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Marketing Tidbits to Whet Your Appetite

January 16, 2007 By 2 Comments

baby-and-candy.jpgToday I am trying something a little different – posting various “bits and bobs” (as they would say in the UK), related to marketing, to get you thinking.  Let me know if you find this useful (apparently delurking week was last week, but you can use this opportunity to drop me a comment and say you de-lurked!), and perhaps I will make it a more regular feature.  Here goes…

Too Many Customer Choices and Opportunity for Marketers?

C. B. Whittemore from FlooringtheConsumer had an excellent post recently about what she sees as the problem with too many choices – and the opportunity for marketers to help.  See the post for lots of quotes and links to thinking on the subject.  She summarizes as follows:

If as marketers and retailers, we simply create a laundry list of options and expect our customers to do their own sifting, then shame on us… But, if we use our brand, knowledge, reputation, expertise and passion to organize all of that material, edit and make sense of it all, then we will earn our customers’ eternal gratitude and loyalty. And, our brands will truly be adding value to our customers.

This makes a lot of sense.  Marketers can help their customers by making it easy for them to decide between the choices in front of them.  The value-add takes place when marketers focus on understanding customer drivers of behavior and meeting customer needs, which may be different depending on which hat the customer is wearing at the time.

Social Retailing: The New Way to Take Your Friends Shopping

Since I am such a technology geek, I love this post by Doug Meacham over at NextUp on virtual dressing rooms.  Using a special mirror with a touchscreen panel, shoppers can “try on” clothes just by calling up the image of the item they want to check out.  They can also have their friends on MySpace or Facebook see it on them (virtually) and give their opinions via IM, right on the mirror.  Additionally for the retailer, Doug points out the following:

There are also RFID and data-mining components in the system that help retailers monitor inventory in real time and collect data that provides valuable insight into customer mindsets, behaviors and evolving needs.  (emphasis mine)

If and when this comes to a retailer near you, it will indeed give that retailer a competitive advantage.  The retailer can see which types of clothing are being tried on, which are not, and if they have a customer “log in”, they could keep track of which items are preferred not just by demographics but by individual customer.  They could even expand this into a service for their customers by helping remember details of their “fitting room” sessions and perhaps giving them a place to start next time they come in.  Certain items could be recommended based on what they have tried (and liked) in the past.  Also, if their friends, who can shop virtually with them, want those jeans also, the retailer can just get the size and send them out.  Lots of options with this one… what do you think could be done to service the customer with this idea?

Todd’s Power 150

Todd Andrlik has put together a very snazzy listing of the top marketing blogs.  He uses an algorithm which incorporates Google page rank, Bloglines subscribers, Technorati ranking, and a subjective category Todd And points (assigned to blogs with frequent, relevant, creative, and high-quality content – I scored a 12/15 on that one, thanks, Todd).  I am very pleased to say that CustomersRock! made the list at position #99.  I originally started out at #84 last Thursday when Todd first posted the list, but other worthy blogs had inadvertently been left off and moved me down; great to see them added in, though!   I really have to thank Mack Collier for all his help getting me going, as he put me on the original Z-list.  When I started, I had only about 7 links; I now have 160 blogs linking to me.  Thanks again, Mack.

Check out the icon in my side bar to get to The Power 150 list directly. 

Filed Under: Customer experience, Marketing Blogs

When Customer Loyalty Programs Don’t Fit

January 15, 2007 By 4 Comments

unlikelyfit.jpgSeems that almost everywhere I look, I see the latest “customer loyalty” program.  Airlines, video stores, supermarkets, credit card companies… the list goes on.  Meanwhile, consumers are busily trying to manage all of their loyalty cards and loyalty program logins in order to take advantage of their promised rewards.

Think for a moment about your company’s customers.  Why are customers loyal to your organization?  Do you know which ones are truly loyal because they believe in your products and services?  Alternatively, do you know which ones carry your “card” just so they can get a discount?   The ultimate question: does your customer loyalty program reflect the needs of your customers in such a way that it makes a difference in the loyalty of your customers?  In other words, does your loyalty program fit your customers?

Customer loyalty programs should enhance the value of your corporation to your customers and the value of your customers to you.  They do this by creating a way of engaging with your customers.  A result of your customer’s involvement in the program should be further action on their part with your organization.  As marketers, it is up to us to make sure the invitation, as well as the action on the part of the customer, is meaningful and based on the needs of the customer.  What we don’t want is for the interaction to register on the customer’s pain threshold meter (as I discussed in the post on Saturn last week).

Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData wrote a post a few months back about a customer loyalty program gone wrong.  The invitation from Hallmark did move customers to action (come into a local store and buy a Holiday Scrapbook at a great discount), but the execution of the program, as shared by Kevin, was a loyalty buster.  There were so few scrapbooks available, they sold out within minutes – and you didn’t even have to be in the loyalty program to buy one.  This execution leads to customer disappointment at best, possibly leading to the action of leaving the relationship, at worst, when it pushes the pain threshold meter past its limit.  Hallmark didn’t understand their loyalty members’ needs to be rewarded with something meaningful and unique to them.

In my email today (and in my husband’s on Friday – he must be further up the list!), I received notification of my JetBlue TrueBlue statement (for JetBlue’s frequent flyer program).  Since we moved to San Diego, it is not as convenient for me to fly JetBlue, so I knew there wouldn’t be much useful information on it for me.  Here is the text from the email:

Hello REBECCA CARROLL, (comment – love the personalization)

Well, the holidays are over, but a new year has begun!

We suspect your list of resolutions is long enough already, but you may want to pencil in “earning extra TrueBlue points”.  You may be really close to flying to Cancun-gratis!  Here’s what you’ve been waiting for since last year: Your January TrueBlue statement.

Well, it turns out I have zero TrueBlue points!  I am so glad they told me that.

It would be more effective if JetBlue’s marketing department were to customize the member email slightly.  Perhaps send one version to those customers who really are close to flying free to Cancun, inviting them to make that last reservation that will help them get there.  Then to other non-frequent flyers, they could have sent a version that was more relevant, such as an invitation to check out the great places JetBlue now flies, or a comment that they have missed us and hope to see us again soon.  Applying this interaction to the pain threshold meter, the email is pretty low on the pain meter, but it tells me that the left hand and the right hand aren’t talking very often!  JetBlue doesn’t understand my needs, which in this case include a more convenient departure airport (they don’t fly out of San Diego).

Looking in my wallet, here are the loyalty cards I carry:

Vons: I carry this one because no one in their right mind would shop at a grocery store without one and be forced to pay the “non-member” price.  I’ve been told if you put in your phone number as 123-4567, you can shop without a card (but I’ve never tried it!).  I do like Vons, but I shop there mostly because they are convenient.  Needs met: price and convenience.

Southwest Airlines: I travel often enough on this airline that I want to make sure I get my Rapid Rewards credit.  Southwest is one of the few airlines where it is easy to navigate their program (one credit per flight – miles are not tracked) and easy to earn rewards.  Plus, when you get a Reward, they send you a drink coupon book for use on their flights.  Needs met: an airline reward I can actually use.

I belong to several other programs, but either I don’t use them often enough to warrant carrying the card around or they have a good way of hooking me up electronically (such as hotel programs).

Customer loyalty program are most effective when they are relevant, drive a customer to an action that furthers the relationship, and are a means of encouraging ongoing dialogue with the customer.  Effective programs tend to be designed with the customer’s needs in mind, rather than a thinly-veiled ploy to get customer information for the benefit of the company.  A well-executed program will not only get relevant customer information, but it will encourage the type of relationship where customers willingly give the type of information about themselves that becomes a competitive advantage for the corporation.

Which cards do you carry, and why?  Is it all about the price?  Or do you truly value your relationship with that corporation?   Tell us about the customer loyalty programs you belong to that rock and how they satisfy your needs!

Filed Under: Customer loyalty, Customer strategy, Marketing Blogs

Innocent Drinks, Wooly Hats, and Community

January 12, 2007 By 13 Comments

innocenthats.jpg One of the first companies highlighted to me by the blogging community as a potential CustomersRock! company is a UK-based fruit smoothie company called Innocent Drinks (thanks to Gavin Heaton for the heads-up!).  I had plans to blog on it before Christmas, but then the Z-list came along and distracted me slightly.  This week, I saw a post at PRblogger on it from Stephen Davies, and I got inspired.

