Category: Customer Relationships

How to Connect with Justin Bieber (and Anyone Else)

Most of my blog posts relate to current events and practices in marketing. However, as someone who has spent the past 25 years involved with marketing in some capacity, I cannot help but see parallels between everyday situations and marketing practice. Today’s post is one such observation.

My friend, Mark, is a TSA agent at Nashville International Airport. In his position, Mark encounters many different kinds of people, including celebrities. One day last week, he realized a celebrity was passing through airport security- one Justin Bieber. The teen heartthrob quickly drew attention among travelers in the security lanes, as one would expect. Mark found himself near Bieber, and he did something that no one else was able to do: he made a connection with Justin Bieber.

What was Mark’s secret? Was it the fact that Mark’s teenage daughter is a huge fan, and he used that fact to get Bieber’s attention? No, in fact, Mark said others were trying to get Justin’s attention with the expected “I’m a big fan” type comments without much success. Apparently, they did not know something that Mark did. He engaged Justin by asking him if he still played hockey. What? This guy is an international singing sensation, and Mark wants to know if he is playing hockey! Justin took a moment to answer his question and have Mark tell him about his hockey playing son before going on his way. Mark had succeeded in doing something that most young girls at the airport would have loved to have done that morning- get Justin Bieber’s attention.

Mark’s ability to connect with Justin Bieber is similar to what effective salespeople practice: develop knowledge about customers and prospects as people. A buyer is more than a party to a business transaction; he or she is a person with family, hobbies, and interests, most of which are more interesting to think about and discuss than the business at hand. One of my favorite examples of “know thy customer” comes from author and business expert Harvey Mackay. He developed the Mackay 66, a comprehensive questionnaire that salespeople complete on a buyer that captures information personal interests and their business. A foundation of understanding buyers and their needs is instrumental in building trust to advance a business relationship.

Want to connect with your customers and prospects? Make it a point to know about them and their organizations- who they are and what they do. As John Maxwell says “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Salespeople can demonstrate caring by taking time to learn about the person across the table. If it works with Justin Bieber, it will probably work with the clients and prospects you interact with on a daily basis.

The Follow-Up: A Lost Art?

For the past six years, I have had the privilege of serving as a judge for an awards competition sponsored by a local business publication. In that time I have met many successful entrepreneurs who have inspired me to stretch my limits of professional and personal growth. It is a service commitment that takes time and has no extrinsic rewards, but the people I have met and lessons learned are payment enough.

A fellow judge and I observed a trend over the years we have judged the competition: the act of follow-up from contestants does not occur as frequently today. We visited with top executives at 12 companies this year, and only two of them followed up with a “thank you” message. Follow-up from a company is not a judging criterion nor are companies excluded from consideration because they did not follow up our meeting with an email, call, or postcard.

Our surprise is that more managers do not pursue the small task of following up with judges, just as a salesperson would follow up on a meeting with a prospective client or a key account. The acclaim that comes being named a winner in this competition can enhance a firm’s visibility in the community, not to mention potentially attract new clients that recognize the firm’s accomplishments. The two managers that took the step of following up our visit (one with a handwritten note, one with a phone call) stand out from the others simply by taking a few minutes to say “thank you.”

The intent of sharing this experience is not to indict the other 10 companies. The saying “when you point a finger at someone, you point three fingers at yourself” rings true for me. As I reflected on the trend we observed, I realized my follow-up communications do not always meet my personal expectations. So, rather than criticize anyone I am using this experience to become more consistent in my own practice of the art of the follow-up.

Investing a few minutes to thank a customer, prospect, mentor or someone else who has invested time with you is often perceived as an indicator of someone paying attention to details. A salesperson that regularly practices follow-up with clients can create confidence that he or she is on top of things. And, follow-up is good, old school customer relationship management.

L.O.V.E. Your Customers

Valentine’s Day is upon us; it’s one day that we tell that special someone how much we care for them. We show our affection with flowers, candy, gifts, and food. We give priority to making loved ones feel special that day. The love that we show on Valentine’s Day leads me to wonder why we do not shower those people with same attention the other 364 days of the year. And, it begs the question “Should businesses take a similar approach to our relationships with customers?”

The answer is an unequivocal “Yes.” A business should show LOVE for its customers just as we invest in important personal relationships. What is LOVE? I’m not referring to the 1983 song by Ho”font-style:italic;ward Jones, who asked that very question. LOVE is an acronym that can guide how a business manages its customer relationships. To LOVE is to:

Listen – Create a culture among customer contact employees to pay attention to customers’ wants and desires. How can your products make their lives better or easier? The answers to this question change frequently, but we have to be attuned to our customers to gain needed insights.

