Customers/Clients Archives - Page 32 of 35

I dare you not to love this

April 19, 2007

Picture this. You dial your mobile phone. You speak for half a minute. Those sentences get e-mailed to your e-mail address.

Or your client. Or your employee. Or an intact team. Or your spouse.

It’s like instant dictation. But not only does it get typed, it gets delivered.

Brilliant. I predict Jott.com is going to be the breakout of 2007. Here’s how I’m going to use it:

Dictate notes from meetings and send them to myself for a record. Jott it.
I’m pulling out of a client’s parking lot and send a note to our Project Manager about opening a new job. Jott him.
Forget milk? Never again. Jott me.
Have a breakthrough idea while waiting to board a plane — jott my entire staff before I forget said idea. Jott the team.
Want to remind my daughter to do XYZ but she’s going to get home before I do. Jott her.
See someone across the way at Panera and want to remember to call them in a week or so. Jott me.
Have forgotten to grab a book from the office 3 times. Jott me.
All the stuff that I try to write down before I forget it. Jott me. Jott me. Jott me.

Ah yes…and on every e-mail there’s a link so I (or whoever gets jotted) can listen to the audio file.

You can’t tell me this wouldn’t be helpful to you too. Come on, admit it. You’re going to Jott.

I will give the geniuses at Jott the last word.

What’s next? Pink planes?

April 17, 2007

As you may have read in this weekend’s US Today, American Airlines has launched a gender-specific are of its website, aimed at women.

Here’s what they say on the home page of this female-focused site. " Welcome to American Airlines AA.com/women – the airline industry’s first web page dedicated to women who travel. This web page is about you – our valued customer. We’ve listened to women and recognized the need to provide additional information tailored to your business and pleasure travel needs and lifestyle. We also invite you to share insights, travel tips and stories by submitting them to wehearyou@aa.com."

I don’t get it. Of the 18 hot links on the home page, only 2 of them seem women-specific. One is girlfriend getaways and the other is the safety tab. Couldn’t both of those have existed on the core page?

I guess this remind me of my pink tools post. I am let wondering why and as a man, wondering if women aren’t insulted by being segregated out when really travel is a humbling equalizer for all of us.

What do you think? Good idea or bad? If you were in charge of this web presence — how would you actually make it valuable to women?

How to use informal surveys to generate some buzz

April 14, 2007

People are very curious about each other. Which is why the media loves surveys.

Surveys needn’t be massive, scientifically rigorous affairs to generate buzz for you. There is definitely a proper time and place for quality market research. But, in this case, I’m talking about just polling your customers with an interesting question that does not have an obvious answer so you can create some buzz.

Wonder how you could adapt it to your profession? Let’s try a couple.

Photographer: "If you could take only one of your photos with you before evacuating your home, which one would you choose?"

Restaurant owner: "Do you count calories when you go out to eat?"

Computer consultant: “Do you ever talk to your computers (cursing and coaxing included!)

If nothing else, it’s great for newsletter filler, blog post, bag stuffer or a bill insert, etc. It will spark a conversation with your customers and who knows, you might even uncover an idea for a new offering!

Don Imus: The dark side of citizen marketing?

April 13, 2007

Let me cut to the chase.

I have never listened to Don Imus. I could care less what he says. I could care less if he got to keep his job or not. Do I think he’s a boorish pig, based on what he said about the Rutgers basketball team? Sure. But he certainly does not hold exclusive rights to that label.

To me, all of that is irrelevant.

Because the issue isn’t Don Imus. It isn’t racism. Or political correctness. Or respecting women. If it were about those issues, most of the shock jocks and reality TV producers would also have lost their jobs yesterday.

Imus isn’t the worst of them…he’s just one of them.

What matters in the Imus firing is who fired the fatal shot. And why.

We’re experiencing the birth of a new era – Citizen Marketing. We’ve all celebrated it. But perhaps that is only half the story.

In the old days, the power rested in the hands of a few. The zookeepers, or the sellers, ran the zoo. They decided what the animals ate, which animals were in the petting zoo and what the hours of operation were. It was at best, a very paternal relationship. At worst, it was a one-sided dictatorship.

But today, the chimpanzees have the keys. And in this early phase of this marketplace shift, where the buyers are actually the ones in power, it’s more than a little chaotic. There are no rules. Bananas on tap 24 hours a day!

