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Panera...I've never been disappointed

I had lunch today at Panera and of course, I had a bowl of soup. The new Chicken Tortilla soup to be exact. While eating I thought to myself...I've never been disappointed in a bowl of Panera soup. And I've been eating soup at Panera regularly (at least once a month) for the last 8 years or so.

What is it about what you do that never disappoints? Can you isolate just a few things that you excel at? Those are the home runs you need to be pushing into your marketing messages if you aren't already. Those are the things you need to be supplying testimonials for. Those are the things that need to be front and center on your web pages.

Remember, your marketing needs to say much more about what the customer likes than what you like.

Is it time for you to jump on the Twitter bandwagon

You've heard of Twitter...right? It's like a mini-blog. You've got 140 characters to answer the question "What am I doing?" It's probably closer to say "What am I thinking?" Regardless, you "follow" others on Twitter and they follow you. You can follow me here. Readers of my blog will remember me addressing the issue back in June.

Twitter is an incredible tool to strengthen and to grow your core group--what I like to call your tribe. Can you imagine having your camper families following every update you listed...open sessions of camp, updates on building projects, maintenance frustrations, lives being changed, wildfire headed toward camp, program director has a baby. The sky really is the limit. But the point is...you are involving others in the life of your ministry. They get a sense of your "humanness" and they feel they know you better.

Thanks to The Hotel Experience, here are some great tips about using Twitter to your advantage...

• Start your camp or conference center Twitter account and use it to post discounts, open sessions, program information, or anything else your "tribe" might be interested in
• Encourage your staff to set up their own Twitter accounts and post to them often. Go here for some help getting started 
• Use TweetBeep to follow when people are "tweeting" about you or your camp or conference center   

Twitter is just a tool...a very powerful one...but it can help you identify your tribe of followers and rally them online, helping them feel like they are insiders, which is always a good thing.  

Beware the lure of the big one

When I directed Shepherd's Fold Ranch I would often fall prey to wishing for that one big donor or that one big group that would swoop in and in one easy step, solve all my problems. We even joked that we didn't need a lot of campers, we just needed a couple to pay a million each! Pretty pathetic, huh?

But admit it, you've probably harbored similar thoughts. If you could just recruit that one donor that would unload a tub full of money on your ministry you'd be set. If you could just find that one mega church who would begin to direct all their groups to your camp...their men, their women, their youth, their seniors and singles...you'd have it made. No more striving for every last buck. And of course the unwritten...no more relying on faith!

I used to pray hard for the big one. Then one day, I felt that God reminded me of the story in the New Testament where Peter had been fishing all night and returned to the dock empty-handed (or empty-netted). Jesus was there to meet him and immediately directed him to head back out and throw his nets on the other side of the boat. As you know...Peter immediately caught a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish.

I began to see how Jesus met Peter's need, not by one big fish, but by hundreds and thousands of smaller fish. Peter didn't catch a single whale, he caught an entire school of fish. Now think about the successful ministries or churches or camps that you know. Are they successful because of one or two big fish or because of many smaller fish?

Think about the recent presidential race. Regardless of your politics, you'll have to admit that Obama won because he was successful in identifying and connecting with thousands and millions of young voters. In fact, statistics reveal that the vast majority of first-time voters voted for Obama. He was successful, not because of the big influence brokers (other than perhaps the media), he was successful because of all the college students and Gen X voters knocking on doors, working phone banks, giving rides to the polls, or voluteering in one of hundreds of different ways.

So if you were going to go out today and try to connect with hundreds and thousands of people, how would you do it? Would you design a brochure or schedule some church appearances or set up some neighborhood desserts? Sure, you could do those things but you are sitting on one of the most powerful "connection" tools in the history of man...the Internet and the simple desktop computer.

Ministries and businesses alike are connecting with their "tribe" like never before using tools like Facebook and Twitter. They are growing their tribe and tightening their tribe every single day by identifying those things the tribe cares about and talking about them.

You might be able to find that one benefactor who will underwrite your programs and facilities. Sure, you might be able to connect with that one mega church who will single-handedly come along and fill your beds. But chances are, you are more likely to find the success (and fulfillment) you desire and need by connecting with those who care about you most and putting tools in their hands to spread the word. 

Online social networking isn't just for college and high school students anymore. Is it time you made the connection?

Whole Foods makes it right

So I'm driving around yesterday gathering stuff for a gift basket for new hire Dana Twichell (you can follow her stream of marketing consciousness on Twitter here). Once I got the basket itself, I decided  the best place for the basket fill would be Whole Foods. They didn't disappoint.

I wanted a certain kind of crackers to go with the smoked gouda and the only box of this kind of cracker was crushed at the bottom and there was a good chance this particular box would have more cracker crumbs than whole crackers. I searched the shelves...this was definitely the last box.

I approached a clerk and explained my predicament to her. She did the expected thing...she searched the shelves I had just searched and like me, she didn't find any either. She went to ask if they stocked those crackers any other place in the store. They didn't. No problem I said...I'll just get a different kind. And then she did something I didn't expect. She comped me the crackers.

