Archive for the ‘Brand Loyalty’ Category

Rewarding Loyalty

April 28, 2013

Table Service

We love going there, the team know us, the manager knows us, there is always a great atmosphere and it is a real treat that we always look forward to.

The little touches are so important, finding you a good place to sit, recommending a special wine, suggesting a new beer, letting you have a sample on the house, asking your opinion about things they are doing…all in all a great place to eat, drink and relax.

The manager was telling us that they were thinking of introducing a “loyalty card” system to reward the regular customers – For every X number of meals you would get one free as well as some other benefits.

The truth is they don’t need a loyalty card system because they always reward our loyalty with their great service.

Instead of giving me one free meal for every ten we order and processing this through a card system, I’m pretty sure that I prefer being looked after in an informal, discretionary way…not because I have “earned” or qualified for my bonus meal.

Give me a drink on the house, a free dessert, a great seat, a warm welcome …it’s better than any card!

Places that don’t know you, might need a system to encourage repeat business and reward loyalty in an official way ….the great places never need a system!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

Chris, Seth, Mitch, Wisdom and the Power of Reply

March 17, 2013

Chris Brogan

It’s Sunday morning and I’m waiting for my weekly email from Chris Brogan, CEO of Human Business Works and co-author of the excellent books Trust Agents and Impact Equation about online and human behaviour.

Every Sunday he writes to me and shares some experience or learning, which is nearly always enriching and really valuable. He does this without fail and incredibly this costs me nothing. I really appreciate his generous spirit and openness and the fact that he does take time to write to me.

Of course he doesn’t write to just me – he has a huge “fan” (he’d never call us that but I’m going to use the word) base and we are all privileged to get his Sunday best!

The other amazing thing about Chris is that he has mastered the art of “reply”. If you send him a simple reply to his Sunday email telling you enjoyed it, he’ll actually come back to you and say thanks.

There is an actual person at the other end of that email who is quite happy to interact with you as well as just broadcast his message ..he’s genuinely interested in what I have to say.

I do appreciate that if he has to reply to thousands of emails he won’t have a life and we do need him to be bright and rested and able to send us those nuggets of wisdom – thanks Chris for your valuable time.

We’re really lucky to have so many really clever and quite brilliant people sharing their insights, experience and very often genius with us online.

I’m talking about bloggers who quite freely share their gems of wisdom on a regular basis with us including people like Chris, Seth Godin and Mitch Joel.

ReplyThe big difference with Chris is that he replies and interacts.

This in my view is the most powerful thing that he does and it’s this that sets him apart from the others..

Click here to sign up for his Sunday Service.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

Looking for Anna

December 25, 2012

Ellen Canty - coffee

My daughter Ellen is in great form …I am so thrilled for her that life is going so well. She is enjoying her job, she is doing really well in a beauty course that she is doing at night and personally things seem to be fitting into place.

You’re doing great” I said to her early one morning when she grabbed a lift from me to get to work.

I am” she admitted, “I’m in great form

As usual, not leaving anything alone I probed to see why life was so good and it was a mixture of everything that was going on in her life.

Coffee Pod, Winthrop StreetOne tiny but huge factor she attributes to her daily happiness is Anna – every morning before work she grabs a coffee at the Coffee Pod on Winthrop Street in Cork and Anna always sets her in great form with her cheery manner and warm greeting …isn’t life simple ?

Well done to Anna and all the other Anna’s out there, who put us in good form every day by the little, but huge things that they do …. I’ll be calling to the Coffee Pod soon to look for Anna to say thank you.

The small things we do can make a huge difference..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing & PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

“Live” Testimonials – Who thinks you are great?

February 25, 2012
testimonials

I think you're great !

My poor laptop was starting to fall apart, left mouse button a bit wobbly, battery life of about 2 minutes and a regular dose of crashing and ctrl alt deleting required ..

I just wasn’t up to the trauma of changing, mail system not working, transfer of files and program’s, a few days of frustration …. too busy for all of that!

