Fast Company recently profiled ex-Pixar employees about how they are using lessons learned at Pixar in their new endeavors.
The Pixar approach is one that every organization can look to in terms of creating a positive emotional connection with customers with their customer experience.
“Delight” may be an intangible concept, but it’s a useful term to describe Pixar’s relationship with its audience, and one that any company can strive for even if they don’t make heartwarming cartoons.
It seems counterintuitive that simple pleasure would be a core principle of something as elaborate as a Pixar production, but Suzanne Slatcher says she has translated this idea directly to her new career.
The idea that “everybody deserves quality” is a fundamental Pixar concept…
“Pixar makes amazing, beautiful, hilarious, deep, wise films for kids, and adults can watch them and everybody watches them 25 times if they’ve got kids, and it’s still funny. It’s really, really great quality, where most things made for kids are made very cheaply. A lot of time and money is spent making the most accessible thing possible, and that’s such an inspiration and so not what you learn at art school,” Slatcher says.
You could choose to imitate a select few who happen to gain notoriety in your industry by doing the obscure, exotic, or just trying to be clever. But shocking isn’t a sustainable strategy. Cheap can be easily imitated. And lack of care for the experience your customers expect will simply result in apathy from those you depend on for success.
Focus instead of widening the scope of service. Enhance the emotional appeal and encourage practical results.
