My other passion in life is swing dancing. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats stress like a good night out dancing. My prefered style is lindy hop - the original dance from Harlem in the 1930s named after Lindbergh and his 'hop' over the ocean. I can dance other styles but prefer lindy hop. I've even tried to figure out how I could live my life so I could just travel and dance. Never worked out a satisfactory plan that allowed for food... so I settled for a regular night out as often as I could.
Since having a little guy the dancing is now a trickle - every couple of months. But it is still my passion and I live in envy of people who keep the first of their passion for their entire lives. Frankie Manning is one such man. Frankie is one of the original Savoy Ballroom lindy hop dancers. He is credited with the first ever 'aerial'. He lived his life for lindy hop. Check him out on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMDf4ciCRs.
When the interest in lindy hop died in the 60s he became a postman. But in the 1980s when lindy hop was re-discovered he was right back in the game. He was a consumate gentleman - he always instructed the leads to bow to their queens before they started the dance. His passion for the dance was evident and contagious. I took some classes from him at dance camps and have had the honour to dance with him at Swing Out Northwest. But most of all he was an inspiring example of someone who lived their passion his entire life. He was dancing, teaching and travelling to dance and teach right up until his death. He died today one month shy of his 95th birthday.
Today I bow to the KING. And I hope to honour him by burning up that dance floor for years to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMDf4ciCRs
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Make or break your brand
"Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can
change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
The growth and power of the Internet and specifically social media only makes this quote even more true today. The topic of watercooler conversation is quickly moving from last night's tv to real time issues via social media.
This is particularly true with happy or unhappy customer experiences. It takes just one unhappy customer, with the right online communities to kill a brand. Just ask Amazon after their crisis last week when they removed 'adult' titles from its sales rankings, including gay and lesbian titles. One man blogged http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html about it and the response he received from Amazon. Once the issue started gaining momentum on Twitter Amazon responded that it was a glitch. That only spawned #glitchmyass website, blogs, tweets. Search #glitchmyass on twitter and you won't believe the amount of conversation on this topic.
Amazing that a long standing internet company like Amazon could make such a novice PR error in dealing with this issue.
In light of the power of this medium there is a lot of interest today in best practices on how to use social media to your companies advantage in today's world. Jennifer Lowther from 6S made a presentation on just that last night for the BCAMA.
She covered some good basics on social media. But what I wanted to hear those best practices. She feels that every project is different and things change so fast there aren't any clear best practices. But she did list off several MUST dos or do nots during her presentation (feels like best practices to me...).
change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
The growth and power of the Internet and specifically social media only makes this quote even more true today. The topic of watercooler conversation is quickly moving from last night's tv to real time issues via social media.
This is particularly true with happy or unhappy customer experiences. It takes just one unhappy customer, with the right online communities to kill a brand. Just ask Amazon after their crisis last week when they removed 'adult' titles from its sales rankings, including gay and lesbian titles. One man blogged http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html about it and the response he received from Amazon. Once the issue started gaining momentum on Twitter Amazon responded that it was a glitch. That only spawned #glitchmyass website, blogs, tweets. Search #glitchmyass on twitter and you won't believe the amount of conversation on this topic.
Amazing that a long standing internet company like Amazon could make such a novice PR error in dealing with this issue.
In light of the power of this medium there is a lot of interest today in best practices on how to use social media to your companies advantage in today's world. Jennifer Lowther from 6S made a presentation on just that last night for the BCAMA.
She covered some good basics on social media. But what I wanted to hear those best practices. She feels that every project is different and things change so fast there aren't any clear best practices. But she did list off several MUST dos or do nots during her presentation (feels like best practices to me...).
- Be real, honest and transparent - if you have something to hide it will be found on the internet
- Plan before you go - a poor social media campaign can do more harm than good
- At minimum you must monitor what is being said about your organization online - even if you aren't ready to jump into the social media game, people are talking about you in REAL TIME (this is also true of you as an individual - every potential employer, business partner or client will google or twitter you so you better know what it says)
- Social media is REAL TIME - you must be prepared to deal with negative publicity or to own up to mistakes quickly, ie: Motrin, Dominos, Amazon...
- must give more than you take... social media is a conversation not a push sales pitch
- Be consistent in whatever you decide to do... if you start a blog make sure it is updated on a consistent timeline... so many organizations start blogging multiple times a week and then find that hard to keep up... be realistic and consistent
- MUST have a social media policy for your staff - otherwise you could be Translink with a front page story on the Province.
