Thanks.

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.

-Shaker lesson

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

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, “Sliced bread and other marketing delights”. (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.

“WallSwaps is generally a really easy way to get our nice little birdie logo in as many places as possible, and gives you the chance to get one. Just send us some stuff – any stuff – and we’ll send you a badge and put your stuff on our wall. It’s an internet swap-shop!”

Ben Webster owns a custom letterpress shop in Salt Lake City, the Mandate Press. He did a great job discussing the letterpress process, the pros and cons of using letterpress, and its strengths and weaknesses. He also touched upon some of the misconceptions of letterpress and what you can and can’t do. He has done some great work, one of my favorite is the Utah Train poster, since I am a huge fan of trains. Although, as most letterpress projects are out of my price range, so is this poster. One great thing that he mentioned is there 250 business cards/calling cards special that you can get for under $100. See there home page for more info.

Well done AIGA, this was a great experience and I’d like to keep coming to these discussion and will defiently spread the word. Plus, they are free.

Here is a little more info on the Shift.Option.Talk series.

Shift.Option.Talk is a series of informal, roundtable conversations with local designers in our community. Featuring a different location and host-designer every event, its the best way to relax, meet other creative-minded designers and just shoot the breeze.

Visit slc.aiga.org for more info.