Seth is an amazing guy and it’s statements like these that make him so likable and so successful at what he does. He’s a great storyteller and has been an absolute inspiration to me. So, please, enjoy the video, and if you read yesterday’s blog post, take my advice and listen. Thanks for the great interview Andrew.

Andrew Warner is an ambitious internet entrepreneur. In 1998 he used credit card debt to launch Bradford & Reed, an online greeting card company which reached annual revenues of over $38 million. After selling the company in 2003, he launched Mixergy.com, where ambitious startups learn from experienced entrepreneurs.

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If you don’t sleep as well at The Benjamin Hotel as you do at home, Andy Labetti, General Manager for The Benjamin, will give you a free night’s stay. A good night’s sleep is non-negotiable. The Benjamin’s ‘Sleep Guarantee’ ensures that everyone who stays at the hotel walks away well rested or gets their money back. If a guest is dissatisfied with his or her sleep at The Benjamin, all they need to do is contact the front desk, and the hotel will refund the cost of their night’s stay.

And those aren’t just some words slapped on a hotel brochure. The Benjamin has gone to extraordinary lengths to back up the guarantee of a good night’s rest in New York, “the city that never sleeps.”

Andy told me “The Benjamin sells a good night’s sleep, and we guarantee each guest’s comfort by providing anticipatory services, such as remembering a pillow preference and having it waiting in the room upon check-in. We’ve also implemented a number of innovative initiatives, including our Sleep Concierge, a 12-choice pillow menu, our sleep guarantee and a variety of other sleep-inducing amenities through room service and our Wellness Spa. We always provide caring and genuine service with an innkeeper’s mentality to make every guest feel like their comfort and needs are our top priority, and we center everything the hotel does around following through on these expectations.”

In fact, three days before a guest is scheduled to arrive, the staff advises him or her of the pillow menu so that the pillow will be in the room when the guest arrives. The menu is amazing. It offers guests a selection of 12 different types of pillows from which to choose: down, upper body, buckwheat, satin, hypo-allergenic, water-filled, Swedish memory, magnetic therapy, a jelly neckroll, a five-foot body cushion, sound, maternity and a special anti-snore pillow. In addition to the pillows, the hotel features The Benjamin Bed: a Serta mattress created exclusively for The Benjamin, covered with 100% Egyptian Cotton 400-plus thread count sheets by Anichini and a down-filled comforter with luxurious triple sheeting. (The pillows, sheets, and mattresses have become so popular that they are now offered for sale for guests who want to sleep as well at home as they do at The Benjamin!) Aromatherapy bathroom amenities help guests relax and prepare for bed. In addition to the luxurious sleep amenities, The Benjamin’s windows are double-glazed with argon gas between the panes to help keep rooms quiet and restful. If you’ve ever slept in a midtown Manhattan hotel, you know how important that is!

When I asked Andy about The Benjamin’s edgecrafted marketing strategy, he told me “We realized that the number one productivity tool for today’s travelers wasn’t a laptop or Blackberry – it’s a good night’s sleep. The Benjamin is an innovator in the hospitality industry by recognizing that niche and being the first hotel to offer a 12-choice pillow menu and an on-staff Sleep Concierge to satisfy guest’s needs for a perfect night’s sleep.” He went on to say that “We are continually educating our staff so all associates know the latest sleep tips and breaking research in the sleep industry. Sleep intertwines throughout the whole culture at The Benjamin – from the sleep-inducing food we serve to the in-room soothing amenities and services we offer to the soothing sounds and smells that are infused throughout the property.”

I love that Andy said “Sleep intertwines throughout the whole culture at The Benjamin”. Culture, in addition to the unique services offered, is what seems to set The Benjamin apart. And that culture includes listening not only to their guests, but to their staff as well. “As an organization, it’s our culture to include our staff in all new ideas and innovations that we bring into The Benjamin,” Andy said. “We talk to our associates about what ideas they might have that we could implement so everyone is involved in the continuing development of the hotel and shares the responsibility to make sure it comes to fruition. As an example, when we introduce a new pillow, everyone has a chance to test it so they learn what the benefits are in case a guest asks them to recommend something for a specific ailment The Benjamin staff prides itself on the satisfaction scores we receive from past guests, and we are always working as a team to make sure we are continuing to raise those scores across the board.” Key point: Continuous improvement through teamwork and collaboration.

