Uncle Sam wants you!

The other day I was on my way to a meeting in the suburbs, when I saw a most curious thing. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, so words will have to do.

On a busy intersection corner stood a person dressed in a cartoonish Uncle Sam outfit. He was waving like crazy, smiling, and otherwise physically animated. I look around for some visual clue that would explain what he was doing there at this time of the day. After several quick visual searches, I found nothing... Keep in mind that he was on the corner with a McDonald's, Walgreens, School district building, and a cemetery. The only connection I made was; death and taxes - no, tell me this is not about cemetery selling burial plots!

Well, fortunately it was not. However, I did not figure this out until another day, when traveling down the same road, but from the other direction I solved the riddle. This stunt was put on by a local independent gas station. Again, no signs or other visual clue than the gas station had chosen red,white, and blue for its color scheme (like so many others). Several interesting things about this set of observations:

1. This was a standard serve yourself station.
2. Besides the characters, there were no other indicators that something special was happening at the station.
3. No extra attendants or soda sale, or anything!

So, ask yourself, what did this independent station gain? Yes, they interrupted my thought, but did not gain attention other than my inquisitive nature.

Imagine if they applied the dollars to put a roving attendant who cleaned windshields, handed out hot coffee (it was a cold day), or just asked to help customers with anything? What would that experience have done - especially for regular customers?

You see, creating experiences does not have to be a wholesale change of the way you do business. It just means paying attention to the possibility of the impact you can have on customers. And then doing things that will remain in their memory as uniquely you...

Back to life

After a couple of trying days, The Experience Journal is back online. Thanks to extraordinary effort by Trevor at space2burn! While the technical difficulties were frustrating, Trevor always kept me up-to-date on the issues, and always brought forward solutions vs. problems. This was a great reminder for me about the elements that go into a memorable experience:

1. Expectation: Simple switch of hosting service provider - no problem and easy switch
2. Experience: Problems with DNS transfer and propagation (the reassignment of the address and the time it takes for the Internet to recognize the change).
3. Memory: Not as easy as it looks, but what tremendous service by Trevor - a real concern about a situation he did not create!

What made this experience extra taxing was the fact that I was featured in Church of the Customer blog and podcast the day of the change. This meant new visitors, and I couldn't afford to have broken links. If you have not listened to their podcast, it is one of the best - check it out, please!

This situation is resolved by shear customer service force. While this works when the situation is created by outside forces, it should not be used to compensate for operational inadequacies. As someone once said, you cannot rely upon people regularly performing super-hero feats to get the job done. Unfortunately, too many companies have become dependent upon this approach. Instead, take the opportunity to look outside-in and see what can be done to improve your customer's experience - before they are dependent upon a person in a red cape...

Thanks Trevor! Anyone looking for a great hosting partner should check out space2burn.

A brand is what you do

I always tell clients that "branding" is more about what you do than what you say. It is in essence the living persona of your company - but it is not the experience. I am often asked; "if brand is the living persona of your company, what is an experience?"

Well, I think we often make things too complicated for customers. The reality is that most customers don't know, or care to know the difference. Despite our best efforts to extract their thoughts through focus groups, customer satisfaction surveys, and on the spot interviews, we simply continue to fail in our understanding. Why?

Again, it is not that complicated. We as humans experience things - we experience sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. Our mind then catalogs those experiences and indexes them for future reference. We simply cannot isolate elements of our experience into rational thoughts, and rarely do they actually rise to the level of conscious thought - they just kind of happen. And when they do happen, they are good, bad, or neutral.

So, I define brand as the persona a company projects, and an experience as something that the customers has. See the difference?

In my simple world, the brand of a company can either be experiential or it can be graphical. Branding that does not extend into an experience simply will mean nothing to a consumer. However, a consumer's experience will remain in their memory for an indefinite period of time. Translation: If you just focus on branding, and leave experience to chance the customer will remember the haphazard experience over the expensive brand. However, if you brand your experience, you will have taken an active roll in staging an experience that you want your customers to have. Thereby, participating in the memory.