The final and personal lesson is to understand the power of your online community... ie: NEVER piss off mommy bloggers.
Many of us still think of social media as a 'youth' tactic. This was demonostrated in part by Jennifer an 'expert' in her field who references using Wikipedia at University. Since University for me was 20 years ago I certainly felt old. But then Jennifer reminded me that social media is being driven by 35-50 years. And that reminds me that even as a newbie blogger my voice does matter and companies had better pay attention to it.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
mentors
I saw Adrienne Clarkson speak a few weeks ago at UBC (before all the fun with my husband's ski accident concussion). She spoke at length about an English teacher she had at Lisgar - the same high school she and I both attended although many many years apart. And this got me thinking about mentors and people who have influenced my career (coincidentally I was asked this question in an interview 2 days after the presentation).
There are 2 key career mentors that easily come to mind. They were my two first bosses at Cossette and are still friends today. I worked twice for Glenn Stanley-Paul and am currently guided in my foray into blogging by Chris Morales (his blog is http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com). Now that I'm out west I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but they are still good friends and 2 of my most trusted professional allies.
But I have to say one of my biggest breaks didn't come from them, it came from a former client. She had a profound influence on me at a key point in my career.
My first job in marketing was at Cossette in Toronto in the early 1990's (see former post for more on those Melrose Place flashbacks...). I worked on the GM account - specifically the female friend Saturn. I was one of the few women on the team. But our client was a woman named Susan Docherty. I had been in my secretarial 'start at the bottom' position for about a year. Our Account Executive Lili had recently resigned and there was an opportunity for me to take on more - really show that I was more than a great excel wiz at building complex competitive charts. But the men that I worked with were a bit anxious about moving me up too quickly on such a male dominated client such as GM. Our team lead was concerned the client may not take the former 'secretary' seriously. And Chris and Glenn seemed to be concerned that if I faltered I may not get a second chance with them. But Susan thought I could do more and she fought to get me a couple of opportunities to show my stuff. My bosses had no choice but to give me the opportunity.
And I needed Susan's help. I totally screwed up my first presentation to a small dealer co-op. She bailed me out about half way through the presentation - without my losing face with either the dealers or my bosses (who weren't at the meeting). She coached me and then pushed me forward again at the next opportunity. She knew I'd get there and I did.
I don't have a long term relationship with Susan. She and I weren't friends outside our client/agency relationship. I have no idea if she is still with GM today. But she was a strong female role model for me at a point in my career where the men around me needed a little push. Those men are still my friends and mentors today. But it is Susan I really need to thank for giving me the opportunity to fail.
There are 2 key career mentors that easily come to mind. They were my two first bosses at Cossette and are still friends today. I worked twice for Glenn Stanley-Paul and am currently guided in my foray into blogging by Chris Morales (his blog is http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com). Now that I'm out west I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but they are still good friends and 2 of my most trusted professional allies.
But I have to say one of my biggest breaks didn't come from them, it came from a former client. She had a profound influence on me at a key point in my career.
My first job in marketing was at Cossette in Toronto in the early 1990's (see former post for more on those Melrose Place flashbacks...). I worked on the GM account - specifically the female friend Saturn. I was one of the few women on the team. But our client was a woman named Susan Docherty. I had been in my secretarial 'start at the bottom' position for about a year. Our Account Executive Lili had recently resigned and there was an opportunity for me to take on more - really show that I was more than a great excel wiz at building complex competitive charts. But the men that I worked with were a bit anxious about moving me up too quickly on such a male dominated client such as GM. Our team lead was concerned the client may not take the former 'secretary' seriously. And Chris and Glenn seemed to be concerned that if I faltered I may not get a second chance with them. But Susan thought I could do more and she fought to get me a couple of opportunities to show my stuff. My bosses had no choice but to give me the opportunity.
And I needed Susan's help. I totally screwed up my first presentation to a small dealer co-op. She bailed me out about half way through the presentation - without my losing face with either the dealers or my bosses (who weren't at the meeting). She coached me and then pushed me forward again at the next opportunity. She knew I'd get there and I did.
I don't have a long term relationship with Susan. She and I weren't friends outside our client/agency relationship. I have no idea if she is still with GM today. But she was a strong female role model for me at a point in my career where the men around me needed a little push. Those men are still my friends and mentors today. But it is Susan I really need to thank for giving me the opportunity to fail.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Focus on the core
I went to another BCAMA event today (BC Marketing Association). Topic was marketing in the fashion industry. It was a panel presentation with three very diverse fashion retailers - Bootlegger, Westcomb and Aritzia. My light bulb moment: I'll never be an Aritziacustomer and they don't care - nor should they.
