About twenty minutes ago, I was standing outside the store Cloud 9 Clothing in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton when a customer walked out the door and shouted “YES!” Hoping that he was talking to someone on his Blue Tooth phone, I tried to hide my eyes from making contact. He wasn't directing his exclamatory statement to anyone though because he immediately issued to me an: “I’m sorry but I just got the best deal in there!”
“Congratulations!” seemed to be the only fitting response. After all, the elation on his face was quite comparable to that of two newlyweds exiting a church into a rain of rice.
The man lingered in the area for at least another minute taking in the magic of his merchandised moment. Before he departed, he decided to enthusiastically complement the color and style of my sneakers. His comment automatically brought me up to that coveted cloud nine feeling which demonstrated how contagious the clothing store's customer satisfaction could be.
Part of me wishes I had asked him to elaborate on his shopping experience. I’m tempted right now to go back into the store and ask the sales staff exactly what he bought and how they treated him so that I too could make a client feel so good that they'd too scream “YES!” with no reservations.
Instead a co-worker and I ventured into cyberspace to seek out anything we could about the company's mission in the marketplace. What we found was a 2005 short story on the store in Urbanite Magazine. In this article titled “Baltimore’s Up and Comers,” the owner discussed closing the original Cloud 9 Clothing at a popular mall in the suburbs of Baltimore area to focus on thriving its more urban locations in Canton and two other nearby neighborhoods. It was a project designed to uphold the unique attitude of the city-centered, sidewalk-shopping experience instead of being just another store you can run into at the mall. In the owner's words: “We have sort of become a destination.”
What I witnessed outside the store today, nearly six years after the article published, was Cloud 9 Clothing’s strategy succeeding. The store had proven to be such a unique destination that a man not only found a piece of stylish clothing at a great price but Cloud 9 Clothing had effectively enhanced his lifestyle beyond his closet and into his soul to the point of announcing an affirmation aloud.
So how do we bring our clients to the same feeling? There may or may not be a specific formula so why not try openly asking your prospects a surprising but simple question: “What would it take for me to make you want to scream ‘YES!’ when we end our meeting today?” It might seem a little out there but then again so is that euphoric high. They don’t call it cloud nine for nothing.
Kristen Zatina is a writing specialist at entreQuest with an interest in everyday client experiences on which businesses can capitalize.
