WOW Moments - 7 Examples to show how you can use them

I love today's subject!

It's about WOW. I mean, literally.

Have you ever had one of those moments as a customer where your mind was so blown by a seamless product experience that all you could think was 'WOW?'

I'm lucky enough to work at UserGuiding, where we help our customers create seamless onboarding experiences for their customers, so I've seen a few moments like this in my time. 

Today I will be discussing what it takes to give your customers a WOW moment. I will be talking about:

• The definition of a WOW Moment
• The necessity of a WOW Moment and how it's related to the growth of your product
• Some great examples to inspire you

Let's get started.

What is a WOW moment?

A WOW moment, by definition, is the moment where you achieve to go beyond customer expectations and requirements. It's the moment where you leave your target audience speechless, out of words, and mesmerized by the success of your business. These moments might be rare, but when they happen, they boost customer satisfaction and loyalty beyond your imagination. And this is exactly why creating as many WOW moments as possible for your customers should become your number one priority if you wish to guarantee your spot in the SaaS business industry. 

Why a WOW Moment is Necessary for your Product's Growth

Let me put it this way.

As a customer yourself, do you think it is likely for you to remember an average experience with a particular product, business, or service? Do you see yourself talking about it on numerous occasions to friends, and family members, tweeting about it, posting on social media accounts, etc?

I doubt it.

The thing is, nobody is capable of remembering a standard service that they were offered. As humans, we don't pay much attention to everyday purchases like groceries, gas, tickets to the subway, etc. Instead of these, the moments that stick with us are either too awful (those are also hard to forget) or they're simply magnificent. And between these two, which one would you like to be remembered for? I guess we're both thinking the same.

Every service provider desires to offer a WOW experience that will encourage the users to talk about them, spread the word about them, and share reviews, tweets, and posts about them.

By creating WOW moments, you can easily get yourself the strongest and most efficient type of natural promoters: loyal customers.

When a customer - an excellent customer- is loyal to your brand, they will develop some sort of emotional connection closely tied to your services and teams. If you manage to keep them happy and interested, they will eventually become your biggest supporters, even your advocates. They will speak for you, they will speak about you, contribute to your word-of-mouth marketing, and in return, they will not ask for your money—what a dream.

And it's not a dream that's impossible to achieve.

You need to make sure your product is great enough to leave thousands of users with amazing WOW stories to share. And by the help of this valuable source, you'll be able to create customer trust and drive active referrals in no time.

Okay, now you have everything you need to get started. But the question that still stands is, how?

Let's now take a look at some examples I've gathered with the hope of inspiring you and letting you know more about how some popular businesses managed this whole WOW thing.

8 WOW Moment Examples for Inspiration 

1- Slack

We're all familiar with Slack, one of the leading messaging apps for businesses with a high record of growth rate -  a $1 billion valuation, to be exact-  and have you ever stopped for a second and thought about the possible reasons that created the basis of such success?

If you haven't, and now you're willing to know, let me tell you. Slack didn't take the power of WOW moments for granted. Instead, it utilized them to build solid customer loyalty and overall economic growth as a result. 

So how did Slack WOW his customers? Yup, I made it a verb now. 

Slack first amazed its clients by offering what others usually did not, and it made sure everything was eye-catching enough, too. With a big competition among chat platforms, Slack offered a different kind of usability and more advanced features. 

It did not stop there, of course. The design was also an important aspect. Even the platform's developer Andrew Wilkinson said that they needed to find a way to grab people's attention if they wished to survive in a crowded market. 

So, to create a proper differentiator, they started with the logo. They made sure it was vivid, engaging, and eye-catching. 

Long story short, Slack understood the importance of good design and how it can contribute to creating a solid WOW moment.

But, I also find it important to keep in mind that the design in this example, took place slightly after the reassurance of the quality of functions of the software; their one-click email login, for instance. It makes it extremely effortless to welcome another team member, followed by communication through the platform's stylish and simple interface—all a part of a huge WOW moment. 

Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. 

2- Trello

Trello is a quite popular and very easy-to-use collaboration tool that lets you organize your projects and keep track of everything related to them with the help of amazing boards.

During the last decade, Trello paid great attention to the enhancement of its visual framework with the purpose of reaching greater productivity and project management. And in 2021, on February 16, they stepped up their game and evolved all of Trello's boards, lists, and UI to achieve better team collaboration and efficiency. 

Their main aim was to make sure they maintained the connection between teams and co-workers, regardless of where each member lived and connected from. 

The Trello team came up with brand new ways to help users visualize their data on their Trello board, transforming everything ranging from the dashboard, timeline, tables, and more. They even created a brand new sidebar to ease the navigation process of all the boards!

They also launched new card capabilities that connect between the boards and across apps, making it easier to turn Trello into users' only source of information. 

Here's a real-life review of a customer who was pretty impressed. Just check out the three words. 😂

3- Square

Square is a SaaS-based application that provides payroll services while letting users complete their instant payments in no time. Its WOW factors are simple yet quite effective: the ease of use and the speed of the payment processes. 

