In-n-Out: My first visit

I have been hearing about the great In-n-Out Burger for years now, both while in grad school and from a variety of word of mouth. The company sure does know how to market itself.

The chain finally built locations here in Salt Lake and today, thanks to my buddy Steve, I finally had an opportunity to try them.

The place was packed but despite that the customer service was superb. Steve even asked the gal at the counter to expain the “secret” menu to me and she enthusiastically explained all of the “animal-style” secrets. It was fun and it served to make the experience that much more meaningful.

The food was okay. I’ve had better, but it was still good food. I would definely have it again.

Verizon punishing unhappy customers for leaving

Consider this for a moment – if you had an opportunity to punish shoppers for leaving your business after they had a bad experience or were tempted to do business with another retailer, would you? For most of us, the answer is simple. We wouldn’t do it. It just does not make sense. If you are unhappy with a good or service, you should have every right to go elsewhere.

Verizon (and the rest of the mobile phone industry) seem to think otherwise. In fact, Verizon just raised their fees to a whopping $300 for customers who wish to terminate their contracts early and move to another carrier. Their argument is simple – we have invested in customers by supplementing the cost of their phones. Great point; however, it just doesn’t pan out. In any other industry, that’s just the cost of doing business.

For instance, look at Zappo’s return policy. They offer free returns for up to 365 days. That’s one year free of charge, no questions asked.

Apparently, the cell phone business is different. But the fault is all theirs. They made the conscious choice to offer prospective customers great deals on phones in order to attract them. It is a pricing strategy gone awry and not they want to shift the costs to unhappy customers. Let me throw out a novel idea.

Instead of punishing customers for leaving when they are unhappy, why not charge a little more for your service and don’t give them the chance to leave by offering the absolute best, most innovative cell phones accompanied by the absolute best service in the world (cell coverage as well as customer service).

The formula is pretty simple. If you want to increase loyalty, you must connect emotionally with your prospective customers while offering them a service and/or product that is a great value. Zappos gets it; cell phone carriers don’t.

Give customers a good reason to stay; don’t punish them for your bad business decisions.

Customer Experience: Zappos and my Reebok Christmas nightmare

I’ve been on the hunt for a pair of Reebok Easytone shoes for Cassie (the ones in the picture below in a size 8.5). She loved the commercials and since we take a lot of long walks together, I thought this would be a great Christmas gift. But no one has the shoes for purchase (read more about this in a previous blog post).

I even visited Zappos, one of my all-time favorite companies. Even they were out, but I had an interesting experience with Zappos that is worth sharing.

When I logged onto their site and searched for the shoes, the site showed that they had two more pairs of the shoes I was looking for in stock – just two pair! So I hurried and tried to purchase them. The site kept kicking me out of the shopping cart feature. After four tries, I decided to call Zappos directly.

I spoke with a bubbly and very helpful woman. Here’s what I loved about the interaction:

1. The dialing experience: I called with my cell phone which Zappos had on file from a previous purchase. After a short pause and a ‘please hang on for our next available customer service representative’ message, the woman answered my call, had my account open and was already looking at my current shopping cart.
2. The diagnosis: Once I described what had happened, she quickly figured out that their site had not updated the product listing once the shoes had sold out. There weren’t two left. Oh well, at least I knew what was going on. She quickly emptied my shopping cart for me.
3. The solution: She apologized for the mix up and offered me two solutions. First, she had already looked up three competitor websites and found one that had the shoes (it turned out that they were out of stock as well). Second, she offered to put me on a list so Zappos could inform me when the shoes were back in stock.
4. The follow through: About an hour after the call, I received an email from Zappos. To my surprise, my account had been upgraded to Zappo’s VIP status free of charge. Now, I work in marketing and fully understand that Zappos has one of the most well-thought out CRM programs out there, but regardless, I still felt good about the whole thing.

