Mitzi Lloyd knows this as well as anyone: Creating delicious food can produce a delightful experience that keeps people coming back for more.

So can Creating Raving Fans.^® Delighting customers, after all, is a major component to the inbound marketing methodology, by providing help and support to empower customers to find success with their purchase.

Mitzi hasn’t cooked regularly in almost 20 years. A full time job, three kids, and a plethora of other duties eventually persuaded her that something had to go. So, after consulting with a close friend, she hung up her apron … for the most part.

She still cooks on holidays, special occasions, and especially when the kids, now grown, come back home. And then a funny thing happens.

“They want comfort food. They want the same things (they had growing up),” Mitzi said. “I can’t explain it, really. But it has to be connected to memories that were fond, the comfort of home and family. Once we grow up, we’re in an isolated bubble. When we come back together, to that nuclear family and share things we did growing up, it makes you feel safe, feel happy.”

Food has the power to transport us back in time, all while bringing us back for more.

Mitzi began cooking out of necessity at age 10.

Her mother worked full time, so Mitzi began attending 4H classes and learned the basic set of cooking skills. After high school, she attended TJC with the intention of teaching home economics (which she did). And even after she gave up her gig as everyday chef, Mitzi still enjoys creating the comfort food of years past … mom’s mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken and rice, enchiladas, and King Ranch Chicken.

“Creating delightful experiences (through food) is what we strive for in the kitchen,” Mitzi said.

Creating Delightful Experiences at Datamax: Mitzi’s Raving Fan Recipes

1. Any process needs structure.

In cooking, and in customer service.

“I think people tend to like structure. When you give them that, it gives them confidence to perform their job to the best of their ability.”

That starts with having a plan, and continues with providing guidelines for your team, and then having an expected outcome. Then, she says, you have an audience measuring whether or not you were successful.

The right structure produces the right results – and that tremendous feeling of a job well done. Mitzi brings up the regularly-processed collections report her team combs over.

“When our percentages are high, we’ve collected 99 percent, or whatever that number is, it’s fulfilling. You feel good about yourself. You put that plan into action, and it worked.”

2. Presentation is everything.

Take Mitzi’s famous German chocolate cake: five tiers, massive layers of coconut frosting in between. It looks as beautiful as it tastes.

“Half the game is looking the part. Speaking the part. Having confidence enough in yourself to reassure our customers that we’re giving them the best service,” Mitzi says. “You’ve got to believe in yourself before they believe in you.”

3. The end game is that delightful experience.

As Ken Blanchard reminds us in the book “Raving Fans,” “just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore.” It needs to be so good, they couldn’t forget it if they tried.

Whether it’s a casserole or a customer experience, what will they remember? Hopefully, it’s an experience worth raving about. One that will keep them coming back for more.