What’s The Big Idea?

A lovely quote to finish the week off (or start it on if you’ve been off for half term!). It’s from Seth Godin:

“Big ideas are little ideas that no one killed  too soon”

As ever from Seth, it’s simple stuff. Two questions: 

• What do you do to get those little ideas going with your people?
• Are you ever guilty of ‘killing them too soon’?

Remember, simply ignoring them could be the equivalent of killing them.

A Fresh Approach To Social Media

The ‘new’ world of social media is exciting for many, and a bit scary for others. The danger for the latter is that they ignore it or that they ‘play’ at it. Potentially for many (all?) of us, it’s a massive opportunity – the challenge is to find ways to maximise this opportunity.   

I do remember coming back from a Fast Company Conference in San Diego California 11 years ago this month all excited and enthusiastic shouting ‘We’ve GOT to have a website!!’. No real idea why, but everyone in the US was getting them, and it seemed like the right thing to do. I’m sure that down the years previously people have run into their offices and shouted enthusuastically to their colleagues ‘We must have an advert on TV!’ or ‘We’ve got to get a brochure!’

Perhaps, that’s what’s happening in many businesses today about social media. Anybody come dashing into your office exclaiming ‘We just so need to ‘Twitter’”?

Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. The challenge as with any marketing channel and activity is to establish:

• What do we want it to do for us?

I also think it might be well worth finding out before that

• What can it do for us (if we get it right)?

These articles on Getting Started in Social Media by Social Media expert Matt Rhodes and his team at Fresh Networks are well worth looking at. They provide a useful framework and some good ideas. Importantly, I feel, they get you to consider some key questions about  what you want and need to do before you actually get started.

Have a look – it’s good practical and stimulating stuff.

Are You Dealing With Your ‘Little Ones’?

Here are two lovely examples of  ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ business cards (courtesy of the Holy Kaw website). Obviously, I’ve no experience of the latter’s services (honest), but they do ‘stand out’ and suggest a forward thinking approach.

We all know that your logo isn’t your brand and your business card is not generally the thing on which buying decisions are made.

However, it can, and does, contribute to the overall ‘customer experience’ – and generally, because it tends to be given at the beginning of the ‘experience’ can make an impact (and raise expectations).

It’s a great example of the ‘little things’ that can make a difference. As ever, it’s worth pointing out that everything that your customer (or prospective customer) experiences can do one of three things:

1. - Positively reinforce your brand
2. - Negatively reinforce your brand
3. - Be ‘neutral’ – Does nothing

The challenge for us all is that as a minimum, we need to eliminate all the ‘negatives’ and then work on ways to create more ‘positives’, no matter how small.

Remember, lots of those little ‘positives’ can all add up and create that ’1+1+1=10′ impact!

Where are your little ’1′s?

What can you do to make them ‘add up’?

Entrepreneurs’ Forum Property Portfolio Panel Event

 

Andy has been asked to facilitate a refreshing and upbeat panel event which will examine the current property climate – a topical issue affecting many of us today. Three of the North East’s most distinguished property entrepreneurs will share their knowledge, experiences and stories with you.

Click here for more info

On The Button!

Absolutely brilliant to see Jenson Button become World Formula 1 champion yesterday. Just a really quick point. I loved the fact that he emphasised ‘WE are the new World Champions’.

A simple, but clear message that it was a team effort. Can’t help thinking that a lot of senior business leaders could learn a lot from that – he certainly ‘hit the button’ on that one! (sorry, always wanted to be a headline writer for the Sun!)

Brand New World? Same Old Story

A great new survey of UK online customers carried out on behalf of Tealeaf Technology by Harris Interactive has revealed that some things never change.

The key issues of customer service and customer experience are still critical when it comes to winning and keeping customers in the ‘online world’.

Of the UK customers surveyed:

77% have experienced an issue while conducting transactions online and 83% felt frustrated or angry when they experienced such a problem. Crucially, 78% share their experience with others.

This is where it gets really interesting:

51% of customers said Social Media has influenced their online transactions and 74% said negative comments read online have an influence on whether they will do business with a particular business.  

What does this mean in ‘real life’?

56% of people avoided a particular vendor after reading bad news, and crucially 52% used a particular vendor after reading good reviews.

 In other words, customers still get frustrated when they get bad service, and tell lots of other people. As ever ’Word of Mouth’, and of course, ‘Word of Mouse’ has a real influence in our purchasing decisions. ‘Good’ works well for us, ‘bad’ clearly doesn’t!

 In fact, it’s quite clear that things haven’t really changed apart from the fact that they appear even more critical now as it’s easier to spread the word – good and bad. So the principles that I regularly ‘rant’ about still apply:

• Be easy to deal with and buy from
• Go the extra mile to delight your customers
• Do it consistently to create devoted customers
• Do stuff that’s ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ – stuff worth talking about (‘good’ stuff please!)

and I’d really emphasise this one

• Encourage your delighted and devoted customers to ‘spread that word’.

 In many cases all it takes is the click of a button! 

By the way, you can download the report here – it’s well worth a read. (That’s what you call positive ‘word of mouse’ by the way!)

Asda Breaking Off The ‘Engagement’?

Last week I highlighted and applauded Asda’s initiatives at ‘engaging’ their customers which were announced by CEO Andy Bond. They received a lot of recognition and publicity for their efforts.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that it was as quite as much as they did for the shopper who’s 14 year old son wasn’t allowed to carry her heavier shopping bag because it had a bottle of wine in it!