On the good side – the chimpanzees’ exuberance can be very contagious and they can encourage/force the zookeepers to be better at their job, just to keep up with them.

But because there are no rules, the chimpanzees can also just as easily decide to pick on a particular zookeeper and fling feces at him. And because there are so many of them and because human nature says, "join the crowd," once a few of the chimpanzees start tossing poop, many of the other chimpanzees join in. Without really stopping to understand why. Mob mentality flashes hot and bright. And reason rarely has a starring role. That doesn’t mean the mob is always wrong. But it does suggest that the firestorm doesn’t allow for a lot of introspection or consideration.

Let’s face it. Don Imus earned ratings and advertisers because he was a boorish pig. And the chimpanzees (in this case…advertisers and the target audiences of those advertisers) rewarded him by buying more advertising, giving him a more prestigious time slot, more guest appearances, more fame, etc. etc.

I am also quite sure that the Rutgers comment was not Don’s first racist or sexist comment. I’m even willing to bet that some things he has said in the past were even more hurtful and offensive to some. But the chimpanzees screeched and hooted, loving his antics.

Until one day, a few chimpanzees didn’t like what he said. Who knows why. He was shooting off his mouth saying vulgar things, like they had trained him to do. But for whatever reason, this particular statement got everyone’s attention. And the chimpanzees started making a different kind of noise. And throwing feces. Pretty soon, they were making enough noise that others noticed. And joined in. And pretty soon, the only way to calm the chimpanzees was to get the zookeeper out of there.

And its not just Imus.

A story about an American Girl store and a 6 year-old’s Target doll garners over 409,000 Google results in less than a month.

A story about a blogger who received death threats now has an excess of 553,000 Google results, A CNN appearance, and professional and personal lives altered forever.

Mob mentality. Good or bad. Right or wrong. Who knows?

Who will the chimpanzees go after next? A good guy? A bad guy? Your favorite brand? Your company?

Should Don Imus have been fired? I have no idea. The truth is, he’ll have another gig in less than a month and we’ll chalk this up to, "well, that’s Imus." And he’ll still be a boorish pig.

It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need to understand that just like there was a good and a bad side to the zookeepers being in charge, there’s a dark side to citizen-driven marketing as well. It’s a glorious day at the zoo until the chimpanzees start tossing the feces in your direction.

We are the citizens of citizen marketing. We’re going to set the course.

Unless of course, we get swept up into the mob.

Flickr photo courtesy of jj_mac

Could you create a “being space?”

April 11, 2007

A being space.

One of my favorite stores is Barnes & Noble. Yes, they have lots of books, music and movies. But what I love most about it is that it feels like I’ve been invited to hang out. Big comfortable chairs. Coffee and snacks. Did I mention the big comfortable chairs?

Well it turns out, I love Barnes & Noble because they’ve created a "Being Space."

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg first conceived of the "Being Space" in his 1990 book The Great Good Place and described it as a a place where people hang out — take it easy and "commune with friends, neighbors, and whoever else shows up." A place where you can enjoy a cup of coffee with friends, people watch, read a book or play a computer game.

Think about it. Starbucks. The Apple Store. The Laundromat where you can watch a movie while you wash. It seems like the retailers have caught on.

But what about the service industry?

Imagine this…what if clients or business friends & vendors were invited to stop by the MMG office. We happen to be right downtown. Maybe they’re in between meetings or just need a place to catch their breath.

They can grab a cup of coffee, hop on our wireless high speed internet (or use the computer in our open work station), make some phone calls or grab a book off our bookshelf.

Do you think they’d take us up on our offer? Does it say something about our brand that we’ve created a space where they could? Would it alter or intensify their opinion of us and what working with us might be like?

How about you — could you create a being space?

Does your company’s mission statement sound like this?

April 9, 2007

"We are the market leader, earning our clients’ loyalty by providing exemplary service and value.

We value honesty, innovation and our employees most of all."

If so….shame on you.

Flickr photo courtesy of slight clutter.

What to do when your client is in crisis

April 9, 2007

In most cases, our clients/customers come to us in a relatively calm state and we can react to them in our usual business manner. But what needs to shift if your client is in crisis mode?

I pondered this question this weekend, as I was a client in crisis mode. The perfect time for some marketing observation!

