I've often thought of myself as rather detached from mass marketing and traditoinal U.S. consumer culture, even as an MBA student. I didn't grow up in the U.S. with Black Friday shopping mobs and commercialized holiday seasons, I hardly watch TV now because I can't take the commercials, my favorite clothes are made by local tailors in Senegal and I'm honestly too broke to even be a very loyal consumer of most brands I do appreciate. I often tease my husband for 'drinking the Apple juice' because he is so obsessed with anything Apple or Steve Jobs (he has vowed never to sell or dispose of the older Apple products we own, which he claims are the last relics of Steve Jobs). I engage in the classic Mac v. PC battle just for the fun of it, but with no real heartfelt belief. In fact, I look forward to trying a Mac next. So how can it be that I am a customer evangelist?
I was able to recognize a couple of signs upon reading this week's article on "Customer Evangelism." It was a little worrisome, but very enlightening. I've shared two cases below:
Sign #1: Last week a friend of mine told me she is prepping for an interview with Google. She explained that they will likely ask her about her favorite Google product and what improvements she would recommend. Upon asking for my advice and thoughts on this, I launched into an excited 30 minute monologue extolling the values of Google Docs and how once a few glitches are worked on it will have achieved near perfection. I'm pretty sure that my eyes were lit up as the article describes and my voice was "tinged with emotion." Needless to say, she had ample food for thought for the interview.
Sign #2: My first time flying by myself on a long-distance flight was to South Africa when I was 16 on South African Airways. I will never forget the thrill of being upgraded to business class, of eating chocolate and watching movies. Ever since I've never missed the opportunity to use South African Airways (SAA) when traveling from the U.S. to Senegal, even though its tickets are often relatively expensive. Last year I traveled to Senegal three times, all on SAA, once for free because of a flight delay and another time on a two-for-one deal with a friend. All of this is perhaps just the regular behavior of a loyal customer. I think what puts me in the 'evangelist' category is this: as head of decorations for Tepper's International Festival last year, I actually emailed the head of SAA's corporate marketing division with praise and a request for vintage airline posters to go with our 'around the world' theme. Yes, I went that far. But you know what, they sent the posters. Some evangelism is deserved.
I hope these mini-cases are as enlightening for you as they are for me. From the company perspective, I think the trick is to never compromise quality of customer service as you grow (SAA) and to involve feedback from your customers in your innovation and growth processes (Google Docs). Once you have a critical mass of evangelists, you are set; they minimize your promotion costs and provide invaluable representation of your product/service. I should know, right?
I was able to recognize a couple of signs upon reading this week's article on "Customer Evangelism." It was a little worrisome, but very enlightening. I've shared two cases below:
Sign #1: Last week a friend of mine told me she is prepping for an interview with Google. She explained that they will likely ask her about her favorite Google product and what improvements she would recommend. Upon asking for my advice and thoughts on this, I launched into an excited 30 minute monologue extolling the values of Google Docs and how once a few glitches are worked on it will have achieved near perfection. I'm pretty sure that my eyes were lit up as the article describes and my voice was "tinged with emotion." Needless to say, she had ample food for thought for the interview.
Sign #2: My first time flying by myself on a long-distance flight was to South Africa when I was 16 on South African Airways. I will never forget the thrill of being upgraded to business class, of eating chocolate and watching movies. Ever since I've never missed the opportunity to use South African Airways (SAA) when traveling from the U.S. to Senegal, even though its tickets are often relatively expensive. Last year I traveled to Senegal three times, all on SAA, once for free because of a flight delay and another time on a two-for-one deal with a friend. All of this is perhaps just the regular behavior of a loyal customer. I think what puts me in the 'evangelist' category is this: as head of decorations for Tepper's International Festival last year, I actually emailed the head of SAA's corporate marketing division with praise and a request for vintage airline posters to go with our 'around the world' theme. Yes, I went that far. But you know what, they sent the posters. Some evangelism is deserved.
I hope these mini-cases are as enlightening for you as they are for me. From the company perspective, I think the trick is to never compromise quality of customer service as you grow (SAA) and to involve feedback from your customers in your innovation and growth processes (Google Docs). Once you have a critical mass of evangelists, you are set; they minimize your promotion costs and provide invaluable representation of your product/service. I should know, right?
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