On a little handwritten note to the cashier, she said no charge for the crackers. She said she was sorry that they were out of my first choice and she wanted to buy my second choice for me.

Now understand, this wasn't a department supervisor. She wasn't a manager. She certainly wasn't the store owner. She was a clerk and Whole Foods saw fit to not only give her the ability to solve a customer issue they trained her so she knew what to do. She got it. Whole Foods gets it.

When I think about other grocery store situations I've been in when the clerk stocking shelves was wearing an iPod, completely cut off...both literally and figuratively. Man, what a nice surprise.

 

I remember years ago reading about housekeepers (yes housekeepers!) at the Ritz Carlton Hotel were allowed up to $1,500 to solve a guest problem on the spot. That was years ago...who knows what it is today.

So what about you? Do you get this? Are your staff (all your staff...not just managers or front desk personnel) impowered to solve guest problems on the spot? Have you trained your staff to understand the power of a positive guest experience? Money back guarantee is just the tip of the iceberg...staff who are trained to go low and to do things right will translate into outstanding customer service, which is something people will talk about, tell their friends about, blog about, Facebook about, tweet on Twitter about. Never underestimate the power of the groundswell.

Is it still camp if you are able to blog?

Rissaroe poses this question to the blogosphere. Is it still camp if you can lay on your bunk at camp and compose a blog, or check your email, or text your friends, or update your Facebook page?

This a question that many camps and conferences have struggled with over the last few years and many are struggling with it right now. The answers are not easy and can vary camp to camp and conference to conference.

For many, it is a matter of customer service. These camps and conferences have choses to offer their guests what they have asked for. They provide free wifi in their guest rooms or cabins and in their dining room or guest lobbies. They might even have an "Internet cafe" set up where guests can use a computer to keep up with the world "outside."

On the other hand, there are camps and conferences who look at this as a philosophical issue. They have been called to establish a place "set apart," a place apart from the cares of the world where people can more easily hear the voice of God and deal with spiritual issues without the distractions or the stress that being "online" could create.

This is a tough issue and a question not easily answered. It really depends on the camp and the tribe that the camp or conference is there to serve. When you make the decision to go one way, you will automatically disenfranchise those that are on the other side of the issue.

If you haven't had to face this issue in your camp or conference yet...just wait. It's only a matter of time. The important thing isn't go "techno" or not, the important thing is that you know WHY you are making the decision you are making.

Open a forum. Ask the relevant questions. Talk to your staff. Survey your tribe. Discuss with your donors and others who love and care about what you do. Speak with alums. Then go into your board meeting loaded with pertinent information and make a decision.

I don't think there is an answer that is right for every camp and conference center. There are way too many variables. Just be intentional.

What's in it for me?

I love Hugh Macleod and the gaping void. He nails it more times than not with his cartoons on the back of business cards. Take this one for example. How true.

But I'm not talking about this in a relationship context (although it's true there as well) I'm talking about the truth of this in the marketing world. No matter who your target audience is they don't really care about you. They really don't. They may say they do, but when it gets right down to it, they only care about themselves. When they read your brochure or go to your website or attend your fund raising banquet, there is really only one question rattling around in their head...

What's in it for me?

As you write copy, select photos, and think about design just know that even though your audience might be saying "I LOVE YOU!" the emphasis will always be on the "I."

Can they really have it THEIR way?

A classic scene from a classic movie...

It's laughable...the waitresses inflexibility and the silly restaurant menu policies. It's easy to make fun of but I wonder how many camps and conferences are actually doing the same thing.

• Why serve meals in 3 meal packages? What if I want 4 meals? What if I want pancakes for dinner or brunch instead of breakfast?
• I want to have a midnight worship service with my group. Is your chapel open for me at midnight? What about your sound tech in case I need some help?
• Can my child stay over the weekend between sessions?
• I'm confined to a wheelchair but I'd really like to ride horses or go on your ropes course. Is that available?

Remember, you are there to serve the customer. Not the other way around.

The five building blocks of marketing

For years, the 5 P's (Product, People, Place, Price, and Promotion) have been taught as the backbone of any marketing strategy or structure. Yesterday, Seth said you can forget the 5 P's and look at these instead:

• Data
• Stories
• Products (Services)
• Interactions
• Connections

I agree with him. These five constitute the building blocks of any effective marketing plan.

DATA The data is the stuff you can see. What are your customers doing? How are they acting or interacting with your organization or program? What do they like or dislike? What do they ask about? Data is the information marketers and programmers either use to complain about how their customers don't get it or they use the information to get actually better (hopefully).

STORIES Chances are, if your camp or conference center is more than just a couple of years old, it's the stories (the beginnings of valuable camp traditions) that people talk about, not the facilities or the campfires. Stories are how we interact as people. Every program has a story. Every building has a story. Every camper has a story. It's how all those stories interact with one another that has real value for you as a camp or conference marketer. Do you know your stories?

