June 8, 2010

Nickelback: Their Critics are Mixed but Their Tribe Loves ‘em

On June 3rd my wife and I attended a Nickelback concert at GM Place in Vancouver. It was the last gig of the band’s recent tour and it was (as usual) a sold-out event. We had a great time. These guys are incredibly dynamic and are brilliant musicians. The last concert I attended was Santana a few years ago and Nickelback was head and shoulders above that event.

I have always been confused why the media (in particular the Canadian media) gives the band mixed reviews while they continue to attract a loyal Tribe of raving fans and earn more music awards than most other musicians.

Nickelback is a Rock band that presents itself as you would expect - loud music with lyrics that can be heard and understood by only their Tribe with edgy language and occasional profanity. Nothing new here.
However, I see aspects of Nickelback that make them special and truly distinctive:
> They respect and engage with their Tribe both on and off-stage. Nurturing the Tribe is a priority for these guys and they do it well.
> They work on creating an enjoyable experience above and beyond their music. Chad and Ryan banter back and forth; the audience is allowed in to see more of the personal aspects of the band members.
> Their performances are consistent, delivering exactly what is expected of them at every event. No surprises for the Tribe. They always know what to expect.
> They don’t pander to the media. Why should they? I think it is a brlliant strategy:  ignore them and they will ALWAYS be interested and they will ALWAYS talk. 
> Behind ‘The Show’ is a group of nice guys with the humility persona becoming of their Canadian roots.

A bit of a surprise to most I suspect, however, is that they have chosen to contribute to a higher purpose; a greater good than entertaining; they are MORE than Rock Stars.

Treana Peake, wife of guitarist Ryan, has established The Obakki Foundation; a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting - from their website - “humanitarian causes by finding and nourishing creativity in all pockets of the world. It offers people hope, empowerment and the chance to learn and grow. It’s about giving people the opportunity to be creative; to use thoughts, ideas, art, and fashion to stand up and participate in improving their own lives—and the lives of their family, friends and neighbors.”

Nickelback is an avid supporter of Obakki. Helping the underprivileged is something that each one of them cares about and they collectively show it by contributing some of their hard earned bucks.

Nice.

Check out Obakki, Treana’s blog (a great read by the way) and the things she and her organization are doing to try to make a difference. And join her Tribe if it resonates with what YOU care about.

Thanks, Roy

Posted 6.8.10 at 05:59 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 6, 2010

“Delivering Happiness” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh

I rarely find an organization that practices what I fundamentally believe is required to distinguish oneself in the market to succeed and survive. My regular reader will know that I am relentless in advocating proven and practical BE DiFFERENT Practices to create distance between yourself and the competitive herd. I am a ‘SIMPLE’, ‘EXECUTE’ and ‘ONLY’ strategy hawk, a ‘VALUE’ marketing guy, a ‘relationship’ sales believer and a ‘dazzling experience’ customer server.

This book is evidence of a leader that also believed in these principles and built a phenomenally successful business by relentlessly applying them.

Tony has created an interesting and enjoyable read by his informal captivating writing style. You don’t have to ‘fight the words’ on every page. You find yourself easily consuming page after page effortlessly. The recounting of his early years and what he did to prepare himself for ‘The Show’ was informative and to the analytical hemisphere in each of us made it easy to predict his future as a business entrepreneur.

But what impressed - no, WOW’d - me was the rich examples of what he did to establish Zappos as a DiFFERENT Company; one that focused on a single value dimension to attract and build a loyal customer base; one that literally created a culture that served his chosen strategic direction.

In no particular order, here is a sample of the climax learning moments for me in Delivering Happiness:
> Never outsource a core competency. He unlike others resisted the economic temptation to outsource his call center operations.
> You always have a choice of which table to sit at (from his Poker days). Choose the table - pick the customer group to serve - that maximizes your chances of success. WHO to SERVE.
> He had an audacious goal of generating $1 Billion in revenue by 2010. This growth goal drove all activity in the business. An excellent example of HOW BIG in action.
> Lifelong learning through the Zappos Library. People make their business - everyone’s business!
> THE strategic driving force behind Zappos is to create WOW experiences for customers, employees, suppliers and owners. Tight strategy. Easy to understand. Easy to relate to.
> All activities are aligned to the service experience goal. Direct Line of Sight for all people in the organization. Random Acts of WOWNESS are expected and are a part of performance management.
> When Zappos can’t supply what the customer wants, they are directed to research their competition. They are driven by the relationship NOT the short term sale. Lose a Sale BUT Save the Customer.
> The language of Zappos is all about the customer. NOT Call Centers, BUT The Customer Loyalty Team.
> They created, published AND - more importantly - PRACTICE the Ten Core Values of Zappos.
> The #1 Core Value = Deliver WOW Through Service
> The power of 1%, a blog posted by Alfred the CFO/COO. A brilliant example of ‘get a nano-inch of progress FAST. Increments of advancement add up to impressive performance improvements.
> Weirdness is promulgated as a differential advantage. Tony’s words “We want the company to have a unique and memorable personality”.
> Build a pipeline of people rather than thinking of individuals as assets. You need to build a steady stream of people with the skills and competencies you need. A Pipeline Team delivers courses to various departments.