The Benjamin also actively collects feedback from their guests through one-on-one discussions and by hosting weekly managers’ receptions. No “How did we do?” cards here. They also put outside focus groups together for new ideas, and have staff meetings twice a month to talk about the future of The Benjamin. They discuss not only what’s happening inside The Benjamin, but also what other hotel companies are doing and how the hospitality industry is developing overall.

Now that’s edgecraft! That’s setting yourself up to be remarkable. A lot of hotels offer a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee”, but how many go to the lengths that The Benjamin does to actually make sure that their guests are satisfied. If you’re going to offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee to your customers, think about what The Benjamin does and ask yourself “Am I offering just words and hoping for the best, or am I actively doing something to make sure my customers are satisfied 100%?”

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People with Herpes: H-date.com

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Geeks: NerdPassions.com

Boston Red Sox Fans (not sure who would want to date these folks…yes, I’m a Yankees fan!): MatchingSox.com

Golfers: DateAGolfer.com

Lawyers: LawyersInLove.com

“Beautiful” People: DarwinDating.com

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Inmates: InmatePassions.com

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Biracial Couples: MixedRace.com

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Pet Lovers: DateMyPet.com

The Overweight: LargeAndLovely.com

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Goths: GothicLoveOnline.com

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Equestrians: EquestrianCupid.com

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What makes an innovation successful? What makes it have great impact? What makes it so successful that we don’t even notice it’s ubiquity? One word: SIMPLICITY. No one seemed to understand this better in the last half-century than Charles Harrison. Charles Harrison is not exactly a household name. But you know him. Well, you know his products. But, the products he designed have become so ubiquitous that you probably don’t even think about them. Plastic garbage bins, the Fisher-Price View-Master, Craftsman power tools, lawn mowers, hair dryers, toasters…the list in practically endless. Harrison was an industrial product designer for the Sear Roebuck Company from 1961 to 1993. During that time he designed over 750 products that Americans and people worldwide came to know and use on a regular basis.

Harrison’s secret to his success was his adherence to a simple design axiom: “If it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do or look like what it does, then I frown on it. I don’t think a nutcracker needs to look like an elephant”. Harrison wanted to make things that fit in rather than stood out. And sometimes, that is what makes an innovation truly successful. When something is so easy to use or fits in with a workflow so well, you never even notice it…but you grow to the point where you can’t even think about it not being there. Take Harrison’s extremely innovative plastic garbage bin design, about which Harrison said in his book A Life’s Design , “When that can hit the market, it did so with the biggest bang you never heard. Everyone was using it, but few people paid close attention to it”. Think about it: When was the last time you used a metal garbage can?

So, whether you’re designing garbage bins, hair dryers, and toasters or the next generation of software or hardware, consider the words of Charles Harrison “If it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do or look like what it does, then I frown on it”. The next time you’re considering adding that little bell or whistle, think twice and consider if you really need it or not. In other words, make sure there is nothing superfluous about what you’re designing. Your users will thank you for it. Or even better yet, they won’t even notice it.

NOTE: Charles Harrison was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

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A bit about Beaujolais Nouveau. The wine is made from grapes that were still on the vine just three short months ago (hence the “nouveau” or “new” label). It’s fruity, it’s light, and it goes really well with holiday meals, especially turkey. It’s made from 100% gamay grapes from the Burgundy region in France. It’s a relatively inexpensive wine, usually selling for about $10.00 U.S. per bottle. But, truth be told, Beaujolais Nouveau is actually the lowest wine in the Beaujolais hierarchy. I’m not a wine snob, that’s just the truth. It was historically a low volume wine and was not highly regarded by most wine experts. So how did this lowly wine become so popular and inspire such a frenzy on the third Thursday of November?

A little history lesson in Beaujolais Nouveau. In France, Beaujolais Nouveau was originally produced so that local wine-growers and their friends could celebrate the end of the Beaujolais harvest. Until World War II, it was sold for local consumption only. In 1951, the French government relaxed their distribution laws and set an official release date of November 15 for the young Beaujolais and declared it Beaujolais Nouveau. In the early 1970′s, George DuBouef saw some big marketing potential in Beaujolais Nouveau. It was an accessible and easy drinking wine that most people could enjoy. But he saw more than that. He saw a way to clear lots of ordinary wine at a good profit, very close to the time it was harvested. It was a great cash flow equation. So, in the 1970′s, DuBouef helped start a race to deliver the first bottles of Nouveau to Paris. It generated a ton of buzz and attention and became a national event. In time, the buzz spread to the U.S. and the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau became a heralded event. In 1985, DuBouef and others had the release date changed to the third Thursday in November, just 1 week before the American Thanksgiving holiday. This whipped up the frenzy even further and helped make Nouveau become THE wine to serve at holiday dinners in the U.S. In fact, the Washington Post has stated that “because Beaujolais Nouveau is released annually on the third Thursday of November — exactly one week before Thanksgiving — the two have become as inextricably linked as Champagne and New Year’s Eve.” DuBouef and several other notable Beaujolais negociants have since promoted Beaujolais Day heavily, creating what is probably the biggest one-day marketing event in the wine world.

