Absolutely classic advertising!

Happy easter everyone!

YouTube Direct

On a recent business trip to Dusseldorf I had the pleasure of flying with British Airways. I say the pleasure, because the flight was quick, painless and the service if nothing else was rapid. However, I have to also comment on the experience off the airplane to give you the rounded picture. For anyone following the UK news, you’ll now that last week two things of interest happened at London Heathrow:

1. a lunatic ran on to one of the runways carrying a suitcase which he left on the runway

2. the Queen officially opened the brand new Terminal 5 building

So what you might ask has this got to do with British Airways and customer service?

First of all both occurrences delayed my flight - on the outbound and inbound journey. To be fair, I can’t really complain about this what so ever, BA after all had no control over the lunatic running onto the airport which resulted in additional security for Her Majesty’s visit the following day.

However, what I can complain about is the complete lack of information from BA. While waiting at Heathrow for over two hours all I was told by the information desk was to have patience. When I enquired in the BA lounge at Heathrow, they actually had a little more information, but not much. On the return journey, it was the same story - no information at all from the staff at the gate, even though we were kept waiting for about an hour.

All this got me to thinking about how negative I was feeling towards BA.

Not knowing why there were delays I naturally assumed it was the airline’s fault, particularly as they were unwilling to talk about it. Has this done some damage to BA’s brand, yes quite possibly. I shared my experience with my colleagues in Dusseldorf (several others of whom got caught in the delays also) and of course I’m writing about it now. Will I fly with BA again? Probably, but not until I’ve checked out the alternatives. Strange isn’t it, after all, BA are not to blame at all. It was just a lack of communications that left me feeling disappointed.

What’s the lesson then. I think it is clearly that when things are going a little pear shaped, keep the customer informed. Whether that’s a announcement at an airport, a phone call, or a quick email. All of these small steps will help to keep the customer informed and a little happier. We all know that happiness has a direct correlation with repeat business and making recommendations to friends, family and other potential customers.

For more ideas on customer communications, visit the excellent return customer blog from Joe Rawlinson. Joe talks a lot about keeping customers properly informed, whether that’s to reinforce negativity in the sales process, or simply getting the basics right in answering the phones.

Don’t forget, keep communicating with your customers!

Recently I’ve been spending a great deal more time on London’s hectic rush hour traffic system. For those who haven’t experienced the pleasures of a cramped tube train, or a bus driven by a half crazed lunatic who can’t speak (that’s any language, not just English) or an 8am overground train from Clapham Junction to Waterloo. I can tell you, it’s not always a pleasurable experience.

Fortunately I have an iPod which I think you will all agree is the best invention since sliced bread. Not only do I have my entire music collection in my pocket, but I can literally escape the maddening crowd around me at the click of a button. I haven’t always understood the power of music, but at times it can make a huge difference to your mood or work rate. For example, I was travelling to Marylebone station recently on the tube, squeezed in closer to a complete stranger than I would normally stand with my wife. Under normal circumstances that would be very stressful, but on this occasion I had Bob Marley’s Legend album playing. Say no more.

Another example, after a hectic night networking at an event near to Waterloo, I had some driving house music playing, keeping my going until I got home and collapsed onto the sofa for some well earned rest.

Listening to all this music and starting to think about how it changed my experience of the product i.e. the tube and an overground train, got me to thinking about how small business could use music to enhance customer experiences. Not only that, but why hasn’t the London Underground continued to play classical music in it’s tube stations to reduce stress - a little experiment they ran a year or so ago (and possibly still do).

So as a small business, how can you use music? Well for a start consider checking out music and communications agency Frukt’s process for matching brands with music. It’s a seven stage process that starts with identifying brand objectives and target audiences, and ending with delivering the music to the correct touch points. If you can’t afford professional consultancy (which 99.0% of small businesses can’t), perhaps you might want to think about:

• where could you apply music to enhance your customers experience (taxi drivers, what about playing some classical music or taking requests, rather than that terrible talk radio show)

• where could you add music to enhance your internal communications (office managers, what about playing some light background music for your office staff)

• do you have appropriate music when people are ‘on hold’?

• what styles of music relate well to your product and target audience?

• when would a dose of good music help customers to appreciate your service?

• do you need general background music, or something custom made (sounds expensive, but there are music students everywhere who could knock you up an Intel style jingle if you think it would help).

Ok granted these are small ideas but then as small businesses we aren’t quite geared up for big brand expenditure. Any clues how much Intel paid for its jingle? Not much by the sounds if things, but $350 million to promote it last year is not an insignificant amount.

There’s a fantastic article on brandchannel.com all about ‘Putting the Metrics into Music’. It quotes some research done by Dr Adrian North at Leicester University:

Brands with music that fit their brand identity are 96% more likely to be recalled than those with non-fit music or no music at all

and

Respondents are 24% more likely to buy a product with music that they recall, like, and understand compared with 8% where the opposite applies

The article starts with the introduction that:

Every time a brand uses music - in marketing, sales or in a PR context, regardless of the music, genre, style, artist, or channel through which it is played, the music is influencing a constituent’s perceptions about the brand. It is effectively creating an asset or liability for its overall brand equity. When the ‘Sound of the Brand’™ is carefully and strategically managed and is consistent and relevant to its target customers, it has a positive impact on the equity of the brand.

So what does all this mean for you.?

Well, as a small business, operating in fierce market conditions, could you think about music as a method of differentiating yourself? How much more likely are you to pick up the phone to a taxi company that you know will play your favourite music in the car, or if you know your customers spend a lot of time on hold, are you happier listening to some smooth jazz or Mozart..? Well I hope you get the idea. Can music drive your brand - try it and see.