Social Media Makes it Necessary to Consistently Deliver your Value Proposition

Picture this. It's Friday night and you are waiting for a table at a restaurant you've been wanting to try. The 45 minute wait time to be seated seems to validate everything you've read and heard. This place has great food and exceptional service to complement the incredible ambiance.

However, the lineup suddenly disappears as all those waiting for a table suddenly file out of the restaurant in unison. What just happened? Well, five of the last guests who left this restaurant "Tweeted" that tonight was not the night you want to have dinner there. Two guests waited an hour for their entrees to arrive, two others received cold food, and one guest received the wrong meal completely. . . and to top it off the server was rude when the guest so much as mentioned the issue.

Clearly every business has a bad day, but social media tools are having an immediate and far sweeping affect on those businesses that are otherwise great but have even ONE bad day. Armed with nothing more than a mobile device and a Twitter account, customers can now vote and clear an entire lineup at an otherwise busy restaurant. This is not futurama - this is reality and it is here now.

And, what about those businesses who rarely, if ever, deliver their value proposition consistently or don't have it well defined? I believe mobile technology and the interconnectedness of social media tools will expose them at blazing speed and with devastating reach - they simply won't survive.

So how can you win? The winners will not be those with only the best strategy. It will be those who can consistently execute what their strategy promises their customers. And, this is what is keeping the executives I speak with awake at night more than anything else. When asked, they don't know for fact if their people are ready to deliver their value proposition . This is a position they are not comfortable being in considering the investments they are making on other elements of their value proposition.

So, are your people ready to deliver your value proposition? How do you know for sure?

Perhaps we can discuss it over a coffee.

Michael

Applause to the WIND Brand

I recently had an opportunity to spend some time with the Chief Customer Officer of WIND Mobile. And I must say, I am really impressed!

Here are one of the few companies I have ever met who have had the privilege of building their entire organization from the customer outwards - they call it "DIALOGUE" - listen to the customer and build your offer based on what THEY want (and don't want)!

It will be interesting to see how the "big guys" defend their position against a company who has started with a clean page, listened to their customer, and been able to tailor thier value proposition to what customers really want. If the sudden increased activity of emails, solicitation calls, and letter mail from the "big 3" are any indication, I'd say WIND has the incumbents on the ropes and they are clearly concerned . . . as they should be.

What do you think?

Michael

Bravo Mr. Porter!

There are lots of choices available to fly between Toronto and Chicago. So why do I choose Porter Airlines? It was arguably less convenient for a suburbanite like me, especially using public transit - drive to the train station, wait for the train, take the train, walk to the shuttle, wait for the shuttle, take the shuttle, wait for the ferry, take the ferry - finally check in!


It is the "Porter Experience" that keeps me and others coming back. Pleasant, caring, and helpful people, free coffee and juice, free wireless Internet . . . and yes, did I say, pleasant, caring, and helpful people - nothing over the top - "flying refined" as their brand promises.

While sipping a bottled water (courtesy of Porter of course) waiting for my flight, I overhead a young man telling someone on the other end of his cell phone . . . "you just have to fly Porter - they really care." Now isn't that telling, an airline that cares!

Many big brands are struggling to find their formula to satisfy all (yet they are truly satisfying few), there are emerging brands finding their niche to meet (and more often than not exceed) the expectations of their customers . . . and employees who understand their true purpose is to live the virtues of their brand.

What has your experience been?

Michael

Google Search as a Customer Experience Measure

Google does pretty much everything else, so I thought I would do a small experiement. I wondered how Google search results could be a proxy as a customer experience measure. So here is what I found:

I Googled "bad experience" AND "[US airline name]" and got the following results:

American Airlines 7,110 hits
United Airlines 4,690 hits
Southwest Airlines 3,060 hits
JetBlue Airlines 1,520 hits

I did the same for Canadian based airlines (no surprise here):

Air Canada 2,640 hits
WestJet 246 hits
Porter Airlines 229 hits

Based on my personal experience when dealing with these airlines, the results pretty much line up with my history flying with each of them. So . . . could Google be on to something in terms of consumer research value that reflects the the sentiments of consumers as it relates to their personal experience with brands?

