A Guide To Successful Customer Experience In The Exhibition Environment

More so than ever, businesses are now evolving to keep customer experience the main priority, to drive growth. And importantly so, as nearly 90% of businesses are soon to compete purely on customer experience (1), showing the importance of creating successful customer experiences. 

 In a market saturated with choices, it takes just one Google search to find an alternative. Therefore, identifying how your business can excel in customer service, is a great place to start in standing out from the crowd and your competitors. After all, good customer experiences and satisfied customers, result in a growth in revenue.

Personalise Interactions to Create a Meaningful Customer Experience

A customer’s journey starts when they first engage with your brand, whether that be through clicking onto your website or onto your social platforms, so it’s important to make their journey engaging, easy and as relevant as possible. First and foremost, establish how you can engage your customers, even before you exhibit.

One way may be to personalise your marketing, like providing your customers with information targeted specifically for them, to ensure they are positively engaging with your brand; reinforcing that you understand your customers and what they want. It’s no surprise that over half of customers and business buyers are likely to switch brands if an organisation fails to personalise their interactions.

Shockingly, only 40% of brands are offering a personalised experience. Ensure that you’re providing customers with this useful method, to not only satisfy but to distinguish yourself against competitors that may be falling behind with their customer experience.

Be Consistent Across All Mediums

Indeed, a customer’s experience and journey begins before you exhibit. So, exhibitions are a proven platform to showcase your customer experience and bring it to life, throughout your pre-show, at show and post-show journey.  It’s now evident that 75% of people expect consistency whenever they’re engaging with brands, through social media and then in person. And if you’re aching to enhance your customers’ experience, consistency across all your platforms is a simple, but effective way to ensure they are satisfied on all mediums.

For instance, establishing a clear tone of voice on your social platforms and email marketing, is a great place to start. Consequently, you need to continue this within your conversations at exhibitions and again in the way you conduct the post-show follow up communications. Understand your product and your brand messages, to be able to effectively deliver these in person – and with confidence!

Design Your Displays With Your Customer in Mind

When it comes to customer-centric designs, a lot of the time, people think about websites and email marketing. But don’t stop there; think about the progress of a customer’s journey and its impact on a customer’s overall experience with your brand. Implement these ideas when thinking about the design of your exhibition stand, especially as 94% of first impressions are design related.

Start by establishing who your customer is; when creating and designing your stand, keep that customer in mind. Explore what is going to engage them and retain them on your stand for longer. This allows you time to create those positive interactions with your customer and draw them to your product. These interactions will all have an impact on your customer’s overall experience. Think about whether your team know enough about your product in order to sell it. Or, recognise how you can incorporate interactivity, to get people engaging directly with your stand. There are so many different ways to design your stand to target your ideal customer.

Integrate Technology to Engage and Positively Impact

In an advancing technological generation, it is essential to involve technology into your exhibitions in some way, shape or form. Whether that be using a device to scan leads to maximise efficiency, or actually integrating technology into your display’s design (to help tell your story). It is all beneficial in creating an engaging display that’ll positively impact your customer’s experience.

An excellent example of an interactive exhibition is one for Marvel’s Avengers, in Las Vegas. Fans are able to explore different rooms with an interactive app, with each room dedicated to a different character from the popular film franchise. An exciting and appealing experience, to really draw in and engross fans & customers to the stand and the film.

Whilst you may sometimes be limited with space, even integrating interactive small screens, will drive interaction and create a more immersive and engaging customer experience. Or take it a step further and enlighten all of your customer’s senses, by creating a multi-sensory experience. Use sound and/or even smell – if that applies!

Positive Conversation and Body Language

Whilst digitalisation is advancing, think about how you present yourself when you’re talking to visitors. A simple handshake, or smile, can dramatically strengthen your customer’s experience, just based on your positive gestures.

Though conversation is key in getting your brand messages across to sell your product, it is in fact 93% of interactions happen through non-verbal communication. A figure comprising of 38% tone of voice and 55% body language. Be positive and ensure your customers are engaging in a valuable experience.

Drive Revenue By Following Up Leads