Church of the Customer: November 2003 archives

« October 2003 | Main | December 2003 »

November 26, 2003

How to get true believers involved

Want to get your most passionate and talented members of your customer community to show, literally, what they believe? Ask them to create a video.

The MoveOn.org Voter Fund recently launched a political advertising contest asking its "customers" (those who would like to see someone other than Bush in the White House) to create a 30-second political ad. Move On has employed celebrity judges including Jack Black, Margaret Cho, Michael Moore and others to pick the winners, which will be broadcast on national TV in early 2004.

The proliferation of easy-to-use and inexpensive desktop video editing programs (I'm playing with the $99 Pinnacle Studio 8 and like it a lot) makes it very easy for customers to document their passion for your product, service or cause. In the customer evangelism model, it's the trusted word of customers that becomes the most effective marketing vehicle for high-octane, grassroots growth.

Does your company have a "show your love" customer video campaign or contest? If so, email me at ben AT customerevangelists DOT COM. In a future blog entry, newsletter or MarketingProfs.com column, perhaps we'll feature organizations that have their own "show us your love" video programs.

Posted by Ben McConnell on November 26, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 25, 2003

The customer vigilante files

A customer vigilante is someone driven to upset your business life. At some point your relationship with the customer crossed a line from dissatisfaction to outrage.

The anger that many customer vigilantes feel is palpable. Some will spend days, weeks or months to ensure the rest of the world understands the depth of their frustration. Why? Typically, it's a combination of three reasons:

* Lack of an apology or a sympathetic ear from the business in question.
* Slow or non-existent response to problem resolution.
* Pent-up stress from the problem.

Here are three recent examples of customer vigilantes in action:

1. The spam rager.
Charles Booher is a Silicon Valley programmer who's had it with spam. He allegedly threatened to do nasty things to a company that sent him bundles of unwanted email. With the tide of spam threatening to ruin the viability of email more every day, the frustration that Booher feels is hardly anomalous.

2. The iPod poster.
This short film documents the work of an Apple customer and his one-man guerilla campaign to spray-paint warnings on iPod posters all over a city that looks to be New York. The customer was upset that Apple wanted to charge him $250 to replace a worn-out, unreplaceable internal battery on his 18-month-old iPod.

3. VW schaudenfreude.
A customer of an Illinois Volkswagen dealership was so upset at the treatment she received as a purchaser of a pre-owned Jetta and how the dealer allegedly refused to honor its warranty that she created an elaborate website detailing her story and her efforts to get satisfaction.

What can companies learn from these examples?

1. The democratization of technology makes it incredibly easy for a very upset customer to broadcast his and her displeasure. Never discount the ability of a customer to think creatively about their anger.

2. Buzz about a particularly bad customer experience can spread quickly and easily across the Internet, faster than is possible to imagine. With the growing influence of bloggers who cross-link to one another within days or hours, it can become rather impossible to erase the tracks of a bad customer experience.

3. More than anything, customer vigilantes want to be acknowledged and heard. A company that makes a genuine effort to satisfy a customer who has gone to elaborate and creative lengths like the ones above may be convinced to redeploy their energies toward singing your praises.

Posted by Ben McConnell on November 25, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 24, 2003

Krispy Kreme racks 'em up

Krispy Kreme, one of our case-study companies in Creating Customer Evangelists, continues to grow sales and profits, a feat not easily managed by a company in the fast lane. The doughnut maker posted a 43% jump in 2003 third-quarter profits with net income of $14.5 million. Revenue was up 31%.

A future roadsign of success for any retail-based operation is what's called comps, or sales at stores compared to year-ago quarters. Systemwide, Krispy Kreme's comps are up 9.5% while comps at company-owned stores are up 13%. Most restaurants and retailers are ecstatic with 4-5% comps.

Krispy Kreme's success at the store level begins months before its opening, and we'll share some of the company's magic formula for its high-profile store launches in an upcoming newsletter. If you're not already a subscriber to our free newsletter, you can subscribe here.

Posted by Ben McConnell on November 24, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 21, 2003

Where's the B2B Do Not Call List?

It happened again. An annoying call from a telemarketer.

Keelan from AccuTax began his pitch by saying, "This is not a sales call."

He offered to send an AccuTax representative to help us look for overpaid taxes on previous years' returns and see what kind of big-money refund we could get. This review would be free. What a deal.

I asked Keelan how this was not a sales call and wasn't a violation of the national Do Not Call registry for which I am registered. He said my number "just showed up on my computer screen, and I don't know nothing about the do not call list." Besides, he had just started this job two days ago. He referred me to his supervisor, "Mr. Blake."

Mr. Blake told me this was a business-to-business call and enjoyed protection from the Do Not Call registry. Plus, he assured me, information about our business is readily available from Dunn & Bradstreet and a multitude of other spam sources.

Attention AccuTax and all businesses selling to small businesses: Outbound telemarketing has ceased to be a viable marketing program, no matter if your conversion rate is 10 percent or 1 percent. Why? Because you raise the ire of 90-99 percent of everyone who says no.

Your hired-gun telemarketing firm is more likely to create vigilantes who will make it their business to put you out of business than you are to create loyal and happy customers. There's a reason the world has turned against interruption marketing: It's wrong. Marketers who hire telemarketing firms are the equivalent of an evil spammer peddling Levitra and phone cards via email.

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 21, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (3)

November 20, 2003

Creating an edge with good design

For companies with massively sized competitors, incorporating good design into all aspects of the customer experience is a distinct competitive advantage. For Apple, which has to compete with Microsoft and Dell in software and hardware, Apple continually wins the niche categories by trouncing them with outstanding design.

