Yesterday was National Cookie Day, at least according to the guy outside the restaurant where I was eating. His job that afternoon was to let everyone know it was National Cookie Day and that they could get a “free” cookie inside.

I had one of the cookies, actually two. They were good, very good.  But they weren’t free.  You had to go inside to get one. Therefore, the “cost” of a cookie was to deviate from your destination for 30 seconds and go inside the restaurant.  That’s a low cost, but it isn’t free. I saw a number of people say no. They didn’t think the cookie was worth the cost of deviating.

Nothing is free. Things can be cheap. A 30 second deviation from your destination is pretty cheap for a warm chocolate chip cookie. But, it’s not “free.”

When we say “free”, what we are really saying is it doesn’t cost money. We’re saying you don’t have to pay in dollars and cents. When we advertise “free” we’re saying we’ll take something else in exchange of money.

When we don’t ask for money, we’re asking for something else? It’s usually; time, attention, or information (name, email, phone, etc)

These things don’t lack value. Ask anyone what their time is worth and many will tell you it’s more valuable than money.

Free isn’t free. It never is. When you say “free,” be clear about what your asking and  make sure what your giving is worth what your taking.

The bait and switch is when a company advertises a particular product at a particular price, then when the customer shows up to buy, they don’t have the product at that price. The price is now more expensive OR it’s a cheaper product at the same price.

I travel to Brazil about every month. It is a 10 hour, red eye that leaves Chicago at 8:30 p.m., arriving Sao Paul at 10:00 a.m. the next day. The return flight is also a red eye. It leaves Sao Paulo at 9:20, arriving in Chicago the next morning . Because I go straight to work when I arrive or return, I like to upgrade to business class using miles to ensure I get some rest. A typical upgrade costs 12,000 miles and 300-500 dollars each way.

So, where’s the problem?

United flies two types of planes. One where business class is updated with lay flat seats (they lay flat like a bed), flat screen TV’s, on demand entertainment, power outlets, and more. The other, older, non-updated planes don’t have lay flat seating. The seats recline with a footrest. Think a LazyBoy in the sky. They don’t have on demand entertainment, they don’t have large flat screen TV’s and they don’t have standard power outlets. The experience is entirely different.

Business class in the new upgraded planes is a substantial “upgrade” from economy. The lay flat seats allow me to get a fairly decent night sleep. The power outlets let me charge my phone, iPad and my computer through out the night. Combined, it’s worth the price of the upgrade.

With the old planes I don’t get a good nights rest, as I am sitting up the entire time and my phone and computer are dead when I arrive. The experience isn’t worth the price of the upgrade to me. Therefore I will pay for an upgrade on the new planes, but not on the old ones.

Here is where things get tricky. United switches planes. When I book my flight and request an upgrade on a new plane, there is no guarantee, it will be a new plane on the day of my flight. These plane changes can happen as late as the day of travel.

I buy an upgrade on a new, updated plane and then, on the day of the flight, for the same price, get the old outdated plane. A plane that is NOT worth the price of the upgrade.

I am burned by this “switch” at least 50% of time. I have now resorted to checking at the gate just before boarding to ensure its a new plane. If its not, I won’t take the upgrade. Unfortunately, the other night, on my way back, I forgot to check and I ponied up a shit load cash and miles for an experience that wasn’t worth it.

The two experiences can’t even come close to each other. Therefore charging the same price is ridiculous. By charging the same price and not doing a better job at informing customers of the type of experience they are going to get is bullshit. Especially when I booked the flight based on the premise that it will be the new plane.

I shouldn’t have to check to see if I’m going to get what I bought. I shouldn’t have to walk on a plane to find it is one of the old ones, when I bought the new plane experience. That is a bait and switch.

Give me what you sold me. If you can’t, adjust the price or notify me of the plane change before hand. You already update me on flight changes via SMS.

Changing planes and therefore the experience with out notifying your customers is just dishonest and as my grandmother would say; “not on the up and up.”

Come on, you can do better than this United!

