The Coltrane Manifesto
Coltrane famously described his jazz as ‘a whole expression of one's being’.
If we agree that content, reputation and behaviour are also definitions of the brand it’s clear that things the brand does are more important than just what they say.
Customers are paying with their time and expect communications to be interesting,important and meaningful. If it’s not they will simply switch off. And move their business.
With purpose comes value and while we are still in the early days of the social web we’re certainly not in the early days of customer service.
The Coltrane Manifesto
A Love Supreme – (Customer service in 3 movements)
# Part 1: Acknowledgement
Value the customers’ time, attention, data, needs and opinion. Cut the up sell and cross sell pitches at every turn.
Let your customer talk and demonstrate that you are listening by thanking them, rewarding them and solving their problems.
# Part 2: Resolution
Answer their email, phone calls, and other messages as quickly as possible. Even if just to say, “we will get back to you within 5 working days’
And using some sort of auto-response robot does not fly. Human talk to Human.
# Part 3: Pursuance
‘the continuance of something begun with a view to its completion’
In a campaign or acquisition mindset there are peaks of activity then it all goes dark until the next campaign.
Think about committing to your customers and the lifetime value of these relationships.
'We run our warehouse 24/7, which is actually not the most efficient way to run a warehouse, but it gets the shoes out to the customers as quickly as possible. So a lot of people will order as late as midnight and we do surprise upgrades for our weekly customers and so a lot of them end up getting it eight hours later on their door step and that just creates the whole wow experience and it drives that repeat customer and word-of-mouth behavior.' Tony Hsieh, Zappos.
A Love Supreme -‘a whole expression of one's being’.