Global sales of Beaujolais Nouveau reached a peak at 62 million bottles in 1998, making Beaujolais Nouveau one of France’s best-selling wines ever. And, instead of being a wine sold only for local consumption, Beaujolais Nouveau is now exported to over 107 countries worldwide. DuBoeuf, the man behind the magic of Beaujolais, has led the way and is by and far the leader in Beaujolais sales. It’s been an incredible ride for a simple wine and for Georges DuBoeuf thanks to some serious edgecraft marketing. So, marketing frenzy or not, I’m heading out to pick up a few bottles of Georges DuBoeuf’s Beaujolais Nouveau for my family’s Thanksgiving Day celebration…it’s become sort of a tradition for us. Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!

For more info on Beaujolais Nouveau, check out the Beaujolais Nouveau website here.

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In everyone’s life, there are those rare people you come into contact with that truly change your life. There are a precious few such people in my life, but probably none more important than Dr. E.L. Deckinger…or as most of us have come to know him, Larry. I met Larry back in 1986 when I was studying marketing and advertising at St. John’s University in New York. He was my professor in my first advertising class. When I walked into the class for the first time, I saw Dr. Deckinger’s crazy, wild hair and his big glasses and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Before long, I realized that what I had gotten myself into was the opportunity to work with a marketing and advertising genius on a daily basis. Dr. Deckinger distilled his 40+ years of marketing knowledge into some very basic principles: (1) be different….always be different (2) be remarkable…always be remarkable and (3) make people happy…ALWAYS! At the time, I didn’t realize it, but these were not just the keys to success in the advertising and marketing world, they were the keys to a successful and happy life.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to take several more classes with Dr. Deckinger over the next few years. I worked very closely with him and other advertising students to bring St. John’s students to the National Student Advertising Competition held in New York City in 1988. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Dr. Deckinger never allowed our team to be ordinary. He never allowed us to approach this as just a contest. To us and to him, this was a real-world test about who was truly remarkable.

After I finished school at St. John’s, Larry was instrumental in helping me land a job at Grey Advertising, one of the top ad agencies in the world. Larry would visit with me at Grey and we’d talk shop over hot dog lunches on park benches in Manhattan. As my career progressed, I moved around to other agencies like Backer Spielvogel Bates and Saatchi & Saatchi. Every time I got to a new agency and talked about my past experiences, Larry’s name would always come up. It seemed like everyone knew Larry. No matter how much time had passed, Larry always kept in touch and visited with me when he was in the city. We always talked marketing and advertising; it was our passion. But we talked a lot about life too. Larry always told me that life was a long road with many turns and twists. He said you never really knew where the road was heading but that you should enjoy the ride, especially the bumpy parts. He was ever so right.

Over the years, I left advertising as a full-time job and pursued other careers, ultimately ending up in the software development field. Larry and I kept in touch by mail and eventually, we really only connected once or twice a year. It was late last week that I decided to get in touch with Larry to ask a few questions. But I couldn’t seem to find him. I knew Larry was getting on in years (he turned 90 in April of ’07) and started to think the worst. When I did some Google searches, much to my dismay, I found the New York Times obituary for Larry. I sat at my laptop for a long time and just stared into space. One of the people who shaped my life the most, a true mentor, a good friend, was gone. My memories flashed back 20 years to my days at St. John’s and the lessons I had learned from Larry. All of our great park bench conversations came rushing back. Then I turned back to the obituary and didn’t think that the simple words printed there came close to describing the amazing person that I knew. Although Larry is gone, I know that a part of him lives on in myself and countless other students that he taught not just marketing lessons to, but life lessons as well. Larry cared about every one of his students. Truly cared in a way that a father cares for his children. We weren’t just a part of his job; we were a part of his life and he a part of ours. Larry, I’ll miss you more than you’ll ever know and I’m ever so sorry I never got to say goodbye.

If you want to know more about Larry and the great things he accomplished in his life, check out this article on the St. John’s Alumni page.  It’s much better than reading a simple obituary.

