Anyone that reads this blog regularly, or knows me on Twitter/Facebook, would probably say I do my fair share of questioning (or criticizing, depending on your take).
It’s probably a fair statement – because we all should question and criticize when something seems off. Otherwise, we’ll live in a world of unicorns and pixie dust where no-one is held accountable. Meh to that!
Anyhoo… As much as there are people and companies doing things “wrong” (subjective to your thoughts), there are also companies, people and businesses doing things right.
Here are just three.
Whyte & Mackay
In my last post, I shared a great video on how Scottish whisky maker Whyte & Mackay are connecting with their customers through the power of empathy, storytelling and humour.
Following that, both Whyte & Mackay and Richard Paterson were on Twitter and showed why they’re winning over so many people online.
By reading the post itself, they knew that it was Phil Baumann that instigated it and made sure to thank him too, and not just the referring source.
By doing so, they immediately raised the “fan” level of both Phil and myself, along with a lot of others we’ve shared the story with.
Takeaway? The bigger picture isn’t always in front of you. Recognizing the various arms of a conversation makes you a far smarter business.
Canadian Pet Connection
I love the guys at Canadian Pet Connection in Oakville, Ontario (disclaimer – we’re friends). This is a successful father and son team who’ve built a great reputation in the area as a business doing things right.
When you visit their store, they’ll take the time to chat with you as a person and not just a customer. They’ll offer expert advice on how to look after your beloved pet, as well as recommend products that might mean you going to a competitor, because they love animals so much.
They take that offline experience online, where their blog shares advice on healthy pets, safety concerns and more.
On Twitter, the son Brandon often looks for conversations of pet owners talking about their pet’s birthday, and offer to ship them a surprise birthday pack. Cool, right?
Takeaway: If your customer has an awesome experience with you offline, transfer that online and expand it to a wider audience. The results will speak for themselves.
Seth Godin
Earlier this week, marketer and author Seth Godin sent out an email to promote the release of Steve Pressfield’s new book, Turning Pro. All well and good – except when the pitch was used in reference to the death of Ray Bradbury.
At best, the tie-in was misplaced (citing the similar thinking of Pressfield and Bradbury) – at worst, it could have been seen as using someone’s name to shill a book.
Clearly others felt that way too.
There were other updates across Facebook and Google+ that followed the line of thinking that the pitch was horribly misplaced. Something Seth clearly heard.
Takeaway: We all make errors in judgement – that’s human. How we deal with these errors defines the perception is us. Seth showed that taking responsibility, not making any crap excuses and apologizing is the smarter thing to do.
These are just three examples of businesses and people doing things right – there are many more. The important thing is, we recognize them and the reasons why they’re the right and smart approach, and how that benefits the person or company in the long run.
Something we can all learn from, no?
