Two Cents by Parissa Behnia

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Romper Room and Customer Experience

I was procrastinating one morning earlier this month which involved some twitter banter (twinter?) with @ty_sullivan and @MeghanMBiro. It was loads of fun figuring out what our fan club names would be... Mine was Behnia Mania and I decided that Meghan's was Biro's Heroes. Her response (wish I could remember it) prompted this tweet back from me:

@MeghanMBiro Heh... that just reminded me of Romper Room. Always wondered why she never said "I see Parissa" lol #usguys.

We then both lol'd a few times more and went on to more serious pursuits. Shortly thereafter, I received this lovely tweet from @missmollynj, the last Romper Room Host:

@parissab Romper Stomper Bomper Boo tell me tell me do Magic Mirror tell me today did all my friends have fun at play? I see Parissa!

Friends, I just about passed out with joy when I saw this tweet. When I was little, I was glued to the television during Romper Room with Miss Sally. I played along at home in all of the games and lessons. And I wanted in. I wanted to be there. I wanted to be acknowledged. And, as a kid, I never quite understood why Miss Sally never said "I see Parissa!"

If you've not seen Romper Room or can't remember the Magic Mirror, here's a sample clip from my adored Miss Sally remote from Sea World! The first 26 seconds will do the trick:

No, I'm not insane.

In case you're wondering if I'm the only one who felt left out, a quick trip to Miss Molly's site and a viewing of this Miss Barbara clip will show you that I'm not alone.

We want to be seen and heard.

In this post, I talked to you about some thoughts I thanks to a great #cxo chat. Yesterday's chat about customer feedback also gave me some food for thought. We talked about how as a company, you receive feedback, how you gauge feedback, how you act on feedback with many of the answers including vast complex decision science type of stuff.

Being seen and heard is more than just getting a slot in a decision management tree (though I love them). It's the attention, the acknowledgement, the validation and the respect from others. It's letting your customer know they are appreciated no matter how large or small their size of business is with us. This is our obligation to them once we offer and they accept our services.

Be careful.

It's the offering of your services in the first place that's tricky and not to be taken lightly. Be careful to whom you extend this offer and be realistic about your capabilities to follow through and acknowledge their needs. This means that qualifying yourself as a service provider is a huge first step in maximizing your relationships with your customers. Like being a Romper Room teacher, it's a huge responsibility.

Thoughts? Please share below and if you've liked this post, please share with others.

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Do You Have Business Cataracts?

So, yeah, I have cataracts in both eyes. It's true. I am technically "young" (ehem!) though we won't discuss my chemical enhanced hair color. Close friends have known about this for a while but now it's gotten to the point where I have to deal with it e.g., routine outplacement surgery. This was confirmed today.

When I was first diagnosed a few years ago, I chose to live with it because, at the time, all it meant was being careful about eye strain and wearing glasses as needed. As time passed, I stopped driving at night, my depth perception got all crazy, I couldn't recognize people that I know (some were offended), I spilled things, I bumped into things, my eyes grew tired quickly, I got more migraines... Clearly, these glasses were doing nothing for me.

Quality of Life.

So, why am I talking about this? My qualify of life (#firstworldproblem) has been affected considerably and it occurred to me as I was leaving hospital today (Hi Dr. Feder!) that as business owners, executives, managers or what have you, we deal with this on a daily basis. We accept sub optimal conditions and say we'll "deal with it" because we'd rather not undertake the time, effort, energy, resources, etc., to address a situation properly.

Oh, sure. We all have to prioritize issues that come our way just like I relied on my glasses for a while. We can't assign equal weight to all conditions in our business lives because nothing would ever get done. There's a certain amount of "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" (especially in startups) and we make resource optimization judgements all the time. There comes a point though, that we may be promising too much payment in future for the proverbial hamburger today which adversely affects our business quality of life.

Do you have business cataracts?

There's a danger in promising too much future payment because we're not seeing the situation clearly, or what I'm calling business cataracts. It takes a certain Business EQ to know that we've hit a negative inflection point in our business quality of life and to understand its impact on our operations, staff, revenues, customers, etc.

