Some would argue that with the prevalence of technology and social media, there is a growing disconnect in the world of customer experience. But the way I see it, it’s a breeding ground for opportunities to build advocacy among your customers.

Gone are the days of consumers sitting helplessly on hold at the other end of a generic 1-800-number waiting for help (well, maybe not completely, but times have sure changed).

Now, with social media and the ever-growing online presence of today’s consumers, companies have so many touch points to engage in dialogue and forge relationships. I write a lot about customer experience from a variety of perspectives and angles, and this recent story from Inc Magazine about Casper, really intrigued me.

Casper is essentially turning the sleep business on its head. It’s no secret that shopping for a mattress is not the most exciting experience – more of a necessary evil. People often roam around stores, touching, sitting, laying, even bouncing, on mattress after mattress until they find the right fit. It’s also a super personal decision because everyone has different requirements for a mattress. It’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all racket.

So what did Casper do to shake things up? Sure, they did market research and tons of testing and marketing. But they made a bolder move than others in their industry. They decided to make one single model mattress that would meet the sleep needs of the widest variety of consumers using a cross-section of the best materials to achieve an almost universal comfort. Definitely a big risk. Most of the company’s competitors have model after model with nuanced differences (that makes mattress buying confusing and laborious but potentially more appealing to a broader audience). So the real differentiator for Casper was… drum roll, please… the customer experience! How’d you guess?

Casper set out to connect with mattress buyers in a way they’d never been connected with before. And to change the whole experience of buying a bed – from the single model to the home delivery-in-a-box! Because the reality is, there was a gaping hole in this industry where customer experience was supposed to go. Since most people buy mattresses every 8-10 years, most retailers don’t really focus on building a rapport with someone who probably won’t be back anytime soon. But Casper did.

In the article, Casper founder, Neil Parikh says, “We know how long you’ve had your bed, and if you have kids or a pet. We keep track of all that, and then send people anniversary gifts, or dog beds. It’s not about just selling you a bed. It’s “How do I make this person our biggest advocate?”

They are making an investment in customers that others do not. And I’d say, considering they had $1 million in sales the first month, and hit $100 million cumulatively, they might just be on to something.

They even built Casper Labs around their customer database. “We have 15,000 customers who are part of our product-development process. They come to events, and test prototypes. Many are obsessive about sleep. They send us sleep tracker data and say, ‘I tested this product versus this one, and here’s what I found.’ That process has helped us build a group of evangelists.”

The power of customer evangelists is incredible right now. People become impassioned about products or services and not only are they talking about them at lunch with friends, they are posting about experiences on Facebook, and Tweeting to the companies, and sharing Instagram posts featuring these products and services. The possibilities for exposure are endless and Casper is capitalizing on that by creating a customer experience worth talking about – whether you like their product or not!

We can all learn something from them about strong customer experiences creating customer evangelists.

What do you think of their approach? Tweet me at @GaryMagenta using #CreatingaKillerCX

March 28, 2016

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