A Question Filled Tuesday...

OK...so here I am thinking about things...many things. This morning I was up early driving to Mount Pleasant, MI to visit a client. You should have seen the sunrise this morning...it was AMAZING....but I digress.

My post this morning is in the form of several questions....more thought provokers than anything....here it goes:

• When was the last time you had lunch with 3-4 customers and asked them about their experience at the bank?
• Have you recently held a small "focused meeting" with several front line staff? Asked them what they are hearing?
• Have you mailed out personal invitations to 5 customers this week to visit you for a cup of coffee?
• Does your bank track referral frequency from customers?
• Do you know who is your largest depositer? Loan holder? Commercial customer? Trust customer?
• Have you come in the back door of your offices and walked backwards through the experience of a customer...as you know the bes way to proof-read a document is to read it backwards...I bet the same can be said for auditing your branch experience!

Many questions...no real "right" answers...other than YES and/or I will. These are important gut-level checks that are so easy and inexpensive, yet widely missed.

Take a stroll around...and see what you see!

Cheers!

Bruce

On a personal note...New Job at Arena Stage

After almost a year as the Director of Marketing & Communications at Americans for the Arts, I will be leaving the organization to become the new Director of Marketing & Communications at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Arena Stage is the largest of the six major non-profit professional producing theatres in the metropolitan area. They currently operate three venues under LORT "B+," "B," and "D" contracts and see roughly 275,000 patrons per year. They are very close to finishing a $120 million capital campaign to build the Mead Center for the American Theatre, a 250,000 square foot, three-theatre complex to be opened in 2009-10. I will be responsible for leading their marketing, communications and public relations teams. Most exciting to me is the opportunity I will have to work on some amazing projects at a truly legendary theatre.

This is a bittersweet moment for me because I love Americans for the Arts. The organization does some amazing work on behalf of artists in the United States, however my heart belongs to the theatre. Americans for the Arts will always have my support and I will continue to assist the organization in any way that I can. I will continue to serve as a trainer for the National Arts Marketing Project including previously scheduled sessions in St. Louis and Delaware.

Are bankers really thinking like retailers??

A very good friend of mine is a former car dealer and now leads the Greater Dayton Automobile Dealers Association....I share this to provide a frame of reference for Tom's words of wisdom.

He always says, when times are tough or challenges lurk ahead, that we have to "retail our way out of this..." I have heard it many times and I stopped to think about it just yesterday.

What Tom means is that we have to put energy, focus and many times financial resources toward overcoming problems...that means when sales are slow, you ADD more advertising, promotion and marketing. Traffic generation is critical to a car dealers success. Now think about banking...and more specifically, your bank. When margins are squeezed, loan volume dips, or competition is extra tough...does your marketing investment increase to compensate or are you on the sidelines trying to save the investment?

I certainly hope you are making the case for increasing the investment to support and overcome the challenges. However, IF we have not built the case that, 1st, marketing IS an investment vs. expense...that conversation is going to be a tough one.

So, how do I build the case for marketing being an investment vs. expense? Three magical letters... R - O - I !!!

You should be tracking EVERY marketing dollar spent and categorizing them into one of three categories....(1) ROI Trackable (2) Community Involvement/Donations (3) Cost of Doing Business.

ROI Trackable
These are ALL marketing, advertising and promotional investments. Home equity promotion back in April...Yep. Summer loan promotion...Yep. The pending fall checking push...Yep. We need to track the results, make assumptions and quantify the impact and match it against the investment required to make it happen. I firmly believe you should have a "floor" that protects your investments...say 150%. That floor is the lowest projected ROI that you will move forward with a program. Imagine being able to go to your CEO and say, with heart and passion, that every program is generating 150% or more....and the ones that do not...we analyze and make better!

Community Involvement
This category is for the "must do's" and "we have done it for XXX years" categories of expenses that simply cannot be measured or the measurement does not apply because you will be required/urged to do it anyway.

Cost of Doing Business
These are expenses...yellow pages, online hold, etc. that are simply required for doing business as a bank and should not be help as accountable for ROI measurements. However, diligence in managing these items will certainly win you big points!

Once you categorize your activities...you have clear guidance on what to track and what to monitor...we overlook nothing! So...how do I calculate the ROI...a discussion for another day...or simply give me a call!

Cheers!

Bruce

Future Speaking Engagements...

In the next few months, I have a couple of speaking engagements lined up. If you are in the area, I would love to see you at one of these events:

2007 Delaware Division of the Arts "Arts Summit"
October 1, 2007
Keynote Presentation: "Communicating in a Whole New World," Chad Bauman, Americans for the Arts
Other Speakers: Elena Park, Metropolitan Opera; Mark Brewer, President of the Community Foundation of Florida; JD Hixson, Patron Technology; The Honorable Ruth Ann Minner, Governor of Delaware

St. Louis Regional Arts Commission Marketing Training
August 31, 2007
Presentation: "The Role of Technology in Reaching Generation X & Y"

Artists in Second Life...

