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September 16, 2008
Why customer rituals work
You may know I'm something of a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
Every city I've called home, and many I've only visited, has had a bar where Steelers fans gather to watch our beloved team crush its unworthy competitors. (OK, I get a bit rambunctious when it comes to football.) Here in my relatively new home of Austin, I was happy to find a bar nominating itself as the local headquarters for Steelers fans.
The reality is, it's an OK place. There's one, lineman-sized difference between the Austin bar and the bar in Chicago where I previously worshiped every Sunday: A lack of rituals.
Rituals are the code of ceremonies observed by an organization. They are the shared experiences of a group. They create emotional glue. To an outsider, a ritual can be weird, wacky or just plain stupid. To people inside the organization, they may be metaphors for life, death, or renewal. For never-say-die Steelers fans, rituals can symbolize all of the above.
The lack of rituals at the Austin bar makes it simply a place to watch the game. It has low energy. It doesn't do anything to back up the claim of being headquarters -- or a "Stillers" church for the rest of us.
But at the Chicago Steelers bar (and others I've visited), the rituals were abundant:
- A live polka band playing the Steelers' fight song after scores
- Wiping one's feet on an opponent's jersey at the front entrance
- A gregarious fan leading the crowd in the "Here We Go Steelers" chant before crucial 3rd downs
- A ready supply of Terrible Towels to wave when the team makes a great play
- The wearing of Steelers jerseys, t-shirts, hats, earrings, etc.
- Serving Iron City beer (a Pittsburghian brew)
- Reserved tables for regulars
- Tailgating in the bar parking lot before games, just like at home
All rituals. All done regularly, no matter what, for it's repetition of rituals combined with emotional subtext that creates meaning. People will tell their friends and family about the rituals they experience when the context is right. That just leaves it up to an organization being open and brave enough to establish and follow rituals that's difficult, as my Austin bar proves every week.
For your business, have you devised rituals for your customer evangelists? What shared experiences allow them to build a worshipping foundation?
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Jackie, sorry the Austinites are not up to par. In Plano, TX, there is a great "Stiller Church" with everything you mentioned in Chicago but the live band. (A nice touch. I will mention it the next time I go to the bar, which coincidentally is named Austin Avenue.
Perhaps we should arrange a road trip from Plano to show yinz how it is done.
Maybe they need someone like you to lead the way. Start one of the rituals yourself next time. Take an opponents jersey or some terrible towels. Be that gregarious fan.
And best wishes to the Steelers.
I second Tom's comment - the best thing the bar can do is to support the rituals that its patrons choose to adopt, rather than try to impose them.
It is, however, possible to goose things along - maybe a free appetizer for anyone wearing a Steelers jersey, or a prize for the "fan of the week" chosen by fellow patrons.
I have noticed when working with volunteers that when you ask them to do something hard, they are more likely to come back and be fully committed to the organization. If wonder of that effect ties to the idea of ritual, or a shared hardship.
Hi Jackie,
In case you didn't see it, there's a great piece praising the Steelers by Jeanne Marie Laskas in the September issue of GQ. (Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available online.) Here's an excerpt I found on a random blog:
"We are born into our religion, and yet we are baptized, and we receive our Communion. A Steelers fan never strays. You move to Denver, or to some fancy sunbelt place, or even to California, you stay a Steelers fan. People say that the Cowboys are America's Team, and we think that is so adorable. So very precious. Listen, people: The Steelers are God's Team."
Best,
Allen
