Human ExchangePoints Matter, Even With Crepes

Human ExchangePoints can make even crepes irrelevant

Last week I had a crepe for the first time.  If you don’t know a crepe is a very thin pancake rolled around various ingredients, either cheese and meat or some kind of fruit.  It can be quite delicious and the little shop I visited in Kingston last week was no exception.  But no matter how good your product is, one little lapse in service can ruin it all.

Jaime Les Crepes is a small shop right next to the Kingston Ferry, where about 80% of its customers come from, and the whole shop can’t be more than the size of a small kitchen lending to it the distinct feel of a European shop.  I liked it immediately.  I enjoyed it even more when on the first day I was helped by Kattie, a two year crepe veteran.  Kattie made the crepes, held a conversation with multiple customers, and rang up the orders all by herself.  I was in and out in about 5 minutes or so.  She was very personable, completely competent, and left me wanting to come back the next day.

The difference the next morning was night and day.  I walked into the shop to see two younger girls at the counter, both seemingly in a bad mood, trying to work around each other in a cramped space.  The whole mood inside the small shop had changed.  When they finally got to my order (two took longer than one) it was made well, as far as I could tell, but without the conversation or the enthusiasm.  Since I had to transport the order back to the cabin my wife and I were staying at, I tried to help by telling her what Kattie did the day before.  This employee looked right at me and said with almost a sneer, “I’ve done this before.”  Okay then… I stepped back and observed at that point.  I paid for my food and brought it out to the car only to find that the container with the blueberry crepes had leaked on my foot.  She hadn’t packed it right.

All of these factors make a huge difference.  I would rather have this entry be a love letter to that establishment as a shining beacon of what customer service should be, but instead I would probably not remember to personally recommend that shop to anyone I know.

All companies have points at which they exchange value with customers, ExchangePoints, and the human point is often the most important (as well as the most difficult to control).  Customers buy into these exchange points just like they do a regular product, I wanted the service interaction just as much as the crepe.

In the end this is the difference between a destination point and a stop of convenience.  Most customers will use the product until a better alternative comes around, then the customers will jump ship and swim to a newer boat.  Whether it is a service business or a chance conversation, the little things matter, and a quality Human ExchangePoint could be the difference between a loyal friend or a passing acquaintance.

Brand Promises Broken

Just got back from my Honeymoon and we had a fantastic and wonderfully relaxing time… for the most part.

One of the crowning jewels in this blissful experience was to be an overnight stay in Seattle; catch a show, stay in a nice hotel, eat some really good food.  Alas, it was not to be so.  The hotel I booked looked like it was filled with old world charm and elegance, just the things that my new bride enjoys.  The pictures on hotels.com for the REGULAR GUEST ROOMS, not the suites, look like this:

Beautiful room, right?

Supposed to be the guest room

I won’t say the deal I got on the website but it was a fairly decent price, and I couldn’t wait to show her the wonderful place I found for us.  As we pulled up to the front entrance, we were greeted by an effusive and smiling parking attendant who seemed knowledgeable and very helpful.  He then informed us that we would have to pay an extra $38 for him to park our car or we could go down the street a couple blocks to a public garage.  He said this while taking our luggage out of the car, with an impatient tone, leaving me feeling like we had no option.  I gave him the keys.  This was definitely strike one since most other hotels of repute in Seattle pay for guests parking or offer some kind of discounted service.  Not this hotel.

We walked into the grand lobby, looking just like the pictures.  Rich, majestic, and quite beautiful.  The check-in goes fairly smoothly, and we are off to our room.  The walls are colored robin’s egg blue with trims of gold and yellow, all very well done and the excitement is building, I can’t wait for her to see the room.  We get to the door and open…

The bed was kind of nice

Plain, Plain, Plain

Does this look like the pictures above?

Looks like a Holiday Inn, not a 5 star hotel

To say the least, we were disappointed.  I understand that promotional pictures are different from reality but this much?  And beyond that, how is the theme of the room jiving with the rest of the hotel?  Old world elegance meets thrift store Asian Fusion?

I called down to the front desk hoping for some resolution but instead found a disgruntled employee unwilling to help my new wife and I on our honeymoon.  She had no explanation for the discrepancy in decor, made no apology for the subterfuge, and informed me that ALL the guest rooms looked like that (in a tone that suggested I should have known that) but she might be able to find a different color scheme.  I hung up.

We pressed on and being the great people that we are we had a fantastic night, caught a show, met some new friends, and generally enjoyed life.  The next morning we got up to check out and skipped down to the guest services counter, happy to be leaving the disappointing room.  When we got to the counter, the employee asked the fateful words I had been waiting for:

“How was your stay with us?”

I told her.  In great detail actually of the fantastic frustrations the hotel heaped upon us.  It wasn’t a bad hotel, nice in it’s own way, just the advertising is lying and that isn’t good for the company’s soul.  To her credit, Jonah, listened patiently and apologized immediately for her colleague’s callousness, comping our parking and offering to help us with a room in the future.  She nearly saved the experience.

Nearly.

These days no business can afford to be substandard, to promise a certain level of service or product and then not deliver.  People expect all businesses, just as they do other people, to be honest and fair with them in their dealings together.  The hotel offered one experience and delivered another, not drastically different but enough that our expectations were immediately shattered.  It was so bad that the room might as well have been a flea bag motel.

