Experience Manifesto

When a Company Really Stands By Its Products

I do a fair amount of shopping at Duluth Trading Company and always enjoy their products. In fact, I just got an order of their jeans today and, their Buck Naked underwear was featured in Business Insider today.

But, like all companies, sometimes something goes wrong. So, a while back, I ordered some new versions of pants that I have been wearing for some time. I didn't check size or anything, they're pants I usually live in, so I know how they fit. Took them to the tailors and had them hemmed and I was all set to wear them when they came back.

To my surprise, these pants didn't fit me at all. They were the exact same size as my previous pairs and I wear them weekly, so I knew I still fit in them. But something was wrong. Reading through the comments, it seems that a few people complained that they seemed to be cut tighter than the previous versions. Normally, I would just return them, but I had already had them hemmed, so I figured I was out of luck.

I reached out to Duluth to see what my options were, if any. I told them very clearly that I had already taken them in to get hemmed, so I wasn't actually expecting much. To my surprise, here's how they responded:

Here at Duluth Trading, we offer a "No Bull" Guarantee – if you are not 100% satisfied with any item you purchase from Duluth Trading, return it to us at any time for a refund of its purchase price - even if you have had them altered.

That's a company that stands behind it's products. It's not a 10 day return policy, or a 30 day return policy. It's not a "merchandise must be in its original condition" return policy. It's use it, don't like it, return it policy. Now, for these policies to work, both companies and customers have to work together. Companies can only offer policies like this when the great majority of their customers respect it. And that mutual respect is what makes great, retail relationships.

BTW, here are other retailers that also have excellent return policies. It's so much better to spend your money with companies who deliver great experiences!

If You Just Started Talking About Being Customer Centric...

This post started when I saw a tweet about this article on Econsultancy on being customer centric and how important it is for companies today. I thought that article was well done, so my issue is not with their content or the position it takes. My problem is that it's 2015 and if you're just starting to ask how you can be more consumer centric, it might already be too late. I mean seriously, how can you be running a business today and think that being customer-centric is a new idea???

Back in the day when most businesses were local, this was just how you did it. If you were the local butcher, you served your customers. The local florist or grocer, you served your customers. If you didn't carry the goods that you're audience wanted, you didn't sell things. If you didn't treat your customers well, they didn't buy from you. It wasn't some big, mysterious thing that required consultants teaching you how to do it, You just did.

My gut is that as companies stopped being local, that's when this change started. And, as I've written about before in No Man Can Serve Two Masters, I think it was really accelerated when businesses changed who they were serving, going from the customer to the shareholder. As I wrote then:

And unfortunately, these two masters are diametrically opposed to one another. The biggest challenge comes from the fact that shareholders, as a rule, don't really care about anything other then very short term results. Need to make the numbers for the month, just cut expenses. Quarter looking soft, layoff a bunch of people. It's all short term for them. And their only concern is making money, nothing else matters.

But, this is how most companies think. Their C-level staff is trying to serve those two masters and, not surprisingly, they're devoted to the shareholders and the customer ends up being despised. Too often, the C-level staff doesn't even care what the brand is. Didn't a study show that the average tenure of a CMO was 18 months? Well, that means they're only working about 14 month, because they're spending the last 4 months looking for their new gig. And when the C-level staff doesn't really care about the brand, there's no way the frontline staff is going to care.

What's interesting is that there are great examples out there of companies that do well for their customers and that's what drives shareholder value. I don't think that just focusing on shareholders will ever create the same value, not in the long terms anyway. I don't know how to change this focus, but one would think the large number of companies who have gone out of business trying to make Wall Street happy instead of their customers, would be enough incentive for companies to look at customers first.

Radio Shack Should've Gone DIY

So, it looks like Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy today, which had been expected for some time now. It's a shame to see a company that's been around for so long close after almost 100 years, but they sadly brought it on themselves.

The problem is that they never really staked out a good position in the marketplace, especially the last few years. Even bigger stores, think Circuit City which closed a few years back and Best Buy, which always seem to be teetering on the brink, have had a hard time in this space. But Radio Shack had a fairly small inventory and they certainly didn't always have the best prices on things. And, as their situation got worse, their inventory got even worse.