What are examples of business cataracts that could have bad results? Here are a few nuggets to chew on:

"You don't call, you don't write..." - In this example, not enough time is spent doing a temperature check with current customers. Many think that as long as customers are ordering, all must be well so no need to (re)visit customer retention strategies at this time. If we don't check in from time to time, we miss either incremental revenue opportunities or, worse, signs of switching to a competitor.
"Gee, this sofa is really comfy." - Let's face it, sometimes we are new business couch potatoes and we don't like to push ourselves. It's easier to fall back on the tried and true instead of finding new channels, new customers or new revenue streams from existing customers. The danger is that at some point, we've exhausted all of our opportunities if we limit ourselves too much.
"We're only human." - A lackadaisical take on errors, especially errors that seem to repeat themselves with no correction, revised procedure, etc., is like opening the door and kicking your customers out of your business house. It will eventually catch up to you if you prefer a band-aid style approach instead of expending resources to fix something.

Get a new lens.

What to do when you have real or business cataracts? You get a new lens to clear up your vision and take a look at things as they really are. Which reminds me, I need to get that procedure scheduled. In the meantime, please comment below and share with your friends.

Parissa Behnia
Idea Chef

678Partners@gmail.com
678Partners.com
LinkedIn
Twitter

Friday, May 27, 2011

@garyvee and Vindaloo

If you're from Chicago or have any family/friends who live here, you know that our Spring has been damp and cold with spots of intermittent teasing hours of warmth. So, I'm sure you can appreciate that occasionally we feel lazy and have a hankering for stick to your ribs food to keep us warm... And sometimes that means we order Indian food for delivery!

Aside from the requisite samosa, Amir has a love for particularly spicy chicken vindaloo. He finds it hard to resist its dulcet tones when it calls his name. He heeds the call each and every time. And, while there are many great places in town to order vindaloo, there's one place that seems to get his vote.

What's the problem?

Well, to order from them requires no small effort. You can't go to their website, you have to go to another site that specializes in deliveries. Due to poor site design, it takes a while to get to the restaurant you actually want. And then, it takes a few more minutes to locate the items you wish to order because the item numbers from the actual restaurant's menu on the restaurant's site are different from the numbers on the delivery service's site.

Calling in the order to the separate delivery service is no better -- if you give the restaurant's item number they ask you to go to the delivery site for their item number. If you don't have the delivery service hard copy menu with you, you're directed to the site with the similar challenges of finding the restaurant and correct item numbers. If you don't have access to either, well, you may have a problem on your hands.

Oh, and did I mention that delivery takes anywhere from 75 to 90 minutes?

And yet we still order food (albeit indirectly) and still go there when we don't feel like staying in. Sure, it'd be easy to go somewhere else because, after all, it's just vindaloo.

But it's not just vindaloo. It's the favorite vindaloo. I can't help but think that if it were easier, cheaper, faster, better, etc., to order it, then we'd be doing a lot more of it and we'd be shouting it from the rooftops. Right now, it's too much of a chore to enjoy it (which I know to be a #firstworldproblem) to do anything more than eat it because it tastes good.

The wine guy is right. What if vindaloo emotionally connected with us?

On twitter, a friend (Hi Chris!) shared this video of Gary Vaynerchuk. Please have a look:

Truly, what would happen if ordering vindaloo were a bit easier? What would happen if instead of us exerting effort to give someone business that it would be someone else exerting effort to make it easier for us? What if they were to be more like @garyvee and give and give and give without expecting anything in return? What if they were to thank me for my effort in special (not necessarily over the top ways)? It's simple: we'd order more vindaloo. And tell our friends to try some, too.

The jig is up.

Clearly, this is more than just vindaloo. It's about value. What is business' view on valuing customer relationships beyond requisite (social) CRM and other loyalty devices? Frankly, those activities are "keeping the lights on" these days.

