In this attention deficit world , whats Your IDEA worth Attention ??

Yes, IDEA clicks. (when executed with innovation). Can U beg for others? Yes BEG in the Mumbai Local train for others? Yes, more than collecting money for his mission , this man has attracted attention of most  of the media, publications and a few of the bloggers like me. 

Innovative ideas of fund raising clicked and is getting free public attention through mass media attention.

When we do things differently , people will notice us , we need not make attempts to get noticed. Most marketeers don't do things differently (campaign and products) and spent lot of energy in getting customer attention. It fails. It MUST fail.

We unfortunately have learned to copy and follow the trend/others. Unconventional thinking and ideas r not encouraged. Our central banks keep raising interest rates  as a sole solution to control inflation. I think it works other-way although. But no one can question the wisdom of  central bank where highly intellectual people are managing the affairs with the data access none of us can have. Same applies to our corporate houses and business of all stage and size. Follow the rule, boss , owner and look for precedent. Big no to untested, uncharted and unprecedented. One must understand that entrepreneurs take risk not employees.

Everyone is setting up call centers, so let us d also. I don't know how much lead/sales ( this refers to outbound call centers ) it generates, but its surely causes anger and irritation to 99.99% of the callers. Its a social problem now.

Do something unprecedented , let it fail but  it gives chance for newness around us, it can be source of great inspiration and risk taking, and if successful it can be a source of abundant wealth creation. 

Prof Sandeep Desai (Ex SP Jain Inys Prof) refereed above , begs in Mumbai local trains for his mission of education. He collects daily money from commuters for his 3 schools for deprived students. He collects appx Rs. 3/4000  daily from commuters of the local train during non rush hours. CNN, ZEE and many other print media wrote about his innovative way to collect funds & his message spread to many so quickly. He has won CNN IBN Unsung Hero 2011 award also. Collected some Rs. 21.5 Lacs till Aug 11. I met him yesterday when he was on his begging mission. 

Bollywood super star Salman Khan tweeted abt him " Prof Sandeep Desai ka jawab nahi, kamal karte ho yaar prof saheb"  and has requested his fans to donate to prof.

Point is not Prof Desai, Point is his innovative and unprecedented style of collecting donations. Sellers/Marketeers and CEOs , pls awake & ask : have we innovated lately in what we do and how we do? Customers MUST say " Yeh company to Kamal karti hai."      { with their products, people and customer services }. Do you think , you will then need massive sales and ad campaigns??? Your brand ambassadors should be your customers and free media. Now its our turn to do Kamal!!!!

5 Ways to Make CUSTOMERS your BRAND Ambassadors

People believes in customer reviews rather than brand ambassador's large cut outs and recommendations.Real brand ambassadors are customers as they recommend after using the offerings and so called brand ambassadors recommends for money they get!!!

When TRUST is the highest influencers  these new breed of brand ambassadors r preferred and searched on the net & social media. Today u search for any product or services , you will invariably get users reviews.I use reviews when I buy mobile phones, when I book hotels outstations,  when I want to experiment new things, when I do not want to subscribe to Speak Asia kind of schemes (I found whole lot of irregular things and cpl of articles by Sucheta Dalal in her magazine Money Life abt the Speak Asia drama which is going on with the help of Indian Print Media these days).Telling example of Branding vs Actual Customer Xperience. (now 19th May- govt has ordered inquiry into the affairs)

Bottom line is CUSTOMERS are net promoters or demoters of every BRANDs. Invest more in customer experience and less on BRAND Ambassadors which is paid , scripted & hence less authentic. 


Here are the ways U can make yr customers , yr brand ambassadors: (Experiment rigorously)

1) Go out of the way to solve customer problem.  Do it with SMILE. If U are a Dentist,don't just remove the teeth but give dental care booklet and free check up once a year bonus. 

2) Invite happy customers to periodic customer get to gather. Share their stories on blog, website and social media. Offer some branding mileage to those customers.(Introduce them and their business on social media)

3) Help and try to make your customers more successful in what they do. Have solution and not transaction approach.

4) To the extent possible customize the deal and make them feel special. As a tour organizer U have tie up with particular hotel, have an arrangement with the hotel to convey customer's preference, data and choice for surprise and delight. They must feel special for booking the hotel through yr company. 

5) Have Happy Hour.  On any one day a week ,lets say every Tuesday, allow any one randomly selected customer free shopping/buying/consuming every hour. Word of mouth publicity will much more cover the cost of free offerings.

Have as many surprise elements in yr offerings as possible.  

I am a FAN of Zappos.com , Starbucks & Virgin way of doing business. Why not every one else too? Looking for similar passion and enthusiasm from Indian Company !!!! Any 1 ? Kingfisher is closing in.

Not only do business , make it a fun for all involved.We ,after all , live only once and time to make FANs  are too short. Go full blast from TODAY. Share yr results here.