Why are these 3 retailers successful? Because they know and focus on their core customer. They know who they are and don't try to be anything else.
My favourite line from Sally Parrott (Aritzia) is that they really don't care about the 'non' Aritzia customer and don't spend any money trying to attract them. They focus on their brand demographic and getting them into their stores to experience the Aritzia brand. And I have to begrudgingly agree with their strategy of staying focused on that 15-35 year old. If they grew their product offering to older or younger women they would likely lose their core.
Bootlegger tells a similar story. They had to take a hard look at their business in the 90s and cut their kids line to focus on men and women only. By editing they were able to better focus on their brand. Dustin May, from Bootlegger, has a favourite quote from Tom Ford about editing and seems to live by it. They have edited a lot of their pull marketing programs as they didn't return the same ROI as their CRM program. Again, they focus on their core business and it works for them. I wish them luck in their new e-comm business launching in April.
Westcomb had the best presentation. No slides. Just Gabriel Cote - a passionate outdoor enthusiast who started a company to find the gap between technical apparel and style. He was an authentic approachable guy - just like his brand. Their point of differentiation is they are 100% Canadian made and their focus is global. This is a very specialized industry and they have focused on fostering individual relationships with their dealers to get feedback and build a better product (when asked how he follows trends he talked about taking floor staff out to the pub to get their thoughts and ideas). His best quote was during the Q&A when answering a question about handling the economic downturn. His American dealers are cutting their budgets and his response to them was "you need a Porsche in your showroom if you want to sell a Ford." He knows his product is top of the line and will sell and will also help his dealers sell other products too.
So while I am still rather annoyed that I'm too old and rather too average in size to shop at Aritzia... I realize that I'll just have to find another aspirational lifestyle retailer that fits my current age and lifestyle.
Why are these 3 retailers successful? Because they know and focus on their core customer. They know who they are and don't try to be anything else.
My favourite line from Sally Parrott (Aritzia) is that they really don't care about the 'non' Aritzia customer and don't spend any money trying to attract them. They focus on their brand demographic and getting them into their stores to experience the Aritzia brand. And I have to begrudgingly agree with their strategy of staying focused on that 15-35 year old. If they grew their product offering to older or younger women they would likely lose their core.
Bootlegger tells a similar story. They had to take a hard look at their business in the 90s and cut their kids line to focus on men and women only. By editing they were able to better focus on their brand. Dustin May, from Bootlegger, has a favourite quote from Tom Ford about editing and seems to live by it. They have edited a lot of their pull marketing programs as they didn't return the same ROI as their CRM program. Again, they focus on their core business and it works for them. I wish them luck in their new e-comm business launching in April.
Westcomb had the best presentation. No slides. Just Gabriel Cote - a passionate outdoor enthusiast who started a company to find the gap between technical apparel and style. He was an authentic approachable guy - just like his brand. Their point of differentiation is they are 100% Canadian made and their focus is global. This is a very specialized industry and they have focused on fostering individual relationships with their dealers to get feedback and build a better product (when asked how he follows trends he talked about taking floor staff out to the pub to get their thoughts and ideas). His best quote was during the Q&A when answering a question about handling the economic downturn. His American dealers are cutting their budgets and his response to them was "you need a Porsche in your showroom if you want to sell a Ford." He knows his product is top of the line and will sell and will also help his dealers sell other products too.
So while I am still rather annoyed that I'm too old and rather too average in size to shop at Aritzia... I realize that I'll just have to find another aspirational lifestyle retailer that fits my current age and lifestyle.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Networking or the Dentist
Which do you dread more? The dentist or heading out to a networking event?
Let me say right off that my dentist is the nicest lady ever. But I still hate going to see her. It may be the 3 years with teen age braces, my mouth full of fillings or just that darn drill sound. And it may be surprising to those who know me, and my very 'social' personality, that I would likely chose the dentist over networking. I really hate going to events on my own. It means you have to start cold conversations with people. And if you go with friends it is too easy to hang out with each other and meet nobody. And networking has always reminded me of some of the hard selling networkers I met at the Toronto Board of Trade back in the day. Not my style. And I've realized it doesn't have to be my style.
