2 Percent Creativity - Marketing and Advertising Insights from a Connected Perspective

Props to Chirp from Campaign Monitor

Well, first we were humbled by the response from friends and associates to our launch email for our mothership, ChirpMill, however yesterday was even more humbling. The good folks at Campaign Monitor, the web-based email and newsletter campaign application we use to send and manage all of our email campaigns, chose to profile our launch email in their gallery. Here's what they had to say...

When a group of experienced designers form a new company, expectations are set high. ChirpMill have come up with the design goods in their first newsletter. They have used an uncommon color combination, but it really works to set the design apart.

This is only a simple introductory announcement, but it quickly shows the style and brand of the new company. We look forward to seeing more from the Mill in the future.

For those of you who are looking for ways to better communicate with your customers, to keep in touch and to offer news, updates and information, well designed email and newsletter campaigns go a long way to building loyalty and a sense of community.

Check out the gallery for yourself and see some more great examples of email and newsletter campaigns.

Remarkable Customer Experiences Begin On Your Frontline

For over 35 minutes today, I enjoyed a wonderful customer experience. Unfortunately, it was almost all swept away in the last 90 seconds. I entered the local mega-bookstore today looking for a book in the business section. I didn't have a particular book in mind, just a subject I wanted to learn more about. This store is a great place to shop for books. The aroma of fresh Starbucks coffee washes over you as walk past the new fiction section, the lighting is just right, there are lots of comfy sofas and chairs to fall into and the decibel levels are reminiscent of your local library.

While looking for that next great business book, I was able to help another shopper find the book Good to Great, a book that I had read last year. Finally, I found the book I was after. From the cover to the table of contents, I quickly became convinced, this was what I was looking for. As I proudly made my way to the checkout, I was happy to see that there wasn't a line. I walked right up to the first available cashier.

In a blink, the whole experience changed. There, in front of me, stood an attractive young lady, who appeared bright and competent. As I approached I looked for the smile that said, "good to see you, did you find what you were looking for?" Didn't happen. What I got instead was a clear sense that she wanted to avoid direct eye contact and as quickly as possible move on to the usual drone questions, "do you an awards card... do you want your receipt stapled and in the bag?" Then it all ended with a very warm, "have a nice day."

What gives? How could someone who works in such a nice store, a store that sells great books to customers who are generally happy to be there, be so obviously disconnected from her customer. Well, don't blame the clerk. The responsiblity for remarkable customer experiences falls to others within the organization.

If you are are a business owner or store manager or anyone who leads a customer facing business, listen up. You need to be, you must be in fact, just as concerned about the remarkable experience that you provide for your staff, as the one you hope to ultimately provide for your customers. Start thinking of your staff as your best customers. Treat them that way. Give them your best service, pricing, offers, care and value. Make sure that they love what they are doing and that what they do for you and your customers, doesn't just become a job.

It's easy if you try.

What a Mess Tells Customers

Seth's short post today on 60 million mystery shoppers points us to another post from Hee-HawMarketing about the mess that Kohl's department stores are making of their customer's experience.

Seth's point is that there are now 60 million cameras out there and people are using them to show the good, the bad and the ugly in their world (think Iraqi dictator swinging from a rope). That world also includes your customer's experience with your company or organization. What is happening here is much more than just an extension of negative word-of-mouth that a messy store may have caused in the past. Back then, you rarely heard back from customers that were saying terrible things about your business. Now, the world gets to read and see for themselves, just how shoddy things are.

Note to Kohls and similarly defective businesses—click—now we see you and now we don't!

Great to Not So Good

This is one of those good news, bad news stories. While on Christmas holidays we travelled to beautiful Victoria, BC, Canada. While doing some Boxing Week shopping, we went to a tea shop my sister had told us about. Well, from the moment I walked into this shop, I was struck by the incredible customer experience.

The Silk Road Tea Shop is located in the trendy downtown area of Victoria on the edges of Chinatown. Victoria's Chinatown is only possibly rivalled by Vancouver and San Francisco's for authenticity and size. As soon as we entered the Silk Road Tea Shop we were greeted by one of their friendly staff who offered us a sample of the feature tea of the day. She was both gracious and knowledgeable, explaining in just the right amount of detail, where the teas came from and their uniqueness.

The shop itself is very well done. Victoria's downtown area has some great buildings that have retained the character of the British Victorian era. The shop's interior, their branding and the experience created, is a 10 in any marketer's books.

As we checked out with our purchase of over $100 in various teas, I noticed the small brochure that heralded the ability to purchase online. I snapped it up and we headed home.

The next day, my experience with the Silk Road brand took a hit. First, after visiting the website it was immediately clear that the website did not match the in-store experience and then it got worse.

As I clicked over to the 'online ordering' section, major disappointment set in. The options I was offered were to a) email my order by I guess copying the content of the product pages and prices into the email and then sending it ALONG WITH my credit card information b) phoning in my order or c) faxing in my order??????

Seriously, who uses a fax when they are online these days?

I was astounded and when I am in that state of mind I usually try to help. I emailed the only email address I could find on the website and told them exactly what I thought about all of this. Even explaining in the kindest terms I could, that asking someone to email their credit card information was a BIG NO-NO from a security perspective alone.

Guess what. No response. It has been almost two weeks and NO response.

This is so sad. Here is a company that has a great product, a wonderful brick and mortar experience and yet, they are prepared to throw it all away by ignoring the importance of the online customer experience.

Are you doing this? Please don't. If you cannot reply to your customer emails (positive or negative) in a timely matter (maximum 24 hours), it would be better not to have a website.

Coolest New Link Tool Ever

Well, I have been trying very hard to avoid the plethora of widgets that many bloggers are adding to their sites, but this new link preview app called Snap Preview Anywhere by Idealab, is just awesome. Here's how they describe their product...

What is Snap Preview Anywhere? Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of what other sites you're linking to, without having to leave your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted "trips" to linked sites.

So, check it out for yourself and see if your website visitors wouldn't appreciate this tool on your links. Hover your mouse over any of the links on this page and watch the preview come up.