Maximize The Benefit
Minimize the bullshit.
By Ken Peters, January 2010
Let's be frank. For consumers, your brand’s value is proportional to the
amount of aggravation it adds to or eliminates from their lives. Maximize the
benefit and minimize the bullshit or be swept into the dustbin of irrelevance.
Today’s consumers are too smart and too busy to waste time with bullshit
brands.
Case in point: my recent holiday shopping exploits with two
prominent retailers. Never before have I encountered so much – pardon the
bluntness – brand bullshit. Read on and you’ll see what I mean. Don’t worry,
though, this post isn’t about whining.
You may have to indulge me in a little
venting, but you’ll benefit from a critical review of how poorly designed brand
experiences can cost sales and send customers running to your competition.
Whether you’re selling consumer products at retail or offering B2B services –
or anything in between – you can learn from the mistakes of these brands.
Our story begins with my quest for Christmas gifts. First on
my list, a Nook, Barnes & Noble’s sleek new entry into the eBook reader
category.
Nook Schnook
Upon entering the B&N store bold Nook signage directed
me to the front registers. Where else would you make a purchase anyway? After
languishing in line with twelve shoppers waiting, four registers idling, two
cashiers ringing and zero people smiling, I finally made it to the counter…
where I was told Nook purchases were handled at customer service. Oddly, that’s
where else.
Nonplused, I trudged across the store to the customer service
counter… where I was told Nook was out of stock. Three weeks before Christmas
and the season’s hot, hi-tech gift gadget was unavailable? There could be
plenty of reasons why, but no excuses. Bottom line,
Nooks wouldn’t be shipping until mid January – too late to make it under the
tree, but luckily, just in time for National Hat Day. Disheartened, I decided
to place an order anyway. That’s when things went from bad to worse.
Rather than purchase online, I’d come to the store specifically
to pay with cash. Big problem. For reasons never explained, you have to order
your Nook via barnesandnoble.com, even when purchasing in-store, which meant
I’d still have to use a credit card. Unless, as the clerk suggested, I used the
cash to purchase a gift card in-store and then applied the gift card toward
purchase of the Nook online.
What brilliant retail mind dreamt that one up? Requiring customers to jump
through hoops to accommodate your needs isn’t exactly minimizing the bullshit.
Not accepting cash is just plain stupid.
Even so, I was determined to surprise my wife with a Nook –
or at least a Nook brochure and an I.O.U. – for National Hat Day… err,
Christmas… and so acquiesced to the convoluted gift card scenario. Of course,
they couldn’t ring up gift cards at customer service, so I trudged back to the
front registers, procured the card and trudged back to customer service to
complete the online Nook transaction. Then came more bad news.
Turns out that my paid Barnes & Noble Member discount
didn’t apply to Nook purchases. Nor, for that matter, would it apply to future
downloaded titles. Not a deal-breaker, but file under “annoying restrictions” a
la non-rollover minutes or frequent flier blackout dates – cross-ref., “we
don’t care about you.” Lame.
Having now been given ample time and reason to ponder the
wisdom of this purchase (I’d been mired in the process for roughly 15 minutes),
I was beginning to have second thoughts. After all, I’d only heard good things
about Amazon’s Kindle eReader – in stock, guaranteed delivery before Christmas
with free 2-day shipping, dontcha know. Then something occurred to me. What if
my wife didn’t like the Nook and wanted to return it? Could happen. Would the
$281 purchase price be refunded in cash or would she be stuck with a $281 Barnes
& Noble gift card?
You guessed it… gift card. Minus, I was told, a $25
restocking fee (later I would find this fee only applied if the product were
opened, but the clerk never mentioned that at the time). In fact, nothing was
mentioned about return restrictions until I asked. That closed the book on the
Nook. Crestfallen, I canceled the purchase and asked the clerk to refund my
money for the gift card, which she did, politely and apologetically.
Short of fighting me off with ninjas Barnes & Noble seemed
to have done everything in their power to thwart the purchase. What should have
been effortless became a frustrating fiasco. Woven into this tale are subplots
concerning a book they didn’t have in stock and a baseball DVD set they
wouldn’t knock a mere $8 off of to price-match the competition. When it was all
said and done, B&N left this consumer feeling frustrated and completely
unappreciated – and I left them with $350 still in my pocket instead of in
their register.
