Category Archives: Customer Experience

At Their Mercy

We love our independence. It is an empowering thought to imagine all of our needs being met within our own power. It is also inaccurate. We do not entirely depend on others for our success, failure or enjoyment; but our experiences are directly influenced by other individuals. When I call customer support, the person on the …

October 7, 2011 – 9:39 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience | Comments (0)

Critical Anecdotal Mass

While staying with some relatives, my wife and I visited their church. The pastor began his message with an anecdote, a personal story involving him and his wife during their dating years. The story was humorous and seemed to get the attention of the church congregation. He then continued into a 3-point sermon about… something. …

September 30, 2011 – 8:30 am | By DUST!N | Posted in brand you, Branding, Customer Experience, Personal Brand, Professional Development | Comments (0)

The Onus of Loyalty

When you hear “customer loyalty,” what do you imagine? The Happy Couple The customer gleefully spending all their money with you out of some sense of belonging. The Ol’ Ball & Chain The customer is locked into a relationship with you because of terms and conditions or simply a lack of better choices. The Gold …

October 24, 2008 – 10:16 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience | Comments (0)

Communers and Commuters

A friend of mine was considering a position as pastor of a church. The church is an hour or so away. He declined the position because of the distance. My wife said the church probably would want someone who lived in their community anyway. She’s right. Not only is proximity an issue, but there’s something …

December 7, 2007 – 10:53 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience, Word of Mouth | Comments (1)

Acronymania

Kem posted: What is it with the human need to turn everything into an acronym? Really. I cut this out of a magazine I was flipping through last week about, of all things, CUSTOMER SERVICE.

October 5, 2007 – 9:28 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience | Comments (2)

A Plug for Our Plugs

A few weeks ago, I was doing research on eHarmony commercials. I thought I’d show you what we did with that research. These were some fun TV ads we created for a Tulsa area business. It really fits their brand, since they’re known for matching people with just the right appliances. We’re hoping to build …

July 27, 2007 – 9:03 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Ad Agency, Advertising, Customer Experience, My Reel, Tulsa, Tulsa Ad Agency, Viral Marketing | Comments (1)

SnapThoughts (6/29/07)

As a fun little riff, I thought I’d share with you a variety of snapshots from my cell phone and a few thoughts on each: This is called a Whisper Phone. Our daughter’s elementary school teacher showed it to us at a parent/teacher conference. Children use the whisper phone so they can hear themselves read …

June 29, 2007 – 10:12 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Creativity, Customer Experience, Ideas, snapthoughts, Word of Mouth | Comments (2)

Where There’s a Will, There’s No Way

My brother-in-law and I had an interesting incident over Memorial Day weekend. We were having a party for my son’s first birthday. So, we went to Albertson’s to pick up my son’s birthday cake and some propane for my grill. After we paid for everything, the clerk tells the grocery bagger to help us exchange …

June 1, 2007 – 4:14 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience, Human Resources | Comments (10)

Wielding the Brush

Mike Wagner has yet another fascinating post pondering the wisdom of incomplete brands. I love his thoughts and wonder why we don’t acknowledge how often the customer is wielding the paint brush, let alone encourage them to do it more.

March 23, 2007 – 2:03 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Bloggers I Read, Branding, Customer Experience | Comments (2)

Hollerin’

Here are a few tidbits from my presentation yesterday. I spent most of my blog time (and more) preparing to speak at Entrepreneur’s Day, so this might be my only post this week. The Marketing Proverb If this is a marketing proverb, what is the moral? or, some ad agencies prefer to …simply entertain. Do …

March 2, 2007 – 5:07 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Bloggers I Read, books, Branding, Customer Experience, Marketing, Seth Godin, Word of Mouth | Comments (8)

In Sheep’s Clothing

We’re on the lookout for wolves. You know… back-stabbers, saboteurs, spies and just plain evil-doers. We suspect they’re among us. The wolf in sheep’s clothing. But there’s something much more dangerous in our midst, also masquerading as sheep. This “silent killer” of companies is much harder to find than the wolf. He wears the disguise …

February 16, 2007 – 11:10 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Customer Experience, Human Resources, Personal Brand, Professional Development, Seth Godin | Comments (2)

Empower Employees, Endear Customers

This would have been perfect if it were chocolate milk (see below). Two experiences this week that caught my attention. ———- First ———- My family came by the agency to eat downstairs at Gina and Guiseppi’s. As we struggled to commit the kids to a drink selection, the waitress suggested chocolate milk (which wasn’t on …

August 11, 2006 – 11:12 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Customer Experience, Human Resources | Comments (0)

Being CoPassionate

There’s one character who appears in The Incredibles only three times, but he really says it all, that little kid on the tricycle. When Mr. Incredible yells at him, “Well, what are you waiting for?” the kid replies, “Oh, I don’t know. Something amazing, I guess.” That’s what we’re ALL waiting for. Andrea Gronvall interview …

June 30, 2006 – 8:16 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Customer Experience, Seth Godin | Comments (0)

Orbiting the Giant Rubber Brand Ball

We manage our brands. We are careful with the corporate identity, making sure we don’t use the wrong font or use the wrong PMS* color. We are diligent to ensure all our marketing pieces are “on brand”, using the same taglines and having the same look and feel. How much difference does it make? Yes, …

June 9, 2006 – 12:06 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Customer Experience, Marketing | Comments (0)

Soundbites and Snapshots

Is there a difference between depth and authenticity? … between shallowness and a lie? We’re a society that is defined more and more by soundbites. Defining others more and more by snapshots. The problem is we’re not that good at it. In the majority of companies and the majority of ad agencies today, there is …

June 2, 2006 – 12:31 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Branding, Customer Experience, Marketing | Comments (1)