customers l RaveTopia

Dare To Be Different, Create A Customer Experience

Those that are different stand out, attract attention and if the customer experience is authentic - trust.

This is what creates brand leaders. Yet many fail to get this right and the reason is a very simple:

It is our nature to copy things. It’s what makes us human. As business leaders and marketing experts we look at what has worked for others and believe it will work for us and we get the same results. Sadly this is the downhill fight for mediocrity. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.
We are educated to do the same thing, to follow best practice and what is main stream. We go to school, wear the same uniform and conform. We go to university and strive to pass cum laude with other peoples thoughts. This is an argument for obeying the rules and doing the tried and tested. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.

It’s sad but we are taught to comply rather than dare.

Living In A World Of Technical Marketers

Your customer is not asking you for what they can get from someone else or for conformity. They are looking for something different, a customer experience that blows their socks off – all you need to do is dare.

This is why most marketers are no longer marketers. They lost the dream a long time ago and become highly adept marketing technicians. They have assimilated and perfected the traditional marketing models as their own.

They have become adept at buying media space, creating TV commercials, and worrying about the bleed on the front page of the magazine commercial.

It’s Not Too Late To Dare To Be Different

It is the marketers who have dared that are great today. They are the rebels of our society and have created brands that are – well – mind-blowing to say the least. The customer experience really rocks. And to get this right they did one of two things really well:

Created mind blowing service
Created mind blowing products
(or both)

And then they created RaveTopia - a community which they are a member of. These are brands like:

There’s nothing like them in the world. They stand apart. They dared to be different do something that wasn’t taught in business school. Our challenge to you is to create a brand that stands alone because it dared to be different. It fought to overcome mediocrity. To be part a community where your customers are your source of inspiration.

A Call To Action – Create RaveTopia

You just need to focus on three things

Focus on your customer ask yourself two questions;
- how can I do this differently,
- and why should I do it different (We said dare to be different – not be stupid)
Do things for your community that are relevant and positive
Focus on the power of the Butterfly Effect – like changing how you spend your marketing budget.

Go and create a mindblowing customer experience

The Golden Rule of Customer Service. Use It

By Michael Cowen 1 Comment

Customer service often comes across as patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care. This creates a really bad customer experience and damages customer loyalty.

In South Africa the chances are this is how you are treated when phoning a large company. Their customer service message is simple:

We have so many clients that you don’t count. And yes, we can afford to lose you.

You have no loyalty to this company (and their customer loyalty score sucks) and your motive now becomes destructive – you will tell everyone you know how bad the company is. You will also move to a new service provider when it suits you.

Yet we are all customers of someone. Ironically the same staff get the same treatment they dish out. Perhaps the easiest way to solve poor customer service is to ask those staff:

How would you like to be treated?

I can guarantee no-one wants a patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care customer service person dealing with their problem.

When we say business is about relationships maybe it’s time to be human again. To really focus on the relationship and ask a very simple question:

Treat others as you want to be treated.

Make this your golden rule when it comes to creating customer loyalty and you can’t go wrong. I am sure that this may have a spin off effect of appealing to your staffs deeper desires and aspirations. You may just be very surprised to see what happens.

Your Customers Are NOT Dumb?

By Michael Cowen 3 Comments

Walter Pike makes two very good points in his 2010 Bizcommunity.com trend report about the two assumptions that traditional marketing is built on:

Most marketers think their customers are ignorant
That these ignorant customers believe what they are told

It’s a point well made. As a consumer you know you’re not ignorant, you don’t believe what you are told. But as marketers we forget this and believe we need to build customer loyalty by trying to control the conversation. We believe that our marketing research defined marketing strategy is spot-on. Hogwash — and customer loyalty pays the price.

Here’s the truth about today’s marketing:

What other people are saying about your brand is more important than what you say about it
Most marketing research is hogwash. Most purchasing decisions are impulsive acts and are based on sub-conscious desires.

I can only wonder how much advertising money has been flushed down the toilet as these marketers attempt to push past the clatter to try and develop brand awareness as opposed to customer loyalty.

I know when I was at university I was taught this product driven approach to marketing. This system belief was supported by the large multinational companies are work for is the brand manager. The truth is the product driven marketing strategies are no longer relevant. Today’s marketing strategies have to be…

Customer Powered Marketing Strategies

One my favourite marketing authors is Seth Godin. Like most people I love his books. His ideas are expressed simply and clearly. If there are two things that I have learned from these books it is this

To be different you have to be remarkable. Good enough doesn’t cut it anymore and being mediocre doesn’t build customer loyalty.
You can no longer broadcast to customers. It is time to really talk to each other with out the window dressing, fluff and string of broken promises.

