As many of you know, I teach a popular class at UC San Diego Extension on Marketing via New Media. I help my students understand how to look at social media as an opportunity to build relationships with customers rather than just as a campaign or tactic to “increase buzz”. This summer, I had Joel Price from the San Diego Chargers as a guest speaker. He shared with my class how the football team has been using social media to get closer to its fans and create a “virtual tailgate party”. Joel took us on a historical journey of fan interaction during his presentation. Forums First
The Chargers started out with fan forums (message boards) a few years back. The boards are still in play and tend to be the team’s most active and loyal fans (as well as mostly males). These are the people that know the players, all the details behind the players, even the back-up to the back-up quarterback. They are very responsive; ask a question of forum members, and you will get instant feedback (great for a regional market).
Die hard fans – 300,000 of them.
Facebook Comes In
The Chargers next started a Facebook Fan Page. These 75,000+ fans tend to be people who like to be affiliated with the team but are not as deeply into Charger knowledge as the fans interacting on the forums. Interestingly, these also seem to be people that were not being previously reached online. Demographically, they are about 60% male and 40% female.
These fans are more likely to come to games, and they are quick to react to new information. For example, just before coming to speak to my class, Joel posted on the Chargers Wall about the throwback uniforms the team would be wearing at a few games this season. Within the hour, there were already hundreds of people who indicated they “liked” this information, with over 100 comments as well.
Tweet, Tweet
The most recent addition to the Chargers social media efforts is their Twitter feed, @chargers. With over 15,000 followers (and counting), the Chargers were the first NFL team to be on Twitter. In addition to the main account, there are several players that Tweet including @shawnemerriman and @kassimosgood. The latest Tweets were around items such as EA’s latest Madden Football 2010 video game (who is in it, what are their ratings, etc), open practices, and the upcoming Chargers FanFest.
Social Media Goals
According to Joel, it is rare for an NFL team to communicate well with its fans. The San Diego Chargers want to break through that barrier and do their marketing by communicating closely with fans – and not in a “hard sell” mode, but in a fan appreciation mode. When asked how social media is currently being measured in the organization, Joel described it this way:
“How do we measure social media? How can you measure a hug? We are giving back to our fans.”
Thank you, Joel, for giving back to us and speaking to our class. It was extremely interesting. Go Chargers!
(Professor’s note: The alert student will notice this blog post was taken from the class blog Teaching Social Media. There one will find some of the student blogs as well as posts from previous class sessions.)
When I was speaking at the SXSW Interactive conference last week, I had the chance to catch up with one of my good friends, Saul Colt from FreshBooks. Saul is the Head of Magic there, and he is the one who is responsible for the fabulous customer dinners that they do with their customers. These dinners are focused completely on the customers and providing them networking opportunities with each other; they are NOT about pushing FreshBooks! In fact, these customer dinners are part of the reason FreshBooks was named one of the Top 3 Customer Rock Stars for 2008!
Saul has honored me back by interviewing me on what it means to market in a recession. Take a listen, then go listen to Saul’s complementary video on his blog. Thank you, Saul, for the opportunity!
The folks over at MPlanet have been reaching out to bloggers this week, asking us to post on one of the following four topics:
- Brand building in a digital world (my topic!)
- Connecting with empowered consumers
- Marketing mix in a fragmented world
- Global marketing on a borderless planet
Here’s my take on brands in this digital world we are working with.
Brand Ownership
There has been quite a bit of discussion of late about social media and brands. Who “owns” the brand in a digital world? This reminds me of conversations about CRM and “managing” customer relationships. Can we really manage our customers’ relationships with us? Who is in control of the relationship? The customer. Likewise, as much as a brand may cater to their customers, it is ultimately the customer who is in charge of whether they purchase again (and whether they recommend you).
So, what does a brand look like in a digital world? Whatever its customers say it looks like.
Online brand “impressions” come not only from interactions with a company’s official website, they come from every part of the customer experience. Customer service, search results (yes, they are part of the customer experience), banner ads, and, of course, reviews, ratings, and blog posts about the company’s products or services all influence perception of the brand. There is general agreement that the brand is a summation of all these small touchpoints of a customer with a company.
Customers may agree or disagree with the branding that a company is doing, but in a digital world, they now have a very fast and easy way to share their thoughts. Thousands or millions of others can see, hear, and experience multiple customer perceptions of most brands, regardless of whether that brand has a strong online presence. In the digital world, other customers may be a stronger influence on the company’s brand than the company itself.
