I don’t think I am a Diva when it comes to my expectations for customer service.  Perhaps you will think otherwise. But, I feel that companies should treat me as if I was their number one customer - even if I am just one of many.  Here are just two very recent examples where retailers have refused to go out of their way, and due to this the “diva” in me will rethink my future dealings with them.

Costco

A week ago we bought a floor fan at Costco. I am now eight months pregnant so the bedroom is hot even with the AC on. It was a nice stainless look fan, at a Costco price. We put it together at home and used it that night. About half way through the night the fan started making a load noise. This Sunday we stopped in at Costco to return the fan. I should note, there is no Costco in my town so we have to go out of the way to shop there. We shop there about twice a month and likely spend about $200 a month there, if not more. We never go there twice in one week. 

When we arrived there was of course a nice long line for returns. There were six staff behind the desk. Two appeared to be working on the membership side (not signing up an members), and four others working on returns helping two customers. We stood in line for 20 minutes with our broken fan. When we go to the front we gave the folks at the desk the broken fan, explained that it was not working and that we bought it one week earlier. The girl looks at the box, and then asks us if we have the remote that came with it.  My husband suggested she look in the box, it wasn’t there. We should have said it didn’t come with one, but we said we weren’t sure if it might be at home. So she refused to return it…without the remote. Why would they need the remote back when the fan doesn’t work? Why do I need to waste more of my time driving back to Costco to return a remote worth fifty-cents? In reality, Costco will just return the product to the manufacturer. Do you think the manufacturer is going to tell Costco that they can’t return it without the wee-little useless remote? Considering the fact that I am obviously pregnant and just stood in line for 20 minutes - you would think they would be slightly more accommodating!

Wal-Mart

I probably should expect poor customer service at Wal-mart. They aren’t exactly known for their incredible customer service. I went there today to pick up a few items. One item didn’t have a price tag/scan code when I got up to the cash. Instead of calling the department she told me (again the pregnant customer!) to go and grab another one with a tag. Are you kidding me? What if I was shopping with my three year old and had him sitting in the shopping cart? Would I have to wheel my cart out of the line, back into the store to locate the product with a tag? Is it my problem that product was missing tags? By asking me to go and get another one, it certainly made me feel as though it was.

While I can’t say I will never shop at these stores again, I will consider how I shop there. Since I have learned that returns at Costco aren’t as “friendly” as they once were I will consider impulse purchases, and will evaluate every purchase of electronics. For Wal-mart I will simply look at other more customer-service friendly retailers before setting foot in Wal-mart to save a few cents.

Ages ago I meant to share this great slideshow from Paul Isakson:

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I was reminded about it when Paul Isakson posted a note about a Neil Perkin slideshow on the social media impact on traditional media and content.

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Technorati Tags: advertising,media,social media,paul isakson,neil perkin,marketing,technology,michelle kostya,mego

Johnny Lee understands the power of You Tube. He promoted his Wii Hacks on You Tube to millions of users. And, in less than five months one of his hacks went from prototype to a major commercial product.

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As heard at the CMA Word of Mouth Conference:

Assume that any customer contact might be Oprah!

This is the philosophy of Mabel’s Labels a forward thinking Canadian company who spoke about word of mouth in the  “Mama Market” at the conference.   Customer Service is key for any business, and for a small business it can mean the difference between life and bankruptcy. With great customer service a company can build its loyal group of customers through word of mouth.  For a small company with limited budget this is a far more affordable method of building its customer base than advertising in People Magazine.

Julie Cole and Tricia Mumby used more than just customer service to get them out of their basement (where they started the business) . They took it one step further. They encouraged their brand advocates and customers to spread the word about Mabel’s Labels. They do this by using many “Web 2.0″ tools:  blog, Facebook group, Podcast, Facebook application,  StumbleUpon, Digg, and You Tube.  They also reward their best customers and brand advocates by making them Buzzmamas who receive special discounts, T-shirts, and free product (great test market!)

First they create the experience, giving customers great service (as if they were Oprah!) then they give their customers the tools to spread the word, and finally they reward them by making them feel special and reinforcing that great customer service.

Good job Mabel’s Labels. (And great presentation!)

