Amazon offered us free “prime” membership last year (probably related to our spend patterns with our primary credit card). I can’t think of another commercial feature that has so dramatically changed our consumption behavior.
Amazon Prime – Changing Everything
October 10th, 2011Common Sense: Pass it along
September 8th, 2011I purchased home owner’s insurance six years ago though an online brokerage site. I never met or spoke to anyone and the price seemed right. And honestly, I’ve given it little thought (nothing non-living in the home really matters that much).
Fast forward six years and dozens of junk mail offers and I receive a strangely thick letter from them. It’s a survey of the agent assigned to me. Wow, that’s surprising.
This agent has never called me. She’s never emailed me. She only sends me invoices and junk mail. What do you think I’ll say when asked about the agent’s proactive nature and outreach to me and my family?
When soliciting customer information, consider only reaching out to customers that you don’t have a good guess on their opinions. This can be automated; perhaps suppress the survey for customers with no client activity in the CRM system.
Think Hard Before Re-Forwarding
August 18th, 2011Recently, I had a few people re-forward previous emails back to me.
I am sure this happens to you. In these cases, someone sent me an email. 2-4 weeks later, that person forwarded the exact same message without additional text.
How does that come off to the recipient? In my case, not well. If the sender can’t take the time to recraft the message, or at least copy/paste the body into a fresh email, then it speaks to a lack of consideration.
As much as anybody, I notice when someone doesn’t reply to me. But a no-reply shouldn’t turn into a rude move. Whatever your cause or need, re-forwarding emails will not help.
Everything has changed.
July 21st, 2011The way we work is completely different from ways we worked, even five years ago. I’m reminded of that now and again. Most recently from this post about Gigwalk. Here’s a firm that connects companies with anonymous works and enables them to pay piecemeal for work. After completing a gigwalk the worker is rated in the public and could become more in-demand or less.
Pretty creative idea; I wonder how many people will aspire to be high “street cred” walkers. I have no doubt that companies – from search engines to restaurants – would consider the service.
Saying Nothing At All – to a whole lot of people
May 12th, 2011My daughters really enjoy Allison Krauss. Wikipedia categorizes her music as “bluegrass-country.” I would just call it “pleasant.” Anyhow one of her hits is titled “When You Say Nothing At All.“ Listening to it tonight during bed time got me thinking about saying nothing at all. Here’s why.
Word Choice – Leverage
May 12th, 2011Leverage? Leverage is a short way to say “re-use something that the company already has in place.”
Megan the Marketing Manager: Can we leverage existing technology capabilities on the back-end to provide this customer experience?
Translation: Hey, we have an idea over here in Marketing, but we have no money to really spend on it.
Steve the Sales Manager: We plan to leverage our current sales process to discuss the new product with our top-50 clients.
Translation: We don’t have time or interest in training on this new thing, so we’ll just slip it in to our day-to-day when eve we remember to.
Next time you hear leverage; see if the use fits the definition above. Either way, let me know. Great Web site to test out leverage and other words – UNSUCK IT.
Dreaming of a Frustration-Free World
March 2nd, 2011Recently, I purchased one of those remote pointers for controlling your PowerPoint presentation from afar. We needed it for a meeting recently. So I stopped by Target and bought one (they had, one option, so that made it easy). I nearly lost a hand opening the clamshell. Manufacturers please stop the clamshell. Consumers don’t care about container shipping specifications or fractions of pennies in unit cost.
Solving Simple Problems … For Toothpaste?
February 8th, 2011Yes, toothpaste. I consider myself brand-neutral when purchasing toothpaste.
Aquafresh solved a simple problem with a simple and not-so-innovative solution. Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »
Going Against the Grain To Make Money
January 5th, 2011Over the holidays, I spent a considerable amount of time with 70 year olds – namely, my parents and in-laws. Now, there’s a lot written about Gen X and redefining retirement. I won’t cover that ground.
I have one takeaway. Senior citizens want it both ways. They want to be able to experience and use new technologies. They don’t want to have to learn how to experience and use these technologies.
Television sets are a good example. Though both my parents and in-laws have LCD televisions (with cable), they could not figure out how to use my set of remotes. Simply by having different brands, the seniors were rendered helpless and in turn frustrated. “Can you help change the channel to CNBC?”
When I read about apps coming to next-generation televisions (WSJ; registration required), I thought go against the grain?
Make televisions with the highest-resolution and best sound fidelity. But make them simple. No wi-fi connection. No apps. No embedded blu-ray. Reduce the number of buttons for the remote. And make the look/feel modern, not geriatric. Maybe Sony or Samsung has already analyzed this, but if not, I think there’s money there.
There’s money to made in simplifying an increasingly complicated world.
Impressive Simplicity
December 17th, 2010Groupon - I’m not the first person to tell you about this e-Commerce site.
I appreciate the simplicity of the system. I imagine marketers all over the world are thinking “you could add ratings” or “you could do partnerships for micro-coupons” or other features and benefits. To date, Groupon has kept it simple – if we get enough of a group, you all get a discount.
A hidden benefit from simplicity: promotion. I imagine that the simpler a product is, the easier it is for prospects to learn about it AND the easier viral marketing becomes, therefore leading to greater total acceptance.