frequentr

We make tools that help businesses connect w/ their customers.

[frequentlyatlanta-blog]

Scavenger Mission #11: Wear a Pair of Sid Mashburn’s Double Monk in a Size 12 (30 Points)

Beyond my guilty pleasure of the occasional Next Top Model episode, I’m not fashion-savvy by any measure. A thrift store blouse and a retro designer one look the same to me. This has to be the only reason I hadn’t heard of Sid Mashburn before arriving in Atlanta because, as I’ve learned, they’re a very big deal.  Maybe I didn’t know about “Sid the Kid” because I’m not a regular reader of GQ magazine, which has featured the fashion luminary on numerous occasions. In any case, my horizons have been broadened.

I posted this photo on my Facebook page and several of my friends commented that they had been waiting to buy the exact shoes I had on. Another commented that this was their favorite store in Atlanta; it’s easy to see why.  After clopping around in the famous Double Monk shoes during my visit, I wanted half of the clothes for myself and I’m not even in the right gender demographic.

Sid Mashburn and its sister store, Ann Mashburn, are located in the Westside Provisions District.  Nestled in northwest Atlanta, this area is best known for its award-winning dining and shopping.  This is the place to go when you have a date, client, or in-laws to impress.

The store itself is beautiful, replicating an upscale sitting room for luxury safaris. Or, at least, that’s what I thought of.  As if the store isn’t lovable enough, Sid Mashburn and Ann Mashburn the married couple that the stores are the namesakes of.

A sharply dressed man named Donnie greeted me at the door. I imagined the staff would be resistant to letting a random girl just try on a pair of their nicest shoes for no purposeful reason but Donnie shook his head, “No! Not at all. People do that all of time. What size would you like them in?”

“Um…a 12…”

“Oh…those are not going to fit you,” he looked down at my women’s size 7 feet with a little bit of pity.

“I know… they’re not for me-I promise!,” and I went on to explain my scavenger hunt.  He was more than happy to help and offered me a drink while I waited for him to grab the beautiful shoes.  I was expecting a plastic cup of water.  It’s Sid Mashburn-I should have known better. He handed me a glass bottle of Coca-Cola and I happily poked around the shelves while I waited, picking out imaginary Christmas gifts for people.  I’m not saying that every store needs to give their customers Coca-Cola bottles, but how Sid Mashburn’s staff treats their shoppers would easily convince me to spend a few extra bucks.

The shoehorn Donnie brought out was unnecessary as I could have easily slipped half of my arm in one of the shoes. Donnie helped me take the photo, told me to come back whenever I liked, and I decided shortly afterwards that Sid Mashburn was my favorite men’s store.

[frequentr-blog]

One of the best parts of starting Frequentr has been exploring a ton of interesting and exciting local businesses. As part of the summer experience for our intern, Elena, we've given her a 'scavenger hunt' of things to do at local businesses around Atlanta - some goofy (try on size 12 double monks at Sid Mashburn), some ridiculous (have a coronary bypass burger at Vortex), some intimidating (get a picture with Anne at Anne's Snack Bar), but all great opportunities to get to know Atlanta. 

You can follow her scavenger hunt at: Frequently Atlanta

[frequentr-blog]

Your customers are your best source of new ideas

Let’s say you own a restaurant or shop. You’re looking for ways to grow, but how do you go about growing in the right way? In other words, you’re searching for ideas to make your current customers happier, more loyal, and more vocal about your business to drive additional revenue.

What do you do?

Decisions concerning the future of your business, small (should I replace the fish on the menu?) and large (should I invest in a liquor license?....uh, yes), are tough. And identifying those ideas with potential to improve your business is even tougher. But rest assured, there is one place you can turn for insights and new ideas:

Your customers.

Your customers are your best source of new ideas.

Why are customers so good at coming up with new ideas? And why do I struggle to come up with ideas myself?

There is an interesting psychological phenomenon I’ve observed time and time again…

The longer you’ve been working on something – a report, a project, even a business – the harder it is to step back to consider how you’re doing and think through what you can change/add/amend. Both because you become so wed to whatever you’re working on, meaning you lose the ability to be objective, and because you’re too ‘in it.’ You’re too deep in the details of your [report, project, business] to provide a valid judgment and consider new ideas.

Fortunately, your customers don’t have the same problem. And they’re also users & purchasers of your product/services to boot! Each one of your customers has, by definition, experienced your business offerings from the perspective of a customer, and thus is uniquely positioned to provide insights you, being deep in the details, might miss.

The Starbucks example

Very successful companies recognize the value of engaging their customers for new ideas, and many have systems in place to collect ideas from their customers. One great example is Starbucks, which has set up a cloud-based platform for crowd-sourcing and ranking ideas from customers.

If you dig into the ‘Top All-Time Ideas’ posted to the Starbucks site, you’ll notice that many of the drinks and items for sale at Starbucks were once long-shot ideas proposed by customers. That’s awesome! And further proof that your customers can provide a wealth of ideas for your business.

Practicing what [we] preach

So you’ve seen the light, and you’re ready to start looking to your customers for insights. How can you start collecting and vetting ideas from customers?

Starbucks is an incredibly large company with a well-established digital presence – they’ve spent the past decade developing a rapport with customers. But while it may seem impossible to match their level of engagement with customers, the most important step is starting. It’s as simple as asking your customers in person – “what can we do better?” or “what would you like to see us do differently?”

The next step? Drop us a line, and we’ll set you and your business up with our next generation customer engagement platform to help you generate ideas, answer questions, collect feedback and provide an exceptional level of customer service.

