Author Archive

Lately I’ve noticed an overabundance of smiling, sincere, over-the-top customer service. At the bank, big box stores, utilities, government offices — organizations are starting to re-learn that a huge part of their customer experience depends on the social skills of service reps.

It’s all well and good, and I applaud their efforts, but these companies might do well to remember that transformative experiences don’t happen in a vacuum of affable customer support; Killer brands happen when people’s actions intersect in equal balance with well-honed systems, brand and products.

Consider this:

Last winter I signed up with AT&T U-verse. As an incentive to join, they offered a hefty rebate, in the form of a gift card. It’s been over seven months now, and I still haven’t received the full rebate.

• Despite numerous calls to customer service reps who are very polite and sincerely express their desire to fix my problem
• Despite an average call time of over fifteen minutes, much of it spent on hold while the service rep deals with the rebate center on my behalf
• Despite, every time, assurances that the issue’s been resolved and my card will arrive in four to six weeks
• Despite being informed AT&T might send me a follow-up survey to rate my experience (though I’ve been specifically told its purpose is to gauge how well the rep handled my call, NOT whether my issue was resolved)

It’s painfully obvious that AT&T’s rebate system isn’t giving its reps the proper access, power or authority to get this job done. And so, regardless of its intentions, AT&T appears more interested in displaying a “we’re-here-for-you” service rep ethic than actually delivering the service.

By contrast…

There’s a story about a Nordstrom shopper who, while visiting from out-of-town, realizes he’s about to be late for his plane. Recognizing the negative impact this might have on the customer’s experience, the Nordstrom sales rep personally drives him to the airport, saving the day and enhancing the customer relationship.

While this might seem over the top, it actually makes perfect business sense; the rep trades a couple hours of his time for the value of a life-time Nordstrom customer. And it’s only possible because Nordstrom’s systems actually enable the sales rep to take this action on behalf of its brand.

I’m not saying a near-commodity like AT&T has to live up to this extreme level of service. I’ll just be glad when its systems finally catch up to its customer service intentions.

PS – Feel free to tweet and retweet this post to your heart’s content. If I ever do get resolution, maybe I’ll share the rebate with you…or maybe I’ll just send you a survey to rate your experience.

Our good friends and marketing experts, Jamie Turner of the 60 Second Marketer and Reshma Shah, Ph.D., professor of marketing at Emory University, are putting the “social” in social media with their new book: “How to Make Money with Social Media, An Insider’s Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business.”

They’re offering first-edition, autographed copies to the first 50 people who donate $40 to their charity, A School Bell Rings. The goal is to raise $2000 in donations for children in Tanzania, India, and Nicaragua.

The book alone is sure to be worth the investment; investing in the future of needy kids makes it even more so.

If you’d like to help or just learn more, here’s the link:

http://www.ASchoolBellRings.org/book

It’s an old story…

Guy goes into the hardware store looking for a drill bit. Every marketer in the world will tell you: this guy doesn’t have a drill bit problem, he’s got a hole problem, just like we all learned in Marketing 101 — you don’t sell features (drill bits), you sell benefits (holes).

Only thing is, that’s not the whole story.

Focus solely on features and benefits and you might be blindsided into offering products that, for all their “superiority,” don’t add up to a superior brand experience. For that, you need to understand context:

• Who are the users of your products?
• What purposes do they use them for?
• What are the systems your products are used within?
• Do you own these systems as well?

By understanding context, you can provide a balance of features and benefits that add up to brand success. How do you get there? It takes a methodology that pulls together the elements of context, systems, products, requisites and desired outcomes to create a blueprint for user experiences that push your product way up the x axis of Brand Significance.

The iPod is a great example.

Apple didn’t simply provide a cool music player (features). And it went well beyond providing an anywhere/anytime personal music system (benefits).

Apple understood how people experience music in the context of their daily lives, and provided an entire system that delivers the experience in three, seamlessly integrated products whose features are perfectly suited to their unique needs: listening (the iPod), organizing (iTunes) and acquiring (the iTunes store).

The result is unparalleled brand experience that enriches people’s lives — and Apple’s pocket book.

There was an e-marketer named Sam
Who didn’t know “opt-out” = SPAM.
His customers rebelled
And his goods didn’t sell
And now there’s nothing left of his brand.

Felix Hoenikker, the world-famous scientist in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” shirks his duties as “father of the atom bomb” because of…turtles.

You see, Felix had a tank of pet turtles in his laboratory, and he just couldn’t tear himself away from them. Playing with turtles was such a big draw for his attention that the Manhattan Project staff removed them from the lab so he could focus on work.

Applying that metaphor to the real world, let’s examine some of the turtles in today’s marketing tank: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogging.

I’m not proposing these things are not valid work. It’s just that, in a 3.0 world, the foundations of a business relationship system lay elsewhere, and are more important than ever…

• Understanding the company value proposition  —before blogging about it
• Attending to customer service — before setting up a Twitter channel for it
• Making products truly great — before setting up FaceBook fan pages for them

It’s worth remembering that turtles can be dangerous; if you’re not careful, you might get bitten.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to Mafia Wars…

Welcome to the kitchen.

There’s not much to this post.

It’s a simple test to make sure our engines are purring, the windscreen is clear and the seats are comfy yet firm.

Enjoy the ride.

- The Management