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Fortunately for marketers and entrepreneurs very few consumers suffer from neophobia. They are always prepared to give something new a go if it is relevant and useful or desirable to them.
But once they are hooked and the novelty wears off they want consistency. They want to relax into an easy state where they know what to expect.
In the early days of nudie the flavours of the product changed almost weekly (it is far more homogeneous now and I can't help but wonder why). The reason for this was that the fruit we used changed - different varieties; different seasons; different growers; different climatic conditions, all impacted - as anything which is natural and real will do. Initially this change was off putting for some consumers, but they quickly learned it was because a nudie was made from real fruit and there is no such thing as a consistently flavoursome strawberry for example.
Before long consumers expected subtle variations in flavour and wanted that consistently delivered because it was a reassuring hallmark of the integrity of the product.
We are creatures of habit. I will go to the same place every morning to get my coffee made by someone who 'knows how I like it' and who uses the same beans. If it all changed and it wasn't to my liking a few mornings in a row I would have a reason to think about exploring for another coffee shop.
Once you have determined the hallmarks of your offering - the product, the service, the quality and the brand - work at delivering it with consistency. If you do you will provide your most loyal customers with more reason to stay and spread the word.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Smart Persistence
One of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs is persistence. The ability to keep driving on; often in the face of all the reasons not to presented by the naysayers.
There are frequent setbacks in building a business. Many of them are small and occur day-to-day. Less frequently there will be a major setback - like the nudie fire. But big or small it is the attitude of persistence which allows an entrepreneur to keep pushing forward.
I think a worthy metaphor is the Bozo the Clown punching bag I had as a kid. He has a rounded bottom and is sand filled. So no matter how hard you bop him in the nose he keeps springing back up.
There are frequent setbacks in building a business. Many of them are small and occur day-to-day. Less frequently there will be a major setback - like the nudie fire. But big or small it is the attitude of persistence which allows an entrepreneur to keep pushing forward.
I think a worthy metaphor is the Bozo the Clown punching bag I had as a kid. He has a rounded bottom and is sand filled. So no matter how hard you bop him in the nose he keeps springing back up.
It is important to understand though that there is no virtue in dumb persistence.
We have a major supermarket in our village on the peninsula. At the exit to the car park there is wall which is relatively frequently partially demolished by departing trucks who can't successfully negotiate the narrow confines as they leave the loading dock.
With monotonous regularity, in its efforts to uphold the aesthetic, the supermarket calls in workmen to repair the wall. They patiently rebuild it brick-by-brick, then render it and paint it. Beaut - just like a bought one again! The quickest I have personally seen it re-demolished is about 48 hours.
As I picked up my coffee this morning I found yet another team of workers commencing the latest re-build of the wall which has been damaged now for about 3 months.
One can't help but think there are better uses for the work men's time and the supermarket's money. This is dumb persistence.
Smart persistence would have the wall re-designed - perhaps lowered or re-shaped - or eliminated altogether, or built of a different material which might withstand the occasional knock.
Successful entrepreneurs harness their capability for smart persistence to drive their organisations forward.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Simple Things
In their search for bold marketing moves businesses often overlook the simple things.
Regularly on my way to pick up a coffee or go to the bank I pass our local village bookshop. It has a high street presence and it's windows are often nicely and thematically arranged with some of their latest books.
This is a great start but invariably the window display is changed only sporadically.
The greatest way to draw someone into a store is to give them a reason and often the reason is something new. What if my bookstore had a poster in the window changed each week which simply listed "New into store this week" items. This would allow me to quickly check whether any of the new items are of interest and make a determination to visit the store.
Now what if this was extended by the bookshop and the next time I visited they asked me for my email address so they could email a weekly list of 'what's new in store'. What if they added am author 'watch list' to this so I could be alerted when any of my favourite authors had a new release. And then what if they shared lists and content with, say, the local video store so I could also receive a 'what's new in store' list from them on a weekly basis. How about they started adding some local gossip or a blog from the shop owner.
All of a sudden they would have their own online community of local interest; they would know their local customers in a more intimate way which would further bind their customers to them; they would be providing a valuable service and driving more foot traffic into store. And best of all they could pull their regular weekly ad from the local newspaper which is nothing more than a useless banner anyway. The money saved can be used to further build the local online community of interest.
It is best to start with simple, creative (and often low-cost), customer-centric solutions before you start blowing money on traditional advertising campaigns.
Regularly on my way to pick up a coffee or go to the bank I pass our local village bookshop. It has a high street presence and it's windows are often nicely and thematically arranged with some of their latest books.
This is a great start but invariably the window display is changed only sporadically.
