Tag Archives: business

January 16, 2015 · 12:10 pm

Home Cooking

This week our Foodie Friday Fun revolves around home.  In particular around Mom’s home cooking.  Some moms aren’t great cooks.  Some moms (like the one who taught me how to cook – not my own, mind you) could open a restaurant and it would be packed every night.  It really doesn’t matter how good their food is.  What matters is that whatever they produce comes from your home and that experience is imprinted on your senses.

I bring this up because of the thought that was triggered last night while I was watching “The Taste.”  Chef Marcus Samuelsson said “Food can give you a sense of home” and it really resonated.  It immediately brought to mind a couple of dishes that bring me back home no matter where I encounter them.  A great pot of Sunday Gravy, filled with meatballs, sausage, and braciole.  Beef flanken nestled in a dense broth.  They, among others, transport me to a place filled with happy memories.  If the dish is spectacular, so much the better.  Even if it’s just OK I give it extra points.  It’s the memory of comfort that’s important.

I read a quote once that every cuisine has a soul food or a food that makes the people of that ethnic group’s soul sing.  I believe that.  I also believe that it a great thought for any business.  We need to ask ourselves if there is a way to tap into the collective sense of home that our consumers have.  How do we make their souls sing?  How do we elicit happy memories even though our product is new or innovative?  The second level of Maslow’s hierarchy is safety.  How do we bring that feeling to our customers?

It can be done.  There is a humorous ad campaign out now from Ally Bank that taps into this.  Every spot revolves around the typical sort of fears we face each day in the modern world and how you can depend on Ally no matter what.  The spots are generally pretty funny and I think they tap into that notion of the safety home brings.

We need to work on bringing that sense of home to our brands.  Up for the challenge?

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January 5, 2015 · 12:33 pm

Reviewing Reviews

Now that the shopping season is over, you might be getting emails from stores to leave reviews for the products you bought.  Reviews are part of what should be a virtuous circle – consumers need information about a pending purchase, read reviews, select and buy the product, and leave reviews for the next person.  I certainly use them when making purchases and I suspect you do as well.

We’re not alone.  According to a YouGov study:

The majority of Americans rely on online reviews. 78% check out the review section before making a purchase and nearly half of Americans (44%) are active contributors, actively writing reviews if only occasionally. Americans rely heavily on online review ratings and comments despite believing that many ratings are untrustworthy.

Huh?  We think reviews are bogus and use them anyway?  Apparently so.

Overall 87% of Americans who read any online reviews find reviewer star ratings important, and 34% find them very important as an aid to decision making. Slightly more Americans find the written reviews to be important (90%) with 41% finding them very important. The main reasons given for using reviews are to ensure the product or service is of good quality (79%), that it works (61%) and to make sure that the purchaser doesn’t get ripped off (53%).

It’s easy to think that the only folks that leave reviews are those who wish to complain and that positive reviews should be taken with a grain of salt since it may be the company itself writing it.  Not so.

American reviewers generally write positive (74%) or neutral (32%) reviews, motivated to help others make better purchasing decisions (62%), or because they think it is polite to leave feedback (35%). Around a quarter want to share positive experiences (27%) and to help good vendors get business (25%). Only 12% are trying to expose poor vendors.

So what’s the business point?  Of all the forms of “content marketing” a brand might be considering, the review space is not one in which we want to play:

  • 90%, believe that some people review products and services without trying them and many believe that businesses manipulate reviews
  • 89% believe that businesses write negative reviews of competitors.
  • 91% believe businesses write their own positive reviews (36% believe that this happens often).
  • Only 13% believe online reviews are very trustworthy.

In other words, not only are the risks of being caught pretty high due to consumers’ natural suspicions but the value of the content is minimized both by the volume of other reviews and reviews seem to be only one of a multitude of sources from which consumers derive research.  Word of mouth and recommendations from informed friends are pretty important too.  Much better might be to monitor all reviews and respond to those which are off the mark in terms of product features, etc. as a comment and not a review.  It shows you care.

You do, right?

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December 31, 2014 · 12:55 pm

Top Posts Of The Year 2014 – #1!

This was the most-read post I wrote in 2014.  It is about one of the favorite topics here on the screed: customer service.  This one was a pleasure to write as was the experience upon which it was based.  It was originally called “Service Done Right,” and that’s something I hope the screed continues to provide for you.  Happy New Year!

I go on an annual golf trip – no shock given that golf is a frequent topic here on the screed. This year’s takes place in a few weeks and part of our group’s tradition (it’s our twentieth trip!) is that each guy brings “free stuff” for every other guy. Of course, it’s never free to the giver, but that’s part of the charm, I guess.

Over the years I’ve made a variety of commemorative T-shirts for the group as my gift and I’ll be doing that again this year (sorry if I ruined the surprise for any of my group that visits here). I designed them and sent the file off with my order to Design-A-Shirt, the company I’ve used several times before. What happened next is customer service at its finest.

First, when they began working on the order, they sent out proof sheets to show me how they had cleaned up what I sent them and to get an approval to proceed.  This is the first step in very smart customer service.  After all, why take the chance on an unhappy customer (bad) or on having to redo an order (worse, and a killer of margins)?  This was NOT a form email.  It came from a person and I responded to a personal mailbox as I approved what they were doing.

To this point, I’d call this above average, smart customer communication.  Here is where it gets extraordinary.  I got this note yesterday:

Hello Keith,

I wanted to follow up on the order you placed with us to provide you with a production photo of your design printed on fabric. Please see the attached photo for reference. We are concerned about the text… as it’s a bit hard to read. To fix that we would either have to move the “ball” up to make the font larger, or use a different, thinner font that would be more legible. Please advise!

Wow.  They printed the approved design on T-shirt fabric and had a human give it the once over.  That same human took the time to write me a personal note and to ask for guidance.  I should remind you that this is for 13 shirts and the total cost was around $150, far from a big order.  Even so, they made me feel as if I was ordering 13 dozen.  Giving equal attention to every customer is part of doing it right.  Not surprisingly, late last night I got an email that the order had shipped and will be here at the end of the week – several days ahead of when it was promised.

Think I’ll be back?  You bet.  More importantly, by using them as an example of perfect customer communication and service – that which goes above and beyond the customer’s expectations – I’m hoping you’ll both learn from them and given them consideration if you need to make a shirt or two.  I know I talk often in this space about how excellent customer service costs less than you think and retaining a customer is always easier than finding a new one.  Hopefully this real word example resonates.  Does it?

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