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Steve Spangler is a teacher, businessman and Emmy award-winning TV personality who has amassed more than 4.5 billion views across YouTube and TikTok. The secret to his success can be summed up in one word: engagement. And recently, he decided to write about it, authoring a book titled The Engagement Effect: Cultivating Experiences that Ignite Connection, Build Trust, and Inspire Action.
In our interview, Spangler shared ideas that will make you a better leader. His insights in the book offer practical strategies for transforming abstract engagement concepts into actionable approaches that work across industries. While he shared many ideas, the concept of The Best Day Ever Experience stands out. Almost everything in the books points to creating an engaging experience that gets employees to love where they work and engage more with customers, and customers to want to return and tell others about their experience.
Engagement Is About Creating Experiences, Not Just Transactions
As Spangler emphasizes, engagement isn’t a gimmick or technique. It’s a mindset. It starts with the belief that people want to connect, and it’s our job as leaders to create the kind of experiences that invite a connection. True engagement happens when you go beyond just selling a product or service to creating an experience that connects emotionally and intellectually with people. Whether in business, school or any setting, making your audience feel involved and valued turns a simple exchange into something memorable. When people feel engaged, they are more likely to become loyal and talk about their experiences with others.
The Best Day Ever Experience
Spangler discussed his early days as a teacher, when he decided to make Halloween special for his students. In his science class, he exploded a pumpkin, lit a gummy bear on fire and sent electricity through the students (safely, of course!).
The following day, the father of one of these students approached Spangler. The conversation started out sounding like an angry, concerned parent who asked, “Am I to understand that you detonated an explosion in front of a group of children?” He shared more details about what happened in that class, and the father wasn’t actually angry at all. He was elated!
It turns out his daughter, who never talked about school, had come home so excited that she talked about everything she experienced that day. On that Halloween night, instead of wanting to rush out and go trick-or-treating like most kids, his daughter made everyone stay at the dinner table until she shared every detail about the day. She summarized by saying, “Daddy, today was the best day ever.”
The Best Day Ever Experience is about emotional connection. It’s transformational, not just transactional. The principal at Spangler’s school complimented him by saying, “If it gets to the dinner table, you win.” That wasn’t just praise. It was a benchmark. In other words, if what you create for your customers or employees is so impactful that they metaphorically “bring it home,” talking about it excitedly to others, then you’ve created a transformational experience, one they will remember, want to experience again and share with others.
Chewy.com Creates Best Day Ever Experiences
Spangler shared a business example using Chewy.com as the case study. Chewy sells pet supplies online, and there are plenty of similar stories about how Chewy creates intense loyalty with its customers.
In the early years of Chewy.com, a customer called to cancel his monthly dog food delivery subscription. Unfortunately, his dog passed away. That month’s delivery showed up, reminding him that he had to make the call. He was very emotional as he shared his story. The Chewy.com employee expressed empathy and sympathy. She informed him that the subscription was canceled, and he would receive a refund for the most recent delivery. She asked that he give the dog food to a neighbor or donate it to an animal shelter. That would have been a friendly end to the story, but there’s more.
Two days later, there was a knock at the customer’s door. A local florist delivered a plant with a note from Chewy.com about how they wanted him to know that his friends at the company were thinking about him and how hard it is to lose a “best friend.” Spangler summarizes by saying, “A sad and touching moment, yes, but also a Best Day Ever moment.”
Final Words
All leaders are experience designers, whether they realize it or not. Every meeting, message and moment is an opportunity to create an experience that is memorable (or forgettable). Spangler’s book serves as a roadmap for leaders who are ready to transform their approach from transactional to transformational. The way you treat employees and customers shapes their memories and creates loyalty. Focus on how you present ideas and products, not just what you offer. The question every leader should ask is, “Are we creating experiences so memorable that our employees and customers rush to tell others about them?”
This article was originally published on Forbes.com.
Image Credit: Pixabay
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