The greatest way to draw someone into a store is to give them a reason and often the reason is something new. What if my bookstore had a poster in the window changed each week which simply listed "New into store this week" items. This would allow me to quickly check whether any of the new items are of interest and make a determination to visit the store.
Now what if this was extended by the bookshop and the next time I visited they asked me for my email address so they could email a weekly list of 'what's new in store'. What if they added am author 'watch list' to this so I could be alerted when any of my favourite authors had a new release. And then what if they shared lists and content with, say, the local video store so I could also receive a 'what's new in store' list from them on a weekly basis. How about they started adding some local gossip or a blog from the shop owner.
All of a sudden they would have their own online community of local interest; they would know their local customers in a more intimate way which would further bind their customers to them; they would be providing a valuable service and driving more foot traffic into store. And best of all they could pull their regular weekly ad from the local newspaper which is nothing more than a useless banner anyway. The money saved can be used to further build the local online community of interest.
It is best to start with simple, creative (and often low-cost), customer-centric solutions before you start blowing money on traditional advertising campaigns.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Current economic woes a potential boon for small business
We could be on the verge of great times for entrepreneurial businesses who focus on their customers. The current economic climate will drive customers to search for value.
Anyone can make money in boom times because free-spending is rife. But in the tough times we all become value conscious and we exercise more choice. Value is not necessarily simply the lowest price.
Big businesses are rarely customer centric (particularly in Australia) or customer friendly. By dint of their sheer size they have generally become ensnared in a net of bureaucratic systems and processes which drives further wedges between them and their customers. They are unwieldy and this makes them slow to change (at least in the right way). Their typical response to tough times is to cut costs and, generally, the first to suffer when corporate costs are cut are employees and customers.
This was reported by Kelly Burke in yesterday's The Sydney Morning Herald (21 Nov 2008):
"HOUR-LONG phone queues, multiple transfers, hollow promises of people getting back to you....and the automated voice telling you your call is important. Soaring complaints over customer service from telecommunications companies have prompted the Federal Government to crack down....."
Apparently for the first time in its 17 year history the level of complaints to the telecommunication's industry ombudsman about customer service has outstripped complaints about billing or payments. There has been a 61% increase in complaints over the previous year.
Our Aussie telcos have never been famous for their consumer-facing behaviour and trying to turn around a culture of disdain for customers is a gruelling task in a massive telco at the best of times (always assuming you have a desire to do so). But what happens when you are tightening your belt? Jobs go, indulgences are stripped out of the system, and efficiencies are introduced. In the case of telcos this can look like fewer call centres, more frazzled call centre staff, more IVR automation and so on.
In other words - a tougher time for customers.
If we didn't have to deal with them we wouldn't. And why do we have to? Because there is no real choice - they are all as bad as each other and we are left to pick the best from a bad bunch .
Big businesses are slow to move (because they are big); they are complacent (because they know there is no real choice for their customers); and they are risk averse (because they are subject to public scrutiny and because frequently their top brass are more focused on their careers than the business). This is generally true and not just for telcos.
So, in an economic environment where we are all going to be less likely to throw money around willy-nilly; more choosy about whether we do business (we might go without) and who we do business with; and more careful to extract every ounce of value from every transaction, is it big businesses who are going to quickly rise to the occasion and respond with something different and valuable for us? Not on your Nelly!
This leaves the door wide open for smart, small business operators to create solutions and it won't just be about creating a lower priced offering.
For example, sticking with the telco case, what if I created a re-seller of wholesale telecommunications services, called "FriendlyTel" where the customer promise ran something along these lines:
Oh, and by the way, we can only limit our offering to 5,000 customers because anymore than that and our service standards will drop and we'll be too big.
Could an existing big business telco offer this service? Of course, but it is so improbable as to be completely unlikely and if they did, it certainly wouldn't be a new offering they would launch in the face of a recession. But, an entrepreneurial, customer centric, people oriented business could pretty easily provide something like this. And what premium would you pay to be among the 5,000 customers - 20% more than you are currently paying? Possibly 40% or 50% more. It would still look like great value.
Of course you don't have to create an entirely new business like FriendlyTel. If you are already in business just roll up your sleeves and dive into re-engineering your current customer experience to make it as delightful and valuable for them as it can be. Eliminate every potential point of annoyance or frustration; make it real and personable; provide choice; allow them to deal with you in the way they prefer rather than the way you would prefer; make integrity a hallmark of every interaction; make it fun; equip them with stories to tell their friends.
Do these things and, in these tough times when people are more careful about how they spend their money, your customers will choose to spend their money with you. And not with some faceless corporation who doesn't give a toss about them and who can't possibly do what you do anyway because they are fat, lazy and on a cost-cutting drive.
