Are You the Fairest of Them All, or Have You Taken Your Eye Off the Ball?

They say that a cat doesn’t recognize his own reflection because an image on glass has no scent. No scent = Not cat, and certainly not himself.

Some time ago I worked with a client to assess strengths and weaknesses regarding the public’s Perception of his company. Sales were slipping, and he didn’t know why.

My assessment, in a word, was corporate arrogance.

Not the word I chose to use, of course, but the one that fit best.

They’d gotten big, kinda fast. They were justifiably proud of their growth, but they had a fatal flaw: they thought their growth was all about them, instead of seeing it was a joint effort between them, with their charming, early eagerness, and a band of their customers, who agreed to be charmed. (Yes, your customers must agree to be charmed by you.)

Lately, in the company’s quest for new customers, they had clearly been ignoring their old customers.

Their old customers, who had once been fans devoted to building something with the owner, figured he didn’t need them anymore, and stopped coming by.

He seemed to think he and his staff spent too much time with these loyal customers, and had acted too friendly with them. So he’d cooled off with people who believed they were “friends,” and his staff had followed his lead. It was all very professional. Hard to point a finger at.

Friendliness was what the old customers came in for, true enough; it almost felt like they’d been invited into the company’s living room.

As we discussed our findings, he discovered that old, loyal customers:

— Buy More Often — Spend More Money per visit — Refer Their Friends to become part of this living room atmosphere —

WAY more often than newer customers.

Not news to you, I hope.

It may have been too late for him to hear this news, because do you know what happened when he got our report and talked with us?

Sure you do.

He looked in the mirror I held up, but he didn’t recognize his reflection. (Like a cat.) Denied it applied to his company entirely. Essentially, he said, “We haven’t changed enough to bother anyone. Everybody else has changed.”

Blame the market. Blame Jean Chrétien (no, I don’t know why his name popped into my head). Blame the changing demographics of your town, blame the competition, blame those loyal customers. Ooh, it’s tempting.

If customers didn’t feel like hanging around your joint anymore, would you be brave enough to look in that mirror? Would you recognize yourself?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. I hope you’ll come by my living room again soon! The Devil’s Advocate takes on this subject later in the week.

Sticklers vs. Slackers: The Maximum Customer Experience Battle

Re-learn the picky, little things that get noticed when times are tough

When times are great, some of you don’t worry too much about MAXIMUM Customer Experience. I know who you are, and I know you’re reading this. You’d like to deliver better-than-average CE; you’re even willing to exceed an expectation or two here and there.

News flash: The fewer dollars I have to go around (or the fewer I feel like I have…) the more I want the WOW. Or I’m not parting with my bucks.

Or… I’ll give ‘em to someone who seems to care more than you do.

What’s that? You care very much, and you deliver an awesome product or service that speaks for itself?

My bucks are going to someone who seems to care more than you. What you believe (“we care”) and what I see (“you’re sloppy”) aren’t always the same. Sticklers work to get the Perception of the public aligned with their internal Purpose all the time. That’s at the core of Experience Design.

Nothing speaks for itself when I’m choosing between your restaurant and a tank of gas; between your sneaker store and the one 100 feet away in the mall; between your cleaning service and finally scrubbing my floors myself… or letting them go. So speak up in all your interactions.

Maximum Customer Experience is more important than ever right now.

Sticklers are obsessed. They know how to go beyond good, beyond exceeding a few expectations, to redefine the expectations. How?

What Sticklers do (and you can, too)

Wear suits

Speak well, write well, spell well

Notice the details of their operations

Keep fresh (get inspired)

Write thank-yous

LEAD FEARLESSLY. (If you’re doing all of the above, you’re on your way to leading already.)

Yes. In a recession, you should “stickle” to wow your clients and prospects, and to get the edge over your competition. Then maybe, as we pull out of this slowdown, you should keep on being a stickler.

Because the truth is, your customers always notice your attention to the picky little things. You just don’t notice them noticing, until there are fewer customers.

Are you looking for a competitive edge? Have you tried being more professional than the other guys?

What other “stickler” elements do you notice when you’re choosing a store, a restaurant, a service provider?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll subscribe by email or by RSS (it’s free!), and link to it, Stumble it, or otherwise bookmark using the “Share” button below.

