EVERYTHING Is Marketing
Tuesday, 4:02 PM
Dear Friend,
They say first impressions are lasting impressions.
If that's true (and it probably is) you better make a darn good first impression with your prospects.
If not, they just might go elsewhere.
I'd like to share a recent experience I had.
Now technically, this wasn't my first impression with this company. But it was the first time I've communicated with them by phone.
They provide a really cool service… and do a GREAT job at a very low price.
And they're super fast. In fact "48 Hours" is part of their name. I still can't believe they do what they do so quickly… literally within 48 hours or less… and are able to do it so cheaply.
I've spent a bunch of money with them and will continue to do so.
But check out my first impression of them by phone:
[media:http://dobermandan.com/audio/DD bad cust-service example.mp3]
To me, that guy sounds like he's either pissed off, really tired, bored… or maybe was born without a personality.
He may be great at his job, but he is NOT the guy you should have answering your phone or speaking with customers.
To their credit, the lady I eventually spoke with had a very pleasant phone personality and handled everything just fine.
But if this were my first impression of this company, it wouldn't be a good one.
Remember my Clients Suck post where I talked about the copy only being a small part of the success of a promotion?
Imagine dropping 50,000 pieces of direct mail only to have the phone answered like this. And when the response is less than stellar you blame it on direct mail.
The problem isn't direct mail. It got hundreds or thousands of people to call.
The problem was having Mr. Surly answer the phone.
EVERYTHING is marketing!
Disney even considers their janitorial and housekeeping staff as part of their marketing.
Any interaction with a prospect or customer is part of your marketing… and it better be good.
It's pretty stupid to invest thousands or millions of dollars getting prospects to call you, visit your website, or come into your location… only to hand them off to some apathetic, crusty employee who acts as if it's an inconvenience and an interruption to deal with them.
Every single employee who has contact with your prospects and customers better know where their bread is buttered. They better understand that because of the customer, they can feed their family and put a roof over their head.
Any employee who doesn't get that… or has a personality like the guy on this phone recording… should be kept far away from your customer… or fired.
Or go to work as a civil servant.
Only your best and brightest should be allowed to interact with your prospects and customers.
And that's my most humble (but accurate) opinion. 
All the best,
LOL, I'd bet that guy is the company owner!
That was the first thing I thought, too.
At the very least viable alternatives were very clearly laid out even if spoken surly. He was probably having a really bad day. Point taken every aspect needs serious attention. : ) Just appealled to my warped sense of humour.
Dan,
I have a special name for this type of thing…
I call this "Un-Marketing" because after you spend so much time energy and moo-lah marketing, you can go and do something stupid/lazy and Un-Market yourself or business.
What's interesting is most Un-Marketing is easily fixed… it's just that most business owners don't ever go through their own marketing process… so they don't even know it's a problem.
Later – off to solve a few un-marketing problems with a new client today.
Sean McCool
Hey Dan,
While that reminded me a bit of a recent call I made to the Missouri Dept. of Motor Vehicles, you know, when the person on the other end of the line seems to have the motivation and personality of a worm?
Anyway, that actually was better than many places I have called as a potential customer.- lol
Point well taken though, and good observation, and Matt was probably right when he pinned that guy as the owner.
B.
"Un-Marketing".
I like that. I think I'm going to rip that off and use it for something.
How true. That's EXACTLY the kind of message I would expect from the dept. of motor vehicles… but not from this business. Their image is the exact opposite.
Dan,
I have a special name for this type of thing…
I call this "Un-Marketing" because after you spend so much time energy and moo-lah marketing, you can go and do something stupid/lazy and Un-Market yourself or business.
What's interesting is most Un-Marketing is easily fixed… it's just that most business owners don't ever go through their own marketing process… so they don't even know it's a problem.
Later – off to solve a few un-marketing problems with a new client today.
Sean McCool
Crap! I wanted to rip that off and start using it.
Beaten to the punch again.
You're right. It's pretty simple… just the good old golden rule.
I kinda got a kick out of it, too, Byron.
Poor guy probably had to record the message at 2AM after working 16 hours straight.
The thing is, it's really a good company. I've placed a bunch of orders through their website. This is just the first time I've had to deal with them by phone and I was a little surprised.
I kinda got a kick out of it, too, Byron.
Poor guy probably had to record the message at 2AM after working 16 hours straight.
The thing is, it's really a good company. I've placed a bunch of orders through their website. This is just the first time I've had to deal with them by phone and I was a little surprised.
Sales Prevention Team!
Jeffery Gitomer, rails about this stuff. His answer:"To save us money and piss you off we have this Voice Mail hell to put you through. press 1……."
Best solution: make a Joke out of it.
lol!
Yes-"un-marketing" is a great term…so much in fact that Scott Stratten devotes his entire business life to the concept, check him out he's got some good ideas… http://www.un-marketing.com/blog/
My guess is that's just the guy's natural voice. Bad choice of a person to do that recording!
You know, having to choose a button to push is bad enough, now companies are going to the "say this" and I think it's even worse. Do they think we like carrying on a conversation with a slow-talking computer generated female voice? I made two calls yesterday to MAJOR companies that have gone to that: Comcast and Alaska Airlines.
On top of that, in the case of Comcast, they make you listen to all kinds of recorded messages first, to try to get you to fix the problem yourself without bothering their support techs. When I finally got the choice to say "agent" a guy answered right away, which tells me their tech people are sitting on their butts waiting to help someone. Saving money, my ass! I spend my 10 minutes trying to get through to someone who's sitting there for 10 minutes doing nothing.
It's a sad statement about the current state of customer service when I have customers tell me how amazed they are at my service. I'm just treating them the way I'd like to be treated but it seems like not to many businesses follow that simple golden rule. It's the ONLY one you need to follow.
If anyone gets anything out of that, great. If not, please say "good bye".
Owen
I have the same reaction. If they are that unhappy about me as a customer BEFORE I pay them the money, what chance do I have of getting good service after they have my money?
Heh… up here in Canada we have telecommunications company Telus and Rogers doing the exact same thing. I hate talking to robots.
The big phone company employees seem to be as excited and eager to help as most federal bureaucrats.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Well… sitting on your butt eight hours a day with a call every twenty minutes would make you do that. :p (in between facebook and twitter time, that is.)
lol
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