In the end I was forced to bite the bullet so I rang my buddy Sean Ware from TSG who gave me a really good price on a well spec’d machine and promised to do a painless changeover.

Hmmmm … I wasn’t convinced, it never works out that way!

To be fair to Sean he had convinced us earlier in the year to move to Google Apps for our email service, which not only protected our emails but also made and changeover a lot easier.

A few days after ordering Sean arrived with the new laptop, software installed and even my email was set up. An hour later we were 100% up and running after transferring files and re-installing a few random pieces of software that I use.

I must hand it to him – the transfer was incredibly painless.

I paid him and sincerely thanked him for the great service.

Going out the door Sean winked at me and suggested that if I was really happy with the service I might “tweet” out that I was happy. To be honest he didn’t need to suggest it as I would have done it in any case! I was more than happy to oblige of course.

“Live” Testimonials

This is where social media is absolutely brilliant – you can capture “live testimonials” for you and your business for all to see.

Word of mouth was always the best form of referral and the traditional face to face method was the only way this really travelled. Now with your Facebook page, Twitter account and LinkedIn presence (of these LinkedIn personal recommendations are the most permanent and  powerful) you have an opportunity for anyone that is happy with you and your business to post that positive feedback “live” – what better way to capture that your customers are satisfied with you?

Next time someone tells you that you are great you know what to say to them!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Be nice to the elderly woman!

November 14, 2011
Pay it Forward

It pays to be nice!

This week I heard a really simple story by a guy who was participating in one of our training courses. He supplied corporate and domestic cleaning services and at the early stages of  building his business he was desperately trying to get some custom from the biggest hotel in his town. Despite all attempts he realised that he could not shift the incumbent supplier who the hotel were extremely loyal to so he eventually stopped trying.

Some time later he was asked to clean the carpets in this elderly woman’s house, which he did and at the end of a very long and tiring day he finished the job and packed away all of his cleaning gear. The old woman realised that there was another room upstairs that she had forgotten about and she asked him would he look after it.

Even though it was late and it would take an age to unpack and set up all of his cleaning gear again he decided he would go ahead, unload and clean the extra room. The woman thanked him and did acknowledge the extra work and inconvenience that was involved in cleaning the extra room.

Two weeks later he received a call from the hotel to come and clean some of their carpets.

Guess who was related to the elderly woman?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Porridge & what I learnt about samples!

November 1, 2011
Flahavans Porridge

Hard habit to break?

I don’t like porridge, at least that’s what I always thought!

In truth I had never tasted it and at 46 what were the chances of me developing a taste for a new cereal? In particular one that was sticky, stodgy and a little messy to make.

I came down the stairs and as usual a really busy week at work meant that the shopping had been neglected and the cupboards were bare, except for this box of Flahavans porridge that had been given to each of the attendees at the Cork Chamber annual conference.

Ok, desperate times calls for desperate measures so let’s try it – how bad can it be? I crack open the carton and see 10 sachets inside with a handy little measuring cup. I quickly read the instructions, empty the sachet, two measures of milk, 2 minutes in the microwave and stir.

Hmmm ..not as bad as I was expecting but maybe it could have been a little sweeter?

Next morning and due to another hectic day at work and the small matter of final accounts being needed for the tax deadline the shopping had still been neglected – ok, let’s try the porridge again but this time lets add a small dash of maple syrup that I found at the back of the cupboard.

Hmmm..this was quite nice after all, it was easy to make and very warming on a cold and miserable morning.

Next morning – I’m looking forward to my porridge. A new habit was born!

It’s never too late to convert a customer but if you are doing it with samples don’t just give them a taste, give them enough so they can form a new habit.

Flahavans – well done to you!

I’m sure at some point that someone internally put their neck on the line and insisted that full boxes of product be given to participants at conferences instead of single sachets because they understood that’s what is needed to change habits.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Do the right thing or do the right thing for you?

October 23, 2011

Doing the right thing?

I sat in the car with the engine running wondering should I turn back?