Because of my wonderful post on a Chia Pet word of mouth campaign I had the chance to attend the CMA’s Mass to Grass Conference on Word of Mouth Marketing. If you aren’t sure what Word of Mouth (WOM) is, check out the opening remarks from the conference on Buzz Canuck (Sean Moffit was the Conference Chair). 

What did I learn this year at the conference?

Last year I attended as a bit of a newbie to the whole WOM marketing effort. At Cuisinart, we had just started working with Urbanmoms.ca on a Online/Offline word of mouth program and I wanted to see what other companies were doing, how they were measuring their efforts and what successes they were having. Last year the conference was filled with WOM campaign case studies; short term programs put on my companies to generate word of mouth. I recall a Vespa program that set up “scenes” in front of packed bars and in the middle of Film Festival with their cute little bikes, a bizarre Evian WOM campaign where they opened a Spa in Yorkville for a week and of course we heard from the Paperclip guy who traded a paperclip for a house.

This year, I felt the conference revolved around more companies that were using WOM as long-term strategy, and as a company wide initiative rather than a short four week campaign.  Companies seem to be recognizing that conversation could start from anything that a company does not just a quirky video, event or online program.  WOM needs to be looked at more broadly, something that could start from HR, Customer service and from employees, shareholders and customers.

WestJet

The first speaker, Richard Bartrem, the Vice-President of Culture and Communication (yes, that is his actual title) for WestJet, set the tone for the conference by showing how WestJet was encouraging WOM through employee empowerment and engagement.  You have heard the Westjet commercials because we are “Westjet Owners” - well it turns out that is more than just advertising - it is how they run the business.

Bartrem made me want to work at WestJet (just kidding to my husband who works for Air Canada and to my colleagues!) So what is Westjet doing differently?

Everything. I wrote three pages of notes!

• Language - They recognize that what we call something or someone affects how we treat them or react to the situation. WestJet has a “People Department” not Human Resources, they have “Team Leaders” not Supervisors, they make Promises rather than Policies, and passengers are Guests.
• 83% of staff are owners of WestJet through an employee purchase plan.  Staff are encouraged and given the ability to make decisions on the job within the WestJet values (which each employee carries with them!).
• Loose & Tight- Some rules are tight (safety) and others are loose (most everything else) So staff can use their own judgement in any situation that might come up.
• Staff are thanked and given kudos for a job well done.
• Stories where staff made decisions in difficult situations and succeeded are shared throughout the company, with new hires, and as corporate “stories”.  Bartrum shared a ton of them with us- from a staff who took his day off to fly a Pug to Newfoundland for a passenger, to a staff member in Moncton who went out of her way to make an autistic child comfortable on a flight after another carrier had booted the child and his mother off a flight for disturbing other passengers.
• Culture —leads to —-Great Guest Experience—–leads to —– Results
• All employees pitch in the clean the planes when they land, head office staff work at the airport chucking baggage on the ramp during the peak travel periods…
• Any employee can speak on behalf of the company, and are given the tools to do so.

And what does WestJet get for this employee empowerment and engagement? How about 5,000+ positive letters a year, incredible word of mouth, and positive blog posts like this one and this one on Dave Fleet’s blog.

Mabel’s Labels

From the big corporation to the small business started in a basement - companies showed us that word of mouth can be created organically.  Julie Cole and Tricia Mumby started Mabel’s Labels in their basement, but today they have a real office, 12 employees and manufacturing. How? Through amazing customer service, giving their customers and brand advocates the tools to spread word of mouth, and by then thanking their best customers with perks and freebies.  Watch for my Monday Mini on Customer Service for more about Mabel’s Labels.

This post only covers part of the conference. I hope to write another shortly on the Closing Keynote - Douglas Rushkoff- shortly.

Two weekends ago my son turned 3! It was a big decision on what to do for this birthday. In past years, we have invited friends and family over to our house for a BBQ.  But, now he is three and he actually understood that it was his birthday.  He knew that meant cake, and friends and fun. We had recently been to a few of his friends parties - so he knew it was finally his turn to be host and the centre of attention. His other friends had had a mix of home based parties, pool parties, and parties at local farms.

I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a location, a pool rental or mazes at the farm. I figure, there are plenty of years ahead for spending oodles of money keeping up with the Jones’. But having it at home brought its own set of issues… how to entertain 14 kids for an hour and a half…being the biggest! Following that issue of course is keeping my own sanity in check before, during and after the party.