Here’s why I see Innocent Drinks as a CustomersRock! company.   They are all about community.  They have an annual event called FruitStock where they invite their customers to come and listen to music, eat, and interact (they boxed up apples to send out some of the invitations).  They have a newsletter that they send to their family (mailing list) to keep them up to speed on not just products but other matters of importance like health information and even, in January, some of their personal New Year’s Resolutions.  Last summer, they started a blog in order to increase the interaction around their products and get feedback from customers.  And they do get feedback!  The blog includes little fun and cool contests as well as other tidbits to engage their customer base.  It also includes links to Fruitstock with pictures and slideshows put together by their customers.

Innocent Drinks also reaches out to their local offline community.  This winter season they started a campaign called SuperGran, which you can read about here from Innocent Drinks and here from Cherryflava’s blog.  The campaign was designed to raise money for the elderly through the sales of special bottles of Innocent Drinks with wooly hats on them (see picture at top of blog!).  Many people in the UK knitted hats for them, including blogger craftybernie; she gives her side of the story in this post from her blog.

When you have a minute, go out and browse around everything Innocent Drinks has to offer on their websites and blog.  You will get inspired, as I was.  Of course, the next time you are in the UK, go and find yourself an Innocent Drinks smoothie to quench your thirst.

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Customers Rock!, Marketing Blogs

Saturn and Bad Customer Service

January 11, 2007 By 11 Comments

angry.jpgOccasionally here at CustomersRock!, I find the need to share not-so-pleasant customer experiences.  Today is one of those posts. 

“A different kind of company, a different kind of car.”  That was Saturn‘s tagline when it first started up from within GM.  It was different – plastic side panels that wouldn’t dent, American-made parts, a no-haggling purchase experience.  I bought one in 1992 and drove it for 6 years until we had to sell it when we moved overseas to England for 3 years.  I used to get knowing looks from other GM Saturn owners, and I would always get great comments from non-Saturn owners.  Even bringing it in for service was no-hassle, as they considered me part of the “Saturn family”.  The customer experience was indeed showing Saturn to be a different kind of company from others.

Fast-forward 15 years.  I was recently alerted to a major change in Saturn from Gavin Heaton’s post (and follow-up post) this week about Tim Jackson’s customer service plight.   Tim (Masiguy) had been a true Saturn fan for many years.  His GM Saturn Vue developed serious problems as a result of a string of mistakes from the dealer’s service department.  Unfortunately, rather than truly satisfying Masiguy, Saturn (both the dealer and corporate) has been walking in their company shoes.  Compensation suggested by Saturn was in the form of four oil change coupons (or $100 of future service).  Well, you guessed it, Masiguy doesn’t want to step foot into a Saturn dealer again, so those coupons would be worthless.  He is completely frustrated (Masiwife even secretly commandeered his blog once this week to express their feelings) as well as disappointed in Saturn.  Saturn let him down.

A strong company-customer relationship can help carry a customer through quite a few issues with products or service.  However, there is a customer pain threshold from which it is difficult to return once it is crossed.  CustomersRock! companies track all of their customer touch points, looking for opportunities to improve the customer experience as well as customer pain points.  They then make a plan to take action in order to keep customer relationships strong.  One of my clients even used to track email responses for expletives to see whether a customer had crossed over the “frustration threshold”!

Customer service is one of those touch points that can make or break a customer relationship.  Service is one of the top 3 considerations of customers purchasing complex products (such as autos and technology).   In many organizations, customer service is also the face of the company to the customer.  Bad customer service, as evidenced in this Saturn saga, will not only drive away existing customers, but through negative word-of-mouth, it will also drive away potential customers.  This has never been truer than in today’s culture, where news spreads quickly across the Internet and blogosphere.  Just look at this story.  It has also been covered by the aforementioned Gavin at ServantofChaos, Sean at Craphammer, and Paul at Hee-HawMarketing.  Who’s next?

 If only the positive customer experiences got as much press!  Here at CustomersRock! I strive to share positive customer stories for your reading pleasure as well as for your encouragement.  Just not today.

(Photo source: blitzkrieg)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service

Tea at the Westin, anyone?

January 9, 2007 By 9 Comments

westin-collection.jpg One my most interesting customer experiences in 2006 had an olfactory impact.  As a semi-frequent visitor of spas (when we travel and my husband goes golfing, I go to the spa), I am tuned-in to the way different fragrances can evoke certain images and feelings.  According to research cited by Jonah Lehrer over at ScienceBlogs, the sense of smell is one of the only senses that connects to the brain’s long-term memory.  

