When CX comes down to a box of crayons

Last May, VeniVidiParis organised a private food tour for a very special client of ours. The guests, Mr and Mrs S, a lovely American couple in their late 70s, were so special that I went along as a chaperone, to make sure that everything went smoothly.

The tour was any #foodie's dream: from specialty cheese at #LaurentDubois, to prize-winning bread and croissants to sculptural #chocolate creations at #PatrickRoger, it was a hymn to French gastronomy.

As we were strolling along Boulevard Saint Germain, the clients suddenly stopped in front of the window of one of the most well known artists supplies retailers, staring at a box of pastel crayons. Mrs S started reminiscing about a trip to the Loire she had taken as a young college graduate. She had stayed at a run down chateau, whose owner, a dear friend of her mother's, was a painter. Her host had given her as a farewell gift a box of pastel crayons from #Sennelier, a storied supplier to Beaux Arts students in Paris. She had preciously kept the box over the years, until her children had been old enough to use them, but then it got lost in a move.

At the end of the tour, the clients happily on their way to Musée d'Orsay , I dashed to Sennelier, got a box of crayons for Mrs S, had it gift-wrapped and delivered it to the hotel they were staying at.

Three weeks later, we received an e-mail from Mrs S. The clients, after a food and #wine itinerary that had taken them from Paris to #Champagne, #Burgundy and #Provence, had finally arrived back in the US. She thanked us for a lovely #vacation. Attached to her email, a drawing of her garden in full bloom. She wanted to let us know that, even if all the other activities we had planned had been fantastic, the memory she would cherish for the rest of her life was linked to that diminutive box.

Much like what Will Guidara tells in this TED Talk: "we are not in the business of hospitality, we are in the business of creating memories". For his clients at Eleven Madison Park , it was a hot dog or an impromptu sleigh ride; for us, it's a box of crayons.

Never underestimate how really #listening to what your clients want (which sometimes they don't express with words) can do for your business. And for you and your team too, as Will says so eloquently : "Give people that sense of #belonging. Give them a memory that can last a lifetime. It will transform your business. But I can also promise you this. It will make you and all the people around you feel really, really, really good."