Customer Service Is Your Cheapest and Most Potent Weapon
Companies compete to get your business. Go figure. They may compete on feature sets, trends, loyalty, any number of things. But the cheapest and most potent way to compete is on Customer Service. Customer service is King – it’s what will keep the customers loyal; it’s how your customers will give you the benefit of the doubt when you have a mediocre release; it helps your customers focus more on your brand. Customer Service is where it’s at, and I think we can take a cue from non-profit organizations.
I used to have a radio show with CFCR in Saskatoon, Canada. CFCR is a non-profit, community owned and operated radio station. It’s fan-freakin-tastic. Twice a year they have big fund raising drives that last anywhere from 2 – 4 weeks. The first drive is in September/October, and is a straight up “Please donate money” drive. The second drive is a membership drive they have every spring. The combined income between these two fund raising drives creates about 65% of the station’s income (the last 35% coming from ads for local businesses that take place at the top and bottom of every hour). By donating your hard earned cash you would receive a tiered swag bag of stuff depending on the size of your donation, and you’d also be put into grand prize draws, etc. It was enough to get you interested, keep you listening, and feel good about donating some bucks.
In LA, California there exists another non-profit community radio station, KCRW. Now I’ve never lived in LA, and I’ve never actually heard KCRW using an actual radio, but I do listen to them daily via their online streaming audio (you can also find them in iTunes Radio under Alternative -> KCRW Music). About a month ago I made a donation to KCRW and received a free (awesome) mug. Again, much like CFCR that was enough to keep me listening, interested, and thinking about my favourite radio station.
But a funny thing happened. Today I received an email from the staff of KCRW in reply to my previous post about my KCRW mug. The email was a huge thank you for writing some kind words about KCRW. An exchange of emails flowed over lunch. And it’s for this reason why I’m already starting to think about how I can not only donate to KCRW next year, but how I can pledge more.
KCRW went out of their way to contact me out of nowhere to say thank you. But not “thanks for your pledge”, not “thanks for your support” or “thank you for listening”, but “thank you for saying such kind words.” That’s enormous. That one, simple email transformed KCRW from some faceless (yet awesome) community radio station in another country into actual people that are affected by what I do and not do. That email gave me a connection to the insides of the business and it allowed me to get past the dollars and cents and product, and start focusing on the people and the relationship I have with those people.
That email cost KCRW approximately 20 seconds in time and nothing more. The result is that I’m actually thinking about putting money aside every month to become one of their KCRW Angels.
Now, I don’t think my response to their email is typical (in fact, it might be construed as borderline creepy), but it’s a reaction that plenty of businesses can have with their customer base by taking a small amount of time and connecting with their customer base on an honest, straight forward level. If you engage your customer base, the customer base will engage you, and the payback potential is enormous.
Today’s exercise in customer service motivates me to not just create bigger and better software products, but to be engaged with my customers as I do it. To be forthright, honest, and appreciative of their feedback in a true and genuine sense. How can we leverage today’s technologies such as Twitter and blogging to truly connect with our customer base – I mean really connect, not just publicize a product road map. I think the secret is to have really unpolished news and statements, interviews, free-flowing dialog from developers, etc. Let the customer in on the ground floor, let them see the nitty gritty (without giving away your trade secrets). Sure, this will give your competition insight as well, but who cares? Focus on your customer first, your product second, and you’ll make so much money you won’t even remember who your competition is.
KCRW Floats my Boat, Rocks my Socks, and Chugs my Mugs
Yes, I am aware that the last limerick makes no sense, but it was the best I could do given the context of this post. I’m an avid fan of music. I haven’t posted much about music on this blog because for the most part I’ve tried to keep it technical and nerd related (that will soon change – for I need to tell the world about the new TV On The Radio album). But I figured this could be considered nerdy enough.
I’m a bit of a fan boy when it comes to community radio. I find non-profit radio to be far more interesting than commercial radio. The eclectic mix of programming, politics, and culture is a much welcomed style of programming in today’s big-box pre-fabricated snorefest commercial radio. While living in Saskatoon I hosted an early morning (read, 6am – 8am) show on the incredibly excellent CFCR radio. When I moved to Regina I felt a hole in my community heart. But my good friend Dale Zak filled that hole with KCRW, the incredible community radio station out of LA that streams at a mighty fine 128kbps. I was hooked, and I never looked back.
One day I was out walking around Regina, streaming KCRW to my iPhone over the 3G network using (the greatest iPhone application in the world!) Tuner. I was listening right in the middle of a big campaign pledge. Being involved in community radio for a while I understood how important these campaigns were, so I dialed up KCRW and sent them a 75$ donation. In exchange they would send me a mug and a t-shrit.
Well, I’m proud and excited to say that today I received my mug. So excited, that I decided to reveal my true identity with a series of beautiful photos of me and my mug. Enjoy!
