Customer Experience - A joke tweet, turned awesome.

It's been a while since my last post. The reasons for which are numerous and positive, but I do apologise to my regular readers. One particularly exciting reason is because of a sudden rush of interest in a business I co-Direct with my dear friend Charlotte Henry, called Social Form - a social media marketing company for SMB's (small to medium sized businesses).

I thought a post about a twitter-meets-business story would be incredibly fitting as social media is such a great convergence point between customer experience and engagement - and it ties in nicely with what I'm busying my evenings and weekends with.

Mr Shankman with Alex
of Mortons Steak House

So whilst I prepare for the next post, I thought I'd whet your appetite with an inspirational story about steak. But not just about steak... "Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes, one of Morton’s famous round things of bread, two napkins, and silverware."

I am now hungry. So I'm going to go off and have something to eat, which may not be quite as nice as steak, but still nice, as you would expect.

Whilst I'm preparing my food and writing my next post, entitled Connected, check out this post by Peter Shankman and his story of a joke tweet turned awesome.

Customer experience - Through the screen | Video

Double Fine Adventure is the new pin-up for all aspiring game developers.

If you've not heard, the story goes that Double Fine studios posted a video pitch on KickStarter.com - "A new way to fund & follow Creativity". In practise, a crowd sourcing website, where you pitch an idea and request that "the crowd" fund the project.

They pitched for $400k and reached that figure in just under 8 hours of posting the pitch. At the time of posting this article, just a day and a half of the pitch being online, they've now raised $1,247,221. Sure, the guy who's doing the pitch has a huge following, as does another member of staff at the company - but still, it's pretty impressive!

Since I started this post 10 minutes ago they've received another $7k... Another $2k in 5 minutes... "How?" you ask: by performing to the customer.

Click here to take a look at their pitch 

The beautiful thing about this pitch is the video. In fact, it's the main element to this pitch as it's the first thing you see. It's funny, it's personable, it's self aware - as in, they know they're making a video, they're not pretending that they've rocked up in your living room and are striking up a conversation on your couch. It's great to watch. I've shared it with my friends and now I want to give my money. The goal of the video is surpassed by quite some way!

So let's look into why this method has been successful, as ever, from the customer's experience.

First of all, it's well edited and shot. The sound quality is great (where a majority of self-made ad's fall down). This adds to the trust-factor of the pitch and the perceived legitimacy of their company. These guys have clearly put money into this production so it looks like something you might see on TV, a medium which people trust. If this was filmed on a camcorder, shakey with terrible sound then the professional and trusted veneer would not exist. Not all businesses will have the funding to be able to make something like this - they might think - but put out some feelers and you could easily string together a film student, sound recordist, a semi-pro photographer who'd relish the opportunity to get some credited work out there. If you can, they should be compensated - you'll get custom from this video, fair is fair.

Video is a disastrously underused method of getting a pitch across. It's also used quite disastrously some times. I'm talking here about the struggling entrepreneurs, the small shops, the sole traders. There are some very lucky examples of small companies and individuals making terrible adverts and them going viral (see Flee Market - Montgomery, Chuck Testa).

True

Unfortunately, not every terrible video goes viral and it can serve to discredit and over-shadow your business. That's why it's important to think, get a creative person or people on board and spend as much time as is needed to get that video polished - that is critical. Do not rush it out because you've got a deadline in mind, or for any reason. Once it's on the internet, it's there forever, as this internet meme attests to (above left).

Recording a video and posting it on-line gets your business into the comfort zone of the audience, too. Be careful not to abuse it. You should consider your video being watched as the equivolent of the customer inviting you into their home. You wouldn't walk into their home and start rambling on about your deals and offers, trying to get their money... I hope.. It will also be there forever, so steer clear of anything which may date the video - "This January we've got a mega sale on..." You can plan to make more videos to supplant that one and that gets around that problem, but ideally, they should be timeless.

So, what to do? That depends on your customer reach strategy and your business type. A law firm may not need their customers to relate to them on a lifestyle level, but a Cafe might. A gym may want to tap into the energy and aspiration of their potential and current customers, whereas a car-cleaning firm may not as much.

A video gives your customers an insight into the way your brands mind works. If your video is poorly edited, clearly shot "on the cheap" sounding like voice in a tin can, then you'll need to revisit it and certainly don't post it! If your video is the visual and audible representation of your brand to the dot, professional, well made, then congratulations, you've done it!