Zappos gets it! They did everything possible to turn a bad situation into a good one. Now, if I could get one of their Zappo’s coffee mugs at a reasonable price, I’d be delighted. Does Reebok get it? Well, I sent them a quick email about my situation. I am sure they are dealing with many similar emails. I will keep you posted. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

Big Launch, No Product: How Reebok made Christmas shopping a royal pain in the butt.

Did you happen to see the great commercials for Reebok’s new shoes, the Easytones? As someone that does not watch much television, even I had a hard time missing this product launch. Even if I had, my wife wasn’t about to let me miss it. Between the hilarious commercials and all the word of mouth it seems that Reebok has a hit on their hands.

But there’s a glitch – if your wife wants a pair for Christmas (especially in pink, size 8.5), good luck because everyone is out of them. I’ve look at all the sporting goods stores here in Salt Lake (Sports Authority does not even carry Reebok shoes) and I spent many hours online. Even Amazon and Zappos were out the last time I looked! Oh, and the one place you might expect to have them, Reebok.com, was out of them as well.

There’s nothing like having a success on your hands and not having any product to fill the demand. Ouch. I bet there is a buyer or two at Reebok that is hurting this holiday season.

What’s the moral? Here I am, a customer in need. I had the $100 in hand ready to buy these shoes for my wife’s Christmas present and Reebok has made it impossible to purchase the shoes. I’ve been a loyal Nike fan for years and Reebok had a chance to win some of my family’s business. Great product launch, no shoes, no $100 for Reebok. I wonder just how many people have had similar experiences with Reebok this holiday season?

Using Clubs to Reward Loyal Customers: Disney’s Fast Pass

Several month back I had an opportunity to go to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. While there, I posted a quick tweet talking about the long lines. I was there at the height of the tourist season and it was incredibly hot and humid. Standing in lines for hours on end was not my idea of having a good time. Shortly after posting the tweet, I got a response from someone (either a big fan or an employee) talking about how great the whole fast pass thing was. This was some great word of mouth – both timely and an excellent use of Twitter.

I actually went to Disneyland when I was younger when they first started using the fastpass in that park. I remember my dad’s response being something like ‘why in the hell do these guys get to go ahead of us.’ That’s my dad – he’s a bit grumpy and way conventional.

The idea is intriguing – grab a fastpass, come back at your scheduled time and skip the long lines. But as I watched the fastpass in operation while at Disney World, I started to think that my dad was right about this one and yet, Disney still wins this game time and time again. The whole thing is a psychological game. If you “get” the fastpass concept, you are “in the in.” You start early, hit all the rides you want to ride that day and collect fast passes. Then you return at your designated times, jump the lines and ride when “you want to.”

My experience with the fastpass was far from the best. I tried it and yet I still had to wait in long fastpass lines. Even though I had 45 minutes before I could use my fastpass, none of the other rides in the area had lines short enough to allow me to ride something in between.

The fastpass is a club. Good companies use clubs all the time to reward their loyal customers. If you understand how to use the fastpass (there definitely is a strategy to using it correctly) and use it effectively, it is a major convenience. It is a way for Disney to reward all of their loyal fans and guests that return all the time. For those who don’t understand how it works, it is a minor annoyance (unless you are my father, then you get pissed off by all the people who don’t have to wait in the long lines).

This got me to thinking if there is a way to do this same thing in the grocery industry. What if you actually offered some sort of exclusive club and one of the benefits was having the ability to skip long lines or possibly have “members only” check outs. What if these special checkouts were somehow faster, friendlier and/or more convenient? How would regular shoppers respond? I would love to hear your ideas about how the fastpass concept might work in the grocery industry as well as other businesses.

How Starbucks is using customer feedback to improve business results

The other day I received a great email from one of my favorite companies, Starbucks.

What are they doing that is so cool and innovative? A year or so ago, Starbucks launched an incredibly powerful service on their website called “my starbuck’s idea”. Just think of how bold of move this was. They understood just how passionate their customers are and they were willingly to hand over “control” of the company’s future to their customers.

