Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry...

"I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  Maya Angelou

Marketing is a business of feelings and emotions because people are driven by emotions and feelings.

To be successful, a marketer must connect with the customer on an emotional level.  Actually, to be successful, a business must connect with the customer on an emotional level; it is, however,  typically the job of the marketers to establish that connection.

All of our decisions are driven by emotions.  You buy the same soap as you have for years because it is a safe decision and no one at home will complain about it.  You covet a sports car because it will make you look successful, or sexy, or at least not quite so middle-aged.  You hire an assistant because you like him, he reminds us of yourself when you were his age, or he will bring skills to the team that will cover your backside.

Emotions can swing both ways.  I won't go into a certain store because the person behind the counter was rude to me.  I don't stop at Dairy Queen because my wife will chide me for not sticking to my diet.  I found a different mechanic because the technicians were not honest with me the last time I asked questions about my car repair.  I won't hire that accountant because I heard my neighbor got ripped off by him.

This is one of the reasons it is so important to address bad customer experiences as quickly and completely as possible.  When people have a bad experience, and it isn't addressed quickly and sincerely, the tell people.  When people hear bad things about a product or service, they tend to take it seriously.  Fearing a bad experience themselves, they stay away or at least think twice before making a purchase.

The bottom line is that when you connect with a customer's emotions, you connect with them.  Good or bad.  Make them laugh.  Make them cry.  Make them feel something.  But do it deliberately and with a strategy.

Otherwise, you may be the one crying.

When No One is Looking

Customer service happens when no one is looking.  When an employee interacts with a customer while they are being watched by a supervisor, it isn't customer service, its obedience.  Customer service requires initiative.

Initiative happens when you let staff know they are trusted.  Trusted to address customer needs and concerns.  Trusted to make mistakes.  Especially if those mistakes are made because they are trying: to help a customer; meet a goal; or address an organizational challenge.

Employees know they are trusted by the way their leaders treat them and react to them, especially when they make mistakes.  If failure is treated as a punishable offense versus a step toward success, then staff will not feel trusted and will learn not to take initiative.  If mistakes are met with anger and loud voices versus analysis and education, that signals a lot to the person who made the mistake.  And everyone they talk to and work with.

On the surface, customer service is a simple thing.  It is about being polite, pleasant and professional with customers and working to address their needs.

Excellent customer service goes deeper, however.  It is about anticipating the needs of the customer and addressing them before they ask.  It is about quickly and efficiently resolving customer problems when needs aren't met to the satisfaction of the customer.  To achieve this, it takes a staff member who is actively engaged in the success of the organization.  A person who takes the initiative to understand customers and has the creativity and personality to positively engage customers.  Excellent customer service cannot be done simply by following a checklist.

Ultimately, excellent customer service on the front lines, something every organization should strive for, starts with the way things are handled in the back room.

Social Entrepreneurship

The term social entrepreneurship is relatively new, but the concept of people with big ideas working for the common good goes back to the start of history.

The last 150 years have given us famous examples of social entrepreneurs such as Susan B. Anthony, John Muir, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King Jr.  For everyone of these famous names, there are countless others that worked tirelessly for their big idea with little or no public accolades.  My guess is they weren't in it for the public accolades.

Social entrepreneurship is, according to some, one of the ways to efficiently address some of the significant issues facing our planet using entrepreneurial approaches.  The current wave of social entrepreneurship started 25 years ago when the concept of micro-finance was born.

The environmental and social problems that the world faces are like none we have faced in recent history.  The good thing is that the tools we have are like none we have faced in recent history.  I believe that it is the responsibility of businesses, as well as citizens, to devote time and resources to address the societal issues in the communities they serve and operate in.  Call that social entrepreneurship, triple bottom line or whatever you want, it is important for our future.

The Skoll World Forum seems to agree.  The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, according to its website, is the premier, international platform for accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues.

The video below is the video they used to open this years forum.  I find it to be a wonderfully optimistic and encouraging video.  I find that it nicely highlights one of the most spectacular and magical elements of the internet, the fact that so many of us are so interconnected for so little.

It has encouraged me to write this blog on social entrepreneurship.  It is a topic I intend to return to frequently.  If you know of social entrepreneurs who inspire you, let me know about them so I can feature them in future blogs.  If you learn of a company (perhaps YOUR company) that does amazing and impactful things, share with us.

It won't change the world, but if it can inspire one person, then it is well worth it.

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A Photo Finish at the Sun Times?

Chicago Sun Times (Photo credit: stu_spivack)

The Chicago Sun Times recently and suddenly laid off all 28 people in its full-time photography staff.  This included photographers and editors for its flagship paper and all of its suburban papers.

My first reaction was how could that only be 28 people?  To cover all of Chicagoland?  Including the suburbs?

My second reaction was this must be the beginning of the end for a once venerable major market newspaper.  How long can the Chicago Sun Times last without photographers and photo editors?  After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, reporters are going to have to write a lot more to make up for missing photos.  Right?