As many of you know, I was struck down by a kidney stone (actually 2) this weekend. If you haven’t ever had one – it is the most excruciating pain imaginable. They call it a writhing pain, because when you have one, you are in such pain, you can’t hold still. You literally writhe in agony.

I’ll give you my prognosis at the tail end of the post but for now, let’s look at what needs to shift when a client is in crisis. And yes, that’s how small a kidney stone is. Humbling to say the least.

They need you to acknowledge that they are in crisis. They want to know that you know. This is not the time for "can you hang on second" or "do you want some coffee." When I staggered into the ER hunched over, clammy and in pain, they didn’t wait to take my insurance information. They whisked me back to a room immediately.

They need to be your only priority until the crisis has passed. This isn’t the time to take another call or put them off until the next morning. They need you now. Tammy, my ER nurse, didn’t leave my side until she had the IV started and she’d administered the first dose of morphine.

They need reassurance. They want you to tell them you’re going to be at their side until it’s over. This isn’t the time to sugar coat things or say it’s going to be okay if it isn’t. But they want to know they won’t be going it alone.

They need empathy. If a client is in crisis, they’re most likely angry, scared, worried, sad or in pain. They want you to recognize that emotion in them and help them get it under control. Sheila, the attending nurse practitioner made sure I knew that she was going to be aggressive with the pain meds until I was comfortable. She wanted me out of pain as much as I did. (Well, maybe not quite as much!)

They want to see action. That’s the most reassuring element of all. They want to know you are doing something to get them out of their crisis. The whole ER team hustled me in and out of the CAT scan and got me the meds I needed quickly. When the morphine wasn’t stopping the pain, they rapidly moved up the pain meds food chain until they found one that did.

Dealing with a client who is in crisis mode is usually not pretty. They’re in full panic mode. But, if you can stay with them and get them through the crisis – you’ve earned a loyal client who will come to you in confidence, knowing you’ve seen them at their worst.

How have you dealt with clients in this frame of mind?

As for the stone saga – I’ve still got the two stones. They haven’t passed yet. Right now, they’re causing a tolerable amount of pain, so I am temporarily sprung from the hospital. The bummer about kidney stones is their unpredictability. These could pass without causing me much more pain and I could get by with the prescription meds. Or in a blink, they could send me back to the hospital. But…I know which hospital I’d go back to. Thanks to their understanding of how to deal with a client in crisis!

Who said talking back was bad?

March 31, 2007

Yesterday was a momentous day at Drew’s Marketing Minute. The milestone I have been waiting to celebrate.

1,000 comments.

One thing I learned very quickly as I entered the world of blogging is that there are A LOT of numbers.

My blog will be 7 months old tomorrow. This is my 246th post. At this moment, I have 590 blogs linking to me. Technorati says I’m #4,137. Mack’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs says I’m #7. My blogroll is about to get much bigger.

All of that matters.

But not as much as the comments. The comments are the interaction. The comments are the conversation. The comments are why I blog.

David Reich of my 2 cents posted the magic 1,000th comment on the But what if the blogger is lying post. I’ve invited David (a la Paul’s invite to Tim Jackson on his 1,000th comment) to write a guest post. I can’t wait to see what he has to say. I couldn’t ask for a more articulate, insightful blogger to invite in.

Thanks to each and every one of you who have shared a thought, an idea, a question or a link. You add the flavor and spice to this place. I am grateful to each of you. And I hope our conversations have just begun.