For Better or for Worse:

Brigette Bardot

Sex kitten.

Sex Pistols

Punk anarchy.

AK-47

Street killer.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Cult classic.

Turner Classic Movies

Black-and-white.

Movie theatres

Overpriced.

Hummer

Oversized.

Sears

Shrinking.

I could go on and on… whatever you sell, if you become known at all, you’ll find your product/ service/ company is being reduced to simple expectations in your customer’s mind. “Brand perception” is a fancy term for this idea. Customers form the expectations. You aren’t in charge of their Perception, but you’d better be trying to direct it. Know your company’s Purpose, and demonstrate it in everything you do.

VisionPoints

Growing your small business.

Tip: Do a Perception check once a quarter. If customers think you stand for something that’s way off from your Purpose, you’ve got work to do!

Have fun and riff with me today—name a well-known product, a business, or a category and the expectation they’ve formed in your mind. It’s shockingly easy to do.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Who Designed These Experiences?

1.

Ad this week for a mobile phone: No mention of the original price. A photo, and “Save $199.”

Any phone I can save $199 on is probably one that I will feel like I can’t afford (no, it’s not for the one you’re thinking of).

If you know the thing is bloody expensive and you don’t want to tell me how much, try “Save 40%.” That at least gives me the hope that I can afford it, and an understandable measure of how great your deal is. I’m listening.

If it’s something that I understand what ballpark the price is in (like, say, a Mercedes), you can try “Save $12,000.” Why doesn’t it work here? Mobile phone prices are all over the place. “Save $199” could mean “Pay $49,” or it could mean “Pay $369.” The phrasing just worries me into wondering how many dollars you began with, that you can afford to shave off 199 of them. No sale.

2.

I got a “special friends” discount letter for [Big Department Store] when my parents were in town a while back. Knowing how infrequently they get to any metro area, I suggested they hit the store and do a little damage while I was at work. Dad wrinkled his nose. “I know how that company works. It’s 20% off everything, except all the brands and departments you want.”

No restrictions, it said. I showed him the shopping pass. I’m a special friend, after all. Not a single trick in sight.

Still, he’s seen so many of their passes in the newspaper that he refused to believe it. Mom and Dad did no damage at Big Department Store while in tax-free Delaware, because of the damage BDS has done to their reputation over the years, with their meaningless discounts.

More on discounts and promotions:

Put a Cork in the Fine Print

How You Can Get Me to Jump Over my Granny

Giving the Cow Away, but the Milk’s Not Free!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Is This the Best Statement Ever About Customer Service?

The service is clairvoyant….”

Patricia Schultz wrote it in the book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die about Twin Farms, a luxury inn in Barnard, VT.

Oh, to have that said about your firm!

Heard a better one? Please share below!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Who Designed This Experience?

Wouldn’t you think that if you bought a mouse…

[An image of a small furry thing is in my head at this point]

… the software that has to be installed, prominently labelled ‘Install before you use this mouse’…

[Oh. That kind of mouse]

… would be installable without the use of a mouse? I mean, it’s a Microsoft mouse!”

Yup.

What can I say. Their head honcho retired.

Maybe they’re a little off their game right now.

Get on it, Steve Ballmer.

Duh.

How are you making your customer’s Experience as simple as possible?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

The Observations Log

I went to undergrad school twice. Let’s just say the first time I didn’t get it right, and I don’t mean grades, I mean I didn’t know what the heck I was doing there. I learned a lot of cool stuff I wouldn’t trade, but I didn’t do what I needed, whatever that was. The second time I went to college, several years later, was an awakening for me. By then I’d been in business for others and for myself; I was focused and goal oriented, and ready to be a bulldozer, plowing through the learning.

What stopped me? Turns out professors don’t always see it that way.

I ran into maddening, zenlike profs all over the campus, who wanted me to grow and experience and absorb and notice, for Pete’s sake. I had no time for noticing. Should have caught me when I was a post-hippie first timer. Just show me the direction to what I want to know and look out.

Darn these guys, there’s a reason they’re teachers. They were on to something big.

