Customer Service is the Conduit Through Which Direct Brand Conversations Happen

Ideas spread globally - they always have. Today they spread faster. Outstanding ideas spread exponentially as each person who passes the baton to the next, puts a little bit of themselves in the idea. Great brands are those who let us be ourselves. They are there to help us connect with something more meaningful and interesting about ourselves.

To do that, every action counts. Yet, when asked, we might be hard pressed to put our finger on what exactly a company and business needs to do to ensure its long term health.

We were having this discussion recently at the post-MIMA event dinner - how many of us consciously think about marketing opportunities because we are marketers vs. as customers? For example, you are in a store and observe certain dynamics from the professional point of view, you can't help it. Do other customers see the same marketing opportunities? I doubt it.

When asked about what they like, customers may give you an example from their immediate experience. Yet there are some situations that create tipping points for your business. Do you know what those are? The customer may walk away for good before you learn what it would take to retain his business. That's why it is increasingly important not to delay having that conversation with people while they are handing you the money, this moment.

Today at Fast Company expert blogs I talk about this very topic using Starbucks as an example. I suspect that the magic in the company's return to greatness may be embracing local communities, differentiating by city, block, clientèle. The most valuable brand experiences happen through customer conversations.

Other resources on the Starbucks Conversation:

• John Moore - ChangeThis Manifesto: What Must Starbucks Do?
• Fast Company - Thinking Outside the Cup
• Fortune - Starbucks Fix
• Business Week articles on Starbucks
• Starbucks press release - Letter to All Partners from Howard Schultz
• Becky Carroll - Re-Experiencing Starbucks
• Jay Ehret - A Letter to Howard Schultz at Starbucks; Re-Experiencing Starbucks: a Double Shot
• Paul Schwartz - What is the Starbucks Customer Experience?; The Customer Feedback Experience
• Maria Palma - The Starbucks Project
• Meikah Delid - Helping Starbucks Improve the Customer Experience - The First Step; The Second Step; The Third Step 
• Skip Lineberg - Starbucks Collection
• Doug Meacham - Starbucks - the Way I see it - Part I
• John Johansen - Coffee and Conversation with Starbucks (update)
• Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba - Starbucks Embraces the 5th P (update)

Comments

[Mike Wagner]

"I suspect that the magic in the company's return to greatness may be embracing local communities, differentiating by city, block, clientèle. The most valuable brand experiences happen through customer conversations."

More marketing by context building; this time block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Keep creating,
Mike

[Carolyn Ann]

As someone who has spent a lot of time - and money - in Starbuck's, it's really odd that I've not actually been in one for quite some time!

Once upon a time, it was a daily ritual - Starbuck's, home, get to work. And I continued that even after we moved to southern NJ - and our nearest Starbuck's is 22 miles away! (Any excuse to take a motorcycle out...) But I got disenchanted with the local Starbuck's - and now I don't even bother going to one when I'm in NYC or Phillie. (Or DC.)

They all look the same. They all have the same problems, and the same merchandise. The tables are too small for my little laptop - never mind the one I use now! But when there's a bar, it's always crowded, with very few people. They spread out, taking as much of "their space" as they can. Also - not enough power outlets.

They are too noisy - all those hard surfaces reflect noise. Don't bother trying to think in a Starbuck's - you'll end up with the proverbial headache from the effort.

But mostly, I stopped going because they are boring! The decor is the same, and it's dated. It was cutting edge, oh, 10 years ago. Now, it's tired. and the sameness of each and every store - ensures a tedious experience, not a similar one in each location. If I want dull sameness, I'll go to McDonald's.

(What a surprise it was when I saw a Starbuck's in a Vegas casino. It looked absolutely drab compared to its surroundings. So drab it reduced the overall experience of the casino! I complained to the corporate office, but was given the brush-off. Oh well.)

But, back to your question re professionals. I think it's inevitable that a professional in any field is going to spot things that the other customers just don't know; or - as often as not - care about!

It is important to try and figure out not what the customer is telling you - that is just so easy - but what the customer isn't telling you! The stuff they don't articulate, the new way of doing something that no one thought of, before. (Hello, laptops! Before HP introduced the portable computer - no one had thought of it, before. And they didn't introduce the product because customers were asking for it; like I said - no one had had the idea of a portable computer!)

I now drink Starbuck's coffee - which we buy by the 55-gallon drum (it seems) at Costco (5lb bags, really)- at home. Where my laptop is connected without additional charges, and I can get a free refill that's 6 foot away, and doesn't include queueing and wondering if I was wise leaving my laptop at the counter. It's also not noisy - unless the cats are fighting.

Carolyn Ann

PS Here's one thing Starbuck's probably wouldn't think to ask - the cost of a medium coffee around here is generally $1.98. So I hand over 2 bills, and then have to reach into my pocket - again - for a quarter to tip the guy/gal behind the counter. That's caused me to not buy a coffee, if all I have is banknotes on me! It's embarrassing to not give a tip; it also indicates that Starbuck's should maybe pay their employees a bit better...

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Mike - marketing by context building works well with marketing conversation to me. I will do some further thinking on this, it's worth exploring.

@Carolyn Ann - I used to go to a Starbucks not far from home, too. We would meet friends there and spend time. Then they bought the new and efficient, machines and they did away with the nice tables and chairs for smaller tables and often standing room only. Forcing you to go in, buy and go out. I stopped going altogether. Good suggestions on the tip. Growing up in Italy, I never had to deal with tips - not giving them, not getting them all the years I waited tables : )

[John Johansen]

This was a discussion that I dipped my toe into last month as well. (Click on my name for the post)

Starbucks has grown by offering more than coffe, they offered a place to get together. When they try to remove that from their business model, no amount of training or press releases will bring people back.

[Becky Carroll]

Thanks for jumping into the Starbucks conversation, Valeria! I noticed in their latest communication that Starbucks has an idea site for customers to share ideas. Sounds good. Stronger interaction and engagement with customers can help pull them out of this slump, as it will bring back the experience customers want to have, not the one that Starbucks wants to give them.

Rock on, Valeria!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@John - I added your post, thank you for pointing it out. Ah, finally someone who says it simply. Yes, I stopped going to Starbucks when the nice tables and chairs disappeared and the loud music came in.

@Becky - yes, I picked up the post by Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer. I think everyone will be tuned in to see if they follow through. Putting up a suggestion box and then ignoring the suggestions would draw even more criticism.