Transactional vs Relational

One yields in the long-term, the other is a win only in the short-term.

Over the past 3 months, I've gone to 2 different amusement parks with my family. At both parks, we encountered much-loved characters that my daughters wanted to take a picture with. But that is where the similarity ended.

One park viewed this experience as transactional. They had an official photographer who took the picture, and then directed us where we could view and purchase the picture. This park viewed our family's experience as a transaction. So much so, that we were scolded for attempting to take a picture on our own phones.

The other park viewed this experience as relational. They invited us to take as many pictures and videos as we desired. So much so, that the staff even took pictures for us - encouraging my wife and I to get into the frame as well.

Our first experience was poor. We did not share this picture on social media. We did not spread positive word of mouth of our experience. In fact, we left the experience with a more negative view of the park in general.

Our second experience was phenomenal. We had many pictures to choose from - on our own devices - and shared multiple to social media. We spoke highly of our experience at this park after the fact. We left the park already thinking about when we might schedule a return trip.

So here's the challenge - do you view your touchpoints with your customers as transactional or relational? Is social media buzz, positive word of mouth, and return business worth more than making $20 from a picture sale?

Because they deserve it, our positive experience was at Disneyland. I won't share where our negative experience was - because that's not what this post is about.

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric