Customer Crossroads

Happy rituals: how to take your brand to a new level

I was thinking about a few of my happy rituals recently. Showering in the morning. Having extended coffee with the newspaper on Sundays. And sometimes, adding croissants from a favorite bakery, or homemade biscuits into the weekend morning ritual.

You may be, like me, someone who abhors repetitive routine. Even if you are, I suspect you have a few happy rituals.

The happy ritual

A happy ritual is something that gives structure and joy to daily living. When our happy rituals are in place, all is well with our corner of the world, even if the rest of the world is going to hell in a backpack.

Brands can join in those happy rituals. Which is why you find Bisquick, not with baking supplies, but with the pancake mixes at the grocery store. Pancakes are staple happy ritual accompaniment in many households. They are the birthday breakfast choice of lots of children, and one of the first things kids learn to make for themselves.

Coffee, of course, has become a major happy ritual, regardless of whether you are a Starbuckian or favor the independents.

I was thinking about all of this relative to my morning shower. [I'd much rather give up imported asparagus than my showers, if push comes to shove on the environmental front]  My hair care products aren't adding much to the experience. They are highly functional. They do the job I am buying them for. But they're not giving me any extra emotional goodies. No fresh scent that I would miss if I changed products, for example. 

You could argue that there are emotional benefits associated with keeping my hair from going insane during humid weather. Or keeping those expensive highlights looking fresher longer. That's true. the functional benefits do link to emotional benefits. But there could still be a  happy ritual during use.

Whatever the brand experience you are offering, if you stay at the level of functional benefits, you're missing out on ways to garner greater loyalty.

If you only do product research out of the customer's context, you will have trouble finding out about the happy rituals.

Acknowledgements

The image is from unadorned.org/morningpaper by Stephanie Troeth under a creative commons license.

I've written about happy rituals before.

With respect to deconstructing the Curves customer experience: Curves and more Curves.  

Why Starbucks and instant coffee don't make sense to me. How Starbucks surveys about customer experience. Starbucks versus my local independent coffee places.

ideaCity last day... and now i'm really worried about the oceans

If there's one thing I'm taking away from this conference, it's that we need to get serious about the environment, and most specifically the oceans.

One of the creatures in serious trouble is the shark, due to, as you may know, shark fin soup.

Sharks have been around for 450 million years, and have survived five major extinctions. As Rob Stewart said today (he made Sharkwater documentary), everything in the oceans is below them in the foodchain, so they were responsible for the rebuilding of the ocean ecology. "Shark tested" as it were. 

And because the sharks are in trouble, some troublesome and very large squid have now expanded their range up and down the western coast of North America, and will round the cape to the east soon.

Estimates of the death of the oceans are by 2048, and some even sooner, within 25 years.

I was so impressed, however, by the passion and brains of the Millennials that spoke, that I hope they can mobilize the rest of us to do the right thing.

**********************

Worst one-liners:

 

Yesterday I was having a perfectly delightful discussion with Preston Manning, who spoke brilliantly about human rights. And a strange man came up and entered our conversation with these words, directed at me: "The trouble with women is..." It was such a bizarre thing to encounter at a conference about ideas.

*****************

Best one-liners today:

"People always make the right decision when they're given the facts."

"If the oceans fail, so does our species. We have to make a choice."

Squids: "Earth's resident aliens."

"Success is not about how much money I have in my bank account," -- from the guy who ran across the Sahara, Ray Zahab

"It's not about outdoing yourself. It's about expanding your personal limitations." 

"That's when I got it. These people [scientists] had stuck with those boring classes and now they could do cool stuff." Ben Gulak, inventor of the Uno.

"It's like being on a personal cloud."

"Being in the joy business."

"Governments and corporations do not have long-term human survival at heart."

"People that know what's going on have escape plans."

"The wild lies all around us + we take it in like breath. Our lives are inseparable from the lives of insects."

"I am a philosopher, which means I know nothing about anything."

"Why should we now block the further evolution of our species." 

"Genes are nature's nanotechnology."

Back to listen to a Klezmer band, and then one more session of speakers before we all roll off to the last party. This is a conference that spoils you for other conferences. Even the jaded among us are in awe of the science, the personal stories of struggle and achievement, and the passion of the speakers.

ideaCity Day 1

ideaCity (or as I keep mistyping it on this Mac, ideaCuty) is showing signs of the recession. And that's all I'm saying about that for the rest of the week! 

My buddies here have opinions:

 

Kara says: Irwin Cotler and Laura Archer were inspiring. [This is good evidence for the recency effect, since they were both in the last session.]

Pat's faves were: the assisted-death doctor. His volunteers are getting arrested in the US. In Georgia, they ran a sting operation and arrested some 80 year olds. This was truly shocking to a group of urban liberals, such as this audience is filled with. [Richard MacDonald, a very impressive man, Final Exit Network.]

Here are my top "heard and overheard" today. 

Galileo saw Saturn 400 years ago. Now, they know that the rings have spiral ripples. One of Saturn's satellites has a large underground water reservoir, and evidence of carbon atoms. (Encilidas?) Too bad it's so far away. 

"Space is really empty. Even when it's full."

"If the Sun was in Toronto, and was 15 cm across, the nearest star to us would also be a similar size, but would be on the Yukon/Alaska border."

"Religion is mythology misuderstood." 

"Organized medicine is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one."

"Democracy was born 27 centuries ago. It's enemies are war, tyrranny, ideologies of opression. These days, democracy fights back, and often triumphs, but sometimes at great cost."

"Only people in the provinces talk about being world class."

"Aboriginals make up the source of the root of the ideas upon which we are acting, when we (Canadians) are acting at our best."

"Are they really human rights, or are they privileges, when only the privileged can exercise their human rights?"

OK, off to refill on caffeine, and take a bio break. Catch you later, and thanks for stopping by.

Northrop Frye apparently said: "If there is anything historical in the Bible, it is there by accident."

"Myth is what never was, but always is."

Off to ideaCity09

I'm off for three days of brain feeding at ideaCity. In prior years, I did try to post to the blog from the computers in the lobby. But this year, my plan is to Twitter.
If you want to stay tuned, you can follow me on @susanabbott
And I hereby promise to tweet about interesting stuff, not hors d'oevres and such. Will try for some pix too. [If i can figure out how to do it ok? I may look like a tech head, but it's sheer fakery.]

It looks like there might be an official Idea City Twitter this year,  @IdeaCityNews.

Regular programming will resume next week.

And thank you for reading.

Your humble servant, etc.

Susan

Is body language as useful as we think? How to tell if someone is lying

Clients often have a strong preference for in-person qualitative research. They say it is because the body language and facial expressions of the respondents are important. I know one of the reasons is that they find it more engaging.

How important is body language anyway? Can you get anything more than gross indications of interest from it?

People have been researching lying to try to help, in particular, the police, child protection workers, and security services. Here is some of what they have learned, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

• Liars do not avert their eyes more than people telling the truth
• Liars do not fidget, sweat or slump more than truth-tellers
• There are fleeting changes in expression, but these are difficult to analyze

It turns out that content analysis is actually more useful.

People who are lying tend to try to stick to a script, to avoid getting caught in a lie.
People telling the truth don't have a script, so they tend to recall more extraneous details, and make mistakes. And the more they talk about a given experience, the more of these details come to mind.

This is particularly noticeable if you have some baseline for how a given individual tells a story, so the recommended procedure is to start with a basic story.

My take:

In my work, it's not so much that people are lying, as that they are posturing, or saying things that they believe to be more socially acceptable. It's nice to learn that the words are just as important as the non-verbal to truly understand.

Resources:

Judging Honesty by Words, Not Fidgets, by Benedict Carey, The New York Times, May 12, 2009

Deep diving customer needs: What we can learn from solicitations

Dear Mr. [your name here]:
I am personally pleased to announce your selection for the Institute's esteemed MAN OF THE YEAR representing your country for 2009. This Award exemplified the importance and validation of deeds well done.

The letter goes on in this fashion for a couple of pages. For $295 USD you can get yourself a nice plaque for your wall that says you have been named Man of the Year by the American Biographical Institute. 

The award itself is "an elegant 8 x 10 inch plaque in a cherrywood piano finish with a black gloss insert and gold lettering." And it's guaranteed against material defects during shipment.

Just think of the margin on this operation.

It seems to be a very successful business, in operation since 1967.

But it reminds me of something I once heard about the wine industry, along these lines... if you can't win a medal in a wine industry contest, you need to start a new contest.

I guess you could just go out and buy your own plaque. But that probably feels just slightly less satisfying, and where's the fun in that.

Susan's take:

OK, maybe you don't want to sell people overpriced plaques. But people need and want to feel special and unique and they want their achievements recognized. In a world of six billion people, getting a little recognition counts for a lot.

Maybe there is a better way to achieve that.

Resources:

Wikipedia entry on American Biographical Institute, showing some of the awards they make available. 

Benazir Bhutto was apparently awarded the 2000 Millennium Medal of Honor in November 1998.

A university professor issued a press release on his award.

It looks like there's a similar operation in the UK, called the International Biographical Centre.

Check out the list of awards this 'surgeon' has. Clearly, this individual understands the importance of third party confirmation in getting people to trust you.

What is a customer relationship? And how does it relate to CRM?

Customer relationship: a relationship that is valued by the client/customer, and valuable to the company.

Anything less than this, and it's database marketing, even if you call it Customer Relationship Management.

This just in: Facebook payments, gold dispensing ATMs

Virtual currencies, Micro-payments and Facebook

Lots of people have been dabbling in Facebook as a financial interface, including linking to secure banking, apps related to peer-to-peer lending sites, and many more. Facebook is now testing virtual currency in partnership with GroupCard. Users would buy credits for 10 cents each from Facebook, paying with their credit card. They could then use credits to pay for things inside Facebook. The intention is to enable merchants to offer services for small amounts on a viable basis. Facebook would take a cut, generating a new revenue stream for the application.

Facebook may succeed here, where other microcurrencies have not. (Remember Beenz?)  Someone is going to get the micropayments thing right eventually, I think. This is not so different from the credits you buy on stock art sites such as istockphoto (and probably other places too).

