If we focus only on creating a great customer experience in the moment, we’re missing the opportunity for positive impact. This episode explores how to craft unforgettable customer interactions that forge long-term loyalty. Join Oliver Banks and discover why we must consider designing memories and how neuroscience reveals the opportunities to etch the brand into a customer’s brain. The aim is to create positive, lasting impressions and avoid negative memories so that customers remember the brand fondly and choose to keep coming back for an excellent experience.
Listen to this episode and hear:
- How the brain creates memories and how we can use this to our advantage.
- Discussion prompts to design retail interactions that turn routine outings into standout memories.
- How emotional connections can amplify the likelihood of forming customer memories.
- How to reverse the approach to avoid creating bad memories.
Episode summary: How to craft meaningful memories
Creating a lasting impression for customers goes beyond mere transactions or fleeting service interactions. It’s about forging memories that encourage loyalty and repeat visits. While the immediate experience might be satisfying for an individual, it’s the lingering memory of it that truly cements a customer’s relationship with a brand. This post explores why these memories are often more impactful than the experience itself.
The science of memory formation
Memories are more than just recollections of past events; they are intricate constructs that influence future behaviours and preferences. Understanding how memories are formed can significantly enhance how retailers design customer experiences.The full details are in the podcast, but the short answer is that they’re specific patterns in our neural pathways in the brain.
Segmenting the types of memory
The first segmentation is to realise that memories are split by their longevity:
- Short-term memories: Lasting up to 30 seconds before they’re discarded
- Long-term memories: Lasting from 30 seconds to a lifetime, or at least until the memory fades from existence.
Long-term memories can broadly be categorised into:
- Implicit memories: These include the subconscious memories of skills and habits, such as riding a bike or typing on a keyboard.
- Explicit memories: These are conscious memories that can be intentionally recalled, such as remembering a wedding day or a unique shopping experience.
Within explicit memories, we can again break down into two groups:
- Episodic memories: Personal experiences linked to specific times and places.
- Semantic memories: General world knowledge that is context-free.
Role of the hippocampus
At the heart of memory formation is the hippocampus, a critical brain structure that regulates the emotional intensity of memories and their transition from short-term to long-term storage. This area of the brain assesses incoming sensory information to determine its importance and whether it should be stored as a long-term memory.
Crafting memorable experiences in the retail sector
To transform a standard customer interaction into a memorable experience, retailers must consider several key aspects:
- A Significant Signpost: We need to signal to the customer that this moment is meaningful and worthy of a memory, and this is valid if it’s a new customer or a returning customer.
- Emotional Engagement: Memorable experiences often have a strong emotional component. Whether it’s joy, surprise, or satisfaction, emotions play a crucial role in reinforcing memories, and store associates or customer service agents present a fantastic opportunity to add positive emotions into the experience.
- Sensory Activation: Engaging multiple senses can enhance the memorability of an experience. This could involve the strategic use of visuals, scents, sounds, and tactile elements within the store environment.
- A great goodbye: When the customer is ready to move on, a super final impression presents a strong opportunity to forge a lasting impression.
- Memory joggers: Reinforcing the experience through thoughtful follow-ups like thank-you notes, feedback requests, or personalised offers can help cement the positive memories.
- Consistent with surprises: This one sounds unusual but it’s a question of repeating the known and soon-to-be-trusted proposition. However, we should still look to moments of surprise and delight where we can add the “X” factor.
Leveraging memory science for business strategy
By understanding and implementing the science of memory formation, retailers can strategically design their customer interactions to be more memorable. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters brand loyalty and advocacy, turning casual shoppers into lifelong fans.
By focusing on these memory-making strategies, businesses can ensure that their customers not only leave with a product but with an unforgettable experience that keeps them coming back for more.
Designing an operating model for creating memories with OB&Co
If you’d like to consider memories, work with Oliver and the OB&Co team to explore the opportunities and how to turn your customer propositions into an operating model that is honed to create positive memories. Discuss the options with Oliver:
📧 Email on oliver.banks@obandco.uk
🔗 Connect with Oliver Banks on LinkedIn and send a message.
Additional episodes of the Retail Transformation Show
Continue to explore the intricacies of the brain and neuroscience in episode 288: How Our Own Brain Blocks Meaningful Work. In this episode, Oliver explores why and how the brain can distract and confuse us, preventing positive and meaningful work from being completed.
From memories of the past, you might also enjoy the exact opposite – understanding the consequences that will be felt in the future, driven by today’s decisions. Episode 236: Today’s Decisions Create Our Future Regrets recognises that short-term thinking is only suitable for the short term. Oliver presents a comprehensive framework to help you evaluate potential regrets and adapt your strategies.
And finally, in episode 227: Enhancing Your Customer Ecosystem, Oliver encourages you to consider the full customer ecosystem. When you recognise the full extent of the customer ecosystem, there are plenty of opportunities for creating positive memories – before, during and after the point of purchase. Listen in to discover more.
