You are fired Mr. MP!

In the past, conducting an assembly election was a mammothtask, a logistical nightmare. So, it was a practical solution to hold electionsevery 5 years. 

This provided a level of stability to the government to take along term view on all important policy decisions without having to worry aboutthe short term impact these decisions could have on the government.

However, I think it is time for us to sit back and re-lookat the past and see if this model still works for us or should we re-look atthe term of office for these elected representatives. Some questions that areworth asking are:

• What would happen if we change the term of office to 2 or 3 years insteadof 5? Will this affect the decisions being made?
• What if the elected representative is not actively working for thecommunity post his election? Should the constituency suffer for 5 full years ofnegligence or should they have a right to fire the representative and call for afresh election (even mid-term)?
• What impact will this change in terms have on the scams? Will theyincrease or decrease?
• Is it best for us to have a combination of the ideas (5 year term for thegovernment & ability for the constituency to fire an elected candidatemid-term if he/she fails to perform his duties well?

With the technological advances, it has become much easierfor us to hold elections more often than in the past.

Would you want to fire your MP or MLA if he/she fails to do her duty as the elected representative? 

Customer Engagement (delight) at its best

The facebook team of zappos.com posted on their pagethe following post:

They got about more than 300 responses to thisquestion. One of the responses was the one below: 

They selected this fan, called her and offered herto choose a watch from their collection and they will ship it to her mom forfree.

She was totally wowed!!!

The team does not stop there. They take herpermission to post their conversation as a video on their facebook page (whichshe gladly agrees to – who wouldn’t in her position ;-))

Now, there are even more people who are wowed by thevideo and here I am writing about this wonderful thing.

What works wonders because of the surprise element(they did not mention that they will give away or that this was a contest) and connected to the emotions of all their fans (who would not like a person who would rather put her mothers need ahead out her own). Thewinner was taken by surprise (pleasantly). And the entire episode happens under 18 hours. 

Wow!!!

Engagement at its best!!! 

This explains whyzappos.com customers are so so happy and loyal. 

This also explains why their employeesare so motivated and happy. 

Do you know of any other story about awesomecompanies doing some really awesome things? 

Customer Engagement – What if your customers do not engage with you?

There is a lot being said about the customer centricorganizations and how businesses can involve customers at different stages of product/servicedevelopment.

There have organizations that have done this verysuccessfully and continue to engage with their customers. I did write about onesuch initiative that FM station RadioOne recently.

However, what happens if your customers do notparticipate in these activities? Without their active participation, the entireprogram is designed to fail. 

How does one deal with this situation?

How would you deal with such a situation? 

Caught you!

While driving to my office today morning, I saw avery common sight in Bangalore (and in any city in India). There were 3 trafficcops waiting at a busy T-junction.

Now imagine, you are in a hurry to reach your office(or wherever you are going). You see that the signal has changed form Green toYellow and you are right at the turn. You race to cross the signal before thesignal turns red.

Alas! The signal wins the race and just turns to Redat the instant you are taking the turn.

Bang! The waiting cops pounce on you and slap afine or maybe ask for a bribe (yes, this is also a form of corruption, whichwas largely ignored by the recent uprising of the Anna Hazare movement) to letyou go (which could very well be more than the official fine for the offence – btw,fine for jumping a traffic signal is 100INR).

Are these cops responsible for catching trafficviolators or to reduce traffic violation?

The way we define the responsibility could have a bigchange in their attitudes and actions.

If their responsibility was to reduce trafficviolations, they could find ways to ensure that we do not race with the lights.Instead of hiding behind the blind turn, they could wait just before the signalto ensure that no one gets a chance to violate the traffic signals. They couldthink of more ideas like the timer at each signal which indicates when the nextchange in the traffic signal is.

Let’s now think (I know it is becoming more and moredifficult now-a-days to do this but let’s give it a try)!

How many of us know of a manager who do exactly thesame – wait for us to commit a mistake and they are all over us reprimanding andtaking us to task.

Do you think it would be much better if these samemanagers could find time to coach us and help us wade through our work withoutcommitting some of the common mistakes and when we do make mistakes, instead ofreprimanding us, they could help us learn from the mistake and move on in life?

