My daughter received a most interesting phone call the other day.
It was from a woman who wanted my daughter to baby sit her kids. Unfortunately, Megan was unavailable, so she had to decline.
But then the call got interesting, (keep in mind that Megan had never yet done any babysitting for the caller.) "You'll probably get a call soon from a couple of other people to whom I've recommended you."
Wait a minute - she's being recommended to other people. But she's never actually baby sit for the person who is recommending her!
How did this happen? It all started with a babysitting job she had done for yet another person, who had such a great experience that they started talking about her with their friends.
Then, (key here) on the basis of that good recommendation, the hearers are telling their friends about her too.
That's word of mouth...
And that's golden!
What created this onslaught of chatter?
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My daughter's pretty bright. She recognizes that it's much more fun to actually do stuff with the kids when she baby sits than to lay around and watch videos with them. So she takes projects, activities, books and a head full of ideas along with her when she goes out to baby sit.
Plus, she genuinely loves kids, and they love her back.
So when the parents come home, they find their kids hugging Megan and gushing about all of the cool things they've done while their parents have been away.
Some kids even go so far as to ask their parents to go out again tomorrow night so they can have Megan back to baby sit.
For the parents, Megan provides not only child safety while they are away, but a benefit that's much more important.
Megan does what they (the parents) would do if they had the time, the focus, and the energy to actually do it themselves. She, for that 4 hour stint, is the parent they wish they could be all the time.
So they pay her more, AND they ask her back.
(By the way, after Megan told me this story, she said "and I bet that I'm going to read about myself in your next newsletter, right?" Ah, the disadvantages of having a writer for a dad...)
This reminds me of one of my pet peeves. For some reason, so many businesses run things the way they (the company) want it to be done, not the way I want it to be done.
They forget that I'm the customer, that I pay their salary. And that it only takes one negative experience for me to stop paying their salary.
Take banking for example. For some reason, the banking community has shifted their entire mind set from "We're honored to safeguard your money" to "Holding your money for you is such a pain that we're going to charge you every place we can to take it out on you!" Whatever happened charging more to loan out your money than they pay you in interest, thus making money the old fashioned way?
This is a whole industry that just doesn't get it!
But there's at least one bank that's figured it out. Commerce Bancorp Inc., in the New Jersey/New York area seems to get it. (Yes, they're involved in a scandal right now, but that has to do with some stupid decisions, and shouldn't denigrate the core business point that I'm citing here.)
Their President, Vernon Hill, believes in "wowing the customer"
Here's what he does - he looks at banking from the customer's eyes, then makes his decisions based on what the customer wants, not what the bank wants. For example, they flout industry norms by keeping their branches open weekends and evenings, putting branches in the places where people shop, and eliminating the "annoying fees" and "stupid rules" found at other banks.
That's my kind of bank!
Has it worked? Well, their stock price is up 135 percent in the past five years, its deposits have grown by an average of 39 percent a year over the last five years; and assets rose 38 percent last year, to $22.7 billion. Revenues jumped 31 percent last year, to $1 billion, and net income increased 34 percent, to almost $200 million.
I'd say it's working.
Babysitting, banking - how does this apply to you?
It's pretty simple. Are you giving your customer what *they* want?
I bet that if you were to call 10 of your bets customers, 10 of your occasional customers, and 10 of your past customers and asked them a very simple question, you would find out some very interesting things about your company.
The question? "We're trying to improve. What bothers you the most about working with our company?"
And now, here's the key. After you gather this data, you have to do something about it!
It will probably involve some training, possibly some readjustment of personnel, some rule changes, some systems changes, and some attitude adjusting. The first place the attitude will need to shift will probably be in your CEO's office, then it needs to visibly filter throughout the organization.
Ask yourself - how can we change so that we give our customers a solution that is better than the one they would created if they had our capabilities.
When you're able to do that, taking their whole customer experience into consideration, you'll have come a step closer to entering the great company hall of fame.
Think about it.
Now let's shift this from a management point of view to a public relations one.
As a PR practitioner, you have a customer you need to serve - your contact at your targeted media source. You provide that person a service, they pay you by running your story.
Are you getting the kind of pay you want from that customer?
Perhaps you need to change the way that you service that customer...
Carefully consider your last 20 interactions with media personnel. Did you give them what they wanted or did you give them what you wanted them to receive?
Did you (to use the babysitting analogy) do for them what they would do if they had the time and the energy to actually do it themselves?
Were you available when they called? Did you give them the information they needed? Did you give them the additional golden idea that shifted their story from good to great? Did you leave them "wowed"?
Maybe that's why you didn't get the story!
Need help? Check out our audio CD Secrets of Perfect Pitching and How To Be an Expert Spokesperson That the Media Love
Then go make some changes!
Posted August 05, 2004
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