From my experience most people leave networking until absolutely necessary. When you have a job you think you are too busy and "why network if I have a job" OR "I'm using social media so I don't have to actually network". We leave in-person networking to entrepreneurs, small business owners, job hunters and smart people who understand its importance. With my recent lay off I spent some time working with a career consultant. I had a lightbulb moment and realized that by focusing on my job and not networking outside my work place I was limiting both my short and long term career options (I had in essence taken myself out of the drivers seat of my career). It takes time but keeping up with your industry and making new contacts is always important. It is like exercising. When you do it regularly it is easy. When you stop it takes a while to get yourself back up-to-speed and into prime shape.
It has taken me about 6 months to get myself back into networking shape. Because those big events intimidate me I opted to do a lot of my networking through volunteer work. Several of the events were fun but didn't lead to anything (answering the phones at the Variety Telethon was certainly a fun experience that I'll likely do again next year), but one event led me to join the Women In Leadership Foundation Advisory Board. This is something I'm passionate about and will help keep me networking even after I'm working again.
The trick I found for me is to just enjoy myself and try to connect with people I like. People want to be helpful and if you aren't in hard sell mode/try to impress people mode they really seem to be open to getting to know you. I recently attended a BCAMA networking event where I thought "oh crap who am I going to talk to" as I walked into the full bar. But I met a couple of great people (hanging out near the bar helped). In particular Sharon McInnis the Proofing Queen. She and I hit it off and were surprised we had so many people in common, yet we had never met. She mentioned a BCAIM event that was topical for a current job search. I went. She was there and made me feel right at home by introducing me to others (including summarizing some of my past work) and saving me a seat with her and her friend. She is a fun lady who I look forward to seeing at other events in the future. And perhaps we might even get the chance to work together on a project someday.
Also met Trevor Roald at the BCAMA event. He is also 'between opportunities'. We had a great chat about twitter and how to maximize that medium - mostly him giving me and Sharon some tips. He is obviously very smart in his area (marketing 2.0 specialist) and I'm sure he'll be working again soon.
So I'm looking at networking in a different way. So while my short term goal is clearly to find a job. I'm really networking to:
(1) meet/reconnect with interesting people
(2) learn more about my field
(3) have fun
The last being the most important. I'm also now really convinced that this is something I need to do ongoing -for the long term health of my career. Of course I continue to use social media. But I'm no longer hiding behind my computer. And I'm having a lot more fun too!!!
Now if I could just make the dentist more fun. But I should call and make an appointment because you never know who she might know... she might be the link to my next job.
Let me say right off that my dentist is the nicest lady ever. But I still hate going to see her. It may be the 3 years with teen age braces, my mouth full of fillings or just that darn drill sound. And it may be surprising to those who know me, and my very 'social' personality, that I would likely chose the dentist over networking. I really hate going to events on my own. It means you have to start cold conversations with people. And if you go with friends it is too easy to hang out with each other and meet nobody. And networking has always reminded me of some of the hard selling networkers I met at the Toronto Board of Trade back in the day. Not my style. And I've realized it doesn't have to be my style.
From my experience most people leave networking until absolutely necessary. When you have a job you think you are too busy and "why network if I have a job" OR "I'm using social media so I don't have to actually network". We leave in-person networking to entrepreneurs, small business owners, job hunters and smart people who understand its importance. With my recent lay off I spent some time working with a career consultant. I had a lightbulb moment and realized that by focusing on my job and not networking outside my work place I was limiting both my short and long term career options (I had in essence taken myself out of the drivers seat of my career). It takes time but keeping up with your industry and making new contacts is always important. It is like exercising. When you do it regularly it is easy. When you stop it takes a while to get yourself back up-to-speed and into prime shape.
It has taken me about 6 months to get myself back into networking shape. Because those big events intimidate me I opted to do a lot of my networking through volunteer work. Several of the events were fun but didn't lead to anything (answering the phones at the Variety Telethon was certainly a fun experience that I'll likely do again next year), but one event led me to join the Women In Leadership Foundation Advisory Board. This is something I'm passionate about and will help keep me networking even after I'm working again.
The trick I found for me is to just enjoy myself and try to connect with people I like. People want to be helpful and if you aren't in hard sell mode/try to impress people mode they really seem to be open to getting to know you. I recently attended a BCAMA networking event where I thought "oh crap who am I going to talk to" as I walked into the full bar. But I met a couple of great people (hanging out near the bar helped). In particular Sharon McInnis the Proofing Queen. She and I hit it off and were surprised we had so many people in common, yet we had never met. She mentioned a BCAIM event that was topical for a current job search. I went. She was there and made me feel right at home by introducing me to others (including summarizing some of my past work) and saving me a seat with her and her friend. She is a fun lady who I look forward to seeing at other events in the future. And perhaps we might even get the chance to work together on a project someday.