By now, most people have heard of Second Life, the virtual world sensation that is sweeping the whole world and has attracted millions of visitors. It has also attracted the attention of some prominent artists, including Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage, who spoke about Second Life at the TCG National Conference in Minneapolis this summer. The past couple of months have seen some really exciting projects come to "life" in this virtual reality:

Second Front Performance Art Group

Jeremy Owen Turner, also known as Wirxli Flimflam, is an online performance artist and a front man for Second Front, a group that stages events and performance art pieces in Second Life. Second Front is a pioneering performance art group in the online avatar-based VR world, Second Life. Founded in 2006, Second Front emerged as the first performance art group in Second Life and quickly grew to its current 8 member troupe with artists from around the world including Italy, St. Johns, Canada, and the United States. Second Front found its roots in the theatre of the absurd movement, and currently stages performances that challenge notions of virtual embodiment, online performance and the formation of virtual narrative. Second Front is perhaps best known for their performance piece Breaking News, a text-based performance in which Second Front stormed the Reuter's building in Second Life announcing 'Breaking News' headlines about Second Front's “clandestine operations and notorious affiliations in-world.”

Artropolis

Artopolis is an artist colony like no other in Second Life. This tropical paradise hosts fifteen studios scattered around a flourishing jungle environment, with tons of places to sip a virtual Mai Tai with your closest Avatar friends while enjoying the sights. The goal of this simulated island is to promote all of the arts, which includes art, music, poetry and theater. This sim was created by the combined efforts of Filthy Fluno (Manager), Esch Snoats (Builder), Xtasy Veil (Terraforming and Landscaping) and Maxim Deharo (Financial Management.) It took about a month and a half to complete and is still considered a work in progress as the sim will always adapt to accommodate the community of artists who call it their home. People are encouraged to visit the artist colony, and while you're at it, you can also support the artists by purchasing their work. One of Second Life’s most influential artist-celebrities, Filthy Fluno (real name Jeffrey Lipsky), has a high profile gallery established on Artropolis.

Mixed Realities & the Andy Warhol Foundation

In the art world, the Andy Warhol Foundation has helped fund exhibitions and projects in Second Life, including the well-know exhibit “Mixed Realities.” "Mixed Realities" was an international juried competition that resulted in the commissioning of 5 networked art works to be exhibited/performed in 2008 at Turbulence.org; Huret & Spector Gallery; and Ars Virtua, a gallery in the online 3D rendered environment, Second Life. Each commission is $5,000. "Mixed Realities" challenges artists to created simultaneous exhibits in three distinct environments: the Internet (Turbulence), an online 3-D rendered environment (Ars Virtua), and physical space (Huret & Spector Gallery). The works will evaluate the concepts "virtual," "simulation", and "real" and will feature a series of experiences in which participants connect with one another and contribute to the creation of the work.

Customer Service at 37,000 feet?

I know that at some point you all are going to get sick of our airplane stories. But in my opinion, for as long as there is a lesson we can learn from the airlines we should continue to share these experiences. That being said, listen up!

Like Bruce, I seem to travel quite a bit. Monthly, I fly from Denver, Colorado to Dayton, Ohio. Sometimes I afford the direct flight, and others, it is just a good decision (read: economic responsibility) to connect in Chicago.

This week, I boarded my flight from Denver bound for Chicago, O'Hare, on my way to Dayton. I sat next to a mom who was traveling with her two children, on their way to visit grandparents in Northern Michigan. Being from Michigan myself, I was excited to talk about old home with my new friend and her kids. Ryan, her 4 year-old son, had broken his femur bone and was in a hip to toe cast...and a VERY good sport about it. Abby, her roughly 18-month old daughter was as cute as any toddler I have ever seen.

Somewhere around "flight attendants please be seated for take off" Abby started to SCREAM...and that is in all caps because Abby was in a full-fledged, red-faced, no-tears, award winning temper tantrum. About 20 minutes into the flight, the people in first class are starting to turn around and glare at us...mostly me, because I had the luxury of sitting on the aisle.

Now, I felt bad for the mom, who had apologized to everyone around us and even tried Benadryl for Abby...but Abby had an ear infection, so I am sure you know how badly her ears must have hurt.

After 45 minutes of the constant SCREAMING in my ear, I realized that I had two choices. I could 1.) go completely insane and take everyone with me, or 2.) start laughing.

Any of you who know me well know that I teeter on the edge of crazy anyway, and that I love to laugh. So, obviously, I chose to laugh...and laugh hard. Which apparently was the right decision because everyone around me started to laugh too. Is it possible that the giggles are contagious? Apparently so.

Finally, it was our turn for beverages. The beverage cart had trapped me between itself and screaming Abby. The giggling stopped, but the smile lingered...and that's when it happened. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The flight attendant looked at me and said, "You have a beautiful smile. All smiles are beautiful when they are shared, but yours is really pretty."

That was the nicest thing anyone had said to me in a really long time. It was almost as though Abby had quit screaming and the turbulence had settled. But neither had. I was just happy and didn't really care what else happened that day...it was a GREAT day.

So, how does this relate to our version of customer service? Very closely.

This compliment may not have been enough to fly United faithfully for the rest of my life, but it was enough to make me want to seek out that women's flights so she could be my flight attendant every time, I would do it in a heartbeat.

So, when was the last time you said something unexpected and complimentary to one of your customers? I am guessing it has been a while. If your tellers could make it part of daily routine to find the good in every one of your customers...imagine how your customers would feel and what they would say to their friends and family. I will even go so far as to say that when you begin to find the good in others, you will also begin to see the good in yourself.

A smile isn't too much to ask. And when you smile, everyone around you will too. Share the wealth!

Jenna