Mon Dieu! It’s The Line To the Lord!

Customer friendly organisations are ‘easy to do business with’. Even his Holiness ‘On High’ has apparently taken this message on board!  Just when you thought that call centres had taken over every part of our world, they’ve ‘moved upstairs’!

News comes of The Line To the Lord where you can confess your sins ‘virtually’! Callers are advised “For advice on confessing, press one. To confess, press two. to listen to soome confessions, press three.”

What is interesting however, is that there is a limit. Like all good customer foicused businesses, they focus on a niche market – the service will apparently only help deal with small, everyday sins.

Callers are advised to contact a priest if they wish to confess a ‘mortal sin’!

Zappos Offer Employees A Bonus ‘To Quit’!

Just finished reading Seth Godin’s latest book ‘Lynchpin’  (well, well worth a read as ever!). He highlighted a great example of a business that works extremely hard to get  (and retain) the right people that have bought in to their vision and their ‘way of doing things’ (culture).

Zappos, the incredibly successful e-tailer which has a recognized ‘obsession’ with customer service offers it’s ‘new starts’ $2,000 to quit! After an intensive four week ‘induction process’ which introduces the new employees to the company’s ‘vision’, culture and processes, each employee is made ‘The Offer’. They are told “If you quit now, we’ll pay you your wages for the past four weeks plus a $2,000 ‘bonus’”. Apparently, less than 3% typically take up the offer!

Being a ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ business is often centred very much around all the people who work in it. They have to ‘own” what your trying to do and recognise how they can contribute to it. 3D businesses do all they can to get that ‘ownership’. The Zappos ‘Offer’ is a very powerful way of getting ‘buy in’ to what you’re trying to achieve.

It means the ones that stay WANT to be there!

O Yes! Customer Delight From O2!

I called O2 business yesterday looking for some information about our mobile phone account. The guy who I dealt with was ‘exceptional’ (wish I ‘d got his name actually). He sorted things out and did it with ‘personality’ and demonstrated an interest in me. I know, you could argue, so what, that’s his job! I agree, but my expectations of ringing call centres aren’t high, so he ‘delighted’ me.

What came next was even better. Unprompted (by me anyway) he told me that he was looking at my account and I hadn’t signed up for the Free Frequent Numbers scheme that they’d got which entitles me to free land line calls to 10 numbers of my choice. That’s my supplier telling me how I could spend less and save money with them!

Some would argue that it doesn’t make commercial sense to ‘give stuff away’. I’d say that they’ve demonstrated to me that they are striving for a long term relationship and that they are not ‘taking me for granted’.

I’d also suggest that it’s a clear strategic drive to do this. Interestingly, on the O2 website they say that they recognise that the market is crowded with competitors and ‘they aim to turn their customers into fans’ – well, they’ve done that to me!

Bank On Banksy!

“I still paint grafitti because I genuinely think the side of a canal is more interesting a place to have art than a museum, and the fact of the matter is, if you exhibit in a gallery you have to compete against Rembrandt, but if you paint down an alley you only have to compete against a dustbin. I guess it’s the art equivalent of hanging around with fat people to make yourself look thin.”

That’s a quote from graffiti artist Banksy and I think he’s a great example of ‘Thinking in 3D’. He and his work really is ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’. His ‘alternative’ approach provides a great lesson for anyone looking to make their business stand out – He chooses who and how he competes against.

3D businesses ‘choose ‘em or lose ‘em’ – that means they make a conscious decision to choose the customers that they WANT to work with, and the competitors they want to compete against. Sometimes that means providing a radical alternative to the existing ‘provision’, and not necessarily taking the big competitors ‘head on’. It is certainly not about being ‘all things to all people’ and it’s definitely not being ‘the same as’.

I wouldn’t consider my self an ‘art lover’, but I’m fascinated by his work – and that’s the point. Banksy has reached different ‘customers’ with his approach, and he’s certainly not afraid to ’stand out’ doing it!

If you’re interested in finding out  a bit more about him, have a look at this article from The Times Online.

Conjoined Creatives? Now, That IS ‘Dramatically Different’!

“Once in a lifetime offer! Two young creatives, conjoined in body and soul are selling their wares for one lucky creative director. It could be you. Treat yourself to these little gems and see your business flourish.”

Being ‘Dramatically Different’ isn’t just limited to businesses as a way of standing out – it works for individuals too. Here’s a nice story of two women who have put themselves up for auction on ebay as a way to develop their careers in creative advertising. Amy Jackson and Hollie Belton have been working in advertising on a ‘placement year’ and are now looking for ‘fulltime employment’. They are appealing to Creative Directors in advertising agencies by auctioning themselves off to the highest bidder!

They’re doing something (even if it is a bit ‘gimmicky’) to ’stand out from the crowd’.  I’m sure some people will be ‘horrified’ at their ‘upfrontness’! I applaud it. I also work on the view, that those that don’t like it are unlikely to be ideal employers for these girls.  