It's these two--Data and Stories that form the foundation for any marketing campaign. You can't plan without an intimate knowledge of these two things, and having knowledge about one isn't much good without knowledge about the other. Now, once you have the foundation, you can begin to build.

PRODUCTS (and Services) Seth calls the products the physical manifestations of the stories. Your products are your programs...those things you offer to the public. Hopefully you aren't still trapped in the box of offering average programs to average people. The real successes are found not in the middle of the curve (average) but at the edges (niche). It's always better the be the very best in a small market than settling for just being one of the crowd in a big market. Do your products match your story?

INTERACTIONS These are all the ways you touch your customer--brochures, website, media ads, phone, email, etc. It's the interactions that really hold all the rest together. You could design great a great program, promote it with a killer web site but if the person who answers the phone doesn't understand the part he or she plays, the ball is dropped. Remember, everyone on your staff works in the marketing department. Doing it right is just as easy (many times) as doing it wrong. It's just a choice you and your staff make.

CONNECTIONS This is the highest level you can achieve. If you do everything else right, you might actually be able to see this one work. Connections, real connections, with your customer are the goal of every campaign. To get "buy in" from your tribe...those people who love you, who speak your language, who tell your stories. But to watch as your customers connect with each other and talk and share their stories about you...that's special.

So, when you are meeting with your staff, here are some questions you've got to be asking yourself: Do our interactions lead to connections? Does our data and our stories match the programs we are offering? Are we listening to what our customers are trying to tell us (by watching carefully what they are doing)?

Chances are...you're spending most of your time (and marketing budget) on the interactions. But without the context--or the foundation of the other four why bother? You've probably got bits and pieces of the 5 blocks, but getting them working together is the secret.

Gillette drops the ball

I know it might sound funny to those of you who know me personally for me to actually riff about a razor. I mean...hey...I've been on about a twice a week schedule for years. But after several weeks of ripping my whiskers out by the roots with a too-dull razor, I finally broke down over the weekend and bought some new blades.

I got home from the store and without thinking, threw the package in the bathroom drawer. This morning, I tried to open the package to get a new blade. I tried and tried. You see, this is one of those products that have gone the way of the heavy duty plastic packaging.

There was no way I could tear it open. I looked on the back for a clue and found the "use scissors to open" message and a dotted line to show those who are too ignorant to know otherwise, exactly where to cut. I don't know if you are like me, but I don't keep scissors in my bathroom...or my bedroom...or upstairs in my house. So I looked for the next best thing. I found a small set of cuticle scissors that promptly broke when I tried to apply them to the heavy duty wrapping.

I did get the job started by "clipping" the plastic with some toenail clippers. But amazingly, even after I started the job there was no way I was going to rip that plastic open. You can see by the photo that I was mangling the job but the space-aged polymer was holding fast.

Unbelievable. Yes, I'm sure that this plastic wrapping is an inexpensive way for Gillette to go. And I'm sure with other products, it helps to curb shoplifting. But what happened to the customer here? Are you telling me that you are going through all the trouble of manufacturing a product, packaging it, shipping it, then displaying it (not to mention the millions in advertising) only for the experience to breakdown once you actually get the product to my bathroom? Like I said...unbelievable. Unless of course Gillette doesn't care what happens after the product is out of the store.

It's easy to pick on Gillette for being so ignorant of the customer experience (not with the product itself...but with the dang packaging!) But are you in the same boat. Take a hard look at your programs, your facilities, your food service, your registration process, your web site. Are those things set up and designed to be easiest for you or for your customer?

Listen to your customers. More than two or three complaints about the same issue and you need to make some changes. Once the season quiets down a bit, take a day and break down each of the facets of the customer experience in your organization. Include the folks who spend the day on the phone with your customers. Include the folks who respond to emails and letters. These things are too important to let slide. You need to be on top of this.

In this day and age customer loyalty is fleeting. There are simply too many choices out there to put up with shoddy customer attentiveness. Maybe I'll try Schick.

I love Zappos!

I came upon this blog today about a woman’s Zappos testimonial. Read it here. Amazing. This story takes customer service to the next level…then adds a whole new level.

Here’s the big question…do the people at your camp or conference center who are in charge of dealing with guests or campers have the latitude to treat customers like this when it’s warranted?

We’ve all been subjected to “the stickler” from time to time. You know what person who has anointed themselves the gatekeeper, the one who will stick to the rules and regulations no matter what. Sticklers are known for using phrases like, “That’s not our policy” or “That’s not my department, you’ll have to check with them.”

I once heard that housekeepers at the Ritz Carlton Hotel have up to $1,500 at their disposal to solve a guest problem…without asking their supervisors! That’s a commitment to customer service. What about your housekeepers or maintenance staff (those people who are likely to encounter guests at “unrehearsed” moments) do they have the authority—and more importantly, the mentality—to fix a guest problem on the spot?

I think great customer service is something you either get or you don’t. You can be trained in great service but it’s not always something that comes naturally. If you aren’t actively training your staff to put the customer first you’ll never have testimonials like the one Zappos got.