I put on my marketing hat, beside my mom hat. Event planning…I can do that! We needed a theme, then we could work decorations, games (to keep the kids entertained) and food around that! We needed a theme that was somewhat common and easy to do, as I didn’t want to be searching forever for pieces to the puzzle. We needed a theme that lent itself to games - Mickey Mouse or Nemo wouldn’t cut it!

I decided to do a “Construction” theme party for him since he loves trucks, and helping his dad with “work” around the house.  Construction theme was perfect, some of the entertaining of the kids wouldn’t even require my help.  We put out all of my sons dump trucks, diggers, and tow trucks.  My husband bought some moving boxes, taped them up and we had giant building blocks:

The kids build towers, walls, and castles. Then knocked them down. No parental help required. We put out the sand buckets, shovels and lawnmowers and put the kids to work in the back yard:

I set up two games (which required my guidance) including a ring toss with orange construction pylons (dollar store!). The kids quickly took over this one, pilling the pylons up, or arranging them in lines, circles and squares. Pin the pylon on the dump site was far more successful. Each child automatically won a small nut-free chocolate  bar no matter where they pinned the pylon!

Entertainment complete! Decorations? Well, the boxes and pylons, and dump trucks were all a good start. I also bought “Caution” tape from the hardware store, a stop sign from the dollar store that said “The Party Stop is Here” and a construction theme Happy Birthday Sign. All plates, napkins, cups and balloons were construction orange and dump truck yellow. I bought a black table cloth and put a yellow dotted line down the centre to look like a road. Since it was a nice day the party was outside - so we taped the caution tape across the doorways in our house - blocking the kids from our living room and family room! This kept the house clean (until we brought in all the gifts!)

We got hard hats from a party store, tool belts from the dollar store, and donated some money to Rona’s social committee in order to get some L’il Hammer aprons. When the kids arrived they all put on their construction site uniform (although some kids were too shy to do so!)

Here are some of the workers on site:

The great thing about having a theme is it made planning easy. Similar to planning your marketing activities - I just had to ask myself - does it fit the objectives? does it make sense to the theme? does it achieve the goals? does it fit the budget? While the party required a bit more shopping than our usual BBQ, the added time spent planning was minimal. And, the pay-off was well worth it. My son wore his hard hat (he had a white one - he was the foreman), apron and tool belt - all day!

Oh and the best part, what construction party would be complete without cake with dump trucks and diggers on top? This cake from Loblaws even had cookie crumbled up to look like mud in the trucks!

His birthday gift from us was a big boy bed with a construction/transportation theme bedspread and new pictures up on the wall. 

In March, I wrote a post on my other blog about the fancy and functional new baby gear that I had seen while shopping for gear for our second child (impending August 08).  Just three years ago, I had been given or purchased a variety of baby stuff for my first born - Graco stroller, cumbersome plastic highchair, and a cotton blue sling.  Luxury baby products existed then; stunning strollers for $1200 (compared to other systems at $300), and solid wood sleek highchairs for over $300 (compared to $110). But, now even the standard Graco stroller and highchair sport new fabrics, new colours and better design. There are coordinated collections in “Cherry Blossom”  (brown and pink), “Deco” (large and small circles reminiscent of pop-art). You will pay a premium of course for style, in some cases 20-50% more. It seems we are willing to pay.

the truth about relativity

Dan Ariely, in his New York Times bestseller, Predictably Irrational**, puts a few theories that I think help to explain how we as consumers trade-up and spend more than perhaps we set out on spending.  He explains that the way the mind is wired: ” we are always looking at the things around us in relation to others.”  We compare everything from vacations to toasters, and restaurant choices to education options. We tend to compare things with one another, but we also tend to focus on comparing things that are easily comparable and avoid things that cannot be compared easily.

He clearly shows how this works with this example:
Option A is better on Attribute 1 (quality, perhaps). Option B is better on Attribute 2 (beauty). They are very different options. What happens when we add another option called -A.  This option is clearly worse than option A, but it is similar so a comparison between the two is very easy. Ariely calls -A the decoy. The decoy makes A look better, relative to -A but overall as well. In fact, the inclusion of -A in the set makes more people choose A as their final choice over B.