Truly, how much does business value "halo effect" when it comes to how it chooses to relate to its customers either directly or, in vindaloo's case, through a separate entity? Does it take steps to create tangible as well as intangible connections with customers and prospects?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you think your colleagues/friends would have something to add here, please share this post with them. And thank you.

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

1 Is The Loneliest Number

As you read in my last post, I spent a glorious three days last week at #unGeeked. If you've never been to one, I recommend that you go -- not only for the discussions but the friends that I know you will make. There were a bunch of great sessions about storytelling, branding (personal or otherwise), content, community, trust and a whole lot more.

Since then, I've been absorbing everything I heard. And today, I read this interesting post by Sam Fiorella which has helped to crystallize my thoughts further. I don't want to do his writing disservice but net net the post is about the foundations of consumer trust in this new social economy. I recommend reading it if you've a moment.

All of us like, share, stumble, tag, broadcast, podcast, post, tell stories and do a lot of other attention seeking things that tell a lot of people that we are individually active, like to engage and are eager to always. add. value. where. possible. In other words, There's no time to hear what you think of me because I'm too busy telling you what you should think of me. This is not only true of individuals but organizations as well. It is a one sided conversation.

Sharing is caring but it is not connecting.

In Sam's post, he suggests four things to build trust with customers: a compelling value proposition, relationship building, establishing transparency and demonstrating vulnerability. And he's spot on with all of them. He goes on to conclude that it's not that businesses earn trust so much as customers decide to grant it to them. He's right and yet I would go a bit further.

I would like to add the consumers decide to grant trust because they feel a connection to the businesses trying to serve them. This can be through one or all of the product, customer service, shared values, quality, etc. Some may say it's semantics but connecting is something I think none of us are doing enough of (or well) these days with some notable exceptions like My Starbucks Idea.

I'll admit to being a little old school. I believe in using every social platform as a filtering device as opposed to an amassing device. That whole Dunbar's Number thing makes sense to me along with a dash of Pareto. I still like in person meetings if only for 30 minutes or so. I don't seek an astronomical number of LinkedIn connections. And, while my ego would love a bajillion Twitter followers, ultimately, it's just not how I roll. And I'm okay with that.

Consequently, I worry that some people confuse "content" or "experience" with connection. They are not the same things. They don't even live on the same street. My focus group of one opinion is that these words are said and written too much. And now, they have kind of lost their meaning.

Content isn't just some romance copy that fills an empty space.

It's meant to be the start of a connection between two parties. It's an appetizer, it's a teaser and it's a promise of things to come if the customer decides to listen on the path to ultimately granting trust. And so, the beginning of the connection should be nurtured and protected not unlike an infant.

So as all of us like, share, stumble, tag, broadcast, podcast, post, tell stories and do a lot of other attention seeking things that tell a lot of people that we are individually active, let's also remember that it's not always meant to be a one to many. A one to one is perfectly fine too. It just shouldn't be one.

I'd love your thoughts on here as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or (dare I say it) in person. Please also share this with your friends if you'd like to do so.

Parissa Behnia
Idea Chef

678Partners@gmail.com
678Partners.com
LinkedIn
Twitter

Sunday, May 15, 2011

A Trip to Sesame Street...

Here's a funny little video that a friend posted on Facebook recently:

I'll share with you that I've must have watched this easily a dozen times. I love it for its humor, its irreverence and its ability to engage multiple audiences all at the same time. While I was pondering all of the lovely ways this video is so great, this tweet flew by from @AlanSee which crystallized my thoughts:

"What is our business? Who is the customer? What does the customer value? - Peter Drucker"

And, in a moment, I became inspired to write about Sesame Street. Like many of you, I watched many an episode while growing up. I loved all of the characters (real and muppet) and felt like I had a relationship with them. I felt like the screen was a mere detail. I was "in it" and captive. I felt like I was part of the neighborhood.

Sesame Street knows its customer.

Their customers are the adults who enjoyed the celebrity appearances then (Lena Horne, anyone?) and the adults who are about to have kids or who have kids now that remember the magic then but can enjoy it still (Old Spice parody). They still feel like they are part of the neighborhood - but just maybe in a different house.