I went to an ice cream parlor yesterday to get an ice cream, cause that’s what you do at an ice cream parlor. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the young lady behind the counter.  Because, she seemed all put out to be serving me.

We’ve all seen this person before. When you ask for a sample they begrudgingly scoop one out for you as if you just interrupted their Thanksgiving Dinner.  You see their face contort when you have the audacity to have a special request. In my case it was to have my ice cream in a cup with the cone on top. This girl wanted nothing to do with scooping my ice cream.

Her actions were so overt, I began to feel uncomfortable asking for anything else and that is fucked up. I shouldn’t feel that way. I’m the customer, I’m trying to give you my money. Why should I feel like a burden? Why should I feel as if I’m putting the server out.

Really bad customer service makes customers feel like shit. It makes them feel uncomfortable and it makes them feel like they are doing something wrong. No one should feel that way when they are trying to give your their money.

If you don’t like what you do, then go do something else. Just don’t make me feel like shit for buying an ice cream.

I had a brutal experience with United Airlines earlier this week.  I was at the Selling Power Sales 2.0 Conference and had meetings later in the day.  I wanted to see how much it would cost to switch flights home. My original flight was around 11:30 a.m.  I called United around 9:30 a.m..  My hope was to get on a later flight with only having to pay the “stand-by” fee.  (I’m not going to go into my thoughts on a stand-by fee.)

The whole crappy experience started with being put on hold for an 1 hour and 1 min. Knowing I HAD to talk to a rep. I put the phone on speaker and laid it on the conference room table during the keynote, while the on hold music played in the background and waited and waited and waited. It was irritating.  Thank god the others at the table with me understood.

The agent finally came on. His name was Tim.  Tim looked at all my options and told me it would be about $215.00 and a $75 dollar change fee to get on the 7:40 p.m. flight.  I was irritated that it would cost that much to change a ticket that only cost me $350.00.

I asked Tim if he could just put me on standby on a later flight and that I’d take my chances.  I told him I’d pay the $75 stand-by fee. Tim said he couldn’t do that. That I had to be at the airport within 2 hours of the flight in order to fly standby.  I told him that the two hour window had already passed because I was on hold so long.  Tim snips, “I didn’t say anything about 2 hours before.”

I blew a gasket.  I dropped a few f-bombs, told Tim it was riduculous that I was on hold for and hour and I am now at United’s mercy, because making my flight was pretty much impossible.  I’m now “stuck” paying $280 bucks to get home.  It was clear by his attitude, Tim could have given a shit.

Frustrated and irritated, I tweeted the entire experience.

It took a day, but United sent me a tweet asking if they could help. I didn’t respond to the tweet.  I then got a call from United the next day.

The person who called me was named Wendy and she got it.  Wendy asked me what she could do. She explained what had happened and why I was on call so long and then she ACKNOWLEDGED the inconvenience it caused me. She was very understanding of my situation and how it must have been very frustrating.  She then took the next step to offer me a flight voucher.

Wendy and I had a pleasant conversation. She allowed me to vent my frustration and responded with empathy. She even responded at one point with; “It would have been upsetting to me had that happened.”  Wendy made me feel heard and understood. She acknowledged my pain.

We’re gonna fuck up with our customers. It’s inevitable. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to deliver the wrong product. We’re going to miss deadlines. Our company processes will frustrate and even screw over our customers.  Bad things are going to happen. When bad shit happens, the first and most important thing we must do is acknowledge our customers feelings.  When we upset, hurt, frustrate, anger or irritate a customer, nothing good is going to happen until they believe we get it. The customer HAS to believe we understand their situation. Until then, we are spinning our wheels. The best way to demonstrate you understand someones pain is to acknowledge it.

CSR Tim was terrible at acknowledging my frustration and it  pissed me off. I was angry and he made it worse. Wendy was good at it. I still had to pay to get home, but in the end, not as much and I felt that Wendy got it. That was enough for me.

When your customer is upset, before you do anything, before you say anything, acknowledge them.  It will make everything else that much easier to fix.

