Creating and Managing Experiences
Every interaction with your customers shapes how they feel about your business. From greeting them to helping them choose and delivering your product or service, small details matter. Providing a smooth, friendly, and reliable experience keeps customers happy and coming back. Paying attention to these moments helps your business grow and build loyal fans.
-
A powerful way to think creatively about operations is to move beyond simply delivering products or services — and instead focus on creating experiences. In today’s market, customers connect most with businesses that make them feel something when they interact with a brand.
A great example is Build-A-Bear Workshop. Rather than just selling teddy bears, the company built an experience around creating them. Customers design the bear, choose its eye color and clothes, participate in its “birth,” and even receive a birth certificate. What used to be a simple product purchase became a memorable, emotional event.
This same idea applies to any small business. A restaurant owner isn’t just serving food — they’re creating a dining experience. A hair salon isn’t just cutting hair — it’s helping people feel confident and cared for. Even a small shop selling candles can turn transactions into experiences through storytelling, scent, packaging, and customer interaction.
The key to designing experiences is engagement — making sure the customer’s senses, thoughts, and emotions are all involved. To help entrepreneurs think this way, ask four guiding questions:
What do I want customers to see when they interact with my business?
What do I want them to think?
What do I want them to do?
What do I want them to feel?
When business owners answer these questions thoughtfully, they transform routine operations into experiences that attract customers, build loyalty, and make their brand unforgettable.
▶️Video: Creating Experiences and Experiential Marketing
📖Reading: Creating Experiences
-