He throws in a real-life example: William-Sonoma introduced a bread making machine, cost is $275. Customers didn’t know what a bread making machine was, why they needed it over a fancy toaster or stand mixer. Needless to say, sales were poor. A research firm hired by William-Sonoma suggested introducing an additional model, one that would be larger and priced higher than the original unit. Guess what, all of a sudden with a comparison model in the mix customers begin buying the original bread maker.

Three years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of spending $300 on a highchair. In fact, I still wouldn’t. Three years ago I would have wondered about spending $179  on a highchair (if there was such an option) when I could get a perfectly good one for $110.  But now, somehow, relative to a $300 highchair, and the one for $179 that is both stylish and functional appeals to me.

arbitrary coherence

A related theory from Ariely’s book is “arbitrary coherence” - the idea that “although initial prices are arbitrary once those prices are established in our minds they will shape not only present but future prices.” The initial price becomes the anchor. In the situation of the highchair, the anchor would be the $110 price tag I originally contemplated purchasing the item at, all others are compared relative to that price.  So once we anchor ourselves to an initial price ($110 for a highchair) does it become the anchor for a long time?

How do we then trade up if we always have the anchor price in mind? Ariely asks this very question about how one would move from purchasing Dunkin Donut’s coffee (for those Canadian’s consider Tim Horton’s) to trading up to Starbucks. In this situation he points the the atmosphere the Starbucks stores created with fancy snacks, quirky coffee names, and the smell of roasted beans. The Starbucks experience was made to feel entirely different than Dunkin Donuts- so different he says “that we would not use the prices at Dunkin’ Donuts as an anchor, but instead would be open to the new anchor.”

In the case of the new trendy and expensive baby gear, the style and design is in some cases so different from the traditionally priced products that we do not consider the anchor of $110 at all. We are willing to place a new anchor price, as though it were a new category or new product altogether.

the book

** Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely examines the paradoxes surround human judgment using real life examples and numerous quirky experiments run by the author.  I haven’t finished the book, but for anyone who enjoyed Freakonomics or Stumbling on Happiness would enjoy this examination on human behaviour.  The book is written in a down-to-earth tone, Ariely’s wit and humour makes the book engaging for any reader. An important book for marketers who want to understand consumer behaviour.  Thanks to the folks at HarperCollins Canada who sent me this book through their blogger outreach program. 

If you have ever worked at a small business or tried to work within a small budget you may already know this tidbit of wisdom…It never hurts to ask.

You never know what will come from asking. In my experience it can mean a new partnership, an opportunity to learn something new, or a brilliant new idea. 

It never hurts to ask, is likely true for big business as well. But I find people are more willing to discuss partnerships over cash when you are smaller. However, the key is how the two groups can help each other. There has to be something in it for both parties for it to work.

Over my two years in my current job I have built some amazing relationships with individuals and other companies where no cash transfers hands, but rather a mutual sharing of ideas, or an exchange of our assets.  The return is always amazing, and often leads to other partnerships.

So next time you see an opportunity - ask, the worse that they can say is no. 

I literally drool every time I hear about a new conference or seminar on Digital Marketing or Word of Mouth Marketing. I am regularly sending emails to my boss suggesting that I would benefit in attending the latest CMA, Search Strategies or Word of Mouth Conference.  Since they recently paid for me to attend the CMA Digital Marketing course (last year) they figure they have done enough and so with these requests I am primarily ignored.

One Degree has posted a contest for a chance to win a ticket to the Mass to Grass Word of Mouth Conference. So I am going to at least give it a shot.  So this next post is my attempt at building a Word of Mouth Campaign around the “As Seen on TV” gem - Ch-Ch-Chia! So here it goes (let me know what you think by commenting!) Wish me luck too!

Chia Pet Word of Mouth Campaign

Background
Clay figures have been made for centuries in the shape of animals. In 1982, Joseph Enterprises marketed and distributed the first Chia Pet, a Ram, with live herbs that simulated the hair/fur of the animal.  They launched a television campaign with catchy song promoting the Chia Pets.  Since then they have launched new categories under the Chia Pet name including Chia Head, Famous Chia and Chia Catgrass.

Objective
If you ask someone what they know about Chia Pet, they will likely start singing the catchy tune from the 1980s commercial, or say they are animals that grow a plant. Most people don’t know that Chia Pets come in Dinosaurs, Shrek and Madagascar characters and even Homer Simpson! Joseph Enterprises has realized that many purchases of Chia Pet are made as a first growing experience for children.  The objective of this campaign is to create awareness around Chia Pet, and to encourage parents to use them as a teaching tool (e.g. first gardening experience, taking care of a living thing).

