Exploring Consumer Behavior Online and Offline

Consumers are willing to pay more for products they can touch. “Touching” is an important part

of the customer experience. When small businesses make

emotional connections with customers and prospects, there is a much greater chance to forge

bonds that will lead to repeat and referral business. When a business does not make those

emotional connections, a customer may go elsewhere or may work with the business for the

moment—but never come back and not refer other customers or clients to the business. [16]

Many businesses may not appreciate that 50 percent of a customer’s experience is about how a

customer feels. Emotions can drive or destroy value. [17] “Customers will gladly pay more for an

experience that is not only functional but emotionally rewarding. Companies skilled at

unlocking emotional issues and building products and services around them can widen their

profit margins…Great customer experiences are full of surprising ‘wow’ moments.” [18]

Small businesses should learn and think about how to market a great B2C customer experience,

not just a product or a service. [19] Design an experience that is emotionally engaging by mapping

the customer’s journey[20]—and then think of ways to please, perhaps even delight, the customer

along that journey. A history of sustained positive customer experiences will increase the

chances that a business will be chosen over its competition. [21]

Meaningful, memorable, fun, unusual and unexpected experiences influence the way

customers perceive you in general and feel about you in particular. These little

details are so easy to overlook, so tempting to brush off as unimportant. But add a

number of seemingly minor details together, and you end up with something of far

more value than you would without them.

It’s the little details that keep a customer coming back over and over, it’s the little

details that cause a customer to rationalize paying more because she feels she is

getting more, it’s the little details that keep people talking about you and

recommending everyone they know to you.

Anyone can do the big things right; it’s the little things that differentiate one business

from another and that influence customers to choose one over the other. Often,

small-business owners cut out the little details when times get tough, and this is a big

mistake. [22]

There is, however, no one-size-fits-all design for customer experience in the B2C market. Small

businesses vary in terms of the size, industry, and nature of the business, so customer

experience planning and design will necessarily differ in accordance with these factors. The

customer experience for a 1-person business will be very different from an experience with a

400-employee company.