Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect
Just like HR is often about protecting management from their people rather than the other way around, the same can be said for customer service.
Of course, no one says that, but there’s far too many examples of companies stating the importance of their customers, and then using their customer service department to completely undermine them.
As I’ve written before, real customer service is demonstrated when things are bad, not good.
Let’s be honest, when a company can spot a sale, the full charm-offensive is on display.But when things go bad … oh, that’s when the truth is often revealed.
The irony is that this is the exact moment you can create a level of loyalty that can last a lifetime.
I’ve talked about the time VW came good after my brand new Golf GTI had the gearbox collapse and the turbo blow up … and I’ve found another example of a brand making something bad, a little bit better simply because they looked at things from their customers perspective and acted accordingly.
Isn’t that amazing?
Considerate. Compassionate. Personal. Helpful. Generous.
At the worst of times, a company has found a way to not just solve a problem – but help relieve some of the pain, that wasn’t even of their own making.
If a pet food company can do that – with their relatively low priced product – then any company should be able to. But many don’t. Not because their staff don’t want to, but their bosses won’t let them.
Years ago I worked with a consultant called Geoff Burch.
He was a beautiful maniac.
What made him great was he challenged management to live up to their responsibilities – both to their companies reputation and their employees ability to be successful.
We were working on an Italian car brand together and at the client briefing, the CEO said the call centre staff were offering too many benefits to appease dissatisfied customers.
Geoff asked why they were dissatisfied and the response was their were reliability problems.
Quick as a flash, he replied:
“Maybe you need to realise your responsibility to your employees is more than just a desk, a roof and a paycheck, but making a product that is fit for purpose. I can’t help a company who wants to blame others for the faults they have created and protect”
It was incredible.
And while there was a very awkward atmosphere in the room after that outburst, the CEO – after what seemed like a lifetime – acknowledged he was right.
To be fair, it helped that Geoff had an incredible reputation, but he wasn’t saying anything truly revolutionary, he was simply saying ‘reputation is based on what you do, not what you say’.
And while that should be plainly obvious, it’s amazing how few companies still don’t get that. The companies who think making a few dollars more today is more valuable than a lost customer tomorrow.
Seriously, the way some companies operate, it’s like a bloody ponzi scheme.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you should ‘spend your way’ into customers hearts.
This is simply about valuing your customers perspective rather than purely seeing the World through your own.
Which is, unsurprisingly, the true definition of customer service.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Corporate Evil, Culture, Marketing, Marketing Fail
Monday.
God it’s hard isn’t it.
If this is the point of the week where you have the most energy, how the hell will you be feeling on Wednesday?
Well I’m going to help you with that.
I’m going to give you a surge of energy that will see you through.
And that energy is going to be created through anger.
Remember last week how I wrote about McKinsey and their moral compass free attitude towards making cash?
That they thought nothing of putting in proposals that allowed their client to continue killing people as long as they made money?
Well, I guess there was a small chance that someone could say it was all a mistake. A misunderstanding. A misquote.
OK, so no one really thinks that, but I may have been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
OK, I wasn’t … because there was no way they ‘made a mistake’.
McKinsey doesn’t make those.
Every single thing they do is deliberate.
Everything.
Thought out. Considered. Evaluated. Proposed.
Their driving force is optimising profit. For themselves as much as their client – especially as they never execute what they recommend to clients. Implication free advice … morally, ethically and, in some cases, legally.
And why am I being so harsh?
Because of this:
Nothing highlights McKinsey’s knowledge of what they did – and what they didn’t do – than shredding files in relation to their client.
A long time ago there was a book called The Corporation. In it, the author argued that corporations are basically psychopaths on a relentless quest for money and power.
It’s literally why McKinsey are in business.
Who else would want to work with a company that charges huge amounts for work they don’t execute that encourages illicit or even illegal behaviour? And yet so many of the companies that work with them go on about their ‘purpose’, their ‘focus on the community’.
While there are exceptions, Joel Bakan – the author of The Corporation – was generally absolutely correct in his judgement.
When Arthur Anderson was caught shredding the files of the illegal work they did for Enron, their reputation was so tainted that they went bankrupt. That McKinsey continues to walk around like the Masters of the Universe should make you furious.
Absolutely furious.
And with that, you now have the energy to get through your week.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Comment, Consultants, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Diversity, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Honesty, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Perspective, Professionalism, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Standards
A while back I read an interview with film director, voice of Yoda and countless muppets and expert puppeteer – Frank Oz.
It was a beautiful interview … a story of friendship, loyalty, creativity and compassion, so I urge you to read it … but there was one thing that really stood out to me and it was this:
Now it’s fair to say it’s no longer just corporate America who don’t understand the value of the things they’ve just bought. In some respects, we see it every day from clients who dictate and demand changes to a piece of creativity that an experienced professional has custom made for their specific situation … right through to companies who blame talent for circumstances and situations that they were directly complicit in creating and encouraging.
As I see it, the problem is three fold.
1. People judge output without any appreciation of how it happened.
2. People wildly overestimate their own talent.
3. It’s easier to look like you’re doing things than doing things.
None of these should be a surprise.
