Church of the Customer: August 2005 archives
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August 31, 2005
The right intention but...
The wrong goal.
What does "complete satisfaction" mean? Hard to say. Depending upon the customer, and his problems and needs, the answer could be based on any number of variables.
In other words, it depends on what you mean by satisfaction. And complete.
A better, and more impactful internal and external slogan for this company: "Our goal: A referral from you."
August 30, 2005
Word of mouse: TechSmith
SnagIt is one of my top 10 frequently used programs. I use it at least 3-4 times per week to capture screenshots.
The company behind this ubiquitous program, TechSmith, is now blogging and demonstrating how to use its other products like Camtasia to do screencasts, which can bring dry product manuals to life and keep them up to date via the web. Chief Evangelist Betsy Weber (that's her real title), the company's blog-based master of ceremonies, is Scobelizing herself as a behind-the-scenes customer advocate.
A good avenue for B2B companies to explore.
August 24, 2005
Name this panda
Nice backstage-pass work by the Smithsonian's National Zoo to present its new baby giant panda cub, the first in the zoo's history, to the world outside the zoo's gates in Washington, D.C.
First, it established a live, streaming pandacam; I find myself checking it every day. Now the zoo is asking the world to choose the cub's name from a list of five contenders. This is probably more efficient than what many human parents endure.
My vote was for Qiang Qiang (chee-ONG chee-ONG), meaning "strong, powerful."
A perfect fit for Washington.
How to write a buzzworthy FAQ
August 23, 2005
Better than a focus group
Slate, one of my favorite zines, is actively engaging readers in its future redesign. A solid example of leading customers toward product/brand ownership.
If Slate's editors share the results of its qualitative data and show how reader input affected decision-making during the redesign process (rather than after the finished product arrives), that could easily be a new level of transparency for an established media outlet.
Marketing and profit vs. the public good
That's what it comes down to in an illuminating 3-part series the Chicago Tribune wrapped up today. It focuses on the simple, 53-calorie Oreo cookie as a bellwether for the trillion-dollar food industry: How much responsibility does a company owe to its shareholders vs. the overall public good? And do further limits need to be imposed on marketing to children?
With a level compass, the Trib expertly navigates Kraft's desire to make the Oreo a "billion-dollar cookie" and how it spent hundreds of millions of marketing dollars the past 10 years to weave the Oreo into every nook of the lives of children.
While doing that, the obesity rates of American children skyrocketed.
"Sweet tastes make the brain go wild," the Trib quotes one food scientist. We are hard-wired for sweets. Even bacteria swim toward sugar. For a child then, how is free choice even an option?
Some economists like Milton Friedman argue that companies have no business in contributing toward the public good, only toward profits. Friedman's intellect and powers of reasoning are exemplary, but the same can't be said for children. An 8-year-old can hardly be expected to make a reasoned decision that weekly gorging on potentially addictive, calorie-laden food from school vending machines will contribute significantly to her future obesity. That hard-wired purchase decision will, certainly, contribute toward a company's profits.
The free-enterprise argument loses steam as childhood obesity leads to adult obesity, which leads to higher health care costs and lost productivity, which makes us less competitive in the global marketplace. Food companies have, at the very least, an obligation to altogether stop marketing their arguably addictive foods to children for the sake of our collective strategic future.
The Tribune's series is a must-read business case study for anyone involved in the intersection of food, marketing and the public good.
UPDATE: A report (PDF) out today says that the entire nation is getting fatter, except for Oregon; 22.7% of all Americans are now considered obese, up from a previous measure of 22%.
Customer evangelism webinar
Want your colleague, boss, or client to get on board with customer evangelism? Perhaps a forthcoming (and free) online seminar might help.
Next month, Ben and I will present an overview of the six tenets of customer evangelism along with example companies. Here are the details:
What: Microsoft Leadership Forum (via Live Meeting)
Date: September 22, 2005
Time: Noon - 1 p.m. EDT
Click here for more information and to register.
Hello Joe, talk to the hand
Pete Blackshaw scripts an insightful mock conversation between a call center representative and a customer evangelist. The conversation may be fake but the links to company web pages are real. It shows how some companies say they want to hear from customers, but not really.
August 22, 2005
Permission spamming
The Wall Street Journal tells us (subscription req'd) that during a recent two-week test in London, 87,000 people with Bluetooth-enabled cell phones were spammed with messages at Heathrow Airport, asking recipients if they wanted to download a video commercial. Of that group, 13,000 agreed to download (a 15% conversion rate).
"I think it's done very well because it enables the customers [to choose]. It doesn't force it on them," says Charles Vine, manager of Virgin Atlantic's airport lounges, which have been testing the system for the past two months.
The "choice" argument is spurious because an unanticipated marketing inquiry on your cellphone is still an intrusion, akin to an opt-out pig gussied up in pretty lipstick.
Although the groups behind the effort -- Maiden Group and Filter UK -- say a "no" response will prevent further intrusions, it will only be for a particular campaign.
Let's extend this rather unfortunate idea into a nightmare scenario:
A dozen different transmitters at airports, coffee houses, train platforms, movie theaters... each of them beaming millions yes/no inquiries to unwitting recipients, asking them if they would like to download a commercial. Rushing through an airport, your Treo 650 is now a magnet for digital panhandlers, except the panhandlers are wealthy corporations. Other transmitters skirt unwritten rules by sending videos anyway because a "no" response was not received within 15 seconds.
Granted, some people want to receive cellphone marketing from their favorite companies, bands or god forbid, authors, so the answer seems straightforward: Cellphones are not free, so all marketing directed toward them -- including initial yes/no inquires -- must be initiated by the cellphone user, not a marketing conglomerate.
Anything else is simply spam.
August 21, 2005
Monkfish and fresh Whoppers, please
We're no fans of today's movie-going experience (as we've said here and here). From an insulting overabundance of pre-movie advertising, to the stereotypical surly concession worker and a patronizing selection of films, it seems we're not alone amidst a third-consecutive year of declining attendance.
Some entrepreneurial-minded smaller theater operators in Florida are trying to innovate their way out of this mess, a solution that's surely generating waves of word of mouth, as described by this New York Times story:
Moviegoers by the hundreds were keeping the valet parkers busy, pulling into the porte-cochere beneath the enormous chandelier-style lamps. Entering the capacious lobby, some of them dropped off their small children in a supervised playroom and proceeded to a vast concession stand for a quick meal of pizza or popcorn shrimp before the show.
Others, who had arrived early for their screening of, say, "Wedding Crashers" of "The Dukes of Hazzard" -- their reserved-seat tickets, ordered online and printed out at home, in hand -- entered through a separate door. They paid $18 -- twice the regular ticket price (though it included free popcorn and valet service) -- and took an escalator upstairs to the bar and restaurant, where the monkfish was excellent and no one under 21 was allowed.
Those who didn't want a whole dinner, or arrived too late for a sit-down meal, lined up at the special concession stand, where the menu included shrimp cocktail and sushi and half bottles of white zinfandel and pinot noir. As it got close to curtain time, they took their food and drink into one of the adjoining six theater balconies, all with plush wide seats and small tables with sunken cup holders. During the film, the most irritating sound was the clink of ice in real glasses.
Compared to the stale Whoppers I had Friday night while seeing "Wedding Crashers," this sounds like an experience well worth talking about.
