Recently my daughter and her friends had a weekend break in Amsterdam to celebrate the birthday of one of the group. They stayed at a small hotel off the beaten track which had been booked at random from the internet and as a result weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary.
When they checked in the receptionist looked at each of their passports, making notes as he did so. Later that day the birthday girl returned to her room to find a small cake, a bottle of Cava, four glasses and a note wishing her a happy 24th birthday.
This is what’s known as a Sili feature; Small Item, Large Impact. In this case it must have cost a handful of Euros and a few minutes of their time but the effect was enormous. In a world where there is so much choice we’re always looking for a reason to select one option over another and people raving about something (no matter how small) will usually tip the balance.
The upshot of all of this is the girl’s sister has already booked in for a long weekend at the same hotel and we’ll give the place a try later in the year when we visit the city for an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum.
Here are some other Sili feature ideas :-
– a small hotel we stayed in where everybody from the barman to the chambermaid called us by our name.
– a beachside restaurant that always serves a complementary single-glass bottle of Cava at the end of a meal.
– when a client re-visits your offices the receptionist asks if they would like the drink they chose on their previous visit.
– a client receives a hand-written note from a supplier on the anniversary of their first deal thanking them for being a client.
There are no end to these ideas and they all have 3 things in common: they’re cheap to provide, take little time to do but make the recipient feel special and valued.
Ask yourself this: what can I do that will cost next to nothing to provide but will completely take my clients by surprise in such a way that they will want to tell other people about it. The answer will be your very own Sili feature.
photo credit: Dinner Series via photopin cc
