You walk into a store or restaurant or anywhere else and look around. The first thing your mind does is to see if it has anything in your memory banks that “looks similar” to what you are seeing. Someone comes up to greet you your mind does the same thing based on the words they are using. What sound similar to something you already know…this is mind mapping for an experience.
Based on what you are seeing or feeling, the business will benefit or be penalized based on your mind maps. For example, you walk into an average department store that tries to look like a Nordstrom store in its layout and ambiance. So you immediately mind map your latest experiences from when you were in Nordstrom. But in this store, no one comes up to help you and when you find someone, all they want to do is “ring you up” for your purchases. Wait…where is the Nordstrom experience? You mapped it in your mind based on the Nordstrom experience.
If you offer something less than Nordstrom, you lose…if you offer something better than Nordstrom, you lose. Meaning…if I expect it to be a Nordstrom with the personalized assistance for shopping and you don’t offer that, my expectations are not met and I leave feeling like this was a bad experience. But if you offer something even more personalized and greater than Nordstrom, the person might not see this and map you to the Nordstrom experience so you lose again.
Mind mapping is more dangerous than most think. In the majority of cases, you end up losing because what you are offering needs to look different in your customer’s eyes/mind. But if they see and feel the environment is the same, they will map it to these other places. If this is the case, how can you get around it and how can you prove your differentiation?
This is a huge question…opportunity…objective of your business if you wat to be differentiated today.
The answer…change the map. Change the language. Change the experience.
When you do this you move the customer away from a world they can’t easily map…and therefore you have the opportunity to create the experience you want. Without some type of disruption in the mind map of your customer, it is very difficult to break them away from their maps. This disruption, breaking the map, causing your customer to say, “Well this looks different,” is what sets you up to be differentiated…to WIN.
Break their Mind Maps and you allow them to see just how awesome and incredibly you are…and they can experience you in a fresh, uncluttered way. It is one of the keys when creating a differentiated and memorable experience and company…the kind that gets talked about…a lot!!