Mum Gill Power- Forward was informed by the cashier at Asda in Canford Heath, Dorset that she had to carry the bag herself because her son might drink the wine!

Asda have apologised, and I’m sure that somewhere ‘it’s in the rules’.

Again, it’s a great example of ‘the little things’ doing two things: they get ‘recognised’ and they get ‘talked about’ – whether they are positive or negative. All the initiaitives and press launches in the world struggle to ‘compete’ with these. (which is obviously ‘good news’ or ‘bad news’ if they’re talking about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ stuff!)

I’m not having a go at Asda, and I’m sure that ‘these things happen’. If nothing else, this highlights the challenge that when embarking on an initiative for ’engaging’ customers it is absolutely essestial to ‘engage’ all your people too!

National Customer Service Week EVERY Week Please!

Know why you’re feeling so good as we get to the end of this week? It’s no doubt becasue you’ve hopefully been benefiting from National Customer Service Week! All those extra smiles, staff going the extra mile to ‘delight you’ and that super quick response to your problem – have you noticed them? No?

Hey, I’m not knocking the initiative whatsoever – I applaud anyone trying to improve customer service, and I’m sure that it’s a great way of getting some customer focus in the business. I guess my message is that EVERY week needs to be Customer Service Week, and that means getting everyone in your business to recognise this every day.

So, looking at NEXT Week, what could you do on Monday to get customers (back?) on the agenda, and the week after and of course, the week after that?

It’s about taking ACTION. Have a go, do SOMETHING good for a customer of yours – and get your people to do the same.

If you don’t get on with it, you might find yourself involved in the first ever National Complaints Day  that takes place on November 13th (Seriously!).

Added Bit:

There clearly are some businesses commiting to this, which is great news – keep it up!

£15.3 Billion Lost Due To Poor Customer Service

Poor customer service is costing UK businesses £15.3 BILLION!!!!!!

That’s according to a new report called ‘The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience’  which was sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories. The survey suggests that 73% of consumers ended a relationship due to poor service and that the root causes are:

• Having to repeat information (that’s ‘having to repeat information’ (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
• Feeling trapped in automated self – service
• Having to wait too long
• Interacting with staff who have no knowledge of the service history (or customer value)
• Unable to easily switch between communication channels

Customers were also asked to identify the factors that make the biggest difference in improving satisfaction levels, and the result appears to be that satisfaction increases when companies meet four key needs:

• Competency
• Convenience
• Proactive engagement
• Personalisation

You could argue that there’s nothing new there, and that might be true, but if it’s costing £15.3 billion a year then it could be it’s definitely worth repeating and reinforcing regularly. It might also be worth taking a bit of time out and looking at your own business ‘objectively’.

So, why not have a look at these key questions and consider how you measure up? Rate yourself out of 10 against each question and importantly, identify what you need to do about it. Why not get your colleagues to do it too, and get this stuff ‘on the agenda’:

1. How ‘competent’ are our people?
2. How well do they know their stuff?
3. How good are we at ‘demonstrating’ that to our customers?
4. How easy are we to buy from and deal with?
5. How effective are we at ‘proactively’ engaging with our customers?
6. How do we encourage ‘engagement’ with our customers?
7. How good are we at doing it in a way that works for our customers, not the way that’s easiest for us?
8. How good are we at ’peronalising’ things for our customers?
9. How effective are we at making customers ‘feel’ that it’s personalised?
10. How do we know the real answers to these questions?

The reason I’ve put these questions together is that a lot of us will read those 4 factors ‘Competency’, ‘Convenience’, ‘Proactive Engagement’ and ‘Personalisation’ and nod in agreement, and say ‘Yes Andy, that all makes sense’.

The challenge is not just about agreeing with those four things, it’s not even about doing those four things. It’s about ensuring that your customers are aware that you’re doing them!

(And finally, a quick hint: Answer to question 10: Find out what your customers say!).

BA Thinks in ’3D’ – And It’s ‘Airmiles’ Better!

This is our sister in law Alejandra enjoying a ’3D’ experience! By the time you see it she may have got a little further down her glass of champagne, but if you see this before 7pm UK time she’ll still be airbound on her way to New York. Her and husband Jonathan are trying out the new BA innovation-packed service from London to New York — an exclusive plane with just 32 flatbed seats, on-board mobile-phone technology and a special sneaky “back door” route past US Immigration. That really is Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’!

Because the plane flies out of London City airport – it can’t be fuelled sufficiently to get across the Atlantic – cue a quick stop over in Shannon, Ireland. An inconvenience? Surely sophisticated travelers like Jonathan and Ali don’t like that – well it probably could be…except that..they use the stop to clear US customs and immigration. How clever! Last time we were there it added almost 2 hours to our journey – just queuing at JFK!

Because you can email onboard, we’ve heard from them back aboard, all cleared and sorted, awaiting their personal  hard-disk digital players, (hand delivered by individual cabin staff of course), and lunch. Of course it’s not any lunch – it’s a special menu put together by an acclaimed London restaurant. And then no doubt they will sleep, proper sleep – after all they have got state of the art flat beds, and there are only 32 of them on the whole plane.

So are Jonathan and Alejandra hedge funders, city bankers, big bonus earners? Well, no actually – Ali is pregnant, they’re frequent travelers, live in central London, value their time and like trying new things! They also hate queues and hanging around at customs – record transfer time so far from seat to kerbside on arrival at JFK is apparently only seven minutes! It’s BA recognising that for some customers there’s such a thing as ‘Value for time’!  

And for that – they’re happy to pay a price premium for a ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ experience! 

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