Miss Observant is Taken to School

An Interior Design professor, in particular, plagued me with something she called an “Observations Log.” First week of class: Buy an oversized sketch journal with 200 pages in it. She wanted me to walk around, sit down, read, stare, talk, and then write, every week, with accompanying sketches, magazine tearouts, and photos, about what I’d seen and why I’d put in in the book. Anything at all. Three entries per week, thank you, and she checked, and it was a major part of the grade. Observing.

For two months, I hated that book. I nodded yes of course I’m doing it, then waited until Sunday nights, “noticed” a bunch of stuff all at once, backdated three entries, and handed it in every Monday. Miss Observant.

There were always comments back, indicating she had read and considered what I’d barely considered in order to get it in on time, always praising my powers of perception. To me this indicated that she had none, and that I was right in considering her an idiot.

One week she wrote that there was a theme emerging; that though we were told we could observe anything at all, I was observing similar things, in all different settings.

Usefulness. Effectiveness. Elements of success. What makes something, as Seth Godin would later say, remarkable?

I looked back through, and from the first bad-attitude week to that moment, she was right. My hastily torn-out examples, tossed-off sketches, and brief essays, were talking about the things all around us that impact us deeply, that stay in our memories, or cause us to buy, or make us feel special, and why—in spite of myself. An obsession with observation was born.

I kept the log book up for a couple of years afterward in the literal sense (the card above, an ad for an upscale fabric designer, is from that period). Even without the book, I’ve never stopped smelling the roses, seeing the roses, feeling the petals, hearing the bees, and writing. Sure, I was already the eyes-wide-open type, but that prof and her assignment sharpened my senses and probably changed my life.

Log 2.0

In Ever Notice, an article for Gain, the AIGA Journal, Steve Portigal (author of the fabulous blog All This ChittahChattah), discusses active noticing with his colleague Dan Soltzberg:

I’ve assigned students to routinely maintain a noticing log, either a blog (words with pictures) or a Flickr account (pictures with words). The exercise helps sharpen noticing skills by giving people permission to simply observe and document.”

Please read the entire article, it’s well worth it. We’ve come a long way, with electronic journals, but I’ll bet Steve’s got students who resent it and toss the assignments off lightly. Some things don’t change.

What’s in it for you?

Oh, you don’t need a journal. You’re not getting graded on whether your eyes are open every day to the little things all around you.

Or are you? Would noticing all the little things before your customers do, highlighting some, fixing others, impact your business? Even knowing what your competition is up to (or drawing inspiration from unrelated sources like a milk ad) is a lot easier when you’ve honed your powers of observation.

So, are you a bulldozer, getting through the day with your head down, plowing through your piles of work? Or a Zen professor, observing, wondering, and looking for connections? Have you trained yourself to slow down and notice?

Coming up: A series of mostly tiny articles with one thing in common: they’re observations. I hope they’ll inspire you to look around your world, and maybe even write down what you see.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. My observation about Alex and Eddie Van Halen: “Sex and rock and roll selling milk. Couldn’t have happened when I was a kid, even. The times, they are a-changin’.”

Are You Killing Your Future Sales Like These Guys Are?

1. Katherine

Me: “Good morning, how may I help you?”

Katherine: “Hello, this is Katherine, from XYZ Phone Book Company. I’m calling to make sure you received our phone books last Friday.”

“Gee, I haven’t been in for a week, I’m not sure.”

“Can I have your name?”

“Yes, it’s Kelly, but I don’t have an answer for you yet. Can you hang on?”

“Thanks and have a nice day.” *click*

I didn’t answer and that counts as good enough for her? You know that was written down as Yes, books received.

2. Ben and Doreen

Me: [Unbearably long wait for help at department-store counter, while Doreen apparently has difficulty with customer in front of me. That customer leaves unhappy, which seems to be mainly her own fault.] “Hi. Just these, thanks.”

Doreen: “Okay. Umm, sorry about that other stuff.” [Manager Ben appears from other end of counter, where he’s been doing paperwork.]

Ben: [Without a word to me, taking over cash drawer in mid-transaction; to Doreen] “If I were you, I’d run away from here. As fast as possible.”

If you’ll say that in front of a customer who’s also stood patiently through the antics of the last person, what would you say if I weren’t here?

I think I’ll run, too.