Not only is the food good, but it’s cheap. A breakfast burrito is only 1.99.

Today, I was running late and hadn’t eaten breakfast. I was hungry, so I ran down to Asada Rico. The problem, Asada Rico doesn’t take credit cards and I had no cash. So what did they do? They gave me a burrito. Yup, just handed me a burrito and said get me next time.

I was a good customer, but now I’m an even more loyal customer. Asada Rico has closed me for a number of future visits

Selling is done in a lot of ways. We often measure a sale as getting money for our product or service. But it’s not always so.  Asada Rico sold me today and I didn’t have a dime.

Take a look at your sales strategy. How are you selling? How many ways are you getting your clients to say yes?  There is more than one.

I know T-Mobile doesn’t have a better network. I know they don’t carry the IPhone. I don’t know if they are cheaper or not, but they might be. So what is it? Do they have better Android based phones? Do they have better customer service? Why chose T-Mobile? I’d really like to know. I also wonder if T-Mobile knows why.

As a company, knowing WHY your customers buy from you is key. I’m not sure most companies KNOW why their customers chose them over the competition. I think there is a lot of guessing going on, but I don’t think they know exactly why!

Why care to know why your customers buy from you, as long as they’re buying right?   I guess, if you want to wake up when day when they stop and not know why the store is empty. Knowing why your customers buy from you helps with a couple of things.

1. When you know why customers buy from you, you can make sure you do it better and do more of it. It allows you to focus on the things that matter to your customers.
2. By knowing why your customers buy from you, gives you insight into your competitive differentiation. It tells you what you do better than others in the market and your competition.
3. When you know why your customers buy from you, you don’t end up wasting time focusing on things that don’t matter to your customers.
4. Knowing why your customers buy from you allows you to be progressive and proactive, creating new products and services targeted to your customers and why they choose you.
5. It allows you to create a stickier environment, with greater loyalty.

It’s not enough to have your customers buy from you, you have to know why they buy from you. That’s where the action happens.

Do you know why YOUR customers buy from you?

This particular time, the Subway sandwich artist (as they were once called in an old marketing campaign) told me he it was against company policy to make a footlong that way and he would have to charge me for two 6 inch subs.  I conceded to not wanting to increase his costs and asked that he only use half the turkey and half the salami, thereby making it a traditional footlong. He said he couldn’t, that by doing half the meat made it TWO 6 inch subs.

I proceeded to ask him how much a footlong turkey with 8 slices was. He said, “$5.20.”  I then asked how much a footlong salami with 8 slices was. He said, “$5.20.”  I then said, “OK! Please make a footlong with 4 slices of salami and 4 slices turkey.”  The brilliant sandwich artist replied with a brilliant answer, “You are asking me to break company policy. That is two 6 inch subs and I will have to charge you for two 6 inch subs.”

I left and we ate at Carl’s Jr’s.

This particular Subway has made this sub for me at least two times before. It’s on the way to the mountains. We stop often, going to or coming from skiing.

For most companies, there are two types of policy’s. The first company policy is to deliver an amazing customer experience, period! Very few companies have an official policy for delivering customers service, but every company has an implied policy on it. And, I am certain, there isn’t a company on the planet that has a company policy to fuck over the customer. Therefore, I think it’s safe to say, every company has a customer service policy, whether it’s implied or explicit. The second company policy is all the other company policies, like how much meat on a sandwich, who can can order from vendors, what you can say in the company blog and more. The second company policy is all the stuff in the corporate handbook.

What do you do when an explicit internal company policy contradicts the implied customer service policy?

It’s a simple answer. Unless it’s an egregious request or compromises the value of the company, the customer service policy ALWAYS trumps any other policy.

In other words . . . make the fucking sandwich.

“100 Little Things”

One of my favorite restaurants is a little Mexican place in Utah called El Chubasco. I’ve often eaten there twice in a day, and once (it’s true) ate there three times.

It’s always crowded. Sometimes people wait outside, in the cold, even though there are plenty of alternatives within walking distance. So, what’s the secret? Why is it worth a drive and a wait?

