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The sound experience

July 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

The experience a person has influences word of mouth — good and bad. This week I’ve been in a Hilton Hotel in San Diego with a beautiful setting, but I’d never recommend it. There is one restaurant and the food is mediocre, which I can live with for a few days, but the canned music blaring out of a sub-standard tinny sound system is god awful.

At 6 a.m. this morning I felt assaulted, with bad early 1990s pop/rock music screaming at me. Think Alanis Morissette using a megaphone in a hallway shouting “Like rain on your wedding day.”   The poor choice of music and terrible sound system gave the hotel a feeling of being dated. Worse, the sound made me not want to eat in the restaurant nor recommend the hotel. Perhaps, too, the droning sound was causing the staff’s lethargy.

Interestingly, Conrad Hotels, Hilton’s luxury brand, did a survey a few years ago confirming the importance of music in hotels and finding the musical atmosphere an essential part of guest satisfaction.

One finding:

In the restaurants, there was a surprisingly high demand for classical piano and strings, taking 33% of the votes, while other musical tastes had low showings.  In public areas there was a strong desire to hear classical and jazz (82%).

The Conrad Hilton hotel study said it is “committed to monitoring and evolving musical environments to meet guest expectations.”

Until its US Hilton brands do the same, I’d suggest that silence can be golden.

Filed Under: Musings, Research, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , ,

Katie Couric's Viagra problem

April 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

 [photopress:Katie_Couric.jpg,thumb,pp_image]  The buzz is that CBS may “divorce” itself from anchor Katie Couric long before her contract expires in 2011. What went wrong?

Maybe it has nothing to do with Katie Couric or the fact that people are tuning out of  television for their news.   Maybe it comes down to a Viagra problem.

Watching the evening news — CBS or the other networks — we are bombarded with ads for one medical ailment ad after another. Penile erection, bladder control, constipation, bone loss, arthritis, diabetes. What kind of customer experience is this? Terrible. Erections and constipation happy messages while trying to make dinner, and maybe catch up on the news.

CBS, like most companies, has different silos responsible for different functions, and no one organization is looking at the customer’s experience. CBS News is responsible for Katie & Co., while the advertising group is bringing in the television dollars — and the Viagra ads.

In many retail companies, marketing is responsible for branding while operations oversees the stores, and never the two shall collaborate, often creating a mixed message and uneven customer experience.  Similarly, customer service isn’t usually part of marketing, yet the customer service group often has more influence on customers than advertising, promotions, or pricing.

I hope CBS doesn’t put the blame for poor ratings on Katie Couric, a fine journalist. CBS has bigger issues; the customer’s experience matters more than the ad revenue. If the first is bad, the second will become disastrous.

[photopress:Evening_news_ratings.jpg,full,pp_image]

Filed Under: Advertising, Dumb company stories, Marketing trends Tagged With: , ,

Is United trying to make me hate them?

April 26, 2007 By 1 Comment

Is United Airlines trying to run its business into the ground by delivering the worst service possible? If they really don’t give a hoot about customers, why not just pack it up and sell the assets? I’ve been out promoting my book and emphasizing that ultimately the only marketing strategy that really matters is delivering a great service or product experience. To get from place to place I’ve been flying United, for no good reason other than I always do especially going coast to coast. Plus I have Premier status. (Or use to.)

But Monday was an all time low between me and United.

I got on Flight 161 from Boston to Los Angeles at 8 a.m. only to find left over Heineken cans, used tissue paper and sticky, smelly cups stuffed into my seat pocket. The seat was loaded with crumbs. There were no pillows or blankets This was the first flight out for the day — couldn’t United find anyone to clean the plane over night?

The attendant played the safety video. But the video didn’t run correctly so we had to wait for it to play again before moving out of the gate.

But, alas, it looked like one of the monitors was broken and couldn’t be fixed. “Please pay attention to the other monitors.”

When I used the lavatory the seat fell off. I looked above the seat area and there was masking tape holding the unit together. Really. Sure it was the wide, industrial steel-colored tape, but tape nonetheless. It looked like someone fell off their meds or had too many nips and violently trashed the place.

Leaving the lavatory I noticed paper towels strewn in the aisle. I went to the aft cabin to tell the flight attendants about the toilet seat and masking tape, but had to wait awhile before they acknowledged me. They were talking about their weekend social plans. (And the doctor’s appointment for skin cancer screening, and…)

They shrugged their shoulders when I told them about the lavatory. They knew about it, but dismissed it. Walking back I wondered if the attendants had noticed the trash on the floor. Surely, if they did one of them would pick it up?

The second thing United did to make me hate them was to downgrade my longstanding Premier flight status because I used miles to upgrade on a flight back from California. This meant that in addition to sitting in a filthy plane I now also had to sit in the back with the seats that have no legroom. I understand rules — miles drop below a certain level you lose the membership. But this math is madness. I fly so much for business that I am a customer United shouldn’t want to lose. Their marketing analytics should look at the bigger picture about my travel behavior, yes?

In a recent United press release Dennis Cary, United’s senior vice president- Marketing, is quoted as saying, “United is committed to being the best choice for customers who crave comfort while traveling for business or pleasure.” Oh puhlease Dennis. If you were committed to comfort you’d at least make sure the planes are clean.

Well it’s over for me and United. If you see any United advertising or marketing, know that the money is a waste. They’d be better just tossing bags of money off a plane. If the service experience stinks (in this case quite literally), no advertising will do a lick of good.

Filed Under: Dumb company stories Tagged With: