When it comes to what customers really want there is one big secret. They think that they want our products or services. They think that they want us to deliver good products on time. They think that they want good quality. They think that they want a great price (or “great value” as they would rather put it). They think that they want this product when they want it. They think that if they can get these things from a vendor they will have everything they want, everything will be right with the world and yes, they will be happy.

To a certain extent they are correct, they do want all of these things and it is our job to give them these things. But in the end this is not what will make them happy and it is most certainly not what will delight them. No, the thing that will make them happy, the thing that will delight them, and the thing that will send them running down the street excitedly telling anyone who will listen how great your company is…the experience.

That’s right, the experience of doing business with you. Experience, that intangible that can make all of the difference between a good vendor and a great vendor, experience that certain “je ne sais quoi” (roughly translated: a quality that cannot be easily described) that makes Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, Disney and Apple the super great companies that they are when it comes to delighting their customers.

It is the delightful experience of doing business with your company that will motivate buyers to actually pay more just for well, for the delightful experience of doing business with your company, even if you are selling the very same product with the very same quality and delivery as the other guy. In the end it is always the experience of doing business with a company that wins out.

What is experience? What is this illusive intangible that we are talking about? Well that’s it exactly, experience is made up of all those intangibles that you do for your customers. It’s all those small but extremely important little things that you do that a customer does not even realize you are doing until he does not get them anymore. These are the things that are as they in the commercial, “priceless”. “The things that people cannot buy at any price, from anyone else, but that they really value.” To quote Seth Godin.

Here is a list of some intangibles as listed on one of Seth’s blogs from his new book,

Participation: Brainstorm with the customer about how you can work together to create the thing they need. Participation is priceless. After all if all you’re doing is meeting my spec, why exactly should you be rewarded?

Enthusiasm: You’d be amazed at how much people value enthusiasm. Genuine transparent enthusiasm about the project you’re working on.

Speed: Don’t forget speed. If you are overwhelming faster than the alternatives, what’s that worth? For some people more than you can imagine.”

Focus: Focus and personal service are invaluable.

Generosity: Generosity is remembered for a long time. People remember what you did for them when you didn’t have to do a thing, when you weren’t looking for new business, when it was expensive or costly for you to do it.

Peer Pressure: Peer pressure is another silent intangible. What will my friends think if I choose you? What if I don’t choose you? Is it fashionable to pay a lot? How hard are you working to establish a connection across your market so that choosing you is the right thing to do, regardless of the price?

Hope: Hope is probably the biggest. Do you offer hope for something really big in the future? Maybe it is just around the corner, but perhaps in the long run. What does it look and feel like? Are you drawing a vivid picture?”

And there is one more, and this is the one that I feel in our business, and maybe in all businesses for that matter is the most important intangible of all and that is how you handle things when you mess up. How you deal with the situation when you make an error. There is actually a huge opportunity to deliver a great customer experience especially in a business to business setting. If you examine the relationship you have with your very best customer I can guarantee that somewhere along the line you have a problem with that customer’s product and the way you handled that problem is what formulated the great relationship you have with that customer today. Great business relationships are often forged by the way the vendor handled a problem.

If you want to be a great company, if you want to be that company that your customers brag about, then just delivering good product on time is not nearly enough. You have to deal with these intangibles. You have to give your customers this great experience that they won’t want to live without out. You have to be priceless. It’s only common sense