Observe – Be on the lookout for changes in customer behavior that could signal a shift in the relationship. Decreased order volume, placing orders less frequently, or delays in responding to communications can be tip-offs that your standing with a customer may not be as solid as you believe. Too often, these signals are not detected until after a relationship diminishes or ends altogether.

Give a Voice – Give your customers platforms to communicate with your company and other customers. Allowing user reviews of your products, building a community around your brand, and making email and phone contact a painless process are steps you can take to make customers feel valued.

Show Empathy – Encourage employees to put themselves in your customers’ shoes. More importantly, the concern they feel must be communicated and felt by customers, not just a script or canned responses delivered by employees.

As you can see, LOVE is not a special promotion, program of the month, or slick internal marketing campaign. LOVE represents customer-centered behaviors that transform marketing from promises to results for your customers. So, while we go all out to show love on Valentine’s Day, why not commit to showing LOVE everyday for the next year?

Who Owns Your Brand?

Who does own your brand? A strange question, you may be thinking. Or, perhaps you suspect I am lobbing a trick question your way. My response on both counts is “no.” It is neither a strange question nor a trick question. I would say it is a question with a very straightforward answer. Who owns your brand? Not you!

Brands are perceptions, associations, and images held by customers and others. Thus, they are the true owners of a brand. As a marketer, you are merely a caretaker, a steward charged with protecting the value it holds with stakeholders.

Do you need proof? Take the story of Gap. The clothing retailer unveiled a new logo last week only to announce four days later that it would keep its iconic blue logo. The change of heart followed immense public backlash against the new logo.

I read with amusement different opinions from designers and other experts about why the Gap’s new logo was an epic fail. Some experts said the Helvetica font was horribly outdated and unworthy of a trendy apparel retailer. Others said the blue square that protruded above the “p” had no relevance or meaning.

These critiques of the Gap’s new logo miss the most obvious point: the Gap’s logo does not belong to Gap. OK, the tangible qualities of the logo belong to Gap. Ownership is protected by a trademark. But in reality, Gap’s customers own the logo and the brand. Those brand elements connect the company with persons who care about it. Making swift, drastic changes to this piece of the relationship with customers is a prime reason why the uproar was so ferocious.

Manage your brand; build your brand; do what you can to control your brand. In the end, it is not yours, so commit to engaging your stakeholders so that you are partners in its development. Don’t go it alone, or you may experience the same “gap” in stakeholder relationships as Gap is experiencing now.

Creativity – “What the Gap Did Wrong”

What Marketers Can Learn from College Football

I love college football! It does not matter what teams are playing, the pageantry and competition of college football are irresistible. I do not watch much TV these days, but I could easily give 12 hours on a Saturday to watching games. And, as the 2010 season kicked off recently, I noticed that I was not alone. The anticipation that college football fans had for the season to begin was infectious.

As I took in all of the excitement about the new college football season, I inevitably did what I have been trained to do: ask what marketers can learn from this phenomenon. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the passion that people have for their favorite team was held for other brands? Get fired up for Tide! Paint yourself UPS brown. Unlikely to happen, I agree, but what does college football teach us about stoking the emotions of consumers? Three lessons are worth noting:

1. Experience – College football is far more than games. It entails pep rallies, tailgating, homecoming, meeting old friends, and making new memories. It is not a transaction, it is an experience. What can you do to create experiences that engage customers with your brand? To build and sustain relationships with customers, look beyond the transaction and consumption of the product or service and extend it with experiences. Birthday cards for customers, customer appreciation events, and employee recognition programs are examples of ways to create experiential contacts with stakeholders.

2. Tradition – The most successful college football programs in terms of attendance, licensed merchandise sales, and overall fan interest have a history of greatness when it comes to appealing to fans. Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, and Notre Dame are examples of programs with winning traditions and legendary players and coaches that span generations. The lore of these programs adds to their appeal today. How can tradition be cultivated in your organization, externally with customers and internally with employees? Do you have a legendary product? Ad campaign? Logo? Other marketing asset that can be leveraged to build a bridge to the past?

3. Stories – The on-field product in college football is supplemented with intrigue and drama in the form of stories involving personalities on the field. Whether it be the walk-on player who goes on to earn a scholarship and be a star, or the coach who returns to his alma mater to lead the program back to glory, college football is replete with stories that create warm, fuzzy feelings. The feel good story at the beginning of the 2010 season is Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, who missed more than a year battling cancer to return to the starting lineup. In the same vein, what stories can be told to draw customers closer to your brand? Testimonials from customers who have been positively impacted by your product or service are one way to make this happen. Similarly, employee testimonials about their commitment to customers and the organization can have an impact on the internal market as well as resonate with customers.