So what are the implications of this change? I see…

Five Key Marketing Changes

Customer Loyalty needs to be the strategic benchmark for your marketing activities. Just cos I know about you does not mean I will buy from you. There needs to be something more solid that tells you how well you’re doing and customer loyalty – when stripped of fluff and satisfaction indexes – is the way to go.
Change Management is built around developing customer loyalty. Why? Two reasons:
- Because that’s the point your business. If you’re not building customer value and getting a return on your investment, what the point?
- The customer experience is gaining ground as a valuable marketing tool and your entire organisation has to focus on creating this experience.
Customer Line of Sight. Ever action has a reaction and is something your staff what reaction their actions cause. They need to know how they are impacting the customer experience.
Start Listening – Really Listening. A loyal customer wants to talk to you. They want you to succeed and they will give you real feed back when you are open, honest and sincere. The days of broadcasting to your customer are over.
Front Line Empowerment. Your customer engages with your frontline staff and this defines the experience they have. Execs have always been loath to give too much away but with the proper tools in place this front line empowerment is easily managed.

I think the point that I’m making here is that it’s time to turn your business into a marketing department. It’s easy for your customer to see through the bull and they are looking for value for themselves — not you.

After if all you have is a product and no customers, you don’t have a business. And if you do have customer’s that are not stick around and buying more from you, you are far less profitable than you could be.

This year make your marketing goal to create a real customer experience and build customer loyalty.

Picture Credit: httpf://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Ok, I have Your Money, Now Customer F Off …

By Michael Cowen 2 Comments

I suppose I could complain about the really bad customer experience and customer service (and indifference) of Blackberry South Africa and MTN’sinability to look after me as a client, and actually phone back a week ago when promised.

But this type of customer service is so typical of a large organisation. I don’t think it’s limited to South Africa, but I think it’s a worldwide issue. Certainly my experience shows this. I could list a list so long that will become boring.

The greatest problem is that most organisations have structured their business processes and systems to others impossible to provide customer service. They are designed to screw up the customer experience.

So what’s the problem? We have your money, now bugger off!

Let me put this into context here and expand on my Blackberry / MTN:

My Blackberry Bold got stolen and I went through the insurance process and got a new Blackberry Bold.
I collected the new phone from MTN’s “customer services” centre (they really are customer irritation centres)
The service consultant service consultant told me not to worry if there were any problems I could bring back within seven days.
There was a problem. Ironically, the B on the Blackberry keypad works intermittently. And when I took my phone back to get a new one MTN refused to take it.
The problem: I did not have the original box and the Blackberry phone came in. I had the barcode, and all the correct numbers, but not the physical cardboard box.
The MTN consultant spoke to Blackberry and they would not Blackberry budge.
The Blackberry Problem: Their warehousing department cannot accept anything back unless is comes back in the original box
The MTN consultant said they would chase this and promised to phone me later that day to see what he could do.
My current situation: Nothing a week later — or rather a very load but F*&K You from Blackberry and MTN. We have your business so stop complaining and bugger off.

The common customer service issue

There is no doubt that there is a large degree of indifference shown by MTN here. There is no doubt that their staff are not delivering.

[Read more...]

Customer Experience, Positioning, Culture and The Archetypes

By Michael Cowen 8 Comments

You can have the best product in the world but unless you have a customer to sell it to, you don’t have a business.

And you don’t have a business unless you have decent competent staff to deliver the product. And they have to do it in such a way that your customer keeps coming back for more.

This is why your business is about relationships and the customer experience. It is about your prospects buying into your company and trusting you. It’s about feelings not cold, hard rational facts.

And what are feelings about?

Personality

It’s about how you express yourself, how your staff behave and how you create an emotional experience for your prospects.

People identify with resonate with what is familiar and with what similar.

One of the best ways to understand this is through what are known as archetypes.

12 Archetypal Personalities and The Customer Experience

[Read more...]

The Warrior Customer Experience

By Michael Cowen 3 Comments

Your business is about relationships and creating a customer experience. It is about your prospects buying into your company and trusting you. It’s about feelings not cold, hard rational facts.

And what are feelings about? Personality.

The Warrior Personality and Customer Experience

This archetypal Warrior personality helps you identify your brand, culture and customer experience. It shows you how you can structure your brand has a positive and a negative side to it.

Your positive personality is your desired brand expression. It is who you are and how you want your customers to experience you.

Your negative personality is expressed when you are not able to manage your brand properly.

The good thing about the negative personality and customer experience so that it allows you to actively manage your brand, culture and customer experience.

When you identify a negative traits appearing in your customer experience and brand culture you know there is something wrong.