Campaign:

Giant Chia Pets
Create life size versions of Famous Chia Pets - Shrek, Donkey, Homer Simpson, etc.  These Chia Pets will be given to key store retailers (gardening shops and kids educational toy stores), Children’s Hospitals for fundraising events and in-hospital fun days for long-term care children, and placed at key events and festivals (Toronto Waterfront, Vancouver Olympics, Canada’s Wonderland, etc.) The Chia Pets will come with activity kit, prizes to encourage patrons to take part in “seeding”, (co-op) advertising dollars for retailers, and digital camera for event organizer.

Growing Program
A Parent-Activity kit will be created including basic gardening tips and the science of growing,  ideas and activities to encourage their children to get into gardening. The kit will be distributed to Chia Pet retailers, gardening centres and educational toy stores. The kit will be available online and ideally promoted via Mommy Blogs and key Gardening Blogs by offering kits and testing products through blogger outreach.  A Daycare-Activity Kit will also be created and “seeded” to various centres across the country with free tester Chia Pet. This will encourage class rooms to grow their own Famous Chia Pet.

Flickr
All kits (parent, daycare and event) will include instructions to upload images to Flickr using the tag “chia fun”. Participants will be encouraged to take pictures of their Chia Pet as it grows, the growers (the kids), and the Chia Pet on location (ex Chia at the beach, Chia at the playground). There will be a contest for various categories.    Prizes will include meeting the “real” characters, trips to amusement parks, and gardening tools.

For the last two weeks we have been attempting to hire a Marketing Co-ordinator, and, so, for the past two weeks I have been subjected to CV hunting looking for the perfect employee.

Perhaps I was naive, but I thought if we targeted some of the colleges and universities that had Communications Programs, and spread the word through friends and colleagues in the PR world - that we would find a plethora of qualified candidates. And, by qualified - we had hoped to find some people who were passionate about the digital space. At the very least I thought that at least a small percentage of the candidates would have a minimalistic website, or that the CV would say more than “Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet and Email” under computer skills.  In fact, what does “Internet” mean?

Now, after the fact I learn why we have found a limited number of candidates with a passion for the digital space.  A White Paper by IDC and Nortel titled The Hyperconnected: Here they Come! found that 16% of the information workplace is “Hyperconnected”.  The Hyperconnected is defined in the study as:

Hyperconnected: Those who have fully embraced the brave new world, with more devices per capita than the other clusters and more intense use of new communications applications. They liberally use technology devices and applications for both personal and business use.

If only 16% of those in the workforce are “Hyperconnected” it is no wonder I found so few digital evangelists amongst the candidates.  Today, there aren’t too many people who are considered uber connected - but oddly when we are one of them we assume that we are amongst the majority.  Go figure, reality is quite a bit different:

The Nortel/IDC survey conducted a global survey of approximately 2400 working adults. The study attempts to quantify the connectedness of today’s workplace as well as examining the impact on industry.

Interesting tidbits from the study:

• Based on the number of respondents in certain clusters and then factoring in the rate of workers entering the workforce and retiring and likely adoption rates – we estimate that the 16% of the total information workforce currently “Hyperconnected” may soon increase to 40%.
• The average “Hyperconnected” individual uses at least seven devices to access the network and nine connectivity applications.
• The boundary between work and personal connectivity for the Hyperconnected is almost nonexistent.
• Already a fourth of Hyperconnected respondent companies use blogs and wikis to communicate with customers and other outsiders.

Who are they:

They come from all levels of the corporate ladder, but are above average in management positions. They can be any age, although 60% are under 35, only 7% over 55. They listen to more MP3s and play more networked games than the other clusters. They’d take their laptop out before their wallet or even mobile phone if they had to leave their house for 24 hours. They tend to work for companies that are also early adopters and enable their employees to use advanced tools and solutions.

And interestingly,

“They see Hyperconnected as normal with less than a third thinking of themselves as early adopters of technology. ” I guess that is my problem. I thought that it was normal to be obsessed with blogging, podcasting, social networking…and that it would be relatively easy to find someone “like me”, but I am just 1 of 16%.