Dinner’s on Joe.
Illustrated by H.P.Riggs, JR.

In today’s ever changing environment it is important for companies to separate themselves from their competition by creating unforgettable experiences for members of their community (customers, vendors, friends, etc.).  The Disney empire was built on creating “wow” moments and every company strives to do the same. Wow’s are what keeps them coming back and are the cornerstone of customer loyalty. This month, while working with a local insurance agency, we came up with a unique “wow” moment for his company that we believe we should share.

The agent, we’ll call him Joe, works for a large and reputable insurance company. His agency, franchise of sorts, is located in the suburbs of Philadelphia on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River and his target market are the more than 20,000 residents residing in the three towns close to his office.

His agency is relatively new so Joe and his three employees continually seek unique ways to separate his firm from his competitors. We meet monthly to discuss his approach and to brainstorm on how he can improve his business without breaking the bank. Among the many ideas we discussed the following stood out as the most creative.

During our conversation Joe mentioned that he wanted to figure out how to work more closely with a local and very popular cheesesteak / pizza shop in order to gain exposure. The shop is located within walking distance of his agency and the owners recently gave Joe their business. Up until this point he has considered trying the traditional tactics including the ever so  popular “place your card in the bowl and win a lunch” contest. But today, a new idea emerged.

From now through the end of summer Joe will sponsor two pizzas per weekend to be delivered to anonymous customers within his target area. He will pre-pay the pizza shop and allow them to randomly select which customers (delivery only) will receive the surprise pie. Here’s how it will work and why it is a great idea.

Customer A calls on a friday night for a pizza to be delivered to his/her home. When the food arrives the driver simply tells the customer that the pizza is complementary of Joe, a local local insurance agent, who wants to build his reputation throughout the community. A pre-printed “thank you” card will be placed on the top of the box inviting the recipient to “thank Joe” on his company’s Facebook page and telling them to enjoy their meal. A simple yet powerful gesture.

Here’s why it will work.

•  People love surprises, especially ones that save them money.
• Eating is intimate and so is insurance. A natural yet subtle connection.
• It screams community. Isn’t that what it’s all about.
• The pizza shop also looks good so they will begin to sing his praises.
• If he can successfully encourage people to talk about it online and thank him on his Facebook page then he will begin to reach people in those places every company wants to be.
• It’s out-of-the-box, inexpensive, emotional, an experience, and fun. In other words, a homerun.
• It’s nice.
• It employees a new channel in the B2C relationship. Engaging the pizza shop to creates a new and unexpected carrier (literally) of his message.

There are few details to be worked out, including debriefing the staff at the pizza shop so they are clear in their message and making sure we get the responses we need, but nothing too challenging. The best part about it is the cost – we estimate an annual investment of $1,200 – $1,500.

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds and we will certainly keep you posted.

His message is good but the part I enjoyed most begins at around the fifth minute where he discusses the importance of clarity. Simply put, being clear about goals (both personal and professional) and the power that comes with clarity, can change your life.

Here’s hoping that we find clarity and work hard toward our goals.

Although each area drew an equal amount of participation it was the discussion around keeping promises that interested me most.  I discovered three basic elements that every person in sales should know – (1) As a member of the company, you are the expert and the curator of the customer experience (2) that the most important thing any member of any company can do is to deliver proper expectations (3) and that every effort should be made to keep any promise made to the customer.

In order to drive home the point of keeping the promise to the customer we used the following clip from a Seinfeld episode which proved to be a great way to convey the message.

Although obvious when thinking about it, keeping the promises made to your customer will differentiate your company from the rest.

Lately, our executive team read The Value in Wowing Your Customers , in the Harvard Business Review. As a result of discussions around this article we decided it was time to elevate our commitment to developing our “wow” culture. I was asked to develop a brief overview of this phenomenon and here are two things I discovered.

Developing a “wow” moment for a customer can create a community of committed customers and ambassadors of your brand.

While putting together my research for our team I stumbled across a thread on Facebook (very timely) by a friend who’s husband was recently deployed to Iraq. He’s in the Navy and will serve a one-year term. Here’s what she posted:

A local company heard from one of my neighbors that [my husband] was deployed this year. Within a few hours, I had offers from them to do all of the lawn fertilization for the year, spring clean-up, mulching, and they also plan to mow the lawn until [he] gets back. They’ve done great work for us in the past, but this just goes above and beyond my wildest dreams.

Within a few hours she had several “likes” and then the comments began to emerge including:

- Their e-mails seriously brought tears to my eyes…what a relief to have those things off my master “to do” list during the upcoming months. They will have our support & business for years to come.