Over the last year, they’ve been listening and making a lot of changes and improvements based on the feedback they received. They took this whole thing another step further – the Starbuck’s team posted the ideas online and allowed their customers to vote and comment on each other’s ideas. The ones that garnered a lot of feedback and responses were the ones the company took seriously and implemented. Talk about a great use of the “social web.”

But they didn’t stop there. Once they launched ideas, they talked about them (on their blog) and gave credit to the customers who gave them the idea. This is an amazing marketing tool, both for the innovations that came out of the process and the way they have made their loyal customers feel that much more involved in the Starbuck’s culture. This is another great example of a company that has figured out how to build community and manage customer relationships in an incredibly powerful and meaningful way.

At the heart of this issue is an interesting debate. I have heard and read a number of comments about why listening to customers does not work. Seth Godin talks about his all the time in his books. Allow me to paraphrase him for a second, ‘It is futile to listen to customers because they invariably won’t tell you anything new. They might offer you a critique or two about your business, but it will rarely lead to innovation. This is because consumers are inherently irrational and they do not know what they want.’ I am a big fan of Godin’s and though I understand what he is getting at when he talks about consumers this way, I think he actually misses on this one. It’s actually pretty arrogant to think that we, as marketeers, are the only ones who are innovative. Customers who are passionate about a brand will innovate. They will innovate and help you build a better business out of the love they have for your company. Just look at what Starbucks has done with their business model.

Verizon and AT&T Face Off: You Lose

Disclaimer: I am an AT&T customer and I own an iPhone.

In case you haven’t noticed, Verizon and AT&T are back at it fighting it out on the airwaves. On one side, we have Verizon boasting about their 3G coverage. On the other side, AT&T is back on its heals talking about their coverage and roll over minutes propped up by Apple’s efforts with the iPhone. Take a look at one of Verizon’s commercials:

As a marketing professional, I am having a blast watching this play out. We’ve got two companies, both with deep pockets, going after one another. I am sure Verizon’s decision to do this was based on what is happening with the iPhone. People love is and it is dominating the smart phone market. AT&T has a virtual monopoly on the iPhone and there’s a lot of phone envy going on.

But at the end of the day, who wins in this contest? My guess is that the consumer is the biggest loser. We’re paying for this expensive war and to what end? Are our monthly rates going to go down? Will either company actually do something to improve their service or level of innovation?

What if one or both of these companies invested the time and resources to become as innovative as Apple and offered the type of service that Zappos has mastered? What if they invested the time and effort to build faster networks that actually cost their customers less?

There’s little evidence of any innovation since Apple released the iPhone. The competition has been quick to react – they’ve done a great trying to copy the iPhone. “Me too!” “Me too!” Just listen to all the competitors trying to sound and act like iPhone. Come on guys, the opportunities are wide open.

If you could get your cell company to listen to you, what would you like to see it do?

Seth Godin’s “Free Prize Inside”

Seth Godin's Free Prize Inside

I had an opportunity to finish reading Seth Godin’s “Free Prize Inside.” This was a great book. Though I have read a lot of his other books, this is one that I didn’t take much interest in until recently when I was asked to work on some innovation project for work. The timing could not have been better. I was recently asked to facilitate a small team to start developing ideas and innovations. We were given little direction and in some ways having little direction created even more problems than you might think. As they say, “necessity is the mother of all invention.”

Godin covers a variety of topics in the book:

• Why we must innovate to survive.
• The difference between hard and soft innovation.
• How to champion an innovation (this is definitely the most important part of the book.
• How to innovate (“finding the edges”).

Here’s the gist of the book. We live in a business environment that requires businesses to innovate. If they don’t, they are quickly gobbled up. The problem is that most people are not willing to challenge the status quo. They’d much rather collect a check and do what they are told. This is “industrial age” type thinking. Our businesses need us to innovate. We are not factory workers anymore.

