Last week was my wife’s birthday and we wanted to do something fun and special – of course, where have you heard that before.  Since we live in Woodinville Wine Country, Woodinville Washington, we decided having a party at a winery would be a fun experience.  But which one – there are tons of great wineries 10 minutes from our house.  We didn’t have much time so unfortunately we didn’t’ get to try them all (dang) so we narrowed it down and picked J.Bookwalter Winery.

They were very accommodating and we liked their wines.  Now came the test – the evening of the party. What were they going to be like?  After all, it was a special occassion so you don’t want it to be a bad memory.  Well, Nick and Erin came through big time and did an absolutely awesome job of serving the guests and making everyone feel at home.  They poured samples and glasses of wine, made sure everything came off smoothly and helped in every way possible to clean up.  Now THAT made it a memorable experience.

They did everything they should have to make it a memorable customer experience.  I knew what to expect from the beginning, they worked with me on the selection, made sure the guests were treated like kings and queens and in the end allowed us to do our thing and make the evening special.  My hat’s off to Erin and Nick – they get what a great customer experience is all about.  I would encourage anyone in the area to give them a call – use my name and tell them you want the same experience Blaine got – they’ll know what you mean.  Enjoy!!

Blaine

Why was I there?  They were interested, like many other CEO’s in the area, in learning more about the Social Media Revolution and how his new phenomena of communications could impact their businesses.  They were eager to hear my message about what the “tools of Social Media” are and how they fit together to become this powerful business communications force.

I shared the concepts and advantages of blogging, social networking (myspace, facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter) and the other elements that make up this powerful suite we call Social Media.  By sharing a number of examples about how companies are using these today, they were able to understand how Social Media will be changing the landscape of how we communicate, build relationships, improve the customer experience and achieve business goals faster and cheaper than ever before.  The group responded very favorably and asked some excellent questions.

The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, led by Betty Nokes, CEO and President, is really looking ahead to how they can personally use Social Media to build even more value for their members and the businesses in the Bellevue community.  I commend Betty for her willingness to allow us to share a somtimes shocking message about how dramatically this landscape is changing.  I also want to personally thank Jim Frank of Human Capital Resources, a human capital solutions company, for introducing me to Betty and the Chamber.  Jim attended one of our early seminars and became “enlightened” and felt this was an important message to share with his fellow EBRT members – thanks Jim, the members are all a little better off today because of your willingness to share our message.

I also wanted to recognize a few of the members of EBRT that I had the opportunity to talk with at the event.  Donna Shirey of Shirey Contracting, sponsors of the Zero Energy Idea House  (check this out – way cool), Nancy Cho, President and CEO of Oki Golf, Dave Ferguson, CEO of Click Engineering, Jim Hebert, Hebert Research, John Parkey, and George Bartell of Bartell Drugs - just to name a few.  What a great group of people.  I would encourage anyone to join the Chamber and in particular the EBRT group.  Definitely call Betty if you are interested.  This group will definitely make things happen in our area…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

twitter: @BlaineMillet

This is an executive networking group that has been around for 90 years and has a very rich history and heritage for helping the members build new relationships in the community and help each other out in growing their businesses by sharing opportunities.  The executive Director, Glenna Thomas, was really looking out for her members by allowing us to come in and talk about a very leading edge and yet at times controversial topic – Social Media and Social Networking.  My hat goes off to her and Dennis Tyler of DialPro Northwest, for taking the chance on having us speak to their members and introduce some leading edge information. 

The group seemed to really enjoy being exposed to how Social Media is the next REVOLUTION in communications and how it can be used to help them in their businesses.  This was our 7th seminar on the topic of “Social Media for CEO’s” in the past few months and as usual, much of the information was very new to the audience.  I was very encouraged at how receptive the owners and executives were to how this could transform their businesses.