Also met Trevor Roald at the BCAMA event. He is also 'between opportunities'. We had a great chat about twitter and how to maximize that medium - mostly him giving me and Sharon some tips. He is obviously very smart in his area (marketing 2.0 specialist) and I'm sure he'll be working again soon.
So I'm looking at networking in a different way. So while my short term goal is clearly to find a job. I'm really networking to:
(1) meet/reconnect with interesting people
(2) learn more about my field
(3) have fun
The last being the most important. I'm also now really convinced that this is something I need to do ongoing -for the long term health of my career. Of course I continue to use social media. But I'm no longer hiding behind my computer. And I'm having a lot more fun too!!!
Now if I could just make the dentist more fun. But I should call and make an appointment because you never know who she might know... she might be the link to my next job.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
influencing and changing behavior - a case in cloth diapers
A few weeks ago I attended a BCAMA breakfast to hear Jim Nelson, Senior Manager of Marketing from BC Hydro speak. Jim oversees the PowerSmart brand and I found his presentation on changing and influencing behavior through social marketing very interesting. Several weeks later it is still resonating with me, in particular making me think how I came to be a cloth diaper advocate.
I can easily be described as a city girl. I started in advertising in Toronto in the early 90s when Melrose Place was the 'best' example of my profession. No my skirts were never that short, no I didn't switch from an account person to a writer to an art director in a single episode and no I never tried to drown anyone in the pool in the center of my apartment complex. But I did live a hard working, fun living, disposable lifestyle. That changed somewhat after I moved to Vancouver. But I was still very focused on my work and my social life. When I met my husband I was travelling a lot for work, dropped my laundry off at the laundromat to be cleaned, dried and folded for me and I had a cleaning lady twice a month. Not the type of person you'd expect to get excited about her diapers drying on the clothes line in the backyard.
So what happened? How was I influenced to change? Certainly mainstream media had an effect on my thinking about my disposable lifestyle. It always really bugged me that diapers live pretty much forever in our land fills. And while the cloth diaper movement is growing is it certainly not mainstream and there are no large marketers pushing their virtues. This is a case of social change through word of mouth.
At the breakfast session Jim gave us a little exercise to discuss amongst your table a behaviour you'd like to change - discuss the excuses you'd give not to change, actual reasons not the change and the reasons to change. (and he reminded us that real and perceived issues were equally valid)
Well the excuses not to try is pretty obvious - the fear of poo and the need to stay as far away from it as possible. Some valid reasons for not trying them is the upfront cost of buying them, the extra steps required when your baby is wiggling away on the diaper table and the extra laundry (and the additional hydro cost that goes with that). The reasons to try are primarily environmental, but also cost.
So I was commited to the idea that I would try cloth diapering part time. Use them at home and then switch to disposable when out and about. It seemed like a nice little step to try and reduce the amount of diapers I would send to the landfill.
I was one of the last of my friends to have kids, so I asked my friends. The reactions were
Then it was like we fell into a rabbit hole - of the marketing kind. Cloth diapering itself was easy. Figuring out the shopping process was NOT. My friend with the 3 kids (who lives in Toronto by the way) was my life line to all things cloth diapering. Cloth diapering seem to be a great business opportunity for Work at Home Moms (WAHM). And the internet is just stuffed FULL of diaper options. But I spends hours and hours and hours reviewing websites and scouring diaperpin.com to read reviews. No wonder people don't want to change and try something different... it is overwhelming. More overwhelming than buying a stroller!
The diaper service was great advice as it gave me a few months to get used to my little man and his diapering needs and then buy a couple of samples to see what worked for him and us. I then bought the diapers we liked on craigslist (the good diapers like mother-ease really hold their value and I expect I'll be able to resell them when we are finished with them OR give them to a friend).
In the end, we found the times when we used disposable diapers we had more messes and that resulted in more laundry than washing diapers. So we became full time cloth diaper parents. And somewhere along the line I've become pretty passionate about it. I've posted reviews on diaperpin.com, I've passionately advocated to poor pregnant women wondering what it is all about, I've purchased wet bags (btw the best are from http://www.thegoodmama.com/ - expensive but worth it) so I can travel with cloth diapers and I obsess about those 6 disposable diapers a week that get used on my son while he is in daycare.
