The role of customer experience in building brand advocates

Any business owner knows a strong customer experience can create unpaid brand advocates. Satisfied customers influence others through reviews, testimonials and word-of-mouth, enhancing a business’ reputation organically. It’s a fabulous marketing with no money strategy that I’ve been recommending for years. And recently, I road tested it, says small business marketing expert, Katrina McCarter.

My mission was driven by two questions.

Is it really still so important heading into 2025 that businesses’ deliver a top-tier customer experience to stand out in a crowded marketplace? Or are digital tools and technology that are transforming customer experience changing the needle on personalisation and the kinds of interactions a business needs to focus on to improve customer satisfaction?

To find out, I teamed up with another business owner and we headed to Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula for a 24-hour business retreat. We wanted to reset, replenish and research.

And we realised we could do all three in one go by visiting Alba Thermal Springs & Spa. Alba opened in October 2022, the luxe rival to the 27-year-old Peninsula Hot Springs in the area’s lucrative mineral hot springs industry.

One is a tried and tested favourite that markets itself as Victoria’s first natural thermal mineral springs and day spa. The second is pitched as a contemporary ‘destination’. I wanted to see how the two differentiated themselves in real life using customer experience to validate their premium positioning.

Customer experience done right

First impressions are something you can’t do over, and Alba does it well to justify its premium price. The building is architecturally impressive. So much so, that it felt almost out of place on the coastal peninsula, where everyone’s beach house dream is low-key sandy-feet luxury. Alba was more like checking into a five-star hotel, with staff in formal black blazers.

We were greeted warmly by a team member who checked us in for an unlimited bathing session in the outdoor pools. She led us in, showed us where we’d find everything, and told us how to preserve our towels and robes.

My customer experience radar was focused immediately. What were they doing well? Tick to our first staff contact—personable and helpful. Tick to the luxurious quality of the robe. Big tick to the Dyson hair dryers and elephant stamp to the special spinning thing to rinse out your bathers before you go home

That big point of difference was impressive. It demonstrated a really deep knowledge of the customer experience and how to make things easier for customers. It said ‘we go above and beyond to give people something they don’t even know they want’. I liked it a lot.

There were lots of little touches, too, that added up. The complex has a lifeguard stationed out on the grounds in case of emergency. Discreet medical emergency buttons were located at each pool, in another thoughtful point of difference.

The devil’s in the detail

But. The Alba customer experience wasn’t perfect. I’m including where it was let down for a reason—and it’s not to be picky. It’s so all businesses can see the importance of identifying and addressing challenges, big or small, which could stop repeat business and great word-of-mouth referrals.

Noise: next door, accommodation villas are being built. The sound of an excavator doesn’t feel serene and it impacted our experience. Yes, building works can’t be scheduled outside of daytime hours but Alba’s marketing team should take steps to get ahead of this problem. Put a warning on the website about what to expect. Tell customers who book by phone. Even offer refunds for those who arrive then decide a noisy session isn’t for them.

Vegetation: because the complex is relatively new, its landscaping is immature. The pools and facilities feel quite exposed and lack the privacy expected of a wellness centre. I’d be surprised if the cost of investing in more mature plantings outstripped the return for the business in terms of positive customer experience.

Size of sauna and steam room: we were at Alba on a quiet Monday yet the sauna and steam room felt cramped with six of us in there. During peak season, I imagine this would feel very squishy. The grounds aren’t small, so it’s strange that more space wasn’t allocated. The design itself is lovely, looking out onto the garden.

Smell: the too-small sauna and steam room areas had a ponky smell. People’s body odour. Not aspirational. Not in line with a premium price tag. This needs to be addressed.

Anyone who’s seen me speak may know my Disneyland Day Two story. In a nutshell, day one at Disneyland with my family was fantastic. Walked straight in, got our Mickey Mouse ears, had fast passes to the awesome rides, the place was clean, welcoming and yeah, iconic.

Day two was a different story. Despite the fast passes, we waited up to four hours for rides. And it was so busy it felt like we were leaving the MCG on Grand Final day.

The point is you can have a ton of things going really, really well for your business and just a couple that do damage and impact the overall experience. Guess which one your customers will remember and talk about?

The verdict: while both my colleague and I enjoyed the Alba experience, we preferred the established Peninsula Hot Springs across the road. The bells and whistles of Alba weren’t enough when lined up with value and more privacy.

What does my research roadie mean for your business? You need to consider every interaction someone has with your brand and service offering. Work out what you do well and where you could improve to avoid marring your overall customer experience.

Hone in on fixing these and watch your sales improve as your customers become brand advocates, spruiking your customer experience in word-of-mouth marketing.

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