3. Zandra

Zandra: “… Thanks for using Liverpool Lizard Auto Insurance, Ms. Erickson. Is there anything else I can answer for you?

Me: “Yes. That guy who’s going to call me to get the details of the accident for your records—could you tell me whether that would be today, or in a couple of days? I’m going on vacation….”

“Sorry, that’s another department. I don’t know when he’ll get back to you.”

“Oh. Well, will I need any documentation handy to take the call? I could bring the police report and the papers from the other insurance company with me on vacation.”

“No, you won’t need anything with you. He just needs the date. It only takes a minute.”

“Thanks, Zandra, that’s all I needed to know.”

The correct answer was: you will need everything with you, and it is a very detailed interview which will last over twenty minutes and will make you late for an appointment, after repeatedly telling the gentleman (though he didn’t ask) that now is not a good time unless it can be as brief as Zandra promised, which he assures me several times it will be: “Just one more question, Ms. Erickson….”

1-2-3

Say what you mean. “Insincere Phone Book Company. I get paid to dial your number and hear a voice. Thanks.” *click*

Watch what you say. “Customers always wreck a decent day. This one could turn at any moment. Run!”

Mean what you say. “I don’t know anything about how other departments work. I’m just a cog. I’m making this up as I go along, to take some of the anxiety out of your day. The next guy may put the anxiety right back in, but you won’t get snippy with me, ‘cause I’ll be gone.”

Three quickies, with not-too-hidden lessons. Customer service is a huge part of Customer Experience.

Your company can do it better than this, right? As easy as 1-2-3.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Or, Why I Carry a Pen and Paper, Even on a Date*

¿Habla Español?

I speak Spanish. Pretty fluently. Not natively, but I get along in a rusty kind of a way. Though my speech is a bit slow, the hearing works just fine, thanks.

Many of you are also bilingual (though not necessarily in Spanish), and you may be asking,

“What does this have to do with Customer Experience, Kelly?”

I may have forgotten to mention I don’t look Spanish, mainly due to the fact that I’m not. (Note author photo, at left. Nice Irish Experience Designer. Not Irish Experiences, mind you… well, yeah. We can do that.)

*cue story music, of the soft, lush, romantic type*

So I’m out on a date recently at a lovely Philadelphia restaurant. The type where you can not get “Beringer by the glass,” people, so don’t even bother to ask. Lucky me, it’s be-a-grownup-night and I’m doing just that.

My waitress, she speaks Spanish. I know this, because every time either of two other servers go by, they speak to her as she goes about her business. In Spanish. About various things including my date’s tie (good), my shoes (they disapprove), anyone who walks in to sit at the bar (dateable and not dateable and I’m not going to say any more about that subject), what’s going on in the kitchen (not all good), and their mothers.

You think I’m making this up but I’m not.

All in hushed tones. Not actually while speaking to us at the table. Very discreet if your hearing is impaired, or maybe it’s background noise if you don’t speak the language.

Note to readers: We will NOT discuss use of English generally (nor the favored language of your country/province) in the comments, as that is not the subject of this post. We will discuss the use of discretion.

Points on Language: Yours, Mine, and Foul

If these servers spoke English only, they would not have been having such vivid snippets of conversation right next to my table. If they suspected I understood most every word they said except some which I believe were foul language, ditto. So why did I have to listen to all this during my nice night out?

Because they made a judgment about our looks (and probably our accents, too), and decided the two of us did not require curbing their tongues, no matter how much we paid for our meals.

Point one: Do not let your staff gossip around customers in any language. Not even Klingon, because you never know. Seriously, gossip is just not cool.

Point two: Using your prejudices to guess whether I can understand you, at work or elsewhere in your life, is probably a bad idea. Friends used to love sitting with me on subway rides to “overhear” people who assumed no one else could understand them. My Mom thinks it’s something like a party trick. I’m sure at a fast food restaurant or a convenience store you may have experienced folks who took one look at you and continued their conversation, having decided you did not understand them. It’s not always so.

Point three: Lest you think this is about some other guy, English-speaking U.S. residents notoriously do this same thing when on holiday in other lands, only to have it blow up in their faces; many popular tourist destinations have large numbers of citizens who can speak English. If you think that doesn’t affect Customer Experience, since you’re the customer, think how annoyed the shopkeeper is with you. Your experience is going to be changed, by your own behavior.

