http://www.smileandmove.com
http://www.just212.com
Horse Sense
If you work for a man, in Heaven’s name work for him. If he pays wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, and stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man, I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of his time, but all of his time. I would give an undivided service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content. But, I pray you, so long as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution – not that – but when you disparage the concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself.
The Mucky Duck is a great restaurant on the beach in Captiva Island, FL. It has great ocean views — if you get a window seat.
But not everyone can have a window seat …
So the owners created a rolling window they can bring right to your table.
Everyone laughs, everyone’s happy.
Lesson: How can you turn customer disappointment into a fantastic experience?
We’re all flooded by offers from companies we do business with for unrelated products. Like the airline that wants to sell you a credit card.
It’s easy for the company to think they’re making easy money by selling these ads, but I think it’s a mistake:
- Consumers will only accept so many offers/communications. You get X chances to sell them something. Why would you waste that opportunity selling someone else’s product instead of your own?
- Every irrelevant communication results in unsubscribes. It’s dumb to lose your ability to email someone forever to get a quick buck from a sponsor.
- Customers stop listening. To avoid sales pitches, your own customers start filtering out everything — including your important, relevant messages.
- No one trusts your brand. I gave you my money, my business, and my trust. And you sold it to someone else.
A particularly bad example from a major airline:
A: You give them something to show their friends.
Great example: I bought a pair of amazing pants from Cordarounds. Everyone started asking where I got them.
Guess what? In the box were a dozen little cards, each featuring a unique product photo and their web address. That gets a dozen face-to-face referrals, 20 cents each. (Get your own cards here.)
Read more from their blog — funny stuff.
Lesson: Make it easy for your fans to talk about you.
[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Sometimes a great way to refresh your business and earn some buzz is by shaking things up and breaking a few traditional business rules. A few ideas to get you started:
1> Your store hours
2> Your website
3> Your order process
4> Check it out: Rogers Park Cheetos
1> Your store hours
If you’re trying to shake up the supply and demand ratio or inject a little buzz into your business, try adjusting your store hours. Los Angeles’ Never Open Store — a tiny shop filled with eclectic art, clothing, and antiques — only opens when owner Stephanie Mata feels like unlocking the doors. In an interview with the L.A. Times, Mata explains she’s often working in her shop (assembling crafts or composing art) and doesn’t want to be bothered. She also likes to hand-pick her clientele. The thinking goes against most basic business principles, but it works for her. While other stores have “For Lease” signs in the window, The Never Open Store has a steady flow of hand-picked customers and plenty of curious outsiders trying to get in.
The Lesson: Mix up your store hours — a special midnight sale, an all-day event, unconventional weekend hours — to break the rules and your business rut.
Learn More: Los Angeles Times
2> Your website
According to Google, there are now more than a trillion active URLs on the web. That’s a trillion reasons to consider breaking a few online rules to make yours stand out. Ad and design agency BooneOakley did just that when they did away with their standard website and compiled everything into a single YouTube video. Their creative, functional, and unconventional website earned them a bunch of headlines, lots of positive feedback, and some well-deserved admiration for their bravery.
The Lesson: With so much competition on the web, you risk being invisible if you’re not willing to risk breaking a few rules.
Learn More: BooneOakley.com
3> Your order process
Your order and fulfillment process holds lots of opportunities to amaze customers (and break a few old-school rules, too). While legends like Zappos and Amazon continue to redefine the online ordering experience, few offline brands have been more daring in reinventing the order process than Japan’s small Ogori Cafe. Though bold, the concept is simple: You get what the person before you ordered, while the next customer gets what you order. Initially, the idea seems ridiculous, but it leads to a bunch of conversations, curiosity, and creates a sense of adventure among customers.
The Lesson: The purchase process is a huge part of the customer experience, and most of your competitors are overlooking opportunities to make it unique.
Learn More: PSFK
4> Check it out: Rogers Park Cheetos
Blogging is a paradise for rule breakers. Take for example this blog that photographically chronicles nearly two years of abandoned Cheetos bags around Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. It’s a funky concept, and after checking out a few of the photos, you might never look at a lonely, empty bag of Cheetos the same again.
Check it out: Rogers Park Cheetos
Brian Goulet makes handmade, inscribed wooden pens. Truly fantastic stuff.
But how does a one-person business stand out in a mass-produced, mass-marketing world? A small business can’t advertise their way past the clutter. You can’t do a mass-outreach campaign.
But you can use your uniqueness to your advantage.
Do what Brian did: Start giving unique products to loud people (like me). Bloggers, press, evangelists, socialites, and influencers. We each reach more people than Brian can, and his product is something that we use when other people are watching. We carry it around, we sign books with it — and people ask where we got it.
It works because a mass-produced product doesn’t get remarked upon. Everyone has it. The specialness is what starts the conversation.
That’s how word of mouth happens — one conversation at a time.
Thanks, Brian!
P.S. Check out Goulet Pens.
Cargo ships are giant fuel-guzzling polluters.
Satellite communications need giant dish antennas.
Support your local inventor: They are going to save the earth. (With ideas that are simpler than you expect.)
Clorox: Using gaming strategies to grow community
BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media
