Being direct... AdVantage Sep 2005
Learning Lessons From A Sound-bite World ...
All too often we make assumptions about what we think we know ... but ALWAYS, the devil is in the detail!
If there is anyone out there who regularly reads my column, you will have no doubt noted my frequent observations that our world is steadily becoming choked with 'information' and I am becoming increasingly convinced that many people have simply stopped filling their 'busy heads' with what they consider as 'detail'. Those who are much smarter about these things than I am describe the mental processes behind human communication shorthand as heuristics, and we apparently evolved the technique to do this, in order not to burn our brains up with superfluous sensory information.
Well, when information overload begins to materially affect an individual's actual behaviour - then I think we are heading for a rather worrying set of problems. In order to explain I will need to describe (in some reasonable detail) a set of experiences encountered by and for one of our clients recently. While I would not normally do so in this column, I need to use specific names in order to provide my readers with context.
As part of our primary business we often find ourselves communicating one on one with many people but via the use of a customer database. As I write this, it is the day of the worldwide launch of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. Exclusive Books have obviously planned their marketing very carefully and we have executed a number of individualised communication contacts using printed direct mail, and both the electronic channels: e-mail and SMS. Of particular importance to understanding how people read and comprehend these communications, is that we only used e-mail and SMS to alert specific customers (the ones who had already been into one of the stores and actually pre-paid for a copy of the book) to advise them of the details of activities surrounding the launch. These channels were not used to promote the sale of the book to non-customers - i.e. no spam!
Imagine our surprise when some of these very customers arrived at the store literally hours before the launch wanting to collect their books, when the world-wide launch was due to be held at 12.01 GMT on Saturday 16th July, and this information was included on ALL the various items promoting the book, as well as on the communications to the pre-order customers. My conclusion: People do not read (and/or assimilate) any of the details. But when they arrive at the store…some are incredibly unhappy that their perceptions of the situation do not get them what they want - and they express their dissatisfaction with the 'bad' customer service - sometimes extremely loudly.
On the same subject - an item appeared in the weekly marketing and advertising electronic newsletter called www.bizcommunity.co.zadescribing a specific press release which said the following: Visit the world of Harry Potter at Montecasino…'Cinevation has conjured up an experiential 'book store' for Exclusive Books to launch the new Harry Potter novel….Building up to the launch of the book, visitors to Montecasino can enter the magical world of Harry Potter. After being sorted by a real sorting hat, a wizardly guide escorts Potter fans along Privet Drive and through Dragon Alley, complete with cauldrons. They can attend classes at Hogwarts School, explore the Forbidden Forrest and be enchanted by the Chamber of Secrets. The promotion opened on Saturday 25 June to crowds of Harry Potter enthusiasts and will run at Montecasino for three weeks….'
Guess what? This event was promoted via a number of media as well as undoubtedly by word of mouth - and it became extremely popular very quickly indeed. But there are always those who feel personally aggrieved because the great success of the promotion somehow inconvenienced them! This is a comment posted on the same site under the heading: Hogwarts Hogwash - A word of advice for anyone wanting to visit this mini 'world of wizardry': take your magic wand with because the only way you're going to get in is with the help of some magic!! What all the marketing around the bookstore doesn't tell you is that after paying R10 for parking, standing in a que (sic) for several hours in the hope of reserving a 20 minute slot at 'some point in the day', you are still not guaranteed entry. Your next best bet is to drive all the way to Montecasino the next day and start the whole process again - like I did. Another weekend later, my son and I have yet to get in to experience the 'magical world of Harry Potter'! (signed) Bitterly disappointed
I scratch my head in amazement at these two examples of behaviours that are based on a simplistic (and quite frankly mistaken) belief that the customer has all the rights, and this includes not bothering to read pertinent and published information - before making demands on the people serving at the store. I suppose that I am just an 'old fart' who remembers the days when we took our kids out to some promoted experience - and when we were 'beaten' there by hundreds of others, simply stood in line, or left.
One can fully appreciate that today's pace of life and the abundance of detailed information floating around in our space has become so overwhelming that we have to sift a lot of it out - but one would really expect that when an individual makes a decision to form part of a possible interactive relationship - pre-order a book, or make a visit to a specific event - that one arms one's self with ALL the details necessary to complete the task to everyone's satisfaction. I mean, no marketer ever wants to deliberately aggravate or annoy ANY customer!
There should always be a balance between a customer's rights and a customer's responsibilities just as there has to be a balance between the store-owner's responsibilities - oh and yes, don't forget - he too has rights!