The community defines the brand in a digital world.
More Than a Conversation
Earlier this week I spoke with Jonathan Baskin, author of the book Branding Only Works on Cattle (podcast of the discussion coming soon!). We talked about the opportunities for a different take on branding. What should really be the goal? Jonathan suggested we create more than a two-way online conversation with customers; we need to drive them to action. Talking is great; buying is even better! Jonathan posed the idea of doing this by creating a branding game plan where the brand comes alive through all the customer touchpoints (such as customer service). And he means games here, using games as models for how to do business with customers. This helps create experiences where customers are moved towards action (purchase, repurchase, or recommendation to others are good ones to start with!) in a way that they not only enjoy but where they can also feed back into the process.
Playing in a Digital World
Brands in a digital world have a lot of opportunities to take advantage of this type of game play. I don’t mean that brands should create online games for customers to play! I mean there is a challenge to make each customer interaction unique, exciting, and relevant to that customer at that moment in time. What your brand is to me is likely very different than what it is to my colleague, sister, or friend. Additionally, my perception of your brand may change depending on what I am intent on doing at the moment or even where I am in my customer lifecycle. Digital media allows companies to be extremely flexible in how they create customer experiences that are differentiated based on customer need (and value). And it also allows brands to make these experiences fun and engaging!
It All Adds Up
As Jonathan’s book states, “Branding is experience in time, and the brand becomes a series of interrelated behaviors.” Brands that will be successful in a Digital World are those that can not only tailor those experiences to their customers as needed, they are able to interact with and engage with customers online in a meaningful way – both for the company as well as for the customer.
(Photo credit: Will Lion http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2782049563/)
In the spirit of Customers Rock!, I want to take a moment and say THANK YOU to all of you who have contributed in some way over the past 2 years. I am very excited to be celebrating this milestone with all of you! This past year has been an exciting one for me and for the blog. Let’s take a quick look at what has been going on before we start the party!
Customers Rock! Blog Year in Review
- To date, I have written 270 blog posts (including this one) with 1565 comments – woo hoo!
- I moved my blog to my own domain, CustomersRock.net (with the help of Joel – thanks!)
- I did quite a bit of speaking, both locally as well as at great events such at BlogWorld and Marketing Profs Digital Mixer. I got a chance to meet (and video) quite a few wonderful bloggers as well, so thank you to all!
- Jay Ehret and I started the Re-Experiencing Starbucks project to chronicle the change agenda from Howard Schultz to see how it impacted the customer experience. (Note – while those postings have slowed down, at least on my end, expect to see a nice year-end wrap on this soon.)
- I once again participated in the infamous Bathroom Blogfest to discuss how the customer experience extends even into forgotten places!
- I started teaching the UC San Diego class Marketing via New Media; this has been really fun! I also started a blog to chronicle my journey there Teaching Social Media. The blogs of the students are there, too.
- I joined Brickfish as their Director of Social Media. Brickfish helps major brands connect with their customers via the social web and turbo-charges word of mouth from brand evangelists. Plus, you can watch it all live on their Viral Map (this is an example from a current campaign with Microsoft “I’m a PC”). Very cool!
The Biggest News
The biggest news of all is YOU, my Customers Rock! readers. I have enjoyed talking with you over the past two years, and I am looking forward to many more conversations in the years to come! I really want to thank each and every one of you, but I only really know who you are when you leave me a comment.
So – I created a list of my commenters, in chronological order, from the first day of my blog up until now. I have linked to your blog/website if you left me one. It was great fun to look back at all of those who have turned Customers Rock! into a two-way conversation and to see how many I am still active with two years later!
This list of commenters also makes for a great read for the upcoming holidays of some very worthy blogs (those in my feed reader are marked with an asterisk *)! This is my gift to all of you this year.
Thank you again for your continued support. You all rock!
At the NACCM Customers 1st Conference today, we had the opportunity to listen to some fabulous keynotes as well as start to dig-in to the sessions. Along the way, we may have even gotten a little Goofy! Lots of nuggets, video, and photos, including Keith Ferrazzi, Joe Torre, and Peter Guber. Keep reading!
Inspiring Employees
The theme across all of the keynotes today was one of community, relationship building, and emotions. (Customers Rock! note – many of these themes work very well with the social media tools that are available to connect with customers, and with each other.)
JoAnna Brandi kicked off the day with an energetic discussion of being leaders that inspire customers to be more engaged at work, which, in turn, leads to better customer engagement. As leaders, we need to use more positive emotion; this will affect our employees and our customers. Keep your employees out of the fear we are seeing, and start focusing on the positive. What is right? What is possible? What is the next solution we can find?
She also challenged attendees to stop focusing exclusively on customer satisfaction, as customers don’t want things that are just “satisfactory”. They want something better than that! While important, satisfaction is not the end game. The pot of gold at the other side of the rainbow is joy, happiness, Wow, and Magic. We have to start creating emotional relationships with our customers. This is done by showing up at work with emotion, not checking it at the door! It is the leader’s job to make sure everyone around them uses Magic – Make a Great Impression on the Customer.
Never Eat Alone
The first keynote was Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone.He turned this into a working session to give people a personal relationship action plan for the upcoming year. Who do you need to work with to get you where you want to go? People are critical to your success, and relationships are the core. We discussed which words describe business relationships: Trust, human, feedback, fun, candor, collaborative. Which words add for most personal relationships? Laughter, love, listening, intimacy, reliable, trust, passion.
The shift – a business relationship is a personal relationship in a business environment. Make it purposeful; strategically guide your relationships. It is not about waiting for someone else to start the relationship; it is about you being proactive with others.
If you have strong personal relationships, you will be more easily forgiven when you mess it up!
Video of Keith: you can’t get there alone.
Keith had the group go through a series of exercises to help crystallize thinking around this. Our job in this world is to create an environment around ourselves that invites people in to have a better relationship with us. It is all about what we do – it is our responsibility. Lower our guard, invite people in. As we talk to people, we ought to be having the following internal conversation:
- Is there something I can care about with this person? A way to connect and remember?
- Is there a way I can help? “How can I help you? Who can I introduce you to?” How powerful is that?!
Keith also discussed the “Fluffy” factor. This was referring to a phone conversation where the service rep could hear a dog barking in the background – ‘Fluffy’. “What is the name of your dog,” this rep might ask, as a way to connect with the other person and see them as a human being (not just an irritating caller). We need to show up as the human and empathetic individual they want to see. If all call center folks projected a wonderful positive outcome, in their own minds, it would begin to manifest itself.
How are your customer service people seeing your customers? As a pain, or as a real person with real issues?
Keith also shared about the importance of being real, authentic, and human to others. He stated that others can tell right away if we are not being truthful or transparent with them, even over the phone! We need to have the following mindset, with customers or with those we want to build relationships with: We really care. We want to hear you (people need to be heard). When we have this mindset, we begin to empathize.
I will wrap up this section on Keith with a video of him telling the story about someone who cared about another human being and how it changed lives.
Teamwork
We then had the pleasure of listening to Joe Torre, manager of the LA Dodgers, share nuggets from his many years in baseball. Here are some highlights:
You only get better (at whatever you do) when you have to deal with setbacks. Tough times don’t last; tough people do.
It’s the little things in a game that help you win. Concentrate on the little things; big things will happen.
Be loyal to each other on the team, and have respect for that other guy who is out there, perhaps where you want to be.
You can’t assume your customers are yours forever.
What can I help us do to win today?
Whatever line of work you are in, it is all about the people.
Making Connections Through Storytelling
The morning ended with a fascinating speech by Peter Guber, Chairman and Founder, Mandalay Entertainment. Peter has quite a line of Hollywood successes, including his role as producer for such films as Gorillas in the Mist, The Deep, The Color Purple, and Rain Man, to name a few.
Per Peter:
“Coping with failure in uncertain times is a necessity; it has always been a partner in my journey.”
He shared three navigational states for these times and how to get through them – fear, uncertainty, and change. Peter also shared that the game changer, the secret sauce, is the story we tell ourselves and the story we tell our customers and clients.
Oral storytelling. It is in all of us. We need to connect our story to the emotions of our customers and employees to help them propel themselves through all of this. We are all wired to do oral storytelling. When we do it, it changes the word from “customer/client/patron” to “audience”. One thing to keep in mind about an audience: they expect experiences and to be engaged emotionally. They want to be moved.
Here is a video of Peter talking about how human beings are “wired” to tell oral stories.
Peter encouraged us to unleash our story for our benefit, and do it by MAGIC.
MAGIC – like a hand, each of the following concepts works independently, but they work better together.
Motivating your Audience to your Goal Interactively with great Content
Are you motivated about your story? Yes – you can craft a powerful story. You can tell, before someone says a word, whether they are authentic. Be calm; be coherent with it. Then tell it. Demonstrate you are authentic with your story. This engages people.
Audience – everybody you talk with (not to) is an audience. How do I get their attention? If it’s not a good time to do it, don’t tell your story! Know what is interesting. Try to be interested in them, create an emotional connection. The context makes the story different for everyone. What are they interested in? Find out then connect it to that. Aim for the heart, not the head. Feelings. Often times a story, elegantly presented, can change the results.
Here is another video of Peter discussing how he convinced the head of the studio to let him make the film Gorillas in the Mist. In this video, Peter was just talking about how he had come to realize that he was not connecting with his audience (the studio head). So, he became a wounded gorilla in order to help explain why it was important to tell the story of saving gorillas:
Goal – specifically direct someone to a call to action. We have to have authentic goals that are generous; then, we both win. Virally-advocated stories are authentic; they have to be real.
Interactively – it has to be a conversation. The more senses you engage in your story, the more likely you are to own it. They feel they are participating in the story – let your audience own it so they can tell it for you. It’s the way we are wired. Interactivity – think about it before you start. You have to surrender control. Why do you think you control the customer or your brand? When you relinquish control, it allows them to come forward and own the information in a unique way.
Content – The actual story is the Holy Grail. Look to your own experience – true story, inspired by story. Use observation – retell other people’s stories. Use them for emotional transportation. Look at history and use artifacts; make emotional connections today from it. Use metaphor and analogy; he became a gorilla for the studio head to get him to connect with the story and make the movie.
Think of your customers as an audience, interact with them with really great content, and enjoy the front row seat to your success.
Other Goodies
The afternoon consisted of 4 main tracks of sessions. I attended the session on Disney presented by Maritz and The Disney Institute. Bruce Kimbrell was again the presenter, along with Kathy Oughton from Maritz.
Bruce told a great story about how serious Disney is about surveying customers in the theme park. He shared that some days, the survey at the entrance gate to the park might only ask for your zip code. On other days, the conversation might go like this:
Disney: “Hi, do you have a some time to take our guest survey? We would need about 2 hours of your time.”
Guest: “Uh, no, that would take up a big chunk of my time here.”
Disney: “Well, how about if we take care of you for tomorrow?”
Guest: “No, I would have to change my flights, my hotel…”
Disney: “What if we took care of that? Would you be willing to give us your time?”
Now that is serious focus on getting the voice of the customer!
I also had the opportunity to sit in on JoAnna Brandi’s session/discussion about what makes people feel good at work. Here were some of the attendee responses -
- Liking the people I work with
- Harmony
- Making a difference
- Being recognized by others, especially when you find out about it later
JoAnna is trying to understand these motivators so she can help coach others on how to improve employee retention and loyalty.
The day started with Bruce Kimbrell from The Disney Institute who keynoted with a great speech on Disney and their keys to customer loyalty. Bruce asked a great question: Who are you loyal to and why? Some of the answers included the following:
Nordstrom – they treat you like you matter
Keen shoes – high quality product, and solid customer service if there is a problem
Sports team – get a sense of community
State Farm Insurance – they are there before the police!
Kroger Foods – great customer service experience
Each responder had their own reason for being loyal. Bruce shared that at Disney, they believe the greater the connection, the greater the loyalty! Relationships are built when two things happen:
Customers want to associate with your brand beyond the transaction
Your customers and employees interact positively with each other
Disney gets 80,000 people at their parks in one day. How do you positively interact with all of them? On average, each guest (Disney speak for customer) has 60 interactions with Disney cast members (employees) per day. This is 60 opportunities to make or break the experience; they are the face of Disney! If 59 are great, but number 60 is a jerk, what do I go home and talk about? Disney uses experience mapping to identify all points of contact with customers, look at the experience through the customers’ eyes, and then align Disney strengths to “moments of magic”. Key takeaway: plan it out! Identify and prioritize key opportunties in the customer experience, match specific tools to each opportunity, select partners to involve, then go make it happen! Thank you, Bruce, for all of your Disney insight.
Swarming the Magic Kingdom
I spent most of my day in this highly interactive activity, led by Frank Capek of nGenera (Don Tapscott’s company). He laid the foundation for the day by discussing the next generation customer experience. In other words, with the potential for collaboration found in social media (such as blogs, wikis, social networks, YouTube, etc), how can we enable customers to actively co-create their own experiences? This isn’t experience by intent (improving service levels) or experience by design (creating based on customer needs and priorities) but experience on demand (engage and co-create).
