I’ll Get You For This Butler!

Here’s another great report from Trendwatching, the guys who highlight what’s happening and is going to happen in the fast moving world of marketing. 

It’s called Brand Butler, and puts forward the concept that forward thinking businesses are the ones focusing on assisting consumers to make the most of their daily lives, versus the old model of selling them a lifestyle if not identity.

It suggests that it’s all about providing care, convenience and control, which are the things that more and more customers are wanting, even demanding.

The report explains why it’s the businesses that recognise that ‘serving is the new selling’, are the ones who are winning and gives some great examples of organisations that are doing just that.

You can view and download the report here – I’m At Your Service, as ever!

Burger King – It’s Personal!

Here’s a great example of ‘personalisation’ from Burger King in Brazil:

Might be a bit ‘gimmicky’, but certainly causes a reaction from their customers!

What could you do to ‘get personal’?

A Quick Reminder – My Free e-Book!

I’ve had a number of  emails asking about the latest ebook. Just a quick reminder, it’s called ‘(re)thinking in 3D’  and consists of 25 short, sharp chapters that help you create a ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ Business.

It’s free and it’s here.    Feel free to download it and get ‘Thinking in 3D’!

Get IT Right Please!

I set off to see Peter Gabriel at the O2 Arena yesterday without my tickets! I just couldn’t find them anywhere, and having spent ages looking for them decided to just set off and see what I could do once I’d got there – even though it was a 3 hour plus drive.

I spent absolutely ages on the phone to Ticketmaster (hands free of course!) – never actually spoke to anyone though. All I could get was ‘automated’ answers, scripted responses, ‘dial this for this and that for that number’, ‘try this number, try that number’ – Nothing to ‘help’ me whatsoever – Aaaaggghhhh – Just give me a human being! But we drove on, hoping that we could sort something when we got there.

We arrived at the O2 and parked up (£25 to park – outrageous!!!!!!) and walked tentatively to the ticket office – Would we get in?  Have we wasted our time? Will we be ‘disappointed’? A smiling face at the ticket office greeted us, I explained our ‘predicament’ and the lady took my card details, my booking reference, asked a couple of ‘security’ questions and ‘bang’, she printed off our duplicate tickets! We’re in!

Two great examples of using IT  in the ‘customer experience’ – The former shows how to get it wrong – automated responses that don’t help the customer whatsoever. The latter, a fabulous experience that combined a friendly, helpful ‘human being’ supported by an IT system that actually enhanced the customer experience.

To ‘complete’ the experience, Peter Gabriel was outstanding — a fantastic audio and visual spectacular, performing with a full orchestra rather than his band, it was a great example of innovation in action : rather than be ‘predictable’ and ‘do what he’s always done’,  he took something that was already good, and  transformed it into something ‘outstanding’. He used the IT pretty well too!

If he can do that at 60, there’s no excuse for any of us!

Digital Marketing Can Hit The Target!

A new report from Experian Marketing Services  has identified that making more effective use of digital marketing is a key challenge for UK marketeers.

The research also says that a real benefit of digital marketing is significant improvements in the targetting of customers. However, the report suggests that many are not fully aware how to exploit this effectively.

You’re telling me! The number of emails I get telling me how I can lose weight, be better looking, get ‘bigger’ and improve my performance in bed are clearly great examples of poorly targeted marketing!

(Hey, come on….it’s friday!)

20 Ideas For Building Trust

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”

George Orwell

Building trust with customers is a fundamental principle of maximising customer relationships. Here’s an article I wrote that has been posted on the Customer Collective website that seems to have created a bit of interest. It’s called 20 Ideas For Building Trust. Simple stuff that any of us could /should do.

Would love some of your suggestions on how to build trust. Let me know what you think below – I promise I’ll ‘credit’ your ideas.

How do you know I will? Trust me, I’m a management consultant!

100 Thoughts (From A Bank!!!!!!!)

I came across this yesterday as a little booklet supplement in the Sunday Times, and it’s great! 100 Thoughts is a series of examples of ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ Businesses, and the amazing thing is it’s produced by a bank! HSBC have produced it and I think it’s a fantastic way of differentiating themselves in the market place, where, let’s be honest, perhaps expectations aren’t too high at present.

I think it’s a great example of ‘adding value’ – not ‘look at us, we’re brilliant!‘ There are some great examples in there that really help stimulate thoughts and ideas. The booklet only has the first 25 Thoughts – there are more to come and you can ‘sign up’ for them to be sent as they are published (nice way to ‘engage’ with people that!).

Anyway, do let me know what you think – and thanks HSBC, looking forward to the next 75 Thoughts…..

Don’t Just Measure It!

Here’s another quote I like. In my conference presentations and seminars I often say

‘What gets measured, gets managed’.

Here’s a better ‘enhanced’ version of that from customer loyalty ‘guru’ and author of Loyalty Rules, Frederick Reicheld:

“What gets measured creates accountability”.

What do you measure? Who’s ‘accountable’?

‘Delighted’ Customers Five Times More Likely To Rebuy!

I came across an interesting report today by Ipsos Loyalty about The Role of Customer Delight in Achieving Loyalty. Although it’s a few years old, there’s some good stuff in there that are still (even more?) relevant today.

A key point that struck me was:

‘In a Business to Business engagement, ‘delighted’ customers were FIVE TIMES more likely to plan on repurchasing than  merely satisfied customers.’

Just to reiterate, customer delight is not ‘have a nice day’. It’s about ‘exceeding customer expectations’ and doing stuff that they weren’t expecting. It appears spontaneous (you can plan ‘spontaneity’ by the way!), it produces a ‘wow’ reaction, it’s often ‘personalised’, and it makes customers feel valued. Often, it’s those little things that demonstrate you care.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start ‘delighting’ those customers – you know it makes sense!

If you’re looking for some ideas to get a real ‘customer delight’ focus, have a look at this free Compete Sheet I developed called Creating Raving Fans.

Keeping The Conversation Going

We all know that ‘word of mouth’ and ‘word of mouse’ works well, and the key is doing ‘stuff’ that gets people talking about you (in a positive way, of course!). However, it’s worth pointing out that the challenge for all of us is to ‘keep the conversation’ going.

You might have  done a brilliant job for someone six months ago, even 3 months ago, but many of us have short memories. Your challenge is not just to keep doing stuff, but letting people know that you’re still doing it. Even better, that you’re doing new stuff too!

How much of your ‘marketing’  efforts are spent on reinforcing and reintroducing your ‘dramatic difference’? And no, I don’t mean your adverts, brochures and mailshots that simply ’push’ your products and services on customers, but ‘real examples’, things that get customers to ‘notice’, and crucially tell others.

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