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• Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone
• Pam Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation (Portfolio, ‘09)
• Dan Pink, bestselling author of A Whole New Mind and Adventures of Johnny Bunko

This download link will lead to a blank page and open a pop-up box for you to click save and download the MP3 to your computer. please be sure your pop-up blockers are turned off.

If you’d rather not download the MP3, click here to stream audio of the teleseminar instead.

Enjoy!

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• John Jantsch, bestselling author of Duct Tape Marketing
• Dave Lakhani, bestselling author of Persuasion and Subliminal Persuasion

If you haven’t heard John or Dave before, you are in for a treat. John’s also a columnist for Entrepreneur magazine and Dave is a regular expert on shows like The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.

So, if you missed this one, click here to download the MP3

Upcoming Tribes Book Tour Event

Wow, this is going to be a powerful talk. Tune in on Monday, October 27th and hear Seth with these three all-star experts:

• Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone
• Pam Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation (Portfolio, ’09)
• Dan Pink, bestselling author of A Whole New Mind and Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Talk about an all-star lineup! Keith will share tips about how he created an incredible Tribe called Greenlight Community. And, Dan and Pam always have powerful, insightful stories and examples to share.

Click here to reserve your spot at this live event now. And if you can’t make it, I’ll post a link to the MP3 download later next week.

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Although the world around it is moving ahead at breakneck speeds, Kiel (and other towns just like it) is a living anachronism. My father in-law still uses a dial up modem connected at 54 kbps to find things on “those interwebs”. There is a 48-inch LCD flat panel television in his living room with rabbit ears attached to it. Yes, no cable, no satellite. I’ve been wondering who all of those digital television transition commercials were talking to and now I know. In my in-law’s home you hear statements like “This wind energy is just a temporary thing” (I’m not sure if they mean we’ll run out of wind or if wind energy is just a fad). To me, Kiel seems like a town straight out of Bill Bryson’s “The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America“.

So, why am I telling you so much about Kiel and my in-laws? It’s not because I’m a big city snob. In fact, I kind of like the peacefulness and slower pace of life in small towns. And I like my in-laws. I’m telling you about Kiel and my in-laws because sometimes when we’re developing software or products we forget that places like Kiel and people like my in-laws still exist. They don’t read the latest blog posts every morning on their iPhones. They read the local newspaper while eating breakfast in a small diner while they drink black coffee (not Starbuck’s). They don’t check to see how many new friends they have on FaceBook. They say good morning to the same friends they’ve had for the last 20 years at that diner. Chris Brogan recently wrote a post about social media and people in the “real world” that really puts this dilemma into perspective. The point is, if I walked into one of those bars on Fremont Street or the diner in downtown Kiel and said “I write a really popular blog”, most people would probably think, “That’s nice”, and that would be the end of that conversation.

My guess is, most of the people in Kiel don’t have a blog, don’t use Twitter, and don’t have a LinkedIn profile. Most people in Kiel (and most other places for that matter) aren’t techies like “us”. So why do we keep developing applications and products for people like “us”? I think that if we want to make a bigger, more remarkable impact, we need to help bridge the gap to the folks in the bars and diners on Fremont Street. And we need to understand that they aren’t moving at the same speed as “we” are. They’re not the early adopters on the technology adoption curve. They’re the conservative herd. They don’t want bells and whistles. They want an easy-button. So, when you start to design your next product or write your next application, think of the good folks in Kiel, and build something they’d use.

To see more pictures of Kiel, check out my Kiel photo set on Flickr.

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Seth Godin‘s new book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us has just been released as a free audio download at audible.com. I took a listen today and the book is great (in fact, Seth actually reads the book). As most of you already know, I’m part of the Seth Godin Tribe. For those of you who don’t know who Seth is truly a marketing thought leader. His views on customer evangelism, edgecraft, branding, and marketing in general are unparalleled in my opinion. His down to earth, customer focused way of seeing the business world is awesome. One of his main points of marketing to the masses is the idea of creating tribes and tribe management. Tribes are the true fans who have a sense of depth of commitment.  Earlier today I wrote about the Schaar Tribe in New Holstein, WI.  So what are tribes and what is tribe management.  In his own words:

“Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world. It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn’t an amorphous brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.”

So, head on over to audible.com now and download your free unabridged copy of Tribes now and start building your own tribe.