To make matters worse, some stores had very good staff that really knew their stuff and other stores, well, they weren't that good. So, they just didn't have any point of differentiation. And yet, they did have something unique within the electronics chain business. They were the place to go when you needed some components, they were doing DIY before it was fashionable. And maybe, had they double downed on that role, they'd still be doing well.

For example, maybe they could've partnered with Maker Shed and created a real maker space. They had lots of great locations and they could've sold 3D printers, arduino kits drones and the like. They could've led the DIY revolution. They could've had employees as passionate about Radio Shack as Apple employees are about Apple stores. They might've had a passionate audience, coming to them to help with their DIY projects. Maybe a store where people would've gathered to share ideas, a place where there were hackathons on the weekends and people learned about arduino, Rasberry pie and robotics. It could've been the third place for the DIY community. And since they would've been way ahead of this trend, they could've owned that position.

True, they wouldn't have been mass market, so the investor community might not have liked the idea. But they'd be a smaller, better version of what they are today and they might still be successful. And they might not have filed for bankruptcy today.

BELWeather

Looking for some files on an older computer and came across one of the first newsletters that I did at the Brand Experience Lab. A number of good articles in it, most of which is still relevant today. For example, here's the opening:

It has been said that today’s consumer is pummeled with over 3,000 marketing messages per day. 3,000. Per day. And so, here you sit, contemplating how to best tell your brand message, build loyalty, drive revenues, connect with the consumer/customer/guest/ visitor. Ready to jump on the brandwagon and do what you do best–but how? How do you cut through that clutter? How do your stake a claim in the mind of your target audience? Better yet, how do you stake that claim in their heart, making the transition from just another product / place to a product or place with real meaning? Rather than simply filter information regarding all the attributes of a brand, today’s prospective purchasers want more. They now want a visceral interaction with your product. They want to connect with it, connect through it. They want to experience it.

Take a look and let me know what you think of what's there. Still valuable? Leave me a comment about what's still the same and what's different today.

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No Muzak Here

I was teaching a class for FIT earlier this week and talking about retail experiences. I brought up a slide of an Apple store and mentioned how there is no background music at the Apple stores that I visit and how that goes against the grain of retail pundits who spend great effort building play lists that encourage people to shop and buy. But, I didn't say there wasn't a soundtrack, but rather

The soundtrack of an Apple store is people talking about Apple products.

Because Apple's social media is its stores. Think about that. They don't participate in what we generally consider SM, their stores are their social media. People are talking to Apple employees and each other. They're sharing their information with other people shopping. There's never silence is an Apple store, at least not the ones that I've been too.

Is your brand strong enough to create its own soundtrack? And with that soundtrack be upbeat and sharable? Or would it be somber, negative or worse, would you have no soundtrack at all.

If you run a retail business, try turing off the sound system and listen to the soundtrack that remains. Then start thinking about how to compose your own soundtrack.

Unlock the 007 In You

Just love this promotion program for the new James Bond movie Skyfall. It has everything a great promotion should have,. It's fun, it's place-based (you know how I feel about that!) and it's pretty darn engaging. Kudos to Coke Zero for putting it together. They really use the space well and the placement of people telling you how much time you have left adds to the excitement. Plus, it's great for spectators, as you watch people try to complete the mission. Sadly, liability issues here in the States would probably prevent something like this from happening here. Check out the video to see how they did it.

The Woodward Report Interview on Retail

I did this interview last year in Denmark while I was there for NEXT and thought that I would share it. We covered a lot of ground, including retail trends; what's working in retail and what the future of retail might be. Probably the first time I spoke about the role of history and legacy in creating retail experiences, something I still continue to formulate. Have a watch and let me know what you think.

Click here to view the entire video.

Weather (and Delta) Ruining Another Great Trip

UPDATE: Well, it took about 4 hours of trying on the phone and on Twitter, but Delta was able to get Sydney & I on a new flight that, if all goes well, gets us in at the same time as originally planned. Of course, it means leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning and basically spending the next 24 hours on planes, but at least we'll make it to the conference! More when we get there!