But, the story doesn’t end there. I wasn’t so much angry as
astonished by such a poorly designed customer experience. Why was purchasing a
Nook made so difficult? How could they refuse a modest price-match for a
customer with cash in-hand ready to buy? How would B&N react on a corporate
level upon learning of my negative experience? My professional curiosity was
piqued, so I did the only thing a consumer can do in such a situation – I
called corporate to complain.
The Plot Thickens
Well, I tried to call at least. When I asked for the corporate
customer service number the clerk wrote down, 1-800-THE-NOOK. Upon dialing, a
recorded female voice purred, “Hey sexy guy, welcome to an exciting new way to
go one-on-one with hot, horny girls waiting to talk to you.” Either this was
going to be the greatest customer service ever or I had been given the wrong
number.
Turns out (as I’d find later) the number the clerk should
have given me was, 1-800-THE-BOOK. Nook/book, easy mistake. You have to chuckle
at that, but you also have to wonder how they’d allow their service number to
be so similar to something so inappropriately intrusive to their brand.
When I phoned the store and explained I’d been given the
wrong number the manager unapologetically gave me another. Unfortunately, it
was Barnes & Noble’s distribution center. The person answering had
absolutely no idea why I would have been directed to them. Me neither. Luckily,
they were able to connect me to customer service. Finally!
Relaying my tale to the service representative garnered no
resolution. I asked to speak to someone in charge and after waiting for a few
minutes was told that all supervisors were “unavailable.” They took my name and
number and promised that a supervisor would return my call. The wait began.
Consumers Are Talking. Are You Listening?
In the meantime I turned to Twitter to vent my discontent.
Surely a brand like Barnes & Noble is monitoring the social media space, is
active on Twitter, searching for conversation about their brand and engaging
consumers, right? Turns out, they’re not.
A quick Twitter search uncovered @BNStudio, a profile
defining itself as, “Book-centric audio and video content at BN.com.” No
living, breathing person was listed as the voice behind the profile and a quick
review of the tweets in the timeline revealed only push marketing. Every tweet
was merely a 140-character ad linking back to bn.com. No engagement of any
kind. No discussion with, or retweets of, their followers. No opportunity to
connect with the brand directly in a meaningful way. Essentially, there was
nothing social at all about their social media presence. Surprised, I turned to
my Twitter followers.
After a couple casual tweets mentioning my poor experience
the responses began pouring in. Seems others hadn’t had much luck with B&N
either. Many people tweeted to extol the benefits of Amazon’s Kindle over the
Nook. One gal tweeted to clarify the 800# snafu. Popular blogger and author,
Ted Coine even dashed out a quick blog post on the whole situation while the
Twitter discussion was underway and tweeted the link to his followers. Lots of people were talking, but no one affiliated
with B&N appeared to be listening.
That’s a shame because they missed a great opportunity to
connect with consumers. Sites like Twitter allow brands to tap into authentic
customer commentary to learn what they’re doing right and what they’re doing
wrong. Yet, many timidly avoid social media for fear they’ll lack control.
Guess what, you’re not in control of your brand, consumers are. All you have is
influence, and social media gives you more of that, as well as connectivity
that can provide priceless information and insight.
Savvy brands go beyond just listening, directly engaging
consumers within the social media space. Sometimes it’s about conversation, but
sometimes it can be about addressing customer concerns. Social media isn’t
about sales it’s about expanding the brand experience and building
relationships. Sales are a byproduct of the relationship.
Here was a chance for B&N to reach out to a frustrated
customer, to go above and beyond the common brand experience to fix the problem
and emerge as heroes. Instead, they were nowhere to be found, and the grousing
grew as more consumers entered the conversation.
Dial “F” For Frustration
For the next week, I continued to try and connect with
B&N customer service. They never returned my initial call, so twice more I
phoned, and twice more I was told all supervisors were “unavailable”. Finally,
after five days I received a voice mail from a Mr. Ed Winkle saying that if I
called back he could help me. Perhaps he could have, but when I called back he
was… wait for it… “unavailable.”
However, someone named Yvette was available so I recounted
the whole exasperating experience to her. For the first time somebody actually
asked what Barnes & Noble could do for me to make things right. There were
lots of possibilities, of course, from gift cards to, dare I suggest it, a free
Nook. Crazy? Why not a bold gesture to win back a disenchanted customer and convert them into a
raving fan?