Skeptical? As an adult, I've made many references to Sesame Street; if I've finally met someone after only hearing about them, I'll make a Snuffleupagus reference (Big Bird's formerly invisible friend). And, I'm not the only adult who can make those references. A new friend mentioned on Facebook that he was taking his kids to Sesame Street Live and another new friend posted "Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street." Yesterday, this was the back and forth:

HandCraftedJava Sean Hand

@CKConcept @parissab Why yes I can! http://maps.google.com/(Enter Sesame St. Bensenville, IL 60131)

14 May

CKConcept Casey M. Karl

@HandCraftedJava @parissab Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? http://yfrog.com/h8g0faqj

14 May

HandCraftedJava Sean Hand

@parissab I FOUND IT!!! Hanging out on Sesame Street today. COOKIES!!!!!

It pays to know what your customer values.

I know what you may be thinking. You may be thinking that Sesame Street is a rather poor example because it's on public television. Well, during a session on Cause Marketing at #unGeeked Chicago, Sima Dahl mentioned donating to PBS because she thinks Sesame Street is important. That was her only reason. She can't be the only person to have that level of passion and commitment to Sesame Street.

It pays to have share of pop culture. Sesame Street is successful because it still wants us as part of the neighborhood - even if we haven't tuned into an episode for years. It remembers us and delivers things to us that reinforce the connection. They have always been masters of word of mouth and viral marketing... way before those things had names, shapes and thought leaders imploring us to consider them as strategic tools.

What's your take on Sesame Street? I'd like to hear what you have to say. And, if you have Sesame Street fans in your circle, please share with them. I'd love to hear their two cents as well.

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Contextual Intercourse

This video has been getting posted amongst my Facebook friends lately... Please have a look:

Powerful, no? Compelling, no? It kind of makes you wonder about how you could be framing things in a more impactful or easy to understand way using the notion of context as your guide. And, if you're like me, maybe you're also going through the annals of "I could have done that better" because that's what aspirational perfectionists do.

(Really, why rest on your laurels of a job well done when you can find the .05% that could have been better? I kid. Sort of.)

False Advertising.

I'll admit that I chose today's post title before writing a single word. It was meant to intrigue, titillate and perhaps put thoughts into your head based on a snap judgement only to learn that I mean to discuss something else. If it worked, great, and thanks for humoring me! If it didn't work, please humor me and pretend it did anyway.

I've said many a time before that first impressions matter because we don't often get a second chance to make one. I still stand behind those words but this video, seeing Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy and a couple of different online conversations have me thinking about context and what it means in the grand scheme of things.

Limp Handshakes Mean Nothing.

There was a great chat earlier this week on Twitter about networking with a sidebar conversation about the impact of a weak handshake. There was a question on Facebook on the impression you have of someone with a weak handshake. For the most part, the impressions were negative. As the recipient of many a weak shake, I was sympathetic.

But lately, thanks to the movie and now this video, I've been thinking about context. So in answer to the Facebook query and the chatter, I wrote something like, "It just means they have a weak handshake. I have no impression." Why did I say that? This is a contextual problem. The weak handshake could be because:

They have a cultural reason.
They are coming off a sprain/break and are treating the wrist with care.
They hate shaking hands.
They have a thing about germs generally.
They just coughed or sneezed into their hands and don't know how to remove themselves from shaking yours.... things moved too quickly to come up with something.
Similarly, you just coughed or sneezed into your hands.
[Insert your favorite reason here]

In other words, there are so many variables and/or reasons why things are the way they are. By just quickly looking at the surface of something and rushing to judgement, we miss so very much.

So what are the implications here? As a seller of a product or service, it becomes that much more critical for us to do more than just have the facts and figures of our personas down pat. The onus is on us to create and act on their personas in their context in the best way we can... just as the woman in the video put the blind man's message in context of others' vistas (pun intended).

What say you? Please comment below and share this post with others so they can see how smart and cogently written your comment is!

