- Shower them with love
- Be gentle with them
- Give them the best
They can sense it.
Just like your customers.
- Take care of them
- Shower them with love - Be gentle with them - Give them the best They can sense it. Just like your customers.
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Do you know of any friends running a F&B business?
My friend owns a eatery in a suburban shopping mall located at a high-class residential area. Every weekday morning, a Japanese man in office wear will comes to his cafe and order a cup of coffee. The coffee is made by those common coffee machine you see at most small eateries and sells for $1 a cup. So you cannot expect much in terms of its taste. I asked my friend if he ever find out why the man does that every day and he replied no. He is not even curious. He sees this guy every day and never even talk to him once. And the guy never talk to my friend too. He does not know where does this person lives, why he comes here every day, where is he going, why he orders the same item every day. What if my friend starts talking to him the next time he visits? What if my friend offers him a free cup of coffee the next time he visits? How much do you make from a cup of coffee? Probably a few cents. How much do you gain from a cup of free coffee ? Probably cannot be measured. Have you noticed developers of private condominium using local celebrities to promote their new launches for the past year?
Can celebrities gracing condominium launches attract more people to visit the showrooms? Are there official figures to prove engaging a celebrity to promote a development actually get more people into the showrooms and ultimately more sales? How about businesses that engage celebrities as their spokesperson? Celebrities that include famous singers, actors and actresses, Olympic champions and even successful business people. How is it possible for these celebrities to get people to do things when they don't even know the celebrities personally? Think of the number of stars who have fallen from grace. Why are we more tolerant of celebrities making mistakes and telling lies? Why is it so easy for some to make a comeback? Why some disappear into obscurity? Why do we say a celebrity is so personable when all he or she does is smile at you? Why do we say a celebrity is cool when he or she does something against the norm? It's all in the packaging. Two men were talking about service standards in airline industry.
Whenever one talks about the airline industry, we never fail to mention Singapore Airlines. After all, this is one of the few airlines which has redefined the meaning of air travel. One of the guy is working as an air steward for Singapore Airlines. The other guy was commenting how the service level of this famous airline has deteriorated over the years. He said he doesn't want any free poker cards and the service is just bad. The air steward then talked about how the recent allowance issue has affected the moral of the staff. Apparently, there was a mistake in the calculation of allowance for flight attendants and those who were overpaid are required to return the money. When the staff feel they are treated unfairly, they vent it on the customers. They'll just do the minimal - serve the meals and disappear. Previously, when one travels on Business Class, the attendant actually cut the meat in front of the passenger and serve it. Because of cost cutting measures, such luxuries are taken away. The air steward also mentioned how the airlines from Middle East are catching up. The first class seats come with a shower room and the tickets are cheaper. But, could these airlines be losing money on every flight while competing for the top spot? These countries are cash rich. When you have money, lots of things are possible. He also talked about how all the crews will get uptight when someone from the top management travels onboard. Any mistake and you run the risk of being marked. By the way, it seems the top management travel first or business class only. And they can only travel on Singapore Airlines. It's the only logical thing to do since the profit will comes back to the company. But if you are only traveling with your own airline, how will you know what are your competitors doing? How does your service compare to others? What are they doing that you are not doing? What you are doing that they are not doing? Then he went on to share an experience by a colleague. Every flight attendant are entitled to get a free ticket to any destination once a year. So this lady crew booked a ticket to a European country. While holidaying there, she met with an accident and had to cancel the trip and come back. She tried to change her return flight and was told it's not possible because her ticket was free. In the end, she had to book a business class seat from Qatar Airlines. And it seemed the business class are fitted with massage seats. Of course, due to the nature of work, most of the flight attendants are scheduled to work with different colleagues on every flight. It's touch and go. Everybody just try to work and tolerate with each other for that flight. There's no relationship building and bonding among the crews. You don't feel like you belong to the company. And when you're on standby to cover duty, you practically cannot do anything except stay home in case you are called up and have to rush to the airport. Some damages done cannot be undone. You cannot now go tell the crews you've made another mistake in your allowance calculation and start giving the money back to them. And the management are unlikely to do that. First, it's going to costs the company lots of money. More importantly, it makes them look stupid. You cannot expect the injured lady crew to get injured again so you can treat her differently this time round. There are things that you can do but your budget does not allow. Like retrofitting all business class seats into massage ones and bringing luxury dining experiences back. There are things you cannot do because the nature of work does not permit. Like scheduling same crews on same flights. But you can care. Care more starting from NOW. Care more about the moral of the crews. Care more about the safety and convenience of your staff even when they are traveling free. Care more about the inconvenience of your staff. Care more and you'll find solutions. Care more so it remains a great way to fly. Before it becomes a great way to cry. When you make use of your customers, you can be sure that your customers are making use of you.
I was invited to a charity dinner yesterday.
