Hey cxplorers,

Keeping this week’s issue short and sweet because today is my 10th wedding anniversary!
​(hi, Travis - thanks for subscribing!)

And when your life partner is also your biz partner, well, it’s good to take a couple of days away from your (home) office.

(Yes, I wrote and scheduled this on Wednesday. Yes, I’m still using it as an excuse to keep it short today 😉)

So let's see if we can find any love in the air in the world of DTC CX & Marketing this week!

Link Diving

Look, they're not all marriage material

In a 2021 issue of her No Best Practices newsletter (great concept + name, btw!), Alex examines the difference between Casual Customers and Superfans:

Are your low-AOV customers any less lovable? Are they worth acquiring? Do they secretly hate you? Or is this a matter of unrealistic expectations...?

📧 Read the full issue here: Casual Customers vs Biggest Fans​

. . .

It goes down in the VIP room

While working on a project for a DTC client this week, I had the privilege of popping into the brand's Facebook community.

I was blown away by the engagement in there. And not just in a superficial way. These were raving fans sharing how the product changed their lives.

And it went beyond the products (like good communities often do) - it was truly a community based on shared values and beliefs. [Note: check out this week's Delight Discovery below to see a little bit of this in action.]

So it got me curious about other DTC communities that might have such adoring fans.

This 8-minute episode of Pitstop with guest Jordan West explores how your community (not your email list) is where your true VIP superfans are cultivated. You'll also learn...

• Why community can exist even without interaction from your brand
• Why most brands stop serving their customers right at the time of purchase (and then wonder why LTV is low 🤔). Remember: you have to keep delivering delight to earn customer advocates!
• That it's common to see customers rush to defend a brand when someone posts a complaint in a strong community (and why those types of interactions increase brand affinity and move customers even closer to superfan status)

🎙Listen now: Pitstop >> Building Communities That Care​

Delight Discovery

Let's celebrate brands that are doing things right, raising the ecommerce bar, and delighting their customers. This week’s Delight Discovery comes from inside the private Facebook community for customers of The Hero's Journal:

Let me explain what we're looking at here:

Tacie posted in The Hero's Journal community about a situation that upset her.

Apparently her enthusiasm for the brand was so great, that the comments she was leaving on the brand's Facebook Ads were mistaken for paid shilling (or, as described here, "going ham in the comments" as "an obvious company profile.")

Tacie was quick to come to the community to apologize to founders Nick and Kyle for chasing away a customer. She didn't understand where she went wrong because she was just "answering the questions people asked on the ad."

Obviously I'm sad that this interaction upset Tacie, but this is truly a textbook example of what Jordan discussed on the Pitstop podcast.

Tacie was such a stellar brand advocate that a prospective buyer confused her for a company employee. Clearly Kat (the grumpy ad reader) saw this as a bad thing, but I bet others were motivated to buy because of Tacie's enthusiasm!

And, don't worry dear cxplorer, Tacie wasn't sad for long. The entire community showed up in the comments to defend her superfandom. And I have a hunch that Kat wouldn't have been an ideal buyer anyway.

Buried Treasure

When we listen to customers, we find buried treasure. Here’s this week’s featured product review that’s full of swipe-worthy customer language.

Speaking of superfans and loyal customers...! Firsthand Supply has created a product that ruins you for other men pomades. (I'd love to see this as a Facebook ad or email subject line!)

CX Twitter

I'm working to find the best of CX Twitter. Here are a few Tweets turned Love Lessons that I enjoyed this week 💞

Lexie Bennett 💌 @thelexiebennett Working with a brand rn experiencing major production delays (global supply chain issue) 😩 We’re using this time to build trust through transparency à la Eli Weiss style Here’s everything we did to keep customers in the loop: March 11th 2022 3 Retweets 44 Likes

One of the best ways to show love? Be transparent and honest! And, yeah, this should definitely include your customers! Lexie has some great tips for keeping your customers in the loop and making sure they feel the love (even when things aren't going so great).

Molly Becker @m0llybecker Bartenders often have a comp tab, which allows them to buy their guests drinks, if they so choose. Pick a daily $ amount and give your customer support team one, too. Go ahead track your comps behavior over the course of 30/60/90/120/etc. Let me know what you find? January 23rd 2022 2 Retweets 29 Likes

Did you know that one of the five Love Languages is Gifts? Why not give your CX team the gift of...gifting! Your customers will love being showered with some surprise and delight.

Eli Weiss @eliweisss The space between “place order” and the order delivery is still the most underutilized space in CPG marketing. November 9th 2021 10 Retweets 162 Likes

And under no circumstances should you ghost someone you love. So for the love of customers, please keep speaking to them AFTER you get the sale (if not, the relationship can start to feel a little extractive...).

Let me know what kind of CX, marketing, and customer-focused curiosities you've been exploring lately. I'd love to hear what you've discovered.

- Megan