- Walt got the chills when I just told him. He thinks that is so cool. He is gonna pass along their name to guys he plays hockey with that lives down that way.

The story was eventually covered by the local news, which happens to be a major market, and her post received a total of 77 “likes” and 16 comments. Not bad exposure for a local landscaping company that thought about their customer and inserted themselves as a solution to her challenge. My guess is that she will be a customer for life.

“Wow” moments also happen within the workplace and can transform the way staff feels about the company and its brand.

At the Holcomb Bus Company, one of the owners became concerned f his foreman when left a meeting to take a call from his mother. Upon returning to the meeting the team learned that the foreman’s mother needed to replace a portion of her sidewalk or face citation by the municipality. She received a quote from a local company but it exceeded her budget and she didn’t know what to do.

Immediately following the meeting the owner, who is also involved in the construction business, called his “concrete guy” and sent him to the house to fix the sidewalk. Needless to say the foreman and his mother were forever grateful for this act and I got the sense that the owner also felt pretty good about being able to help.

In both examples there was a financial investment on the part of each company. However, one can easily surmise that the investments have paid huge dividends for each company, and not necessarily to the bottom line.

The following presentation was delivered for the presentation noted above and touches on some of the topics discussed here.

The hope is that more and more companies will develop “wow” campaigns and that this movement becomes contagious because in the end everyone is happy and everyone wins. If consumers are talking about your brand over breakfast (or on Facebook) then your company will succeed, your staff will be happy and the world will be a better place.

Additional Resources:

From How to Wow – http://www.successwithcrm.com/blog/bid/53427/From-How-to-WOW-Create-a-Culture-of-Buzz

Creating a Wow Culture at Work – http://www.thehumanracehorses.com/2009/07/15/creating-a-wow-culture-at-work/

Image Courtesy of Time.com

Last week I wrote  Creative (and other) Problems, a look at the point at which we become paralyzed in our  own work, often unable to move forward due to a lack of inspiration, vision, creativity or whatever other distraction comes up. In many ways it’s like “writers block” for the everyday professional. Over the past several days I couldn’t help but think of a comment on that post by left by Mike Dwyer who said “don’t stress about it and your natural creativity won’t fail you!”

Fast forward one week. In the midst of the high winds and driving rain brought on by Hurricane Irene, I  watched Secretariat, the Disney movie about Kentucky’s Triple Crown winner of the early 1970′s. In the movie the phrase “run your own race” pops up  frequently and is used as a connector throughout the film. At one point Penny Tweedy, the owner of the horse, used it to try to convince her husband and brother that her decision to leverage everything they had on the future of the horse (described here in “drew’s marketing minute); and again, perhaps most dramatically, when she’s talking one-on-one with  Secretariat (the horse) shortly before an important race.  It didn’t take long before I “got it” and when I did it resonated loudly with me.  This is why.

Rules and Distraction
In our professional and personal lives  rules and distractions play prominent roles in defining how we spend our hours.  At times we are forced to address projects directly in front of us, you know,  the everyday tasks and responsibilities that we need to accomplish just to stay afloat.  Then enter the rules which govern our behavior, those set about by home, work, culture, routine, our laziness to…well,  run our own race.

Too often we forget that what got us where we are today is a belief in our own abilities but perhaps more importantly how those abilities can carry us forward. When we’re empowered to follow our “natural instincts,”  then we quickly realize we have enough drive to execute our goals, to embrace own success, and to run our own race.

What I like most about this painting is the message (intended or not) contained within the work. We’ve all heard of writer’s block, a condition among writers that prevents them from producing new work. It may also be safe to assume that artists also suffer a similar condition as evidenced by this painting. It’s also safe to say that we have all suffered from a similar condition. Artist or not, we have encountered a professional or personal moment of paralysis whereby we feel as if we cannot move forward.

This “problem” is not limited to the creative community but as we can see here perhaps there’s an opportunity to learn from the citizens of that community. As this artist has done so perfectly it may be time to turn these moments of defeat into moments of opportunity. You can almost envision this artist painting her way through the her “creative problem.”

The next time you hit the proverbial wall in whatever you do think about this artist and think about how to change that moment in time into a moment of opportunity. Write, post, capture, or develop your way through your problem, have faith in your abilities and maybe the product you produce will turn into a work of art.

*The painting was created by a student at the Kaizar School of Art. For more information on this image or the artist that created it please content them directly. http://www.kaizarartschool.com/

Line outside Mack & Mancos

If you’ve ever been to the Ocean City Boardwalk on the New Jersey Shore (and no, not that “Jersey Shore”)then you’ve heard of Mack & Manco, the most famous pizza shop around. There is always a line to get in and the wait is always worth it.

