Beyond Philosophy has created some great ideas and tools for understanding customer experience in the corporate world. In their book Revolutionize Your Customer Experience by Colin Shaw, the concept of Share Your Mind^TM is introduced.

Beyond Philosophy discovered that there are four different levels of customer attention:

• Oblivious
• Distracted
• Engaged
• Captivated

Graphically it looks like this (modified to reflect Guest language):

Oblivious Guest Experiences

There are many organizations that try to grab your attention as a consumer – even in ChurchWorld – and yet you are oblivious to their advances. You haven’t seen their billboards, direct mail pieces, signs, bulletins, newsletters, worship guides, etc. You are exposed to thousands of “messages” every day, and yet you ignore most of them. Giving someone an oblivious Guest Experience costs organizations – like your church – a lot of money for nothing in return.

Distracted Guest Experiences

When you are distracted, you are not focused on the Guest Experience. For instance, a Guest may come to your church and wander around, thinking about other things. A greeter does not engage them. They do not see a special opportunity coming in two weeks. They aren’t challenged to take the next step. If you are not careful, they will slip in, be a spectator, and slip right out again. When this happens, organizations have not captivated or engaged the mind of the Guest, and they are distracted and indifferent enough to not pay attention to the Guest Experience being provided. Organizations that allow their Guest’s mind to wander and be distracted are losing a massive opportunity to build on future interactions.

Engaged Guest Experience

In the engaged stage you have 95 percent of your Guests’ attention, but it is not captivating, and therefore Guests can easily be distracted. There is a danger that their minds may wander and you may lost an opportunity to connect with them. For example, if your organization has wonderful connection points and eager people but not alignment of purpose, it would be easy for a Guest to lose their overall connection curiosity because they are literally inundated with messages. They may be engaged, but are eventually lost in an overwhelming amount of information or they find something else that pulls them away.

Captivating Guest Experiences

The goal is to create a captivating Guest Experience by capturing your Guest’s whole mind and thus ensure they give you their full and undivided attention. It is the stimulating of their senses to such a degree that positive emotions are evoked, rendering them captivated. Nothing stops them from focusing on your Guest Experience, and more importantly, nothing can distract them from it. They are so engrossed in your Guest Experience that nothing will pull them away from it. Your “share of mind”^TM is total.

Captivating Guest Experiences are memorable by nature. Creating a memorable Guest Experience is important when considering the culture we live in. If your Guest Experience does not stand out, your organization will blend in, becoming part of the noise and blandness of this world.

Organizations must seize Guest’s attention from the first point of contact (often digital). Organizations must stimulate Guest senses (all 5 of them) to create a captivating Guest Experience, one that will evoke deep emotions – and create a connection that will allow the possibility of a transformed life.

This post is part of a journey translating Customer Experience learnings in the corporate world to Guest Experience in ChurchWorld. Material in today’s post was excerpted from “Revolutionize Your Customer Experience” by Colin Shaw.