So how did I get here from those Melrose Place days????? Word of mouth worked against me, there were no negative consequences or social pressure, I knew no advocates..... I guess it just came down to my belief that the social norm was NOT acceptable to me and the help of ONE good friend.
So what no... well I'm trying to do my darnest to influence other people's behaviour by advocating my experience. It only took one friend to help me change. And it really it isn't that hard - once you get over the intial shopping experience. Now if we could just convince a large marketer that money could be made here then we'd have a lot more power behind our cloth diaper revolution.
I can easily be described as a city girl. I started in advertising in Toronto in the early 90s when Melrose Place was the 'best' example of my profession. No my skirts were never that short, no I didn't switch from an account person to a writer to an art director in a single episode and no I never tried to drown anyone in the pool in the center of my apartment complex. But I did live a hard working, fun living, disposable lifestyle. That changed somewhat after I moved to Vancouver. But I was still very focused on my work and my social life. When I met my husband I was travelling a lot for work, dropped my laundry off at the laundromat to be cleaned, dried and folded for me and I had a cleaning lady twice a month. Not the type of person you'd expect to get excited about her diapers drying on the clothes line in the backyard.
So what happened? How was I influenced to change? Certainly mainstream media had an effect on my thinking about my disposable lifestyle. It always really bugged me that diapers live pretty much forever in our land fills. And while the cloth diaper movement is growing is it certainly not mainstream and there are no large marketers pushing their virtues. This is a case of social change through word of mouth.
At the breakfast session Jim gave us a little exercise to discuss amongst your table a behaviour you'd like to change - discuss the excuses you'd give not to change, actual reasons not the change and the reasons to change. (and he reminded us that real and perceived issues were equally valid)
Well the excuses not to try is pretty obvious - the fear of poo and the need to stay as far away from it as possible. Some valid reasons for not trying them is the upfront cost of buying them, the extra steps required when your baby is wiggling away on the diaper table and the extra laundry (and the additional hydro cost that goes with that). The reasons to try are primarily environmental, but also cost.
So I was commited to the idea that I would try cloth diapering part time. Use them at home and then switch to disposable when out and about. It seemed like a nice little step to try and reduce the amount of diapers I would send to the landfill.
I was one of the last of my friends to have kids, so I asked my friends. The reactions were
- "hahahahahahaha I give it a week"
- "you are a better woman than me"
- "I tried it but my husband wasn't on board so I gave it up"
- "there were too many extra steps - diapers, snaps, liners, covers - so we gave it up".
Then it was like we fell into a rabbit hole - of the marketing kind. Cloth diapering itself was easy. Figuring out the shopping process was NOT. My friend with the 3 kids (who lives in Toronto by the way) was my life line to all things cloth diapering. Cloth diapering seem to be a great business opportunity for Work at Home Moms (WAHM). And the internet is just stuffed FULL of diaper options. But I spends hours and hours and hours reviewing websites and scouring diaperpin.com to read reviews. No wonder people don't want to change and try something different... it is overwhelming. More overwhelming than buying a stroller!
The diaper service was great advice as it gave me a few months to get used to my little man and his diapering needs and then buy a couple of samples to see what worked for him and us. I then bought the diapers we liked on craigslist (the good diapers like mother-ease really hold their value and I expect I'll be able to resell them when we are finished with them OR give them to a friend).
In the end, we found the times when we used disposable diapers we had more messes and that resulted in more laundry than washing diapers. So we became full time cloth diaper parents. And somewhere along the line I've become pretty passionate about it. I've posted reviews on diaperpin.com, I've passionately advocated to poor pregnant women wondering what it is all about, I've purchased wet bags (btw the best are from http://www.thegoodmama.com/ - expensive but worth it) so I can travel with cloth diapers and I obsess about those 6 disposable diapers a week that get used on my son while he is in daycare.
So how did I get here from those Melrose Place days????? Word of mouth worked against me, there were no negative consequences or social pressure, I knew no advocates..... I guess it just came down to my belief that the social norm was NOT acceptable to me and the help of ONE good friend.
So what no... well I'm trying to do my darnest to influence other people's behaviour by advocating my experience. It only took one friend to help me change. And it really it isn't that hard - once you get over the intial shopping experience. Now if we could just convince a large marketer that money could be made here then we'd have a lot more power behind our cloth diaper revolution.