This past Sunday our family made our annual early Spring trek to “the boards” to grab some quality time away from the madness and to have lunch at our favorite sea shore eatery. As I sat and waited for our large pie to be delivered I began to wonder why this place, out of the hundreds along the Jersey coast, remained so popular and successful. Was it the pizza? Sure, but why this particular pizza shop. The two things that stood out to me were clarity and consistency.

Clarity: This is the one place where you won’t be confused by what’s in front of you. On the table there will be a napkin dispenser, crushed red peppers, salt, pepper and garlic powder. The menu, which is on the wall, contains two things – five or so pizzas and drinks. That’s it. No appetizers, desserts, coffee, spaghetti, or anything to complicate the decision making process. It’s that clear.

Consistency: The pizza is made the same way every time and its delicious. Beyond the great pizza there are other consistencies that lead to the success and unforgettable experience at Mack and Manco’s (and this goes for each one of their many locations.)

There is always a line to either grab a table or take it home. Always. You will always be sat in the order you arrive. You can always count on the entire staff being dressed in white. White shoes, white pants, and white shirts.

The process is also consistent: they drop straws in front of each person at the table and take your drink order first. Once everyone has a drink then they’ll take your dinner order. I’ve never seen anyone write anything down and they only take cash (clarity). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a check or bill and think it’s a requirement for the staff to tell you what you owe. The food and experience are always consistent, and consistently good.

Mack & Manco’s has great pizza but their success is also be due in large part to a focus on consistency and clarity. They make it easy and clear for their customers and their customers reward them by remaining loyal.

I caught the following sequence of paintings on Facebook and was instantly taken by the imagery, the dedication, and of course, the process.  The paintings were done by Dan Reed, an artist in the Philadelphia region who focuses on automotive paintings.  His gallery can be found here.

Shortly after seeing the paintings I reached out to Dan to see if he would discuss his process with me in hopes that it would shed some light on how to refine my own processes. The interview is located just below the presentation and sheds some light on how, perhaps, the creative process isn’t unlike the process by which we approach our own projects.



1. How do your drawings, or visions, first appear? Are there certain elements that trigger inspiration?

In a way that’s a loaded question because practically every painting  was derived from its own inspirations. However, I can point to a  couple of paintings in particular. The painting “I Can Make It”  (see website) was inspired by my desire to incorporate trains into some  of my classic automobile themes. I didn’t want to repeat what other  artists have done – specifically having a car and train racing side by  side. I gave it some thought and came up with the idea of having the  driver of a car attempt to outrun the train through the crossing. Its  a dynamic scene and led me to create another in that series “I Can  Make It II”. Both paintings caught the attention of a top automotive  magazine, Hemmings Classic Car, and they featured both paintings last  summer which resulted in orders for prints from all over the country.
There’s another painting which had an interesting start. My 1955  DeSoto painting (see website) was inspired by the roof of a neighbor’s  barn roof. Not the roof specifically, but the extreme contrast I saw  one day between the bright, sun lit roof against a deep blue cloudless  sky. I knew I had to incorporate that contrast into a painting so I  made sketches as soon as I got home. The extreme low vantage point in  this painting was determined by the fact I needed the bright sunlit  building to be backdropped against a deep blue sky. The byproduct of  this vantage point resulted in a very unique view of the car itself.

2.  Can you walk us through the creative process?

Once I have a vision for a painting I begin to make sketches. This  allows me to get the ideas out of my head and on paper before I forget  it. In a way, the sketch stage is the most creative part of the  process because this is where the composition, color, and format of  the painting are really determined. A canvas is never even placed on  the easel until I know what’s going to be on it.

3. Do you ever feel like giving up?

Yes. Every day…………………. Kidding:) Actually, not often.

4. Are there any “failures” along the way and if so, how do you  overcome  them?

I don’t want to talk about failure. NEXT QUESTION!…………Kidding again:)
Regarding the painting process itself, any failures are typically very  minor – nothing that can’t be touched up once the paint dries. This is  another important factor of the sketch process. If I loose inspiration  at the sketch stage I wouldn’t move forward to the canvas. I only put brush to canvas once I have confidence in the composition of my sketches.

5. How structured is your creative process? do you employ timelines  or is  it more or less an evolving process?

The creative process is not structured – not in a time-line sense. I  don’t employ time-lines in the traditional sense by having certain elements of the painting completed by a certain time. I will give a client an estimated completion date and keeping to that date simply means staying disciplined to the overall process and the time it takes to follow through.

