How to Deliver on Meaningful Experiences and Why They Matter for Customers, Brands, and Employees
We started studying meaningful experiences in the summer of 2018 in a world that looked and felt much different from today. We decided to study meaningful experiences because customer expectations were evolving rapidly. Spurred by new, smart experiences embedded into every aspect of their lives, people were no longer satisfied with experiences that lacked intelligence, meaning, or both. Companies were (and still are) getting better and better at creating content, products, and experiences. This abundance of experiences overwhelms people leading to a reduction in the net value of any one experience and the value of experiences generally.
For Stone Mantel, this study of meaningful experiences took us full circle, back to key work our founder Dave Norton started twenty years ago as he delved deeply into happiness and the role brands can play in better delivering on their customers’ jobs to be done (learn more about jobs to be done here).
We spent time in people’s homes across the country to see the things that they and their families valued. We spent three hours talking to each group about what was important in different areas of their lives. At the time, we learned the key benefits of meaningful experiences for companies and the people they serve.
Companies can best bring their mission to life by understanding what makes experiences for different jobs to be done meaningful and then delivering on them. Elements of meaning help bring the company’s mission to life for employees and customers by providing a new why or better demonstrating their current why. Companies that deliver deeper value through meaning get permission to be far more connected to customers and know them better than they can with typical loyalty programs. Delivering on customers’ jobs to be done in a meaningful way provides important elements of differentiation.
For individuals, couples, and families, the benefits of meaningful experiences seem self-evident. Not surprisingly, we found that meaning is what makes the different areas of life (work, play, and relationships) worthwhile. Meaningful experiences are an antidote to loneliness; they reduce stress and anxiety and provide perspective. Meaningful experiences also make us healthier and more productive. This was true in 2019 and even more true today as we have all had time to reflect on what is essential in our lives.
We define meaningful experiences as the practice of strengthening people through experiences that support them and those they care about. Delivering on meaningful experiences feels at first glance like something that would be extremely hard, cumbersome, and expensive to identify and implement. Indeed, there are big, important, deeply meaningful moments in people's lives that shape and define us. The companies that support those moments have been delivering elements of meaning for decades. But when asked which are more critical to meaning in their lives, people two-to-one say it is the everyday moments, the little things, that matter most. Two of the most important elements of meaningful experiences are little things and positivity. Learn more about both in my previous blog post on the joy of painted rocks.
Understanding what makes meaning and the tools brands can use to create it makes for efficient and effective marketing and sustained customer relationships. To that end, we have developed a meaningful experience tool kit with a mix of “method” and “moment” tools to uplevel experiences. Even just one tool done well will make a big difference in the meaning you offer people and the relationships you can develop with your customers.
Method tools are elements of meaning that are designed into experiences by the company. Little things, spark, and individualization are examples of method tools. Moment tools are inherent to a person (or group), and companies can leverage them to better deliver on jobs to be done. Goals, milestones (big and little), and occasions are examples of moment tools.
Understanding the jobs that people are trying to get done will help you define the right element(s) of meaning to design into experiences. Once you understand what is important and provides meaning, you will want to prioritize which elements you imbue into your experiences, operationalizing them in an authentic way that fits your brand and culture and energizes both staff and customers.
I was struck by Lou Carbone’s comment in our Experience Strategy Podcast Experience Pioneers episode, “CX professionals are so concerned on how constituents feel about the organization that they forget the importance of how the organization makes them feel about themselves.” Being intentional about delivering on the elements of meaning that add value to how your customers get things done is a surefire way to ensure that you deliver on jobs to be done in a way that positively impacts how both employees and customers feel about themselves and your brand.