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At the Risk of Sounding Cheesy... Please Smile
At the Risk of Sounding Cheesy... Please Smile
July 13, 2009
Is this a blog from a professional marketer, or a thinly disguised rant from a miffed customer? I don't know, but after a visit to my local coffee shop this morning, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts on the subject of... smiling.
I've read no end of marketing books over the years and always taken some great advice from each one, in addition to some cracking statements that I use when training small businesses in the art of marketing on a shoestring. Most recently, the line: "the process is as important as the outcome" about the delivery of a product or service, really stuck out. And this morning, it was in at the front of my mind when being served by the owner of the coffee shop. She did the right things, albeit in an efficient manner that was bordering on brusque. However, she didn't make eye contact with me and she failed to smile even though I gave her a big beam. What made it worse was that she became animated and smiling when talking to her colleague.
It got me thinking that in our zeal to find the big marketing miracle at the end of the rainbow, we can often overlook the fact that the smallest things make the biggest difference. It's not simply what we actually deliver - whether we sell cakes and coffee or build websites, it is how we actually deliver and whether we make our customers feel fabulous. In my experience, many small businesses can get caught up in searching high and low for their unique selling point when in fact what makes them unique in a sea of "me too" products and services is how they interact with their customers.
So, a warm and genuine smile can go a long way, especially if we deliver products and services face to face. But, if we are not within an arm's-length of our customers, the words we use to describe what we deliver should communicate passion, warmth and enthusiasm. I believe that relevance, simplicity and humanity will define the successful brands of the future and not just the clever use of technology. Now will someone put the kettle on!
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Comments
It's a funny thing why people do not smile more, we all know just how much better you feel when you do smile, try it now and you just cannot help but feel a little happier.
It can be like a little pick me up you are in charge of and the only side affects are positive.
That's why advertisers fall over themselves to picture bonny babies with beaming smiles, at the end of the day smiles sell and as you point out lack of a smile - lack of your custom.
Great post. Couldn't agree more!
Great post! I might also recomend an instructional video surrounding the art of the handshake.
Many thanks for two great posts.
The owners of a brand are the customers and those on the fringe looking in and deliberating, because brand reality is defined through the customer's eyes. The businesses are simply the custodians of the brand. They may think they own it but not so. Remember the Ratner episode, one clumsy misjudged speech and Ratners went up the spout. The day after Gerald's comments the Ratner infrastructure was just the same, shops and staff all intact, same stock but people's perception of the brand and what it meant to them had profoundly altered and so it went into meltdown.
I thought I knew about branding until I studied Philip Kotler and he changed my views forever!! My next book is branding on a shoestring!
I still have not been back to the coffee shop by the way!!
We run a very successful small business in France. We're in the front line at all times as we deal directly with people. A smile is the cheapest thing to give that probably carries the most value. You can't smile in an e-mail, or over the telephone. So. You simply MUST smile when you first shake hands with your new best customer. It's the first thing they'll see, and the eye contact you give for free with the smile is key to having them trust you, and want to spend time with you. It's also a reason for them to want to continue the relationship.
Great post.
I recently read "The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding," and the authors made the point that since promise + experience = relationship, the people who actually own your brand are the people who present your brand to your customers. So in the case of Starbucks and Tully's, the baristas actually own those brands.
So it's not cheesy to expect the salesforce to smile. As marketers, we need to make it clear that where the rubber meets the road is where the brand experience happens and where customers build a relationship with us.
Great post!
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