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Last week I spent some time at my in-law’s place in Wisconsin. While we were visiting around the cow-dotted countryside, we came to a small town called Hilbert where we had a great dinner at an off-the-beaten track restaurant called the Village Hearthstone (I highly recommend it if you find yourself in Middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin). On the way out of Hilbert, we passed through New Holstein. My in-laws pointed out Schaar’s Union Oil Service Station. It didn’t look like anything special, just a nice looking family run service station. But they told me it was the last of a dying breed: The Full Service Gas Station. Yes, I know, Oregon and New Jersey are full of them, but it’s because by law they have to provide full service. In Wisconsin, as in most other places, self-service is the norm. But Schaar’s is different. I’m talking real old-fashioned full service. The “Check your tires ma’am?” kind of full service. They’ll actually open your hood and check your oil and wiper fluid…and top it off if you need. They clean your windows, your wiper blades, and your headlights. And of course, they pump your gas.

My first thought was, “Hmmm how quaint. But the Kwik Trip across the street has the same gas for 10 cents cheaper per gallon. Bet they do much more business than Schaar’s.” My in-laws quickly informed me that actually, not many people from New Holstein stop at the Kwik Trip for gas. Schaar’s apparently has a very loyal following. Their customers love the full service that Schaar’s offers. And guess what? As small town as it sounds, the guys who work at Schaar’s actually know their customers. They talk to them. Everyday! They understand the people they serve. They understand that their attention and full service is what sets them apart from the monolithic Kwik Trip’s of the world.

On the other hand, Kwik Trip’s customers get exactly what their name implies. A quick stop, fill the tank and off you go. No extra services. No special attention. No pleasant conversation. No chance for Kwik Trip to get to know their customers or vice versa. It’s a cold, one-way relationship. Even though Kwik Trip is cheaper by 10 cents per gallon and offers the “convenience and value” of self-serve, Schaar’s has something Kwik Trip doesn’t have: A real relationship with their customers. And that’s what really matters.

The lesson here: Next time you have a chance to interact with your customers, really take the time to talk with them. Build a relationship with them. And take the time to recognize that lower cost and “best value” is not always the path to success. Offer your customers more than a quick fill up. Offer them full service. Don’t you think they deserve it?

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What Geoff recognized was that there is more to this curve. He recognized that there is a difference between disruptive innovations (those that are changing the game altogether) and “garden variety” innovation. He recognized that in today’s high tech world, a chasm exists between the early adopters and the early majority…a big chasm. Geoff’s curve ends up looking like this:

There is a big difference between people who are willing to try new technologies and the rest of population, which tends to be much more conservative. That difference IS the chasm. The reason that people spend time trying to figure out how to cross that chasm is because the chasm is what stands between them and a lot of money. Very simply, the early adopters represent a very small portion of the market, and you can’t make a business by selling just to them. To be a successful, you need to cross the chasm and sell to the mainstream.

In Geoff’s model, the innovators are the Techies; they always want the latest greatest power tools. The early adopters are the Visionaries that want to get ahead of the crowd. And, the early majority are the mainstream, the pragmatists, the people who want to stick with the herd. In this group, word of mouth is everything. These pragmatists are the key to success, they move the herd. Here’s the typical pragmatist mindset: “Everyone is using it? Really? Are you using it? Yeah, you are? Maybe I should use it too. ” So yes, these are the people that matter. But don’t get too caught up in focusing on the chasm just yet.

Before you cross the chasm, you need to get to the chasm. Your first order of business is getting on the curve. Getting those techies and visionaries using your latest thing. They’re your evangelists. But, understand that what worked for these early adopters probably won’t work for the pragmatists. These techies and visionaries want power tools; they eat, sleep and drink tech. The pragmatists want one button that does it all simply and easily.

So, let’s assume you’ve successfully had your latest thing accepted by the early adoption crowd. Just how do you cross the chasm? Go to the Bowling Alley, that’s how.

The Bowling Alley is where technology is gaining acceptance in one or more markets. It’s a niche strategy that I find very appealing and interesting. It’s here that market leaders are born. Or more correctly, it’s where communities or tribes are formed. According to Geoff, “Linux is still in the bowling alley. Linux has established itself in either scientific clusters or in embedded computing. Linux could be in the bowling alley forever.”

The strategy in the bowling alley is this: Instead of trying to move the whole herd at once, try to move smaller herds. This is the place where you can get small populations excited and talking to the larger population. And instead of trying to create a new community, consider converting a community. Once you’ve established a tight community in the Bowling Alley, saturate it until it tips and spills over into the rest of the pragmatic population. But, be warned, you have to be #1 here. There is no second place in the Bowling Alley. But if you win here, you win big when you’re latest thing goes from being a niche product to a truly mainstream product.