It’s why we tend to lavish our attention on individuals who are associated with ‘results’ rather than recognize the people around them who made it possible. It’s why we talk about wanting to follow similar paths to others but dismiss the pain, hardship and conflicts they endured to get there. It’s why companies build in-house creative departments without understanding the importance of objective viewpoints that lead to the work they want to replicate. It’s why people dismiss what others have done despite never having done anything of note themselves. It’s why companies talk about the importance of experience but see them as an expense. It’s why industries talk about D&I but don’t change the situations and contexts that make it an issue. It’s why companies talk about teams but have departments of exactly the same sort of people. It’s why companies become obsessed with proprietary processes even though the work and results it produces is nothing special. It’s why many consultants tell you what is wrong but never take responsibility for making it right. It’s why someone I once worked with on an airport project said – no word of a lie – “why don’t we push out the architects, because we could do a much better job”, despite the fact he wasn’t an architect and our role had little to do with it.
I could go on.
And on and on and on.
The reality is we’re all complicit in some way.
And the irony is if we learn to value what it takes to get the results we want – rather than simply focusing on the speed, power and control of ownership – then we’d all stand a much greater chance of achieving the things we want.
Or said as the wonderful Lee Hill once said to me …
Hire well.
Pay well.
Brief well.
Value well.
Trust well.
Have a good weekend.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Creativity, Culture, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail
Brands.
Bragging about their importance.
Their unquestionable dominance.
Their ability to solve everything you’ve ever wanted.
Their purpose to help humanity stop making fuck-ups.
Shame they miss the point when it comes to their day-to-day behaviour.
Like this lot … starting with the unsliding doors, Sliding Doors company.
Oh, it’s not just one store. It’s here too.
And here’s another.
Not quite the same as mopping is different to vacuuming, but close.
I know … I know … it’s a small thing.
But when brands act like they are the most important thing in people’s lives, then it becomes a big thing.
A big thing that makes people laugh at them rather than with them.
Don’t get me wrong, brands have importance.
What they do has – despite what some say – significance in people’s live.
But until they accept the role they really have in people’s lives and that they aren’t the be-all and end-all for human happiness/status/success/value/perfection … then they’ll keep being called out for their hypocrisy and stupidity.
No one expects perfection.
No one minds mistakes.
But they do like honesty … and until brands are as good with that as they are with amplifying their ego, they will never reach the adoration – or respect – that they aspire to have.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Facebook, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Social Commentary, Social Media
A while back, Mark Zuckerberg announced to the world he was creating a holding company – that would house Facebook and Instagram etc – called Meta.
He launched it with this piece of underwhelming fanfare …
There are so many questions about this …
Why did Zuck make his avatar leaner than the real him? Why did he think showing a virtual room with some boring mates playing cards would excite the world? Why the fuck is his wife & dog making an appearance & why would his dad give a shit about receiving a clip of the pooch? Why was the “awesome virtual room” like a Sega Megadrive game background? Why are Facebook/Meta employees so cowardly they can’t tell their boss his acting is worse than people who appeared on that short lived BBC soap, Eldorado? Why did they think it would be trippy to show a flying fish to a generation who make TikTok videos far weirder, fancier and more interesting? Why did I watch the whole thing. Twice? Why did they make their logo a shot Zorro mask? Why does android Zuck still pretend he’s human?
It was, in no uncertain terms, fucking terrible.
But to show that Facebook have no
shametaste, they then went on a social media tirade in a bid to drum up support and interest from brands.Not people. Brands.
Asking them what they’ll be doing in the metaverse.
And while the social media account of a brand talking to another brand may be cool for the people working at the brand, 99.9% of the time it’s an act that shows a complete lack of self awareness.
Look at this …
It’s the equivalent of 2 old white dudes – wearing Yeezy’s & Supreme tees – thinking they’re the hippest, hottest dudes on an empty petrol station forecourt in Basingstoke on a wet Tuesday night.
Seriously, I detest this sort of thing.
I certainly detest every bit about this echo chamber, jock-banter, industry ‘in joke’, interaction.
I know some people will claim it is ‘hijacking culture’, but there’s 2 key issues with this.
1. How can it be ‘hijacking’, when this approach is so common, people literally expect it.
2. There’s a major difference between hijacking and boring them.
Putting aside the danger of letting a man like Zuckerberg have even more knowledge about our lives so he can profit from it … putting aside his track record of saying his company does good things then is found to be doing bad … putting aside Facebook ‘borrowed’ their Meta logo from another company … what Zuckerberg is showing is he doesn’t care about the people who use his products, just the advertisers who keep throwing money at him so they can find more and more ways to sell stuff to them, before launching ad campaigns saying they care about the environment and everyone should act.
Or some other blame throwing tactic.
Zuckerberg isn’t going anywhere.
And what makes it worse is that technology … specifically the metaverse and mixed reality … has the potential to do incredible good for humanity. However when governments allow this space to be ‘owned’ by egotistical billionaires, then the only ‘incredible good’ we can look forward to, is more blatant exploitation with no legal implication whatsoever.
Thanks Zuck.
Thanks for robbing us of the future we could have, but you want to dictate.