Good design is how tiny, San Francisco-based Method is taking on the kingpins of consumer-products marketing: P&G and Unilever. Method creates cool-looking home cleaning products, plus they're using a customer evangelism approach to spread the word.

Method customer Stacey Wagoner of Chicago stumbled across Method dishwashing soap in June 2002. She loved the slick upside-down translucent bottle with the sweet smelling soap so much she wrote the company. In turn, Method sent her an enthusiastic thank you note with coupons for free bottles. It encouraged her to spread the word. She gave a bottle of Method to us.

A little more than a year later, the company is doing $10 million in sales and has Target as a channel. Is Method going to take over P&G's dominant position on store shelves? No, but P&G and Unilever have $10 million less in sales because a bottle of Dawn just isn't as cool as Method.

For marketers going up against the titans in your industry, design matters.

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 20, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Howard Dean: Turning Supporters into Evangelists

Much has been written about Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's unconventional campaign. He's using the Internet and the open source model to rally people, raise money and spread the word.

Now, an excellent eWeek article outlines some of the strategies and tactics of Dean's success and how technology is a linchpin to the campaign's ability to grow, not implode. As the article makes clear, to succeed from a grassroots level (meaning, you don't already own the market), you must give a large portion of control to the community.

Many of the campaign's principles are based on grassroots theories of marketing and technology:

* Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger, which explores the role of individuals connected by the Internet

* The Cluetrain Manifesto by Weinberger, Doc Searls, and Christopher Locke, which discusses the way markets work in the online world

* Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold, which outlines the growing trend of instant communities via technology, especially cellphones

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 20, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 10, 2003

Krispy Kreme Mania

On October 27, we traveled a few hours south to witness the mania that is a Krispy Kreme store opening.

It was cold and rainy at 5 a.m. in Mishawaka, Indiana, but that didn't deter about 75 people from gathering for the opening of a new store about two miles from the campus of Notre Dame University.

The assembled throng stood behind Rob Perugini. For 17 days, Perugini was the David Blaine of Indiana, camping in a tent at the front door to claim first-in-line privileges. During that time, he faced cold weather, high winds and curious onlookers. He was the subject of local and national media coverage, hoping to break the previous camping-out record by four days.

Why?

Because Krispy Kreme has expertly marketed its store openings as events worthy of wild customer devotion. In Mishawaka, the company and its PR partner, Villing, spent weeks planning the store launch around events and promotions, including:

- Giving away doughnuts at high school football games
- Sponsoring a study break for Notre Dame students
- Giving doughnuts to businesses all over town
- Providing doughnuts to radio stations for giveaways
- Pledging donataions to a local homeless shelter for each dozen purchased
- Inviting a local high school marching band to play
- Cheering Rob Perugini on in his quest
- The list of tactics goes on, literally, for pages

It's a grassroots, buzz-building strategy. And, per Krispy Kreme's usual approach, the company did not purchase any ads, although there were 12 media outlets at the opening. It's a model many businesses can learn from.

The keys:

- Immerse yourself deeply in the community
- Work with a PR partner with deep community roots
- Support a good cause
- Provide overwhelming opportunities to try your product for fr*e
- Make it fun

Belive it or not: Between the two of us, we only had one doughnut all day. But we did inhale alot of calories, if that's possible.

Take a look at Rob Perugini and his tent, plus other pictures from the Indiana opening, here.

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 10, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

November 07, 2003

Be yourself and build the buzz

Lynne Marie Parson forwarded an email from a friend about funky online CD retailer CD Baby. As the following email demonstrates, being quirky, personable and authentic are key to creating emotional relationships with customers, which certainly helps spread buzz.

From: Tess
Date: Mon Nov 3, 2003 3:42:38 PM
To: xxxxx@xxx.com
Subject: Teresa - Your CD Baby Order!

I can't help it! I love the e-mails these guys send when you place an order with them! It's almost enough to make me want to shop through them more often!

Tess

------- Original message --------------
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 14:55:38 -0800
From: CD Baby loves Teresa
Subject: Teresa - Your CD Baby Order!
To: xxxx@xx.com

Teresa -

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Thursday, November 6th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby

Derek isn't just putting on an act. Take a look at the people who work at CD Baby.

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 07, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

November 06, 2003

Church of Apple

Apple Computer's introduction of iTunes for Windows was classic Apple marketing.

CEO Steve Jobs, clad in his standard uniform of jeans, black mock turtleneck and sneakers, hosted the launch party at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and I watched the webcast in my jammies, eating breakfast at the computer (a Dell).

Jobs is the quintessential evangelist. A seasoned company leader and communicator (at least to the outside world), Jobs expertly updated the assembled faithful on Apple's PowerBooks and the iPod, and now, iTunes. His introduction was preceded by earlier predictions that a Windows version of iTunes would arrive when "hell froze over." Hoping to defuse claims of bowing to Microsoft, Jobs gave everyone at a Windows iTunes "Hell Froze Over" poster.

Further proving his showbiz prowess, Jobs launched Apple's iChat (video instant messaging service) to chat with Bono of U2 in Ireland, then with Dr. Dre in Los Angeles, and back across the Atlantic for a funny tete-a-tete with Mick Jagger. It was great live theater.

As a performer, Jobs could probably use some coaching to avoid his over-reliance on "just great" as a feature benefit; calling the still-new iTunes "the best Windows application in the world" is hyperbole at best. But in the business arena, there's little dispute that Steve Jobs is a rock star.

(Thanks to Steve Neiderhauser for the impetus to blog about Apple's iTunes marketing.)

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 06, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Viral Marketing with a Cause

Meet the The Meatrix (Make sure your speakers are turned up.)

Posted by Jackie Huba on November 06, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

---

Our books