Here's a paradox for you…. A bad experience can actually make us happier than an experience that meets our expectations. I know, surprising?!

We’re going to uncover why this paradox is true, why meeting or exceeding your customers' expectations just doesn't work and what to do about it.

Understanding experience  

In order to make my case of how bad experiences can actually make us happy, we need to understand two things.

The first is that an experience is an event or occurrence that leaves an impression, or not.

And second, experiences create opportunities for deeper and longer social interactions.

If I tell you I bought a new pair of shoes this weekend, how deep or long is that conversation? Not very! However, if I tell you all about the awesome hike I took this morning in my brand new pair of shoes, all the way around the island of Nevis (where this video was shot from) and the fact that I saw some monkeys, that's a deeper and longer conversation. (Yes, the...

I’ve had a lot of people asking me recently what gear I use to shoot the Loyalty Loop videos.

I wanted to give you a special behind the scenes look at not just the equipment I’m using, but the process I follow for shooting the videos.

I want to demonstrate that it's not just about the equipment. I think it's just as much about the pre-production and the process.

But first, let me answer the burning question…

What gear do I use to shoot The Loyalty Loop?

Cameras and tripods

The video above is shot on my GoPro HERO7. I really like this camera, not least because it's a great travel size. I tend to use it a lot for time lapse and B-roll – the audio is great too.

I attach this camera to a JOBY, which is a little tripod. I like these so much I also have a big JOBY which I’ll talk to you about in a minute.

The other camera I use – especially when I’m travelling – is the Panasonic LUMIX G85 MK.

On top of that, I have a really nice RodeLink...

For more than a year I've been talking about creating loyalty loop experience and someone recently asked me this question: "Hey Drew, what exactly is an experience?"

It made me realize that I’ve never actually defined the word experience or truly explained what an experience is.

Better yet, I’ve never demonstrated what an experience is, why an experience matters and why every single person in your company contributes to creating a great experience.

The Loyalty Loop

If you've watched every episode of The Loyalty Loop you’ll know that it’s defined as, ‘a series of post commitment encounters designed to elicit intense and eager enjoyment, approval or interest’.

That is the textbook definition. Notice it's a series of encounters or experiences.

And that begs the question: What exactly is an experience?

The customer experience demonstrated

I’m going to give you that here... using a chair as an example.

I just found out that a chair I own is a...

Rub and dub dub, Loyalty Loopers! This week’s episode is fresher than fresh, and not just because I recorded it in my shower.

Now, I know that’s not the only reason you’re tuning in. You’re here because you want to know how to build your brand, but let’s be honest - it’s hard! I’m not going to sugar coat this: building a brand may not be easy, but it can be elegantly simple.

To start brand building the right way, you’re going to have to embrace a big idea. Ready? Ok, let’s do this! When you first start out, brand building is not about you, your business, or even your product. Instead, it’s all about the market. Say whaaaat?

Before we explore my bold claim further, let’s take a step back into my office (a.k.a. the shower). Why was I even in here to begin with? To show you this line of hair care products I love called Under the Sun, of course.

Under the Sun was created by none other than my hairstylist Lauren...

It is getting HOT in here, Loyalty Loopers!

But no worries, I'm not going to take off all my clothes (ha, made you look!). Instead, this week I’d like us all to take a deep dive into the refreshing story of how one hotel transformed my personal Loyalty Loop experience in a way that I've never seen it done before. And believe me, as an international keynote speaker, I've seen my fair share of hotels and resorts. While a lot of them do get most things right, I'm here to tell you that even more of them get them dead wrong. (In fact, you're welcome to watch this video from a few months ago, where a hotel in Toronto got it dead wrong.)

Here’s the problem with text messaging from hotels: it’s all self-serving! Hotels want guests to give them a 10/10 rating BEFORE their stay is over instead of focusing on giving them a great experience while they're still there. And this practice adds up to a set of badly-timed interactions, further eroding what could have been a...