As an Author I was WOW’d by the way Tony and crew distributed the Advanced Copy of his book for comment. Delivering Happiness was made available to bloggers who post blog articles regularly with a ‘promise’ to blog the book on the Publication date June 7, 2010. What a slick method of, first, getting the Advanced Copy out to a large group of people; second, receiving complementary promotion of his book, and, third, gathering a repository of Critical Praise testimonials for his book. Brilliant example of how Authors can use Social Media to leverage their work. Nice!

Rarely have I seen such a cornucopia of ‘stuff’ that not only mirrors the business practices I believe in but which also have been executed in the real world. Tony has personally breathed life into the notions that people espouse as the right things to do. He did it and he nailed it in his book.

I strongly recommend Delivering Happiness to anyone looking to build something successful and memorable.

Cheers, Roy
Remember to follow me on Twitter

Posted 6.6.10 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 28, 2010

Ms Lube: A Brilliant Example of Doing It Right.

“Ms Lube Is The First And Only All-Female Automotive Service Center In North America”. Wow! A great use of The ONLY Statement and a clever business idea.

Women hold the purchasing power in North America (if not the world). Tom Peters in his new book “Little BIG Things” talks about this at length in his ‘Gender’ Section. He quotes the founder of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society as saying “For a number of observers, we have already entered the age of womenomics, the economy as thought out and practiced by a woman”.

The opportunity costs of a non-female strategy are HUGE. Peters characterizes men’s inability to market to women this way:
  “Men cannot effectively design products-services-experiences for women.
  Men cannot sell effectively to women.
  Men who disagree with this are delusional.”

Ms Lube understands the male shortcoming and is driving a stake in Mother Earth. They understand the power of the female market and are building a business around the specific needs of that market and the service experience they expect.

I am impressed with their website. It is retro. It is clear about what values are important to them: “We’re all about getting to know you and your car, building lasting relationships and delivering the outstanding services you’ve been waiting for”.

I know they have legal challenges in front of them at the moment with “Mr Lube” suing them for brand infringement. Some (men) say Ms Lube should have considered this before launching their business, as they might be forced to write off their branding investments made to date if the suit goes against them. That may be true, but it doesn’t diminish the opportunities presented by this business idea. Great ideas suffer set-backs, so if this is the price they have to pay so be it.

They are living BE DiFFERENT Practices:
> Their strategy is FOCUSED.
> Their Value Proposition is clear and compelling.
> They are addressing a HUGE market potential.
> They are into Relationship-Building not product flogging.
> They have taken the offensive competitively.
> They are trying to create groups of interested, connected raving female fans.
> They have an Only Statement which clearly declares their value proposition.

I wish Jessica Gilbank and her team good luck. Stay focused on your Strategy. Keep moving forward. Be true to your values. Take a deep breath and plow through short term set-backs.

Watch your back Mr Lube!

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blogs
HOW will you compete and WIN?
Roy’s Rule of Three
The ONLY Statement

Posted 5.28.10 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 1, 2010

The Crackman: De-Dazzling at its Best

Does this look like a repair job where the “after” picture (below) is better than the “before” one?

Five years ago I had a local Company out to repair a crack formation in my driveway and stamped concrete perimeter. After the usual preparation and repair costs around $1,500 I settled in to my newborn driveway with the promise that “you will never notice that there was ever any problem”.

OK. I did sign a contract with a one-year warranty clause. But in this case I had faith that doing the right thing for the customer would prevail. Naive on my part.

Over the past 3 years I had witnessed the gradual demise of my crack repair project. I finally decided to follow up with the supplier to get a satisfactory resolution to my problem. I sent an e-mail to their website and eagerly awaited a reply. On March 18, 2010 one of the partners appeared at my door; I admit that my first impression was one of delight that they would actually follow up to my complaint.

Showing up was the good news; the balance of the story I leave to you to reach your own conclusions.

The Partner’s message to me in summary:
- It was the weather’s fault. It was unusually cold over the past few years; this caused the problem that I had encountered.
- I signed a contract with a 1-year warranty on the work; They were therefore beyond reproach.
- Their costs had increased; repairing the work without cost recovery was therefore out of the question.
- Given the house that I have, I surely you want the unsightly crack to be restored to pristine condition (and by inference I could afford it).
- They knew what to expect when they got my email.They were not surprised when they saw the state of the crack.
- When they received my e-mail they took the time to make an appearance at my home.
- I obviously had power washed my driveway over the past 5 years. As a result, there was no sand left in the crack repair which contributed to the problem.
- Since I was a businessman I should be able to appreciate their position in this matter.

They chose to ignore my plight completely; there was no appreciation of my request to have the repair remedied at no cost to me. There was no willingness to even negotiate. And he clearly didn’t get (or chose NOT to understand) the impact on his business of not recovering from this service blunder.

Seriously, a $500 cost is not material compared to the overall value of the business and the negative feedback that will result from the way this issue was resolved.

This incident left me no choice but to tell my story over and over and over….... again and characterize their organization as uncaring with no regard for cultivating and maintaining trusted relationships with their customers.

To my business readers of this admonition: please treat this story as a “What not to do” example in customer service, loyalty-building, value creation, relationship-building and good business practice.

As consumers, stick up for your rights when faced with these types of unjustices. Tell your story. Make it matter. Tweet until they listen. Remember we are Empowered.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blogs
Serving Customers NOT Providing Customer Service
The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
Recover from Your Blunders
Sell Relationships NOT Products
Lose a Sale But Save the Customer

Posted 5.1.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)