I had agreed to attend an unfair dismissal hearing as a witness for a guy who had been mistreated by his ex-employer. My dilemma was that his employer was a big company that we were likely to be pitching to in the future on some projects that we were working on. This was a little tricky – I didn’t really know this guy that well but I did know that he had been treated quite unfairly.

I wondered why he was relying on me as I reckoned there were another few guys better placed to be witnesses but unfortunately with these things many people “don’t want to get involved“. In my early naive career days I struggled to understand why people behaved like that – but after a while you I understood the need to be careful and watch the big picture.

Anyhow I reflected on the situation, decided that he had been wronged and continued on my journey to his hearing – I honestly told them what I knew and along with some other evidence this helped to win his case and he managed to negotiate a settlement, which he put towards setting up on his own.

I am happy to report that it was probably the best thing that happened to him and he now has a really successful business – he also turned out to be a really great client of ours a few years later!

Sometimes we are faced with these tricky situations and it can be hard not to think of your own interests first. It’s probably being irresponsible but when it comes down to it – maybe we should just do the right thing.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Marketing & PR

When Great Products can mask over Poor Service

October 15, 2011
Butlers Chocolates

Great Coffee - Not so great service

I found myself in the queue of Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shop for about the fifth time in the week for my ritual morning treat and I just decided that I had to leave and search the streets of Cork for another alternative outlet that might serve coffee as good because of what I witnessed the previous day(Cork Coffee Roasters on Bridge Street is a little too far away).

Unfortunately I didn’t find a better cup of coffee anywhere so I just have to try to solve my dilemma by blogging about my experience in the hope that Butlers might notice.

Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shops do great coffee but at times the customer service is just appalling (my social media contacts will have seen a zillion posts about this from me). Some of the staff are very friendly and some are really quite the opposite. I find this incredible – I go in there at least three or four times a week, I buy a few coffees each time and some of the regular staff would neither smile, make small talk or even make eye contact.

There is also a very definite policy of preparing the coffee for the customer and leaving it on the counter and then “shouting” out the order until the customer hears and collects. You could be in there on a quiet day, sitting having a chat while waiting for your coffee , just feet from the counter and the staff will still “shout” your order instead of popping it over to you – I must admit this drives me nuts!

This must be how the staff are trained and I feel it also probably lends itself to a culture whereby a “no smile” scenario is quite acceptable as well. I can see the logic around staff overhead but this policy needs to be applied with some intelligence and “cop on”.

Hilariously they recently introduced a new electronic loyalty card system called a “Happiness” card and for the few weeks around it’s introduction all the staff had t-shirts with “Happiness” written boldly across them. With the card you earn your usual one in ten coffees free but you also earn loyalty points – all designed to have you coming back. Now there’s a good promotional idea!

This week I witnessed the very worst customer service incident, which motivated me to eventually write – A woman with a young kid and a new born baby around her neck in a little sling ordered a low fat latte. She seemed under pressure as she sat down while waiting for her coffee – the “shout” duly followed by the staff member: “low fat latte” to be followed by an even louder and more impatient “low fat latte“.

The poor lady who was sitting down and a little under pressure with her toddler and baby responded “I’ll get it when I am ready“. At this stage practically every customer in the coffee shop had heard the awful interaction and were trying to figure out why none of the three staff on duty could make an exception and walk the few feet over to the woman with her coffee.

I was chatting with a buddy of mine and I was about to collect the coffee from the counter and bring it over to the woman only to be beaten to the punch by another customer.

Incredible!

The product is great so we keep going back but at some point a new coffee shop will open that will know the value of smiling and the even greater the value of bringing coffee down to a customer in extreme or not so extreme situations .. I look forward to it.

If you have a great product be careful not to create an opportunity for poor service to creep in.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Is it all about price?

October 9, 2011
Greg Canty Fuzion

Win Win or crush the seller?

I remember when I started my first accountancy industry job in Deasy & Co. one of the early tasks I had was the job of selecting a supplier for all of our stationery requirements.

In those days we went through huge amounts of paper and our bill would have been quite large.