Nick

[frequentr-blog]

Why is it so hard to build relationships with your customers?

Alex and I spend a lot of time talking with business owners & managers about building relationships with customers. This is a big topic for any business – developing relationships with your customers engenders good will and builds a bond that inspires excitement, loyalty, and promotion of your business.

From a customer’s standpoint, having a relationship with a business is great. Think about a place where you feel like a ‘regular.’ It’s a pretty awesome feeling, isn’t it? For me, that place is Highland Bakery in Buckhead, Atlanta. I have breakfast there at least once a week, and the staff there knows who I am and what I like. I walk in, sit down, and I know that coffee and a sweet potato biscuit (amazing) are on the way. And I love that everyone actually expresses interest in my experience there – ‘How was everything today? Is there anything we can do better?’ I feel special because they value my input.

Unfortunately, my experience at Highland Bakery is atypical. Rather than feeling like a regular, valued customer, at most businesses I visit I feel more like a number - the staff may be nice, and the products or meals I purchase may be good, but no one solicits my feedback or acknowledges my value as a customer during or after my experience. As a result, I end up feeling less like member of their community and more like a means to revenue.

Why does this happen? Businesses understand the value of developing relationships with their customers, but messaging to customers (‘we value your business!’) is rarely conveyed in a consistent and direct way.

We’ve identified a few limiting factors that often get in the way of cultivating relationships with customers.

Here they are:

1)   Understanding. At Frequentr, we believe that customer loyalty programs don’t diminish the need to cultivate relationships with customers. Punchcards, digital or paper, are great, but will they make customers feel like you value their business? Motivate customers to go tell all their friends about your business? Probably not. While customer loyalty programs can often help identify good customers, the onus is on the business to show customers how important they really are.

2)   Time. Running a business is very time-consuming. The manager of a restaurant, retail shop, live event space – any consumer-facing business - has to manage people, balance employee schedules, track inventory, develop and execute on marketing plans, brainstorm new initiatives, evaluate new products…and that’s all in addition to making sure customers are happy. As a result, managers often feel that they cannot take the time to focus on interacting with customers individually.

3)   Opportunity. Many businesses just don’t allow for much personal interaction. High-turn businesses, or businesses that see a large number of customers come through on a daily basis, are a great example of environments where managers are afforded few opportunities to interact with customers. As a result, it’s hard to develop relationships with customers.

4)   Initiation. What options exist for a customer who would like to initiate a dialogue about his/her experience at a business? Tracking down the manager is an option, but one not many customers will take – finding and talking to managers can be time-consuming, difficult, and/or uncomfortable. Alternatively, some customers air it out publicly by posting something on social media (Twitter, Facebook) or a review site (Yelp, TripAdvisor, Citysearch). But this feedback almost never makes it back to businesses! Because of the lack of convenient ways to provide feedback, the majority of customers with feedback, good or bad, never communicate with businesses. As a result, businesses miss out on opportunities to learn about their business and engage with customers.

At Frequentr, we’ve spent a lot of time talking with business owners & managers, and we understand that the challenge of providing a personalized, special experience for individual customers may seem daunting. We’re very excited to have the opportunity to build tools that help businesses in our community overcome that challenge and provide a better experience for their customers.

Do you struggle to develop relationships with individual customers? Do you feel like your business does a particularly good job at creating a great customer experience? Either way, I’d love to hear from you.

Nick 

nick [at] frequentr [dot] com

[frequentr-blog]

(Extremely) unhelpful reviews

Think about the last time you went out to eat for dinner. 

How was it? Did you leave feedback?

If you’re like the majority of people, you probably had a moderate experience.

Now, think about the last time you looked at a third party rating service like Yelp, Citysearch or TripAdvisor. You probably looked at 10-15 reviews and found the same thing many of us find: extreme opinions. In other words, you find outliers.

If you’re a small business owner, this is a problem.

Consider the following reviews:

StevieLovesSteak312 says of your restaurant, ‘What a wonderful night, great date spot with the most beautiful interior!’

Johnny140 says your restaurant has ‘Impeccable service, with a French Onion Soup to die for—but stay away from the questionable lobster.’ 

StephFoodGurl76 says, ‘DON’T GO HERE!!!! WARNING!! THIS PLACE IS AWFUL! The waiter messed up my check!”

What do these reviews really tell you?  

Was it that your restaurant is a fine date spot with great service? Or is it that your wait staff is inattentive? Johnny140 is the only person that talks about the food (and he enjoyed the French Onion Soup!), but his comment about the lobster is ominous.

These reviews tell you that three people had three very different experiences. As someone reading these reviews, how can you decide who to believe? Unfortunately, reviews as they exist today aren’t very helpful for consumers and businesses. Why is that?

The answer is friction. Think of friction as the barriers that keep a customer from providing feedback. When friction is high, the average customer doesn’t feel strongly enough to leave a review. Which means, for the majority of us, the only way you would actually go through the hassle of writing a review is if your experience was so extreme that you left the restaurant, went home, logged on to a third party rating service and went through the arduous process of submitting a review.

The result is extreme, unrepresentative reviews.

So, who is the real victim? On one hand, customers can’t find reviews that they can relate to. On the other hand, business owners can’t use this information to improve the customer experience. And it doesn’t stop at restaurants; this problem extends to hotels, bars, retailers, and other small and growing businesses.

Ratings and reviews as they exist today are flawed, and reducing friction may be the most effective way to solve this problem. More to come on the topic of friction…