Will we stay there again?  Probably not.  The memory of being lied to is too strong and I suspect we are not alone.  I imagine that the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle has lost a fair number of customers because its advertising isn’t based in reality.  I know my wife and I will always remember our stay there as the low point on our honeymoon, simply because our expectations were built up and then shattered by a lack of brand integrity.

The Soul of a Business

How bright is a company's soul?

The soul, or pneuma, of a business is shown in its DNA, the very code that gives it life. A company is very much like a belief system offering values, community, relevance, leadership and vision, empathy, and trust to the body of customers (see believers) that buy (see follow) its product(s) (see values). People are looking for companies and brands that they can believe in, belong to, and that spark the right emotions that connect them to something greater than themselves.

On the other side, Companies run and survive on connections, on interactions with people. Without a sufficient quantity of quality interactions, the company will die. These connections are the life blood of the organization, the only way to make it survive.

The average corporation is 20 to 30 years old but most don’t make it to the age of 5, and many die in their infancy. If corporations are treated as people then what does this mean, how do we create corporations that last? A company survives based on the number and quality of its relationships to people, no company is an island and it cannot live alone. These relationships are the fuel, the life blood, the sustaining force.

The Company’s character determines its value to customers and how it communicates that value, the quality of the connections it can establish, determines how long it will stay alive.

Boats are interesting

In Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friend’s and Influence People” he relates a tale about a man who Carnegie remembers as an amazing communicator.  The man seemed able to talk on and on about Carnegie’s favorite subject at the time, boats, and at the end of their time together Carnegie was amazed at the man’s depth of interest in the subject.  We come to find out that the man really knew little about the subject, but was able to listen well enough to surmise Carnegie’s deep interest in the subject and talk about what he knew.

Organizations today have the same opportunity with their customers and stakeholders.  In fact, if they don’t begin to REALLY listen to what their constituencies are interested in then the Reaper may be knocking on the door in regards to the salmon mouse.  Companies must be interested in what the customer is interested in and there must be dialogue and positive interaction for value to be built. Communication comes from the organization’s values and goes out in any way it can to interact with the customer.

Organizations must trade mutual values and build agendas with customers where both profit from the interaction.  The first step is really listening.

The Changing Nature of Human Interactions

The world is changing and becoming more condensed, simpler, there is less smoke and shadow to cloud our minds.  We know what is happening.  People all around see what is going on but they must CHOOSE to close their eyes.  Ignorance is no longer an excuse.  New technology and advances in every area of science make us more connected, longer living, and able to live our lives without the worry of an early passing.  Now we fret about the loss of our possessions, our things, those materials we have become attached to instead of actual people.  Or are these material goods really taking over?  Is the connection we feel so much deeper than a mere replacement of affections?

Humans need connection to other humans.  We relish the rich, complex diversity that only comes from the one on one interaction with another person.  Even so called introverts need this connection from time to time.  It’s an exchange need, a basic belief that mental exchange with another person is vital and even necessary to one’s continued existence.  But does that “person” need to be an actual person, a living breathing, flesh and blood human being?  Explain Christianity, or any religion in that case.  Religions, corporations, organizations, tribes, even products can take on a life of their own in the mind of a consumer.  The product, company, or organization is no longer a lifeless name but a vibrant character filled with history, passions, and a deep sense of familiarity.

We see the corporation or products as we would another person.  We interact with it on a similar level as our friends.  We visit it, we interact with it, call and talk to it, telling our secrets and desires to it.  Most people spend more time interacting with companies and products than actual people or their own family and friends.  While the world is changing, people do not.  We still want the same things; survival, security, identity, belonging, and interaction.  But we no longer HAVE to receive those things from a live person.

Business today has an amazing opportunity to craft and develop a corporate character and soul so that it provides the most value possible in any given interaction with its’ customers.  People want to connect, to interact and are more than willing to look at your company or your product as a viable substitute for interaction with live people.  Or perhaps your employees are the reason the customers keep coming back?  Irrelevant, it is still your corporate personality that brings the customer back time and time again.  People see that and respond in kind.

This is the beginning

My friend Justin suggested that I begin a blog because he thinks I have something to say.  He said he would actually follow me so I told him I’ll give it a try.

I really do so the world changing.  “Marketing” as we know it will see a dramatic shift from its current loose and unorganized methods to holistic and cohesive.  “Marketing” will cease to be a word with relevant meaning, relegated to the world of history books that people will look back on in head shaking wonder.  Instead we will speak of story, soul, and personality.

We already unconsciously see companies and businesses as “people” and interact with them as we would a beloved friend and confidant.  The next steps will see us completing this transformation.  But business theory and strategy need to catch up and recognize that business owners have a Frankenstein-like power to bring entities to life, that every decision affects the corporate story, its soul, and ultimately its personality.

I repeat these words for good reason because they, or something like them, will be the new terms by which we describe our organizations, the gauges of how we interact with these invisible, but all too real, entities.

This blog will be about that transition and all the related minutia that affect our societal transformation to a more connected and personable collection of human beings.  If you are reading this, please join the conversation.

Note: As of this post I don’t have a home internet connection, working on that, but I am updating as often as I can.  If I don’t reply right away you now understand why.