Yes, once again, weather seems to be thwarting another trip that I've been looking forward to for months. I get it. There's a hurricane. It's messing everything up and it's not anyone's fault. But Delta, there are things that are your fault and that you need to change:

• They were announcing that NYC was going to be shut down by lunch time and yet when we called in the afternoon to change my flight, we were told that you couldn't do anything until my flight had been cancelled. Did you think that the hurricane was just going to go away and everything would be OK? Were you not sure that you would still be flying planes out of JFK when NYC starting to evacuate the city and impose a curfew for tomorrow night? So, thanks to the delay of having to wait for the flight to actually be cancelled, I'm now on hold for an hour+ with little chance that I will now be able to make my conference on Tuesday.
• If I tell you that I want to speak to a representative, stop asking me questions and connect me with a representative. Stop asking me a "few more questions to help serve me better." When I've asked for a representative, what would help me better is actually connecting me with a representative.
• You direct me to your website where I'll be able to make changes to my flight, but when I get there, it doesn't work at all. And yes, I've sent several messages to @deltaassist and aside from one response asking me for flight info, I haven't heard anything in over 2 hours.

It's not that things don't go wrong and, in a case like this, it certainly didn't start as your fault. But how you handle things really speaks to how you feel about customers. I'm not feeling the love right now. And, unless you can get me there for Tuesday, the whole trip might just be cancelled. I wish you had taken care of the problem when we asked you to an not waited until it now seems too late to do anything about it. And for that Delta, I hold you responsible.

Are All Your Employees Brand Ambassadors?

A few years ago, I was doing an interview for a new book about experiential marketing and I was asked about the importance brand ambassadors. My response was that while they were certainly very important when you were doing marketing events, the truth is that there shouldn't be a select group of brand ambassadors. Every employee that you hire should be a brand ambassador. I've written about the importance of retail in the past:

Retail Grows in Importance: Retail spaces will become even more important as a connection point between the consumer and the brand. And the people you hire to run your retail is becoming even more important today. Do you hire to save money or to find the best people possible to represent your brand? The consumer will know the difference.

So think about that the next time you're getting ready to hire someone. Would they be a great brand ambassador or are they simply a warm body that you can get on the cheap. Yea, I know money's tight, but give your employees something other then money to motivate them. Give them a passionate place to work. Give them the tools they need and let them make decisions. And don't be pissed off when you're employees don't care about the company when you cut their salaries/benefits while announcing that upper management made tens of millions in bonuses for saving the company money. If you're not going to treat them like they're important, they won't act like the company is important. I'll remind you again of something I wrote back in 2003 for Event Marketer magazine. These rules are even more important today then when I wrote more then 8 years ago. So read them and learn them. Your survival depends on knowing them!

1. Make it compelling. Is there a narrative story that the audience understands? Is there a narrative at all? What is the story that you tell to your customers every day? Could you define it? More importantly, can your audience? Make the product experience as good as the marketing experience. Ursula LeGuin describes a story this way -- What makes a story is - you want to 'find out what happens next' - this bit of the story leads you to the next one. When people interact with your brand, are they really interested in finding out more?
2. Deliver on your message and don’t use slogans to deliver an empty promise. Do you say that you’re committed to total customer satisfaction and then create rules of engagement that are of benefit to you and not your customers? Do you train your customer service staff to only say yes to a request after the customer has asked a certain number of times? Are you prepared to live your slogan in everything you do, and not just the easy things?
3. Make it a movement. Jim Ward, vp-marketing at Lucas Films, said many years ago that the next generation of brand marketing is creating a movement. Would people camp out in front of anything for up to three weeks for your product? Many companies have created movements — just listen to any Mac user talk about PCs. Is your brand a movement or simply a product? Are people passionate about your brand, your products, and your services? Do they sincerely want to share their stories of your brand with other people? Are you telling the same story with all of your employees? Are they telling the same story to your customers?
4. Be authentic. If you need more answers, talk to consumers. Be who you are and leverage what your company stands for. I recently had the opportunity to work on a product for a Fortune 100 company, helping to position them to a specific target audience. They wanted to talk about speed, but as anyone who has worked with large companies knows, speed is not one of their authentic story lines. They had many other authentic stories to tell, but it took a while for them to understand that and work with different language. Note that stories must be organic and can’t be rushed.

