MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

My question to Brad Antin, because Centerpointe’s results are absolutely amazing, was –how do they get there? How do you get a lot of back end sales?

Brad Antin gave me 2 key insights. First, he told me: CUSTOMER DELIGHT.

Customer Delight

If people are raving about you, they’ll buy from you again.

The equation is that simple. And, how do you get a lot of referrals? Same equation. If people love you, they’ll keep buying from you, and they’ll want to share it.

How do we get people to love us –to love our products and services more? That’s a question we need to start asking ourselves way more than we used to.

We have a list of 11 items integrated into our core MindValley DNA, and customer delight seems to carry a lot more weight than we’ve ever realized.

On the front end, we have as much as Centerpointe does. Compared to them, however, we still seem like tiny amateurs… BUT, we can quickly and easily close that gap. When we get to that crucial point of customer delight, people will buy from us, repeatedly.

They told me the formula, and it’s very simple, too: do something unexpected. And then do it a few more times.

When people buy a product from you and you deliver the product that you’d told them they’d get –great. You’ve done what they expected. That doesn’t build customer enthusiasm. You have to go above and beyond their expectations.

However, hearing this from Brad Antin is very different from experiencing what customer delight is really about.

Good advice is too easy to ignore if you just read about it on a blog post, but because the results from Centerpointe are remarkable, I decided to purchase the Centerpointe product to find out exactly what I would experience.

I bought their product, they shipped it to Malaysia, and it was exactly what was advertised. It didn’t really look much more than the $180 product it was. I thought to myself, ok –why do people love them so much? I found out why, 2 weeks later…

Because, 2 weeks later, I got a book in the mail from FedEx, shipped all the way from the States. I thought to myself, “Wow!” I mean boy, was I happy! I mean it –I really was, because who ever in my life, after I’ve bought something, thought to just send me a book 2 weeks later?

Not one company, except Centerpointe, has ever done that in my entire life. It’s memorable. It got me to know them…because it was just awesome and it made me feel great. I love them.

Now, as if that wasn’t enough, 2 weeks AFTER that, they sent me another envelope and this time, I get a bonus product. It’s a CD, and they say, “Here you go, we think this will help you.” At this point I was floored, and I felt like anything they wanted me to buy I would, because I just love them.

That’s how you want ALL your customers to feel.

To improvise on Alex Mandossian’s advice, I’d say the formula is “Give –give –give –unexpectedly –then ask.” The unexpected giving is crucial because if you say, “give me $10 and I’ll give you my product”, it won’t work. An equal exchange won’t delight and it won’t build an enthusiast.

It’s pretty easy and, obvious. When you delight your customers, they begin to love you and they become your fan. When you offer your them your next product after you’ve already won their hearts and minds, they’re going to buy your stuff. Why? Because they don’t know the other stuff on the market, it seems risky and unknown compared to yours.

There’s still more from my discussions on Centerpointe’s strategies with Brad Antin.

In the meantime, I just want to drive home the fact that we all need to get to where these guys are. In what ways do you think you can start to delight your customers? Let’s figure out customer delight, because based on how well Centerpointe’s doing, it’s worth it.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike

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