Your Service is Content

The best way to tell customers about your service is by showing them. Service is content marketing, the most powerful kind of content that people will gladly share with each other when it's about them and their stuff.

Think for example about the fascination we have with knowing where our books or other items we order online are.

This is not so much because we're in love with physical objects, which, admittedly, we may be. It's about the idea that we bought a gift, and it is now in transit to its destination. Imagining the look of surprise when our friend or family member unwraps it, and their appreciation, is what makes the process special to us.

So when we look at Amazon.com fulfillment center, we don't just see a huge warehouse filled with boxes. Interesting in and of itself. We don't merely recognize the efficiency of moving all that inventory and get each box to its destination. Although that is a modern feat, isn't it?

What we imagine is our package making its way to its human destination. Our friend opening it and enjoying its contents. You can see it in this discussion on FriendFeed. Getting the gifts to their destination on time is the magic of operating a fulfillment center. We love to see how that happens, watching the service delivery part.

When service is the delivery business as in the case of UPS and FedEx, the story of how that service was started and grown fascinates and provides many lessons on dealing with operational issues. Although I have not read either book, if this topic is of interests, I found a good starting point.

The unofficial story told by long time UPS employee Greg Niemann in Big Brown, the Untold Story of UPS. And the book authored by FedEx own Roger Frock, Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex's Incredible Journey to Success - the Inside Story.

What is clear from the conversations about Amazon.com fulfillment - check out also this slide show by BusinessWeek - and the comments on the books written about the two goods delivery companies, is that service and operations may look easy when, in fact, they're not. It takes vision and day in day out dedication to make the service substantial and valuable enough to pay for.

What can you learn from this?

Regardless of the industry or company you're in, you may start thinking about your service as content. How can you provide more visibility into how you do what you do?

In the same way that Amazon.com opens its doors to journalists and the public about its operations, you could think of ways to provide more transparency or visibility into how you deliver the service to customers.

Some ideas you can implement digitally, and in person:

• give product or service demos
• allow customers to take a tour of your site
• post images of how you get it done to make your site more interesting
• show stages in your service fulfillment or delivery, just like tracking codes allow you to do
• use digital media to get interactive with your customers allowing them to post comments and images of their packages or good, for example

This concept is what makes Build-a-Bear a best seller. Hands-on experience where the service to you is the experience of building your own bear, and the word of mouth value to the company become your bragging rights.

There is a place in the communications cycle for glossy marketing brochures, when written with the customer benefits front and center. So this is no ding on the work of good writers.

More and more, service and experience are the content.

What about you?

How can you look at your business, its service components, and find a way to make that part of the content marketing mix? Where is your sweet spot for customers? Should you build a "delight-o-meter" a-la Amazon.com to let them track your work and see your service?

[image courtesy of Amazon.com]

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Diane]

Great article. I am going to have to give that some serious consideration! Making my service part of the content marketing mix... ummm...!
Need to go scribble some notes and maybe a mind map or two - thanks for the thought provoking post.

[Ed Hartigan]

Valeria,

Hell Yes!

Getting companies to trust their service and products and open themselves up to the scrutiny of their customers is exactly how they should operate. It is technically possible to allow your customers to have a play on your software, talk to your staff, ask questions of the CEO and see inside the company.

People want to see the processes and the people behind the corporate firewall...I say let them!

[Rennell Garrett]

You have written one great article. This writing has made my eyes wide open.

[Carolyn Ann]

I can't help but think of the recent Huffington Post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/the-secret-lives-of-amazo_n_387847.html ) that explained the working conditions in those Amazon warehouses. Quite dreadful, and the clincher? People work those hours, under those conditions, because they *want* to! It's a facetious argument I've been reading a lot, lately. More akin the Robber Barons of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and New York's (among others) draconian and explicitly unfair employment laws.

It also reminds me of Walmart, and how they are now trying to compete on two fronts: against Costco and Target. (And perhaps Best Buy, as well.) Like Amazon, they can only accomplish those low prices by imposing horrible working conditions. Well, it's also about exporting the manufacturing, and keeping the fulfillment process as streamlined as possible. Amazon doesn't manufacture most of its items - so it gets to be a distributor, linking the customer with the products. (Walmart seems to think it's in that business, but it's not.)

I've worked in a similar place, and while it may be fascinating to watch - it's not so fascinating to be doing it! Downright demoralizing, actually.

Carolyn Ann

[Akash Sharma]

Great Thoughts Valeria, The basic idea which I easily relate here is if we can treat our businesses like blogs,because a complete blog has everything from a remarkable product that is the content to good customer service, prompt reply to any query, a tribe of really like minded people, most importantly stuff which matters to people.Looks like if every business starts implementing this strategy wonders can be easily worked out.

Thanks for sharing this post!!

[Bruce Christensen]

Great stuff!
I am working on building some virtual tours on our company blog today!

Complex projects like Amazon.com and the two shipping companies mentioned, require more patience and customer feedback to build a successful business model.
These examples do show however, that the rewards of blazing a new trail can be worth the extra effort.

[Elizabeth]

Great post. I appreciate the few suggestions you included because they get my mind going as to how my company can better use our services as content marketing. Thanks!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Diane - notes and a mind map, I'm impressed by your ability to take ideas and think through them.

@Ed - you still retain responsibility for making that happen (the service and product). It's not an all or nothing. Life is in the middle, and so often is work.

@Rennell - thanks for stopping by.

@Carolyn Ann - the example was probably not the best to illustrate the concept. I was coming at it from the conversations about gifts and packages, and not thinking about shifts and conditions. Interestingly, I worked the evening shift at ice cream shoppes throughout high school - long hours standing, no breaks, and we had to clean up when not busy with customers and at the end of the store hours. While things were not quite anywhere near what's described there, I'm familiar with the concept of cheap labor.

@Akash - the parallel in your example holds up, very interesting.

@Bruce - I especially liked what I read about FedEx story.

@Elizabeth - glad you can put the information to good use in your company.

[steve cunningham]

Valeria - this is where the true power of digital tools come to life. As you pointed out, we CAN create great digital experiences that will lead to a better customer experience. It's a complete reversal of the thinking that we need to capture the hearts and minds of our customers 30 seconds at a time. These days, people are willing to spend a lot of time with you, if you make it worth their while. And the key to that is great content.

[Rachel]

Great post, Valeria! From a web video production perspective, your ideas on content creation are spot on. Giving that inside view of how a company works definitely helps to familiarize customers with brands and also is a wonderful opportunity to encourage engagement.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Steve - "if you make it worth their time" is key. Great content about the customer is a good primer. Better interest in listening and engaging is what creates the conditions to stay and come back for more.

@Rachel - I'm reminded of the folks who make chocolate fudge in the window. Or those who roast chestnuts by the road. We love watching how the stuff we use is made, what makes it work.