Mandle Medley

Why Low Tech Technique Can Mean High End Customer Service

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:25:42 -0600

According to the Post-2010 Holiday Learnings for 2011 report published late last winter by Google and OTX, more than half of consumers last year shopped after the Christmas holiday. The 55% who said they went shopping after December 25 was higher than the same population after the 2009 holiday season.

So retailers have been preparing for an even greater rush of foot traffic now that we’re in the 2011 post-holiday season. And newscasts abound with reports of massive discounting—50%, 60% and even 70% off—by some major brands.

But it’s a wise store manager who puts just as much thought into what the customer experience in store might be like as he/she puts in to how they might lure traffic to those stores.

I didn’t need yet another reason to love the REI brand, but the clear signage they posted yesterday for the after-the-holidays rush was brilliant.

It didn’t matter that the directional cues to the customer service desk were as low-tech as they could get—masking tape, paper print-outs and blue highlighter.

Instead what mattered was that the staff was willing to minimize risk of me meandering through the store in favor of getting me as quickly as possible to a service desk. By not meandering, I was less likely to run in to something I might have wanted to purchase; clearly not in REI’s favor. But by not meandering, I saved time and didn’t get frustrated by the crowds. And doesn’t a happy shopper tend to shop?

Ever notice how some brands are really in love with themselves?...

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:32:04 -0600

Ever notice how some brands are really in love with themselves? (Taken with instagram)

Watching Les Misérables and Peter Jackson

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:50:05 -0600

For years, Broadway’s Les Misérables has been a performance I overlooked in favor of other classics like Phantom of the Opera or modern epics like The Who’s Tommy. If musicals were even on the docket to begin with. I usually prefer spoken theater to the singing variety.

Last weekend Catherine and I both finally saw what all the ruckus has been about over the past 25 years. It was amazing.

Not just a story about the destitute, as I had supposed given some of the promotional photography.

Not at all about the French Revolution, although social upheaval and the political and militaristic implications of the lower class are integral to the plot.

And yes, despite the title this was all in English!

What has stayed with me the most, though, is the music. Powerful trumpets. Choral bass. Harpsichords. And that recognizable medieval flute instrument.

The performance jumps right in to the music from the get-go. I don’t even remember the House blinking the lights to warn us to our seats. Everything went dark and BOOM! we were on our way.

And that’s where Peter Jackson comes in. Listen to the director’s voice-over for The Fellowship of the Ring, and you hear the fantasy film director explain why he always starts his movies off with such a bang.

It’s like a form of whiplash to be sitting in your seat before the movie starts, thinking about that meeting you had at 1:00, or the breakfast you’re planning for your family tomorrow—and then suddenly getting whisked away to a battle of orcs and the union of elves and men.

Or, in the case of Les Misérables, under the deck of a mid 19th Century French warship suffering with imprisoned men paddling a boat forward.

2011 Over At Wordpress

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:29:10 -0600

Still blogging one year later. Mostly happy with Wordpress except for recent hassles with mobile updates there.

Latest post: http://dmandle.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/marketing-the-hell-out-of-ice-dams/.

Change Of Address

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:38:00 -0600

You’ll notice a sparsity of posts here at http://danmandle.tumblr.com/ not too long after I started my personal quest.

I LOVE the easy functionality of tumblr, for the few hours I spent with it [so far] in 2010. Especially given a personal goal of mine this year, I LOVE that tumblr permits Google Analytics reporting.

But it’s just not cool that “outsiders” aren’t allowed to leave comments on their posts. And, frankly, as cool as it is to “personalize” my blog with tumblr templates, they have left me wanting. (Explain again why embedded photos aren’t showing up on certain browsers?)

So, I packed up my bags and headed over to http://dmandle.wordpress.com/. Hopefully I’ll stay there longer than I did here. Maybe not, and I’ll end up at http://danmandle.posterous.com/ or http://danmandle.blogspot.com/. We’ll see. But this was all part of the experiment too, I suppose.

Onwards!

Flu Video

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:39:48 -0600

Flu Video:

With some sort of stomach bug or virus having just gone through all but one of my family, this PSA from Twin Cities ad agency Martin|Williams is top of mind right now. Along with a lot of soap.

It’s fun to think that snow can be enjoyed indoors.

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:59:43 -0600

It’s fun to think that snow can be enjoyed indoors.

"Dragons don’t eat goblins because scary monsters don’t eat other scary monsters."

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:56:53 -0600

“Dragons don’t eat goblins because scary monsters don’t eat other scary monsters.”

- Almost 4-year-old son after reading some Hobbit.

Syfy Rebranding From Sci Fi Leaves NBC Smiling (From Advertising Age)

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:20:15 -0600

Syfy Rebranding From Sci Fi Leaves NBC Smiling (From Advertising Age):

I wasn’t a fan of the rebranding, so I guess I have to wipe some egg off my face. But I still do wonder how much of the audience figures have to do with quality programming (i.e., product updates) as opposed to the channel’s new name (i.e., rebranding).

