Know Your Customer. Create Raving Fans & Delight

Delight versus Rage:  Which would you prefer?  If it’s the happy face, get to know your customer.  Here’s why (Note:  Notice the age difference in the pictures...once your daughter is 15 months old, you start deleting the raging pictures and only keeping the delightful ones.):

I had a quick in and out trip to DC yesterday.  The meetings went well and overall it was an excellent day.  However, beyond the business at hand, I had a wonderful service experience that sheds light on how credit unions (and really all businesses) can delight their members. 

Our arrangements were to fly into BWI from ISP and then take a car service to our meetings in DC.  The same car service picked us up in the afternoon and brought us back to BWI.  When they picked us up, they had small bottles of water.  They also had little mints.  They had soothing classical music playing.  It wasn’t loud or invasive, but it made for a nice atmosphere.  The driver was super friendly and helpful with bags.  He wasn’t overly chatty, but he paid close enough attention to jump in with helpful information when the conversation turned to adjusting our return plans. He immediately offered to call dispatch and take over the changes so that we didn’t have to think about it. 

On the return trip, it got even better.  When he picked us up, again, he was helpful and jovial.  When we entered the car, we were chatting about how two of us had relatively new iPhones and that the battery life wasn’t as long as we’d like.  He immediately jumped in.  He had three car chargers with connections to every kind of phone you could imagine.  He passed them around to us and shared where there were easy spots to plug in next to our seats.  We had power and we were a smiling crowd.  

This might not blow your mind.  I recognize that water bottles and charging stations aren’t revolutionary.  But they made a big difference and ultimately weren’t large investments for the driver.  I don’t do enough travel to qualify for double platinum plus bonus points status.  The hard core travelers could probably make a list a mile long, however, in my career I’ve done enough travel to know where some of the pain points are:

• When you get off a flight you are almost ALWAYS very thirsty.  But you most certainly do not want something large to carry around with you.
• You are definitely going to meetings with people that you want to grow or maintain relationships with and you do not want your breath to smell like a dragon’s.
• Whether you are sending your 505^th email of the day, drafting a presentation, preparing a board document, checking in on your children, catching up with your friends on Facebook or cramming in all of the above, you inevitably need to plug in.  There is just never an outlet when you need one.
• In the space between planes, airports, trains, train stations, cabs, limos and hotels there are some truly crabby people.  Whether it is other travelers who haven’t been able to find outlets or reach their children or flight attendants who have been yelled at one too many times or a crying child who can’t make their own ears pop:  travel can create frustration.  It’s really nice to find someone who is not only pleasant, but emotionally intelligent enough to notice if this would be a good time to chat or a good time to listen quietly to the violin solo coming through the speakers. 
• Inevitably on some trips plans change.  There is almost always a groan made by a traveler when adjustments need to be made because you just know that you are about to commit to time on hold with people who not always the kindest and most likely will be charging you “change fees.”

The driver yesterday knew his customers.  He knew these pain points and he solved for them.  The result:  loyalty, raving fans and referrals.  Our organization utilizes this car service exclusively.   Even better, my boss raves about them.  The result:  the person we were traveling with took their card and was talking about using them on his next trip. 

Knowing your customer matters.  It allows you to make these incremental adjustments that drive loyalty and referrals.  Putting resources and energy into really understanding your customer base and their needs is critical to your success.  My challenge:  what’s one thing that you can learn about your customers today that you could use to move them towards being raving fans? 

  

When I was your age...

We've all laughed over time about our parents or grandparents saying things like, "When I was your age, we had to walk to school and it was five miles each way and there were huge snowdrifts and we didn't even have boots."  (Your loved one's version might be slightly different, but you get the idea.)  I'm pretty confident MacKenzie's version of this, as she rolls her eyes, will be, "my mom is always saying, when I was your age, we didn't have any of the technology that you did.  Ugh." Here's why:
My darling girl is 15 months old.  Her new favorite thing:  my iPad.
She's 15 months old and if she sees it, she screams and cries if I won't let her play with it.  She knows herself as "Kenzie" and she also knows that on the iPad there are lots of pictures of "Kenzie."  So, when she sees the iPad she screams, "Kenzie.  Kenzie.  Kenzie."  She knows how to browse through my pictures with two fingers.  She swipes away.  It's not foreign.  It's not scary.  It'll always be a part of her life and I can't even imagine what the technology will be by the time she's in high school, let alone when she's "my age."  (Did I really just write that???)
Progress and change are constant.  It's amazing to watch in the context of imagining the future and how it'll shape my daughter's future.  Cool stuff.  Even if it means she'll be laughing at me :-)

Daily Comforts New York Style

I’ve been an extraordinarily poor blogger.  For those of you who laughed at me when I started this blog on my maternity leave over a year ago:  you were right.  I was lousy at balancing work, motherhood, running, a marriage, and a blog.  However, along with the masses who are still at the gym nine days into the New Year, here I am.  Renewed.  Writing.  Recommitted.  Let's see if I can do better in 2012.

We are becoming the Long Island Stearns Clan.  Our family seems to be adapting to our surroundings.  I note the things that bring me comfort when most of my daily world is jarringly new:  

• The lady at Starbucks who already is comfortable enough to ask me if I could help her to throw a jewelry party.  
• The digital network of credit union friends sending me good luck from across the miles.
• The Subway guy who already knows my order and uses more cheese than most. Smile.
• Runners on the trail that smile at MIS with such joy. (Here she is on the trail...)

• Jones Beach.  I love living so close to such an amazing beach.  
• The woman who stopped me at the supermarket to say how beautiful MIS is.  She told me she hadn't been able to have kids and how hard that was.  I shared that we had struggled to.  She told me MIS was a miracle.  I agreed.
• Coming home every night.  My girl runs out to see me and within 20 seconds does the sign for eat.  Scott broke the news that he makes her hide when he sees my car lights coming.  So, it's a little staged, but it doesn't diminish it.  I also love that she's as into routine as I am.  She knows the signals: mommy comes home and I have dinner. (This is us in front of Snow White's Cottage:  AKA our rental house)

• The friendly folks in the office that have learned my name and stop by to ask how things are going.
• Sunday grilled pizza nights.  Yum.  
• My daily call with my mom.

As much as I love change, it's still tough.  The new routines we are building are starting to feel like "ours."  I'm thankful for these daily comforts.