Blog o' RAMA

Customer Defection to Customer Delight

My topic today is customer service and how front-line employees can dramatically impact brand perception. I experienced this first-hand yesterday at the Sears at Marketplace Mall and want to share it with you (although it is a bit long).

I had stopped by the store to look at some patio furniture (now that Spring seems to be here to stay), and while I was there I wanted to pay my bill. Now the majority of my balance was a deferred interest account for a major purchase -- however there was also a $35 fee that had been placed in a "regular" interest bearing account. I didn't want to get stuck paying interest on that fee, so I asked an associate how I could allocate my payment to make sure I paid off the $35. Tim, the associate in the lawn and garden area who was helping me, wasn't sure and directed me to a phone where I could call the credit department and ask.

So far, this had been a positive experience, but that was all about to change. I called the credit department and asked my question, and the customer service rep said they could not designate a specific payment to a specific account. That didn't make much sense to me, but I politely asked her to tell me what formula they use to allocate payments between accounts == I figured I would just pay whatever extra I needed to in order to make sure I covered the $35 and avoid any interest. The rep didn't know and politely connected me to a supervisor, whom I will not name here.

The next few minutes completely changed my perception of Sears. No matter how nicely I asked my question or explained what I was trying to accomplish, the supervisor was rude and kept insisting that NO ONE in the entire company knows how payments are allocated. I told her that I would not pay interest on a fee, and there must be some way to make sure I paid the entire $35. She told me I would have to pay off the entire account balance including a substantial balance on the deferred interest account. At this point I was very frustrated, and told the supervisor if that there was no way to resolve this, I would not be buying the patio furniture and grill I had picked out, nor would I be shopping at Sears again. Was she really willing to risk a customer defection instead of figuring out a way to help me? Her response was very rude and needless to say, I hung up in frustration. Instead of a great day shopping I was now upset and ready to walk out of Sears and possibly never come back -- my perception of the Sears brand had changed and I did not feel they had any interest in my business. I was ready to defect ...

Then an associate in the men's department who had heard my side of the whole conversation apologized to me for the treatment I had received ... now she had absolutely nothing to do with it and no reason to apologize, but she cared enough to do so (I really wish I had caught her name -- I would love to recognize her in this post). Then, even though I had planned to walk out, I waited while she called her manager over. A shift in perception had begun ...

Sally, the manager, has fantastic. She listened to the whole situation and pointed out that the credit department (which I found out is not Sears at all -- it is Citibank) is not always consistent in their answers, so she offered to call them and see if she could get an answer for me. After a couple of tries, she got through to someone who easily explained how my payment would be allocated and told Sally what payment was needed to cover the full $35. Sally then took my payment and even gave me an invitation to a special friends and family event that included a 10% discount. She blew me away with her treatment -- this is the type of service that I would associate with a high-end store like Nordstrom, not Sears!

The lesson to me as a marketer is how much a customer service or sales team can influence the customer's perception of the brand -- and how we need to pick our partners carefully (since it was actually a Citibank employee that changed how I felt about Sears)! Also by listening to a customer's negative experience (in person, via customer service calls/emails, even blogs), we can find a way to turn the situation around and possibly even create a brand evangelist ... especially in the world of social marketing that we live in. After all, isn't that really what this blog post has been?

The Moscow Rules

As Denis has already mentioned we are back for this year's AMA Leadership Summit -- themed "Mission Possible". It was a fantastic opportunity to learn from other chapters around the country (and Canada too), as well as a chance to help others learn from our success -- we were recognized for both Leadership and Membership excellence. And our Jet Blue event was one of the most talked about case studies at the Summit.

I attended the programming breakouts and heard lots of great ideas for delivering better, more valuable programming to our membership -- regular monthly programs (our speaker luncheons), ideas for SIG events, and some fun ideas for valuable networking events. I am excited about what programming RAMA will deliver to you in the coming year -- it is such an important part of our membership value we even created a second board position to help with it in the coming year.

But the biggest "ah-ha" moment for me were the Moscow Rules that were presented by our speaker on Friday night. Paul Bosch, COO of the International Spy Museum presented an intriguing look at how marketing and spying were very similar activities -- the structure for this comparison was the Moscow Rules ... here are some of them:

• Assume nothing
• Never go against your gut
• Everyone is potentially under opposition control
• Don't look back; you are never completely alone
• Vary your pattern and stay within your cover
• Don't harass your opposition
• Pick the time and place for action
• Keep your options open

Paul also had one personal addition to the Moscow Rules -- PB Rule #1: If nothing changes, nothing changes. Intuitively obvious? Yes, but rarely acknowledged and followed.