No specific reason. The energy of owners Jill and Craig is certainly part of it, but most customers never encounter them. I think it’s the hand-fitted gestalt of thousands of little decisions made by caring management out to make a difference. Usually, when a business like this gets bigger or turns into a chain, marketers make what feel like smart compromises. The MBAs collide with the mystical, and the place gets boring. “Why do we need 14 free salsas when we can get away with six?” or “Perhaps we ought to stop handing out huge tumblers of water for free–our bottled water sales will go up.”

This turns out to be the secret of just about every really successful enterprise. Sure, you can copy one or two or even three of their competitive advantages and unique remarkable attributes, but no, it’s going to be really difficult to recreate the magic of countless little decisions. The scarcity happens because so many businesses don’t care enough or are too scared to invest the energy in so many seemingly meaningless little bits of being extraordinary.

Seth is right, the magic happens in the magic of the countless little decisions. But, the scarcity doesn’t happen because so many business don’t care enough or are too scared to invest in so many seemingly meaningless little bits of being extraordinary. The scarcity happens because being extraordinary is no longer the goal.

When companies get “big” or become a chain the goal is no longer being extraordinary, it’s to be as profitable as possible. It’s not that businesses don’t care enough, or are too scared to invest, it’s they have a different goal. Carrying 22 free salsa’s will rarely be as profitable as carrying six. Does 22 salsa’s make for an extraordinary experience? Yes. But it also creates a lot of waste.

There is a curve to extraordinary user experience and profitability. At some point the return on investment of being extraordinary diminishes. (which I am not smart enough to demonstrate here, but I’m sure the MBA’s and the mystical can help. If any one in this community can help illustrate please share) Is being extraordinary profitable? Yes! Is it the most profitable? At some point, no. And that is why things change.

I love the small restaurant my self. I love the boutique ski clothing brands. I love the special attention of the extraordinary. But being extraordinary means targeting a passionate group, and moving away from the middle. When we move away from the middle, we reduce the pool of customers. Growth and expansion come from appealing to as many people as possible and 22 free salsas isn’t extraordinary to most people. They just want one good one.

When great restaurants like El Chubasco get big or become a chain, they haven’t stopped caring, they just change their goal from being as extraordinary as possible to being as profitable as possible and there is nothing wrong with that.

I asked the person on the phone why his was so much more expensive. I asked if he had nicer cars or something. His response; “That’s our listed rate.”

That answer pissed me off. It was absolutely no help. I attempted to bail him out and said; “I know, but is there something more I’m getting for that extra 32 dollars? Are you cars newer, nicer etc?  Why so much more for you than the other guy?”

His response, “I don’t know, if he’s an independent he can afford to charge less, but I have to pay my drivers, gas, maintence etc. so that’s my price.”

Basically what he was telling me was his operating expenses are higher and therefore I’m paying more. Really? It was completely lost on him to explain to me what I was getting for an additional 32 dollars.

No, I’m not spending an extra 32 dollars to subsidize his inability to run a his business.  I’m going to go with the other guy.

I have a friend who works for a telecom company. She is constantly losing deals to the competitors over price. I asked her what her customers get for paying more. She said pretty much nothing. It’s resold Centurylink, so the network isn’t differentiated. Her company is trying to differentiate on service.  With commodities like telephony services, your customer service better be frickin’ laced with gold and free massages if you want me to pay more for POT’s, VPN, IP etc. If not, I’m going with the cheaper guy.  I posted about this a little while back. The lowest price is a business model, not a sales tactic.

If you want your customers to pay more give them something worth the additional money. It’s really that simple!

When something or someone is good we know it. We don’t have to ask ourselves; “was that good?” It’s obvious. We don’t need someone to point good out. We see it automatically. When we get good service or get a good product or have a good experience it speaks for itself.

We spend a lot of time these days telling everyone how good our products are, or how good our service is. I can’t help but wonder if we’d be better off is we spent that time and money on just being really good; — good speaks for itself.