Aaron M. Potts, Adam Steen, Adriana, Al, Alex Bellinger, Alvin Borromeo, Amy, Andrew Clark, Andy Beard, Andy Brudtkuhl, Andy Drish, Ann Handley, ann michael, Anne Simons, Becky, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Becky-Joe, Bob Glaza, Bob LeDrew, Brett, Brett Rogers, Brian Clark, C. B. Whittemore, Cam Beck, Carolyn Manning, Char, Charles Brown, Chris Brown, Chris Cree, chris gribble, Chris Kieff, CK, Claire Celsi, Claire Walter, Connie, Copywriting Services, Cory Garrison, Craig Harper, Dan, David Armano, David Koopmans, David Reich, Dawud Miracle, Delaney Kirk, Derek Tutschulte, Designer Mike, DotMySpot, Doug Karr, Douglas Mitchell, Easton Ellsworth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Saunders, Erin Blaskie, Fran, Gavin Heaton, Hannah, Irene, Jaap Steinvoorte, Jack Hayhow, Janet Green, Jeff Morris, Jennifer Espeland, Jessica Colleen, Jim Kukral, Joan Schramm, John, Kammie K., Katie Konrath, Kevin Hillstrom, Kim Klaver, Kirsten Harrell,, Leesa Barnes, Lewis Green, Lisa, Liz Strauss, Lord Matt, Mack Collier, Madena M Burman</a >, Marie , Mario Sundar , Mario Vellandi , Mark Goren , Mark True , Mary Schmidt , Matt Dickman , Matt Hamilton , Michael Libbie , Michael Wagner , Mike , , mitch matthews , Nancy , Nick Rice , Patrick , Patrick Schaber , Paul McEnany , Phil Gerbyshak , Ray Edwards , Roberta Rosenberg , Robyn McMaster , Roger von Oech , Rosa Say , Rush Nigut , Ryan Healy , Sam Beckwith , Sandy Renshaw , Sean Carter , Sham , Sharon Sarmiento , Sherry Borzo , Simon , Stephanie Weaver , Stephen Denny , Steve Farber , Steve Harper , Steve Miller , Steve Sisler , Steve Woodruff , Susan F. Heywood , Susan Weiner , Sustainable is Good , Terry Starbucker , Tom Guarriello , Tom Vander Well , Tony D. Clark , V. Michael Santoro , Valeria Maltoni

(If I missed you, I’m very sorry. And, I could only list those who left a URL with their comment)

But what if the blogger is lying?

March 29, 2007

One of the ways that citizen marketers are really making themselves known is by sharing their consumer trials and triumphs with their blog readers.

We experience, through them, how the company does or doesn’t respond. We cheer on the wronged. We boo the corporate villains…or herald them if they’re listening and respond to fix the problem.

Here are some of the recent ones I know. And because I know these people…I know the stories they tell are true.

Kohl’s
Best Buy (this story has a happy ending!)
Papa Johns
Overstock.com (another happy ending!)

But I don’t know this blogger. And I have no idea if her story is true. But dang, it’s compelling.

Etta’s mom tells the heart-tugging story of how her daughter Etta was invited to an American Girl store (by a friend) so they could get their dolls’ hair styled. Etta brought a doll from Target and when it was her turn in line, was told by the stylist that her doll "wasn’t real" and she wouldn’t do her hair. To make Etta’s experience even worse, some of the moms in line mocked her for bringing a non-AG doll to the store.

As I write this, there are 394 comments to her post. Most of the commenters were brought to tears (you have to read the post…it really is incredibly well-written and heart breaking.) Many of them were vowing to stop shopping there and several say that they’ve called the store and demanded action.

One commenter even posted a response she got to an e-mail she sent to AG corporate. Google "American girl" Etta and you will be amazed at the number of articles, posts etc. that 12 days after the original post, are now telling the story.

Here’s my question. What if she made up the story? I am not suggesting for one minute that she did. But, I am asking "what if?"

In 12 days. Less than 1,200 words. What damage has been done?

How can/will AG recover? For how long will they be called on to respond and apologize? Will they have to train their staff on how to handle it when a customer brings it up?

We are behind the driver’s wheel of a very powerful medium. Not everyone is going to be ethical. Not everyone is going to care about anyone but themselves. Not everyone will be transparent about their motives.

How will we know?

Thanks to Brett Trout for sharing this story with me, thinking it would appeal to my fascination with branding. As you can see, it did much more than that.

Turn things upside down: How to get your customers to talk about you

March 28, 2007

Want your customers to create some buzz for you? Turn something upside down.

We find comfort in conformity. The "it always happens this way" comfort. Which is exactly why we can’t stop ourselves from talking when someone flips things on us.

Phil Romano, the founder of Romano Concepts and Eatzi’s Market & Bakery, understood this. His place was always packed on Mondays and Tuesdays, which is normally a dead night for restaurants.

How’d he do it?

On a randomly chosen Monday or Tuesday, 200+ customers received a letter instead of a bill. The letter stated that because the restaurant’s mission was to make people feel like guests – it didn’t seem right to charge them for their food. Once a month, unannounced, this happened.

He comped meals one night a month, but he had a full house eight nights a month when all the other restaurants in town were empty. And, he got all of that word of mouth advertising for free!

What could you turn upside down?

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