Thinking Out Loud

Show me you know me

emmajmclean4 Comments on Show me you know me

The simple act of recognition can be a powerful loyalty driver. Using your customer’s name, remembering what they bought last time, enquiring about their last purchase.  These are all things that make a customer feel like you know them.  And in this “always on” world we live in today, successful brands will be the ones that make you feel like it is easier to do business with them. A real life example of this was my experience recently when I logged onto my Kiwibank internet banking and I received this message below:

kiwiwbankI thought it was a sweet customer recognition idea.   I love it as it doesn’t cost anything to recognise customers and really makes customers feel that their bank is looking after them – as an individual.  And happy customers buy more from you.  You don’t need a business case to tell you that.

You gotta be yourself, because everyone else is taken

emmajmclean2 Comments on You gotta be yourself, because everyone else is taken

One of the buzzwords around leadership at the moment is this thought about being authentic. I have never really thought about it too much until today. I attended a Network of Executive Marketers breakfast and was privileged to hear Shelley Campbell (CEO of The Sir Peter Blake Trust) speak. It was – as my friend Simone said – an inspirational start to a Wednesday.

For me, one of the things Shelley summed up brilliantly was this thought about being an authentic leader – “You gotta be yourself, because everyone else is taken”. The brilliance in this thinking is that it totally makes you back yourself. Try this out for your own benefit by saying the quote out loud now. When you say it – it makes you have confidence in your own abilities as a unique individual. In fact it makes it a no brainer for you to think – “of course, I’m the the right person for this, I’m me!”

Plus it makes me happy to have met another kiwi chick that inspires me and is taking it to the world!

Disobedient thinking

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on Disobedient thinking

Recently, two of my friends both independently suggested that I check out someone they had heard talk as they thought I would identify with the way she views the world.  These friends don’t know each other but they know me: passionate about customer experience and big on challenging convention.

And that pretty much sums up Geraldine McBride as well.   Both kiwis as well so we could almost be the same person.  Apart from the small fact that she is the ex-President of SAP’s North American operation where she ran a US$14 billion business, is an acknowledged global expert in corporate evolution and is now co-founding a global next generation technology business called MyWave.  Geraldine gave a talk to the Kea Inspire conference recently and there was one thing in particular that resonated with me – the idea of “disobedient thinking”.   It is kind of the same idea as terms like “flipping things on their head” or “zigging when others are zagging” or even the great Steve Jobs quote below.   But I think her way of describing it is so much more powerful as it makes you feel like you are being naughty and that is strangely attractive.

Geraldine reckons that this kind of thinking is part of the DNA in all kiwi businesses and we need to embrace it as one of our competitive advantages which I totally agree with.  A very inspirational person and another great kiwi.

Click below to watch her presentation from KEA on the trends impacting global business today.

And be more naughty this week!

Steve-Jobs-iSad

The Second Splendid Truth

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on The Second Splendid Truth

gretchenSome years ago, a journalist living in New York decided to complete a project. Her project (and later her bestselling book “The Happiness Project”) was to spend one year experimenting with different techniques to make her happy. For example – month one was going to sleep early, month 2 was clearing clutter, month 3 was being nice to her husband and it went on like that. Last week I was reminded of this book and specifically the second splendid truth – pictured above.
I had recently been to a parent teacher interview for one of my children and had come away feeling really pleased that the teacher had my child’s best interests at heart and really cared about getting a positive outcome. I reflected on this to a friend and she suggested that I should pass my positive feedback onto the principal. So I wrote an email to the school’s leadership team passing on my thanks to the teacher and recognising her commitment. It felt great to write that email! I was smiling when I was writing! But it got better as I smiled even more when I got the replies from the team and the teacher. I felt good. I made myself happy by making someone else happy.

Do it today!

From the desk of the Chief Happiness Officer

emmajmclean2 Comments on From the desk of the Chief Happiness Officer

booksBooks on my desk at the moment:

“Outside In” Kerry Bodine and Harley Manning, Forrester Research.
CHO Review: One word. Fan-tabby-tastic. This is my “go to” book on Customer Experience and the power of putting the customer at the centre of your business. Detailed case studies, practical advice and truly inspirational. Need it.

“Heart to Start” Derek Handley
CHO Review: I saw Derek speak at a conference once and thought he was a bit arrogant. But as much as I want to hate him (and that is mainly jealousy because he is a gazillionaire) he is a clever guy and this book is story of how he started up Hyperfactory and hints of turning your own ideas into action. I have not read this yet! But I want to!

“Steve Jobs” Walter Isaacson
CHO Review: One word. Genuis. Not a particular nice guy to work with that’s generally what you get when you work with a genius. He changed the world. Read it.

“The Thank-You Economy” Gary Vaynerchuk
CHO Review: How a guy built a business solely through social media. And realising that to go forwards today you need to look backwards to how our grandparent’s used to run their businesses. Read it.

“Extreme Trust” Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
CHO Review: From the Godfathers of CRM and 1:1 Marketing. Honesty as a competitive advantage. If you look after your customers, if you can prove to them that they can trust you – why would they go anywhere else? And how can a competitor compete? Get it.

“Groundswell” Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff, Forrester Research
CHO Review: Published in 2008 to help navigate the “new” world of social technologies but still relevant today if you want to build a groundswell around your brand.

“V is for Vulnerable” Seth Godin
CHO Review: ABC for adults from The Master. Full of quotes from the man himself.

“Enterprise One To One” Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
CHO Review: An oldie but a goodie. The book that got me interested in CRM. Love it.