After talking about this for awhile, Frank set us loose in Disneyland to take a closer look at what customer experiences are taking place there – down to the smallest detail. We rode rides, analyzed Main Street USA, and listened to Christmas music being aired in the park. We observed what it felt like to be a first-timer, what it felt like to stand in line, and how easy/difficult it was to get around the park. At the end of the day, we came back together and used our collective thinking to brainstorm ideas around not just improved customer experiences, but specifically how customer experiences could be different for those who are “digitally connected” (especially young people who live on social networks). Ideas included the following:
“Log in” at the park to learn about wait times in lines, get a personalized experience
Have Disney “follow you” around the park (opt-in, of course) via your mobile phone or simply your park ticket (inserted at various attractions) to log your activities and create a “storybook” of your day that could be emailed/link sent to you. You could even opt to have your log update your Facebook or MySpace status throughout the day, sharing your experience with your friends.
Using texting/Twitter to share issues with Disney in real-time
It was a great session to get out in the sunshine, look at things from a different perspective, then take and apply it back to our own companies: Walk in your customers’ shoes. Innovate the customer experience. Don’t forget social media!
JetBlue and “Jetitude”
Rob Maruster, Senior VP of Customer Service at JetBlue held a great session to share how they are bringing humanity back to air travel through servant leadership. Here are some tidbits:
JetBlue administers 35 customer surveys each flight (regardless of how full they are); 8% of customers give their feedback (a decent response rate)
They use Net Promoter Score (NPS), rather than just customer satisfaction, to gauge how well they are performing and look for opportunities for improvement. It seems to be directly correlated to whether they are running flights on time in a particular month!
If something doesn’t go as planned, JetBlue invokes their Customer Bill of Rights and, within 7 days of the flight, they send out flight vouchers to help make up for the inconvenience. “Please, let us try again!”
You have to be relevant to customers in order to drive customer loyalty.
I liked the way Rob shared about JetBlue’s customer-focused thinking as he discussed one of the key inputs to their Balanced Scorecard: Drive a Low Cost Culture. He was quick to point out that it is important to be smart about costs, but not to be cheap! “Don’t touch the things that touch the customer.” Great motto, Rob!
Rob also talked about their JetBlue attitude, or “jetitude”. They have five “Be’s”:
Be in Blue always (you are always on stage – see my related post!)
Be personal
Be the answer (don’t pass the buck; execs, please walk the talk)
Be engaging (reach out to customers; don’t wait for them to come to you)
Be thankful to every customer (actually thank them for their business)
Finally, Rob talked about the importance of “servant leadership”. Leadership brings all of the above together to serve the employee and, in turn, the customer. They need total transparency, and they need to be willing to get their hands dirty in order to help make it happen. Great talk, Rob!
Oh, by the way, JetBlue collected business cards from everyone in the summit and gave away 2 JetBlue travel vouchers! Wow! Great way to show appreciation.
The Red Rubber Ball
Kevin Carroll opened the official conference at day’s end with his inspiring speech on the importance of play. Per Kevin,
“Play is serious business!”
Kevin started out his talk by sharing his experiences as a 6 year old boy trying to find his way out of a bad family situation. In this video clip, he talks about the power of belonging and community. Have a listen:
Kevin encouraged all of us to harness the power of sport and play in everything we do – including our jobs. What inspires you? For Kevin, a simple red, rubber ball (like a playground ball) inspired him to live differently, with purpose, passion, and intention. In fact, he has an amazing life story that took him from a difficult childhood to the military, the NBA, to Nike, and ultimately to being a speaker/author who helps others reach for their dreams. He is a life-long learner, and he shared his “lessons from the playground”:
Commit to it (find what you are passionate about and commit to it)
Seek out encouragers (surround yourself with people who give you permission to dream big)
Work out your creative muscle (need to reawaken our creative side)
Prepare to shine (create your vision, make it clear)
Speak up (stand up for something, what you believe in)
Expect the unexpected (be forever curious, you never know where you will end up!)
Maximize the day (live each day to the fullest – don’t try to get to tomorrow too soon)
Kevin was inspiring, entertaining, and unpredictable. He even tossed out balls into the audience and shared a video of playing “tag” at Nike – with 4,000 coworkers! He challenged us to get the most we can out of each day, as well as out of this conference.