I stayed in a Westin hotel in Denver over the summer, and I remember noticing how nice it smelled.  I thought it was the scent of their spa wafting out into the hotel or perhaps a fragrant candle (they had small candles burning in several spots around the lobby).  I didn’t have the occasion to stay at another Westin until November when I went to Vancouver.  The moment I walked in the door of the lobby – there was that nice smell again.  This time, I asked the front desk about it as I checked in.  She explained it was the signature Westin Scent, which they call White Tea.  They pipe it throughout the lobby and common areas in all the Westin hotels.  It is supposed to evoke a feeling of calm and, according to a quote from Nadeen Ayala, senior director of PR at Starwood Hotels, it is part of delivering an arrival experience.  (Note, they don’t pipe it into the guest rooms!)

 

The scent has been so popular that customers demanded it for themselves.  Westin now sells candles as well as other items that guests can have at home to enjoy White Tea.

 

The customer experience can be impacted by the smells around us.  One my favorite things about Starbucks is the smell of freshly-ground coffee.  Realtors burn vanilla-scented candles in homes they are hosting.  Bakeries blow the smell of freshly baked goods out to the shopping mall.   Car washes offer that “new car smell” to customers who want to feel that their vehicle has been made fresh again.   Aromas become part of the brand experience.

 

Scents can create a poor customer experience as well.  For example, a few months ago we were shopping around for an orthodontist.  We narrowed the field down to two candidates and made introductory appointments with each.   One of the reasons we didn’t go with the first candidate, in the words of my son, “Mom, he had really bad breath!”   This should be the first thing any dentist or orthodontist makes sure of – sweet-smelling breath!

 

Hotels have been spritzing their lobbies with aromas for many years, but only recently have they started to create signature scents for their brands.  Westin is using its scent in an interesting way to connect with customers.  Will Westin guests recall their stay at the hotel when they catch a whiff of White Tea at home?  Or will it help guests feel more at home when they stay at a Westin hotel?  Either way, it is definitely a nice touch when staying at a Westin.

 

When reviewing the experience of your customers, look across all the senses.  What are your customers seeing, hearing, and feeling, even tasting and smelling when they interact with you?  What do you want them to be experiencing?  Planning the experience, possibly even different experiences for different customers, is one the keys to a successful customer strategy.

 

Do you do something special to surprise and delight your customers’ senses?  (No?  See Andy Nulman’s blog for ideas on customer surprise.)   Tell us about it!  Also, please share any outstanding sensory customer experiences you may have had, both sweet-smelling as well as stinky. 

 

Filed Under: Customer experience, Marketing Blogs

Are you listening to your customers?

January 8, 2007 By 6 Comments

man-with-headphones.jpgI just read a great post by Sandy Renshaw over at PurpleWren about a cable company who is listening.  That’s right – a cable company.   A few days ago, Sandy blogged about her experience with her cable provider Mediacom (who, due to a dispute with Sinclair Broadcasting, had to drop the Fox channel) and the short-term solution they put into place.   She also expressed her concerns about the long-term (how to get Fox without an antenna??).  To my (and her) surprise, one of her comments was from Scott Westerman, Group VP of Mediacom, sharing his thoughts on the problem, as well as his email to keep the conversation going!  He also sent Sandy a montage of Mediacom customer voices, which you can listen to from her most recent blogpost (see first link above).

I am impressed with his response for two reasons.  One, he is clearly hooked into the blogosphere and is open to using it to communicate back to his customers.  Perhaps he has read Citizen Marketers?  Second, he has actually taken the time to listen to the actual voice of the customer.  Not aggregate results of the latest customer satisfaction survey.  Not anecdotes from his team.  He has listened to customer concerns and recorded those voices for others to hear.

How well are you listening to your customers?  Here are some ideas on how you can open your ears to hear.  I welcome other ideas as well!

  • Read actual customer comments.  Don’t rely on survey results which have been aggregated into a list of the “top issues”.  Be sure verbatim customer comments are included, both good and bad, so that you can understand your customers in their own words.
  • Go talk to your customers.  Whether it is in-person at a retail store or customer event or by going out on a few sales (and support!) calls, meeting and listening to customers face-to-face is critical to do at least once/quarter.
  • Hook up with your customer service organization.  The place where your customers go to contact you is a great place to go to listen to them.  It could be a customer service call center or a technical support department.  Go down to the call-center floor, hook-up with one of the customer service reps, and have a listen.  Don’t forget to bring your notepad!
  • Check out the blogosphere and customer forums.  Of course, I am assuming anyone reading blogs is already doing this one!