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Citibank Opens "Bank of the Future" in New York

Way back in 2003, I worked on an Experience Audit for Chase Manhattan bank in partnership with Bulldog Drummond NYC. We had some great ideas in that presentation and actually opened the presentation with "Chase a Better Experience," which was part of our thematic throughout the entire presentation which we called "Chase Me."

For example, one of our ideas was the Chase Your Dream Machines. What we realized was that people didn't know what bank services they needed, but they did know what they wanted to accomplish. So, the Dream Machine allowed customers to input financial “what if” information and see future possibilities. For example, a customer could query the device about investing $100,000 in a CD vs. a money market with an average return of X% and get hypothetical return on investment scenario along with possible recommendations on appropriate Chase products. The Chase Your Dream Machine could also package full-service programs that allow the customer to conveniently take care of items like home or auto purchases in one simple step. For instance, it could package an auto loan with On-Star, Insurance, Pre-approval paperwork and an address with specific sales referral to the nearest appropriate dealership.

Some of our ideas were pretty simple, like the Chase Blue Pages. This would be an exclusive listing service will be created to help Chase small business customers network with one another. This could be delivered in-branch at the small business area in a kiosk as well as on-line. Or the Swipe & Go Transaction, which would allow customers to swipe their Now Card, enter information and print forms or instantly transfer information to the next available teller for processing.

Given our work back then with multitouch technologies, we also recommended Interactive Windows, that would be utilized as interactive media screens or Dream Machines using projected interactive technology.

Sadly, we didn't get a chance to execute any of our ideas, but 7 years later, Citibank has opened up a branch of the future. What I like about what they're doing is that they're turning the branch into a focal point for the community. Just yesterday, I was joking about how there was a Chase branch and a Starbuck's on almost every corner in NYC and I didn't know why they just didn't combine them. Seems that Citi is realizing that they should offer their customers more then just basic banking functions at their branches.

Banks are in a very difficult position, especially at a retail level. They basically offer the same services that every other bank offers for pretty much the same price as everyone else. And most customers think that that the average bank puts itself ahead of its customers, so they don't even have a positive emotional attachment with their customers.

But I think Citi's heading in the right direction by creating a different branch experience. I'll be in the city next week and I'll make sure to checkout this new branch.

If you're interested, click on the Chase Book link to see our full presentation that we made in 2003. And if you're with a bank and like the presentation, give me a shout to see how I can help you with an experience audit.

The flagship branch that Citibank opened in New York’s Union Square today is a bit different from banks in its other locations.

Instead of picking up a paper brochure, patrons can use one of the six interactive sales walls with touchscreen capabilities to learn more about bank services. Instead of using deposit envelopes, they can use enhanced-image ATMs to deposit checks without them. And instead of waiting for business hours to speak with a customer service representative, customers can use a 24/7 video chat station in the ATM lobby.

The digital components of the 9,700-square-foot branch are based on technologies pioneered by Citibanks in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Some features of the new bank seem more suited for a cafe or a airport lounge than a bank. Customers can access free Wi-Fi (in a private seating lounge if they are Citigold customers), and “media walls” display news, weather, and information about Citibank. Atmosphere Proximity, Citi’s digital agency, also designed a chip with the bank’s social media team that accesses a special Foursquare feed. Whenever a certain amount of people check in to the branch, an “internal marketing screen” shows which users are inside the branch at that very moment.

“We want this branch to be more than just a bank,” Brad Dinsmore, Citigroup’s head of retail banking in North America, said in a speech at the opening ceremony. “We want this branch to be a place where customers view it as a hub, a center of the community, if you will. A place where they feel warm and welcome, that they can come in and experience our free Wi-Fi access.”

Citibank Opens "Bank of the Future" in New York.

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