AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions
  • Home
  • Why AppleCrisp?
  • What's in a name?
  • What clients are saying...
  • About me
  • Contact
  • Marketing Mondays...the blog!

Marketing Mondays - Let's experiment! (10th ed., 2010)

3/29/2010

3 Comments

 
Hello everyone,

Just over a week ago, I ventured back to the UK for a visit. 

Since I’ve been staying in Israel for the past few months, I forgot how wonderful the world of air travel can be – I am trying to use my sarcasm here.

To make a long story short, I got delayed and missed the connection I was supposed to have in Istanbul.  All of this was due to the original flight being delayed and poor communication from our airline - Turkish Airlines.

As an avid traveller, I have to say the service was appalling – from the staff in Tel Aviv to the airline stewardess to the ground crew – I can’t say a positive word about any of them.  They not only made us feel like we were overreacting before we boarded our flight but they also deceived us by telling us they were going to hold our connecting plane for us but didn’t.  To top it all off, when we were told that we wouldn’t be flying to London that night, we ended up having to wait three hours to get transported to a hotel.  It was a very unnerving and disappointing experience.  As I’m sure you can imagine, I won’t be flying with this airline anytime soon.

For a full account of my adventure, I urge you to go to my new travel blog, Travelling Starfish, and read about the journey.

As I sat in the Istanbul airport the next day, waiting to finally board our flight to London, a light bulb sparked.  I thought to myself – “What a good example of a bad customer service experience” and I thought, “This airline better watch out as the world is a much smaller place now than it used to be.” 

Before customers could only talk of their negative experiences through traditional word of mouth, but now people can post their experiences on a host of websites, chat rooms and social networking sites. 

So, what is this experiment I’m talking about? 

The experiment is to see how quickly I can spread the word.  Not to lower business to Turkish Airlines but to elicit a response and possibly make a company like this realize every negative customer service experience has the potential to impact their future – from a customer and revenue perspective – like never before.

The experiment begins with me writing about it...here, on my travel blog, on Facebook, on travel sites.  Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll be using various social networking tools to spread the word of what happened to me and my concerns from a customer service perspective.

I’m hoping that the power of social networking will stimulate some reaction that I can share. 

I’ll be posting updates on my tracked progress on the blog so stay tuned, pass it on & comment away,

Have a great marketing week,

Miriam Berger

3 Comments

Marketing Mondays - It's tough out there! (9th ed., 2010)

3/15/2010

3 Comments

 
Hello everyone,

What a world we live in.  I think I’ve mentioned before how busy our lives are and how much it amazes me sometimes.

I’ve been freelancing since September, and now with over 6 months under my belt, I’ve realized now more than ever how tough it is out there for marketers.

Freelancing has really shown me a different side of what is going on in our industry, making it really tough for those of us that are good at what we do to stay in the game and show what we’re made of.

There are 3 core areas I wanted to flag on my blog this week that show the reality a typical marketer now faces:

1)      Globalization and the internet has made everyone a marketer – I’ve noticed this especially in the writing projects I’m doing but it appears to be happening across most areas of marketing – from planning to research even to developing business strategy.  Now with so many freelance sites at our fingertips, there are individuals bidding on jobs for peanuts.  I’ve seen requests for articles for a budget of $1 per 500 words!  The issue here?  Devaluing what marketers can deliver – it’s great that a business can find a cheaper solution to their needs but is it worth the price for marketers?  More importantly, is the customer truly getting what they need?  I still have faith that those of us who provide work that a customer values will be here to stay, but it is a definite test for our industry.

2)      Too much marketing out there (quantity over quality) – the amount of messages out there is unbelievable.  Largely due to the explosion of the digital channel, the need for articles and copywriting services are through the roof.  Are we now in a state of quantity over quality?  I am a big believer in strong communications but I am also a supporter of defined and clear messages.  This issue challenges and encourage marketers at the same time.  Our services are in demand to satisfy the quantity needed but it challenges us to deliver quality marketing services due to the volume.  For us, finding a balance will be the key to success.

