Sometimes you purchase a product...

...just because the design or functionality interests you. When you discover that the wine is good as well, you will buy the product again. It's that easy.

Obsession with customers

Joe Nocera, of NY Times fame, yesterday wrote a piece about Amazon's obsession with customers and his personal experience with their service.

He questions Wall Street's obsession with short-term goals:

"Maybe, just maybe, taking care of customers is something worth doing when you are trying to create a lasting company. Maybe, in fact, it's the best way to build a real business - even if it comes at the expense of short-term results."

And he concludes:

"There is simply no question that Mr. Bezos’s obsession with his customers — and the long term — has paid off, even if he had to take some hits to the stock price along the way. Surely, it was worth it. As for me, the $500 favor the company did for me this Christmas will surely rebound in additional business down the line. Why would I ever shop anywhere else online? Then again, there may be another reason good customer service makes sense. “Jeff used to say that if you did something good for one customer, they would tell 100 customers,” Mr. Kotha said.

I guess that’s what I just did."

Customer experiences become more and more important: Thoughtfulness is on the top of my list. Two examples:


My wife and I used to have a mortgage with Citibank and switched a few months ago to ING Direct. What a dramatic change:
The ING Direct web experience might be the best I've ever encountered. It takes less than 30 seconds to pay the mortgage, everything is superbly organized, no unnecessary paperwork. A pure, minimalistic experience. Exactly what I'm looking for when dealing with a mortgage company. The brand promise. Overdelivered.



Second Example: You know the situation: It's a dark bar, you get the check, it's hard to read and even harder to write down the tip and total, sign it. This bar and, dare I say it: Camel, improved my overall experience by offering the first back-lit bar check.

Bruce Temkin spoke on his blog about ten customer experience resolutions for 2008. All brands should have those resolutions posted in each room and our sites. And by all brands, I mean all brands. When a bar can delight you with something besides cheap and stiff drinks, you know that every brand can make my life better.

Apple on the defense

After their iPhone discount PR meltdown, increasing virus problems and more and more users calling their Mac a lemon, here comes the tragic customer experience from an Apple Store:

"He (Ed.: the sales clerk) said he was working at the store while going to grad school. And, yes, he hated the job, it was a bore -- he hated the attitude, like selling Apple stuff was an honor; but really it was no different than selling shoes, except selling shoes paid more. He knew he was taking out his frustration on customers; he felt bad about it, but he assumed he would be fired weeks ago and that would be it. What does it take to be fired, he asked. Apple's supposed to be about customer service, yet they seemed to like he was acting like an a-hole, he said. That pissed him off even more. The hypocrisy. They wanted him to act cool, kind of above it all, it was part of the image. But not crossing the line (wherever it was that week), to the point of terrorizing the customers."

If you have a moment, read the whole story, it's pretty hilarious. And sad at the same time.

I don't frequent Apples Stores very often but there's a flair of arrogance and "We're better than the rest of you" in the air. This attitude was apparent during the iPhone discount meltdown, basically telling early adopters (Yes, me!) that they are suckers.

Apple used to be the underdog, fighting the good fight. Now, they're the big dog again since nobody regards Microsoft as an evil force anymore (Google is slowly getting comfortable in that role.). Customer service has always been Apple's weakest link (Don't remind me of all the blown iPod batteries and annoying calls to Customer Service). Not a big deal when your competitors are messing up but fatal when competitors are waking up. (Even though they still don't get it completely.)
Hopefully, Apple doesn't have to learn the hard way that a strong brand and exceptional advertising are just a small part of the equation.
Products and customer service are more important.

My virgin flight

I had the opportunity to fly from LA to NY and decided to experience Virgin America for the first time. The hype has died down and I wanted to see how Virgin America measures up to low-cost carriers such as Jet Blue and Southwest.

The online experience when purchasing tickets was on the same level as Jet Blue/Southwest: intuitive and no unnecessary frills. Check-in and boarding are very typical and generic, it just feels a bit more upscale because of Virgin’s advanced design.

