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Don’t Try to be Genuine
Author: Luis Serpa
March 6, 2009
A recent post from Kathryn Jennex (aka @northernchick) generated a very passionate discussion yesterday about what it is to be “genuine.”
It is a great post and I recommend reading it with all its comments but, apart from the insight on human relationships and perception, the post really got me thinking about how the urge to be genuine can affect some companies and their brands.
Like individuals, companies also fail sometimes at trying too hard to be original or genuine without actually trying to understand WHOM they are trying to reach. They usually forget that being “genuine” has nothing to do with how you want to project yourself and everything to do with other people’s expectation of how you ought to be. Our perceptions (and choices) are distorted by so many unconscious inferences and feelings that it is impossible to ascertain one’s true aspect behind all these irrational filters.
So, what should a company do to become genuine? I’d say NOTHING. You either ARE or ARE NOT genuine already in your niche. Trying to be genuine beats the purpose of being genuine. By trying to be something different than what you are now you get farther away from your true self and thus become less “genuine.” Also, the attempt to change (at least in that context) is just a lame attempt to reach outside your own niche. If that’s not what your company is really about, all you will achieve is to disengage your loyal customers and look fake to your prospects.
The only real way to reach outside your current niche is to EVOLVE beyond what your company may represent to them today. By listening to your current customers and addressing new needs, your company can improve on its core and become more than it was before, WITHOUT losing originality. If that happens, you will be genuine to both current and prospect customers, even when each group is seeing a different aspect of your brand.
The customers are the ones judging how genuine we really are. In the end, it is all about the Customer Experience.
Follow Luis on Twitter at www.twitter.com/luiserpa
Bank of America: Your Customers Are Talking. Are You Listening?
Author: Jeannie Walters
January 19, 2009
Any given day on Twitter, there is discussion about customer experience. Typically, it’s bad. Bad tweets about bad experiences on the phone with customer service people, standing in line for problems that shouldn’t have happened to begin with, bad bills, bad fees, bad bad bad!
Recently, a heated discussion spread across the Twittersphere thanks to Laura Fitton’s (pistachio) post about her experience with Bank of America. A series of Fitton’s frustrated tweets about fees, broken online banking and customer service disrespect led other customers to share their own harrowing tales. Oh, and all of these posted with the searchable hashtag #BOA for all to see and search.
It should be noted that Fitton is a force on Twitter. With more than 15,000 followers, she has influence in pretty much every industry across social media. She’s also seen as an expert on microblogging - the very thing Twitter is used for - and helps all of us get it right.
Eventually, the rant ended with this tweet from Laura: “while still savagely frustrated with BOA’s fees/long check holds/other cust service snafus, i gotta hand it to @bofa_help for jumping in.”
So, eventually, after literally 100’s of people posted about their own terrible experiences and 1000’s of people watched this unfold, a BOA representative on Twitter got wind of the trouble and reached out directly to Laura. This type of personal outreach can do a lot to solve a singular customer issue. But by then, untold damage had been suffered to the brand.
There are many blogs about how to use Twitter to monitor brand reputation. This isn’t one of them. The conversation on Twitter or blogs or Facebook does not just happen there. It happens with your customer service reps on the phones, with your branch managers and tellers, and with your customers who take the time (and are so angry) to actually write via your web site or even snail mail to the CEO.
What is Bank of America doing to listen elsewhere? And how are they addressing the perception of high fees without appropriate levels of service?
I would say a careful examination of their current customer experience is in order.
3 Common Problems With Satisfaction Surveys
Author: Ryan Cleek
January 14, 2009
Esquire Magazine printed a great satiric jab at customer satisfaction surveys on the final page of this month’s issue. It’s funny enough to make you snort a little when you laugh (which made my morning commute interesting), and it makes some great points about “satisfaction,” whatever that means.
1. Self-interest
Unfortunately, satisfaction surveys are often used to judge the same department that creates them. Naturally, the people developing the survey will try to influence its results in a way that benefits their team. They will use all sorts of tricks, like the guilt-trip Esquire jokingly uses here (select “Five” or be responsible for “untold human misery”). Surveys should not be used to directly reflect performance. They are only accurate when designed impartially, to discover the customer’s true perception.
2. Persuasive architecture
If the people creating your survey are biased (and crafty), the survey will be laid out in a way that drives the reader to select the option that best suits their goals (”Five” is red, bold, underlined, appears eleven times, and is the only option that pops-out at the bottom). Persuasive architecture is essential to any webpage or marketing piece, but will produce misleading results when used in satisfaction surveys.
3. Meaningless tag lines
Esquire uses the example, “We Strive for Five,” which sounds exactly like several other cheesy, rhyming initiatives I’ve come across in just the past 2 years - all of which were failures. What does it mean to “strive for five?” Make your tag line mean something to your customer. Your customers don’t care about your goals, but they probably care about improving service and being heard.
McDonald’s Converts
Author: Peggy Entrop
January 12, 2009
I was just reading this great article in the New York Times business section about how McDonald’s is making a big comeback. What stood out to me is how they have shifted their focus from “being the world’s best quick-service restaurant” to being “our customers’ favorite place and way to eat.”
In changing the food they serve and they way they serve it, they have won back millions of “McDonald’s Converts.” And, as I read the article, I realized… I’M A MCDONALD’S CONVERT!
I hadn’t set foot in a McDonald’s in probably 10 years until they started offering iced coffee for a fraction of the price of Starbucks. One day, I tried it, and it was really good.
Also, the store itself seemed less, how do I put this, disgusting than I remember it being. It was clean and colorful, and the staff was friendly. Overall, a not-too-shabby experience. That, plus the cost difference, was enough to change my ritual from grabbing-a-quick-Starbucks to grabbing-a-quick-McDonalds.
