Little Johnny

For those that don't know me, I am a freak about customer service. That being said, I am still not thrilled with the level of customer service we provide at Vanderbilt events. I think it is very good, however my expectations are closer to Disney than to a college football game.

Enter Johnny.

While incredibly cheesy, and closely resembling some sort of powerpoint chain email my Mom might send, the message should come through loud and clear.

Make a difference. Impact one of your customers in a special, unexpected way.

While we certainly are not quite the caliber of Johnny, we have a pretty good program called Deputy Dores where we provide "random acts of kindness" to our patrons. These 'random' acts are hardly random at all, only random in that they appear to be random to the fan who receives one of them. The experiences can range from a free golf cart ride from the parking lot, complimentary concessions for an entire family, a seat upgrade from the rafters of basketball to the 3rd row (but we do not make a big scene about it like some people's Best Seats in the House), or handing out free Kid Commodore hats and face tattoos.

We estimate that our 40 Deputy Dores "touch" or provide Magic Moments (yea, stolen from Disney) to about 500 fans per game or 3,000 people over the course of a 6 game football season. Obviously there is some possible overlap, but if 3,000 people tell 10 fiends about their "Magic Moment" we have imprinted a positive image of a Vanderbilt game on 30,000 potential VU fans. That is the kind of viral marketing we could be proud of.

We have not cured cancer or anything, but these types of programs are far underutilized when creating a solid marketing plan. So go put the 'ole phrase (it takes $7 more to attract a new customer as to retain a current one) to practical use. Yea, I said it, take your AD BUDGET to fund your Magic Moment program.

Take care.

Carpe customer

Interesting day.

I had to run a few errands which included finally mailing my sister's Christmas present. (yea, not my strong suit) So I dropped by the local UPS store to mail the package.

As I enter I am greeted with a warm "hello" and "how may I help you." The young gun behind the counter then helped me to complete the slip detailing where my package was to be sent.

"Fill in this, that, that, and your phone number, but no email. You don't have to fill in your email."

So I thought that was a little odd. Then another customer came along and he went through the same drill of overly communicating the unnecessary box labeled Email.

After observing this guy a little while (I was there way too long) I came to the following conclusion. He was attempting to avoid having to explain their email policy, or hear a customer complain about privacy. I am guessing he had a bad experience before with a customer and thinks the best way to handle the situation is to just come right out and say we don't need your email thus avoiding conflict and eliminating any chance of collecting ANY email.

OK, then I go across the street to pay a bill at Fifth Third Bank - not my bank, they just have our mortgage. While there, I got a very friendly hello when I walked in, another hello when I got to the counter, then the unthinkable happened.

A seemingly young (same age as the UPS guy) woman looked at my check I was paying with and said "will there be anything else Mr. Nichols"? (which I love when people use my name, don't we all) But that is not it. She noticed my check was from Union Planters/Regions/AmSouth and immediately went into a sales pitch. Telling me all about their savings rate, yada yada yada.

The point is that Mrs. 5/3 was trained to utilize every encounter to turn a customer into an opportunity. However, Mr. UPS almost insisted not putting down my email address when this could clearly be utilized for future marketing or just plain old customer service.

The real shame is that I am sure UPS counts on collecting email addresses, otherwise why would they print it on the form? But due to a poorly trained guy, future revenue may have been lost.

As for Mrs. 5/3, I was looking to change banks anyway, maybe they have room for my $2.15.

Take care.