Have you ever wondered how I became The Brand Chef? It’s not a story I tell often, but in a recent  interview with Johnny Wright (Twitter: @unsecretshopper), better known as The UnSecret Shopper the TRUTH was revealed.

The request came out of the blue (proof of building a good personal brand), but after a few Twitter direct messages and a phone call-or-two, I decided Johnny had some great things to talk about and was very interested in learning more about The Brand Chef, marketing strategies and generally what I do… (go figure).

In 19 short minutes, we covered everything from marketing strategies, social media marketing, customer service (which Johnny is brilliant at, by the way), and we even talked a little about how I became The Brand Chef!

Here’s a link to his post of his full 1-hour show.  Or you can listen to just my interview below.

Enjoy!

The Brand Chef and Johnny Wright – The Unsecret Shopper Interview 7/24/10

Again, I’d like to thank Johnny Wright for taking the time and giving me the honor of being on his show.  It was a great conversation and I look forward to hearing / seeing more from him in the future!

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Johnny Wright can also be heard on 1350 AM, KRNT radio  in Des Moines Iowa.  Every Saturday at 8 AM.  Check it out!

Yep, it’s coming. Christmas.

Sure, right now it’s 93 degrees (in my neighborhood) and Christmas is a whole 156 days away, but I can almost see all of the commercials now. Don’t they start airing some time in September?!? And shortly after, my kids start communicating with every sentence starting with, “I NEED…”

It’s as predictable as the tides. What do you do?

The Child’s Mind And The “Want vs. Need” Paradigm

About mid October, when the kids finally succumb to the hypnotizing din of “New and improved this…” or “Now with 3D and smell-o-vision that,” I stop making lists and start asking two simple questions.

“How many do you actually NEED?”
and “Do you really NEED that… Really?”

“… or is it that you just ‘WANT’ it?”

That usually stops the munchkins mid-sentence like they’re hoping not to be caught for audibly farting. But what it really does is open the door to a more reasonable conversation centered on the “Want vs. Need” paradigm. (No, my kids don’t use the word “paradigm…” yet, but it works…)

The Nightmare Of The Perpetual Christmas And The Ever-Elusive Groovy Doohickey

In the marketing world, Christmas comes on almost a daily basis. Day after day, week-in and week-out, clients approach their marketing teams with stars in their eyes and dreams of some ever-elusive groovy doohickey that’s going to revolutionize the industry. And day after day, week-in and week-out, advertising agencies, marketing boutiques, freelancers and consultants alike accommodate them like Daddy Warbucks on Christmas morning. But should we really?

What would happen if the advertising agencies, marketing boutiques, freelancers and consultants asked one of two simple questions?

“How many do you actually NEED?”

Has the affect of the last 40 ad-hock attempts at knee-jerk marketing been successful? Have you taken the time to let a strategy take hold?  Will another direct mailer or another sales spot on every radio station in the city really make it better?  Doesn’t it eventually all add up to more noise?

OR (my favorite) “Do you really NEED that… Really?”

Too many companies are out there listening to “gurus” preaching on everything from social media and branding to voo-doo for solutions to their marketing woes. Maybe it’s not the next groovy doohickey that your marketing needs.

What would happen if we treated our customers like children? Would they listen?  Would they walk away? Could you do it? Maybe some of you already have (I know some of you and it’s true).

Food for thought…

Keep Cooking (the bravest decisions for your customers – whether they like it or not.)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

For those of you that know me, locally, you’ve all probably heard (or even witnessed) the troubles I’ve been having with my 2004 Jeep Liberty. It seems like the winter of ’09-’10 has taken a pretty good toll on my little SUV. And for the past 14 to 16 months, I have been in one auto service center or another for everything from new tires, new break pads and rotors – all ’round, dead battery, cracked windshield (not yet fixed), various alignment issues (I need to stop plowing through snow drifts), and, of course, the routine oil changes and maintenance.

For a while there, I’d become accustomed to sitting in small, cold, white rooms and drinking stale coffee out of 8 oz Styrofoam cups. Hell, I used so many of those little things; I think I’m partially to blame for this global warming crap. We’ll need to talk to Al Gore about that one.  And what’s up with those 19″ RCA TVs mounted in the corner, flickering the local PBS station. Is that a service department prerequisite?

Anyway, yesterday, I’d finally had enough. For about three weeks now, I’d been driving my little Jeep 40 to 60 miles a day with a heater that would only blow hot air if it was going 45 miles per hour or faster.  Yes,  I live above the Mason-Dixon line and I have a shoddy heater in my car…  Brilliant!

It wasn’t such a huge deal for the trips into the office and back; I take the bypass in where 75 MPH is the median speed.  But once I got off the bypass or was driving through town, the frigid bite really set its teeth in.  Yesterday, it was -12˚F on my way into the office, and 30 seconds off the bypass, my car went from cozy warm to cold enough to freeze snot (trust me). By the time I got to the office parking lot, I was worried about frostbite on exposed extremities (thank GOD for seat warmers)!

So, I called my local Jeep dealer (yes, the dealer…).