I approached the task diligently as the good accountant that I was – meeting each of the prospective suppliers and impassionately processing their quotes. The best quote won and next time round I did exactly the same thing all over again and put our business out for tender. It didn’t really matter who the supplier was – as long as I achieved the best price and the maximum savings for the company – wasn’t I brilliant?

24 years later and I find ourselves putting quotes together the whole time to hopefully win business and on the other side of the coin we deal with many suppliers.

A few things have I have learnt about pricing since those early days:

  • The clients who hammer us on price because that’s just what they do, I have very little interest in doing business with them again
  • If every piece of work a prospective client has is put out to auction I find myself caring less about this business (unless it is a tender situation where this is what you have to do)
  • I deal with suppliers that I like dealing with as long as their prices are fair – I won’t break them up every time
  • Trust and respect and a genuine interest in each others business is really important
  • The word Loyalty is really important -not blind loyalty
  • You have to leave a Win Win in every single deal that you do (James Caan the successful businessman from Dragons Den talks about learning this valuable lesson from his Dad at an early stage in his career in his excellent book)

For us building a successful business is all about providing excellent services (we don’t always get it right but we will try our best) to our clients in a partnership capacity – they outline their objectives and we do our best to achieve these together.

In the course of our business we use service and product providers that we trust and like doing business with, that ultimately will help us do our job. There is one exception where one of our suppliers just doesn’t care about our business and we are busy looking for a better solution.

The price should be fair and leave a Win Win for everyone.

Do you pay a heavy price when it’s all about price?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

p.s. apologies to those suppliers years ago – I guess we were probably the loser ?

Bad haircut ..

August 12, 2011
Greg Canty Fuzion

Haircut? - I've just had one !

For years and years I went to the same hairdresser to get my curly mop chopped. For anyone that has witnessed my curls they will know that it is not a regular head of hair – at least that is what I have convinced myself!

Yes, I am particular and once I find someone who I trust to look after my hair I will continue to go there every time, asking for the same person – you end up feeling comfortable with the surroundings and the staff there, which in particular for a guy is a big deal … A hair salon can be a daunting place for a male, surrounded by women nattering, getting blow drys and with their hair in all sorts of weird tin foil! (surely there must be a better method?)

The guys reading this will be wondering why I don’t just go to a barbers – trust me, anytime I have done this it has been a total disaster … even when I was a kid the regular barber just couldn’t handle my hair. So, unfortunately I am destined for a life of embarrassing moments at hair salons ..

My hair trips have been interesting down though the years – ending up in the window under red lamps in Peter Marks at Wilton Shopping Centre when you are 15 on a Wednesday afternoon half day from school is not funny when your buddies are in convulsions looking in – last time I agreed for my hair to be dried naturally!

Or wondering that no matter what instructions I gave the salon I always ended up being scalped – years later I learnt that when I left the house my mother would ring the salon and warn them that she was coming for a refund if they did not give me a decent hair cut – for years I went around thinking hairdressers were deaf!!

The worst was being handed a brush to clean down my clothes and instead I start brushing my hair with it – mortified and red faced I left the salon with the staff thoroughly enjoying the hilarious experience ..

Now, do you understand why I am sensitive about the hairdressers and how important it is that I am comfortable there? – you can also understand that it would take me an awful lot to change from my regular salon.

Sure enough it happened – a few times I rang and they were always too busy and couldn’t squeeze me in, would the following Wednesday week at 4:30 suit? Not really ..

This happened a number of times and eventually I took a huge leap of faith and changed salons and 5 years later I am still going to the one that I switched to – I now know the staff quite well and am comfortable going there.

Truth is most of us are very slow to change our habits unless something has gone wrong, until the day you get a bad haircut – I guess there is more than one hairdresser in the land that can cut my strange mop of hair after all ..

As comfortable as your customer is with you and your team watch out for bad haircuts..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

PR is all about managing your reputation – while at Fuzion we can enhance your reputation through the media the most important aspects come directly from you.


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