When you walk into the plane two things stand out: Mood-lighting and the fresh smell of the leather seats. That smell will disappear (they’ve only been around for a few weeks) but the mood lighting enhances the flight experience. It just makes the trip feel more upscale and in line with other advanced travel experiences (W Hotels). The seats are comfortable, recline further than other coach seats I’ve sat in before.

I was mostly looking forward to the Entertainment Center, called ‘red’. Overall, I would give it a ‘7’ out of 10:
- Music Selection is fantastic: Either 16 radio stations (from Wine Country Radio to Dance) or you can choose from 225 artists: Mozart, Coldplay, Underworld, Johnny Cash, Barry Manilow, Aqualung – they do have something for anyone’s taste. Even Bert and Ernie are there to entertain the little ones.
- TV selection is below average. CNN, A&E, Food Network were one of the few channels that worked. Some channels didn’t work, some were sorely missed (local networks, very important when you’re flying on weekends and don’t want to miss out on sports).
- 16 music videos were offered. Too mainstream, nothing that interested me. Can you say, Kelly Clarkson?
- Good selection of movies (300, Blades of Glory, Hoax, Waitress, The lives of others), the $8 price was a bit too high, but they offered more than 10 free short movies. Very cool.
- Premium TV: A few selected shows of The Office, Simpsons, Heroes and (yes, I’m not making this up) Twin Peaks. The cost of $1.99 seems a tad high since I can get the same content on iTunes and the selection felt arbitrary. Hopefully, networks will partner up with Virgin America in the near future to market their new shows.
- Multi-lingual TV: A mixture of Korean, Japanese and Chinese shows with a few Hispanic episodes. 75% of the content is tailored towards Asian customers. Interesting approach.
- 11 different games one can choose from. I played Doom for a few moments, because of the lag it felt like playing on an old computer.
- The chat functions are pretty cool but nobody was chatting at all.
- The email and Internet functions are already part of the user interface but not functioning yet.
- My favorite: the food selection. Flight attendants still make one tour of the cabin but you can continue making orders on your screen, right before the landing. My order took only 2 minutes to be delivered to my seat. That’s better than any call button. Sodas are free, alcoholic drinks and any snack will cost you.
- The real bad: My system acted up quite a bit, stalled for a few minutes and it finally rebooted. I guess Linux is not as good as advertised. I saw a few people with the same issue.

The main attraction: Customer Service. Flight attendants are very friendly and helpful. Pure perfection. That’s their best marketing attribute right now.

Overall, I would fly Virgin America again. I wish they would have chosen smaller airports, just like Jet Blue when they started to fly from Long Beach and Burbank. But I would choose them over the other two any day.

Is this where we're heading?

Mass media and mass transportation have a lot in common: They treat the customer like sheep, don't offer any personalization and push people more and more into niche efforts.

It's tough enough to travel today but it's even tougher to endure the attitude of flight attendants in planes and conductors in trains: All of them seem to think we have the IQ of a guinea pig. That's the only explanation I have for the way I'm being talked to in planes or trains: 'Go there.' 'Don't do this.' 'What's wrong with you?' (I was asked this question by a flight attendant when I requested a bottle of water...)

Mass transportation suffers the same fate than mass media: They treat the customers like sheep, don't offer any personalization and push people more and more into niche efforts. Amtrak will never make it because they don't have real competitors. United and American have a slight chance because they have to deal with Virgin America, JetBlue and more competitors to come.
Mass Media on the other hand has done a remarkable job of a turnaround. The upfront was very successful, TV viewing is up and all the networks seem to be leaning back and enjoying the change from insignificant to invulnerable.

Crises have peaks and valleys. Mass Media enjoys a temporary peak. A valley is next. Final destination: Death Valley?

