Brains on Fire

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  Your customer is a privilege, not a right

  Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 11 commenting.

  

  *Photo by Alyssa via her Flickr.

  Whenever I hear  people talk about how to view and treat customers, a memory comes to mind that was burned into my head: In my first few weeks at Brains on Fire, I remember Robbin leaning back from her desk, looking at me, and almost yelling, “Eric, I’m going to scream if I hear the words ‘Cost Per Acquisition’ one more time – these are REAL PEOPLE, not just numbers!”

  I was reminded of that story the other night I went out to hear local band Andy Lehman and the Night Moves. Andy didn’t say much during the show, but the one thing he did say really caught me off-guard – and made Robbin’s words echo in my ears.

  “I think a lot of bands have it backwards these days – somehow they get to a place where they think that the audience should thank them for playing. Well, it’s the other way around. I want you to know that it’s a privilege for me to be here – for you to take time out of your night to come and hear us play a few songs, and we’d be honored if you joined us on our journey.”

  Andy didn’t look at the crowd and calculate his estimated takeaway in CD sales – he looked at the crowd and saw real people who were there to hear good music – people he could inspire. And he thanked them for giving him that opportunity.

  No matter how great or unique you think your agency, company or product is, it is still a privilege to serve the customer who has chosen you out of a sea of unlimited choices and given you the opportunity to rock their world. And the opportunity to rock your customer’s world should never go to waste.

  Tags: Andy Lehman, concert, Customer, music, people, privilege, rights, sales
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  What are you trying to do?

  Posted on January 27th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 4 commenting.

  
  Photo via Eric Dodds, aka doddfather, doddsie and all around freaking amazing guy

  I had an ah-ha moment today.

  I like to think of myself as someone who sees the bright spots (to borrow a phrase from the Heath Brothers). But today I had a conversation and in the middle of my sentence, it struck me.

  My words were falling on dead ears. And in some ways that makes them sort of negative. Empty. Make sense?

  I was trying to get this person to see MY point of view. Instead of inspiring them with a new thought – a new vision. I wasn’t trying to share with this person or even find the common ground, but persuade or push them over to my point of view.

  I had to stop myself from smiling as I realized how pointless my words were. Even if I were to talk this person over to my way of thinking, he would not own that view for very long. Nothing would really be accomplished at all. It would a temporary win.

  And that got me thinking about the work we do as marketers. So many of us are still trying to persuade others to join us or buy our products and services.

  See things our way.

  Instead of inspiring and supporting and lifting up the conversations that are real and shared and true.

  I believe we are all looking for the higher purpose in the work we do. We are looking for emotional connections to others and the mark we make on the world. And that means putting yourself as a person and a company — out there. Flying your passion flag. Letting your spirit show.

  Cordell said in a meeting today. I hate the word “tagline”.

  Amen.

  Think about it, what a silly little word. What if instead of spending so much time looking for your company’s “tagline” or “slogan”, you ask yourself “What five things do we know to be true? What do we stand for? How can we make our customer’s world a bit better?”

  Are you a company that inspires and makes emotional connections with your employees and customers or company that is still trying to persuade?

  Tags: branding, Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Identity
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  Why do we take ourselves so seriously?

  Posted on January 26th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 12 commenting.

  

  I love this TED video from Tim Brown at IDEO. I seriously have a business crush on the man.

  After Tim asks his audience to sketch their neighbor in thirty seconds (geez, I wish I had thought of that one) he realizes that upon revealing their neighbor’s pictures in this group of adults there’s a lot of “I’m sorry” going around the room.

  He goes on to say that we fear the judgment of our peers. We’re embarrassed to show our ideas to our peers and this is what makes us conservative.

  Don’t you love that?

  He quotes his partner and one of the founders of IDEO, David Kelly, as saying “I set out to start a company of best friends. Friendship is a short cut to play. It allows us to trust.”

  Trust is good for a company’s soul.

  I have been thinking about that lately. Brains on Fire is a company of best friends. We love together, fight together and play together.

  But more importantly we trust each other.

  And we are lucky to work with clients who get this. I can often feel in the very first phone introduction if a company feels relaxed with each other.

  Spike and I had a call the other day and when we entered the call the tone was set as we listened to this group joke about the wii fit someone had just gotten for the holidays. They laughed when we realized they didn’t even notice we had joined the call. But no one apologized. We all just laughed. It was a nice way to start a relationship. At play. Trusting each other. No one taking themselves too seriously.

  What can you do today to help break our adult habits?

  Hmmmm….

  Tags: IDEO, TED, Tim Brown
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  The Customer is Always Right…Sometimes

  Posted on January 25th, 2010 by Spike and currently 2 commenting.

  You’ve heard the phrase. You’ve probably even said it before. But in this age of “everyone has a voice and a way to broadcast it out into the world,” is it really still true?

  Okay, okay, I know the premise of it is true. That we are supposed to go out of our way to accommodate our customers so they will have a uber-positive experience. And positive experiences get talked about. You know – word of mouth in action.

  

  image via paloaltosoftware from flickr

  BUT, people can be um, let’s say, “difficult.” And some of them just want to see who can scream the loudest. Some have ulterior motives. Some WANT to have a bad experience so it provides fodder for their blog or Twitter stream. And some you’ll never, ever please no matter what. Now that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try, it just means that there’s always going to be those handful of people out there that think they know more than you. And that’s okay.

  So back to my point: The customer is always right. But in some instances, it’s okay to tell them “no,” or at least educate them in the nicest way possible. And sometimes the only thing you can do is say, “I’m sorry, we can’t help you.” But be sure to tell them why. They might walk away (maybe even angry), but you’ll know that you did everything you could to help. If you’re really in the game to help your customers have a great experience and a better life (yes, and make some money), then when that one guy who goes online and starts to complain about you shows up, you’ll have plenty of fans come to your rescue.

  And THOSE customers – the ones that defend you – now THEY are the ones that are always right.

  Tags: blogs, complaining, customer service, customers, Internet, Social media, The customer is always right, Twitter, Word of Mouth
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  Scale.

  Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Robbin and currently 3 commenting.

  I have a friend and she’s what you’d call very “popular”. Funny, that silly word is not often used in adult life is it? We substitute “charismatic” most of time. Much more grown up.

  Anyway. She’s a people butterfly. She loves people and people love her. No question about it. I love being with her and so do hundreds of others that call her a friend. But she shared with me one day recently that she was determined to spend more time with her “top ten”. The people she really loves and can count on. She told me that trying to stay close to so many friends is just well… exhausting and bit pointless.

  Which brings me back to scale. I read Scott Monty’s 2010 Social Media predictions and I love this one in particular:

  There’s Power in (Smaller) Numbers.

  Spot on, Scott.

  To pull a couple of sentences from Scott:

  People still trust people like themselves; but the ones they know best are the ones they’re most likely to trust. Therefore, it will be the people in their close networks – particularly from a geographic perspective – that will remain the closest.

  Read more: http://www.scottmonty.com/#ixzz0dHREC6UM

  It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. I hope Scott’s post gives some big brand point of view and validity to what we have been preaching for years now. At the risk of sounding like a douchebag, it is about the people. About real people engaging with your brand both online and offline.

  It is not about 1 million facebook fans. I am predicting it never will be.

  Tags: FORD, Scott Monty, Social Media Douchebag