It is a sad day, but I have decided to move my blog off of 325studio.com and move it to tonynaccarato.com. Why the change? Well, 325studio was once my personal site but as I have established a successful freelance business, 325studio has taken over and become the business site. I have come to realize the need to separate personal and business. So, for all of the two people that might read my blog, head on over to tonynaccarato.com or pick up my feed here.

Thanks.

there has been some recent discussion in my office about branding and good customer experience and thought I would touch upon it and link to some great content to learn more.

We have the opportunity each month to read an article or book and then have a discussion on it as a company. This months article was “The Microeconomics of Customer Relationships” by Fred Reichheld. It brings up some interesting points on assessing where you are at as a company in regards to your customers. It talks about a “net-promoter score” which comes about by asking one simple question, “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”. Through that you can find out who your “promoters” are, those that would recommend your services and also find out who your “detractors” are, those that don’t like you and would deter others from your services. It goes into how each group needs to be addressed and how doing so can help you improve. The article mentions that most companies forget about there promoters, or the core group, because they are an easy sale.

I recently had an experience on both ends where I’m a promoter for one company and a detractor for another. About a year ago I bought a monitor from Dell but the monitor had some issues with it. I contacted them about the problem and they were very helpful and replaced the monitor. I currently am still having issues but the customer service has been helpful and I feel like they really want to help. They are fast and informative with their responses. Even though the monitor has caused some problems for me I would most likely purchase other products from them because I feel like they are on my side.

On the other end of the spectrum, I purchase a book from CK Media – Creating Keepsakes, and there is no way I’d ever purchase from them again and I would recommend to everyone else not to purchase from them. It has now been over 6 weeks since we purchased the book and we still haven’t received it or a refund. This is after trying to cancel it but told we couldn’t because it had shipped already and now that we have convinced them it hasn’t we can’t get a refund. We’ve talked to a dozen people there that don’t have any idea what’s going. The customer experience has been horrible and has wasted a lot of our time.

Now that I done playing the detractor role, there is one statistic that is worth noting in the article, that each negative comment is neutralized by three to 10 positive. Basically, the detractors are going to loss you a lot more business than the promoters will bring.

Along the lines of this article there is a good talk by Seth Godin on the TED website. (Also posted below)

One thing he mentions in marketing is to be remarkable, adding that what ever it is should be worth making a remark about. The customer experience with Dell is worth making a remark about, it’s remarkable.

While doing some research online I came across an interesting article about branding and what the means. This article is from Good Experience by Mark Hurst and it is titled “Underestimating the Brand”. Here he brings up an interesting change that JetBlue is going through and one that is forgetting their core costumers.

“If one is to measure the brand by the traditional approach (“let’s spend thirty million dollars shoving a logo and a tag line down their throats”), then the new JetBlue is, I suppose, consistent and well-known. Lots of money buys lots of ad impressions. Congratulations.

“However, if one is to measure the brand through the lens of “good experience,” which I believe is the most accurate way of evaluating companies today, then JetBlue is doing poorly.”

If anyone has some other articles related to this please post them, I would be interested in reading them.

“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful: but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful”

-Shaker lesson

Last night we had the opportunity to listen to Sean Adams and the Salt Lake AIGA event. Sean is a partner at AdamsMorioka and has been recognized by every major competition and publication. Sean is the national president and past national board member of AIGA, and past president of AIGA Los Angeles. He teaches at Art Center College of Design. Sean is a frequent lecturer and competition judge internationally. Adams is the co-author of Logo Design Workbook, Color Design Workbook, and Masters of Design. AdamsMorioka’s clients include ABC, Adobe, Gap, Frank Gehry Partners, Mohawk Fine Papers, Nickelodeon, Sundance, Target, USC, and The Walt Disney Company.

Since he is the national president of the AIGA he gave a quick summary of where he thinks we are going as a design community. The main message I received from regarding that is being unified as designers. If you degrade another designer because of his choice in style or medium, you are really hurting the design profession as a whole. When one designer succeeds, we all succeed. He also touched on the point that there is enough work for everyone, we can all be successful. Basically, stop trash talking other designers or firms because they do something a little different from you.

He then talked about his main message which was about fear. What fears do we have and how can we overcome them? He did a really great job of bringing examples of his work into his theme of overcoming fear and presenting it in a way that can help us all. Here are a few highlights on this subject.

• Bad clients can make you miss better opportunities.
Some clients are too demanding and take up so much time that better opportunities and clients can pass you by. Also, your design work can greatly suffer because you are only doing what the client “thinks” is best and not what you “know” to be best. Don’t be afraid of change and letting go of a client.

• Protect the work, it’s all we’ve got
He was referring to your design work. Don’t be afraid of protect the work you do. Stand up for what you believe in. You are the one that has the skills as a designer. He likened it to going to the doctor and the doctor informs you that you have cancer. He suggests that you take immediate action but then you tell the doctor you would rather have a breast enlargement. I’m sure we all have clients that would tell us something compared to that but we need to set the expectation upfront and let them know that we value our work.

• There is no magical way of doing things
As designers, we all have our own way of doing things. Even though a famous design might do something different, it doesn’t mean it’s the only way of doing it. Have faith in your ideas and your own judgment. Be good at being you.

There are very few well know designers that are down to earth and really have a desire for everyone to succeed and Sean Adams is one of them. He was a great presenter and really inspires you to be better. If you ever have the opportunity to listen to him, you should definitely jump at the chance.

Here is some work from AdamsMorioka

Sundance Film Festival 06

Mohawk Paper - Via - The Big Handbook

Here are some great examples of package design. Visit site.