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

You Like Me... You Really Like Me!

Okay, so that's not what Sally Field said when she accepted her Oscar in 1985. Here's what she actually did say:

"...I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"

Where is this walk down memory lane coming from? Well, I'm still musing on my last post. Particularly, I am reflecting on how I can be doing a better job to make others my focus as opposed to making my needs my focus. My mantra lately is:

"My interest is your best interest."

In other words, in a cheesy kind of way, I want people to say what Sally Field said long ago when they interact with me. It sounds easy conceptually but it's actually not easy to retrain ourselves to net that result. And the reason is that it requires a certain belief that you reside in a virtuous karmic circle: whatever you provide to others will ultimately be repaid to you. And, it also requires that you hone your skills to identify better those people who can live in that circle with you. Not all people are both givers and takers... A lot are just takers.

Whatever, dude.

Concepts are pretty... They're occasionally even amusing or thought provoking over your favorite beverage. But, they can also be hard to grasp and implement unless we see them in real life... So, what to do in this case? I was just thinking that yesterday when, fortuitously, the universe delivered unto me yet ANOTHER tweet but this time from @SouthwestAir:

"Do you prefer honey roasted peanuts or dry roast peanuts when flying Southwest?"

To which I very quickly replied:

"I do enjoy the honey roasted peanuts! thank you for asking!"

At that moment in time, I felt like Southwest was talking to ME and ME only! They wanted to know if I had a preference which is not often experienced when we travel by plane these days. I felt special. I felt wanted. I felt liked. I may have even harbored warm fuzzies for Southwest. I felt like Sally Field.

Um. Here's where I harbor some human contradiction.

As you know, I wrote this post last month about how I got all excited for in flight wifi courtesy of Southwest that never came to fruition. I felt disappointed and, well, a hair betrayed even.

Do you know that I totally forgot about that post in my excitement over thinking that they cared about what peanuts I like? Yes, friends, something as small as a tiny bag of peanuts completely threw out of my mind an actual customer experience issue I had in real time. And, also, made me forget that tiny crack in the fuselage problem, too! Something as small as a tweet that asked about ME did all of this.

For a moment.

And then I smiled. I realized that one small question that had nothing to do with where Southwest flies, free checked bags, quality of service, etc., made me deepen an emotional tie that I already had with them. That small little tweet about peanuts embodies this:

"My interest is your best interest."

What better practical example exists than a question about peanuts to demonstrate why this mantra is effective? Perhaps more importantly, this practical example shows that the mantra does not have to be reserved for grand gestures only. These little details, these surprise and delight moments matter to people. They feel special, they feel valued and they feel distinctive. And it's what we should be working towards all the time.

What say you? Please comment below and share this with others!

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Two Months or Two Years

"You make more friends in 2 mo's by becoming interested in other people than in 2 yrs trying to get them interested in you. - Dale Carnegie" -- @JeffreyHayzlett

On April 2, my most righteous co organizers and I hosted ProductCamp Chicago at Orbitz. It was well attended by a whole bunch of engaging and engaged Product Managers and Marketers with a great keynote by Ross Kimbarovsky, co founder of Crowdspring. I was lucky enough to have my topic "How to Win the Hearts and Minds of Decision Makers" voted into a presentation slot -- a tremendous honor!

And yet, procrastination and a little bit of anxiety got in the way so I turned to Twitter for some assistance and I was not disappointed! Right when I went to Tweetdeck, that lovely tweet quoting Dale Carnegie flew by. Whew! Thanks, Jeffrey Hayzlett!

We spend a lot of time convincing people every day to buy our services, hire us outright, buy our products, buy our client's products, not buy our competitor's products, not buy our client's competitor's products, etc. It's a never ending odyssey of facts, figures, illustrations. Some even believe that overwhelming people with information will get them to cry out for only the help that we can provide... not unlike a lifeline from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

We've got it wrong.