This is an ongoing topic, and I credit Kevin Briody for his post on the death of branding . So, in my opinion branding is not dead, but its definition has changed, and more importantly its role has changed.

More to come on this topic...

Kudos to Little Earth

Jackie Huba, of Church of the Customer referred to Little Earth during their March 3, 2005 podcast. She detailed a program that this company uses to get the message out about their products. The "bragtags" are pre-printed business cards, which are designed so that when someone asks you "where did you get that cool bag?" - You can simply hand them a card with all the pertinent information.

Well, Jackie made some wonderful "unsolicited" suggestions during that podcast - they were:

1. Send a thank you note
2. Provide a catalog
3. Offer a discount to someone requesting the bragtags

Days after the podcast, someone from Little Earth contacted Jackie about her suggestions indicating they would incorporate her ideas. One week after the podcast I ordered my bragtags - guess what?

1. I received a thank you note from the founders
2. I received a catalog
3. Included in the thank you note was a 10% off discount code for an online purchase
4. Personalized emails from "David" who handled my request (wow, was it nice to get something from a human being vs. an automated system).

What is amazing about this is:

1. They are paying attention to firms like Church of the Customer
2. They responded so quickly and effectively
3. They didn't try to perfect it by running it through committees!

However, a couple more adjustments, and this would be a truly remarkable experience:

1. Personalize the thank you letter
2. Upgrade the paper used - maybe even something from recycled pop culture

Can I help you? So, anyways....

Have you ever walked into the middle of a conversation, and felt like you were interrupting things? One of the people usually takes a couple seconds to respond to you in a half interested way until they return to their conversation already in progress...

How do you feel when you walk away? Well, I can tell you based upon my experience at a local OfficeMax store - like an annoyance (what a minute - I'm the customer!).

So, I come into the store looking for a certain kind of printer paper. Since I could not find the usual brand I buy, I sought help from an employee. As I approached, I realized there was a conversation occurring with someone somewhere in the store. I thought wow, this is cool, and it must be an important troubleshooting-group thought for a customer need. Nope, he was just talking with someone about after work activities.

After an awkward moment, he turns to me with a big smile on his face and says; "Can I help you?” After walking me to the correct location for the paper I was originally trying to find, he quickly returns to his conversation. "Thank you..." I say as I walk away feeling like the kid left out of the group in high school. Then I heard "...yeah, I helped him. He's gone...” Shocked, I almost spun out of my shoes - yes, big brother exists, and he is wired to the employees at OfficeMax! Probably the store manager checking in.

Now, onto the checkout lane where the young girl at the register is continuing the conversation. Once again, I sheepishly approach, placing my items on the counter. When out of nowhere I hear a barking voice "...tell him to put that bud back in his ear before I f#@!*ing rip it out...” Shocked even more, I turn to see who commanded such authority. It was non other than the store manager.

Once my transaction was completed, I started to walk out the door when the manager say's "have a great day". I thought I will now that I am leaving this dysfunctional store.

I am sure the OfficeMax would cringe at this story, and I am certain some stores are doing a good job at managing the technology as a customer tool. However, this demonstrates how you can never stop focusing on the customer's experience. This store had created its own conversation, independent of its customers. The most troubling aspect was the bold and transparent way they did this...

Some unsolicited ideas for OfficeMax:
1. Keep the technology, but provide a "helping customer" switch - this way they can cut out the chatter in the background and really help the customer.
2. Enforce strict policy on use.
3. Make sure that any and all employee policy breakers are chastised in the back office, not on the floor.
4. Offer a way for customers to find someone by adding a kiosk where they can "dial in" and ask someone to come to them. Similar to the price checking stations at many retail stores.
5. Provide employees with a live link to a centralized support team that specializes in material use, product alternatives, and even product availability.
6. Allow the employee to place an order through OfficeMax.com and ship it directly the customer’s home or office.

We only accept part of your money per order...