Anyone can make money in boom times because free-spending is rife. But in the tough times we all become value conscious and we exercise more choice. Value is not necessarily simply the lowest price.
Big businesses are rarely customer centric (particularly in Australia) or customer friendly. By dint of their sheer size they have generally become ensnared in a net of bureaucratic systems and processes which drives further wedges between them and their customers. They are unwieldy and this makes them slow to change (at least in the right way). Their typical response to tough times is to cut costs and, generally, the first to suffer when corporate costs are cut are employees and customers.
This was reported by Kelly Burke in yesterday's The Sydney Morning Herald (21 Nov 2008):
"HOUR-LONG phone queues, multiple transfers, hollow promises of people getting back to you....and the automated voice telling you your call is important. Soaring complaints over customer service from telecommunications companies have prompted the Federal Government to crack down....."
Apparently for the first time in its 17 year history the level of complaints to the telecommunication's industry ombudsman about customer service has outstripped complaints about billing or payments. There has been a 61% increase in complaints over the previous year.
Our Aussie telcos have never been famous for their consumer-facing behaviour and trying to turn around a culture of disdain for customers is a gruelling task in a massive telco at the best of times (always assuming you have a desire to do so). But what happens when you are tightening your belt? Jobs go, indulgences are stripped out of the system, and efficiencies are introduced. In the case of telcos this can look like fewer call centres, more frazzled call centre staff, more IVR automation and so on.
In other words - a tougher time for customers.
If we didn't have to deal with them we wouldn't. And why do we have to? Because there is no real choice - they are all as bad as each other and we are left to pick the best from a bad bunch .
Big businesses are slow to move (because they are big); they are complacent (because they know there is no real choice for their customers); and they are risk averse (because they are subject to public scrutiny and because frequently their top brass are more focused on their careers than the business). This is generally true and not just for telcos.
So, in an economic environment where we are all going to be less likely to throw money around willy-nilly; more choosy about whether we do business (we might go without) and who we do business with; and more careful to extract every ounce of value from every transaction, is it big businesses who are going to quickly rise to the occasion and respond with something different and valuable for us? Not on your Nelly!
This leaves the door wide open for smart, small business operators to create solutions and it won't just be about creating a lower priced offering.
For example, sticking with the telco case, what if I created a re-seller of wholesale telecommunications services, called "FriendlyTel" where the customer promise ran something along these lines:
- We will provide a full suite of telco services for you - voice, data and mobile - bundled on one bill;
- We can't be the cheapest but we will always be the best;
- You can always talk to a real person - we will never have an automated voice system;
- The person you talk to will recognise you as a real person too and will always be empowered to resolve your issue without reference to a team leader or supervisor;
- We will do what we say we are going to do;
- If we loose you while we are talking to you, we will always call you straight back;
- If we can't figure out how to fix your problem we will tell you straight and keep working on it until we can figure it out, then we'll get back to you and let you know how we are going to get it sorted;
- We will always talk plain English to you and will never patronise you;
- We will provide a hassle free telco solution which you will never have to worry about;
- We won't ever have an offshore call centre;
- We will listen to what you have to say with empathy and understanding;
Oh, and by the way, we can only limit our offering to 5,000 customers because anymore than that and our service standards will drop and we'll be too big.
Could an existing big business telco offer this service? Of course, but it is so improbable as to be completely unlikely and if they did, it certainly wouldn't be a new offering they would launch in the face of a recession. But, an entrepreneurial, customer centric, people oriented business could pretty easily provide something like this. And what premium would you pay to be among the 5,000 customers - 20% more than you are currently paying? Possibly 40% or 50% more. It would still look like great value.
Of course you don't have to create an entirely new business like FriendlyTel. If you are already in business just roll up your sleeves and dive into re-engineering your current customer experience to make it as delightful and valuable for them as it can be. Eliminate every potential point of annoyance or frustration; make it real and personable; provide choice; allow them to deal with you in the way they prefer rather than the way you would prefer; make integrity a hallmark of every interaction; make it fun; equip them with stories to tell their friends.
Do these things and, in these tough times when people are more careful about how they spend their money, your customers will choose to spend their money with you. And not with some faceless corporation who doesn't give a toss about them and who can't possibly do what you do anyway because they are fat, lazy and on a cost-cutting drive.
Detroit's Executive Jets
It seems many people were horrified that the kings of the car companies in Detroit chose to fly (separately) on their private jets to Washington to beg for Government (i.e. taxpayer) support for their ailing monoliths.
Personally I am flabbergasted. The businesses they run are hemorrhaging billions; workers are being laid off in the thousands and yet they still think a (reportedly) US$20,000 one way trip on a private jet (a first class fare on a commercial flight would apparently have cost $900 return) makes solid commercial sense.
As was pointed out to them, even if they couldn't stoop to join the rest of us on a commercial flight, they surely could have private jet pooled and shared the one plane.
It was also reported that the chief of Ford uses the same private jet to commute home each weekend from Detroit to Seattle and that he took home a staggering US$25 million in salary, benefits and incentives last year.
It is of course easy to dismiss this as 'Nero fiddling while Rome burns' behaviour. But it is more than that.
These guys clearly live in a different world than the rest of us. They are closeted and cocooned. How can they possibly understand or empathise with their customers when they live in a fundamentally different but parallel universe? They can't.
And this is one of the primary reasons their organisations are being brought to their knees. No business which is disconnected from its customers can thrive. It is no wonder they kept building gas guzzling V8s when the market was turning to small, frugal, low emission vehicles.
Without any actual customer empathy, all you can rely on is market research and, as I have explored elsewhere in this blog, that is often a flawed indication of real consumer sentiment.
I think it would actually be a good thing for the large car companies to fail because it would open up the market for new, innovative, customer-focused, entrepreneurial start-ups who would create transportation solutions of value for us. But failing that, the best way to turn around these dieing corporate monsters would be to put someone at the helm who lives in the same world his customers inhabit, and who is solely focused on finding solutions which add value to them.
Personally I am flabbergasted. The businesses they run are hemorrhaging billions; workers are being laid off in the thousands and yet they still think a (reportedly) US$20,000 one way trip on a private jet (a first class fare on a commercial flight would apparently have cost $900 return) makes solid commercial sense.
As was pointed out to them, even if they couldn't stoop to join the rest of us on a commercial flight, they surely could have private jet pooled and shared the one plane.
It was also reported that the chief of Ford uses the same private jet to commute home each weekend from Detroit to Seattle and that he took home a staggering US$25 million in salary, benefits and incentives last year.
It is of course easy to dismiss this as 'Nero fiddling while Rome burns' behaviour. But it is more than that.
These guys clearly live in a different world than the rest of us. They are closeted and cocooned. How can they possibly understand or empathise with their customers when they live in a fundamentally different but parallel universe? They can't.
And this is one of the primary reasons their organisations are being brought to their knees. No business which is disconnected from its customers can thrive. It is no wonder they kept building gas guzzling V8s when the market was turning to small, frugal, low emission vehicles.
Without any actual customer empathy, all you can rely on is market research and, as I have explored elsewhere in this blog, that is often a flawed indication of real consumer sentiment.
I think it would actually be a good thing for the large car companies to fail because it would open up the market for new, innovative, customer-focused, entrepreneurial start-ups who would create transportation solutions of value for us. But failing that, the best way to turn around these dieing corporate monsters would be to put someone at the helm who lives in the same world his customers inhabit, and who is solely focused on finding solutions which add value to them.
Things continue the way they begin
Have you ever been trapped behind a car driven by someone who has just done something annoying or silly (at least as far as you are concerned)? If so, you may have noticed they will repeat offend. Every few hundred metres they are bound to do something which is equally or even more infuriating to you.
Partly this is because after the first spot of bother you are actively looking to find fault, but more importantly it is because things generally continue the way they begin.
If the driver of the other car does something you deem to be stupid they probably have other traits or shortcomings which will cause you to become querulous.
The same is frequently true in business. I have been guilty of it in the past and I observe it often - people who mistakenly persist with trying to work with someone (partner; shareholder; manager; leader; supplier; customer) when there have been early warning signs that the relationship will not work.
Business is all about relationships. Effective relationships are the building blocks for any powerful business.
If there are strong early warning signs that a key strategic relationship isn't working for you it is often better to quickly figure out a productive way to exit the relationship rather then waste energy in trying to make it work.
Otherwise things have habit of continuing the way they begin.
Partly this is because after the first spot of bother you are actively looking to find fault, but more importantly it is because things generally continue the way they begin.
If the driver of the other car does something you deem to be stupid they probably have other traits or shortcomings which will cause you to become querulous.
The same is frequently true in business. I have been guilty of it in the past and I observe it often - people who mistakenly persist with trying to work with someone (partner; shareholder; manager; leader; supplier; customer) when there have been early warning signs that the relationship will not work.
Business is all about relationships. Effective relationships are the building blocks for any powerful business.
If there are strong early warning signs that a key strategic relationship isn't working for you it is often better to quickly figure out a productive way to exit the relationship rather then waste energy in trying to make it work.
Otherwise things have habit of continuing the way they begin.
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