So what’s the strategy to get into the Bowling Alley? And more importantly, how do you move beyond the Bowling Alley? In the business world, here’s the deal according to Geoff: First, identify a vertical market where a broken mission-critical business process is causing management enough pain that it would gamble on an unproven technology; and second, provide that market not just a product, but a whole solution. Become #1 in that niche. Saturate the community. After you’re #1 in that niche, tip it and target another related market. Each new market should leverage the success and technology of the last. Even more importantly, because these markets are closely related, word of mouth credibility can cross markets and help you gain a stronghold across markets. This leads to the bowling pin effect of knocking down markets based on the successes in other related markets. Each market is another pin to be knocked down. Once you reach critical mass in three or four vertical markets, expand horizontally and whether you like it or not, enter the Tornado.

The Tornado emerges immediately once everyone decides they need the product or technology. This has an explosive amount of growth and just sucks every one in its vortex. It’s driven and sustained by the pragmatists. It’s a mass-market strategy. Here, everybody has to get the latest thing all at once. Geoff believes that digital photography and WiFi are in the tornado. Think back to 1996 when your company HAD to have a website:

“We need a website!!! Why? I don’t know. Everybody has a website. We need a website!!!”

So if you’re looking for mass-market success, you need to get into the Tornado and that’s a hard competitive place to live. Everybody wants to play here. You’re not alone in the market and you spend a lot of time competing just to stay alive. Scaling in the Tornado is a nightmare. Demand exceeds supply by 10X. In the Tornado, it’s all about simplifying the product, and developing lower-cost sales channels. Have fun!!!

Simple right? Now go out there and start innovating.

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1. ESRI is going Agile…What does this mean for the GIS industry?
2. There are plenty of niches left
3. The Ultimate Cross-functional Team
4. How do you know what to build?
5. Agile Adoption in the GIS Industry

• 60% of those surveyed interact with companies using social media

Of those 60%:

• 93% say a company should have a presence in social media
• 85% say a company should not only be present but also interact with its customers via social media
• 56% say they feel a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
• 43% say companies should use social networks to solve customers’ problems
• 41% say companies should use social media to solicit feedback about products and services

Now, granted, this is an online survey, so the results may be a bit skewed. There is probably still a large population out there who have no idea what Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn even is (much less participate in online surveys). In fact, here’s a great post from Chris Brogan about keeping it real with real people (who aren’t geeks like us). But for those of your customers who are connected, you can’t afford to ignore the numbers uncovered by Cone in their study.

And, if you’re looking to start using social media in your marketing and PR efforts, HubSpot has a free webinar this week on How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR. Here are the details:

Date: Friday, October 10, 2008

Time: 2PM EDT (GMT-4)

Duration: 1 Hour

Register here

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It’s playing catch up and it’s getting annoying. I mean really, Apple users thought Apple was cool before the Mac ads played. The ads reinforced their own beliefs and those of PC users. Windows was never seen as cool, or dare I say the maverick word. No matter how loud they scream “We’re cool”, people still see them as the mainstream, the norm, the establishment. Why not embrace what they are and talk about that? We’re the best, we’re here and we’re great. I don’t get it. Sorry for the rant today, but I saw the ad yesterday and it just hit me as odd.

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“Here are three common listening mistakes:

- Believing that your customers are monolithic, that they all want the same thing.

- Believing that loud customers speak for all customers.

- Worrying that if you don’t satisfy short-term, loudly articulated needs, you will fail.

There’s an art here, it’s not a science. I’d focus on a few tactics:

- When someone is in pain, recognize it and address it if you can.

- You decide, not your customers, where you want to go. Lead, don’t follow.
Amplify the voices of the people you care about, those with the most value to you in the long run.

- Give them a platform and make it easier for them to speak to you and the rest of the market.”

So, when you are the product owner or product manager on your organization’s development projects, how do you prioritize what gets built and when. Who do you listen to most? I think using some of the tactics mentioned above can really help you. Here are the things I would focus on in prioritizing your backlog and development efforts.

1. First and foremost, give your customers a forum to speak. It could come from several places: website feedback, a community blog, customer service, tech support, sales, etc. Centralize this feedback so that you have a unified view of your customer voice.