If you are in the Seattle area, I would strongly encourage you to contact Glenna and get more information about the group.  While we didn’t get a chance to meet everyone, we did meet a few great people afterwards, some of which were: Peter Frix of Frix Technology Group, John Kane from Kane Environmental Inc., Jim Conway from The Farwest Group, Diana Ehli, Dexter Barnes from Seattle Dental Associates and Linda Bianchi from both Windemere and the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce - just to name a few. 

Again, THANK YOU Glenna, Dennis and The Seattle Executives Association for allowing us to crash your luncheon – much appreciated and very enjoyable.

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

twitter: @BlaineMillet

What we need is for the media to point out all the things that are RIGHT and GOOD for a change – where are those journalists and media people when you need them.  Well, I found one and I wanted to dedicate this post to him and his publications/media.  His name is JOE KENNEDY, publisher of EastsideBusiness.  I just read his column, “Words from the Publisher” and I was so pleased and excited I wanted to CONGRATULATE him and HONOR him for taking a stand and leadership in this area – WAY TO GO JOE!!

Allow me to quote some of what he says directly from this column.

Despite the type of news you may be getting from other media outlets, Eastside Business and Eastside Life newspapers are choosing to stay positive – it sure beats the alternative!  in fact after almost 4 years in print, I finally made my first company policy – we will not use the “E” or “R” words in our publications.  We will stay positive and want you to as well.

Joe, I can’t compliment you enough – this is AWESOME. Does this mean everything is fine and all the bad will go away – certainly not, nor is he saying it will.  But while we are sitting in all the muck, why not look up at the sunshine and the sky and enjoy the beauty around us – that is what I believe Joe is saying.  None of us will be better off for continuing to talk about the problems – only the solutions.  I, for one, will be the first one to walk behind Joe.  Attitude is everything and we have shown that as a nation we don’t let this kind of thinking and talking take us down.  So to ALL the other media sources out there – GET A LIFE AND GET THE MESSAGE – we don’t want to hear about it any longer.  Thanks Joe.

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

With that being the case, now is the time NOT to forget about your customers and clients.  While you may think everyone is focused on their own business and doesn’t care as much about others, i would challenge that level of thinking.  This is EXACTLY the time when your customers are watching you closely to see how you react to such negative news.  All eyes are upon you and your employees.  

Now is the time for calmness and focus on your customer.  Why?  Because they are getting beat up as much or potentially more than you are and worrying as much or more than you are.  This is the time when you can build some real credibility with them.  If you act in an irrational and panic mode like the rest of the people out there they will see you in that light.  However, if you act in a calm and constructive manner, who do you think they will ALWAYS want to turn to in times of crisis?  You’re right, its YOU.

This is where you reach out to them and see if you can be of even more assistance than you probably are already.  This is where you contact as many of them as possible, starting with your best and most loyal customers, and work your way down the list.  You want to see how they are doing, see how you can help, see how you can work closer together to figure this whole mess out.  Yes, I make it sound so simple and we all know it isn’t.  But even if you can’t work things out or do certain things, the point is you ASKED.  Asking is more than half the battle at showing people you care.  Asking is what separates you from the pack.

I always remember when I worked at IBM and had lots of tickets to events.  I would invite 3 times more people than I had tickets for. Why?  Because i knew that many customers wouldn’t be able to attend the event and if by chance (which rarely happened) I got more people saying yes than I had tickets, no problem, someone else always had extras.  But the real value is that I asked 3 times as many customers and just by asking they felt as good about it as if  they had gone with me.  

So the moral of this message is simple.  Go against the herd – lead.  Be the one that is out there showing you CARE and ASKING what you can do to help each other out and working TOGETHER to solve some of these short-term issues every business is going to be facing.  This is one of the best times to build loyalty and create an advantage over your competitors.  Don’t sit back, get out there and talk to your customers and come up with a plan of how you could potentially help each other.  Crisis brings out one of the best times to build relationships.  So don’t just mope around and complain – that won’t help anyone.  Instead, avoid the panic and take the lead and build some LOYALTY with your customers.

