – I’m sure the winemaker would’ve cringed to have heard that.
Anyway, before we knew it, an order form was plonked on the table in front of us, right under our noses!
Hmmm, we thought – an order form at a wine tasting! Interesting!
We then proceeded to taste a few red wines from around the globe, whilst sailing under Chelsea Bridge. We were admiring the twinkling lights of London, enjoying the experience, when the ‘hard sell’ came out of nowhere – we were grilled on what wines we were going to buy? Needless to say, as we were expecting a traditional wine tasting (tasting only), in convivial surroundings, we were not at all prepared for a sales pitch.
When we politely said that we didn’t want to purchase any wine, we were duly snubbed by our rotund ‘wine pourer’ – but we were only two thirds of the way through the cruise.
Not a very friendly experience, but a good lesson in how NOT to treat potential customers.
However, with reference to the online world, the situation was a good reminder of the need for congruency between an advertisement, and opt-in page, a thank you page, and the follow up emails.
Your online customers will also have an expectation of an outcome when they type their name and email address into your opt-in form. Their expectation will be partly be based on prior experience on other sites, which you’re not going to know about, and partly based on what you promise them on the opt-in form.
The secret to meeting their expectation head on is by delivering exactly what you promise, and more.
You could then check up with your prospective new customer to see what other information they’d like to find out or what other problem they’re experiencing, so that you can determine their precise expectation – and endeavour to meet it.
Don’t let your prospective customers have a bad experience like our wine tasting. Be appreciative of their problems and prior experiences, and provide friendly attentive advice.
Cheers.
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