2. Use a ranking scheme to prioritize your backlog. Consider the following factors and rank each backlog item on a scale of 1 to 5. The cumulative score of these four factors is your raw prioritization:

- User value: How many customers asked for a specific feature?
- Competition Value: How much does this feature put us ahead of our competition?
- Strategic Value: How does this feature advance our product strategy?
- Revenue Value: How much revenue is blocked because we don’t have this feature?

You can refine this raw score by weighting the scoring factors based on the objective of your next release. For example, if your next release is strategic in nature, weight the Strategic Value score higher than the other three scores. Although this may not be the perfect system for getting your product backlog organized, it forces you to think through not only customer demands (which are always important), but other factors that can allow you to lead in your market space.

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1. Who’s driving the bus?
2. Know Your Users
3. A Faster, Cooler Oven?
4. How to Get Your Product Owner to Prioritize
5. Are CIO’s Indifferent Towards Quality Software

Consider this: Our customers say they want an oven that runs cooler in the kitchen and cooks faster. Do we set out to build a cooler oven? Do we try to defy the laws of physics and build a “faster” oven? No, we imagine what it is that would make our customers happy. We defy conventional wisdom, search for a solution outside of what currently exists, and provide a new, unique solution that meets their needs in a whole new way. What we give them is a microwave oven. And that’s exactly what Raytheon and Amana did back in 1965 and revolutionized the way we cook today.

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“Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.”

Sounds very agile to me.  If you have never read Seth’s blog, it’s an awesome read.  Check it out.

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4. More on Agile contracts
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Unfortunately, I had a connecting flight in Phoenix before heading to the gem in the desert.  In flight, I mentioned to the flight attendant that based on our departure time, it was going to be a very tight connection in Phoenix (it was looking like about 10 minutes).  She said not to worry, I’d make my flight.  So, I get to lovely Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, run my butt off to my next flight…and see a bunch of other poor souls looking distressed at the gate (5 others, coincidentally, were also heading to the DevSummit).  I made it to my flight by 7:45 (the flight was scheduled for 7:55).  I asked the oh-so-pleasant gate agent (please read with dripping sarcasm) if we could get on the flight that was still at the gate.  An abrupt “No“.  That’s it, no sorry sir, no nothing…just NO.  So we’re all standing there saying, “The plane is still there, you’ve got to be kidding!”  A second gate agent, possibly feeling sorry for us, maybe even considering that customer service is a good thing, says to “pleasant” gate agent #1, “Should we let them on?” (apparently there were options here.)  Gate agent #1: “No.  They’re late.”  So, what were supposed to do now?  The answer “Go to customer service…I can’t do anything”.

So, off we trundle to “customer service”.  After a wait in the “customer service” queue, I get to the ever pleasant “customer service” agent.  After explaining the situation, she has to confirm why my incoming flight was late to make sure I was entitled to “something”.  After realizing it was U.S. Airways’ fault (who else’s could it have been), they were “kind” enough to offer a flight out the next morning.  “No more flights out tonight”.  Correct, no flights on U.S. Airways, but there were flights on other airlines to Palm Springs (gotta love mobile Expedia!).  Now, to give you a little background here, my dad worked for Pan Am for over 30 years…I’ve done a ton of traveling and I know what these guys can do for you if they want to.  So, I said, “Fine, please book me on another airline.”  The response “Sorry, I can’t do that.”  As Colonel Potter of M*A*S*H always said, bullhockey…they can and they do.  Now I’m losing it.  “Look ma’am, you knew you had several inbound passengers on delayed flights and you didn’t hold the flight.  You should have held it, you can do that you know.”  The incredible response  “It all depends.  If we want to make an on time departure, we can leave without you.  It’s our prerogative. ” My response (and loud enough for others in line to hear this) “REALLY?  So, stranding paying customers, pissing them off, making sure they’ll never fly your airline is OK so long as you leave on time?”  Her response “Yes. Being on time for departures is important for us.”  My response “Great, then why the freak was my flight from Denver to here not on time?”.  Her response “Sir, it’s not my fault”.  So, I can’t help it now (maybe I read too much Seth Godin for my own good). “Ma’am, it is your fault.  You represent your airline and you are the public face of U.S. Airways and the best you can come up with is ’It’s no my fault?’  I’m sorry, my dad was with Pan Am his whole career, I’ve flown for a long time and I’ve never seen nonsense like this before.”  She says, with a straight face (and dripping with sarcasm again), “I can’t believe that.  You must be very lucky.”  So I politely said “No, I’ve just flown on airlines that care about customer service.”