3)      We continue to get further and further away from our customers – I see this now as a freelancer but also when I was working in the corporate world.  Often, we sit in our offices and brainstorm ideas of what customers really want.  Customer research isn’t often undertaken so we are developing marketing strategy and communications with a blind eye.  Searching on the web about customer preferences can only tell us so much.  As the world gets bigger and smaller at the same time, we need to get as close to the customer as we can.  Since I’ve been working solo, in all the projects I’ve worked on, I’ve tried to get as close to the customer as I can.  As most of you know, the voice of the customer is a key element for how I work, and even with the time constraints, it has to be a priority to differentiate myself and service my customers effectively.

So...what can we do?  Globalization, volume and getting close to the customer are all issues we need to realize are out there.  More importantly, we need to do something about them! 

We need to be aware of these realities but also be sure to take a stand.  My advice:

1)      Don’t undersell ourselves (both in our financial contribution and the quality we deliver)
2)      Get close the customer (meet with them, understand them, satisfy them)
3)      Embrace the heightened competition and realize that not everyone is looking for a cheap solution – show the value you bring and reap the rewards

It’s tough out there and only the fittest will survive...so keep the faith and keep up the great marketing work.

Have a great marketing week and see you next Monday,

Miriam Berger

3 Comments

Marketing Mondays - Setting up an account is hard to do (8th ed., 2010)

3/8/2010

3 Comments

 
Welcome back everyone! 

When I was thinking about what to write for this week, I wanted to zone in on customer service.  I’ve had some really interesting experiences the past few days that I’d love to share.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to setup an Israeli bank account…not the most exciting task to accomplish when you don’t have a firm grasp of the language.

Since I’ve been working in the banking industry for nearly 4 years, the past year in customer research, I know that customer service can be a sore subject.  I also have a better understanding than most on setting up a bank account as I’ve been the woman behind creating account opening forms in the past.  On a personal level, I’ve also opened up accounts in a number of countries.   

A couple of weeks ago, I went into one of the top banks in the country and asked a few simple question about fees, type of accounts and access to funds.  This bank in particular, to be frank, confused the heck out of me.  They had no marketing material to present me (in English or Hebrew) and gave me the impression they weren’t even interested in me as a customer.  I ended up walking out of the branch with no account to speak of.

After this experience, I was told by many not to expect much more as customer service wasn’t the norm across banks in the country.  Giving the Israeli banking industry some benefit of the doubt, I kept pushing forward…

Round two…last week I walked into another bank – not as big but still a national player.  I asked nicely if there was anyone who could assist me in English.  I was met by a lovely woman who asked me a few questions about my needs, if I had the required documentation to open the account and handed me an information leaflet that she would walk me through.  And so began the account opening experience. 

Considering most of the information presented to me was in Hebrew, she took the time to explain everything to me – including fees, types of accounts available to me and access to funds.  So, all the information I had asked the other bank now became clear to me.  She also took the time to reiterate that she was here to help anytime and even gave me her direct line – which in this day-and-age, I think we can all say, is rare.

So what is the point of this example?  My point is that customer service is so important for so many different reasons. 

Not only am I going to continue to have my account at the second bank (customer loyalty) I’m also going to tell people I meet to go to this woman to open their accounts (word of mouth). 

One of the sad things that comes out of this tale, is that the woman at the bank I now have an account with, is a part of the customer service minority.  I think we can all agree that most of us don’t expect to get a fantastic service at a bank but even at a restaurant or an airport.  We have begun to accept that mediocre service is all that we will be on the receiving end of most of the time.

If this is all about customer service, how does that relate to marketing?

Servicing the customer is what marketing is all about.  Marketers have a duty to understand what the customer thinks about the company’s brand and that is intrinsically linked to the service they receive. 

It's a simple equation - Happy Customers = Good Marketing 


One of the ways marketers can influence customer service is by feeding back what we find out from customers.  This is the reason why market research – whether on service, the brand or products - is so crucial to differentiating and staying competitive in this global market.

What do you think?  I’m sure we all have had positive and/or negative customer service experiences.  Share away!!

Have a great marketing week and see you next Monday,

Miriam Berger

3 Comments
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    November 2010
    September 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Customer Service
    Expat Explorer
    Marketing Education
    Marketing General
    Marketing - General
    Marketing On The Go
    Market Research
    Mass Marketing
    Planning
    Social Marketing

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.