The experience design that exceeds expectations is a surprise for consumers who pursue low prices!

Sometimes, when we buy low-priced goods, we can also get a pleasant surprise experience, which can improve the overall shopping experience for consumers. This article takes the experience of buying McDonald's breakfast as an example to explore how companies should create a shopping experience that consumers will remember. I hope it will be inspiring to you.

Let’s start today’s topic with a small case.

Everyone may have had the experience of buying breakfast at McDonald's. Among the breakfast packages, there is always a set that includes American coffee, as shown in the screenshot below.

The screenshot is from Miya from the Gangshu group

When you receive the meal, the package will include extra sugar and milk to go with the coffee, as shown in the picture below.

The picture is taken by Miya from Gangshuqun

01

This move by the merchant may confuse many customers who like to drink American coffee. Obviously, they chose the American coffee themselves, and according to the standard of pure American coffee, sugar and milk are not needed. And among the many people who order American coffee, it can be assumed that they like this pure bitter taste.

But now with more sugar and milk, many people will think that this is a waste of materials?

Because many people don't need it. If they need it, they can choose milk coffee when placing an order.

Some customers even noted that they did not need sugar and milk before placing an order, but ended up receiving these two "companions" anyway.

From this perspective, is the experience delivered by the merchant intended to give customers an extra taste experience? Or is it intended to highlight the surprise or excess in terms of service?

To paraphrase a person who experienced it: (from group member Miya)

"This scenario should be able to be transformed into a process. When placing an order, the user can make their own selections and pay attention to the order information when executing the order at the terminal. This can provide personalized services while reducing the company's costs and also be a means to increase revenue."

"American coffee should be a high-frequency drink, and the consumption is still very large. Logically speaking, most users who order American coffee may prefer bitterness to sweetness, and they also value the health of the ingredients when adding milk. McDonald's can calculate the cost of additional free products, the proportion of users who demand sugar and milk, and the cost of personalized service processes to see if this business is cost-effective."

To verify this case, we tested the consistency of this meal distribution model in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing respectively.

From this small case, we can see that the customer value delivered by the experience is that the business should actually provide corresponding catering and personalized services based on the needs of the customers and the characteristics of the products. And from the perspective of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, the redundant catering method of the business may be a waste of costs.

02

If we look at the above analysis from the perspective of customer experience, there is nothing wrong with it. And if the merchants accept it, it is also easy to improve it, such as: adding options when ordering, strictly matching meals according to customer requirements, or reducing the supply of sugar and milk, etc.

However, I would like to share another perspective to understand this small case of customer experience. Let’s make an assumption that if the customer who orders American coffee is looking for a low price, then from McDonald’s’ perspective, being able to provide customers who are looking for a low price with a high-value milk coffee flavor is actually another experience design that exceeds expectations.

Moreover, in China, according to valid data in 2021, although the proportion of consumers willing to drink pure American coffee has been increasing year by year, from 24% before 2017 to 49% after 2020, it is still 10% less than the proportion of consumers willing to drink latte. (Quoted from the research report "iResearch Trends Series: Seven Trends in the Coffee Industry")

Therefore, in terms of taste, more consumers are still willing to accept the taste of latte coffee.

For those consumers who don’t like American coffee very much, it may be a good deal to choose American coffee with a suitable price-performance ratio, and then add the free sugar and milk to make it taste like latte, which is actually very cost-effective.

03

A new experience idea emerges here. For consumers who pursue low prices, the experience design that exceeds expectations may be a surprise provided by the merchant!

In today's consumer market, consumers' needs and preferences are increasingly diversified and personalized, but they also have a common characteristic, that is, they are price sensitive. When buying goods or services, many consumers will consider the cost performance and hope to buy the best things with the least money.

Therefore, for companies, how to provide an experience that exceeds expectations while ensuring low prices is an important and challenging issue.

The so-called beyond-expectation experience means that the feelings and satisfaction consumers get when purchasing and using goods or services exceed their prior expectations and imagination.

An experience that exceeds expectations can significantly increase consumer loyalty and word of mouth, thereby enhancing a company's competitiveness and profitability.

But how to design an experience that exceeds expectations? This requires companies to start from the following aspects:

（1）Understanding consumers’ needs and psychology

Different consumers may have different purchasing motivations, preferences, expectations and feelings.

Therefore, companies need to gain an in-depth understanding of consumers’ real needs and psychology through market research, data analysis, user feedback, etc., and segment and position them according to different target groups.

For example, during the 618 promotion this year, JD.com launched the "JD.com 20 Years of Accompanying You" old user appreciation event, which provided exclusive benefits and discounts to JD.com's old users, demonstrated care and gratitude to old users, and thus enhanced their loyalty and satisfaction.

(2) Create differentiated and distinctive customer value propositions

In a fiercely competitive market, relying solely on low prices cannot form a lasting competitive advantage and can easily cause consumers to doubt quality and service.

Therefore, companies must provide consumers with unique and distinctive value propositions and highlight their core competitiveness through innovative products, services, models, etc.

（3）Provide surprising and emotional experience elements

In addition to meeting consumers' basic functional needs, companies must also enhance consumers' emotional connections with the brand or product, such as sense of identification, belonging, and trust, by adding some additional, unexpected experience elements that can touch consumers' emotions or memories, and leave a deep and unforgettable impression on consumers.

In fact, there are many ways that companies can improve customer experience and create an experience that exceeds customers' expectations, but the overall principle is to focus on customer needs, be guided by customer experience, and aim to surprise customers.

In short, in today's market environment, designing experiences that exceed expectations for consumers who pursue low prices is an effective and necessary strategy.

Final Thoughts

Companies should start with a multi-dimensional experience approach to create a simpler, more affordable, worry-free, interesting, warm and memorable shopping experience for consumers.

Let’s go back to the example above. If a customer questions why the merchant provides extra sugar and milk when serving food, I think the customer service staff can say:

"We hope that you can have a different experience with McDonald's coffee, experiencing both the purity of American coffee and the taste of another kind of milk coffee."

Author: Gangshu@Experience Practitioner, WeChat Official Account: Gangshu Experience Management