Tax Time Upon Us Again

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:35:00 -0600

Seems like there wasn’t a day went by in December where an advertising or digital media publication didn’t have an article in it that had something to do with social media. I was tapped out on those before the 15th even. So I opened my daily Ad Age eNewsletter today with some trepidation. But the social media article, about H&R Block’s continued use of social media this tax season, was awesome.

H&R Block is doing a few things with their “Best of Both” campaign that bear call-out. Since I didn’t see these included in the comments to the article itself, I’ll do it here:

By providing assistance online to those Americans filling out their taxes at home, H&R Block not only undercuts the services offered by its bricks-and-mortar locations—as indicated in the article—but its new “H&R Block At Home” software is similarly impacted as well. However, H&R Block isn’t just selling locations or software packages. It’s selling expertise. A “good” that knows no boundaries or traditional distribution funnels.
By training its online “Tax Advisor” force from within—1% of the company’s 100,000 employees were selected and “social media trained” for this role—H&R Block is utilizing the digital channel not so much as a marketing communications channel, but as a customer service channel. That’s a great example of how a company needs to embrace social media in order to truly practice it.
By focusing on what H&R Block does best—providing tax advice and preparing returns—the company is adjusting the social media programs it has run in the past (e.g., trying too hard to entertain). There’s a great (and short!) deck on that available from Slideshare, as presented by H&R Block’s vice-president of marketing, Paula Drum.

My family TurboTaxed last year. That might change in 2010.

What year is this?

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:00:00 -0600

Two thousand ten. Twenty ten. Two different ways to say the same thing for the next 363 days — and more, I suppose, until we get to 2100. When I was in elementary school we always played word games with how “the people of the future” would say the year once we reached this critical juncture in 2010. Now that we’re here, it isn’t so much of a game.

As reported by the New York Times back in November, the decision about how to say the year can carry big repercussions for marketers — in this particular case, car manufacturers. Go with “twenty ten” and you’re too ordinary. Stick with the past decade’s phraseology (i.e., two thousand ten) and you’re formal and sophisticated. After spending so much effort on TV, print, and online ad production budgets — let alone development of the cars themselves — it’s a big deal to go ordinary when you should be extraordinary. And vice-versa.

In a radio show on KLBB AM 1220 yesterday with @karinhousley, @sarahjaneml offered up yet another option: 2K10 (two kay ten). Maybe for the next Scion or youth auto models?

As for me? I’m not yet committed, but might just stick with “two thousand ten.” I like the connection to the past decade. And some don’t consider the “aughts” finished until after the tenth unit (2010) is through anyway.

New Year's News

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:49:00 -0600

With a new year — and a new decade — companies have just as much opportunities as individuals to make improvements. The first one I’ve seen right out of the gate is USA Today, who emailed me this morning with news that their home page had been completely redesigned. What struck me more than the redesign itself was how it was positioned in their announcement email:

“By listening to feedback, watching users engage with our site, and analyzing usage patterns, we are improving our home page to better serve you, our readers.”

Sounds like a sentence right out of a social media marketing textbook — dialogue, flexibility and ever-ready updates are all part of how the technology is changing how companies interact with their target audience(s).

Here’s the thing: I’m not a USA Today subscriber. I tend to think their reportage is too short and subject matter oversimplified. That’s a problem with their product. But by letting me know their home page opens 25-35% faster than it used to, they are giving themselves yet another notch on their belt in the competition against, for instance, the home page of local rag Star Tribune — notoriously slow (and cluttered, for that matter). Another notch, you ask? What might USA Today already have done that piqued my interest? Well, it’s about social media again: their iPhone app rocks! They make it incredibly easy to download stories, review and share. The formal write-upfrom Mac World is here if you’re interested.

But the bottom line is that if USA Today says they are watching users engage, analyzing their behavior patterns, and listening to feedback in order to improve their product, then I believe them. And applaud.

2010 - The Year I Will tumbl

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:04:00 -0600

Folks who know me closely enough know that I’m a big science fiction fan. Asimov, Bova, Bradbury and Simak are just a few of the authors who have rocked—and continue to rock—my ~~world~~ worlds. (Hey, we’re talking sci fi. Remember?) A major title on my virtual bookshelf is Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two. Hollywood’s movie version from 1984 included the promotional subtitle “The Year We Make Contact.”

I thought about that subtitle a lot during the waning weeks of 2009, the first full year that saw me connecting with others - friends, family, coworkers, and complete strangers - online on Twitter and Facebook.

What might I do differently in 2010 to make contact?

When a coworker and I struck up a conversation about Groundswell the last week before the Holidays, I thought a bit about the Social Technographics Profile introduced in the book. I’ve been among the 24% of online US adults who it profiled as “creators” only if one counts Twitter’s microblogging functionality. If microblogging doesn’t count, I’m lumped in amongst the spectators and critics. Not the best way to make contact in 2010.

So we’ll give this a try. More to come as 2010 gets underway.