Hold the line caller

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on Hold the line caller

When I worked for a start-up back in the UK, one of the things that I thought was inspired was that the Marketing team sat right in the heart of the action – in the middle of the call centre. Being located here meant that we always knew what was going on with customers. And talk about understanding the impact of marketing. We knew instantly when customers starting calling in as the result of a campaign and we knew even more instantly when there was an issue. No hiding behind voicemail, this was about being faced with the realities of the good and the bad of customers everyday.

In this recent blog post from the brilliant Seth Godin there are lots more ideas for treating your inbound calls with the respect they deserve.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/06/your-call-is-very-important-to-us.html

P.S: my personal favourite is forwarding all calls to your CEO’s spouse….I reckon that is a pretty quick way to get a result!

Friend or thief?

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on Friend or thief?

farmersOne of my pet hates when I shop at Farmers is when they put that big piece of sticky tape over your bag to prove that you haven’t stolen the thing you’ve bought or to stop you stealing more. It really erks me but I try to keep it to myself. But the other day, it all went out the window, I just couldn’t help myself.

It was one of those 50% off childrenswear days so the place was packed and it was 10pm at night. I got to the front of the queue, handed over my ClubCard when asked, paid and then they put the tape over my bag. And then I just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I asked the lady on the till if I could make an observation. (At which point all the people in the queue looked at me like I was a crackpot). This was my observation.

“In one breath you are asking me for my ClubCard which is rewarding me for my loyalty and thanking me for being a friend of Farmers. And then in the other breath you are accusing me of stealing something. Does that not strike you as being odd?”

At which point all the other ladies on the tills turned around and started nodding their heads in agreement. And the customers in the queue still thought I was a nutbag.

My beef wasn’t with the ladies on the till as I know they were just doing what they were told to do. My point was that I am sure in splendid isolation both these things make sense. Marketing are right to think that a loyalty programme is a good idea. And Risk is also right to think that tape can limit their stock losses.

However – when they come together at the customer – they just don’t feel right. Who looks after the experience the customer has? Who is in charge of that? If you don’t have anyone – you need to change that.

How are you making your customers feel?

What have you done for me lately?

emmajmclean2 Comments on What have you done for me lately?

Janet JacksonI always find it interesting when a client comes to me with a customer retention issue and the first question they want to know is – “why are customers leaving us?”. Because I’m not sure that is always the best question to ask. In the famous words (well almost) of Janet Jackson maybe you should be asking yourself “what have we done for them lately?”.

Obsessing on why customers left you is futile as 9 times out of 10 they will always say they left because of price. And using price as a retention tool is not sustainable long term. But if you put the spotlight on what your brand has done to show loyalty to the customer since they have been with you I think you will get to an entirely different place.

Challenge yourself – what have you done for your customers recently to earn their loyalty?

Stories for every journey

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on Stories for every journey

Qantas - Story Books for Every JourneyQantas have recently come up with another way to reward their frequent flyers – specially curated books that flyers are able to finish just as the plane touches down. It’s called “Stories for Every Journey,” and is a collection of bespoke books, each of which promises to last only for the duration of one of the airline’s routes.

I thought this was a novel (pardon the pun) way of rising to the challenge of engaging with frequent flyers who, at the top end are probably not as driven by points accumulation as your average flyer. I love it from a customer point of view as it simply excites me about travel again. When you are a frequent flyer, you are probably doing it for work and subsequently it turns into a bit of a chore and just a way of getting from A to B. But with these books I’d be chomping at the bit to get on board and have some “me” time rather than work time. Which is a nice association for the brand to have and also the book gives you a very tactile experience. You’d probably pass the book onto colleagues as well so would have a decent life span.

They have skewed the books to a male audience – so think crime, adventure and sci-fi but would be great to see this evolved to be driven by a customer’s preference. It would also be interesting to think about whether a digital experience would be more appealing to some customers. In terms of appealing to a more female skew, this idea reminds me on an initiative at Heathrow Terminal 1 some years ago where frequent flyers where given the opportunity to customise their own magazine before they boarded a flight.

But in general I thought it was another great demonstration of a brand being loyal to a customer and really getting the experience they have.

http://adage.com/article/news/qantas-flyers-ditch-kindles-read-custom-books/241483/

Big business could learn a lot from small business

emmajmcleanLeave a Comment on Big business could learn a lot from small business

Sometimes I ponder on the fact that small businesses are actually a lot smarter than big ones.  Big ones could learn a lot from small ones.

They truly are closer to their customers as they are the ones talking to them everyday.  Helping them, testing out things with them and solving problems for them.  They don’t have to do endless focus groups to find out what customers are thinking.  Focus groups are hilarious.  Picture this – a small windowlesss room, 9pm on a Tuesday night,  with people who have nothing better to do eating free sandwiches and critically evaluating a doordrop that in real life would barely have 30 seconds dedicated to it.  Quality way to get insights to feed your marketing strategy. Not.

Successful small businesses focus everything around their customers.  And they don’t need any internal change programme to do this or a snappy project name.  They just do the right thing.  My favourite small business at the moment is my dentist.  Two very cool reasons.  First up – everytime you refer someone to his practice – he sends you a handwritten thankyou card with a $50 credit voucher to use on your next visit.  Nice. The first time it happened, it was a complete surprise and now I actively recommend whenever I get an opportunity.  Secondly – because helping his customers out is the first thing on his mind, he never takes any appointments in the week before Christmas.  He does this because he wants to keep his schedule free in case any of his customers have a toothache or a problem that needs addressing before the long break.  Put simply – he gives up revenue in that week before Christmas so that none of his customers are in pain over the holidays.  Wow – that is clever.  And that is going to earn you lifetime loyalty.

 

 

%d bloggers like this: