Starbucks Still Gets it Right
I was in a Starbucks the other morning and noticed something I hadn’t seen before.
On one of the tables was a small “wheelchair” icon. I had seen it before, but didn’t think anything of it. But, that morning I was waiting for my coffee and read the text underneath. I expected it to say, “Reserved” or even “Disabled,” but I was pleasantly surprised.
What it did say was, “Please offer this table to our disabled customers.”
Get that?
Not simply reserved or please reserve but, please offer. I think that’s outstanding and illustrates the forward thinking of Starbucks. They treat people like people. They do whatever they can to build community the old-fashioned way.
Now, they may not have the best coffee (just browse CoffeeGeek), but you’d be hard pressed to find a company that offers a better customer experience.
I have been critical of them in the past in their dealings with Doubleshot Coffee, but this is definitely a win in my eyes.
Technorati Tags: Starbucks, CustomerService, Marketing, PublicRelations
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AT&T…Why do you Tempt Me?!?
January 29, 2007, 5:10 pm
Filed under:
Business So, I’ve been fighting and praying to get any sort of broadband out where I live. Currently neither the cable provider nor the phone company offer any sort of high speed…leaving me stuck with dial up.
So, Saturday I get a letter from AT&T, our local phone company, saying that “You’re also eligible for the fastest Internet in town..AT&T Yahoo High Speed Internet.”
I think, “This truly is a YAHOO!”
Today I call up AT&T to sign up, only to be told that I’m still not eligible.
So, AT&T, you know where I live to send me the mailer.
You know that I’m not eligible for the service.
Why even send the letter?
All you did was waste your time, waste mine and make me dislike you even more.
Thanks for that.
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The L.A. Times “Reorganizes” Their Newroom
See this.
I think it’s fairly obvious the effect that the web and social media are having on traditional media.
This just solidifies it more as traditional media outlets continue to play “catch up” in the web-based media space. Sure, many people still get their news / information from the newspaper, evening news, etc. The problem is, the number of people in that camp is decreasing as the traditional sources continue to get “scooped” by online.
How many stories have we seen that started on a blog/YouTube, etc. and made their way to the traditional media. We focus so much on the fact that it shows how great and revolutionary social media is, but the other side of that coin is that it shows how traditional media needs to evolve.
The immediacy of the web will drive much more of this. I think the next step will be to no longer expand on the story in the paper, but to expand on the web. Set up RSS feeds for specific large stories so people can follow those specific stories.
It’s an exciting time, and it changes every day.
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Netflix connecting with me and American Express
Couple unrelated topics, but they are things that caught my eye in the last day.
First. Last night I was watching the unfolding drama of Prison Break on Fox. If you’re not watching, well you’re missing out and it’d be tough to catch up. But, great show. At the end of the show, there was a short spot from American Express telling American Express customers to go to their website (actually a specific microsite) for an exclusive preview for American Express customers of next week’s episode.
Will this get more people signing up for American Express? Probably not just for a preview.
Does this make American Express’s current customer happy? Absolutely…if they’re fans of the show.
The only disappointing part for me (and I’m NOT an American Express customer, but I like this idea) was that after more commercials that I ignored, there was a preview for next week. Was it the same as the AMEX preview? I doubt it. But I think it would have been very cool for there to be no preview for viewers OTHER than the AMEX preview. Sure, I wouldn’t have gotten to see the preview, but I still think it would have been better than having a preview over the air.
Then, I went to my Netflix account today to add Saw 3 now that it’s out on DVD. Haven’t been there for a while because I haven’t had time to watch movies, I’ve been on a Deadwood kick and haven’t had to add any movies because I’m getting caught up on the series and I’m evaluating the Blockbuster service.
I know all the Netflix talk is centered around streaming movies, but I noticed something else. In the top tabs I noticed the “recommendations” tab had changed. It now says “Movies I’ll (heart picture).”
Small thing? Yes.
Important thing? Absolutely.
I think this takes the cold, impersonal “recommendations” language and connects with people emotionally. As Netflix touts their recommendations engine as a large part of their service, I think that using it to really connect with people on a personal level is very cool.
I haven’t dug deep enough into it yet, so forgive me if this is already there, but I think it would be very cool for them to not only give you recommendations but supply a forum or some other way to actually connect with people who have recommended that movie and discuss it and others. For example, if I ranked the aforementioned Saw 3 with five stars (haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t say!), it’d be great to not only get recommendations, but join some sort of discussion with people who also ranked it five stars. Then we could talk not only similar movies, but other movies we like that may not be linked because they are so different.
It’d push people even further down the long tail.
Anyway, just a couple small things that touched me and made me realize how much I want to be a part of a business that understands that data and logic matter very little because we’re emotional beings.
Emotion=connection=loyalty
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Video/Photo Law Enforcement in New York
This article introduces a very interesting practice being implemented in New York.
Basically, people will be able to transmit photos and videos to 911 and 311 numbers from their cell phones.
How cool is that?
Think of the potential here. Think of all those movies and TV shows where SWAT teams are going to storm a building, but don’t know what is happening inside! Think of where this can go. I think this is a great development in law enforcement and it’ll be interesting to see what happens with it.
One question, will the photo/video be admissible for use in court cases? It’ll be very difficult to defend that you didn’t commit a crime when there’s photos or videos of you doing it.
I think this is a great step forward.
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Why Does Marketing Exist?
Hugh has a comment about a comment today.
I agree with Hugh, disagree with Woodstock. I think to say that marketing exists to tell you that you’re deficient and point out how a company’s offering can help with that deficiency may have been true at some point in history, but is no longer.
I should amend that. Good marketing doesn’t match that pattern anymore.
Sure, there are marketers stuck in the old ways that still view marketing as forcing their product on unknowing consumers, but I think that’s changing…for the better.
I believe, more and more that marketing exists for one reason. And it’s not a science/art/practice that comes first or is separate from other business functions. Marketing exists to tell you about someone’s great way of doing something.
I don’t see marketing anymore as spin, smoke and mirrors or simply promotions. When it’s done right, by a company that understands the limitations of marketing, it’s a great thing. These companies will spend 90% of their time building an amazing offering (product/service/etc) BEFORE marketing. Then marketing becomes simply a conversation/discussion about how that amazing offering can enhance your life.
It’s time that businesses start listening to good marketers and involving them in the process of creating a product/service/experience/etc. Then, the communication of that idea becomes easy.
Look at Hugh. Would English Cut or Stormhoek have taken off as they have if they were crappy products but HUGH MACLEOD was blogging about them?
No.
It took a great product, a respected communicator and customers open to the message for those companies to be successful.
It’s not about telling people they’re deficient. It’s about conversing with them. Showing them how the product is beneficial to them in and of itself…not creating a perceived “need” on their end.
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The Mess of Social Media
So, I was changing accounts in del.isio.us today. I realized I wanted a different account name. So I created a new account and imported all of my bookmarks from my old account.
As I looked at my new account, I realized I had to go in and share each and every bookmark I had created.
That’s when it hit me. Social media makes connection, memory and things like tagging so easy that it creates another problem…lack of organization. If I had to write each of these things down I’d probably take the time to organize and categorize them. Probably even “purge” the old ones. But, since it’s so easy to just click the “add to delicious” button, I put them in and often forget about them.
Oh well, it’s better to have too much access than not enough.
So, back to organizing.
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