Refractions

Refractions

Refractive Communications  //  A matter of message perspective and customer communications.

Filed under

customers

See all posts on posterous with this tag »
 
May 4 / 6:18am

Wi-Fi Bandit Caught Again

 

This saga begins with me standing at a Starbucks counter repeating in an incredulous voice what the server had just told me, “The Wi-Fi isn’t free? I have to buy a Starbucks card first?” Nodding sympathetically with a wry smile, she agreed and then said in a conspiratorial whisper, “But it’s free down the street at Panera Bread.”

 

I was in the midst of a 238-mile journey home on a Friday night at 8:20 PM with a pending online task to complete, but I left.


I was willing to pay for coffee, and maybe a pastry, and possibly something else … but I was not going to pay for Wi-Fi. It’s like having to pay for napkins: “Napkins available for free with your $15 Starbucks card purchase.”


I drove down the street to Panera Bread, parked, shouldered my laptop case and hurried to the entrance. A colorful sign on the glass entry door caught my eye, “Free Wi-fi.” I bought coffee and a chocolate pastry, and began working. Just before the 9 PM closing time, I completed and emailed the revised file to my coworker across the country.

  

From the customer experience perspective, Panera Bread's free Wi-Fi was a true customer benefit: easy, free, non-intrusive. Starbucks' misguided attempt to force customer "loyalty" and stickiness derailed a potential customer into the welcoming arms of a competitor. I used to think, "Coffee = Starbucks." But now I've been taught, "Coffee = Panera Bread (+ Wi-Fi + food)." For a company centered on serving coffee, Starbucks now has nothing left in the equation to draw me in the doors again.


A few days later, I was traveling again and needed some coffee. I drove into a shopping center, past Starbucks and into an open parking space in front of Panera Bread. Shouldering my laptop case, I pushed in past the cheerful “Free Wi-Fi” sign on the door, ordered a coffee, a pastry and a sourdough soup bowl lunch, and clicked through the latest online commentary as I ate.

 

Caught again.

 

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  customers  

Comments (0)

 
Dec 14 / 11:11am

Fitness Center Unfit for Business

A friend mentioned that he’ll probably drop his fitness center membership this month to save money. He enjoys the new facility and programs, though he only uses the workout room. Apparently, other customers are feeling the financial pinch, too, so the facility is in a budget crunch … and what does the fitness center plan on doing about it?

They will raise the fee on the remaining members as of January 2010. Should we start painting the Out of Business sign now? Will the paint have time to dry before hanging it?

Unfortunately, this everyday circle-the-wagons business response misses the opportunity for creative customer engagement and retention … and growth.

What if, instead of raising the single, comprehensive membership fee, the fitness center broke the fee structure into three levels, each with greater degrees of access to facilities?

What if the inexpensive basic package allowed access to just one program … say, the workout room … and those customers had a black rubbery wristband that allowed them access to the workout room. Those signed up for swimming had a blue wristband.  Mid-level access (and price point) is a bundled package with its own, single distinguishing wristband. The premium level has the ultimate colored wristband.

What if the fitness facility staff came up with an even better approach than this one to segment their products?

Now their customers have lower barriers to entry, more purchase options, and, perhaps, a visible status incentive to increase their membership levels.

Never allow “Never done that before” to define your customer service. 

Always default to “What if …”
Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  customers  

Comments (0)

 
Nov 28 / 7:54am

Company's Bobble-headed Explanation Is A Strikeout

When you explain your company's products or services to your customers, you know what you're talking about (or you should) ... do they? Too often we insiders forget to translate our business-speak and our customers end up bobble-head nodding with a glazed stare as we cheerfully confuse them.

Confusion does little to engender trust or build relationships. 

When I wrote promotional copy trying to explain the wonders and workings of life insurance products, I would occasionally run my golden words past my wife or friends to ensure the gobbledigook made sense to these "outsiders." Once we got past the bobble-head moment and I got my explanation through to them, they often said, "Oh, you mean it does ..." and I had my re-write. Never underestimate the value of an ignorant eye.

Try running your material past your uninitiated target audience. You may find your clear, simple explanation is as effective as this baseball description:

Baseball is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one that's in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count. If they get in before they get out it does count. 

When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out. 

When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out. 

The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in. 

Got that?

(Thanks to http://www.crosswalk.com/fun/ for the Baseball description)
Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  customers  

Comments (0)

 
Oct 28 / 11:47am

Sometimes, it's great to be a customer

I nearly dropped my phone, but defaulted to a question (thanks Peter) and kept the conversation alive. I was working on printing a new business card layout on staples.marktheworld.com and had trouble with the design tool; the View Proof button showed me a shifted design compared with my on-screen layout.

So, I reluctantly called the Need Help number and, in less than two rings, April answered and asked how she could help. Less than two rings direct to a live, helpful human ... nice. But it gets better ...

She had me try a few ideas. Didn't work. I'm not comfortable with ordering. April then offered to shepherd my order through production and asked me to call her back once I'd ordered online. I did so, she brought up my file, inserted a proof request, said I'll receive it for email approval by tomorrow morning at the latest, and managed my expectations by reviewing the production and shipping times with me. Then she said to call again if I had questions after seeing the proof and asked if there was anything else she could help me with. Thanks, April.

Have you delighted a customer today?

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  customers  

Comments (0)

 
Oct 27 / 8:03am

Crazy Customers

Your customers are crazy. They will provide you---for FREE---a continuous deluge of advice on …. everything. Everything you need to do to make your customers more engaged, more committed, more likely to purchase your product.

Want to know your Web site’s pain points? Just ask. How effective is your frontline phone team? Just ask. What would make your product a market leader? Just ask.

Or are you too scared of the answers? You might have to do something, change something, invest in something.

What percentage of your staff is dedicated to gathering and handling all this free market research? How many levels must a customer with a complaint claw through before reaching an empowered employee? How many “Press 3” phone tree labyrinths before a helpful, authoritative voice answers?

You can tell a lot about a company and its viability by its customer disservice approach.

But back to the free market research … your customers will also prioritize your response. Just listen. They’ll define the problem, describe a solution and prioritize the need. It’s up to you to immediately act on the Must Do’s, address the To Do’s before they fester, and regularly toss in a Delighter to do just that.

Google Wave launched to a select group, who immediately tore it apart and responded with a list of improvements. Sometimes those improvements are termed failings, shortcomings, obvious missteps. Bypass the sticks-n-stones language and appreciate the insights. The Google folks now have a prioritized action list from an expert group of engaged customers.

Go ahead, I dare you. Proactively ask your customers for their advice.

It’s free … crazy as that might seem.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  customers   good to great  

Comments (0)