Innovation need champions. To be one, you must understand that every innovation is marketing (political) and you must approach them with this in mind. Start by figuring out what your customer need/want. Next, develop a plan to sell the innovation and market it. But don’t get so caught up with the idea that you miss planning how to implement the project. This is where a lot of innovations fall apart: Everyone gets all hyped up about the idea and they forget that once approved they will have to actually do it. Find your innovation. Market the idea. Plan for a successful innovation. Go, go, go.

But where to find the great ideas? Godin spend about the last third of the book talking about this. He introduces the notion of “finding the edges.” As he puts it, go to the extremes and push a little further. He spends a ton of time sharing ideas about directions to take your business and product and shares a ton of real world examples.

If your company is interested in innovation, grab this book.

Thanksgiving

If anything this year has been a test for many of us. I am one of the fortunate ones that has remain employed (thanks AFS). I’ve been very lucky indeed and am incredibly thankful for everything I have.

Thanks to Cassie for being such a wonderful and caring wife.

Thanks to my parents and sister who always seem to show up no matter the circumstance.

Thanks to my friends and colleagues who always go the extra mile.

This is what makes this holiday so wonderful. It about people, not stuff. We should celebrate this holiday four times a year and drop all the others.

How Comcast took a bad situation and turned it around

This is a follow up to my previous post from earlier today. Let me run down the events and then I’ll let you know what Comcast did to turn a bad experience into a good one:

1. I signed up for Comcast Internet earlier this week. I had been procrastinating on this for a while now, but looked up Comcast earlier this week and they had some great deals going on so I signed up online. Part of the online process was selecting your install date – I chose today (from 8 a.m. to noon mainly because it is the only day that I am available (work is a little crazy as of late).
2. I woke up early this morning and waited for the technician to show up. And waited. And waited. And…
3. After not getting any call and no one showing up, I jumped online (via a crappy Cricket wireless modem) and started a chat session with a Comcast rep. S/he informed me that my appointment was incorrect and that there wasn’t anything that could be done other than reschedule for next week. She followed this up with a ‘if you have additional problems, you’ll have to call 1-800-comcast.’ Ouch. I know Comcast is a customer service oriented business so this answer shocked me a bit. If you’re going to tout your customer service, empower your people to solve your customers’ problems.
4. I couldn’t give up and called 1-800-comcast. Once again, I got the same run around. ‘Maybe your appointment was entered incorrectly; however, all I can do is reschedule your intallation time for next Saturday.’ Part of me understood the situation; however, this was not the first time that I’d had a problem with appointments (see my previous post for more info). I rescheduled, hung up and decided to give it one more try. I fired up the computer again and went online.
5. First, I wrote a brief blog post discussing my situation. Then I went to my Twitter account and posted a quick reference to my post along with a #comcast tag. Here’s what happened:
   

   Twitter conversation with Comcast

6. After spending a few minutes on Twitter with ComcastMelissa, I was assured that they were working on the problem and that I would hear from someone.
7. Then I got a phone call from my local Comcast office and spoke with Alisa. She assured me that they were working on the issue. They hoped to get a rep out to my place the same day. Sure enough, by 4:30 p.m. the team at Comcast had taken a bad situation and turned it completely around.

I am now writing this post from my new Comcast high-speed Internet connection. I want to thank ComcastMellisa, Alisa, and the service guy (didn’t catch his name) who all worked together to make this a great experience.

What’s the lesson in all of this? I work in marketing and deal with these same issues on a daily basis. When you tout yourself as a leader in customer service and when you use this as your differentiating point, you have to deliver. When you deliver, you have to deliver in a big way. You have to be the best. I was impressed with how well Comcast was listening via Twitter and even more impressed with their “urgent service recovery.” Thanks for the concern and sincere follow through. Comcast will definitely remain on my list of companies to do business with and I will be talking about this experience with everyone I know.