Experience Manifesto

United Breaks Guitars

I'm a little behind in writing about this, but it's a great example of how people can use social media to get their stories out. As of July 21st, 2009, this video had 3,547,771 views, but that's only part of the story. Doing a google search, I get 3,140,000 results. Bing comes up with even more results. Sadly, searching on a United response to United Breaks Guitars, doesn't really come up with much. In fact, the video response from Taylor Guitars (see below) actually comes up 1st in that search. And if you look at the videos or articles about this video, you'll see very little, maybe no, support for United. Not a lot of folks saying "Sorry they broke your guitar, but hey, they get a lot of luggage to the right place without damage." Nope, most people say "Yea, they screwed up and they should've done better." And those are the nice comments.

So now United is faced with a dilemma of how to respond. Of course, we all know that they're only trying to resolve the situation now because of all of the bad press they got. They lost my luggage for 4 days between LA and San Francisco and after fighting with them for over a week, I just gave up. Guess I should've learned to play the guitar! But since we know that fixing the problem wasn't their first reaction by a long-shot, we're not really going to think that they really want t help fix problems in the future.

The fix for United is a total overhaul of their customer experience training. And it has to start way up at the top. And the people up at the top need to really believe that creating the very best guest experience possible and taking customer complaints seriously is priority number 1. That's the problems brands have today. Put on a little band aid, fix it while people are watching and then get back to business as usual, and you'll see your business erode. We just don't have the time for bad experiences any more.

Taylor Guitars responds

Download Tripping Over Technology. You can read about my United experience from as few years back. It was probably 5 years before I flew United again and only because they were the airline partner for a client.

Smashed guitar, YouTube song — United is listening now - Travel - LATimes.com.

DVR Usage to Blame for Idiotic, Invasive Intrusions -- Adrants

I wrote about this last July (see Experience Manifesto: Note To FX Network) and it's getting worse & worse. It's particularly bad on the cable nets, but I'm sure it'll eventually move over to major networks as well. As I said in my comment at Adrants, we like to talk about the consumer being in control, but the reality is we can't wait to take that control away. Going to fast forward through our commercials? Well, we'll just put the commercial over your show. That way you can't miss it at all! Yea, that's consumer in control thinking. Remember this folks, a people in captivity will always revolt. That revolution is coming folks. It's coming.

We did it to ourselves. Yes we did. With help from our much-loved DVRs. We started a war. A war between those who want to skip commercial and those who want people to see them no matter what technology exists to skip them. The latest in an increasing list of tactics comes from TBS which is running promotions during programming which involves pausing the show while an ad runs on the lower third of the screen. Right now, it's just station promos but, seriously, how long before we see paid advertising in this space? We did it to ourselves.

Some have pointed out the intrusive promotions are simply mirroring what's being promoted; the Bill Engvall show in a TV remote is a prominent plot element. Still. There's no doubt, after seeing this, every marketer will scream, "I want one!"

Link: DVR Usage to Blame for Idiotic, Invasive Intrusions -- Adrants.

American Takes Flak Over Bag Fee, Despite PR Strategy - Advertising Age - News

American Airlines has taken a pretty big hit lately because of their $15 fee for your first suitcase. Of course, flying today is a general nightmare for the most part. In general, the airline industry is showing some of the worst customer satisfaction numbers in history. Here's a great quote from the Ad Age article:

Mr. Fornell said consumers' hopes for a positive airline experience have become so diminished that the business plan for any airline wanting to distinguish itself from the competition needs to follow is a simple one. "Bring your passengers to their destinations on time with their luggage," he said. "Nobody has higher expectations than that now." (Emphasis mine)

But here's as so frustrating about things like this. When things are going well, most brands aren't out there trying to do things for the customer either. There's no real relationship being developed. I happened to be in London during last year's crisis at Northern Rock bank and he's what I observed then:

It does beg the question as to how much loyalty Northern Rock created with it's customers before this all began. Too many brands use a crisis as the first real time they reach out to say "Hey, we're here for you. Help us get though this and we'll be there for you when it's all over." But when the crisis is over, they go back to business as usual. Do you think they'll offer to drop the interest rates on their mortgages for people who leave their money where it is? Or will they send your nasty notes when you're a day late with your mortgage payment?

So to American Airlines I would say this. The reason you're not getting any sympathy for all of your troubles, even legitimate ones like much higher gas prices, is because we don't have any reason to give you that sympathy. You've never really been there for us. You ask us to make sacrifices for you all the time. But every time we've ever asked you for help, you almost always say no. Show up late for a flight and you almost never say "Hey, no problem, we're just put you on the next flight." No, usually you say too bad, you'll need to pay the change fee, blah, blah, blah. I can't tell you how many times I've had a chance on other airlines to change to an earlier flight flying into a different airport in NYC and been told that I'll have to buy a new ticket. All convenience for them, none for me.

So, now you need our help and you just don't understand why we're not supporting you in this time of need. Well, after years of a one-way friendship, we're just not that into you!

Link: American Takes Flak Over Bag Fee, Despite PR Strategy - Advertising Age - News.

Link: Experience Manifesto: The Power of the Crowd.

Here's Where Social Media Really Hurts!

So Lane Hartwell just posted this on Twitter (sorry if it offends anyone!)

Um.ok.wtf. @ gap in SF. Just found a dried, bloody tampon in the pocket of some pants i was trying. Barf.

And that lead Sarah Lacy to reply:

@lanehartwell: wow. wow. wow. wow. wow. never going to the gap again.

Which is the post that I read and I just had to go find out what it was all about. I figured it had to be something pretty strong for Sarah to say she would never go back to the Gap again and, well, it was pretty strong!

And while I think advertisers will certainly screw up social media (see Experience Manifesto: Why Advertising Will Destroy Social Media for my take on that issue), I think that brands do need to take very seriously what happens when someone has an experience like this and then starts broadcasting it to the world. And in this case, it looks like Lane actually sent this out from her cell phone, so it was really an on-the-spot message.

And that's the good & bad of what's possible today. It's the immediacy of the communication. So, when I'm having a very positive experience somewhere, whether it's with a brand or not, I can tell everyone right away. It's exciting and real time. But, when I have a bad experience, it's all raw & emotional. I'm not filtering it through my thought process like I do when I'm writing an article. I just say it, like Lane did.

Now, crappy stuff like this happens to companies all the time. I was a park employee at Disney World and I can share horror stories with you! And, the brand is not always directly to blame. I mean, clearly, someone else created the situation that Lane encountered at the Gap. It wasn't a corporate-made nightmare. But, the question is, how quickly is Gap prepared to respond to this story before it really gains traction. Will they reach out to Lane and somehow make her feel better? Are they monitoring the twitter/blog conversations so that they will even know this happened? Mistakes will always happen. Today, how you respond to them is the important issue.

So, I'll let you know if I hear any more about this story.

Link: Twitter / lane hartwell: Um.ok.wtf. @ gap in SF. Jus....

MercuryNews.com - Registration

In 2008 folks, stop making me create an account just to read your news. It's annoying and makes me just leave. Especially if it's a free account. And if you're going to make it paid content, then you need to give me a brief overview of the content before I plunk down any time or money to register for your site. Guess I won't be reading this publication at all!

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Link: MercuryNews.com - Registration.

Petsmart Pethotel

Having two dogs, we've had to board them a great deal over the years. Our local, and favorite place, PREFERRED PET CARE, was booked during a recent trip, so we decided to try the new PetSmart PetsHotel. Now, we've always had a pretty good experience at Preferred Pet Care (although once they lost our medical records and we had to do lots of last minute scrambling to get that resolved!) and, more importantly, the dogs always seem to enjoy it. The very first time we took them there, they asked us if our dogs were allowed on furniture, since they had rooms with and without couches. They sleep in a big room, actually pretty close to the size of our bedroom and they have both indoor and outdoor play spaces. But the most important thing was that our dogs played with other dogs for about 10 hours/day, leaving them exhausted and happy.

But, the PetSmart PetsHotel was completely different. First of all, click on the picture below. Why have a map page if you're going to say "The position of this store was not determined with complete accuracy." They couldn't use Mapquest or something to show you how to get to their store? When you click in the map, they actually tell you to call the store for directions! Come on folks, it's 2007!

But, in all of the years that we've boarded dogs (and I've had dogs since 1992), they do something here that we've never encountered before. The boarding here did not include any play time at all! They were put in a 4' X 6' cubicle kinda' space and they would get two walks a day. If we wanted them to go to the playroom, that was all extra. A lot extra. Something we think they should've mentioned when we called to book the reservation. We would've had a pet sitter come to our house if we knew that was all they were going to get. At every other place we've boarded our dogs, the play time came with the boarding. For almost $50/night, they should be able to play with the other dogs!

In the end, it seemed that our dogs had a good time and I guess that's all that really matters. Just a little better communicaiton upfront would've made it a good experience for us too!