Monday, February 16, 2009
customer experience is more than just polite customer service
A friend of mine posted a blog a week or so ago about "Marketing in a challenging economy... Customer Service, duh!" http://giraffemarketing.blogspot.com/2009/02/marketing-in-challenging.html. He spoke about the companies he knows doing it right. I completely agree with his assessment, but one has to ask about those that just don't get it. When does the gap between the brand promise and customer experience become so big that you walk away?
I expect an organization to deliver a customer experience that matches their brand promise. If not, then there is a gap in my opinion of them. This isn't just about customer service, this is delivering what people expect in product quality, technology, service, etc. It is delivering on your promise at every point I experience your company. The nice folks at Saturn called it the 'moment of truth'. And it isn't just about training your staff to be friendly and polite, it is providing your staff with the right tools and enabling them to use them. Sounds pretty simple in theory... but billions get spent in brand, product development and marketing every year... and it is often like pissing in the wind when the end result is nothing like what was promised. And it is often the biggest companies that seem to have the most difficulty delivering. My experience with Shaw is such an example.
I have to admit I hated Shaw pretty early in our relationship. When I moved to Vancouver Rogers was my cable provider. Then they did a deal with Shaw to take over their BC customers. The Shaw technology was far below that of Rogers. I complained to Shaw that I wasn't receiving the same level of service that I had paid for previously. Now I was a high value customer, rented my digital box, had most of the digital channels at the time and the movie channels. I thought my value as a customer would mean something. Nope. They tried to tell me the technology Rogers was using was illegal or under some law suit so they couldn't provide it (the technology in question was a little device that you could program through your digital box to turn on your VCR to record a program for you). Seemed like a BS excuse to me. Why not just tell me that you don't own the rights to that technology. But true or not they still offered me nothing - it wouldn't have taken much to make me feel appreciated as a customer... maybe a couple of months of the movie channels free, some free pay-per-view movies. But they offered NOTHING. So I was stuck with a service provider that I didn't pick, paying the same for lesser service and feeling like they didn't give a damn. I wasn't prepared to order satellite, so I was stuck.
I'll skip past my high speed internet experience with Shaw and fast forward 9 years. Our PVR dies. Still a high value customer, no longer renting my digital box as we bought a PVR box from them 4 years previous.
Shaw's reaction - NOTHING. Yes the box was past its warranty period. I can accept that. But 4 years isn't that old and they offered no help in suggesting how we get it fixed. We called on 3 separate occasions to discuss it with them - no a new box couldn't be given to us (yeah that was a stretch I know), no they don't repair the boxes they sell and no they couldn't make any suggestions on where we could get it fixed. It seemed the only option the very friendly service person could offer was 3 months of free HD channels (which we would have to call and cancel at the end of that period). They did (after our 3rd call) send out an equally polite service technician to check it out for us - yup box DEAD. Nope - nothing they could do. You could see that the technician felt like an idiot not being able to provide some suggestions for where to get it repaired. I think he had even tried to do some of his own research for us. But Shaw had not enabled him with the right tools to try and help us.
So in the end Shaw was telling us that if we wanted to continue to receive the level of service we had been receiving, we would have to purchase a new PVR box. A new PVR is $650, which if it last 4 years, is an extra $160ish/year to our service costs (which were about $90/month).
The difference today vs 9 years ago... there is a new guy in town. Now TelusTV is new and the quality of the product and functionality of the PVR is nowhere near as good as Shaw. And many may hate Telus as much or more than I hate Shaw. But the customer experience so far for us has been fantastic. Well informed service people (they can even out-tech my techie husband) who follow up if they don't have the answers. Service technicians that leave their cards in case you have questions - they follow up - they drop by extra cable cause they were in the area and knew we could use it - they call to check in. The product itself is going through some growing pains. After a month we are on our 2nd box and we spent 30 minutes on the phone with service again today. But these people really seem to want our business, so we are willing to work through the little start up issues.
Now price is not our primary incentive here but it doesn't hurt that with a home bundle (phone, internet and tv) we save a lot each month. Plus, my husband works for Telus and gets an additional discount. It does make it easier to be patient with TelusTV's growing pains when we are saving money too.
If the PVR hadn't died would we have switched right now? Probably not. If Shaw had offered us some more 'incentives', a little appreciation, or a clue where to get it repaired would we have stayed? Maybe... Did Shaw provide the friendly customer service that their marketing and brand campaigns promise. Yes. But did they offer true customer service? No. Shaw needs to stop treating their customers like they did when there was little or no competition, they need to focus and really deliver on their brand promise of customer service.