Life @ work would be so much more rewarding.

Now, what happens if the manager went one stepforward! In addition to the coaching, he waits for us to do something well andpounces on every such opportunity to praises us for the job/task well done.

Life @ work would be so engaging !! 

So, lets start catching someone doing something right!!

Caught you – Reading this fantastic blog!!! Well Done!!! 😉

Death of the Car Audio Systems

After a lot of deliberation, I recently bought aSkoda Fabia for myself. As part of the negotiation, the dealer offered to providea Sony Car audio system for free (along with a few other goodies). I was happy withthe deal I got.

When I was driving back home, I thought that therewas no need for a car audio system, if it was possible for me to connect myphone to the in-built speaker systems that is a standard fitting for the modelI bought. My mobile has all the songs that I like along with an FM/AM radio tuner.

So, for all practical purposes, if I had a 3.5mm whichcould connect my phone to the in-built speakers, Id did not need the car audiosystem at all.

This could save some cost & effort (avoid another device/medium) for me(consumer), space in the interiors of the car which designers could use for abetter purpose.

I had recently written about the disruptive power of the mobile phone and how it has the potential to disrupt photocopiers, scanners & TV. This is another product category that could be threatened by the power of the mobile phone. 

Innovation – Re-birth of a paint can?

Have you ever wondered why paint containers (infact, most containers) are cylindrical in shape? Why not any other shape? Is itbecause cylindrical shape has advantages over other shapes or is it because oftradition (this is how it has been done for centuries)?

When I thought about it, I did what people usuallydo now-a-days – Googled it. I found some very interesting stories and designs:

• A see-through container made using PET. Moreinformation on the same here.This helps customers to see the color even before buying it, thereby making thepaint selection process easier, fun and results in a higher customersatisfaction.
• A square container with a unique twist and pourmechanism by Dutch Boy Paints. More information on this design here.
• A unique 1-2-Paint, a paint bucket with aninnovative lid that serves as a paint tray to dry the extra paint from thebrush before using it to paint. This was designed at the Dutch-based designoffice of FLEX and refinedin close cooperation with AKZO NOBEL COATINGS. They also received a patent for this design.More information on this design here.

These stories go on to prove that innovation neednot be limited to the product development team. It can permeate to all aspectsof your products including the packaging and distribution.

These striking designs transform a paint containerfrom a commodity to an item worth collecting.

Innovative designs can also emerge out of combiningdifferent ideas. For example, when you combine these container ideas, you get:

• A see through container, which is square in shape andcomes with a paint tray to dry your paint before application.

Hope the paint companies in India (Asian Paints, Nerolac, Berger, Dulux,etc) are listening and would do some work to transform their product packaging. 

What more can RadioOne do?

I wrote about the great campaign that Radio Oneexecuted recently to re-define their playlist by creating a user driven musicpanel. They are also engaging other users (via contests) to validate the new playlist byoffering a 1000INR gift voucher or cash prize for listeners who are able tocorrectly predict the song which did not make it to the playlist.

Now, Radio one has an opportunity to take theircustomer engagement to the next level. Instead of just offering cash rewards(or equivalent), they should also start offering social currency to all theirlisteners.

Let me explain:

Radio One currently has a Facebook fan group, wherelisteners can follow and participate in moderated discussions. Radio One couldalso offer social currency (points) to all the winners of the contests inaddition to the regular prizes. 

Listeners can accumulate these points to attaindifferent ribbon/badge/levels.

In order to participate, the listeners will need to jointhe facebook group and mention their winner code (a code that could be given toall the winners) to claim the points.

Radio one can then offer great experiences for alllisteners who achieve different levels. Some interesting ideas could be

• Opportunity to host an episode of a popular showwith an existing RJ.
• Meeting celebrities who are hosted at the Radiostation
• Hosting a party for all winners @ a specific level.

This can also be extended to all the participants on Facebook who are actively participating in the online discussions & contestsas well.

In my opinion, something like this can take the userengagement to a completely different level. This will also help them increase the fans on their Facebook page. 

Hope someone at Radio one is listening!! 

