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.

2 Questions on my ( our ) Birthday

We face many new years in one year in INDIA. 

1st Jan ( Calender Year )

1st April ( Financial Year )

New Year ( Next day of Diwali - Hindu New Year )

Gudi Padwa  ( Local State New Year , in my case Maharashtra) 

& 

Today ( In my case , and in your case yr respective actual birthday )

Advantage: Ever few months we can make new year resolutions and every few months we also review the same.  

I learned abt new ways to celebrate birthdays by following interesting ppl on Twitter: Author Chetan Bhagat took 300  less privileged children to the multiplex theatre for a movie, another gentleman spent time with senior citizen at one of the old age homes. Gr8 ideas.

Lets brain storm what better can be done on THE day?

Technology has made it easier to remember birthdays so I am getting many automated mails and many SMSs too. Just NOW got call from LIC for wishing me personally. 

I am still looking for Wow !!! er from all my service providers and all companies for whom I am a customer or a client. 

Therefore we have two questions: 

1) How do we celebrate our birthday - fruitfully /innovative-ly /non routine way?

2) How companies can wow!!! customers on their birthdays?

Pl share yr thoughts. Cheers.

Customer Xperience Today @ ICICI Bank

Today @  ICICI Bank.

I sent my daughter to get pay order which she required for her college admission. She was carrying duly signed cheque. Today was the only day for her admission and timing was limited. Amount was Rs.385/- only.

Now at bank I am classified as Preferred Customer. Therefore they have a special section and they attend to preferred clients with more attention and care. (They should that is what I expected)

They gave requisition slip to fill to her which required signature of account holder. Since I was not there my daughter called me and told me that pls come as yr signature is a MUST. I was bit upset so I talked to the concerned officer and requested that this is the first time I am hearing this that its a MUST on requisition slip. However since I can not come & I will come during the day & sign the slip , you pls process the request. I also confirmed & informed that she is my daughter & she requires pay order for her college admission. However she refused to process the request unless its signed by me. My daughter met the branch manager , she was busy and confirmed that its a MUST & we cant help it.

Leaving all my work aside I had to rush to the bank and complied with the requirement. 

Couldn't this have been handled in a better way in any other bank?? Relationship banking I enjoy with other banks , they even clear the cheque unsigned or with some correction on the promise that I will come and sign as required , later.

Look at the amount, purpose and my authorisation and promise to comply over phone, however nothing worked. 

This is not process centric banking but total customer apathy and we care less approach. Is it no employee empowerment or no sense of banking judgment??. & I am classified as Preferred Customer!!! (Oh ,my god, what must be the plight of no so preferred customer!!!))

The same bank on TV commercials wishes the customer who has come to open account on his birthday with a CAKE. Total disconnect between branding and customer experience in reality!!!! 

Branding sans Customer Experience !!! Ad agencies and Brand Consultants are not the BRAND builders its customer experience that builds brands !!!Still they spend millions on BRAND and nothing on CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.  (Even basic,  forget wowing!!!)

Who U R defines What U do!!!

Company Board is Responsible to the Share Holders. Rest all are responsible to the CUSTOMERS.However internal focus of the company and designations in vogue is making life complicated and working in silos a norm. If the tone at the top is CUSTOMER and it percolates down suitably at all levels , it can change the meaning for the PEOPLE in the company especially in big positions.  I have attempted to change the status quo just by changing the meaning of the designations by making it end result centric.

Here I go .........

1) Chief Executive Officer  -  Chief Customer Experience Officer

2) Chief Operation Officer - Chief Delivery Officer

3) Chief HR/People Officer- Chief Happiness Officer

4) Chief Marketing Officer - Chief Brand Officer

5) Chief Sales Officer -  Chief Fulfillment Officer

6) Chief Technology Officer - Chief Enabling Officer

7) Chief Public Relation Officer - Chief Image Officer

8) Chief Knowledge Officer - Chief Intelligence Officer

9) Chief Product Officer - Chief Customer Officer

10) Chief Procurement Officer - Chief Quality Officer

11) Chief Finance Officer - Chief Profit Officer

12) Chief Internal Auditor - Chief Sustenance Officer

13) Chief Compliance Officer  - Chief Governance Officer

14) Chief Belief Officer (Future Group does have one) - Chief Culture Officer

15) Chief Strategy Officer - Chief Competitive Officer

16) Chief Innovation Officer - Chief Future Officer

Even if they start looking at their designations, mind set will start transform-ing. 

Readers may add many more CXOs and suggest even appropriate names to the one given above. Let the winds of change take over our enterprises.

New Start Up & Six Qualities of Start Up Entrepreneurs - Reallife Xperience

Recently I become a part of team www.kredence.com . Though was always a part of Team Ketan Raiyani formally or informally. 

About Ketan, and his entrepreneurial dream, I must say (1) passion, (2) dream & (3) risk taking ability coupled with (4) fund raising capacity are the few of the  foremost qualities one (Start up entrepreneurs)  must have.  Dream of achieving something unthinkable, unbelieveable. Many people get (final) kick when someone challenges  them, Ketan is one of them. ("U cant do" so i will do). I have also seen that as an entrepreneurs one must be able to (5) take timely judgement when to withdraw when someting is not working.

With him , I was a co founder of taxsmile.com & other ventures thereafter . Many a times we had contarion views on some matters & also had unpleasant arguments. However test of the true entrepreneur is his (6) ability to  keep people around him who can challenge his thinking (Not only YES men).  All these arguments always lead us to objectivity in the situation and refinement of thoughts.  Many may not be aware that start up goes back to drawing board N number of times before their endeavour touches the market.

