A "Talk Story" Session on Strategic Planning ...

Hawaii Public Radio ... Business of the Arts, September 5, 2010.

Customer Service

On vacation recently, we were taking a train from Brussels to Paris. The train was delayed for about 40 minutes. While en route, staff came through the train asking passengers if they would like a taxi reserved for them upon arrival ... and handing out forms to request a 20% discount on the price of the ticket.

I wonder why the SNCF - the French train service - can do this ... and airlines can't. Or won't.

Managing Expectations

I seem to be picking on airlines again when it comes to discussing customer service. I recently returned from a multi-leg itinerary for which I used reward miles to get an upgrade. Each time I checked in, the airlines dutifully added a priority tag to the baggage tag. And each time I picked up my bag (on all four segments), the bag came off the conveyor in random order - often near the end. It wasn't just my bag. I was watching the other bags come down the belt and found that there were "priority" bags peppered throughout the distribution.

Now I'm not saying that getting my bag early is a big deal for me. But what I am saying is that if the airline has created a service plan that promises priority delivery - and doesn't deliver - that's a customer service problem. In studying customer service, there's a concept called SERVQUAL that helps companies identify potential lapses in service delivery. This one is a classic: good intentions gone wrong.

Really excellent companies take a different approach. Disney theme parks famously overstate the estimated waiting time in lines. When you stand in a line that suggests a thirty minute wait time - and the time is actually twenty minutes, you feel pretty good. When an airline promises priority bag handling and you don't get it, you feel pretty bad.

Customer service is really pretty simple. You just have to do it.

Race to the Bottom in Customer Service

I recently was on a long international airline flight during which I listened in on some flight attendants discussing upcoming changes in the airline's onboard service offerings. Listening to them - and watching the service attitude on the flight - it struck me that employee attitude and service delivery is directly affected by the service culture of the company. If the company starts to "nickle and dime" the customer, there is a very clear message that the customer is not, indeed, king. Not even royalty. And that attitude gets reflected in the "soft" side of things. Employee smiles and attitude.

Connecting to another carrier (an international carrier), and I had a completely different experience. The service offering was customer-focused. And, guess what? The employee attitude was customer centric. Coincidence?

Focus in a 500 Channel World

I've just been grading papers at the end of the spring semester. I've spent the whole semester (it seems) reinforcing the idea that marketing at its best is all about focus - identifying your best prospects and tailoring products, promotions, pricing and distribution systems so that they are ideally suite to your best prospects. As I've been grading papers, alas, I find that students fall into the trap that so many companies fall into. "Let's try to have something for everyone."

The principles of marketing are really not rocket science. Why is it so difficult to see what is so simple in our field?

Here are some remarks that I made at the AMA Hawaii Marketer of the Year Awards. They sum up my views on marketing in this post-economic-meltdown world:

I’ve recently joined the academic world and so, on this occasion, I feel compelled to deliver a fifty minute lecture on the principles of marketing … but I won’t.
We’re here today to celebrate those companies and individuals who know those principles and apply them every day.

It’s always a pleasure to recognize marketing excellence, but perhaps this year’s celebration is more noteworthy than usual. The economy is still reeling … and I hope recovering … from what seems to be a lapse in common sense. Excellent marketers, like the ones we’re recognizing today, understand that wealth, success and prosperity are really the result of innovation and creating real value for customers. That’s my principles of marketing lecture in one sentence.

But there were those who believed that the foundation of wealth could be built … upon a foundation of sand. Like all false promises, the world of default swaps and sub-prime loans came crashing down. Unfortunately, the result mya be a shaken confidence in American business.

That’s why it’s so important to celebrate the success of great marketers who understand the core values of our profession … and do it right.

In the face of a tough economic environment, Marriott Resorts Hawai‘i didn’t give up. They took action … and they took to the road to control their destiny and deliver business results.

Bank of Hawai‘i was wise enough to understand that there’s more to technology … than technology. And they built a very successful web business based on a fundamental understanding of their customers and their customers’ needs.

Aloha Air Cargo used a variety of marketing techniques, including branding and product development, to successfully recast and reposition their business.

And Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation applied great state-of-the-art for-profit marketing techniques to the world of non-profits.

These companies are noteworthy, but they’re not unique. Every day in the marketing profession there are those who apply innovation, customer understanding and effective marketing techniques to build business and create wealth the old-fashioned way … by creating customer value.
The role of the American Marketing Association is to support these professional marketers through continuing professional development. The chapter was founded forty years ago, and marketing has certainly changed in those forty years. What hasn’t changed is our commitment to professionalism.
If your organization believes in perpetuating those core values that lead to sustainable business success, we hope you’ll join us in applying them to our businesses every day.

Rising Expectations

I've just returned from a trip to the Middle East where I witnessed first hand some of the new resorts that are in development there. There are certainly some spectacular examples of the finest fixtures and materials that money can buy(and there is no shortage of money in this region).

Not all of the "wow" factors cost tons of money, though. In my guest room, by my desk the hotel provided a little business amenity kit with tape, binder clips, a mini stapler, an eraser along with other little business essentials. I haven't seen this in a US hotel ... and it made a big impression on me. Sometimes it really is the little things that make a difference. And finding the little things that matter require thinking like the customer.