There are wrong questions

My wife and I just spent a weekend in Santa Barbara. I do highly recommend wine tastings, can’t recommend any of the restaurants. I can’t say the food was bad or even terrible. It was just not good enough for the asked price: too salty, too complex for its own sake, not surprising enough.
Service was pretty good but the current service model in restaurants has major flaws:

During our various visits, we were constantly asked:

“Is everything good?”
“How’s everything?”
“Are you having a good time?”

Now, everything was good and we had a good time. As a customer you're in a tough place: You can either start to explain your issues with the food and look like a petty jerk. Or you just smile not to ever come back.

Questions like "Is everything good?" don't allow room for a real answer.

Instead, restaurants should ask questions that allow for honest answers, such as
"Did the food meet your expectations?"
or
"What did you think about the food?"

Good, open-ended questions will lead to informed discussions. Good questions can help moving through issues - to clarify, expand, and engage. Good question establish an atmosphere for meanignful discussions.

Expectations

Everybody is talking about yesterday's final episode. Even Seth Godin. In his latest post, he expands the Sopranos discussion to the field of WOM, and that we have to make sure to undersell and overdeliver.

This is always a wise tactic but a tough one to commit to. When you're in the heat of a presentation/pitch, you feel the deal coming to a close, it's so hard not to overpromise just to get that little edge, the little advantage that will seal the deal.
Overselling can be addictive. We have to stay off that drug.

P.S.: At first, I thought the ending of the Sopranos was terrible. After sleeping over it, I think it was brilliant.

Whether Tony dies or not is not really important. We all die - to me, the point of that ending was that it could go either way for him, at any moment. That's his life. And the build up to that point - and then going blank, leaves us with the idea that this is is his life (or the end of it). Taste it - and be glad that you don't actually live it.

That's the point - it could, at any moment in his life, go either way. Pure brilliance.

The ongoing demise of CMO's

According to Spencer Stuart, the average tenure of CMOs at top-branded companies is only 23 months. CMO's have to face immense pressure to demonstrate results – fast – and often at the expense of the brand and its customers.

Many times, a new CMO sends the current advertising agency into an unproductive frenzy when they, upon joining a new company, immediately question their predecessor’s strategy. If the agency isn’t immediately fired (which often happens), an incredible amount of time is spent on the re-education of the new CMO — oftentimes as much as three months. Also, because advertising campaigns are tangible, new CMOs have a tendency to quickly look to the creative for a change in direction. Clearly, these knee-jerk course corrections, designed to demonstrate that the CMO is making an impact, are not only expensive propositions, but, more importantly, force the consumer to accept yet another brand positioning.

Agencies have to shift their thinking from pure creative to advertising that moves products. If you as an agency can't talk to C-level executives and produce work that moves product, more and more accounts will be put up for review. Clients have to understand as well that advertising can't be the savior. If you have a bad product, good advertising will be just another lipstick color and the pig will still be a pig.

Agencies and clients have to understand that they are in this together. Clients used to put products on the table. Agencies creative ideas. At this point, everything should be on the table: Product, Advertising, PR, Customer Service, Consumer Experiences.

Murmur

The Murmur oral history project has created an innovative way to communicate with people in a location-specific way.

"We collect and make accessible people's personal histories and anecdotes about the places in their neighborhoods that are important to them. In each of these locations we install a [murmur] sign with a telephone number on it that anyone can call with a mobile phone to listen to that story while standing in that exact spot, and engaging in the physical experience of being right where the story takes place. Some stories suggest that the listener walk around, following a certain path through a place, while others allow a person to wander with both their feet and their gaze."

I believe this concept could be applied in many ways: How about having murmurs all over bookstores with personal reviews of lesser-known books? Or murmurs in a perfume store, explaining the differences between colognes? Or murmurs in front of a restaurant? This could be really helpful when you're traveling. Or think about murmurs as part of the car dealership experience?

This communication model could become an integral part of overall sales communications. It's a sales tool without being a sales pitch. Where can I find expert advice about colognes, paint, printer ink? Murmurs could provide that without being too salesy.