In just a few minutes, you, as a product owner, can be equipped to receive your payment just like that!✨

This may seem like a basic thing, but it actually leads to many more in-depth opportunities to show off your product in front of a huge audience. Let's say you're a small business owner. Can you imagine the possible impact of the ease of sales on your constantly changing needs considering the payments, cashflows, transactions, and more? Let me answer that for you; it would be a 🔥gamechanger.🔥

While encouraging repetitive success thanks to its built-in features, Square is also equipped to assist businesses in all the stages of growth through its payroll and invoicing services.

It shouldn't be a wonder anymore how Square managed to leave many customers in awe of the speed and easiness it provides, inspiring many WOW moments💯

Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. 

4- Amazon

Here I am continuing with Amazon and a slightly different area in which they created WOW moments. I'd like to give you a quick hint: it's about communication skills vs. the famous lockdown 😔

To start with, Amazon is one of those famous brands that has seen quite a positive growth rate in the last few years. We all know the intensity level of the competition in the e-commerce sector; however, Amazon is one of those few brands that managed to reach an incredible growth rate, which can easily be linked to the amazing customer service they provide. Here comes the WOW, be patient. 

Ever since the pandemic, Amazon realized -quite early- that customers, at some point, would have tons of questions regarding the delivery, returns, exchanges, and more.

Therefore, before even these questions occurred, they came up with a self-service portal that provides answers to FAQs. This dramatically helped them tackle such requests, and the feedback from customers was pretty amazing, too. 

With this enhancement in self-service options, Amazon has been rocking those WOW moments in customer service provided to all the audiences, regardless of where they are around the world. Another takeaway of this improvement was the reduction in the number of support calls or chats, enabling the support and customer success teams to focus on more crucial matters. 

Don't believe me? See it for yourself. 

5- Zoom

What a time we live in.

According to the State of Remote Work 2021,  97.6% of employees, at some point in their career, would love to work remotely. And since 2021, more and more businesses are taking a different turn and embracing the changes in working environments, trying out the new 'remote work culture.'

And Zoom, for sure, has played a crucial role in transforming the way remote employees work ever since. In addition to the many advanced products the platform offers, it also provides free training sessions and is making sure the training videos are always up to date and filled with fresh content. 

At this point, you might think that Zoom is actually quite simple to master, but remember that hosting online events using Zoom Video Webinars or simply figuring out the key features might be a bit complex for beginners.

This is why Zoom has hired professional trainers to provide free training sessions for users who feel that way. Conducted daily, these sessions are interactive, live, and they keep helping users understand how to make the most of Zoom experiences.

Now, this is a whole WOW moment itself, but it doesn't even end there. Zoom also offers an amazing help center filled with pre-made video tutorials and Zoom Ask Me Anything sessions where experts pay great attention to personal user questions, making it even easier for users to get all the levels of help they need. 

Let's see what users have to say about all this. 

6- Spotify

I'm sure you'll be on the same page with me when I say it's almost impossible to fall for Spotify and its beautiful features. I just cannot help but adore it. So, as a customer who constantly gets WOWed by Spotify, hear me out!🤩

With various content ranging from podcasts, and audiobooks to diverse music, Spotify makes its users happy and leaves them satisfied at all times.

The built-in algorithms work pretty smoothly on their own, but they also let users step in and participate in forming their listening preferences. 

What does this mean?

Spotify users have tailor-made options at hand at all times, but they also feel free to browse a vast variety of content created specifically by Spotify itself. Given this freedom, users can't help but feel like they run the show and act freely with their choices while enjoying what's suggested to them.

And, the WOW continues even if you're not a listener! Instead, if you're a content provider or an artist, Spotify blows your mind, too. It creates a steady stream for fresh artists, and for podcast providers, it puts the content in front of potential listeners, and it does this in ways that are much more impactful and effortless - under the title ''made for you'' - than other podcast services.

This whole 'made for you' perspective leads to a great content delivery by Spotify to its listeners as well as the content creators, leaving everybody experiencing lots of WOW moments.

Let's see if user reviews prove my point. 

7- Nike

This one on my list is more about the spiritual aspect of customer services than the material.

Nike has always offered legendary products in addition to extraordinary customer service. It also has created a name for itself for all the good deeds and causes it works for; from having a whole different Twitter account for support to donating goods worth millions of dollars for workers in healthcare, it has definitely achieved a lot. 

It's no surprise that Nike has a perspective focused on sports making a better place out of the world we live in today. In June 2021, the brand took a step further with this ideology, and it did a renewal of the Shek Lei Grind Court, a community basketball court located in Hong Kong. 

Nike has always believed in the power of sports in making this world a better place. In June 2021, the sportswear brand extended this vision by refurbishing Shek Lei Grind court, a community basketball court in Hong Kong.

What's so special about this basketball court?

Well, it has been created by recycling 20,000 pairs of sneakers. Furthermore, the location of the court was also chosen specifically in a residential neighborhood that was in extreme need of an open area for the kids of 14 schools to play. 

All of these actions served a greater cause, and Nike took a step further and made things even more appealing; the British artist James Jarvis was responsible for the illustrations of cartoon characters, all of them playing basketball while contributing to the liveliness and fun of the overall atmosphere.

Now, if that's not a WOW moment, what is?🙃

Final Word

That was it for today! I hope these great practices created a source of inspiration for you to come up with unique WOW moments by improving the customer experience you provide and achieving brilliant word-of-mouth marketing.