6. Is there ever an end goal for your paintings – meaning, how do  you  envision there life once you’ve completed them?

As for a long-term goal? No. If the painting is commissioned, the long  term expectation is that the painting will remain with the owner for  the foreseeable future. If its a painting I create for myself, the  intent is to produce a line of prints that can be sold through my website and at automotive events throughout the following seasons. The original paintings are offered for sale as well.

7. Do you think there are parallels in your creative process that  would  resonate with how non-artists approach projects in their  everyday life?

There certainly can be parallels in the creative process with other  non-art activities. To pinpoint what I do on a daily basis and draw a  parallel with another person’s activities, I can’t answer. However, I did  work in the corporate world for 12 years, in the engineering field. In a broad sense, you have to be self motivated and have a good work ethic. These traits will serve a person well in the corporate world or being self employed. Funny side-line; I had a friend tell me when I left my day-job to paint full-time that her husband “could never work from home. He needs that boss-over-the-shoulder as his motivating factor.” I think creativity is a mindset and therefore I’m not quite sure how you would teach it. I’ve worked with people who were very good at executing a given task, but once that task was completed they came to a stand-still until directed to do another task. Others seemed to have the ability to extrapolate from that task and move onto other related projects. The selling and marketing of artwork takes a certain amount of creativity as well. You can create the most outstanding artwork, but if nobody sees it you can’t sell it. Being a self employed artist means you have to wear many hats. For many years while working in an engineering testing lab I essentially had one job – test and evaluate the company’s products. I didn’t have to manufacture it, market it, create profit/loss analysis on it, sell it or ship it. When your on your own you have to do it all. And that too takes some creativity.

8. Would you say there are more creative outlets, opportunities for   individuals to create, than there were 5 years ago? If yes, what  does this  mean for the everyday person who is interested in  advancing their career.

My answer to this question is time sensitive. My answer could change  again in 2-4 years. For me personally the opportunities were more  plentiful 3 years ago mainly because the state of the economy. I bill  myself as an automotive fine artist and my lifeblood are the car show events. When the economy tanked in 2009 corporate sponsorships for some of the top tier events (know as Concours d’Elegance shows) dried  up. Some shows were dropped from the 2009 and 2010 calendar years,  which directly effected the number of exhibition opportunities.  Without those potential customers my request for commissions dropped  off as well. Not all is doom and gloom though. I never stop working  and there’s never a day I don’t have something in the works. When my  commissions drop off I just shift to creating more work of my own  ideas that I can then produce a line of prints from. Having a greater variety of prints to sell  helped to offset the lost income from private commissions. Not only  that, I can continue to sell the prints year after year and when things pick up I’m just that more prepared to take advantage of it.  One thing can be said for starting any business in a down economy – yes, it will take a bit more work, but if you can succeed now you’ll do great when things improve. I began painting full-time in 2005 when I had months worth of backlogged work in the pipeline. Things were easy and humming along. Then came 2009 and it seemed people just stopped spending money overnight. I had to scramble and think fast, be more creative, and adjust my thinking a bit. One thing I do better today is keep more money in reserve so I don’t get caught off guard. Seems so common sense and yet it eluded me when times were good.

Friends of ours  just posted a quick story on Facebook about a recent experience they had at an area restaurant.  The evening was particularly special because it was one of her last big meals before preparing for serious back surgery. She jokingly referred to it as “the last supper,” and you’d have to know her to appreciate the humor in her comment.

The evening got off to a slow start when they were delayed forty minutes past their seating but it was a celebratory affair, kind of, and were eventually seated. Instead of simply apologizing the team at the Franklinville Inn went a step further.  In short, and following a brief explanation of the delay, our friend’s message read as follows:

Image Credit: Zazzle.com

A bottle of wine was sent over as an apology and before the end of the night my husband was all giggles. If that weren’t enough, yesterday a $25 gift card showed up in the mail. I guess they liked seeing my husband a little giggly.

Her summary, which she posted to her profile page, not only summed up two really important actions (touch points) on behalf of the restaurant, but it was positive in its delivery and tone. An organization can’t pay for that kind of delivery. (or maybe they can – bottle of wine and $25 worth)

Touch point # 1 -

Instead of simply apologizing, offering a discount off of the bill, or even presenting them with a gift card at the table, the manager sent over a bottle of wine. A nice way to enhance the evening, add value instead of removing value, and creating a memorable experience.

Touch Point #2 -

The restaurant took the time to mail a gift certificate in lieu of handing it to them while they were seated at table or presenting it before they left. This extended their experience and reminded them of the “giggling” long after the laughter subsided. Most importantly has given our friends a reason to go back for a post-op visit.

As soon as I heard this story I wanted to share it.  It’s an example of an organization that “gets” customer service.

Disclaimer: I have not affiliation with the restaurant although I have eaten there and the soup is outstanding.