Customer Experience - Performing for your customers

The customer story is a tool I use more frequently these days when trying to analyse how a business performs. This is a method of my own devising which provides business owners with a clear guide in how to look at the intricacies of their business + customer relationships. This post looks at one aspect of the story - 2. The Middle.

I said "how a business performs" and it should be seen as just that. Every time a customer comes in to the business premises, sees the business from a far, or every time the business comes to them, it should be seen as a performance. Why? Because, for whatever reason and whatever way, your business has to stand out. Plain, ordinary, kicking it's heels in the corner doesn't stand out, but extraordinary, thought provoking, exciting and different does.

If you ever get a chance to visit Amsterdam, I would thoroughly recommend it, as there are shops there which exemplify my point so well. Let me give you one example...

One particular night we walked the strip of town and spotted in the distance a distinctly "chain" looking restaurant, called "Burger Bar". Burger restaurants still being poisoned in my mind by McDonalds and other fast-food "restaurants", we weren't going to even consider eating there. But as we walked past, looking inside we were totally taken in.

"Burger Bar" Amsterdam, 2011

The most striking feature of this place was the up lit wall lined with cuts of wood at different lengths. It was a wall of art! There were large hard-wood tables with benches to match which looked like they had a history of their own. Small metal chairs for the smaller tables. Huge blackboards over the kitchen area displayed hand-drawn wording and pictures, with stories about where the beef had come from and fun facts - no prices. There was a giant blackboard (out of shot on the left of the picture) where customers had written little messages about Burger Bar or just anything they wanted. One message I remember distinctly was a UK mobile number with a message "Call me if you ever get to London."

The staff were lively, literally jumping around sometimes, whistling and singing along to songs played in the shop. They laughed a lot too!

With a little creativity and a low cost, this small franchise business made my night on holiday and I honestly can't wait to go back there again. The food was delicious as well and service was with a smile always. If I'm honest, of all the places we ate, this burger bar gave us the richest experience which is on par with and better than some gigs I've been to. Just sitting in the place soaking up the atmosphere was a pleasure. We bought some more snacks after the meal too because it was just so nice.

What a performance!

The great thing about this place was that, for very little cash, they made the place look extraordinary. No expensive lighting, no expensive furniture, in fact nothing fancy at all. Everything is simple but used to great effect to enrich the experience.

When a customer walks into an establishment, they should be thinking "This place has got something. I want to be here." If you give people a reason to like an element of your shop or business, a physical one, a tangible one, they are far more likely feel a shared sense of identity and will not hesitate to contribute, financially and through publicity, to your business. Encourage a sense of community too like "Burger Bar" did with a blackboard. Psychologically the blackboard is great too. It's like leaving out Lego or Play-Doh. People want to have a go. People want to interact with your business.

So how does your business perform for your customers?

Customer Experience - The customer experience story

My last post was called "Amalgamate" and through writing my thoughts out for my next few blog posts I realised that I should really make far big a deal about one particular element of that post.

That element is the customer experience story:

Think of your business as a story. Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end with a good amount of back story to settle the reader in. Some might even have an epilogue. Let's not forget as well that the most important perspective to view this in is that of your customer. So how does this apply to your business?

1. The beginning - The customer hears about your business, sees your advert, walks past your shop, clicks on your website.
2. The middle - They're in your shop/business/place of work. They're browsing, experiencing, seeing if the shop fits.
3. The end - They decide whether to buy or not
4. The epilogue - Ongoing service and support post sale

The customer experience story is a brilliant tool which can help business owners analyse their business from the viewpoint of the customer. It's often difficult to step back from life in a business or shop and look at it's intricacies - mainly because those who have the power to implement changes usually keep their eyes fixed on the overall picture.

The story is all about breaking down the individual units of the way your business interacts with the public using a very simple and approachable method. Everyone likes a good story, right?

I will be referring back to this article in the various posts to come and applying context to the points for areas such as Visual, Presence, After-care and many other posts in my Customer Experience series.

Customer Experience - Epilogue follow-up

As a follow up to my last post, I thought I'd share this with you. Tiger bread has now officially been renamed Giraffe bread after Lilly's letter.

This is a great example of a large, no, massive company engaging with one voice. Admittedly, Lilly's call to arms got a lot of backing from the public through social media which is definitely what encouraged the renaming, but still, it all started with one letter from a 3 and a half year old girl in London.

I was sad to read that Mr Chris King had left the company but through this show of care and attention I'm sure he will excel at primary school teaching.

You can read the full BBC article here.