I submit to you that it's a recipe for tepid short term success and, come to think of it, tepid long term success with a healthy dose of frustration to boot. Oh sure, what we say matters. What I'm suggesting is that how we say it and to whom we say what we say differs by time of day, where we are in the sales cycle, where we are with internal projects that need cross functional support, to which business function we're presenting, etc. We keep making the same sales presentation without bothering to think who might be in the audience and what specific things may be hot buttons for them. We're selfish.

And what do people say when we make our typical self interested pitches? It's often things like:

"Thanks, I'll think it over."
"Gosh, I'd love to meet with you but I'm tied up the next four weeks. I'll call you then."
"We've had to put that project on hold for a while."

At 678 Partners, we often say that we treat every business situation like a fingerprint -- no two are alike. And it's because each person has his or her own emotional lens through which the business issue is viewed. At the core of it, our positive and not so positive emotional drivers are the ones that make us gravitate one way or the other. Our decisions are often ostensibly based on discrete facts and figures but if we peel back the layers enough, we see that how we feel about something or someone plays the largest role in how we make decisions.

It's not that our emotions justify the rational decisions (discrete facts and figures) we make. It's that our emotions color how we value discrete facts and figures and then drive what we buy.

Let's use the iPhone as an example. Verizon's announcement that it would start selling the iPhone probably caused ATT no small amount of worry. ATT's differentiator is that with its iPhone, you can talk and surf at the same time unlike Verizon. By telling it to you straight (discrete fact) just as I am here, the best reaction one could hope for is a shrug and maybe a yawn. But, ATT made this commercial which brings the point home in a very real and easy to relate to kind of way.

What this commercial does is transform the boring "browse and surf" feature and turns it into a life saving (and maybe relationship saving) device. We can all imagine scenarios similar to this one -- actually I was locked out recently and was able to browse and call for a locksmith at the same time. That got me out of a jam and now, I see this feature as critical and necessary as opposed to just another gizmo on this phone. And... get this... I feel that ATT is a more secure choice for me than Verizon despite the known issues with ATT. That's emotion right there.

Dale Carnegie had it exactly right. Of course, the quote was in general terms but if we think about it in the marketing and/or business development process, it 100% applies. If we just took a little bit of care to find what emotionally motivates our audience (e.g., job security, ego, financial security, image, etc.), then we will make much more headway in building a strong relationship and, ultimately, a business transaction than by just selling something on its discrete features alone.

What say you? Please give me your two cents and, if you've liked this post, please share it with others!

Parissa Behnia
Idea Chef

678Partners@gmail.com
678Partners.com
LinkedIn
Twitter

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I have 2,947.5 Reasons...

Why social media can be put to social good. That is the exact dollar amount that Amir and I raised on March 24 for the Alzheimer's Association at #Cocktails4Causes hosted at Chicago's landmark Drake Hotel.

What is it? It's a monthly event which benefits different charities. Someone volunteers the charity, to host and to be 100% on the hook for marketing the event to friends, colleagues, loved ones, etc. In turn, the hotel provides the venue, free passed appetizers and donates half of the bar tab to the charity. The tickets are free but are limited to the first 150 people to reserve. It's a great idea and kudos to Tom Martin as it is his brainchild.

Friends, in a period of 5 days, all tickets were reserved via the Eventbrite page (see our invite). The Drake generously added 25 more tickets and those were reserved quickly as well. There was also a waitlist of 50+ people. Up until the event, we were fielding numerous emails and calls from people trying to get a ticket. It was equally flattering and humbling.

How did we get so many people to sign up so quickly and to be so eager to attend? It was a four part cocktail of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. You see, but for these platforms, we would not have met many of these people at all. And, but for these platforms, we would not have been able to communicate the details of the event so quickly.

More critically and to the point, but for these platforms, these people would not have joined us to raise funds in the fight against Alzheimer's. Thanks to personal donations, the proceeds from the bar tab and a one night only SMS text donation program, we have the 2,947.5 reasons to believe social media can be used as a tool for social good, my #usguys friends.

However... Intensely social, human experiences matter.