No Criminal Charges For Men in Cartoon Network Stunt?

Thankfully, one of the greatest crimes in the history of advertising has been resolved and we can move on with our lives, without the horror of meaningless advertising stunts hanging over our heads. I know that I will sleep better tonight knowing that my family will never have to worry about guerilla advertising stunts the next time we're in Boston! Thanks to the Boston City Council for making sure that they stayed on top of this very critical issue for Boston. Thankfully, it seems, they have addressed all of the other issues facing large cities and are now free to devote their time & energy to ridding their streets of corporate attempts to market to us.

The two men who were charged in the late January Boston marketing plot that resulted in a bomb scare apologized Friday for their actions and settled their case with community service, which they already completed.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, told Judge Anthony Sullivan in Charlestown District Court that they never intended to upset anyone.

“I deeply regret that this incident caused such anguish and disruption to so many people,” Berdovsky said in a statement to the court. “I acknowledge responsibility for my part in that disruption, and I apologize to the residents of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and everyone else affected for the hardships they encountered.”

This resolves the case, and prosecutors agreed not to pursue criminal charges against the two.

“This was a painful lesson to guerilla marketers in Boston and elsewhere that their actions have consequences,” Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney said Friday in a statement. “While this settlement seems to mark the end of criminal proceedings, we must continue to learn from these incidents to ensure that they never happen again.”

Link: No Criminal Charges For Men in Cartoon Network Stunt?.

A Crisis at Whole Foods!

OK, so maybe it's not a real crisis, but I'm pretty upset about it. Twice now, I've bought a package of Whoopi Pies only to find out that there's no cream at the center of the pie! I mean, it looks like the cream is overflowing, when, in fact, it’s not even going through the whole pie! The first one I got I thought was just a mistake. But now that I’ve had six of them (over a few month period!), I realize that they’re all like this! They never used to be. There used to be cream throughout the whole pie, so I know that’s how they should be made. And it could just be the way this one Whole Foods makes them, but it just doesn’t seem right.

Sure, I shouldn’t eat them anyway, but if I’m going to eat them, I want the cream filling through out the whole, damn Whoopie Pie! It throws off the whole taste balance to have all of that cake without any of the vanilla cream filling. But so how demanding that they Give me my cream! just doesn’t sound right. But of they’re going to make them like this, they should be made into Whoopie donuts!

Link: Whoopie Pies, chocolate whoopie pies, Maine Whoopie Pies, desserts, chocolate, wicked whoopies, Valentines day, Maine.

Top Ten Ideas For the Yum Foods' NYC Restaurant Re-Opening

I just had to post this response about the KFC/Taco Bell story I got from Scott G, G-Man Music & Marketing Miracles on Soflow. My wife & I laughed out loud reading them! Well done, Scott!

Top Ten Ideas For the Yum Foods' NYC Restaurant Re-Opening

10. Last time we buy our traps from PETA.

9. They were animatronic.

8. We mis-read the calendar and were holding our Halloween promotion.

7. Tastes like chicken.

6. We had a choice for infestation: rats or lawyers; we picked the lesser of two evils.

5. Hey, they're all healthy. Would you rather see dead rats in here?

4. Soon to be New York's first combination restaurant/shooting range.

3. Where's Dick Cheney when you really need him.

2. The problem will be solved soon - we've ordered the pythons.

1. Free pets!

Rats in da' House

Nothing like watching the morning news and seeing a restaurant you eat in every week on the screen. Especially because of a seemingly huge family of rats living there. And like most NYC rats, these guys aren't all that shy. In fact, the seem to revel in the spotlight!

So it's closed now and Yum Brands says that it won't reopen until they get a clean bill of health from the Health Department, but seeing how many rats were roaming through this restaurant doesn’t give you a great feeling that they’re going to be able ever really clean it up. I mean, these guys were running on the table, chairs and everything in the place! You can’t see the food prep area from the camera angles I’ve seen, but you can just imagine what’s going on there. And there were really a whole lot of them!

There’s a million vermin stories in NYC and, unfortunately for KFC/Taco Bell, this one has made is getting it’s 15 minutes of fame. I’ll let you know if I ever decide to try eating there again.

As a side story, last year, I was eating at a Chinese restaurant with a good friend and it was a place he really liked. As we’re munching on a bowl of very tasty, crispy noodles, we notice a cockroach deep fried in with the noodles! And all they offered was to buy us a beer each! Sometimes you just gotta' love New York!