Who doesn’t like a red convertible?

A great weekend driver

What kid (or adult) doesn’t want to drive this?

There’s something about red cars (or red convertibles) or Porsches that takes my breath away. Specifically, I think it’s the promise of being able to drive fast with the wind blowing in your hair, wearing sunglasses, and looking like James Dean. (Ok, not the James Dean who wrecked his Porsche, but more like the idea of James Dean: cool, classic, and timeless.)

So what makes the brand (and the experience) great?

Start with the color: red. It makes you want to go faster, do more things, and generally just rock. Psychologists have studies the effects of colors and have found that red can inspire dominance, winning, accuracy, and other positive effects. (It also has some negative aggressive connotation as well.) Combine the color red with racing heritage, movie star association, and German engineering and you’ve got a winner.

How can you make your customer experience more like a red convertible?

Customers want to feel great. Make them feel great, and they will come back. So here are a few ideas for how you can steal from the great experience of seeing a fast, classic car on the street and deliver that feeling to your customers:

1. Send a hand-written note, “just because.” I guarantee you will get an excellent response if you sit down right now, find someone you haven’t spoken to in a while (or ever), and write them a hand-written note and send it. Bonus points if you speak from the heart.
2. Find something that’s great about what your customer does, and shout it to the world. The people you know are doing great things. But sometimes, the rest of the world doesn’t know. When you shout it out (it could be in a blog post, a twitter shout, or just a banner being towed in the sky by a plane over a beach, or just a word-of-mouth recommendation of someone who is being awesome) it makes you feel good and the recipient feel good – so do it more often.
3. Tell them in person. There is no good substitute for saying to someone, “I think what you’re doing is cool and I wanted to tell you in person.” Skype, phone calls, and the like are good. And telling them in person is even better.

Find your “Red Convertible” in your experience and drive it today.

The message for your experience? Find the things that make it great and shout about them. And find the things your customers do that are great and shout about them. And make sure you can spend some time outside, sunglasses on, with the wind blowing in your hair.

(Oh yeah – and even if it’s a replica, it can still be a lot of fun!)

(inspired by Becky Carroll of Customers Rock! and Rita Ashley, friend and sports car aficionada – p.s. Becky and Rita, you rock!)