Category Archives: Customer Experience

Where There’s a Will, There’s No Way

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Will

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 my empty propane tank for a full one.

Bagger: (Blank look) I don’t know how to do that.

Clerk: Ask Suzie.

Bagger: (Blank look)

Clerk: Suzie? Can you help him exchange propane for these customers?

Suzie: Sure. (pulls out and holds up keys) Here are the keys, you know where the tanks are.

Bagger: (Blank look) I don’t know how to do that.

Suzie: (Scary look) You’ve got to be kidding me. They just gave me these keys this morning and I’ve been doing it all day.

Bagger: (Blank look)

Then Suzie helped us.

Wanna hear the REALLY ironic part?

The baggers name was “Will”.

I think his middle name is “Not”.

Update: Looks like Mike Wagner at Own Your Brand ran into his own “Will” recently. He’s asking for suggestions to overcome the “$30,000 Toothbrush Scandle”.

Maybe we can volley suggestions back-and-forth on how brand managers can overcome issues like Albertson’s Will and the Mike’s Toothbrush Nazi.

Hollerin’

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Overlooked Marketing Edge

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

The Well

If this is a marketing proverb, what is the moral?

holler1.jpg

or, some ad agencies prefer to

Send in the Clowns

…simply entertain.

Do you ask this question?

How did you hear about us?

TV

Radio

Newspaper

Direct Mail

Billboard

Other

Hey car dealers… want to see some results?

TV Doesn't Influence Car Purchases

Cars

When you see 71% of car purchasing decisions are influenced by word of mouth…

Tiger

You’re right, but you can…

Steak

Tipping Point

How do you influence word of mouth?

Trendsetter

I’m not talking fashion trendsetters (unless you’re an apparel company). If you’re a technology company, these are the geeks. They’re the raving fans of your industry.
Baton

Do you make it easy for people to hand off your message to others?  More on this here.
Bad Baton

The coupon above might get one person to show up, but it doesn’t encourage them to hand off the baton.

A Better Baton: Drink Coupon

This coupon creates social currency. “You’ll like me more because I got us all free drinks.”

Create Community

Online (blogs/message boards) or offline (customer advisory boards/customer events).

Keep Your WordGodin on Keeping Your WordTypes of WOMBooks on WOM

So, maybe we add two lines to our marketing proverb:

Well 2

And the moral of our NEW proverb is…

Holler 2

In Sheep’s Clothing

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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 well, even fooling himself. Her mission is so well embedded, if she doesn’t kill the company she most surely kills herself – her future.

This assassin might be you.

It is not the wolf you should fear, instead you should be looking for the PEOPLE in sheep’s clothing.

These are the people who are sheepwalking (thanks Seth) – mindlessly staying in line and feeling as though they’re “doing their job.” This is the cashier at Walgreen’s telling me I can’t purchase a giftcard with my credit card, but not knowing why. Worse yet, it’s the manager telling me the same thing – “It’s just our policy. That’s what they [corporate] told me.”

It’s the pilot not fighting orders to keep passengers on the tarmac. Even after he realizes he is close to having a mutiny of passengers on his hands. He knows they’re much less likely to fly his airline next time, but he’s just “doing his job.”

What a far cry from Southwest’s interpretation of the golden rule:

Treat others the way you want to be treated

Answer every letter
Call back
Bend the rules
Do the right thing
Find ways to say yes
Treat with respect

This is an excerpt from a wonderful luncheon presentation I recently attended. Kris Holt and Scott Moore of Southwest Airlines came and spoke to our marketing association in Tulsa, OK.

Look at that list again.

Bend the rules? Find ways to say “Yes”?

Are you doing that?

Better yet, are you building a culture that encourages it?

Stop pulling the wool over your employees’ eyes. Stop pulling it over your own.

Empower Employees, Endear Customers

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Heart Coffee
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 the menu). She was met with a resounding “Yes!” from our little ones.

Later on, the kids asked for refills. The waitress politely offered soft drinks instead. She explained they ran out of ingredients for the chocolate milk. To make the first batch, she got what she needed from the coffee shop next door. She had just offered chocolate milk to us, she didn’t want tell us they were out.

In the end, she got a nice tip from us and we’ll definitely recommend Gina and Guiseppi’s to our friends.

———-
Second
———-
I stopped by QuikTrip to grab a cup of coffee the other morning. The place was slammed as usual. (You have to understand that QuikTrip dominates the convenience store business in my area) As I set my cup o’ caffeine on the counter, I notice the cashier isn’t as fast as usual. She hesitates now and then, seems just a little lost. The young lady at the other register slides over and says, “Let me take your register. We’ll switch.” Just like that, she takes over and quickly starts tallying transactions and cheerfully sending us on our way.

—————
Bottom Line
—————
The bottom line is to know the bottom line: make the customer happy.

How do you do that? Well, typically not through corporate policies and a command-and-control management style. Corporate policy wouldn’t want cashiers swapping registers. Who would be accountable for an unreconciled till? Command-and-Control wouldn’t want waitresses borrowing from neighbor businesses on their own initiative.

You make customers happy by empowering your employees to do so.

“I don’t trust my employees to do the right thing.”

Then you have big issues, my friend. Either you’ve hired the wrong people, or you underestimate their ability when given clear objectives (see a trend here? You should by 6 lines into it.).

What are your objectives?
Do you hire the right people to fulfill your objectives?
Do they know the objectives?
Are they empowered to do it?

Being CoPassionate

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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 with Brad Bird, Director of Pixar’s The Incredibles.

My wife and I were talking the other evening. She said, “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”

It’s not what you think.

My wife is a dental hygienist. She had been at a “team meeting” with the dental office. My wife thought the dental consultant said something I would say. They discussed how to ask patients questions and discover what the patient might want done to enhance their smile. The hope is that they discover something the patient is passionate about changing. The consultant then encouraged the office staff to be passionate about that change with the patient.

That’s being CoPassionate.

Being CoPassionate is the difference between being considered an inspiration and being considered a nut.

Being passionate about what you offer customers is great. Understanding why your customers get passionate and reflecting that back to them is even better. When you do that, something amazing happens.

That’s what we’re ALL waiting for.

Orbiting the Giant Rubber Brand Ball

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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, I agree it is helpful. I give clients such advice myself. I just wonder whether it makes a difference when, after all the marketing has brought in customers, they experience the opposite.

The pristine images of a luxury car ad lead you to an encounter with a rude, smoke-in-your-face, let-me-ask-my-manager, what-will-it-take-for-you-to-drive-home-in-this-car salesperson.

The fun and quirky ads lead a teenager to experience the same drab decor, lousy customer service, and bland burger with cold fries.

So, how do you manage your brand?

Here are specific examples:

I had a third party get their noses out of joint on a co-branded marketing piece. We failed to spell out their name (i.e. 35th instead of Thirty-Fifth). I was happy to make sure it was corrected, but I was surprised they were so indignant.

A friend told me about an interaction he had with “customer service” about an unexplained fee for new members. He was told it was an administrative fee. “For typing in a name?” he asked. The representative’s answer was, “Yep.” Remember, this is for NEW members. Welcome to the club.

Here’s the problem:

We know which one of these gets fixed, the typo. Colors get fixed and names get corrected, but customers (and often employees) still get shafted by technicalities and policies.

I think we have this backwards. We are rigid with the flexible areas of our brand. Meanwhile, we bend the inflexible areas until something snaps… usually our customers.

Your indignation shouldn’t arise when the corporate ego is bruised. It should reveal itself when your customers and employees experience anything contrary to the ideals your brand represents.

*PMS = Pantone Matching System. Yes, it is an unfortunate acronym.