It didn’t matter what they did. They’d already lost my
business and weren’t getting it back. At this point my interest was purely
professional, and I was following through only to get a conclusion to the blog
post I knew I’d be sharing with you. The resolution was up to them, I said.
Yvette contritely assured me that they’d look into it, and that she’d
personally get back to me within 48 hours. She didn’t.
Five days later (10 days after my initial call) I received
an email from her stating, in part, “We are still researching the matter and
have forwarded all your concerns to upper management, you will be contacted
shortly with a resolution.” Interestingly, her email indicated that she was
with the out-of-print books division and her title was merely Customer Service
Representative, not Manager or Supervisor. I’m guessing that when I called for
the fourth time requesting a supervisor that they simply gave me to her because
everyone else was still “unavailable.”
As of the posting of this blog 15 days have passed since
that email was sent and no follow up from B&N upper management has been
received. I no longer expect one. 25 days have come and gone since I first
called customer service and my concerns remain unresolved. Barnes & Noble
has made it clear that they don’t care.
Bad Service: The Sequel
Barnes &
Noble had completely alienated me, but Christmas was coming, and I still needed presents. That book they
didn’t have in stock and the baseball DVD set they wouldn’t price-match were
still on my list, so I phoned the local Borders Books & Music to see if I’d
have more success with them. I wouldn’t.
This one is quick… I called, they immediately put me on hold
and while holding I curiously logged onto amazon.com to see if they had the
book and DVD set I was looking for. Not only were they in stock, the prices
were considerably less than retail and free 2-day shipping was included. And,
there was that Kindle, still guaranteed by Christmas and also with the free
2-day shipping.
By that point, though, I'd decided to hold off on an eReader, figuring that before long Apple will surely release a device that trumps everyone.
While still on hold, I placed the order with Amazon for the book and DVDs and
was checked out before anyone ever picked up the phone again in the store (about eight minutes on hold, by the way).
Baffled by yet another blundering brand, I called Borders
back and politely explained to the manager what had happened. Perhaps I just
needed someone to acknowledge the absurdity of it all. Her unrepentant response
was that they were simply too busy and trying to do the best they could.
Trying? Not good enough. Yoda taught us that lesson a long time ago, “Do or do
not. There is no try.”
That’s what it boils down to when designing a branded
experience that puts the customer first. Make the effort, not excuses. How easy
would it have been for the Borders clerk to take my name and number and ask to
call me back in a few minutes? I’d have understood. That’s certainly better
than being left on silent hold indefinitely. Would it have kept me from
checking online? No, but it would have kept me from finalizing the online
purchase before hearing back, so he’d have given the store a fighting chance at
the sale.
Design From The Customer Perspective
Consumers don’t need brands wasting their time. In the end,
that’s exactly what both retailers did, putting up roadblocks every step of the
way by not considering their customers’ needs: misdirection and long waits in
the retail space; understaffing during the busy holiday season; poor product
availability; unwillingness to match competitors prices; appalling lack of
customer service; and, most amazingly, not being prepared to take cash for
their signature item of the season.
Your brand is only as strong as the last impression it made
with a given consumer. That impression is formed by the outcome of each experience across every brand touchpoint. You can’t control outcomes, but you can
certainly influence them. Design puts the power of influence in your hands. Designing positive experiences shows consumers that you care. Great design maximizes the benefit and minimizes the bullshit and
is the catalyst for reaching and retaining customers.
Amidst a blustery economy, during a critical holiday
shopping season seeing consumers trending from retail to e-tail – particularly
in the book category – these failing brand experiences were especially
surprising. Barnes & Noble and Borders both bombed. Amazon, on the other
hand, left me smiling from A to Z – just like the promise visualized in their
logo.
What's The Moral Of The Story?
Consumers care about brands
that care about them. Design an experience that puts consumers front and
center, show them that they matter, and they’ll reward you with fierce loyalty.
Leave them feeling like you don’t care, and they’ll spend their money with
somebody else who does.
Author’s Note: I’ve painted a pretty rosy picture of Amazon
so I feel it’s important to clarify that I am in no way affiliated with them,
nor have I been compensated by them in any way for the content of this blog post.
©Nocturnal Graphic Design Studio, LLC
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