The Power of the Flywheel (Part 4): The Delight Stage

As inbound marketers, we sure can get caught up in the latest methodologies to attract new prospects to our websites and engage them on their buyer’s journeys. After all, every company wants new sales in the pipeline. 

But as you focus your efforts on capturing the attention of new customers, is it possible you’re overlooking the biggest potential lead gen machine in your inbound arsenal — the customers you already have?

In our final installment in the flywheel video series, Inbound Strategist Frank Isca talks about why focusing more effort on delighting your customers not only helps reduce churn, but encourages them to become advocates for your company to win more business.  

Click in the video chapter menu below to watch Part 4: The Delight Stage, or scroll to read the transcript below. 

Missed parts 1–3? Check them out, too:

• Part 1 The Flywheel — Overview
• Part 2 The Flywheel — Attraction Stage 
• Part 3 The Flywheel — Engage Stage

TRANSCRIPT: The Power of the Flywheel (Part 4) — The Delight Stage

Hi, I’m Frank Isca, Strategist at Weidert Group. This is the last in a 4-part series explaining the flywheel and introducing you to a better way to achieve ongoing profitable growth.

In the last video, I talked about the Engage stage of the flywheel, and in this video I’ll focus on the Delight stage, and how force and friction affect a company’s ability to continually provide value as a way to ensure a profitable long-term relationship — and one that turns your customers into promoters. 

Source: HubSpot

Force are things that power your efforts, and friction are those things that keep you from being as successful as possible. 

So what are force and friction in the Delight stage? 

Sources of FORCE in the Delight Stage

The Delight stage is all about continuing to deliver value to the customer so that they continue to buy from you, and become ambassadors for your business. Here are some examples of force:

• Helpful resources. Just because they’re customers doesn’t mean they don’t want and need to continue learning. Offer customers valuable resources related to their challenges and they’ll see you as an integral part of their organization because you’ve helped them be successful. This should also include a database of FAQs and service-related resources specific to your products and services.

• Opportunities for your customers to leave reviews. Peer reviews have significant power to compel others to buy your products and services. When you’ve finished a successful project, ask customers for a review on Google or a relevant industry directory where your prospects evaluate potential vendor partners. These reviews can then be utilized for testimonials (examples) throughout your website or to create case studies.

Sources of FRICTION in the Delight Stage

And now for some examples of friction that keep you from delighting your customers: 

• Assuming Customer Service is solely responsible for customer delight. If you turn customers over to your service reps once they’re signed on and never follow up again, you’re missing the opportunity to get deeper into their organization with upsell opportunities. Your Marketing, Sales and Service teams need to be in alignment to ensure that marketing and sales aren’t over-promising things to customers that can’t actually be delivered, and all three departments should continue to create content that has value to customers. 

How’s Your Performance?

Now that you’ve learned a little about the Attraction, Engage and Delight stages of the flywheel, take a look at all the things you’re doing – and not doing – to get your best prospects to your site, engage and turn them into customers, and to continue to delight them. This will help you identify gaps and start improving your performance. HubSpot’s got a handy resource called the Flywheel Worksheet and you can download it free by clicking the link!

A Real-Life Example of Delight 

Don’t you just love hearing great things from your customers? It’s even better when they’re willing to tell others. In addition to peer reviews, case studies are another great way to showcase your customers and allow them to share why they do business with you.

We’ve got a few of those ourselves in case you want to see an example. Check out the incredible results that one company had which are directly attributed to their inbound marketing program — to the tune of $5 million in new business. View the case study here. 

Need help creating your own case studies and other content? Download our free content creation templates.