And oh yeah, we found a place in Richmond that fixed our PVR for $60. Perfect! Now we can sell it on craigslist.
I expect an organization to deliver a customer experience that matches their brand promise. If not, then there is a gap in my opinion of them. This isn't just about customer service, this is delivering what people expect in product quality, technology, service, etc. It is delivering on your promise at every point I experience your company. The nice folks at Saturn called it the 'moment of truth'. And it isn't just about training your staff to be friendly and polite, it is providing your staff with the right tools and enabling them to use them. Sounds pretty simple in theory... but billions get spent in brand, product development and marketing every year... and it is often like pissing in the wind when the end result is nothing like what was promised. And it is often the biggest companies that seem to have the most difficulty delivering. My experience with Shaw is such an example.
I have to admit I hated Shaw pretty early in our relationship. When I moved to Vancouver Rogers was my cable provider. Then they did a deal with Shaw to take over their BC customers. The Shaw technology was far below that of Rogers. I complained to Shaw that I wasn't receiving the same level of service that I had paid for previously. Now I was a high value customer, rented my digital box, had most of the digital channels at the time and the movie channels. I thought my value as a customer would mean something. Nope. They tried to tell me the technology Rogers was using was illegal or under some law suit so they couldn't provide it (the technology in question was a little device that you could program through your digital box to turn on your VCR to record a program for you). Seemed like a BS excuse to me. Why not just tell me that you don't own the rights to that technology. But true or not they still offered me nothing - it wouldn't have taken much to make me feel appreciated as a customer... maybe a couple of months of the movie channels free, some free pay-per-view movies. But they offered NOTHING. So I was stuck with a service provider that I didn't pick, paying the same for lesser service and feeling like they didn't give a damn. I wasn't prepared to order satellite, so I was stuck.
I'll skip past my high speed internet experience with Shaw and fast forward 9 years. Our PVR dies. Still a high value customer, no longer renting my digital box as we bought a PVR box from them 4 years previous.
Shaw's reaction - NOTHING. Yes the box was past its warranty period. I can accept that. But 4 years isn't that old and they offered no help in suggesting how we get it fixed. We called on 3 separate occasions to discuss it with them - no a new box couldn't be given to us (yeah that was a stretch I know), no they don't repair the boxes they sell and no they couldn't make any suggestions on where we could get it fixed. It seemed the only option the very friendly service person could offer was 3 months of free HD channels (which we would have to call and cancel at the end of that period). They did (after our 3rd call) send out an equally polite service technician to check it out for us - yup box DEAD. Nope - nothing they could do. You could see that the technician felt like an idiot not being able to provide some suggestions for where to get it repaired. I think he had even tried to do some of his own research for us. But Shaw had not enabled him with the right tools to try and help us.
So in the end Shaw was telling us that if we wanted to continue to receive the level of service we had been receiving, we would have to purchase a new PVR box. A new PVR is $650, which if it last 4 years, is an extra $160ish/year to our service costs (which were about $90/month).
The difference today vs 9 years ago... there is a new guy in town. Now TelusTV is new and the quality of the product and functionality of the PVR is nowhere near as good as Shaw. And many may hate Telus as much or more than I hate Shaw. But the customer experience so far for us has been fantastic. Well informed service people (they can even out-tech my techie husband) who follow up if they don't have the answers. Service technicians that leave their cards in case you have questions - they follow up - they drop by extra cable cause they were in the area and knew we could use it - they call to check in. The product itself is going through some growing pains. After a month we are on our 2nd box and we spent 30 minutes on the phone with service again today. But these people really seem to want our business, so we are willing to work through the little start up issues.
Now price is not our primary incentive here but it doesn't hurt that with a home bundle (phone, internet and tv) we save a lot each month. Plus, my husband works for Telus and gets an additional discount. It does make it easier to be patient with TelusTV's growing pains when we are saving money too.
If the PVR hadn't died would we have switched right now? Probably not. If Shaw had offered us some more 'incentives', a little appreciation, or a clue where to get it repaired would we have stayed? Maybe... Did Shaw provide the friendly customer service that their marketing and brand campaigns promise. Yes. But did they offer true customer service? No. Shaw needs to stop treating their customers like they did when there was little or no competition, they need to focus and really deliver on their brand promise of customer service.
And oh yeah, we found a place in Richmond that fixed our PVR for $60. Perfect! Now we can sell it on craigslist.
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