My favorite Moscow Rule is "assume nothing" ... and as a member of your RAMA board, I plan to live by this in the coming year. I would like your help though ... you will be receiving a member survey in the next week -- PLEASE fill it out! It will make sure that we can deliver to your expectations -- no assumptions, just real hard data on what is important to you, our valued members. Let us know what is most important to you and we will "pick the time and place for action" based on your response.

Mission Possible

The theme for this year's AMA Leadership Summit is Mission Possible ... which I think is a great theme for a marketing conference. How many times do we all hear "that's impossible" in our day-to-day lives? Things like "It is impossible to expect a 90% response on a direct mail campaign" or "it is impossible to add a new program because budgets are too tight".

I believe a lot of truly great marketing programs never get off the ground because someone, somewhere, doubts they will work. We limit ourselves when we believe something can't be done just because we haven't seen it done before - like the 4 minute mile until Roger Bannister did it.

As marketers, we need to believe EVERYTHING is possible so we don't constrain our natural creativity and complete passion for our jobs. (I truly believe anyone in a marketing job must be passionate about their position -- otherwise, why would we subject ourselves to the madness?)

If the "law of attraction" is true, and there are lots of folks saying it is, by focusing on all the possibilities and rejecting the concept that something is impossible (and acting towards that end), we might actually achieve the impossible. Exciting thought, don't you agree?

So, as your leadership team goes off to learn about all that is possible for making your RAMA chapter even more amazing and beneficial to you, think about the possibilities in your life. And take action to make at least one of them a reality.

Congratulations to Simon School

I just want to congratulate the Simon Graduate School of Business on their recent award! They received a gold award from the Service Industry Advertising Awards for the 2006-2008 Simon's Management Program Catalog. This national award recognizes excellence in publications and marketing materials. According to the D&C article last Thursday, Simon previously was honored for the 2003-2005 catalog.

Great job, Simon School! Can't wait to see if the blog wins Best of the Web in a couple of weeks (see Yvonne's post about the finalists). Your marketing department rocks!

Greatest Super Bowl Commercials ... or Not

Last night, CBS aired "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2007" - an annual tribute to the best Super Bowl Commercials. However, this year they changed how they determined what commercials were included (previously it was an open vote). This year, CBS made a list of the 15 "contenders" that they thought should compete with Coke's 1973 ad with Mean Joe Green which has won the last 6 years.

The result, in my opinion, was a disaster. Although some of the ones selected truly are "classics" - like my personal favorite the 1984 Apple ad that launched the Macintosh computer - many were some of the dumber offerings from recent past. And what was more amazing was some that weren't included. For example, the 2001 Bud Light commercial where Cedric shakes up the beers in the kitchen and ends up drenching his date was included - however none of the classic Budweiser frog spots were. (I wasn't a big fan of the frogs, but they were very memorable, got a lot of recognition, and were well-produced.)

Cause Marketing: Why Should You Care?

If you want to see examples of excellent cause marketing campaigns, I highly recommend checking out the Halo Awards winners from the past few years. The Halo Awards annually recognize the best work in cause marketing -- both from non-profits and corporate partners.

You may be saying at this point - Katharine, this is all fine and good, but why should I care?

Here are some facts and statistics about cause marketing for you to think about:

RAMA, Go Red, and Cause Marketing

As many of you know, RAMA hosted the American Heart Association at last week's event about the "Go Red for Women" campaign. Denis already wrote a post on the event itself, and I agree with his rave review -- it was an excellent program -- one of many that RAMA has put on this year! (Yes, I am on the board of RAMA ...)

The most fascinating part of the program for me was the observations Allison Harvey, one of the  creators of the Go Red campaign, made about "marketing" the campaign to potential corporate partners. She pointed out that they not only had to educate companies on the campaign details but also about cause marketing and the difference between it and traditional sponsorships. As someone passionate about cause marketing, it didn't occur to me that top marketers in some organizations are not aware of what it is and why they should care.

Great Viral Video ... by Kodak???

It may be hard to believe for those of us that grew up with Kodak, but Kodak has a viral video that ROCKS! Many of us think of Kodak as this old-fashioned, traditional company -- which is exactly the image that this video (called Winds of Change) is trying to combat.

Although this video started as an internal piece, it ended up on YouTube and other websites in December and according to an Advertising Age article is "ranking high on viral-video charts and is garnering big laughs and praise". (Note: Advertising Age is a subscription site.)

I personally think this is a great step for Kodak - a way to start to challenge its image as the icon of traditional photography and get consumers to think Kodak when they think digital. Kodak's booth at CES definitely reflected this shift as well - it was totally focused on digital offerings like the latest digital cameras and photo frames, as well as techology like the Kodak Gallery. They even played the Winds of Change video on the giant video wall in the booth.

I would love to know what others in our RAMA community think ... does this video change your perception of Kodak as a player in the digital world?