I guess the lesson is: never stop trying to reach your customers. If the way you are reaching them isn’t working, try shifting your focus. McDonalds found out what was missing from their experience, then they adapted to fit that need. Any question about whether it worked? Check out their profits!
Is “Viral” a Dirty Word?
Author: Bill Cusick
January 8, 2009
Take a look at this interesting post on Seth Godin’s blog about viral marketing.
The important thing, that many marketers still unbelievably don’t get, is that - for an idea to be viral, it actually needs some inherent value, something that makes somebody want to spread it.
Why Small, Focused Refinements Matter in the Customer Experience
Author: Jeannie Walters
December 16, 2008
Logo Design Love posted this really interesting discussion about Obama’s campaign logo, and how it got there.
The best quote from Sol Sender, who led the design team, is “The strongest logos tell simple stories.”
This lesson in design is also a lesson in customer experience. Often, our clients are drowning in customer processes - and yet still end up with a totally sub-par (not to mention unprofitable) customer experience.
The evolution of Obama’s design from concept to the clean, simple and compelling logo we know shows the process most of us should take with most complicated and robust challenges. Start with a concept, but keep refining. Don’t make it more complicated - aim for simple.
To see the full transformation of the Obama logo, read the article here.
Now YOU Are the Billboard
Author: Luis Serpa
November 18, 2008
It is just me or the lines between media channels are becoming even blurrier these days? Don’t mind campaigns that go cross-channel and campaign pieces that can be followed on facebook or twitter, now they can be followed as well on the CUSTOMER ITSELF.
”GirlInYourShirt” is offering exactly what the name says but with a twist: for a whole day she becomes your company’s evangelist and will showcase your company everywhere she goes, online and offline. All of that for just $75 bucks…
3 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make Regarding Customer Experience
Author: Jeannie Walters
October 20, 2008
I got a huge compliment from my audience at the Chicago Financial Women’s event last week. They asked some great, thoughtful questions after hearing me speak about exceeding customer expectations.
My favorite question was a simple one: “What are the 3 biggest mistakes a company makes regarding customer experience?”
These are the mistakes that popped into my head. There is more to say here, but it’s a start.
1. Focus on only one metric - customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction is a place to start, but it certainly doesn’t tell you the whole story. Customers can be extremely “satisfied” and still not be loyal. Just look at all the satisfied VW customers who traded in for Mini Coopers.
Back in 2005, our CEO Bill Cusick had a few things to say about this topic in his article “Satisfaction Schmatisfaction.” You can find that here.
2. Attract customers with beautiful marketing materials and then deliver customer communications that are sloppy, ugly or just plain useless.
Banks, I’m talking to you! Send me one more piece of crap mail about my e-deposit and I’m coming for you. Spend more money on my experience and less on huge banners telling me about credit cards I won’t get anyway.
Even some of the newly redesigned statements are confusing and convoluted, and totally disregard the customer’s perspective. Case in point: health insurance statements. Thanks for the “Summary of Benefits,” but I’d like to know what you’re covering and how. And please don’t send me something that sounds angry because I missed the footnote on the statement.
Customer communications are a cornerstone to the experience, and yet often they are completely neglected. Don’t let the bean-counters create the invoices or statements for your customers.
Another topic for another day…why bother going through the effort to provide Spanish language marketing materials and then not offering the same courtesy to your customers?? Ay carumba!
3. Fiefdoms and in-fighting which don’t serve the customer.
The customer experience is not one channel, one product or one transaction. The customer experience is built or destroyed with every interaction with your company. When company structures and incentives are created to reward only one area at a time, the customer loses. For example, web sites sometimes seem to make it harder for a customer to find a call center number. This is due to fiefdoms within the company.
The online team doesn’t get “credit” (or worse, commission) if a customer starts online but ends up completing the purchase via a customer service rep. Likewise, the customer service rep is rewarded for spending the least amount of time on the phone with any given customer.
Then there are the front-line employees who are rewarded in a different way and have the same competing agendas.
Make the customer the ultimate winner. Everyone wins if a customer gets what they need when and how they need it - regardless of how your company is set up.
While none of these are easy fixes, they are extremely important. There are ways to set your own organization up where the customer wins. Don’t we know what that means for the organization by now?
Who says marketing can’t be a free ride?
Author: Michelle Dash
July 6, 2007
Scion doesn’t spend their advertising money on TV commercials and print ads; they send scouts to check out urban markets in their target demographic. When they find a good location, they make a deal with a local business to hand out $15 gift cards (it is part of their business strategy to avoid corporate franchises).
The Scion team then sets up a Scion-branded trailer and a small tent on a busy street and offers a gift card, t-shirt and key chain to anyone who takes a ride around the block in the new Toyota Scion. Scion doesn’t want you to see their car; they want you to experience their car. Riders must fill out a survey about the car in the Scion trailer, which is equipped with computers set to the Scion website. You can hang out in the trailer and customize a car by “building your own Scion” online.
This is a great marketing tactic because it is a win-win situation. Scion has a consumer’s captive attention during a short drive where the passenger likely to ask questions about the car. They also constantly collect feedback about the car and information about their target demographic. Consumers enjoy the free prizes.
Does it work? Toyota’s youth-market division enjoyed a 10.6% sales increase in 2006, despite a virtually unchanged product line. Scion’s unique strategy promotes word-of-mouth marketing. Curiously, while I was reading The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen, my friend called to tell me how he got a $15 dollar gift certificate across the street from my apartment. 10 minutes later, I had a gift certificate, too!
