How To Turn Bad Experiences Into WOW Factor Experiences

I was so frustrated.

We were hosting a special event and a good friend…a fellow executive coach…was a featured guest.

I wanted everything to be perfect.

But when it came time to serve the dinner entree, we screwed up…

My friend has a unique food allergy and we missed it. We forgot to ask.

We hustled and made him another plate.

But I was disappointed.

Our chance to WOW my friend had slipped away.

I wanted everything to be perfect for ALL my guests…and especially my good friend.

Have you ever had this happen?

Have you ever been under those bright stage lights…only to have something fall short of your standard?

It’s frustrating…it’s disappointing…to many of us, it’s unacceptable.

And still, these things happen.

If I think about it too much, I can still feel the frustration I felt the night of our special event.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about…

What I want to share with you is how to turn slip-ups and errors into WOW Factor experiences.

You see, The WOW Factor isn’t just something that happens when everything goes right.

The WOW Factor can happen when you turn a negative situation around.

It’s 100% possible to leave your customers and clients saying “WOW!” to the way you respond to your goofs and errors.

I’ll show you how.

To get started, let’s recap our definition of The WOW Factor:

“The WOW Factor is a memorable experience that leaves people talking about us in an extremely positive way.”

With that in mind, let’s work through how to turn a negative situation into a WOW Factor situation.

The first step in creating a WOW Factor experience after something has missed the mark is this: you must create a connection.

Why is connection so important?

Well, I could explain it, but I think this quote from Maya Angelou says it perfectly:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

When you begin by connecting, people feel as if you’re working to make things right.

The next step in creating a WOW Factor experience is: you’ve got to make things right, plus extra.

Part of our teaching on The WOW Factor is that one element of WOW is excellence.

And what do we say excellence is?

Excellence is above average. Excellence is delivering more than people expect.

That’s why I say you’ve got to make things right “plus extra.”

The final step in creating a WOW Factor experience when something goes wrong is this: you’ve got to get better so it doesn’t happen again.

In addition to excellence, another key piece of WOW is competence.

Competence simply means we have to know what we’re doing.

But as leaders, I think the standard is higher.

I believe we need to constantly raise the bar for ourselves. We’ve got to raise our game.

That’s a quick outline for how to turn a negative experience into a WOW Factor experience with any client or customer.

If you find yourself in that situation, remember:

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