You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2006.
This is the title of a great little book by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller. And I have to say, HomeTask.com gets it. They considered my complaint to be a gift — an opportunity to improve their organization, rather than something to get defensive about or worse yet, ignore all together.
The top three reasons most people will never complain:
1. They don’t think you care.
2. Even if you do care, nothing will change.
3. Fear of conflict.
So most of us go around not complaining to the company — but rather to each other ABOUT the company. Okay — I did both. And the CEO of HomeTask.com, a Mr. Jerrod Sessler is my official Tattoo-Worthy Boss of the Month. Which I just made up but hope I can make a regular part of this BLOG.
Not only did he have his customer service folks contact me within 24 hours of my complaint, they offered no excuses for Scott’s blowing me off, but rather understood my frustration, and asked me to give them a second chance. They gave me the name of their highest rated handyman (which means they DO care about the quality of their brand) and a $50.00 gift card. She also told me that Jerrod would be contacting me soon. The next day I got a bouquet of flowers with a great little note: “We are in business to make people’s lives better. I am sorry that we fell short so far but we want to prove we care! Jerrod Sessler, HomeTask CEO. That’s good stuff.
THEN the next day I got a package from Amazon.com. In the box was a beautifully wrapped (which means he sprung for the extra 3 bucks for gift wrap) copy of Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard. A favorite of mine. The card read: “Denise, ordered your book & plan to enjoy. Recently read Raving Fans & we now include it in training at HomeTask. I thought you would enjoy a copy for your library. Dreaming of an HT tattoo design…Best regards, Tattoo-Worthy Boss of the Month — Jerrod Sessler, HomeTask CEO. Please go to www.hometask.com and give them a try. I’m having a garbage disposal installed by them very soon.
For over a month there has been this big bright yellow and royal blue van parked across the street at our neighbor’s house. It says “HomeTask.com” Handyman services. I brought up their website. All the brand elements are consistent with the van. It’s easy to navigate. I called their 800 number. A very nice woman answered almost immediately.
I explained how I “heard” about them (meaning their marketing actually worked) and that I needed more information. It’s pretty straight-forward. They are a dispatcher of sorts for handymen all over the nation. These men (and now that I think about it — it was gender specific) buy into the franchise of HomeTask.com. Very smart way to get business.
I explained our task. My husband fell off a ladder last summer painting the exterior of our house. He had to have knee surgery. And now that he’s all healed up — I’d rather he not get back on the ladder. She was great — we had a little chick moment about men and their egos and she said she would have Scott come out the following Tuesday.
She even confirmed the gig with an email. I now had an online account complete with Scott’s contact info, and description of the job. That Tuesday morning Scott called — he couldn’t make it. Could he reschedule for the following Tuesday? Sure.
The following Tuesday I waited and waited. No Scott. I called HomeTask and explained. This gal was super nice too and very apologetic. She said she would located a different handyman and have him contact us. He did. We played phone tag. He’s currently “it.” It’s been over a week. Guess who got on the ladder yesterday and finished the job?
Here’s my point. Why in the world would you PAY money to this tight franchise to promote your services and then blow off clients? I can understand ONE handyman doing it — but two?? The van is still parked in front of the house across the street. I’m dying to walk over there and say, “Scott?” If he responds — I just want to simply say, “What the hell?”
Here’s where marketing gets a bad rap. Whomever developed the brand for this company did everything right. Except being involved in the actual execution of the promise. This is classic frosting on the pig. All the elements are there. Consistent use of fonts, pms colors, graphics. The voice is clear and strong and the site is easy to navigate. BUT I couldn’t get a single handyman to actually come out to do the work.
You can’t beg for business anymore — now you have to earn it. One unhappy customer used to tell 8 people of their experience — today we can tell 8000…..or more.
NOTE: Please read A Complaint is a Gift blog entry for an incredible update to this story.
When a big publisher picks up my book and we have to print a second edition, KINK is going to be a chapter. KINK is tattoo-worthy.
Radio is facing competition like never before. XM, Sirius, iPods. There are lots of things you can bring into your car that will prevent you from ever turning on the good old radio. Why then did KINK just offer live streaming audio of their station on the internet? I mean why would anyone want to listen to the radio on their computer? Because KINK is that good and they have a loyal following and some of us (me) have moved out of their area and need a good KINK fix.
KINK began as an experiment over 30 years ago. I was on a field trip with my Blue Bird troop when I “met” the first KINK DJ. It was a big room full of buttons. There was no real DJ. Their promise was to be “true to the music.” They cannot be easily labeled. They are not country, jazz, rock, top-40, hip-hop. In fact, the play it all IF it’s good.
So who’s to say if it’s good or not? The KINK people. I have no idea who these folks are, but they have a knack for finding songs on “B” sides, buried in albums or back rooms of local bars — and these songs rock. They are like the scouts at Nike who can find the hot athlete before the world knows they’re hot. A typical playlist today looks like this: Snow Patrol, Gnarls Barkley, Mary Gauthier, Donavon Frankenreiter, Feist, and Los Lonely Boys. Oh, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Train and Madeline Peyroux. You cannot find another station in the US that plays that kind of diversity.
If you tune in today you will experience the Deep 06 Summer. Here’s the blurb from their website www.kink.fm: Listen to KINK as we dig up the most overlooked albums of all time. These are the albums and CDs that are full of great songs, but for some reason, never made it big. We’re not talking Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” or Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” here. Rather, we’re looking for those undiscovered gems.
Yesterday they featured Billy Joel’s Turnstiles album from 1976!! My husband and I were in high school when that came out and we still know the words to I’ve Loved These Days. How is that? I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night but as soon as that song came on, I grabbed my wine glass and sang into it with all my might.
They have DJs now and they are intelligent, informed, and also true to the music and to their listeners. Les Sarnoff has been the morning DJ for as long as I can remember. Mike Rich still makes an occasional appearance on KINK. He was their news director for years and then bought a book “How to Write a Screenplay” and ended up winning some big writer’s award and having his first attempt made into a movie starring Sean Connery. Finding Forrester. Not bad for a hobby. We all lived that moment with Mike. He’s a cool guy.
They are not afraid to have opinions on local subjects. Just click on KINK Considers on their website and see what’s going on. Or tune in after 10pm and relax to KINK Lights Out. Sunday mornings KINK goes all natural for Accoustic Sunrise and Subject Earth reminds us that we are in the Northwest where we love trees. Yes, sometimes we even hug them.
Here’s my point. KINK IS true to the music. They have been for over 30 years. They are constantly reinventing themselves to stay relevant TO that promise. It’s very rare to find a company today that has the guts to stay true to their brand, their passion and their audience. Most companies subscribe to the strategy-of-the-month club to make a bigger buck.
KINK has made the competition irrelevant. Enjoy.
Just after crossing the border from Wisconsin on my big road trip last week I saw what ended up being my favorite billboard on the trip. It simply said, “SPAM Museum. Trust Us.” Yes, there is a SPAM museum in Austin, Minnesota. The next billboard said, “Ingredients question answered.” SPAM Museum. Then the ever popular “Free Restrooms” SPAM Museum. And finally — “Finally. SPAM Museum.”
Don’t you want to go? We turned off the interstate. The little blue and gold SPAM signs guided us gently past the Hormel plant and huge employee parking lot to a beautiful brick building with landscaping, bronze pig statues and a guard shack at the entrance. Sadly the SPAM museum had closed for the day. But a guard was still there to greet us and distribute a plethora of SPAM catalogs, brochures, guides and complimentary post cards.
A sign of a good brand, in my opinion, is that it oozes from every pore of the organization. Without even going in I could tell it oozed. And it wasn’t just the smell. The parking spaces all said SPAM. The garden has SPAM stepping stones. And the SPAM Museum Official Tour Guide is some of the best marketing I’ve seen in years. To truly appreciate the cult that is SPAM — you have to visit www.spam.com.
The folks at SPAM (Hormel) have the gift of making everything fun. They even make fun of lawyers. I mean, let’s face it — you can’t pick up a cup of coffee, a pack of cigarettes or an email without some 4 point font telling you that no one is responsible for anything — “this coffee may be hot” (duh) or “smoking cigarettes may be hazardous to your health” (duh) or my favorite, the one that appears on a ton of email messages: “The above message is intended only for the addresse(s), may be confidential, and may contain privileged or copyrighted information. The message reflects only the sender’s opinion…blah blah blah….” Okay, we get it. You are afraid of your own shadow.
But SPAM boldly claims: “This SPAM Museum contains no artificial stories or preservatives. Items within may be replicas or substitutions but the truth is there. Let’s face it. You can’t make this stuff up.”
Brand is your reputation. And SPAM’s reputation is kind of a weird one. How could this brand have survived the health food craze of the 90’s? By considerately reducing the sodium of course. They embrace their canned-meatiness. They are proud to be hijacked by the information superhighway. It is a compliment to refer to annoying marketing messages on your computer as SPAM!!