Murmur began in Kensington Market in Toronto in 2003. Currently, you can experience Murmur in three Toronto locations, as well as Dublin, Edinburgh, San Jose, Vancouver and Montreal. You can sample a Murmur recording by clicking on the maps on the web-sites listed. It gives you a good idea how it works

Avoid the phone loop

Frustrated by the endless phone loops of pressing '1' and '#'? Bringo can help you: You put in your own phone number and Bringo will connect you directly with a customer service rep.
I tested it and it worked really well. Got a call from AA within a few seconds.

Another example why companies need to change. While corporations continue to build walls, people find ways to tear them down.

So, I flew American Airlines recently. As a seasoned flyer, I was ready with a lot of books, magazines, Video iPod, Water, food and inflatable pillow. I don't care about airline food and drinks anymore. Some people still do or they were in such a rush, they didn't have time to buy food and drinks.

Shortly after take-off, two flight attendants walk from the back to First Class, return moments later with two first-class food plates. When I got up to the bathroom, they were sitting in the last row, reading magazines, eating their food and taking a break. Mind you, nobody in Coach had received any drinks or food yet, and service calls were left unanswered.

Not many things can upset me about airlines anymore: JetBlue's obnoxious behavior was the last time I can recall. But this prime example of customer disservice just shows that all the flashy advertising campaigns and marketing efforts don't mean a thing, if your company culture doesn't align appropriately.

I don't envy flight attendants: They used to work in a desirable profession and now they've become vaccuum sales people. ("$2 for a bottle of water.") And I understand their frustrations: Airlines try to cut down costs as much as they can, try to squeeze every dollar out of that operation.

But, if you work in such an environment you have two choices: Get with the program or get out. Now, I understand if they want to get out. What I don't understand is when they stay (I guess it's flight privileges and benefits) and then turn on the customer in return. You don't do yourself and your company a favor. You make the situation worse for everybody.

Airlines have to take a hard look at themselves: Your flight attendants hate the company they are working for. They hate their customers. They hate what they have become. They hate what the future might bring. And these flight attendants directly reflect the brand.
We know, times were hard after 9/11 but things are picking up and everything has to change. As of now, AA is well on the road to become another TWA. Or PanAm.

P.S.: Asking every passenger if they can collect their magazines and hand them over to the flight attendants shortly before landing doesn't help either.

My roof disappeared yesterday afternoon

Los Angeles experienced freakish winds yesterday: Trees fell on cars, debris caused accidents on freeways and my 2-months-old roof landed on the telephone pole. The winds caused a beam to disintegrate and made it easy for the roof to say goodbye to the house and find a new home on my telephone pole.

The roofer was called, he showed up very quickly, took care of the debris, gave a good explanation for the damage, offered to re-roof it for a minimal fee, topped this with another deal for landscaping work and other cosmetic upgrades on the house. Off he went, ready to go to work Monday.

When I had a moment to reflect, I immediately had the need to tell somebody about it. Why?

I don't gain anything from telling other people about my good experience with this roofer. You won't think better or worse of me. And I won't think I'm a better person if I tell somebody. So, why do I almost feel obliged to share this experience?

Often we do things without any selfish motivations or alterior motives. We just share our experiences because we like to share. Nothing more. Nothing less.

(BTW: Above picture was just used as shock value. I'm still living in a house with ceilings. Hopefully, by Monday there will be a roof as well. Thanks to Preezine for the image.)

Would you miss Bank of America?

Does Bank of America provide such a unique product and customer experience that we would be saddened if it didn’t exist? Does Bank of America treat its employees so astonishingly well that those workers would not be able to find another employer to treat them as well? Does Bank of America forge such unfailing emotional connections with its customers that they would fail to find another bank that could forge just as strong an emotional bond?

This “would you care” question is a good one to ask of any business because it tells us how well they have formed relationships with customers. If a business has formed unfailing relationships with its customers, then we would truly care if that company went out of business. On the other hand, if a business hasn’t formed a meaningful bond with customers, then we wouldn’t care if that business ceased to exist.

Thanks to Brand Autopsy for this thought