This blog is part of the series I’ve been doing on staging better CX, starting on blog 321. https://www.seriousshift.com/blog
All work is theatre, and every business is a stage.
You are not hosting a meeting. If that’s all you wanted to do, you would have sent a Zoom link. What you’re hosting is an event, not a meeting.
You look forward to an event, and you don’t want to be anywhere else when it's happening. When it ends, you wish it didn’t; when it’s over, you talk about it.
Does this describe how your clients feel about their time with you? For example, are you hosting can’t miss events or hosting ‘could-have-been-a-zoom’ meetings?
Consider this …
Are your meetings one-off productions or part of a more extensive series of sequential events?
For instance, how would your review meeting tie into an upcoming client event?
What consideration, if any, do you give to the time of year? As I write this, springtime is a time of renewal and rebirth. Easter bunnies, chicks, tulips … How are you incorporating this into your client communications?
Given the time of year, is there a better space than your office to host your next client meeting? What would happen if you met your client outside?
Imagine this …
Spring meeting, in a park with a lunch you pick up from a near enough deli, a secret little hole-in-the-wall spot that you can then share with your client. You meet them in a park, where you can walk, talk, and visit. You are signalling to your client that you have time for them, are not in a rush, and are interested.
You point out that it’s springtime and reference the items you would have sent before this park rendezvous. These things, sent on the enticing stage (see blog 325), would be short, interesting articles or videos, absolutely non-financial, about the non-financial discussion you want to have.
You cover financial news and updates. You can break out paperwork at a picnic table if you want, but you’re also going to go on a walk and talk about life, what success is and isn’t, and what each of you feel you can do to make your lives just a little bit better.
That’s an event worth talking about. You should host it 20 different times this spring.