Skip to main content

Almost Right


Trying to think about customers as if they were family is a popular concept. Hugh McLeod asserts that if someone spoke to you like advertising did, you would "punch them in the face". Jim Logan disagrees. Jim maintains that customer service and advertising tells you what you want to hear, just like family. They are both almost right.

Advertising tells you what you want to hear, but they have yet to become a part of the family. Advertising is just some guy on a first date with your daughter. You have to pay attention as long as it is present in your life. Eventually, if it goes on long enough, you may even have to make a decision. Either way, you were not the one looking for it, but it may or may not solve a problem you may or may not have with a perspective with which you may or may not agree. Maybe by then, your daughter, and her entire family, is engaged.

A functional family will tell you the truth. From time to time, everyone has a family member who exuberantly supports you because she believes in you. Not because you are right, but because she has faith in you. With that exception, a family member should tell you the truth. If a family member tells you what you want to hear to appease you, they are doing you a disservice. The same goes for your customers. Be honest, be truthful, and they will be, too. And everyone lives happily ever after.

Easier said than done.


Popular posts from this blog

What You See (Part 1)

When a camera takes in an image, it is objective and records what comes through its lens, without bias, not giving preference to one piece of information over another. The brown book sitting on the shelf is as important to the camera as the red fingernail raised toward the sky. When the brain takes in an image, it receives 400,000,000,000 bits of information each second, but only processes 2,000 of those bits because the brain has a network of neurons that has been trained to use associations, both of objections and of familiarity, to sort information into quickly usable portions of fuel for decision making. When watching a movie, is the focus on the streetlight in the background or the exploding truck in the foreground? The camera makes no separation between one bit of light and another, but the brain does.
Read more

Small Enough To Be Hugely Successful

For centuries, putting something on paper (disk, etc.) and distributing it has been exclusive to huge media companies. Anyone can create a website or a start a dry cleaner, but publishing has been traditionally dominated by gigantic media houses. No more. Along comes Lulu and enables anybody to publish a book. A real book - with hearty paper, professional covers, and a listing in the Library Of Congress ! One at a time, they turn them out. For less than the price of a DVD player you can even have your book distributed through the same mainstream channels from which companies such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon buy their inventory. The book certainly will not market itself, but it is definitely there in front of decision makers where it would never have been otherwise. Lulu has turned an entire industry on its ear by giving power back to creators and customers, alike. For industries like pharmaceuticals, where huge companies took the power of independent pharmacies , the pend
Read more