After his talk, Yemil Martinez (Director of New Media for the conference) and I had the opportunity to video Kevin’s discussion with Joanna Brandi, conference co-chair, as they discussed the future of this country and how play can help. I will upload that video later this week. Kevin then freely gave me a nice gift for my older son to encourage him to find his passion in life. Thank you, Kevin!
Kevin was also nice enough to give me two minutes of his time to share with you, my readers, his thoughts on the importance of building community with customers and with each other. Also listen through to the end for his thoughts on the Carroll connection!
Thank you so much for your time and energy, Kevin! We will be following you.
Whether we are focused on social or traditional media, one of the most important things I tell my students (and which I shared last week at the San Diego Social Media Breakfast) is to listen to customers before doing anything. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and hear what our customers are telling us, and each other, before proceeding.
I will help you, my readers, do that over this next week. I am blogging at the NACCM Customers 1st Conference, being held at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. You can follow me daily via live Twitter updates, this blog, or on the Customers 1st blog. I will be attending both the conference as well as the “outside the walls” sessions which take place in the Disney theme parks, and I will share with you the best nuggets from the conference and its speakers. One of the sessions focuses on creating the “next generation customer experience” for consumers who are spending a lot of time on social networks and with social media. Stay tuned!
I will also be spending time with some of the guest speakers in one-on-one interviews, so let me know if you have any questions for any of them. You can find the list of speakers here. They include dignitaries from the customer service industry, authors, as well as customer-focused executives from many large corporations across a variety of industries.
Come follow me around the Magic Kingdom this week and learn about putting customers first!
“In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.” — Walt Disney
I am very excited to be live-blogging the Customers 1st Conference, taking place at the Disneyland Resort from November 16-19! This event will help companies figure out how to keep their aim constantly focused on the future – and how to keep their business growing based on a firm foundation of solid customer focus. I am looking forward to live-blogging the Customers 1st Conference for several reasons:
I love the title of Monday’s keynote by Rob Maruster, SVP Customer Service, JetBlue Airways: “Bringing Humanity Back to Air Travel through Servant Leadership & Internal Championship”. Wow! Bring it on!
There will be experiential learning activities - I can go to Disney and still be part of the conference! We can get outside of a conference room and learn. This includes the Disney Service Challenge inside of California Adventure park and the Customer Experience Immersion Event in Disneyland park (called “Swarming the Magic Kingdom”). I can’t wait to get my hands dirty!!
There are opportunities to for intact teams to celebrate at select events, such as the Connections Block Party and Disney’s Service Challenge Scavenger Hunt on Sunday.
There are tracks on people (employees are a key to customer focus), customer experience (what my blog is all about!), front line faces (about customer service), numbers talk (the all-important measures and metrics), as well as opportunities to just network (such as the Slackers Happy Hour – can’t wait to see that one!).
The event organizers are providing each attendee with a journal, not just a program, to really keep track of business cards, notes, as well as the agenda. Sounds intriguing.
The event organizers also promise to “surprise and delight” attendees, a familiar rallying cry for those who are customer-focused. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with!
Today we have a guest blogger, Eric Brown, Founder and Owner of Urbane Apartments. His unique approach to Underground Marketing and Property Management, focusing on the Residents Experience, has helped Urbane Apartments achieve some of the highest rents per square foot and per unit in the Royal Oak, Michigan area where they are located. In this guest post, he shares some of his fascinating perspectives on brand and customer experience, as well as some of his company’s innovative ideas.
Does Money, Luxury, or Value Create a Remarkable Customer Experience? What are the key ingredients of a Remarkable Customer Experience?
Remarkable doesn’t mean remarkable to you. It means remarkable to me. Am I going to make a remark about it?
Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable. Running down the street naked will get you noticed, but it won’t accomplish much. It’s easy to pull off a stunt, but not useful.
Is the experience you are creating for your customer remarkable, and does your customer find value in the experience created? Are you matching your Brand to a Targeted Experience? As posted by one of Becky’s readers,
“Service excellence, just as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”
This is spot on. Take some time to evaluate what will Engage and Delight your customer based on your Brand. We were at the local Mini Cooper dealership and they openly invite customers to bring in their beloved pets to the dealership, which some folks get really excited about. It works for Mini Cooper, but you likely would not find that at the Jaguar showroom. Mini Cooper is matching a Customer Experience to their Brand; this example has no correlation to Luxury and doesn’t get better by adding more Money. Southwest Airlines, you either love them or hate them with the cattle call lines, no assigned seats, no frills. Yet true Southwest Customers like, enjoy, laugh with, and have a favorable experience with, Southwest. Herb Kelleher somehow figured out how to deliver a consistent, value driven experience and permitted his employees to fix it when it wasn’t.
