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Archive for June, 2011

Spinning A Negative Customer Interaction Into A Positive

Posted in Marketing, tagged , , , , , on 17 June 2011 | Leave a Comment »

There is a YouTube video doing the rounds at the moment that you may have seen. It was posted by Alamo Drafthouse, a theatre in Austin, that have a very strictly enforced no-using-your-phone-AT-ALL-in-the-theatre policy.

 

Recently a woman was kicked out of the theatre for texting during the movie and then left a very irate message on their answering machine.

 

Alamo turned her voicemail into an ad for their theatre and posted the video on YouTube. It’s pretty funny, although I’m guessing that woman is even less happy about it now that it has become a YouTube sensation!

 

The video was reasonably risky. Alamo were betting that people would side with them, but it could’ve gone either way.

 

Fortunately most people pretty much HATE other people using their phone in the theatre. It doesn’t matter how far away from you they are sitting, that illuminated screen is like a beacon, distracting everyone from the movie.

 

The video has had 5,000+ comments, 1.76 million hits on YouTube and has been even been posted on the Huffington Post.

 

It’s a great marketing tip – turn negative interactions into a positive! Anyone who hates others using their phone during a moive, now knows what theatre they can go to without that happening.

 

Everyone is in love with Alamo Drafthouse! If I lived in Austin I would definitely be visiting!

 

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How Twitter Helps Create Customer Evangelists

Posted in Marketing, tagged , , , , , , on 15 June 2011 | 4 Comments »

Many bloggers and tweeters spend a lot of time knocking companies down, we’re pretty much all guilty of doing it at some stage, whether online or in person. Rarely though do we commend companies on a job well done, and so (I try) when I come across a company who ‘gets it’, to give them a shout out.

 

Last week I attended the Inbound Marketing Summit conference in San Francisco. Having only signed up a week in advance and then realising I had no business cards, I needed to get some fast. A quick Google revealed that MOO seemed very popular and the cards looked great. I picked a card and put in all my details and was told the  cards would be delivered on Monday 6th June – the day before the conference – close, but it’d get the job done. However, when I placed the ordered a few hours later (had to double check some things first) the delivered date had changed to Tuesday 7th June – the day of the conference – not good!

 

I sent an email to their customer service and got the usual boot reply “Thanks for contacting blah blah blah” and saying they’d be back to me by close of business Friday. Given the time issues I decided to give Twitter a whirl. MOO operate under the Twitter handle @overheardatmoo, which doesn’t imply customer service but I figured I’d give it a shot.

 

I sent a tweet (it was very late Wednesday night west cost time) and got a response within 10 minutes asking for my order number and saying they’d try expedite my query with Customer Service.

 

The next morning I awoke to find an email from ‘Dan M’ of MOO customer service who said he was going to see if the US Operations team could pull off ‘a small miracle’ and get the cards to me by Monday.

 

…They arrived on Saturday.

 

At every step of the way through Twitter and the email exchanges with Dan M I felt like a highly valued MOO customer, despite the fact that this was not an expensive order and I was a first time customer.

 

MOO clearly have figured out that going the extra mile for every customer is what it’s all about.

 

(Plus the cards look fab!)

 

Well done to MOO, I will definitely be back. Let’s hope some other companies out there take a leaf out of your book!

 

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