I would like to point out is that we only learned about #Cocktails4Causes because we knew people who knew Sean McGinnis and were inspired by his wish to do good in January. Because we knew they were going to his event, we went and introduced ourselves to him. We would not have gone nor introduced ourselves had it not been for the people we knew (bonus: what a nice guy!).

I often joke that I learned about marketing during the time of the abacus. Given my "age" (ehem), I cling to the notion that it's the in person experiences which enhance what social platforms provide. As I started to write this, I remembered this post I wrote last year about scavenger hunts and marriage proposals as well as this one about food trucks. The tweet that inspired me then seems to resonate now:

"Get out of your nice comfortable office and meet with your potential customers. Use what you learn to create valuable stuff online." -- @dmscott

I'll never disagree with how disruptively wonderful these social media channels are but they mean nothing to me without a multisensory and intensely human experience to accompany them. The reason why the colleagues we've met either via social media showed up is because we previously chose to engage with them in person. And in some way, we touched them such that they chose to spend their dollars and time at this event. It would not have happened after a random follow or invitation to connect.

There's something about the texture of in person experiences that seem to make the difference. And, much like our experience in January, the people we knew brought lovely people that we were pleased to meet so the cycle continues. What makes these so powerful is the generosity of spirit and this vibrant organic energy that often accompany them.

Why wouldn't we want more of that? There's only so much you can get out of being parked in front of your laptop. There's so much that you miss. So, yes there are ways to use social media for social good.... But let's not forget the essence of social.

What say you? Please comment below and, if you've enjoyed reading this, please share with others.

Parissa Behnia
Idea Chef

678Partners@gmail.com
678Partners.com
LinkedIn
Twitter

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

1 Email's Broken Promise

What happens when you hype something up and create a ravenous appetite in your customers? They’re chomping at the bit, right? They wait in eager anticipation for that delivered good/service/X that you’ve so tantalizingly described to them and the minutes seem like hours. What happens when you don’t follow through after all that build up? Tremendous disappointment and dissatisfaction.

Last year, I wrote this post about how Southwest proudly touted their “last to market” approach to offering WiFi on their planes. As their story went, they wanted to get the mechanics and the pricing right before offering it to us, their valued customers. They were so unselfishly worried about our experience that it was best to be last but perfect. We are their loyal customers, after all.

Created Needs

When airlines started offering WiFi in planes they put structure and shape to a need that was there but not fully formed. Prior to inflight WiFi, some of us enjoyed the forced unplugging either to read a book, nap, etc. This created need is not unlike the created need for heated seats in cars, the microwave, daily trips to Starbucks, etc. Living in Chicago, I give thanks to my heated seats but it’s not like we couldn’t survive without them when they didn’t exist twenty years ago.

Because of this created need for WiFi, we look to see if the airlines we’re flying offer them… For some, it’s been sold so successfully that it’s a must have. For others like me, it’s nice but other factors influence more. And with this, airlines are feeding the need’s appetite.

Practical Experience

Case in point: as I’m writing this (though posting later), I’m sitting on a Southwest plane. Yesterday, I got an email from Southwest informing me that the plane that I am on is equipped with WiFi so I can tweet sweet nothings to you all from 30,000 feet. Prior to getting this email, I knew there was a chance that I could join the Facebook mile high club but I hadn’t given it much thought. Either way, I was going to get on this flight.

After I got the email, I have to admit weakness. It built an expectation of productivity in me: to write a post, to catch up on email, to fix up some things on the 678 Partners site, etc. I built a huge laundry list of interactive goodness in my mind. Never in my life would I be a dynamo like this morning!

As soon as we hit 10,000 feet, I was amped with delusions of Chris Brogan/Mitch Joel/Joe Jaffe like grandeur. I pulled out my trusty MacBook and searched for the connection. Nothing. Nothing again. I checked the email that I had saved and I also looked for instructions in their magazine. At last, the flight attendant did inform us that while the plane was equipped with WiFi, it was not working.