At the end of the event, everybody started dancing. When the DJ played a hit song and it really got the guests into the mood, you can see that even those seated on their chairs swinging to the dance beat. When music that were a little unknown or difficult to dance to, everybody started leaving the dance floor. Is your business playing the kind of music that will get your customers dancing away? Start engaging them. Four persons walked into a cafe.
This place is supposedly to be famous for their chocolate cake. They ordered the cake and were told all were sold out. The service staff recommended other items on the menu. Finally, they settled for another two desserts. The items came and the food tasted awful. So were the drinks. 20 minutes later, the service staff came and informed them that the cake is now available. At that point, two persons asked spontaneously, "Is it complimentary?" The staff was stunned and walked away without answering. While they did the right thing by informing the customers availability of the items, they mishandled the experience right from the start. Why the staff did not ask the customers if they could afford to wait as the items will be available shortly? Were the staff too eager to make customers order something else? Making customers order something else when one item is not available and expecting them to order the same item when it becomes available is not right. The four persons were glad they did not order more. It's the same shop where the staff turned ugly when I did not order anything when I visited it previously. And it's awfully.... Succeed by slogging lots of overnight.
If the accounts department keeps the records orderly.
If your staff stop making mistakes. If your customers listen to you. If all your customers behave the same. If there's no customer. An elderly lady walked into a goldsmith shop with many branches around town and asked to see diamond ear-rings.
She tried to bargain for something and said she had been buying from the shop for over 30 years at their first outlet. The staff told her they no longer allow what the lady requested as they want to treat all the customer fairly. Can you treat all customers fairly? There's a difference between the definition of fair for you and your customers. Customers do not want you to compare them to the next customer and say that what's fair to other is fair to them. How can you treat all customers fairly without them feeling unfair? Treat them differently. It was a hot hot day earlier and I was queueing for a cab at a taxi stand.
There were two Western ladies, each with a baby on a pram in the queue. A taxi came and driver came out to help the lady load up the pram before driving off. Another taxi came and the other lady detached the pram from the roller, put the baby inside the behind seat before putting the roller in the luggage compartment. There was something in the compartment and the lady couldn't fit the roller in despite trying different positions. All this while, the taxi driver was sitting inside the cab as if it's none of his business. The lady got frustrated and asked the taxi driver to help. He alighted unwillingly and asked why cannot fit in. Tried it himself and finally had to put it in the front seat. The difference is in YOU. The more you chase after something, the faster it runs away from you.
Rehearsing for a flash mob is fine, just don't do it at the actual location where it's going to happens.
I saw someone (business executive) seated next to me at Starbuck sending handwritten letters.
Do you have a redemption reward plan where customers clock in points to exchange for some free gifts?
Do you have a card where customers need to complete a number of chops to get a discount or a free item? If you do, you're likely to name it along the line of Customer Reward or Loyalty Program. It's your strategy for getting customers to keep buying from you. The logical explanation is that if customers keep buying from you, your customers are loyal to you. And as a reward, you offer something to them. But such programs are not measure of your customers loyalty. They keep coming back or continue to use your service because there's an incentive. What if you take away the incentive? That's a real measure of customers' loyalty if your customers still come back. Can you develop a customer loyalty program without any incentive? I stumbled upon a website and this company provides an apps that puts the traditional chop card in your phone instead of your wallet. Their goal is to help merchants rethink loyalty. You are not helping them to rethink loyalty. You're just giving them a fallacy. It's really handy.
It makes me look intellectual. It tells other that I'm rich. I'm a tech geek. It's cool to be seen with it. I want to join the cool group. I don't want to look outdated using a laptop. All valid justifications. Fishermen cast their net wide so that they will catch a lot.
Fishermen cast their net wide so that they will at least catch some. The fishes do not have a choice whether they want to be caught. There's a interesting marketing tactic that Starbuck employs whenever they introduce new drinks.
They will have a staff backpacking a drink dispensing container and offering free drinks to passerby. The objective is to attract more customers to visit the store. So they will never offer it to those already in the store. But who actually pays $6 for a cup of coffee? Tell a real story, not create a fairytale and expect people to buy into it through clever marketing.
A Vice President working in corporate banking with a big bank commented that customers are very demanding compared to the past.
He said customers now want everything yesterday. Having worked in the banking industry for over 18 years, he saw the shift between the relationship of customers and the banks. In the past, customers used to hold banks in awe, sometimes to the extend of being a little fearful of them. Now, it's the other way round. Well, as our society gets more sophisticated and as more people are educated, do people demand faster, cheaper and more? Do people expect better service, better quality and more? As businesses up the ante in response to competition, what are previously extras becomes the standard norms now. Of course with news of scandals, insiders' trading, scams and the objective of maximizing profits at all costs, the banks now have to cope with the issue of trust. It's not just the banks' problem. You can see it in many corporations. My take is the customers do not want everything yesterday. They do it because they cannot trust you to deliver. |
AuthorOutrageous Marketing Archives
May 2020
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