I highly encourage management at all levels to add some of these interfaces into their regular set of activities.  Put it in your planner, if you must, but just do it.  And when you are finished listening, be sure to respond.

Filed Under: B2B Marketing, Customer experience, Customer service, Marketing Blogs, Technical support, Voice of the customer

Now I’m It

January 4, 2007 By 5 Comments

running-traffic-sign.jpgOver the holidays, I was tagged by C. B. Whittemore over at FlooringtheConsumer (thanks, C. B.!).   I think this tag meme has been going around for awhile, so I will do my best to continue it!  Here are my “five little known facts”:

1. I am a rocket scientist; well, not exactly, but I did intern at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA during my college years.  I worked on Cray Supercomputers, which at the time were state-of-the-art multi-processors.  Pretty cool (and literally cooled by liquid).

2. I am a Brown Belt in Tae Kwon Do.  Someday, I hope to get my Black Belt!

3. I love to sing, and one of my favorite ways to sing is acappella (without accompaniment).  I sang barbershop harmony for many years with the Sweet Adelines, an international women’s musical organization.  I have also sung with several church choirs as well as the UC Berkeley Jazz Choir.

4. I lived in England for 3 years, when I worked for Hewlett Packard, along with my husband and two boys.  We just loved it there, as we had a lot of opportunity to travel all over the UK as well as the European Continent.  One of my favorite places was Brugge, Belgium, where they make some of the world’s best chocolate and best beer!

5. When I was young, I wanted to grow up and be a roboticist.  I read all of Isaac Asimov’s books as a youth, long before the I, Robot movie came out, and I really wanted to help develop the Positronic Brain and build robots.  For that reason, I got my Electrical Engineering/Computer Science degree from UC Berkeley.  I just went a different direction when I joined HP, as marketing was a strong pull for me, and HP sent me back to school to get my MBA.  But I still enjoy robots.

OK, that was me.  Now to try and tag 5 people who haven’t already been tagged!  My apologies if you have already been “touched”.  I don’t know all of you yet, but I hope to!

1. Kevin Hillstrom at MineThatData

2. Tammy Vitale, originator of the W-list

3. Patricia Seybold, who just came out with a great new book (this one is gutsy, as I haven’t met Patricia before!)

4. Doug Meacham at NextUp (a fellow WordPress blogger!)

5.  Kristin Gorski at WriteNowisGood (a blog about writing)

I wanted to include Mack Collier, Lewis Green, Andy Nulman, and Maria Palma, but they were already tagged. (as I said, this has been going around for awhile now).  These folks have all been very supportive of me as I have been getting going in the blogosphere.  Thanks, guys and gals!

Filed Under: Memes

It’s the little things that make the difference

January 2, 2007 By 8 Comments

shoes-stepping.jpgI am now back from my holidays, and I am getting a chance to catch up on the blogosphere (yeah!).  In Doug Karr’s entry today on his learnings from 2006, it was the little things that caught my eye.  In particular, his entries on Starbucks (#75) and Verizon (#77) brought a giggle to my lips as well as agreement.

Both entries have to do with managing the details of the customer experience.  When companies look at their operations from the internal perspective, they don’t see the hard chairs or the long lines that Doug mentioned.  When companies put themselves in their customers’ shoes, they notice the small details that can make or break the experience.  Before Christmas, I mentioned Best Buy bringing cookies around to customers in the store during the holidays.  They put themselves in their customers’ shoes and recognized that they might be tired and hungry.

Let’s look at a few examples of Customer Shoes, Company Shoes:

Customer Shoes: PG&E asking me if I want to get a call-back rather than wait on hold for 30+ minutes.

Company Shoes: Time Warner Cable keeping me on hold for 70 minutes so I can tell them I need to move my installation appointment.

Customer Shoes: Walking by any employee at my local Vons supermarket always elicits, “Are you finding everything you need?”

Company Shoes: Waiting for employees to stop talking to their friends and notice that I need help (pick almost any retail store with holiday help here).

One of the best things you can do as you enter the New Year is to walk in the shoes of your customer.  What does it feel like?  What works, and what doesn’t?  Don’t mess with what works, and go fix what doesn’t!

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer strategy, Marketing Blogs
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