What do you think?

Michael

Fifth P Solutions President to be Featured on an Upcoming Customer Experience Webcast

Michael Mattalo, President of Fifth P Solutions is one of four experts invited by the Globe and Mail to weigh in on a web discussion about Customer Experience. The webcast, scheduled for Thursday September 24, 2009, at 1pm ET, will focus on the emergence of CE, the evolution of CE based on changing consumer expectations, the differences to up-market versus mainstream brands, and the challenges and opportunities companies are having with successfully executing CE.

This forum will provide an opportunity for Michael to share Fifth P's fresh perspective of the strategies for building brands through people and the practical approaches to deliver the perfect customer experience through every touch point, internally and externally.


Please tune in to learn more and hear what your company can be doing to drive business results through a perfect customer experience and building your brands through people.

Check out the details:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/business-incubator/treat-your-customers-right/article1265427/

Purpose Trumps Task - Recounting a Recent Great Customer Experience

My eldest son recently needed to broaden his wardrobe, beyond jeans and t-shirts, as he begins his career in public accounting. So last weekend, enticed by television advertising, we headed to Buffalo, NY to check out some new suits. Value was the shopping theme - good quality at great prices - after all, he is still stinging from being the starving student. What we didn't expect was the unexpected moment of delight that awaited us.

At one of the popular malls, we toured through several men's clothing shops, without much success. Before the hunger for wings overtook our shopping tolerance (a low threshold might I add), we visited one last store. They had a few suits, but were dedicated primarily to formal wear rentals. After my son spoke with the sales person and described his needs, the rep suggested we visit their nearby location where they had a much broader suit selection. He gave us rough directions, and that was it. Well, almost.

We did go to that other location, just by chance. As we walked in the door, we were greeted by a sales rep who, with a large smile, welcomed us with a genuine, "so you must be the Canadians here looking for a few suits". . . "Oh, and yes, this is the size you need, the colours you prefer, and the style you wish, . . . and oh yes, flat front pants - no pleats. And by the way, congratulations on your new job!" This was a sheer moment of delight - unprompted, unexpected, and highly effective. Needless to say, my son made the purchases he needed and moreover has a memorable brand he will surely be loyal to going forward (needless to say the countless referrals and re-telling of the story).

I frankly can't recall any retail visit in recent memory that remotely comes close to this. There was no policy, no procedure, no directive to follow - just one sales rep who saw his purpose well beyond the nuisance of a customer interrupting the passing of his day until closing.

This is an example where purpose trumps task and optimism for a world filled with great retail customer experiences still prevails.

I'd love to hear about your experiences. Michael

Will the Training Dept. Some Day Invade the Marketing Dept.?

Since transforming our company back in 2001, we've been earning a respected seat at the marketing table as the "agency that builds brands through people". It appears our secret is out. In a white paper published earlier this year, training industry guru Donald Kirkpatrick summarized a conversation he had with a window washer at a resort. Reflecting on his conversation, he noted "[the window washer] knew the purpose of training and development and his purpose were closely tied to the bigger picture". Of course, the bigger picture is the value proposition of that resort's brand.

Could it be that the marketing department may one day be seeded with specialists from the learning and development profession? We certainly hope so.

What do you think? Michael

United Breaks Guitars AND Their Brand Reputation

Here is an example of the impact an employee simply "following the rules" has on the reputation of the brand they represent. Over 4 million people have viewed this video in one week - likely more impressions than United Airlines combined marketing efforts.

I think we will see more and more of this as digital media and social networking tools play a role in enabling customers to voice how brands deliver their promise at key moments of truth.



What do you think? Michael