When I called, of course I expected this:

Mechanic: “Hey…  huh?  Oh, man…  I s’pose we can work you in some time early next week.  Oh, by the way, we have an $80 inspection fee.”

Me: “sigh…  oooohkaaaay…  lemme bend over…”

What I got:

Mechanic: “Sure, Mr. Clark…  we close at six tonight, but we’d be more than happy to come get it for you.  A heater, in this weather, is nothing to mess with.”

Me: “uh… no, I’ll drive it down after work, thanks.”

Mechanic: “Will you need a ride home?”

Me: giddy like a school girl, “Hee hee… no, my wife can pick me up.”

Mechanic: “Great, Mr. Clark. Robert will expect you around 5:30.  Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Me: “No… I love you…“

Okay, I didn’t say that last part, but I was very attracted to the concept of good customer service, for once.  I hadn’t even gotten my car to the garage door yet and it was already a pleasant experience.  What a breath of fresh air!

So, upon arrival, I looked at my watch and realized it was about ten ’til six.  When I drove in, I fully expected half of the lights in the work bays to be off and a single, growly dude, in greasy coveralls, standing at the counter looking at his watch.

Not the case at all…

When I drove in, there were three employees working diligently at their respective check-in desks.  I parked and turned off my car (with numb fingers) and before I could get out, a friendly, clean-cut gentleman was standing at my door, clipboard in hand, ready to gather my information.

We quickly went over my needs and as soon as I gave him my name he said,

“Yes, Mr. Clark, I’m Robert.  Why don’t you go have a seat and I’ll be in to talk to you once we get ‘er looked at.”

Ah…  the dreaded waiting room…

I poured myself a MUG of coffee and went through a pair of hinged doors to …wait for it… the cleanest, most comfortably lit, cushy waiting room I’d ever seen!

There were two love seats and a couch flanked by oak end tables with every (auto, political and society) magazine one could imagine.  And on the other side of the room was a 60″ plasma television streaming ESPN via satellite. And the coffee tasted like Dunkin Donuts breakfast blend, but I couldn’t be positive…  Color me impressed.

I plopped down on the couch, pulled out my BlackBerry to check in on FourSquare and to do some Tweeting when I was shocked back to reality by the sound of my car’s horn honking.  I looked up and there was Robert, sitting in my driver’s seat honking the horn and waving toward a sign on the window…

“We have FREE WiFi!” He yelled through the glass.

I began to weep…

I’ve since moved in with Robert and the crew down at the Jeep dealership.  Although the beds are a little firm for my bad back, I’ve become accustomed to the warmth and comfort their waiting room provides.  Sure, I need to call-in for food, but the cleaning crew and back rubs make it all worth it.  I’ll miss my wife.

***

Why not make working with your company a positive experience?

What extra steps has your company taken to make your customer feel “at home” – or at least comfortable with your services? Next time you have a customer call on you, will you be like my Jeep dealer or will you be leaving your customers out in the cold?

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking! (Customer service that’s second-to-none!)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Having worked in the restaurant industry through most of my adolescence and into my early 20’s, I was well aware of the old adage that went something like:

If a single upset customer tells 10 friends about an unsatisfactory experience, it’s conceivable those 10 friends could perpetuate that report to another 10… and so-on, and so-on… eventually damaging the restaurant’s brand bad enough to put it out of business.

Or, as Máma Brandcheffio said:

“Piss off one customer and you’ve lost 100…”

So, at a very young age, I was forced to learn two very important aspects to marketing.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful.
2. The customer is always right.

WHAT? The customer is ALWAYS right?

Máma Brandcheffio used to tell me:

“Even if the customer is wrong, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”

Even at 15, that concept incensed me.  Today it seems like a complete disregard to human civility (See last week’s post) and is entirely defeatist in nature.

Luckily, I came to my senses.

Chew on this:

Originally, one disgruntled customer could, with good effort, affect the opinions of 100 others with their own word-of-mouth marketing.  In 1983, that was a pretty big deal. With 100 potential customers talking about poor service or a fuzzy hamburger bun, over several days, maybe months, the reputation of the restaurant could be damaged enough to warrant inspections, improvements or to be ostracized out of business all together.

That was 1983 word-of-mouth. (Yawn)

Today, our “upset” customer can take a photo, text a gripe to their iPhone or Tweet it to thousands or tens of thousands before your gazpacho reaches room temperature! If “viral” enough, those thousands can make an instantaneous decision to re-tweet it to their lists reaching thousands more!

Word-of-mouth marketing has reached light speed!

Restaurants, from local and regional to major chains, are taking a “more than cautious” approach to social media marketing.  They want to make sure it’s not a “fad” before jumping in.

Have they lost their minds? Maybe in 1983 that’d be okay, but this is 2009!

Not only are social media tools like Twitter and Facebook the fastest growing user-based tools on the Web, they have moved the “Customer is always right” paradigm entirely into the customer’s control, forever altering the approach to marketing communication and public relations.