So, before I ramble too much more, she graciously gives me a voucher for a $49/night hotel room at the Fiesta Inn (which apparently has a great deal with U.S. Airways because everyone on the jam packed hotel shuttle was a disgruntled U.S. Airways customer that didn’t make a connection).  I looked at her and said “Excuse me, what about food?”  She says (again with a straight face), “It’s after 8:00, you don’t need food.”  I guess the look on my face said it all, because she quickly replied “Well you’ve been so nice (read sarcastically again) I guess I should give you something!”.  In the end, she literally threw my new boarding pass and vouchers across the counter and says “Have great night” to which I responded “You too.  And by the way, you’re a gleaming example of excellent customer service”, to which she sarcastically responded “Thank You.”  Needless to say, I will make every conceivable effort not to fly on U.S. Airways again and to let others know they should do the same.

The only high point in all of this was the very pleasant front desk clerk at the Fiesta Inn (which isn’t all that bad, and, notice the hyperlink here).  So, to at least balance my karma for the evening, I was sure to tell her that she was very nice and was the best part of my day today.  She smiled and said “That’s my job”.  I’d stay at the Fiesta Inn again just because of that comment and her pleasant attitude.  And that’s why customer service matters.

To my fellow stranded compadres heading to the DevSummit, see you for the early flight tomorrow morning…you know who you are, and so will everyone else at the DevSummit based on your bloodshot eyes!

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2. Agile marketing?
3. Private: More Reactions from the Twitter Brand Race: Target and KFC
4. What United Airlines could learn from JAL
5. What it really takes to innovate

This all came to mind this morning when I was calling our local communications provider Qwest.  I went to their website to find the phone number for their customer service line.  You’d think this would be right there on their main page.  Nope.  Not even a customer service link!  It took me 5 clicks to get me to an overly complicated customer service page that still didn’t provide a phone number.  Instead it gave several different “Contact Us” links depending on your request type. My point here is not about website design, but about what this says about Qwest’s commitment to customer service.  To me it says “We really don’t want to talk to you if we don’t have to”.

In addition to our difficulty in locating the correct number, we have received quite a run around trying to set up our T1 lines, our static IP block, and our phone lines at our new office.  We have received so much conflicting and confusing information from Qwest that after two months, we still don’t have our T1 lines in.  After today’s call to Qwest, it looks like we’re finally on the right track.  But all of this poor interaction with Qwest has left us pretty disappointed in both their company and their product.

Unfortunately, due to semi-monopolistic telecom policies in the U.S., we have to work with Qwest to get what we need (although Skype is a pretty good alternative these days).  But your clients and customers probably don’t have to deal with you or your company if you do a lousy job communicating.  So remember, every interaction you have with clients and customers is a marketing opportunity.  Every person on your agile Scrum team, from the senior project manager to the intern developer is a marketing agent.  We need to realize that to keep our customers and clients satisfied, to keep them coming back to us for more work or providing good word of mouth about our organizations, we all need to be effective communicators and marketers.  We need to constantly go that extra mile to provide the best customer service possible.

By the way, the main Qwest customer service line is 1-800-603-6000…but expect to be bounced around quite a bit depending on your request…my record is 8 transfers in a single call!

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On Wednesday, Dave Bouwman and I tuned in to a Webex presentation that Guy Kawasaki was giving entitled The Art of Evangelism. Guy is one of my favorite people to turn to when I need inspiration these days. He is the former chief evangelist of Apple and is currently the co-founder of Truemors and the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. Guy’s message was so upbeat and inspiring. It made me want to get back into the saddle and start evangelizing Scrum in our organization again.

What did Guy say to make me snap back into reality? “The most important thing about evangelism is to make meaning. It’s easy to evangelize and get others to evangelize things that are meaningful…things that change the world, make the world a better place.“ I’d been so entrenched in making Scrum work for the sake of Scrum that I’d forgotten to make it meaningful to everyone in our organization. To make things meaningful, Guy suggests that we:

- Perpetuate good things

- Create good things

- End bad things

I needed to step back and start living those words. They fall right in line with Scrum practices and I needed to hear them again. I needed to get back to affiliating, creating, and associating myself and others with the good things that Scrum promotes. As Guy says “Great stuff is easy to evangelize. Crap is hard to evangelize.“ I sincerely believe Scrum falls under the great stuff category. Time to start evangelizing again…

If you want to watch the Webex of Guy’s presentation, it was recorded and is available at http://www.webex.com/web-seminars/view_recording/662851581.

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