We own and manage a small boutique apartment management company Urbane Apartments in Royal Oak, MI and have used some innovative ideas to create Remarkable Experiences for our Residents that align to our Brand. Here are some Case Studies:
We do not send out paper leases. The lease, a floor plan, emergency numbers and some unit pictures are given to the resident at Move In on a thumb drive, which is also a key chain with our logo on it. Being able to walk away with all of the lease information on a tiny thumb drive that fits in their pocket and that they can also use to store additional information has created a “Cool Factor”, something worth talking about. This idea may not bode well if we were in the senior housing business, but it does resonate well with our target demographic.
We have embraced Urbane Loves Pets, no extra fees, no breed restrictions, no size requirements. Our theory is that if we have great residents, they likely have great pets. And while there are certainly problems that occur from time to time, we own the segment pet market locally by creating a favorable experience for our “Pet Lover Residents”.
Urbane created the “Freedom Lease” which affords maximum flexibility on lease terms for our residents. Lots of folks out there are consultants today, and the standard year lease did not fit this paradigm shift. We have fostered a living arrangement that works to address the residents’ needs, our needs, and allows flexibility, which evokes a better experience than figuring out how to break a lease when circumstances change.
What experience you are creating for your customer? Let us know your thoughts and stories here at Customers Rock!
Part 1 of this series discussed two of the top reasons for using social media to build stronger customer relationships. Part 2a today discusses another reason to use social media for customer loyalty: customer service. Part 3 will discuss steps to take in order to get started.
Recently at my panel Creating Customer Loyalty with Social Media at BlogWorld, much of our conversation revolved around the topic of customer service. Two of our panelists, Tony Hsieh from Zappos.com and Frank Eliason from Comcast, talked in depth about using Twitter to reach out to existing customers in various ways. Twitter allows for real-time, ongoing two-way conversations, and both of these companies are creating those with their customers. (To learn more about Twitter, check out this quick overview, Twitter in Plain English, from the CommonCraft Show.)
Zappos.com
The culture at Zappos.com is very people-focused and empowers employees. Zappos.com has many of their employees Twittering; 448 to be exact! You can track their tweets via this microsite, where you can also track mentions of Zappos.com and some of the brands they carry. Using Twitter is encouraged as a great way to stay transparent and authentic with customers. Tony is their CEO, and he leads the way by tweeting about his travels, tours he gives of the Zappos.com headquarters, requests for feedback from customers, and contests he runs. Customers even make suggestions via Twitter, the most recent of which was to list a short url on each product page that can be easily cut and pasted into blogs, email, Twitter, etc. so they can be shared with others (it is called zapp.me). Tony has over 13,000 people following his Tweets to get this kind of information.
Customers Rock! take on Zappos.com and Twitter: Zappos customers are extremely loyal to the company for several reasons: great customer service, an easy return policy (free shipping on returns!), and employees that care. Social Media at Zappos.com, including Twitter and their blogs, has been a great way to put a face on the company, make them feel approachable, get instant customer feedback, and create a two-way dialog that builds customer relationships. Zappos is truly a Customers Rock! company.
Come back for Part 2b of this series to hear Comcast’s story!
As many of you know, I teach a popular class at UC San Diego Extension on Marketing via New Media. I help my students understand how to look at social media as an opportunity to build relationships with customers rather than just as a campaign or tactic to “increase buzz”. This summer, I had Joel Price from the San Diego Chargers as a guest speaker. He shared with my class how the football team has been using social media to get closer to its fans and create a “virtual tailgate party”. Joel took us on a historical journey of fan interaction during his presentation.
When I was speaking at the SXSW Interactive conference last week, I had the chance to catch up with one of my good friends, 
He turned this into a working session to give people a personal relationship action plan for the upcoming year. Who do you need to work with to get you where you want to go? People are critical to your success, and relationships are the core. We discussed which words describe business relationships: Trust, human, feedback, fun, candor, collaborative. Which words add for most personal relationships? Laughter, love, listening, intimacy, reliable, trust, passion.
. Here is an overview and some nuggets from 
Part 1 of this series