Viewing all posts categorized as 'Personal Anecdotes'

Recently I decided to purchase running shoes, so I went to my neighborhood Big-5 (Big-5 is a sporting goods store located in the Western US) and bought shoes. During the transaction the sales person on the floor also managed to obtain my email address.

The conversation went like this:

Salesperson: Here is the size 11 you had asked for.
Me: Thanks.
Salesperson: Do you use email?
Me: Yes.
Salesperson: Would you like to sign-up for our email program and get 10% off?
Me: Sure.
He hands me a pen and a sign-up form and continues talking.
Salesperson: Email is great because we save money by sending less mailers and we can pass those savings onto our customers. You will receive your welcome email and 10% off coupon in about 24 hours.
Me: Great.

I scribbled my email address on the form and handed it back to the salesperson.

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Lurking somewhere in your email list and hiding among your web analytics data, your best customers are waiting to be discovered.

This Saturday I received a letter in the mail.  The envelope was nondescript and the return address was a P.O. Box I did not recognize. It looked and felt like the type of envelope that contains a new credit or ATM card. When I opened it up I was pleasantly surprised — inside was a letter from the Director of Customer Care at The Home Depot and a $50 gift card. The letter was thanking me for my online business during the past year!

I have to admit, I did spend a lot of money at The Home Depot over the last twelve months. I was in the midst of a variety of large scale home improvement projects that required the purchase of a washer, dryer, refrigerator, barbecue, sinks, cabinetry plus much more — all bought online. Before I received this letter I did not feel especially loyal to The Home Depot, despite having spent a lot of money with them. But if something better came along, I would not think twice about purchasing from a competitor.

I put some thought into it and determined that I bought from The Home Depot for four main reasons:

1. They have competitive prices.
2. They have a strong online presence.
3. They offered free shipping and other great offers in their emails.
4. They have online ratings and reviews. I want to read what others think about a product before I purchase it.

What is the moral of the story?

1. Know your best customers.
2. Thank your best customers often and appropriately. The Home Depot not only thanked me with this letter, but they gave me a gift card, a VIP email address and VIP phone number to their customer service if I ever need it.
3. Don’t assume that your best customers will always be your customers. Give them a reason to continue to do business with you.

Here is the letter I received from The Home Depot:

This past weekend I planted my summer garden. As I waited for the bumper crop of fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and beans to pop out of the soil (it will be about a three month wait), I gazed around my garden and noticed that something was missing. My yard needed a picnic table. I went inside, hopped online, and found the perfect table. I placed my order online with a company call CedarStore.com, received a confirmation email, and called it a night.

This morning when I checked my email inbox I had a Facebook friend request from something I did not recognize. It was from Cedar Store. This was the online retailer that I purchased the table from the day earlier.

I did not immediately put the two together, but once I did I thought how nice it was that this retailer took the time to look up my email on facebook and ask me to be its friend. I have not seen retailers do this before. I am not sure if this site has some sort of magical script that queries order email addresses and sends them facebook friend requests, or if some furniture aficionado took the time to look me up and send the request. Either way this is a great touch.

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Regardless of your feelings about the taste of Domino’s Pizza, you have to hand it to these guys – they do online checkout processes better than just about any company on the planet. We could all learn something from their CRM and online marketing initiatives.

A few months ago, I had an eye-opening experience when a friend of mine decided to order a late-night pizza from Domino’s well after most local eateries had closed their doors. I was blown away with what I saw — the Domino’s website features a real-time “pizza tracker” that shows the progress of your pizza being prepared, cooked, and delivered to your doorstep in 30 minutes or less. Sure enough, a hot pizza arrived at our door merely 25 minutes later, nevermind the fact that it was very late at night and snowing outside.

Comparing this with my previous Domino’s transactions from back in the day, it almost seems crazy to think about the typical Domino’s experience of yesteryear. The last time I had ordered Domino’s, the following were all true:

• Their commercials featured a claymation “Noid” who supposedly plagued other pizza delivery companies with quality control issues.
• The telephone I used to call Domino’s was a dormitory pay-phone.
• To ensure there were no problems with delivery, I waited patiently by this pay-phone until the delivery man either showed up at my door or called me back asking for directions.

It’s amazing what technology and innovation has done to improve the pizza ordering and delivery process since then.

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I went to a great low-key concert the other night and saw a clever, unconventional email acquisition strategy in action. As my friends and I were eating dinner waiting for the show to start, we were handed a simple song request flyer. You could immediately see people getting excited over the idea – a chance to have a favorite song played and to ask the artist any question they chose. The added touch, however, was how these flyers were to be sent up to the stage via paper airplane. The only request from the artist was to submit your name and email, interestingly enough.

After the first few songs, the artist in her own sarcastic yet humble way asked, “so… any requests?” Then came the onslaught of airplanes. I’m sure from her angle this must have looked like a reenactment from WW2. While retuning her guitar, out came an assistant to gather all the wreckage and begin sifting through the requests.

This was clearly not the most efficient way to capture an email address (given the manual labor involved), but her approach got me thinking. Adding a fun and interactive way to get people to sign up without beating them over the head with an offer could perhaps go a long way. The acquisition would probably provide more interested subscribers and could also serve as a great viral component as well.

This past Thursday I received an email from Urban Outfitters made me positively giddy with excitement.

Much to my delight, the email explained that Urban Outfitters was promoting an exclusive partnership with The Impossible Project, a group dedicated to preserving the legacy of Polaroid film. Best of all, the email explained that the two entities’ interests would culminate in a series of limited in-store sales of the last remaining Polaroid cameras and film, rescued from the last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. What a coup! Best of all, I learned that the somewhat secret sale was taking place the following day, just across the Charles River in nearby Cambridge.

And thus my fate had been decided: I would use the information gleaned from this informative in-store promotion email, venture towards Harvard Square during my lunch break, and return only after acquiring my very own special edition Polaroid camera and film.

But why describe a memorable experience in simple words when a set of photos could explain it even better? Let’s see how it all went down!

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While a lot of the industry talk today revolves around the latest technologies and newest communications tools, I thought I’d offer a personal anecdote about using relatively low-tech means to drive customer data acquisition.

Take a look at the attached photograph I recently snapped on my Blackberry from a Robeks smoothie shop. That’s a store-owned laptop computer sitting by the cash register, inviting customers to fill out the email registration page on their website. It’s an idea so simple that it comes off as clever — just an open laptop with a browser opened to their email registration form. The top of the form had a rotating banner offering special coupons via email, which demonstrated the value of signing up.

I took a moment to fill out my information on the laptop, received my smoothie and left the shop. The next day I received my welcome email and appeared to be entrenched in the customer lifecycle. To be honest, Robeks could use a little help on the follow up communications, but the acquisition effort was simply perfect. The rotating screen and form gave me — and others — something to look at and do as we waited to place and receive our smoothie orders.

To make it even better, Robeks simultaneously offered a mobile program where I could send a text to receive coupons on my phone. I love the idea, particularly during the holidays, of providing an incentivized mobile or email sign-up opportunity while customers wait in checkout lines. It’s just a great way to make a customer feel wanted and appreciated, and it certainly gives you something to do while waiting to get to the register.