Outside Innovation

It's Almost 2011: What's Your Mobile Strategy?

Every day, all around the world, more and more people use their mobile phones to text, to send and read email, to look things up online, and to do business online. Not having a mobile strategy in 2010 is like not having a Web strategy in 2000. You're already way behind.

Given the buzz around the iPhone and iPad apps, it's tempting to decide that developing apps for the iPhone, the Android, the Blackberry and all the other Smartphones out there is the right thing to do. But is it? Let's step back and take a look at all of the ways you can engage with prospects, customers, employees, and partners whose preferred tool for interaction (at least for parts of their days) is to use their mobile phone—not for talking—but for typing!

There may be "50 ways to leave your lover," but there are at least 14 ways I can think of (and counting) to implement a mobile strategy.

Designing/Refining Your Mobile Strategy
Fourteen Approaches to Consider as You Reach Out to Customers Using Mobile Devices
By Patricia B. Seybold, CEO and Sr. Consultant, December 23, 2010

Really Happy with the Way "my" Latest Book Turned Out!

Just got the most recent printed copies of my latest oeuvre: It Takes a Child to Raise a Village. I really like the way they turned out! Tikatok did a great job of producing them for me! I've spent a happy morning shipping out copies to all who ordered copies for the holidays! It's not too late!

How did this book come to be? I spent a week on campus with these girls 11-18 years old. I had 45 minutes with each class (it was the middle of their exam period!). I asked them to write short essays and/or draw pictures about their "Back Home Projects." I handed out color sharpies for the drawings. They worked in class while I egged them on. Then, I disappeared for 6 months. Came back in October with copies of the finished book. The girls were blown away!! They didn't think I really would DO anything with their work!

We held a school assembly where they told their stories on video (coming soon!). And sent them home (not a simple thing, when you live miles away on dirt roads!) with permission slips for their parents/guardians to sign, so that we could publish their photos as well as their writing and artwork.

They are so PROUD of this book! I am so proud of them! These girls are truly transforming the lives of the people in their villages. They are the future hope of Africa!

My Mortifying iPad Experience

How Apple’s Famed UI Made Me Look Bad

I took my iPad to a consulting gig this week. Instead of impressing my clients, it embarrassed me. Granted, I'm still an iPad neophyte. I have been using it primarily as a personal entertainment center. I downloaded my favorite TV series. I carry around my photos, my music library, and a PDF of my latest book to show off. There are lots of things I haven't yet learned how to do. But determined to turn my iPad into a working asset, I turned up at a client engagement with two note-taking programs (Notes and Pages), a mind mapping application, and a wireless keyboard to make it faster to capture notes and thoughts. I carried both iPad and keyboard around in a simple padded carrying case. So far, so good. Very professional.

Until my iPad began bursting into song at very inopportune moments! I would be on a tour of a facility or sitting at someone's desk interviewing them and, all of a sudden, we'd hear a burst of a Beatles song, or the dulcet tones of Billy Holiday, or a rousing chorus from the Pirates of Penzance! A lot of fumbling would ensue, while I zipped open my carrying case, extracted my iPad and attempted to shut it up. And fumble I did, muttering apologies as I did so. I turned it off, but the music would keep playing. I put the audio on mute, and it would shut up for a while, but then burst into song again an hour later! Why was this happening? I was both mystified and mortified. My clients were bemused and surprised that I couldn't master this seemingly simple device.

Best Ways to Handle Customer Problems?

We all know that handling a customer issue is often a make or break moment for any company. If you annoy the customer, you damage the relationship, possibly for good. If you wow them, you gain a loyal fan. This week, Ronni Marshak dissects three almost identical customer experiences — 2 bad, 1 good — to illustrate how easy it really is to wow your customers. It all comes down to one thing: how much do you respect your customers?

Treating Your Customers with Respect
Provide Concerned, Engaged, and Accurate Customer Service or Risk the Customer Relationship
By Ronni T. Marshak, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, December 2, 2010

Experiencing a Customer-Centric Culture in Action

Last week, Ronni Marshak and I had a unique opportunity to watch the inner workings of a company during one of its busiest and most stressful times. Although I can't tell you the name of the company, it's one you may have interacted with. What I found truly amazing was the degree to which customer-centricity permeated ALL the operations of this organization. Everyone understood what mattered to customers and why. Very complex decisions were being made to optimize difficult and challenging choices in real time. Yet everyone was completely grounded in the same ethos: We don't disrupt our customers' lives, unless it's absolutely unavoidable. And we don't have to charge a premium to make money. We just have to optimize around what matters most to customers and keeps sales volume and execution quality high.

I am often asked whether it's possible to change an inwardly focused company culture to a customer-centric culture. I still don’t know the answer to that question for sure. But I now know what such a culture looks and acts like. It's really very simple. You optimize decisions and operations to deliver what you promised to customers. You think about anything that might adversely impact the customer experience and try to mitigate it before it does. When something unavoidable gets in the way, you do what it takes to make it right. You apologize and you explain what happened and why. You make amends. And you remain friends.

Retail Experience: Apple vs. Verizon Wireless

The holiday season is a good time to take stock of how you're treating your customers and how well you're treated as a customer. All of us are breathlessly busy at this time of year, so we get doubly annoyed by anything that gets in the way of smooth sailing. I had the opportunity to compare and contrast two competing retail experiences this week: the Apple Store and the Verizon Wireless store. In both cases, I had the same scenario: I needed something from each provider that I was pretty sure they would each have in stock (power supply for my Blackberry at Verizon Wireless; keyboard at Apple). Going to a local store was the fastest way to get both items.

In both stores, as soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted by a friendly sales associate who offered to help me find what I needed. The Apple store was mobbed, but there were still plenty of salespeople available to help. The Verizon store had 3 customers and 5 salespeople in it. In both cases, I immediately told the salesperson what I wanted, and they immediately walked me to it and put it in my hand. That's where the similarity stopped. Well almost. The sales associates in both stores were wearing red shirts. (Holiday colors??)

BAD RETAIL EXPERIENCE. At the Verizon Wireless store, the sales lady pointed me to the checkout counter—a high counter with two more customer service people sitting behind computer screens. (Is this Verizon's version of Apple's Genius Bar, I wondered?) No, the employees were actually sales people engaged in long sales discussions with customers who were finalizing their purchases of service plans and cell phones. Both customers had lots of questions. And there was a lot of information the salespeople needed to communicate in order to complete the transactions. There was no fast path to checkout. The saleslady who had helped me before didn't offer to ring me up. And the 3rd customer in the store—(someone who had been there before me), was already complaining that she had another appointment at 4 pm, that she had made an appointment for 3:30 to talk through an issue, and still hadn't been served—when could she come back? After she left in a huff, a third sales associate manned the third checkout station, and handled my quick credit card transaction. In doing so, she asked for my phone number, which I didn't appreciate, although I am a Verizon customer.