Loyalty points are practically a currency, since you can buy a wide variety of items with points now.

Source: Finextra, June 1, 2009 Facebook begins testing virtual payments system

Gold works better than flowers department

A German precious metals trader, TG-Gold-Super-Markt is testing ATMs that will dispense gold.

Thomas Geissler, chief executive, told Reuters that the initiative is "more than a marketing gimmick.' The current plan is to place as many as 500 machines in locations like rail stations and airports.

I'll say one thing: it's easier to carry a gold wafer with your luggage than a bouquet. And the value lasts longer than a stuffed animal or a key-chain. It even works as an environmentally correct gifting strategy, since it's unlikely to wind up in landfill. 

Sources: Finextra, May 29, 2009. German firm plans gold-dispensing ATMs.
Reuters, May 19, 2009. German firm plans gold ATMs to meet growing demand.

More on Curves: how not to re-engage lost customers

I've written in the past about Curves, a very interesting franchise operation. They've done some brilliant marketing in the past, and the very concept of the operation is a great example of building a service offering for an under-served market segment. I used to be a member of the local operation, but now I'm at a competitor around the corner.

I drifted away in a familiar pattern. Not going very often. Then even less often. Not knowing the staff anymore. And they didn't recognize me either. Finally, it just seemed like a pointless waste of money to keep a membership going that only made me feel guilty and wasn't making me any fitter.

Now they want me back.

A letter showed up at the house a few weeks ago. [And is now part of my collection of good, bad, and ugly customer experience stuff.]

"Dear Past Curves Member" it starts out. A harbinger of the tone of the rest of the letter.

The signature is photocopied.

You know, it's totally possible that they had a few hundred past members they wanted to send mail to. But instead of hand-writing the envelope address, they should really have personalized the inside, and signed each letter.

And their offers kind of left me lukewarm. I can avoid the service fee if I bring in something for the Sick Kids Toy Drive "minimum value $30".

I saw "ONE FREE MONTH", but then read that it's a draw for one free month, and I'm only entered if I bring a friend who also joins. When you are trying to re-engage someone who was a customer, offering a genuine enticement is a good idea. This doesn't really cut it.

This offer was only made available for two days. That's right folks, they're on a tight schedule. They want you back, they want you to buy and bring a $30 toy, they want you to bring a friend and get them to sign up, but you need to do it on two specific days.

Here's the best part: "Appointments will be limited".

Imagine putting all these things together, the toy and the friend and all, and convincing the friend that even though you dumped the membership, we should all just go back because they've repainted or something. Then making the call and being told, 'sorry, we don't have any more appointments during this offer period. We'd love to have you come in at full price next week."

Susan's tips:

If you want your former customers to take a chance on you again, you need to offer solid incentives. No catches. No gotchas.

If you are a neighborhood operation, as Curves is, you should really make the offer as personal as possible. Signing the letter personally is a good idea. So is personalizing with the customer's name. Definitely do not call me "former customer".

References:

I've written about Curves before. I had to finally close out the comments because the Curves nation was starting to take over the blog.

Making tradeoffs in customer experience design: CurvesSmart, and what it means for the Curves experience. CustomerCrossroads Blog, October 9, 2007

Designing experiences: Prototype, pilot, tweak and adjust. CustomerCrossroads Blog, October 17, 2007

Qualitative research in segmentation: why you need it and how to get value. Slides on Slideshare of a presentation I gave. Curves was in the "good" examples section.

Was the CurvesSmart Program a Smart Choice, November, 2008,on the Leximancer Blog references my earlier posts, and uses their analysis tool on some Curves comment data. Sadly, they got me confused with some other Susan and got the attribution wrong. Such is life in the blog-o-sphere. Their article is interesting all the same, and an example of what can be done with some of the new text analysis tools available.

A new look at segmentation: Put the customer in the picture

I'm a big fan of IKEA, among the most successful retailers in the world. Every time I'm in one of their stores, I see something worth thinking about.

Check out these signs. They were evident in several of their room arrangements.

This is the kind of description that might be created by a marketing department but never seen by a customer. It's a description of a market segment that evokes needs, behaviors and activities. And the furniture matches.

What's interesting about this is putting the segment information on display. Really, very few organizations do this. They may have offerings that are designed for a certain segment, but they don't make it explicit.

One exception is Umpqua bank, which doesn't exactly describe their segments, but gives you a clue in their product descriptions.

Descriptions like these are often used in innovation work to describe the target customer that you are seeking ideas for. Why hide it once you have it?

As additional benefit here, the description helps someone affirm that "yes, this is the kind of furniture someone like you should have." It helps the customer put themselves in the picture. And this is a good thing.

Susan's tips:

[1] Create evocative descriptions of your market segments
[2] Use the descriptions to help staff stay in tune with the customer
[3] Use the descriptions to help customers find their best fit among your product/service offerings.

Resources:

Susan's Slideshare presentation about segmentation

Umpqua Bank building integrated customer experience as a lifestyle brand. Customer Crossroads, September 2006.

I just liked this display. No big insight.