I received 2 Barnes & Noble gift cards for my birthday this year. So, I went online shopping today to purchase a lot of books. After proceeding to the checkout page, I was stumped by a single location to enter 2 gift card numbers...




I figured I just needed to enter the each number to debit my account (like iTunes), I was instead slapped in the face with the following note on the BN.com Gift Card FAQ page:

Gift Cards are subject to the following terms and conditions:
* Only one Gift Card may be used per online order.
* Gift Cards cannot be combined with MasterCard Rewards Certificates for any purchase.
* Balances of Gift Cards cannot be combined online with balances of other Gift Cards, Online Gift Certificates, or other Barnes & Noble.com gift certificates.
* Gift Cards cannot be used to purchase other Gift Cards or Online Gift Certificates.

Look at the 1st policy. Only 1 gift card per online order... this is beyond frustrating, it is just nonsensical. What on earth could they be thinking? What advantage could they gain through this limitation? My guess is that it is a technical limitation.

Well, I grudgingly must now go into a store to redeem my 2 Gift Cards... Oh yeah, try to find a place to send a comment on their site.... I think BN.com has a lot to learn about delivering customer experience. Next year I will ask for Amazon cards instead...

"Citizen Marketers"

Church of the Customer discussed on their recent Podcast the phenomenon of citizen marketers. Defined as a special bred of customer evangelists, this self-appointed group of individuals are tech savvy and ready to market for you - or against you! A whole new theory has sprung up around "open-source" marketing. Basically, integrating this new group of individuals into your marketing activities.

What motivates someone to spend countless hours marketing for or against your company? We believe it is the experience a customer has with your company - real, or perceived. Consider the old statistic that a customer who has a bad experience shares it with 10 people vs. those who share a good experience with 1 person. That ratio is blown out of the water by citizen marketers.

Consider George Masters' iPod Mini production. It reached millions as the wildfire spread from the Internet to mainstream media. No longer is marketing left to the hallowed halls of the agency or the marketing department. It now resides in the hands of every customer. By the way, Mr. Masters is a school teacher...

Designing experiences online, offline, in store, over the phone, via email, etc. is the core responsibility of any company. YOU CANNOT LEAVE IT TO CHANCE... Find something about your brand, product, and/or service where you can create a lasting memorable experience. Then maybe you will be the next project of Mr. Masters!

Art, peanut butter, and crackers - huh?

Creativity is abound. Proving once again that experiences are the building blocks of our life, the Smiling Goat brings us an artistic impression of The Gates in New York. Hailed as a pure experience art exhibit, The Gates attracted thousands of visitors before it was dismantled and sent for recycling.

T-shirts, tote bags, and coffee mugs are clearly short lived, but the idea and creativity is great! Hats off to Smiling Goat for seeing an opportunity, building on an experience, and thinking real-time!

Meet the Crackers
Buy Cracker Stuff

Got a minute?

Are you concerned with the current state of healthcare in our country? Me too! Not only are the prices running out of control, so is the experience. When is the last time you had an enjoyable doctor’s visit? How about a dentist?

Well who says that good old capitalism can't solve medical problems? One is striving to do so, and having moderate success. Minute Clinics of Minnesota are creating a unique and remarkable experience in places like Target. Yes, now you can have a doctor see you for common ailments.

Two days before our trip to Disney, my daughter catches the croup. Spends one evening in the hospital. The next day we were worried about a relapse. So, we took her into the local Super Target and had her seen by a doctor at the Minute Clinic. Not only did the doctor discover signs of an ear infection, but she also prescribed an antibiotic that did not require refrigeration (New ZPack for Kids) - wow, we didn't even know this existed...

So, not only did we leave with piece of mind, but we also left with a mobile prescription in hand - no doubt filled by the Super Target pharmacy.

Most pleasantly, upon return we found a Get Better Soon card in the mail addressed to our daughter, not the insurance carrier... Wow, does the broader medical community have a lot to learn from this upstart.

More to follow on Minute Clinics...
Minute Clinic's Website
Zithromax aazithromycin)