Meg Mothershed Of Mothershed Design On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience
Reliability is one of the most important factors to creating a successful experience for your clients. Inconsistent communication, showing up late, or failing to complete work are all surefire ways to diminish the trust your paying customers have placed in your business. By always doing what you say you’ll do, you will continue to build confidence and credibility.
As a part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meg Mothershed.
As a branding expert and Co-owner of Mothershed Design Co., Meg Mothershed knows firsthand how to run a successful project and wow customers through the process. For the past eight years, Meg has helped businesses from diverse industries present themselves professionally, communicate their offerings, and expand their brands.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
After years spent working as a graphic designer for agencies and in-house teams, my husband, Josiah was feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. Having been involved in every step of the design process, he knew what it took to run a project from start to finish and felt he could do it better. So, in 2016 he struck out on my own and formed Mothershed Design Co. shortly after we got married.
At the time Josiah started the studio, I was working as an in-house graphic designer at a nonprofit. While it was a great job as a recent graduate, it left me craving more. Having always wanted to own my own business since I was six years old, joining Josiah at MDCo. was a no-brainer! I quit my job and joined him in the business full time in 2016 and we’ve never looked back.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When we first started working together, my husband and I were used to working pretty independently and didn’t always communicate about what we were working on, leading to us sometimes working on the same thing at the same time!
We quickly learned the importance of clear communication and began to define our roles within the business. I focus on running the operations of the business, managing projects, and handling strategy and copywriting for clients, while Josiah (our creative genius), does the heavy lifting on design and web development.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Absolutely! My husband, Josiah, is my biggest support and inspiration. He is a true partner in every way imaginable. One of the biggest strengths in our relationship is our ability to work as a united team in everything we do; everything we take on is to benefit us as a family. Running a business isn’t always easy, but there’s no one else in the world I’d rather be doing it with.
Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?
Ensuring that your customers consistently have an incredible experience in working with your company is crucial to building a positive reputation as a brand and business. Being known as a successful company helps to establish your authority as an expert in your industry and increase your business’s credibility.
Online reviews are one of the most powerful marketing tools in business. Before purchasing a product or hiring a service, over 99% of people read online reviews prior to taking the next step. Having plenty of glowing, 5-star reviews builds trust with potential customers and can increase your likelihood of landing a sale.
We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?
While providing an amazing product or service is of course important, if your customer experience is lacking, you may quickly lose customers and garner a poor brand reputation.
A bad customer experience often stems from a problem with your people, process, or product/service. If your employees are apathetic, your processes are a mess, or the product/service itself has issues, negative experiences and customer reviews are bound to occur. Ensuring that each of these three areas is optimized is essential for a smooth experience.
Don’t forget, at the end of the day, doing great work and providing a wow! customer experience is to benefit your customers! Keep them at the core of everything you do.
Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?
Healthy competition can absolutely motivate businesses to do better. Ensuring your customer experience is just as positive if not more so than your competitors can be a great way to remain competitive. When comparing two similar products or services, those with more or better reviews than the other will practically always win out in the end.
Other external forces to provide a wow! customer experience include the desire to build a well-known reputation as a successful brand as well as to avoid potential backlash from unhappy customers.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
After nearly a decade in business, a now longtime client of ours came to us to rebrand their business and redesign their website. We had a great connection with them, took the time to listen to their goals, and worked with them to successfully rebrand their company in a relatively short time frame.
Not only did we have a great working relationship, they also asked us to provide creative direction for their team headshots, shoot their portfolio photography, and even create branded gifts for their clients. The end result was incredible and they expressed their gratitude for our support with a glowing review, thank you gift, and plenty of referrals over the years.
Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?
Yes! Not only has this client referred us to several other now long-term clients (who have in turn referred us to others), but they have also returned time and time again for our creative support with new business endeavors.
Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.
Customer experience should be at the forefront of everything a business owner does. From the initial sales call and answering emails to delivering the final product or service, ensuring your customers receive the best experience possible is key to running a successful business.
The five keys to creating a top-quality customer experience that their customers will never forget are: reliability, honesty, authenticity, personalization, and memorability.
- Reliability
Reliability is one of the most important factors to creating a successful experience for your clients. Inconsistent communication, showing up late, or failing to complete work are all surefire ways to diminish the trust your paying customers have placed in your business. By always doing what you say you’ll do, you will continue to build confidence and credibility.
2. Honesty
As they say, honesty is always the best policy. Taking a transparent and honest approach while setting clear expectations is crucial to a positive customer experience. If you make a mistake, always own up to it and make it right. By trying to hide errors or telling white lies, your authority and reputation are quickly tarnished.
3. Authenticity
While it’s important to always put your best foot forward, maintaining a real and down-to-earth attitude is a surefire way to connect with customers. From fake smiles to passive aggression, people can easily tell when who they’re interacting with isn’t being their true self. By taking an authentic approach to business, you can provide better customer service.
4. Personalization
Who doesn’t like to feel special? Making the extra effort to personalize the experience of working with your business can go a long way to wowing your customers. Whether it’s taking the time to write a handwritten thank you note after a project has been completed or simply adding an additional detail you know a customer will appreciate, a little can do a lot.
5. Memorability
Make sure your customer’s experience is one they’ll never forget. By wowing your customers time and time again, they’ll be more likely to return and refer your business.
By focusing on these essential areas, business owners can build a strong foundation for customer success while building a well-earned, positive brand reputation.
Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?
Simple yet effective strategies to encourage referrals from happy clients include asking for an online review, sending a small thank you gift or token of appreciation for being a customer, remembering birthdays or business anniversaries, and following-up after the product has been purchased to services performed to see how things are going. Staying top of mind with current and past clients can continue to create a great customer experience and encourage clients to refer you to others.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
At Mothershed Design Co., we believe in small, sustainable growth. We have found that’s the key to our success, both professionally and personally. Constantly doing creative work can be both incredibly rewarding and challenging. It’s easy to quickly become burned out doing something you love.
Our goal as a business is to support other small businesses through branding and web design while maintaining the motivation that made us want to start a business in the first place — freedom over our time and spending that time doing something meaningful.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
You can learn more about our story at MothershedDesign.com or follow along with us on Instagram at @mothershed_design.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