Hope this helps…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

The answer is pretty simple in my opinion – they simply forgot what business they were in and who they were.  They aren’t a coffee shop, they aren’t a retailer, they aren’t a supplier – they are “AN EXPERIENCE” that people pay 3 – 5 times as much to enjoy.  However, when the experience goes away or changes for the worse, competition is looming in the wings (i.e. McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts and others) to snap up your “satisfied” customers – not your “loyal” customers.  I have always had a saying, “A satisfied customer is one that is simply looking for the next best deal to come along.”  This means that as long as you have the “best deal” then they stay with you but as soon as someone offers them something a little better or different, they defect – because they aren’t “LOYAL” they are merely satisfied.  I hate it when companies say they have all these “satisfied customers” – all I hear is that they have all these “customers waiting to defect” when something changes or something new comes along.

Back to Starbucks.  If you frequent many of these establishments, you realize that it was originally all about the experience.  It was the way they treated you, the ambiance, the environment, the Batista’s, the way you felt when you went in there.  What it has morphed into is a coffee house – a place to go get a cup of coffee.  What happened to the customer – when did they lose sight of the one person that pays them for what they do?  Not sure when, but it has happened.  Not all locations are like this but more and more of them seem to be moving this direction.  I read an interesting article in Inc. Magazine, “How Hard Could It Be?” by Joel Spolsky.  He started by saying, “Starbucks’ meticulous policy manual shows employees how to optimize profits.  Too bad it undercuts basic customer service.”  He is spot on – read the article.

To me this is sad.  Not because I love coffee but because I am disappointed when I see companies that start out focusing on the customer somehow get to the point where they feel they are “too good” or “above” having to worry about them any longer.  I don’t know of many examples in history where this doesn’t come back to bite them in the you know where and they have to spend all this money and fire all these people because they lost sight of what they were really all about and the customer.  It is very disappointing to see this happen over and over and especially to an icon like Starbucks. 

I want Starbucks to succeed and be a star in the business world.  I hope they get this and figure it out sooner than later.  I can’t tell you how many people, knowing I spend a lot of time working with companies on strategy, customer experiences and customer loyalty, come up and say, ”why can’t you help them understand what they seem to have forgotten – the customer experience is what we are paying for, we can get “coffee” anywhere.”  If it ends up being a “convenience issue” where people see Starbucks as being all over so they will go there because they are convenient, this would be devastating.  How many drive through windows does McDonald’s have in the country – they would kill Starbucks if it came down to that issue.  No, I think Starbucks needs to rethink this and make a major statement in the market that they once again care about their customers. 

I hope they get it sooner than later.  Let me know what you think – are you a Starbucks fan or not?  Do you think they have lost sight of what they were all about in your area or are they doing great in your opinion?  It would be interesting to hear what you have to say about this since they are everywhere.  Thanks in advance for any comments…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

I just recently released an article, “Marry Your Customer – Creating Trusted, Loyal Relationships,” on our website, www.customerexperiencesinc.com, to share some thinking I have had for quite a while.  It also supports what I have been seeing in various client situations and since it is so “simple yet powerful,” I wanted to share my thinking and some additional insights in this area.

What I absolutely find amazing and appalling in organizations is how leadership tells their people to act one way toward their customer that goes against all the principles of building trusted relationships – all for the almighty dollar.  This is just plain wrong!  The organizations we see that have the greatest success, create linkage between what the leadership stands for and the employees and this is then demonstrated to their customers through their actions.

Let me give you an example.  When employees go to work, they bring with them their own set of “ethics” or what I call “Employee Character.”  Included in this Employee Character is an underlying component of wanting to build trusted relationships with co-workers, leadership, customers, suppliers, partners, etc.  And they know how to do it.  They understand how important it is to a successful personal relationship to make and keep your Promises - they do it every day when building their own relationships outside of work.  So now, they enter the workplace and one of the first things that happens is they are asked (directly or indirectly) to make Promises that they know they can’t keep – at least not consistently. 

