Monday, January 27, 2014

Another Awesomely Awful Airline Customer Service Experience

Ah, Noreen.  You’re a rising star in the pantheon of nasty, foul-tempered, airline employees that ruin your employer’s brands, and destroy the value of their relationship networks every day. 

Bless the hardworking, smiling, go out of their way folks at JetBlue.  How do they do it?

Somewhere at Delta Airlines headquarters in Atlanta, a team of marketing experts are beating their MBA’s against the wall, trying to figure out how to improve customer service, increase NPS scores, and build valuable long-term relationships with uber-profitable customers (like me).  They know that the success of the airline lies in convincing me, and the rest of my last-minute purchasing, frequent-flying peers to choose Delta. 

And Noreen – you do realize we have a choice, right?

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Implement a digital marketing plan that works with the modern consumer

Recommend This! Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share is a comprehensive guide to effectively engaging online audiences by leveraging the fundamental nature of human relations. By reframing the expectations of digital consumers as a drive to make connections, the book enables digital marketers and communicators to harness the power of the Internet by rethinking traditional methods of audience interaction and engagement. Marketing has become less about trumpeting a product, and more about creating a niche within the community.
Invasive, assertive advertising is falling by the wayside as the digital age provides consumers with more choices than ever before. While the medium has changed, the central principle of marketing – building relationships – has not. Recommend This! Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share guides communications professionals through the new digital reality of marketing to the online audience, and provides the information companies need to build a brand that attracts customers instead of chasing them. The book examines the needs of the digital consumer, and provides a roadmap toward fulfilling those needs as a brand. Topics include:
  • Why storytelling engages more than broadcast messaging
  • Shaping digital content to receive attention
  • Nurturing online communities and delivering on promises
  •  Being authentic and maintaining credibility


Thursday, January 9, 2014

My Friend, Paul

I lost a friend a couple of days before Christmas.  Hell of a guy.  Solid as a rock.

The kind of guy who was so competent that if you thought about it you’d feel  like a dolt in comparison, except he made you feel like the coolest, smartest guy on earth when you were with him.

Hell of a guy.

Calling him a friend seems sort of selfish and cheap.  We didn’t exchange Christmas cards or anything.  I had a few beers with him once in a while.  We argued about football, gave each other a bunch of crap when we could.  I didn’t bother to learn his wife’s name until I got the call that they found him dead in his bed the day before Christmas.