Be a Purple Cow, and know that the customer is always right!

Well, last week was horrid!  I didn’t get my revised elevator pitch uploaded, or my journal entry made.  I am a little disappointed in my time management, and that I am feeling overwhelmed with the number of assignments I have this semester! 

To give a brief recap of what I missed last week… In the article In Praise of the Purple Cow  as it discussed marketing techniques, average products for average people is out… we need to create remarkable products that the right people seek out!  Two strategies that should be followed once something remarkable is created is

1. Milk the Purple Cow for everything it’s worth. How can I extend it and profit from it for as long as possible?

2. Build an environment where you are likely to invent a new Purple Cow to replace the first one when the benefits are gone.

On the $100 Challenge, we created an elevator pitch for our business.  I made the pitch for my “Big Idea” Braziers!  I need to refine the pitch, and re-record the video.  I will be posting it once I have the pitch fine-tuned!  Basically an elevator pitch is a blurb about my company that I could give to a potential investor in under two minutes that would tell them about the company, the market, and how I plan to make money.  It would also relate what differentiates our company from the competition, and what my competitive advantage is!

For Lesson 6, I found our discussion board interesting!  Zappos offers new trainees $2000 to quit during training.  They figure that this is a good way to weed out those who are just in it for the money, and establish a good employee base with people who are excited to do their jobs, and want the personal satisfaction.  While it works in theory, my feelings are that even lazy people that give poor customer service still have bills to pay, and that $2000 severance is not setting them up for life to keep them from working… So I don’t see most people taking them up on the offer!  Zappos reports that 2-3% of new trainees take the offer, and they have great employees that offer great customer service.  My guess is that the great customer services lies somewhere in the fact that Zappos offers great training to their employees so that they better understand the customer, and these employees come to love their jobs which makes them more customer friendly!

I have purchased the ingredients for making my cookies for the $100 challenge, and I will be using this first batch to take pictures and use for promotional purposes to advertise the sale of my product!

I can really appreciate Stew Leonard’s story!  I have worked for businesses that were always looking to protect themselves from the 1% that are dishonest, instead of trusting the 99% that were honest and loyal to the company!  These customers do get offended and never come back… and they take their friends with them!  “The Customer is ALWAYS right” should be ingrained in every business!  It is especially important for business owners to take note of this so that they can teach their employees how to care for their customers!  He says “To do this, we really listen to and love our customers.”  To better listen, they do monthly focus groups, daily suggestion boxes, and no waiting in line at checkouts.  Stew says that the bottom line is that customer service cannot be a sometimes thing.  It must be earned and re-earned every day.”