For most employees, this doesn’t work.  They are at odds with this and whether they recognize it outwardly or not, they are violating their own character to act this way.  This conflict between the employer and the organization is one of the greatest frustrations in employees and one of the key reasons for employee defection – or leaving the organization.  But when there is great alignment between “Leadership Character” and “Employee Character” and the Promises they are asked to keep are actually supported by leadership – great things happen.  The organization has become both “customer-focused” and “employee-focused” instead of “operationally focused.”  This is a huge distinction and one that separates the best organizations from all the others.

So I won’t steal the thunder of the article and allow you to read how all this comes together but let me leave you with one parting thought.  Promises Made = Promises Kept is one of the most basic concepts an organization can embrace and one that has some of the most profound impacts on short and long-term profitability, Loyalty and ongoing sustainability.  It is just interesting so few understand it or have implemented it today.

Take a minute and let me know what you think?  Are you seeing the same thing in your organization?  Does this make sense to you or not?  Do you think this is off base and isn’t the way it works and you have other ideas?  Do you agree and would like to see your organization operate like this?  Any and all comments are welcome – as we continue to explore this area and write about it, we would love to incorporate others experiences and thoughts.  Thanks.

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce presented the Eastside Economic Forecast Breakfast November 15th at the Meydenbauer Center. The breakfast was well-attended with several hundred present.

Chris Falco, the Chairman of the Bellevue Chamber led off, followed by presentations by:

• Joseph Quinlan -Chief Market Strategist of Bank of America Capital Management
• Kristina Erickson Hudson- Business Development Manager for the Interactive Media and Technology cluster at enterpriseSeattle
• Glen Hiemstra – Noted futurist and author, website link here.

I’ll refer you to a blog I came across that already provides an excellent summary of the overall event – Dean Dretske’s Blog.   

The panel is quite optimistic about the prospects for economic growth on the Eastside and Puget Sound in general.  The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce summarizes the situation nicely in a comprehensive report downloadable here.

Regarding Kristina’s presentation about Interactive Media companies, “WOW”.  This sector of our economy is absolutely flourishing.  To cite a few statistics from her presentation:

• 150+ companies engaged in the industry locally
• 15,000 jobs, growing at 33 percent annually since 2004$77,700 average annual salary
• $4.2B revenue in 2006
• $4.9B forecasted for 2007. With the success of Microsoft’s Halo 3 game, there should be no problem beating the forecast.

Clearly, this is an industry to watch and know about for anyone doing business in Seattle. So, that’s why you might be interested in attending next week’s MIT Enterprise Forum event.  The December 5 dinner event at the Bellevue Hyatt Hotel will bring 4 of the biggest players in the area (Microsoft, Digipen, ArenaNet, and Sandlot Games) together for some entertaining and insightful discussions. 

I will be attending this session as well, and have some more information about the event here.  I hope to see you there.

Greg Lins
Customer Experiences Inc.

Photo courtesy of Doug’s World blog.

Playing Games—Serious Business:
Building and Fostering Player Communities, the Ultimate Customer Base

With billions of dollars on the table, game companies are experimenting with every aspect of their business to determine the best way to satisfy customer expectations and thereby maintain a loyal gaming community.

The forum promises to provide insights into how businesses of any kind can foster communities of customers. 

Thanks to Jason Chu for introducing the moderator, Raymond Yan, both over at Digipen Institute of Technology.

Panelists include:

David Bernstein, CEO, Sandlot Games
Mike Fischer, GM Marketing XBox and Games for Windows, Microsoft
Jeff Strain, Arenanet

This event comes on the heels of the annual Eastside Economic Forecast Breakfast presented by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce.  Featured panelists included Kristina Erickson Hudson from enterpriseSeattle.  Kristina founded the Washington Interactive Meda Program, the first economic development program in the US to be targeted solely at the game industry.  Learn more about what she reported at the presentation on an upcoming blog.

I look forward to seeing you there!  You can register here.

Greg Lins
Customer Experiences Inc.

 Related Post: Eastside Economic Forecast Breakfast: Digital Media Presentation