“Surprise and Delight” is a mantra that has been engrained in my consciousness from my pre-mortgage education in the world homebuilder marketing and customer experience modeling. “Surprise and Delight” is a very straightforward concept; however, the astounding lack of implementation in the marketplace (especially the mortgage and real estate market) makes this strategy an untapped powerhouse waiting to be used to your advantage. “Surprise and Delight” strategy is just what it sounds like — surprise your customer with a small delight when they least expect it; taking their experience with you from acceptable to exceptional. Propelling past acceptable to exceptional gives you the ultimate power in marketing — the power of remarkable service. <\/p>\n
Surprise and delight can be traced from concepts well outlined in Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside<\/a>, and Harry Beckwith’s Selling the Invisible<\/a> (both must reads). The basic tenet is excellent service is no longer enough, superior knowledge is not enough, a “great deal” is certainly not enough. None are enough to make your service remarkable. There has to be something more – something worth remarking on. It’s important to define remarkable service as service that is so extraordinary it makes your customer share the experience with people they know. And not just share, advocate on your behalf because of it. Anything less than their advocacy means you’ve failed to render a service to the degree of remarkability.<\/p>\n An example. There is a little flower shop in Laguna Beach, California named The Black Iris<\/a>. They are not just another flower shop – they are flower artists that create imaginative works of art with flowers and other flora. The first time I saw one of their bouquets I was blown away. I inquired about it from the person who had purchased it and they raved about this little shop. I had to order one for my wife’s birthday. $150 later, my wife had an exquisite arrangement that actually made her weep with happiness. $150 is a lot for flowers; it’s a piddling price to be a hero to your loved one. I immediately told my brother-in-law about them and many other Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Surprise and Delight” is a mantra that has been engrained in my consciousness from my pre-mortgage education in the world homebuilder marketing and customer experience modeling. “Surprise and Delight” is a very straightforward concept; however, the astounding lack of implementation in the marketplace (especially the mortgage and real estate market) makes this strategy an untapped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1243,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1243\/my-short-list-of-real-estate-carnival-candidates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":0},"title":"My short list of real estate carnival candidates","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I am continually amazed at the people who write for BloodhoundBlog. Day after day they knock me out, but it's always late Saturday or early Sunday when I am most impressed. Why? That's when I have to make my short-list of candidate posts for the week's real estate carnivals. Cathleen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1012,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1012\/podcast-with-redfincom-ceo-glenn-kelman-were-looking-for-nerds-living-in-nice-houses\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":1},"title":"Podcast with Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman: “We’re looking for nerds living in nice houses”","author":"Kris Berg","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman and his Senior Communications Director, Cynthia Pang. Let me begin by saying that I waltzed into my local Starbucks anticipating a date with the devil. While I exited no more enamored with their business model, I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2737,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2737\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-23\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":2},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My take is that the most important news this week was Zillow.com's announcement that it will be doing background checks on the loan originators it will be referring to consumers as a part of its forthcoming mortgage product. In consequence, this week's short list is all about Zillow's announcement and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2716,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2716\/zillow-mortgage-zoriginators-delight-or-bane\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":3},"title":"Zillow Mortgage: Zoriginators’ Delight or Bane?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"March 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Greg Swann covered the big Zillow Mortgage announcement so I won't regurgitate the details here.\u00a0 I will weigh in my opinion and speculate about the consumer offering. I share Greg's enthusiasm for an independent originator database.\u00a0 The industry can't get it together and the Federal government may be violating the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2529,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2529\/amaze-your-friends-why-the-surprise-fed-funds-rate-drop-isnt-impacting-mortgage-rates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":4},"title":"Amaze Your Friends : Why The “Surprise” Fed Funds Rate Drop Isn’t Impacting Mortgage Rates","author":"Dan Green","date":"January 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Advanced Fiscal Literacy For Real Estate Professionals The Fed Funds Rate is a fair proxy for economic health.\u00a0 When the economy is growing, the FFR\u00a0rises to fight inflation. 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If inflation is the enemy of mortgage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18706,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18706\/dont-drop-that-listing-price-just-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1238,"position":5},"title":"Don’t drop that listing price just yet!","author":"Brian Brady","date":"May 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Southern California, agents are telling me that homebuyer enthusiasm has dropped quickly.\u00a0 More homes are on caravan and some are starting to reduce listing prices to get the home sold.\u00a0 Tampa Bay area agents are whispering the same.\u00a0 And while the US Home Price Index rose 2%, year over year,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}