SPAM turns 70 next year. They have served up over 6 billion cans of SPAM. It apparently is the official meat of Hawaii. I bought a SPAM shot glass. I will go back to Austin, Minnesota some day and go to the SPAM museum. I hope you will too. In the meantime, you may want to learn the SPAM song. It’s fun to say SPAM and even more fun to sing SPAM. SPAM SPAM SPAM. Brought to you by the good folks at Monty Python’s Flying Circus. http://www.mailmsg.com/sounds/spam-song.wav
SPAM.
This just in — you HAVE to check out www.myworthlesswebsite.com/spammuseum.html
As I was getting my first tattoo, I nervously chatted up Spike (my tattoo artist) to distract me from the pain. I asked him what the most requested tattoo was. Harley Davidson was his response. Wow. The most requested tattoo — people pay to have Spike permanently inject ink into their flesh — a corporate logo. Imagine your customers being so enamored with your business that they would tattoo your logo to their arm or some other body part?
Last week I drove through Sturgis, South Dakota during the 66th Annual Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. It was not planned. I was, in the words of “D-Fens” in the movie Falling Down — “Just trying to get home.” I knew Harley was a cult. But to really appreciate the devotion, you gotta go to Sturgis. According to their website www.sturgis.com in 2005 there were 525,250 participants. And for those of you who are reading this and thinking Crime City, USA — think again. The number one crime committed was “illegal parking.”
I saw my first biker somewhere in Wisconsin, and pretty much followed the pack right on through to Washington state. Everywhere I stopped there were at least 25 HOGs in the parking lot. I took tons of pictures and heard some great stories. Harley Davidson is over 100 years old. The company has had its struggles and nearly went out of business — until a group of devoted Harley owners bought the struggling company back from AMF in 1984. The Harley logo has been around since 1910. If your customers are tattooing your logo to their bodies, you can’t change it. Do you have that problem?
Last year I published my first book. Tattoos: The Ultimate Proof of a Successful Brand. In it I tell stories of companies that I believe are tattoo-worthy. Some of these “companies” are religions, entire states, or just one person. Everyone has a brand. To become tattoo-worthy you have to target an audience, not a territory. You need to listen to that target — be loyal to them. And the most important part of becoming tattoo-worthy…identify the competition for your target, and make them irrelevant. That is what Harley has done. They have no competition. Are you tattoo-worthy?
I was speaking to a room full of marketers last week in Ohio. I asked how many of them had registered for the national DO NOT CALL registry. Every single one of them had. Then I continued, curious. How many had spam filters and pop-up blockers on their computers? Not surprising — everyone again. How many had TiVo or DVRs? About half. For the benefit of the “have nots” I asked TiVo owners why they are willing to pay another monthly fee to watch television that they are already paying for. Number one reason? To ZAP (skip through) commercials. Okay — this is fun. How many have XM or Sirius Satellite Radio OR an iPod. Lots of them. And the final question — the bonus round. How many marketing professionals own a shredder!?!?!? All of them rose their hands laughing.
These folks were willing to pay for devices that insulated their lives from….marketing. Don’t call me. Don’t mail me your crap. Don’t bother my television time. Stay out of my car. Leave me alone when I’m online. Marketing is dead.
All that is left? Besides billboards? Word of Mouth.
That is modern marketing. You can’t beg for business any more. Now you have to earn it.
I’m originally from Portland, Oregon. The land of no tolls. I think the only one I’ve ever paid was to leave Oregon — The Bridge of the Gods, and the Astoria Bridge. I blame Washington.
I’ve been on the I-90 for two days now — almost 1000 miles, and over $25.00 in tolls. It begins with the Mass Pike, then the New York Tollway, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Every state charged me to drive this road.
I have this theory about hotel rooms that I find now applies to tollways.
In a hotel — the price of the room is in direct proportion to the size of the soap.
The price of the tollway has nothing to do with the length of the road — but rather the quality of those “rest areas” I assume they fund. If you’re from the West (left) coast our rest areas are literally that. A place to pee. Rest. Walk the dog. If you pay a toll you will have not only a bathroom but a game room complete with Pac Man, a gift shop to buy everything from t-shirts with that state’s name on them to shot glasses, Beanie Babies (now I know where they’ve all gone) and overpriced toiletries.
You also have a McDonald’s, Sbarro, Starbucks, Burger King, Hardee’s, Cinnabon, Nathan’s….just to name a few.
You could eat yourself silly every 20 miles or so. What I want to know though — why no toilet seat covers??? Is that an East Coast thing? Ohio had the holders — but they were empty. You’d think for $25.00 I wouldn’t have to make my own….