Re-inventing Customer Loyalty Programs

There has been enough being said and discussed about the customer loyalty programs and what works and what does not.

• Maggie Starvish in his article titled Customer Loyalty Programs That Work, argues that customer engagement is the key in successful loyaltyprograms in Retail industry.
• This interesting Infographic talks about the connection between customer loyalty programs and social media and how together they can become a potent combination.
• In this video, Second-generation vintner John Jordan reflects on the creation of Jordan Estate Rewards. Through exclusive, intimate experiences, Jordan Estate Rewards membership creates lasting wine country memories — such as lunch in their dining room, fishing on Jordan lake or a luxurious overnight stay in one of our chateau suites, just to name a few.

Add to this, the proliferation of Groupon and its clones, discount offers are galore. So, just offering some more of your product/service at a discount or free does not make any loyalty program interesting.

In my opinion, it is time for loyalty programs to re-invent themselves. While doing so, some key points that they need to keep in mind could be:

• Trust: Build trust. This should reflect in the quality of yourproducts/services. You need to find ways to build trust in every transaction that you have with your customers. This is the foundation on which you can build loyal customers.
• Make it personal: With the proliferation of technology everywhere, the personal interaction is somewhere missing. Use technology to make it more personal and not the otherway round.
• Offer experiences: People forget products, services or discount offers. They do not forget memorable experiences. Make sure you give them enough opportunity to click pictures and shoot videos. That is your measure of success.
• Closed community: Do not start selling the loyalty program to everyone. Let your customers earn to be a part of this closed community. It is a fact well-known, that the difficult it is to achieve something, the more we cherish the achievements.
• Customer focused: Do not use the program to focus on what you want to do with the members. Focus on what the members want to do with you and other members. Be bold; be creative in the activities that you plan.
• Celebrate: Celebrate your successes with this closed community. Nothing binds people more than celebrating success together.
• Simple: Make it a very simple program to roll-out, manage and benefit from.

I would definitely love to be a part of such a loyalty program.

Do you know of any such program that truly wows their members? Please do let me know about them.

Engaging with your customers – The Radio One way

Recently, Radio One (FM Radio channel in Bangalore,playing Bollywood music) completed a unique experiment to clean-up their playlist.Business as usual would have been to hire some experts in music and asking themto rate and decide which songs will remain in the playlist and which will beremoved, or conducting a market research to understand the preferences of theircustomers and deciding the final playlist.

Instead, Radio One conducted a series of events andcompetitions to enlist about 600 of their ardent listeners to come together andform a music panel. This panel then decided the new playlist. Then they are nowusing this concept further to ask their listeners toidentify the songs that did not make it to the new playlist and offeringgoodies to customers who call and correctly identify these songs. This also ina way validates the choice of the music panel.

Radio channels are usuallyforced to engage with the customers (listeners) in myriad ways as this is theonly way, they can continue to have a good following and thereby getting a lotof advertisers. Even then, this was the first (to my knowledge) when a radio channelhas gone so far. I have now become a huge fan of the radio station and onlylisten to this station while driving. 

All I can say about the new playlist is –it ROCKS!!!

Can other businesses canlearn from such experiments and use it to create a competitive advantage? I amsure there is a lot of learning for businesses here to involve and engagecustomers throughout their product development cycle rather than seek customerfeedback post-delivery of their product or service.  I already discussed in my previous post whythis method does not auger well for the businesses. 

Great going team Radio One!!!

AUDI – Managing customer expectations?

I was at the UB city mall a couple of days back and was amazed at the brand new Audi E5 which was displayed at the mall. Right next to the car, there was a big poster asked prospective customers to SMS AUDI to 561611 for more information about the car. In my enthusiasm to know more about the same, I immediately complied and sent an SMS to the number mentioned on the poster.

I was then waiting impatiently for either a SMS response or for someone at the AUDI dealership to call me and explain all the great new features that the E5 had. Alas, it has been more than 2 days now, with no response from the company.

Now after 2 days with no contact from AUDI, my interest in the car has diminished and their reputation for me is also considerably lower.

Hope AUDI knows this and can correct whatever is the trouble at the SMS gateway and do it quickly.