One suggestion: Go for something outstanding and unprecedented in the world. Be known for SOMETHING or ANYTHING even if that means lower profit.Make FANS not only customers.

Its a game of high passion and  patience !!!

Its not FACTs but E-FACT that matters

In Mumbai Suburban Railway some times people having ticket of 2nd class travels by 1st class. In similar one such instance a commuter appears to be of  2nd class commuter was boarding the train. While he was boarding 1st class compartment cpl of commuters informed that this is first class compartment so don't board.  He didn't pay heed and entered the compartment.  Then one of the commuters told him that if the ticket checker comes and he is found with 2nd class ticket he will be fined Rs.500/-. Immediately without thinking for a second he got down of the compartment. 

Fact : 1st Class Compartment E-Fact (effect): Rs.500/- penalty

Yes stating fact is just a statistics. 

Toothpaste with Salt or Clove or LED TV or 200 CC Bike or Al Queda is a Terrorist organisation - but so what? How does it matters to me??

Mere statistics may not move people to take action. If you wants action,  talk abt the impact of the facts or non action on the person. Communication be it advertising or marketing or any such personal persuasion should have this in it to be E-Fact-ive !!!

6 Ways Individuals Can leverage Social Media (professionally)

1) Have Blog  - Share yr thoughts on the subject of yr expertise or work place experience/stories.(Half of the net users read some or the other blogs atleast monthly) (This blog got readers from more than 25 countries in less than 6 months)

2) Have Blog - Writing for Blog will make U a good observer and thinker. This way U will be a better person over all.(Extra Advantages - language & writing skills improvements)

3) Have Face Book Page -  This will help U connect with yr friends and family members.  Share yr online knowledge or gain from their knowledge. Its knowledge distribution everywhere. Either gain or share. Its win win.  (1 out of every 8 Minutes online is spent on FB)

a) Have Linked In Profile - This is a must. Most (Well many and many more to catch up) employers are now hiring after viewing profile here. One can do own branding here. Write & Get Recommendations. Its abt BRAND U.

b) Have Twitter Profile -   Here follow some of yr role models and someone u want to get in touch with. Reply their interesting twits and get noticed. This was not possible at all otherwise.( 90 mn  twits per day )

c) Post Reviews & Comments - Post product and services reviews you have experienced.  Its a gre8 utility in the world bombarded by push advertising. (78% net users do their product research online, 24% of adults have posted comments and reviews online)

Next time why businesses MUST use social media to get more business and enhance customer experience. See u Soon.

How to WOW !!!

Inviting tips , ideas & stories for my book How to Wow !!!!. 

Its abt wowing yr audience as an individual or as a company. Tips, real life stories and more such stories r welcome. 

Participants will receive free ecopy with due credit if story find place in the book. 

5 ways to Rejuvenate Your Brand ( U and Brand U represent )

Past Experience sometimes is the biggest hurdle. It CONDITIONS our mind. Previous patterns determine our future actions. Life is an explorations and conditioned mind cant explore but just follow the trend. This applies to individuals and enterprises equally.

Therefore to unCONDITION our mind we need to be alert of our thoughts & actions.  Out of the Box or Lateral Thinking is all about this. Everyone be it individual or company becomes prisoner of this "following the pattern" habit. This is how we become stale after sometime.

Challenge is to get out of this and rejuvenate our thoughts on an ongoing basis:

5) Do something non routine daily.(take new route to office or home, buy  non regular magazine, go to movie with not so good review, watch channel not viewed regularly, offer peak season discount on products and services, pay yr supplier early and thank them for the support, celebrate achievement of family members of employees,  ask back office team to front end the customers,  respond to call center queries in 48 minutes instead of 48 hours, offer no question asked goods return for a day, call customer after a day of his purchase to know whether he is happy with product or service

4) Challenge Obvious Idea / Action / Interpretation. (Get feedback from suppliers, service providers, go to different restaurant, take no reason leave from the job and be with the family, have without appointments day for all patients,  go and play cricket with children on Sunday,   )

3) Think , apply your mind and look at the things in different perspective.(Talk to grieving customers or employees by calling him and giving full attention to know his perspectives)

2) For the sake of change do something differently. (Offer Lassi or lemon juice in place of routine Tea/Coffee to your customers /employees)

1) Check Business Processes more often for better customer experiences. Its a dynamic world, processes must be reviewed to achieve speed & convenience to customers.(Remove or merge processes, add delight factor in the process)

Many more such actions can be taken up routinely to un( Condition + Routine ) our mind. Daily Targets ,Quarterly Results and Annual Bonus will make it difficult to think anything other than routine but believe me thinking unroutine will improve all the three targets.

This is BRANDing in ACTION. Atrophy (Regular CONDITIONed) or Rejuvenate (Regular UNCONDITIONing). Choice of actions r clear. 

Six Questions to Awaken CUSTOMER within

As a part of my selection of case studies on customer experience & social media I request CEOs and Business Owners (or for that matter anyone interested) to share their views on following six AWAKENERs:

6) How often CUSTOMER xperience & feedback are on yr internal meeting agenda? 

Always, Sometime, seldom , never

5) Do U have someone fully end to end in charge of Customer Experience?

4) Do U believe that customer delight is core and critical to retain yr brand's competitive advantage? 

1) Do U believe in " Advertising & Marketing Messages need to line up with customer's real experiences. So first & foremost  U have to get customer xperience right. "

2) Do U have Social Media Strategy? If yes what is the core purpose? 

3) What are yr immediate plan to indulge on social media to enhance customer xperience & acquisition? & to enhance Health of the brand U represent?