Niagra Falls. I’ll admit it, I’ve read nothing about the history or discovery of the falls. I imagine way back before Christopher Columbus discovered America someone “discovered” the falls by accident. But didn’t live to tell about it. Thanks to television, we’ve all “seen” the falls by now. And the marketing tells us that it is a very romantic spot. Great for honeymooners. It always looks so majestic and cold and a place you’d want to snuggle.
To get to NF you have to go through Buffalo. NY, just off the I-90. The moment I turned to cross the border into Canada I had to open my wallet. $2.50 to cross the bridge. $20.00 to park my car. $220.00 plus tax for the room at the Marriott (www.marriott.com) $19.95 to get on the Internet to post this Blog. And now I’m ready to see the falls up close.
I walk out the back of the hotel and I see this big directional sign: Casino, T.G.I.F., The Keg, Shopping Mall, Planet Hollywood and the obligatory phallic building with expensive restaurant at the top. You know the drill. If the Falls weren’t so noisy you’d swear you were in any tacky tourist city USA. You never see all this crap in the pictures of the falls. You don’t see the thousands of tourists and screaming kids. You don’t get to enjoy the drunk American that wandered out of the Casino into the Asian restaurant where I chose to eat waving some plastic card screaming about the buffet.
NF is frosting on the pig. It WAS — one of the most magnificent sites in the world. Surrounded by rich, green forests. Now it’s just another mall attraction — another reason to go to a Casino. Just like Atlantic City, New Jersey, (what a waste of a perfectly good beach).
A good friend of mine went to Egypt several years ago. She couldn’t wait to see the pyramids. In the brochures and on TV it looks as if they are in the middle of the desert accessible only by the sturdiest of Jeeps or a stinky camel. When in fact, the Hilton is right across the street. That’s marketing baby! Don’t show what’s REALLY going on, or no one will come.
Yesterday I ran all of my weekly errands. I went to the credit union, dry cleaners, post office, grocery store, Kinko’s. Because I am a small business owner and work from home, I go to these places pretty much every week. Some might say I’m a regular. I was sitting in my car in front of the dry cleaner’s recently, finishing up a cell phone call (side note: because I don’t want to be one of those profoundly rude people who carry on conversations while transacting business as if these employees are invisible monkey servants — not cool). Anyway, I am so regular here that the gal recognized my car, knows my name and brought the clothes TO ME!! The old guy at the Post Office smiled at me this week and said, “Nice to see you AGAIN.” He’s a government employee. Kinko’s is my home away from home — they are like co-workers. I always get “hellos” from them. Everyone at my grocery store is friendly. In fact, they’ve trained their box-people (the politically correct term) to NOT say “DO you need some help out with your groceries?” which is a question that always provokes shame — um, YES! I’m too lazy to wheel my groceries to my car — instead they cleverly say, “I would LOVE to help you take your groceries to your car.”
Then I went to the credit union. It was Friday — there was a line at the teller row as usual. There were two MSRs sitting at desks, no members with them. Desks looking pretty clean — one desk even had a CLOSED sign on it like you’d see in a teller window.
I just needed somethng notarized. I asked her if she was OPEN? She said, that depends….what did I need?
“Oh, just a Notary,” I explained. You could see the relief on her face — “I’m sorry, our Notary is not in today. You might want to check back tomorrow.” And with that she went right on typing (a personal email no doubt).
Wow. I don’t blame her — I blame the culture. That’s why I’ve changed from being a brand consultant to a culture consultant. If your reputation sucks, all the marketing in the world cannot help you — it’s just frosting on the pig.
This credit union has great marketing — but their service sucks. My dry cleaners doesn’t market at all — they don’t have to.
If Taco Bell were a credit union they would change their name to Mexican Food Bell. I mean, after all, they don’t JUST serve tacos anymore. Now they have chalupas and chimichangas and burritos, taquitos — great cheap Mexican food. How will people know they have all of these other things if they don’t change the name?
Consider this. Fred Meyer. To anyone living in the Northwest you know what this is. To people on the East Coast they will tell you they’ve never met him. They never will. Fred’s dead. But Freddy’s lives on. Fred Meyer pioneered the concept of one-stop-shopping. I grew up with Fred Meyer. You’ll find it at Freddy’s was a tagline the company adopted by listening to its customers. You could buy a doorstop a carton of milk and some flip flops at Freddys. And this was in 1975!! Today Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger. But the good folks at Kroger knew better than to change that name. Fred may be dead, but his idea lives on.
Credit Unions could learn a lot from this.
Recent Comments