Let’s face it, not many products match the glamour and intensity of college football. But, we can glean inspiration from the best of what the sport offers and energize our brands and employees. May you (and your favorite team) score many touchdowns on whatever field you play.

Redefining Customer Delight

The concept of delighting customers has many advocates among marketing experts. Going above and beyond what customers expect is viewed as a way to make customers happy and build loyalty. After all, who would not occasionally want a free product upgrade? Free shipping? A refund when a unsatisfactory experience is delivered? Delighting customers seems like a breath of fresh air and a basis for differentiating a brand.

Customer delight comes at a cost to the firm (see free product upgrades, free shipping, and refunds). The question that must be asked rather than assuming an answer is do efforts to delight customers lead to greater brand loyalty? The answer is “maybe,” but there may be an easier, more cost effective way to develop loyalty. According to findings from research by the Executive Board, the emphasis on delivering a “wow” customer service experience may miss the mark in building long-term relationships.

An immediate reaction to this assertion is “how can this be?” We have been led to believe that giving customers the unexpected is good; our challenge is to figure out how to move customers from satisfaction to delight. The shift called for in the Executive Board report is that the focus of customer service should be how to reduce the effort required by customers to solve the problem they have. If you desired to quench thirst with a glass of water and were given a gallon of water instead, you would no longer be thirsty but you received something that will not deliver utility.

The Executive Board has developed the Customer Effort Score (CES) to measure customer service performance. It consists of a single question; “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” It is scored on a five-point scale with anchors of “very low effort” and “very high effort.” The CES was a better predictor of customer satisfaction and even the highly touted Net Promoter Score. In short, it appears that the easier marketers make it for customers to do business with them, the more loyalty customers will show.

This research was conducted in the context of call centers and self-service contact channels on websites. Does delight via reducing effort apply in all situations? Or, is there still room for creating customer delight by going the extra mile? According to the Executive Board’s research, going the extra mile will only make you tired! The thought of simplifying interactions with companies with which we do business does conjure images of delight.

Harvard Business Review – “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers”

Free Wi-Fi (and Brand Relevance) at Starbucks

Starbucks made news earlier this summer when it began offering free Wi-Fi access to customers. At first glance this decision would seem to create an unintended outcome of some customers hanging out for extended periods of time, preventing turnover in seats that could actually result in potential customers walking away. But, further examination of Starbucks’ plans show this move goes beyond giving away Wi-Fi access to lure customers into its stores.

A new offering to be launched this fall, the Starbucks Digital Network (SDN), will feature premium content aggregated for Starbucks’ customers that can be accessed for free. Paid versions of sites like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are two SDN partners. Among other content providers are Apple and magazine publisher Rodale. Content will be organized into five channels: News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business & Careers, and My Neighborhood. Starbucks and the content providers will look to create up-selling opportunities on SDN that will be a revenue sharing venture between Starbucks and its partners.

The brand that set new standards for creating a great customer experience continues to innovate. Starbucks will always have as its main focus delivering great coffee, but it is not the coffee alone that brings customers to Starbucks. Drinking coffee while relaxing, working, or surfing the Internet is an escape for many people. Enhancing time spent at Starbucks by building a custom network of information valued by customers can lead to greater brand loyalty to Starbucks… and its content partners. This loyalty translates into more visits to Starbucks. Ideally, customers will purchase more items and do it more frequently, to the point that Starbucks is not a choice (“Should I go to Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or McDonald’s?”) but part of customers’ lifestyles.

Weaving brands into customers’ lives in this way is a powerful strategy for building customer loyalty. To reach this destination, a price for loyalty must be paid. It is not bought with frequent promotions or low prices, but with relevance to the consumer.

Yahoo News – “How Starbucks Plans to Capitalize on Free Wi-Fi”

Let Customers Know You Care by Letting Them Know You Hear

Social media has opened new communication channels between marketers and customers. Unfortunately, too many times the traditional media mindset of “talk, talk, talk” is being applied to social media, which negates the power of social media tools to engage consumers in conversation. Mastering social media resembles the challenges marketers faced a decade ago building websites that delivered value to their target markets.

A big problem, according to eMarketer founder Geoff Ramsey, is that most marketers are uncertain how to integrate social media into their existing digital media mix of display and search advertising. In Ramsey’s view, the value of social media resides in the ability to listen to what customers and others are saying about your brand. So, a different approach to social media should be taken than the messaging used in digital advertising that is geared toward persuasion and action.