That’s the same in ‘business’ – I talk about ‘choose ‘em or lose ‘em’ when it comes to targetting customers – it’s difficult (impossible?) to be all things to all people.

In other words, be ‘Dramatically Different’ in a way that appeals to your target audience – don’t worry about the rest!

 

Dramatic Difference? It’s Child’s Play!

I just had to put this up! It’s ’stolen with pride’ from my IT partner Andrew Seaton of Resolve IT Solutions. It’s a brilliant example of being ‘Dramatically Different’ in something that we all definitely see as being ‘the same as….’

It’s the ’safety video’ on Thomson Airlines. I’m sure it will ‘engage’, even ‘charm’ you:

South West Airlines have for years encouraged their staff to be ‘Dramatically Different’, and here’s an example of one of them doing just that!

I do remember flying on Easyjet when the steward told us during his ’safety bit’ that it was non- smoking and ‘the only fags allowed on this flight are crew members’. It made everyone smile and helped build some lovely ‘rapport’.

These are all ‘little things’, but usually it’s those ‘little things’, often nothing to do with the ‘core’ product or service, that make that difference!

Are You ‘COMPLETELY’ Happy? It’s A Tough Question!

I was asked yesterday about customer feedback questions to get a feel for what they think about your service. Customer feedback is critical to maintaining and improving competitiveness. Unfortunately, I think far too many businesses don’t (or daren’t) ask the ‘tough’ questions.

I think you should avoid the ‘tick boxes’ and ’score out of 10′ questions and ask:

“Were you COMPLETELY happy with our service?” with a YES / NO answer and a follow up ‘Why / Why Not?’

Here are a few more follow up questions worth considering.  My personal view is that they should ’stretch’ customers to commit to answers, so things like:

• Was there anything / anyone that particularly ‘impressed’ you about our service?
• Was there anything / anyone that particularly ‘disappointed’ you about our service?
• If we could improve just one thing what should it be?
• Please sum up our business / service in just a few words.

The idea is to ‘provoke’ people to give an answer. For example, there is an arguement that if they don’t give an answer for the first or second questions, then things are ‘ok’, but as you know ‘ok’ is not the stuff that people tell others about. It’s not a ‘bad’ rating, but it’s not exceptional or ‘dramatically different’!

They are tough questions, but we are in ‘tough times’!

What questions do you ask?

Warming To The Idea of ‘Personalisation’

Discussing the ‘customer delight’ idea of ‘human bed warmers’ at the Kensington Holiday Inn (see previous blog), a friend who has a Range Rover (although I don’t hold that against him!) explained to me that he can pre-time his in car heating system to warm it up before he gets in! Very nice, especially in all these recent ‘wintery mornings’!

I just thought it was a great, simple example of building in ‘personalisation’ into the core offer. I don’t suppose that many people buy a big luxury car just because you can heat the seats up before you set off, but it’s one of those little things that

a) is ‘dramatically different’

b) (I suspect) relatively ‘cheap’ in the overall costs

c) helps customers ‘tailor’ the product to their needs

In the world of huge choice and ’same as’, ‘personalisation’ is a great way to ‘differentiate’ your business, your products and your services and create ‘delighted’ customers.

Thinking Allowed!

I saw a sign on the wall at a client’s office recently that said ‘Thinking Allowed’!  I love that! In so many businesses it simply isn’t. People are ‘encouraged’ to be ‘busy’, even worse ‘being seen to be busy’. What do you do to allow, even ‘encourage’ ‘thinking’ in your business?

Simple things – is there time ‘allowed’ in meetings? Is it on the agenda? Are individuals ‘allowed’ to spend time not just doing the ‘day to day’? And when I talk about individuals, I don’t just mean your senior managers and leaders. What about your ‘front line’ staff, the people who ‘do’ stuff day after day. Why not give them some short amounts of time to ‘think’? You may be quite amazed at what they come up with!

How about yourself? Do you create time for yourself to ‘think’?

So, go on, ‘think’ about it, and then (and this is the critical bit), DO something about it!

Demonstrate You Care For Only 20p A Time!

Ecclesall Road in Sheffield is a busy retail street with lots of great independent retailers and is a major thoroughfare in and out of the city. As a result, parking is always a bit tricky. The City Council has introduced a charge to park in and around the area – not much, just 20p which I can’t imaging puts that many people off.

Mookau, one of the very distinct independent retailers there that sells gifts and homeware has introduced a nice little touch. Walk in to the shop and they’ll give you your 20p back! You don’t even have to buy anything! I often suggest that being ‘easy to buy from’ is one of the first principles of customer care.

This is a great example of not just ’being easy to buy from’, but actually demonstrating it to existing and potential customers!

Of course, you’re not going to dash to Mookau just for 20p, but

a) you now know that they’re thinking about their customers, and

b) like me, you might just tell others about that too.

What do you do to demonstrate you care about your customers?

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