How coffee made me a brand evangalist

I was traveling through Europe and was introduced to a great place to have coffee by my friend Joost in Amsterdam. According to Joost this place, Two for Joy, served an incredible coffee. It was clear that I wasn't the first person he had brought to this place as he raved about it as a true evangelist. The whole experience at Two for Joy was awsomly aligned. The interior, music, food and beverage all presented a relaxing, cohesive athmosphere.

Having done all the basics right the true remarkable differentiator was it's focus on coffee, and the manner in which it was brewed. If you check their website you see all the different ways they finish their home ground coffee, but the true remarkability was in the Syphon method of coffee brewing.

What a remarkable contraption. For coffee laymen as myself this syphon filtered coffee was a memorable and remarkable way of experiencing coffee. I won't go into the details of how it works, you can watch the video below instead (btw. The video was not taken at Two for Joy bus is merely present to give you an indication of what the process is like).

So what is so great about this?

• Here you see that a business made sure that they had their basics alligned. This strong foundation gives them liberty to have something sharable and remarkable.
• The owner who helped us out with the syphon method explained the coffee history and how the syphon works. He did this in a story format which made it an entertaining and memorable experience.
• It is different. It takes time. It is remarkable.

I have already told all my friends. What's remarkable in your experience?

The future of social media: interview with Augie Ray (by Stefano Maggi)

via blog.digitalingredients.co.uk

Watch this great interview by Stefano Maggi over at Digital Ingredients with Augie Ray from Forrester Research. Two of the points that really drove it home.

Where in the past customer service response was based on RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) Ray states that now companies are looking at a completely different ball game which includes influence and the number of connections your customer has. Brands need to veer away from trying to put a monetary value on a social media connection. Look at the more subtle value a connections influence.

One of the Forrester methodologies is POST. People, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics. What is key about this methodology is the People first, Strategies second mindset. Gone are the days in which companies have the liberty of setting out a strategy and using tactics to get their customers act the way they want them to. Now a customer asks, and a company gives.

What is most revealing about this it further strengthens the shift from companies in power to consumer in power. It's now up to companies to modify their operations, place the pyramid upside down and analyze their customer touch points.

Is your company ready for that shift?

Why airport security is useless. (from a customer experience perspective)

Here's what happens as a result of security theater at the Orlando airport:

• You wait in line at least twenty minutes
• There's a scrum of pushing and shoving
• The staff are unhappy and not afraid to share it
• An unreasonable workload leads to fatigue and errors
• People miss their flights

Here's what doesn't happen:

• Security is not increased
• Peace of mind is not enhanced

In other words, we're paying a significant tax (time and money) and getting nothing in return. In fact, we get worse than nothing. We could call it an anxiety program, instead of a tax. (After all, when you pay a luxury tax, you get some hard-won luxury as part of the deal).

The reason the TSA keeps changing the rules is not because the rules work, but because changing the rules creates more anxiety (for bad guys, they say, but for us too).

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Another great example of a horrible customer experience. Government is big and powerful. With all its might it imposes a set of regulations onto businesses to (try to) achieve a desired goal. 

Three results of the current system:

• Unhappy employees: All the KPI's put in place are based on operational efficiency and effectiveness, the soft aspect of customer service and a personal connection with the customer/traveler is ignored. Staff is used as a cog in a system created to "guarantee" safety. By removing all possibility to express their own personality, ideas, and direction to the company they become disengages and unmotivated.

• Unhappy customers: First travelers stand in line to check in. They have had bad experiences in the past so at this point they have booked a ticket with an airline which they know make their trip as easy as possible, including in the check out line. Then they arrive at security. The line is long, half the people are impatiently waiting as they are about to miss their flight. The traveler goes through the extended process of taking of half their clothes and taking out their laptop from the bag etc. etc. They hear a bark that states: "remove your belt sir" and that is the only interaction with the TSA agent...if you're lucky.

• Unhappy government: Is there an increase in security? Is it worth the number of unhappy people?

Airports are unwilling to change because of their monopoly. Especially in cities with one major airport, airlines and travelers have no choice but to use that single one. In environments with multiple larger airports you often see a bigger effort to differentiate through a better customer experience.

What customer want is positive emotional cues, trust, and control. This can be done through proper communication, physical points of orientation, and much more. For a scattering of ideas check out the links below:

• Jamin - Service Design Applied to Airport Security.
• Engine Service Design - Case study for Terminal T5.
• Innotour - Service Design in Copenhagen Airport.

Is your business imposed with regulations that make it difficult to create a great customer experience?

2 out of 3 Asians susceptible to customer experience

Forbes used some Grey data and wrote an article about The New Asian Shopper. One of the statistics stuck with me. "...almost 66% of Asian shoppers making their final purchase choices in store..." This means that at least 2 out of 3 Asian shoppers are affected by anything done by a retail store inside the physical location. If you put aside 5 - 7% of your gross sales into advertising, how much are you putting into creating the in store customer experience?

No one cares if your customer experience is 5% better, they care if you are 1% different.

Call it the 105% Rule. From a word-of-mouth perspective, it's virtually impossible to discuss an experience that is 5% better than the norm on all dimensions. People don't talk like mystery shoppers, reporting diligently on each relevant feature. People talk about the exceptions, the unexpected, the highlights.

via fastcompany.com

So you have just revamped your customer experience process. You took a look at your touch points and made them more fluid, you have made your communication more transparent and real. You think you've made it. In fact, mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys show that you have increased customer satisfaction by a whopping 5%! That's great!

But it is not.

Ok let's take the edge off this, it is actually good and kudos for getting this far. Great that your company is thinking about the customer experience and great that you have improved it.

But that is not all.

I stumbled on this quote (see above) by the guys behind "Switch" (beware, affiliate link, but it's a great book so buy it anyway!), Dan and Heath. They wrote it in 2007 and it keeps on resonating. It's about creating remark-ability, it's that one percent that makes people talk, the one that sparks conversation. So how do you spark that? Dan and Heath name a few good examples:

...consider Doubletree Hotels. In the lodging spectrum, Doubletree is a "medium"--nicer than La Quinta but not as full service as Four Seasons. It should be hard to find something to say about a medium player. And yet there's a conversation everyone has about the Doubletree: When you check in, they give you delicious, fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. These conversations provide a concrete symbol of warmth and homey service. (We baked cookies for you!) Cost aside, Ritz-Carltons would likely outrank Doubletree hotels in every conceivable survey dimension. Except the one that creates conversation.

And.

...If you go to Portland, Oregon, everyone wants to talk about Voodoo Doughnut. They talk about the caffeinated doughnut. Or the chocolate-glazed chocolate doughnut rolled in Cocoa Puffs cereal. Or the voodoo-doll-shaped doughnut that bleeds raspberry filling when impaled with a pretzel pin. Oh, did we mention that a Voodoo founder will conduct your wedding--with doughnuts and coffee for 10--for $175?

Sy Taylor has a thought about communications which is labeled SHOQ, now I don't know the details yet but I do know it stands for Simple, Human, Open and Quirky. So look at your brand, it's communications and SHOQ it up. Make something quirky and shareable. So something unexpected.

How will you quirk up your brand? How do you make your customer experience one that is shareable and remarkable?