Not so, says the leadership at the Sun Times.  Freelancers and reporters will provide plenty of photos, they say.  Plus, the move was precipitated by a shift to more video content for its online presence.

So, in reality, this move is the start of a new beginning for the newspaper that started in Chicago almost 170 years ago.  This move should be seen as a bold move into the brave, sorta new world of online journalism.  This is a move forward; a positive future-affirming strategic step.  So says the leadership of the Sun Times Media Group, the Sun Times parent organization.

As a subscriber of two daily and two weekly newspapers (not the Sun Times though because they stopped delivering where I live many years ago), I hope they are right.  

As a believer in the importance of having multiple journalistic voices in a community, I hope they are right.

As a lover of photography, including photojournalism, I suspect that they are wrong.  I am afraid that the Sun Times leadership will soon find the power that amazing photography has to draw readers and attention to their publication.  And that the lack of it will make it easier to ignore their publication.  I suspect they will learn that there are some stories that need to be told pictorially to really have an impact.  I worry that other newspapers will follow suit and will count on writers, presumably with their cellphones, to snap pictures while they are trying to get a story, forcing them to do neither as well as they could.

I hope that this is just a strategic move and that the Sun Times continues their long and fruitful contribution to Chicago journalism.  I worry that this is another sign of the slow, creeping demise of print journalism.

I can just picture it.

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The Challenges of DeFriending

I have too many friends.  I am too linked in.  I need to simplify.

At least that was my intention when I wrote a post on quality vs. quantity when it comes to social media contacts several years ago.  Read that blog here.

All was fine and good until I started realizing that I was missing messages from contacts that I really cared about.  A colleague told me about an opportunity, but I missed it among the sea of posts I get daily.  I have to search to find pictures of my 1 year-old niece on Facebook because I get lots of other messages that aren't nearly as important, nor as cute.

So when I wrote, two years ago, about my intention to go for quality over quantity on my social media contacts, my intentions were good.  But liking someone is a lot easier than "unliking" them.  I have not made much progress on winnowing down my contacts list.  One of my many issues with Facebook is that they have all sorts of groups and games and features that encourage you to connect with lots of people, but they make it difficult (at least to this Luddite) to sort and organize your contacts.  I have "friends" that I connected with several years ago over a common interest in an issue or an event.  The problem is I don't remember what that issue or event is any longer.

Also, you friend someone by pushing one little button.  Once they accept the invitation, you are Facebook friends.  To defriend someone, once you know that want to, involves several steps.

Ultimately though, the problem for me is in the difference between the two actions.  Friending is a generally positive and inclusive action.  It opens up possibilities of connections made and opportunities revealed.  Removing friends, or links, or contacts is the opposite.  It shrinks your online world.

Or does it.  As I wrote two years ago, sometimes it is about numbers, but sometimes its about making sure you see those cute toddler pictures!

Graduations

Celebrations often leave a lot to be desired.

I was thinking of this as I attended my son's recent college graduation recently.  The ceremony was great.  I mostly enjoyed the speeches and presentations.  I was thrilled to watch him cross the stage in this celebration of the completion of the last vestiges of his childhood.

Graduations serve their purpose as a celebration of accomplishment and as a marker of time.  It is important for all involved (students, instructors, parents) to have a capstone celebration for something that is as intense and involved as many years of college, or high school, or graduate school, or military academy, or trade school, or...

Yet, I couldn't help but think that even the most tightly run, most carefully choreographed celebration that involves a whole group, or class, of people, is bound to have some time in which large portions of the audience aren't interested.

One of my son's friends said he thought it would be better if the college had an all night party, everyone watched the sunrise together and the president of the college handed out diplomas at breakfast.  He is probably right if the ceremony was only for the graduates.  Most parents would be happy if the college played Pomp and Circumstance, read only their child's name, and then invited the parents up on stage to take photos.  Most professors would probably prefer to leave things on the departmental level.

My point is that while big accomplishments deserve to have a big deal made of them, organizations should pay attention to the purpose of the celebration and the perspective of the participants and the targeted stakeholders.

While its not necessary to compete with the sunrise when hosting a celebration, understand that for some in your audience, that is an alternative.

Something More

In a world where choices are seemingly limitless, it seems that providing something more is a good strategy.

I choose to use Bing as a search engine because it has beautiful, evocative photos on its landing page.  I don't need those photos but they make me smile, it doesn't seem to slow operations any and occasionally I click on the links and learn a random fact or two.  That is a little something more that I frequently enjoy.  That is a little something more that appeals to me and gets me to use Bing.

Something more can be as simple as having your phones answered by a live person, a freebie in the package shipped to your house or an offer to help you take your parcels to your car.  Often it is just encountering someone with a wonderful attitude that changes your whole experience.

Is there a product or service that you use because they offer a little more?  Share with us in the comments below companies or services that you've enjoyed because they offer something more.  I will feature some of the companies in future blogs.

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