Leading Results

I just came home from my third transatlantic flight in 2 months.  I flew on Lufthansa, British Airways and United for various parts of the different trips and went through Heathrow, Munich, Frankfurt, St Petersburg, Moscow, JFK in NY and Boston Logan.  I stayed in local hotels and US branded ones.  ( and no, this is not an airline rant post).  Airtravel – actually, travel in general – provides so many opportunities for service interaction and expectation setting, that the past 2 months have just been filled with great vignettes to replay back out.

Today’s post is about a company – United Airlines -  trying to do the right thing and just missing the mark completely.  I don’t fly United very often – maybe once a year – so on the last flight from Moscow to Washington Dulles – I was pleasantly surprised when the flight attendants handed out customer appreciation cards to all the passengers in coach, as an apology for not having the video system working correctly.  (it is a 11 hour flight and the system was down for about 5 hours of it).  The card has a code on it and it says “Please accept our apology”  and then goes on to tell you that you can select a token of our appreciation for your patience and understanding … blah, blah, blah.  (you can see the card below).

This was a really nice idea and I didn’t know what to expect – maybe a drink coupon or something with a United brand on it. Or maybe a way to donate $1.oo to my favorite charity.  So I went to the website.  What was the offer?  $150 off my next full economy fare or 10% any international fare.  So much for appreciation.  So in order to get a thank you for being patient and inconvienced, I need to spend money with United – again.

The lesson I wanted to pass on is probably obvious, but I’ll say it anyway, if you are going to set expectations with a customer that you are providing something of value – make sure it is actually valuable – having to spend money to get a discount isn’t a token of appreciation, it is simply a marketing ploy – and a bad one at that.  Nice try United, but you missed on this one by at least a continent.

I’ve been working with a client that is looking to build a brand for themselves, but without a lot of money.  Pretty common for most small businesses. Over the years they have spent a lot of money on their image and have a VERY good logo.  They should be a common name to most businesses of any size, but they aren’t because they rely on a distribution channel that sells a related product to develop customer interest and sales.

Now, the employees of the customers and distribution channel partners know this company well. They know the products.  But they don’t know the staff, except for a few, visible, long time staffers.  This became extremely apparent to me when I recently attended a tradeshow with them. There was tons of traffic at their booth (the signage was good and the logo very visible). But because it was business casual dress at the show, no one was wearing the typical logo polo, and almost NO ONE visiting the booth, could identify company employees versus other visitors.

The simple solution – a lapel pin.  Years ago when I worked for Great Plains Software everyone had one – and we ALL wore them, all the time.  (our partners joked it was a cult).  For this company, at this show, it would have been the perfect, understated but clearly visible, solution. Not only that, for other shows, for visiting with partners and customers, for public travel – a lapel pin becomes a visible symbol of your brand.

If you have spent the money to get your brand and logo right, go that extra step.  For under a $1.00 a pin, you can be everywhere, with all your partners and customers, and with a little creativity, you can even have a great deal of fun with it.  What do you think?  Have you done something like this?  Let me know your experience.