Restaurants may not want to get involved in a “marketing” sense, but can you imagine how fast they will have to scramble when the “Chris Brogan” of the restaurant industry sends a damaging Tweet or photos of one of their cooks, in uniform, picking their boxers out of their ass as they walk into the kitchen?

Mmmmm, appetizing…

To put it simply, social media WILL affect your restaurant. Ignoring it is not an option for today’s restaurants, no matter what size.

It’s better to use basic social media tools and participate in a brand management program.  Otherwise, you can watch your brand (and your future) carried away in the beak of that ubiquitous little blue Twitter icon.

Food for thought.

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

This is how geeky I’ve become in my old age.  Star Trek (yes, the movie) made me think of a great brand engagement solution – well, maybe not specifically Star Trek, but the DVD I purchased this week, TWICE.

Let me explain…

Last night, I found myself standing in line at the customer service counter at a local “Big Box” store – for the second time in as many days. It seems as though a shipment of the new Star Trek DVDs had been damaged; and about 200 upset geeks, including me, found themselves watching Spock, Kirk and Uhura jump from present day to past, to the movie climax, to witty sexual innuendo, to exciting battle scene… about every six minutes.

While it made for an entertaining montage of the flick, after about 30 minutes, I’d had enough (my wife and kids were sick of it after about 10).  So, at 7:30pm on a Wednesday night, I stood in line.  Waiting.  Frustrated with every progressing minute that I wasn’t able to get my geeky fanboy Uhura fix… (mmmmmmmm Uhura).

Then, the social media marketer in me came to the surface (I’ll have to talk to my psychiatrist about this).  I looked around, and in the crowd of nerds, geeks, dweebs and extra terrestrials of all sorts, I saw one dominant feature (besides loose, black, funky sweat pants).

Mobile phones… PDAs, iPhones, Droids… you name it, they were EVERYWHERE!

All I could hear was the clickity-click of sweaty thumbs texting away on mobile devices from the doorway to the service counter. I even had my CrackBerry out so I could update my wife with how long the line was.

I could just imagine what all of the others were texting…

“Honey, the line at Big Box in insane…  get the kids ready for bed… #sorry “

“I can’t believe how long the line is at Big Box! WTF! #Fail“

“Just spent the last half hour waiting for Big Box to replace my #StarTrek DVD! F.”

“Did I leave the popcorn going in the microwave? #nasty“

“Beverly said my sweatpants need to be washed…#luckytobedating“

Poor Beverly.  Now she’ll have to deal with Morgan’s fermented redolence for another night because he’s standing in line…

Then, I looked up to the service counter.  The poor girl behind the register (yes, only one) was darting back and forth from the phone to the counter faster than a hamster on crack and RedBull. She had six DVDs in one hand, a phone tucked precariously on her shoulder, and was trying to talk one poor nerd girl down from the ledge – convincing her that “Big Box” was going to replace her DVD, she just needed to show a receipt… (I could hear the nerd girl’s cerebral cortex shatter like a Faberge egg.)

Oh man, I felt for the customer service girl, though.  I’d been in similar situations.  But when I worked in customer service (20+ years ago), there wasn’t social media.  There wasn’t an army of social media militants standing at the counter organizing their chaos through bluetooth devices.  There was just me, irate customers, a cash register and a phone…  How archaic was that?!?

Then I looked again.  SHE was in the same situation I’d been in 20 years ago! (remind me to check my own cerebral cortex.)

SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESCUE!

So, what if…  just go with me on this one… “Big Box” realized the situation and circumvented the ire of the “World Of Warcraft” generation and addressed the issue using…  wait for it…

TWITTER!

It would be a simple implementation.  If “Big Box” had someone monitoring their brand, they would see the conversations going on (I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago).  With that knowledge, they could,

1) address the issue directly to the people making the complaints, or

2) create a hashtag “#” to focus the conversation and keep everyone engaged with solutions as they are developed.

How?

I see it done like this:

“Big Box’s” social media monitor (yeah) tracks a series of red flag statements rolling through the Twittersphere, specific to a certain store.  With speed and efficiency (good luck with that one), they send the message down to store management and then on to the service center to post solutions, instructions and apologies for any inconvenience to their store’s Twitter account under a specific hashtag, like “#BBSouthStarTrekDVD”

At the same time, somewhere around service counter a sign could be posted stating the issue and that “Big Box” was doing what they could within the store to accomodate the customers and solve the issues.  But (and this is the cool part), if they had questions, comments, etc., they could join the conversation with the store and other customers by just using Twitter and #BBSouthStarTrekDVD !

Simple?  I think so.  I think MANY of my co-nerds would have been satiated by just this small gesture.

By the time I got to the counter, in my mind, I’d been promoted from customer service dweeb to “Big Box” CEO and was looking to shop for my next home in the Hamptons; so I didn’t get the chance to offer this advice to the girl behind the counter.  But I think she was a little too busy anyway.

What could your company do to utilize hashtags on Twitter? Could customer service issues be solved with a simple tweet-or-two?  Or do you think it’s still about what Morgan had for breakfast this morning (that quickly found its way onto his sweatpants)?

What other departments could benefit from tracking conversations about your brand?

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking,
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

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