It's a matter of politeness, we were taught to never name names. The pendulum swung all the way in recent years: it seems that we're all too happy to point fingers away from us.
There is a middle ground and I've tried to keep the posts on FC Expert blogs fair to the story as well as the company. Some of my stories, maybe not the most popular, are about positive experiences.
We cannot hope to correct faulty assumptions and a service that does not work if we don't outline what the problem is in the first place. It doesn't mean we're keen only on placing blame and initiating an "us" vs. "them" campaign.
It's about learning from mistakes: ours and other people's. This week I'm busting Blockbuster for their uncaring and sloppy service to customers. The store is a franchise -- does that count as little guy vs. big corporation?
Will it make a difference to the company's stock price and plans for the future that they have exasperated a customer? I know you wonder when that happens to you. Maybe we cannot affect what the company in question does -- we can surely learn the lesson for our business. Three lessons to take away:
- Create your brand story -- matching what others are doing is a long and disappointing road to reacting in the marketplace. Design a new space for what you offer by creating an experience that is not found anywhere else. Then...
- Deliver a true experience -- do you want to know what it feels like to deal with you? Ask your customers. No news doesn't always equal good news. There's nothing worse than when someone has given up on you. You're now commoditized and will be replaced at the first occasion. So you want to...
- Keep your promises -- that means that if you say you'll do something in your advertising, you need to follow through with action. That's how you build credibility and maintain relevance in the marketplace. Keeping your promises also means saying you're sorry when you don't deliver -- even if the fault is not yours alone.
It may not be polite to name names, yet sometimes we hide behind them. Does it matter whom we work for? We have a choice: we can either make excuses, or we can do what it takes to keep our piece of the world in well-functioning order.