A great example of a listening opportunity using social media that has been missed (at least so far) is on the Facebook page of Baja Fresh, a quick service restaurant chain. A post by the company yesterday (July 19) is a teaser for a new Facebook coupon for Baja Fresh fans. As of this morning, 20 comments were made about the post, many of which express frustrations with Baja Fresh locations in their local area not accepting the coupons. The silence from Baja Fresh is rather noticeable; no one from the company has responded to the concerns about not being able to use coupons.

The ability to listen to customers’ praises, questions, complaints, and ideas (and respond to them) makes social media a powerful communication medium. Giving customers a voice is great, but are you prepared, as Jim Collins says, to “confront the brutal facts?” Creating social media content without evidence of listening is a return to one-way communication. I am unsure what is worse: A company’s Facebook page that is updated with new content once every few weeks, or a rather active presence with little emphasis on listening and responding to customers. The decision to use social media implies you want to hear from people who care about your brand. Let them be heard… and let them know that you hear them!

A Marketing Lesson from Roy Halladay’s Perfect Game

Today’s teachable moment in marketing comes from the Major League Baseball. Specifically, the lesson can be found in ticket sales. The Florida Marlins, whose average attendance ranks 28th out of 30 MLB teams this season, made news when it sold more than 3,000 tickets in a few hours earlier this week for a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Why is this accomplishment noteworthy? The game was played last week, the Saturday before the tickets were sold on Tuesday. The Phillies beat the Marlins 1-0 that day, and Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay became the 20th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game. The Marlins offered unsold tickets at face value and will continue sales until the end of the season. Ticket prices range from $12-$300, with most tickets selling for less than $25, according to an Associated Press story.

Some people have questioned the ethics of profiting from an opposing team’s accomplishments and that this move does nothing to help the Marlins’ image in south Florida. I will leave that for others to decide. What I find interesting in this story is that it reminds us that consumers’ value judgments may not always seem rational. After all, would we pay for a haircut we never got or for legal consultation but never visited a lawyer? The difference in the case of the perfect game baseball tickets is that there is a great deal of emotion and passion connected with consuming sports. The tickets were bought not for any functional value- there is none because the game has been played already. It is the intangible value of holding a ticket for an event that has occurred only 20 times in more than 100 years of professional baseball. It is a piece of history that one can hold onto and say “I remember this happening” (they can’t honestly say “I was there,” now can they?).

The takeaway from the Florida Marlins post-game marketing of Roy Halladay’s perfect game is this: you must understand what customers value from their relationship with your brand. For them, what they receive from you is not a product or service- it is what your product or service does to make them feel better about themselves or improve their quality of life in some way. It is an often-stated slogan: People buy benefits, not products. True, but extend the means-end chain further to ask “what is the significance of the benefits to our customers’ lives?” Exploring that question can have an impact on what you sell, how you position it, and who you target.

I Love You

I know- that is a strange headline for a post on a marketing blog. Bear with me and I will explain.

I am composing these thoughts from the comfort of my home. About 30 miles up the road, life is anything but comfortable. The Nashville area has been devastated by flooding that followed more than 13 inches of rain over the weekend. The extent of the damage is jaw-dropping, and the loss and suffering experienced is difficult to imagine. The toll of economic loss and emotional distress are simply incalculable at this point.

Amid the unbelievable pictures and accounts of the flood’s impact, one comment stands out. A Facebook friend, Marcus, posted “I Love You Nashville.” As soon as I read that statement, I knew that Nashville will prevail in this ordeal. Deep rooted passion like that expressed by Marcus and undoubtedly shared by many other Nashvillians demonstrates that while there is pain and damage to overcome, their love for Nashville will inspire rebuilding that will make their city as great, if not greater, than before.

What’s the connection to marketing? Marcus’ comment led me to ask myself how many students would say the same thing about my organization, Middle Tennessee State University? Would your customers say the same thing about your company? About you? Would employees in your organization say “I love you” to their employer? Would residents of the community where you do business say it?

Customers can develop feelings of attachment, commitment, and yes, love for your brands and company. They purchase your products loyally, eagerly tell others about you, and stick with you during tough times. What are you doing to build loving relationships with your customers? Hopefully, you will never have to endure a catastrophic event like a flood to find out which of your customers love you. And, if they experience a similar devastating experience, it is your opportunity to tell your customers “I love you.” It has been encouraging to see several businesses in the Nashville area take this step already.