*Womp Womp*

I got a case of the sads. I felt I was so close and yet so far. I felt thwarted and frustrated. I felt unproductive and panicked at the thought of all that HAD TO BE FINISHED on the flight that now WOULD NOT BE FINISHED. The horror.

Once I took some deep cleansing breaths, I realized my emotion and panic, though self made, were due to created expectation of a created need that I didn’t really have in the first place because truly, the original plan was to tackle the crossword. Had I not received the email, I wouldn’t be where I am now: writing a post because I feel like a promise was broken… because I feel like I was somewhat misled.

Perception is reality. And when customers perceive that something has been promised and then reneged upon, it’s hard to maintain the same level of trust and respect you had with them before. After all, if a friend makes and then breaks a promise, we're somewhat taken aback and it's no different with our favorite brands. So it's incumbent upon us to be very careful and serious about the promises we make.

Trust and respect are difficult to earn but easy to lose. And while I believe that Southwest truly wished to offer WiFi in this flight and was so excited that they had to tell me yesterday about it, the fact that they couldn’t deliver it today is a bummer.

That can’t be a good thing. What’s your take? Please comment below and if you’ve enjoyed reading this post, please share it with others.

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef

P.S. In fairness, there was a disclaimer but it only covered switching planes out. Here it is:

“You are currently scheduled to be on one of our WiFi planes; however, in the event of operational challenges throughout our system, we might have to "swap" the aircraft and put it on a different route. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience that might cause. This information is accurate as of March 14, 2011.”

Monday, March 7, 2011

1 Postcard and 2 Tweets

As you know, I let random tweets from celebrities influence my blog post topics. See here and here for posts from @RevRunWisdom. So much for a content calendar, eh? So, really, today it shouldn't be a shock to you to learn that RuPaul is inspiring me to write. Here's the tweet that flew across my eyeballs this morning:

"Life is so [expletive] short - Don't waste it on petty [expletive]"

RuPaul's words are essentially about how our energy is best directed towards the things that matter in life. While these are not new or even provocative thoughts with or without the expletives, they are timely because I've got effective resource management on my mind these days.

Are we allocating the right amount of time, the right amount of energy and the right amount of dollars to all of our business initiatives no matter the size? Do we know the value of an hour spent of our brain power? Do we appreciate the value of an hour spent of our brain power? Do we know the value of a dollar? Do we know the opportunity cost of a dollar when we have a couple of places we can spend it?

Ultimately, it's about respect. Do we respect our time, energy and resources on our path to business growth and success? Do we respect our businesses? Do we respect ourselves? I ask because of postcards like this one that I just got in the mail (see below). I'll give you time to look both sides over but it should be no time for you to figure out what's wrong. I'll cue the Jeopardy music...

There is no call to action here: no email, no phone, no address, no name, no Facebook page, no Twitter handle, etc. How do I find out more -- assuming what's been presented to me here is compelling enough for me to want to find out more? And, why, if they're seeking my business, am I the one required to do the legwork? It's rather like someone inviting you over to his/her home for dinner but asking you to bring the salad, entree and dessert with you.

And here is where my comments about effective resource management and opportunity cost come into play. Does this business respect time, energy and resources generally? Does this business know the opportunity cost of ill spent time, energy and resources when there are such glaring errors as above? Does this business understand this type of glaring error is kind of an "in your face" to business owners that are bootstrapping their way to success and sweating over the most finite of details?

The answer to the questions is clearly no. Regardless of an up or down economy, every dollar and every effort matters particularly because of the cost of what's been foregone or sacrificed. It's our job as manager, owner, executive, chief bottle washer, Idea Chef or Network Sommelier to make sure that we don't lose three times: once by the literal costs of poor execution (printing, design, postage, etc.), once by the opportunity cost of poor execution (no call to action means no foot traffic) and once by the opportunity cost of the "other" that could have been well executed.

I know mistakes happen. We're human... but in the immortal words of @RevRunWisdom:

"You were not born to live a mediocre life.. Excel!!! Shun #mediocrity!"

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you! And, if you've liked this post, please share it with others!

Parissa Behnia

Idea Chef