Posts Tagged San Francisco

Three Degrees of Influence

Posted by Jimmy Maher in Customer Experience, Customer Marketing, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing on October 30th, 2009

Many years ago my father-in-law took his family on a day trip to Muir Beach, just North of San Francisco. It was a very warm day and parking was hard to come by. He observed a lot of cars parked in the red zone on the road approaching the beach, so he also parked there, figuring that because so many others had done it, it was somehow OK. He was livid when he returned to the car later to discover a parking ticket and was no less livid when he noticed that everybody else had gotten ticketed too.

How our behaviors are influenced by others, is the subject of one of the most fascinating and informative books I have ever read – Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. In the book the authors present the scientific evidence of how we not only influence our friends, but also those that are three degrees of separation away from us, in other words – our friends’ friends and the friends of our friends’ friends. Their book examines not only epidemics of disease, but also suicides, politics, happiness, sadness and many other human experiences.

The book offers interesting insights, based on real science on how ideas and beliefs can go viral. These insights into human behavior can shed light on troubling events such as asset bubbles or even genocide. It seems that our primeval need to belong in groups (who would want to be an outcast when cannibalism and human sacrifice was commonly practiced) can overwhelm our rationality and our morality with terrible consequences. The good news is that the effect works in reverse also so that positive outcomes such as altruism and social justice can also be contagious. The case in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where 44 Liberian orphans were adopted by various local families is a wonderful example.

In Chapter 8 of the book, the authors describe how our behavior in virtual communities mimics our behavior in the real world. Apparently, attractive avatars in Second Life are more confident than plain avatars – regardless of the sex and looks of the real person who “owns” the avatar. In the popular online game “World of Warcraft”, a virtual disease spread in much the same way as a real disease might spread. These findings offer new avenues of experimentation for social scientists exploring the human condition.

The key takeaway is that each of us has influence over others, even over those that we have never met, but who are within three degrees of separation. If we are depressed, we can depress others. If we are happy we can, with little effort on our part, cause happiness in others. This book should be required reading in schools and colleges. Perhaps understanding our propensity to follow the crowd and the potential negative outcomes, might prevent some of our more destructive behaviors.

 

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Little Interactions That Can Harm Your Brand

Posted by Jimmy Maher in Customer Experience on August 18th, 2009

Would you alienate prospects attending your promotional event? Would you send people away from an event with negative impressions of your company?  How important are the little interactions?

Recently, a colleague and I registered to attend a “Solutions Showcase” in San Francisco, from a leading Telco demonstrating their latest generation smartphones.  We received confirmation and attended the event.

On arrival we were told that we were not registered. The manger was, at first, apologetic, indicating that the event had been overbooked by 20% on the expectation that there would be no shows.  After learning that the invitation had been forwarded to us by a colleague who knew we were looking for a solution for our business, he said he would do his best to seat us, but had to give priority to those invited directly by company sales people.  We were eventually invited into the event.

After some compelling demonstrations of their new smart phones, it was announced that ALL attendees would receive one of the phones with two months voice and data service along with some other giveaways in exchange for our time that morning.

When we stopped by the desk to collect the gift, we were once again directed to the manager.  He explained that as we had not been invited directly by a company salesperson, we would not be getting the gift. The whole experience was distasteful and showed the Company in a poor light. We sent a complaint letter to the office of the CEO and this was handled very well by a telephoned apology and an honoring of the commitment to provide smartphones to all attendees.

This particular company has a reputation for good service and did, ultimately, address the issue.  To a certain extent, the damage had already been done.  Even the best companies are at risk of interactions that can have a damaging effect on the company’s reputation. However, even when things go wrong, it is possible to enhance the company’s reputation by following the principles below …

  1. Customer/prospect engagement is unpredictable – plan and prepare to address situations that go awry. Have a “crisis response plan” that guides company actions when the brand is threatened.
  2. React quickly when the problem surfaces. Apparently, the Company knew that this event had been posted to a blog and a lot of people had registered who were not in their target demographic. This was the time to address the situation.
  3. Train and empower your people to do the right thing.  There may sometimes be a cost, but over the long term this cost will be repaid many times over in customer loyalty and positive word of mouth.
  4. Make great customer service a core value and drive that core value throughout the organization.

 

Key Takeaway: Design and implement customer experience programs that help your company avoid major (and minor) missteps and to respond rapidly when your brand is threatened.

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