Here’s to a second “sawadee ka” from paradise, Loyalty Loopers!

We are kicking this week’s episode off in the sunny resort town of Phuket, Thailand, a place where relaxation, action, and intrigue go hand in hand. Bring your spy kit and take a boat ride with me to the (not so) secret lair of Scaramanga on James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay. It’s one of my favorite places in the entire world, and not just because I’m a huge fan of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

But that’s enough movie geekery. Let’s cut to the real chase.

Last week, I showed you the difference a big, amazing Loyalty Loop experience can make when acquiring new customers. But as the words left my mouth, I could literally feel a buzz of objections in the air:

“But Drew, I’m not on the customer service team! My job is to acquire new customers.”
“I want to design big ideas for the front of the funnel, not the back.”

Believe me, I hear you!...

Sawadee Krab, intrepid readers (a.k.a “hi” in Thai)!

This latest installment of the Loyalty Loop video series is coming to you from the vibrant streets of Bangkok, a city in which the spiritual and the physical go hand in hand. Traveling through the temple-dotted landscape, I can’t help but feel like my international trip is also taking me on a journey into my own psyche.

Which leads me to the central theme of this episode: how to dig deep, find that great idea, and make it a reality. How do we differentiate our products and services?

Last week we discussed the importance of discovering your clients’ biggest post-purchase concerns and using those to pitch an audacious idea. We also covered an easy method to identify the creative concepts most likely to wow them. And (shocker!), they’re definitely not what your competitors are already doing.

But this week I have a real-world example for you that shows these concepts in action. This is the amazing story...

This episode of the Loyalty Loop is from a cemetery somewhere in Pennsylvania. This is where big, awesome, audacious marketing ideas go to die.

Last week on the Loyalty Loop, I invited you to ponder this: What is your client or customer's biggest post-purchase concern?  

That means that after they've bought from you or committed to your product or service, what are they worried about most?

The answer to this question is going to help you pitch big, audacious ideas that get buy-in from executives, and that's where I uncover in this video.

When you pitch an idea that might affect your company's ability to acquire customers, you're more likely to get shot down. However, when you pitch an idea that is meant to change the experience for an existing customer, an already-acquired customer, you'll have a much higher likelihood of actually getting it implemented.

What does this mean? This means if you focus on the moment of commitment in your loyalty loop, that could be a...

No sales executive, marketer, CEO, or entrepreneur sets out to sound the same as their competition. It’s quite the opposite.

We slave over our unique value proposition.

We massage every word in our unique selling statements.

We conduct competitive analyses and ensure the explanation of our benefits, features, and functions distinguish our products or services from everyone else.

So, why is it that while you’re consciously working to sound different, you’re looking more and more like your competition?

#Twinning. Yes, Twinning: the accidental dressing or looking like your spouse, friends, family, or significant other.

George Clooney started mimicking Amal Alamuddin’s style early in their relationship.

David Beckham wore more and more black leather as he courted former Spice Girl, Victoria Adams.

Brad Pitt even bleached his hair blonde and sported bangs that matched his girlfriend’s, Gwyneth Paltrow.

#Twinning.

Relationship experts call this phenomenon...

I don’t know about you, but I do some of my best thinking in the car: on the way to the grocery store, to the airport, and especially on a long road trip.

On Monday, before I left on a three-hour drive, I learned one fact that convinced me not to think and drive.

For weeks, I've been looking forward to driving from a keynote in Orlando to my house in Boca Raton. I've been cherishing the solitude it would allow me to think about a marketing problem we all have: what EXACTLY is it we sell?

I fueled up for the journey with a sack full of beef jerky and two red bulls and was ready to think.

And that's when an Instagram post changed my perspective on how best to pass the time on the road. Even more importantly, the very same Instagram post answered the question I'd been pondering for days:

What EXACTLY do we sell?

This one Instagram post brought together a Harvard study, karaoke, and Uber in a flash of insight that I couldn't wait to share with you.

So, what did this Instagram post...