No matter who you are or where, if you want a discreet, private conversation, have it privately. That’s discretion. Anything else is rude.

By the way, I have had staff wait on me while having their annoying conversations in English, without missing a beat to “help” me. Not in a nice restaurant, but in plenty of shops. This is not only about language.

However, when they know that we all know what’s being said, it’s not said about me, or my date, or the relative merits of the guy who just walked in versus last Friday’s hottie.

Point four: They were nice shoes.  :)

You’d never let your staff or coworkers do this, so…. Have you ever had to listen in on an indiscreet conversation while shopping or dining? What did you do?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

*Because you never know when your next post will appear!

Is Holding Back Good for Your Business?

Infomercials do it. Long sales letters do it. 89-day e-courses do it. The slow come-on is not a new marketing technique. There are some times when it works, and some times when it makes for minimum customer experience. Tipping points can go both ways.

What are the limits of withholding?

I’m not old enough to have driven past them as a kid, but many of us have heard of these legendary teaser billboards (or seen modern knock-offs): a series of five or six little boards spaced out, planted on the side of the road, each with a part of a witty jingle ending in

Burma Shave images by R. Franke

They gave out their message a little at a time, hoping it would catch your eye and entice you to buy their product. With hundreds of variations you could drive past, thinking of Burma Shave first when you needed to lather up for a shave became almost inevitable.

Yesterday we discussed the drip-drip-drip of a series of emails that have been trying to seduce me for weeks. I had asked to be part of the mailing list (which is rare for me). The first videos were promising. A whole lot of promising. When I realized the sender was never going to get to the point, I stopped listening.

Statistics say it takes at least seven “touches” for your business to be remembered by a potential customer.

For bricks-and-mortar companies this should be done with a combination of touchpoints: Signage, word-of-mouth mentions, traditional advertising, personal interactions, your website, your blog and of course, your store or office itself.

That’s seven ways to reach out and touch a prospect. Even if you hit each one once, they’re going to remember you.

So what’s wrong with these emails I’ve been getting? He’s just hitting me 7 times, right?

Wrong. I’m not having any problems remembering him. Here’s why this deprivation or teasing is bad, for me:

1. I opted in. I signed up. I already want to know what you are trying to sell me.

Continuing to tell me how very valuable what you are going to sell me is, but not telling me what you’ll sell or even when, bores and irritates me.

If I walk into a restaurant and ask for a table, will they say yes, we’ll get to that, but first let me tell you how great it will be?

I hope not.

Now if I’m at home and I haven’t expressed an interest, beginning my Experience by touching me with a variety of messages is absolutely necessary.

2. It makes me suspect I can’t afford it.

She saw him standing in the section marked
‘If U have 2 ask, U can’t afford it’ lingerie”
—Prince, The Glamorous Life

Why are you waiting so long and trying so darn hard? Is it going to cost as much as a vacation to Naples or a two-carat diamond, either of which would be more fun than what you’re trying to sell me?

Giving me too much time to think about the awesome, unbelievable thing, allows me to plant my own seeds of doubt.

3. Methinks thou dost protest too much. This is the most important point: the longer you go on and on, the more you sound like a used-car salesman, and the less I believe you!

Crystal at Big Bright Bulb recently wrote a fabulous article discussing how much is too much. Like 89-lesson e-courses.

The short answer: One minute past when I say the word YES is too much.

When I tell my attorney to draw up the contract for her retainer, she does not say, let me pitch you some more. (Trust me. She doesn’t.) What she says is, “Sign here.” And so should you.

Tease too much, you lose your captive audience.

So that’s what’s going on in the customer’s Perception. Opt-in marketing uses different rules. When you’re designing a campaign to build your business, keep focused on the customer’s point of view.

Later this week we’ll get down and talk about the really dirty bits: how The Big Tease campaign can hurt your business beyond just driving away customers who are already sold.

How do you respond when a company won’t come to the point?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Are you the most creative thinker reading the MCE Blog today? Claim your prize and bragging rights. Please click here to read the rules, and take a Whack at it. (The comments may give you some hints.) Only two days left to find the post where I make a reference to my age!