The Real Thing

I don't even know where to start...I'm not a soda drinker, and definitely go for the local spring water vs. filtered..but when it comes to an iconic brand as an example for a marketing presentation, nothing beats a Coke. And they are smart enough to tell their story in as many different ways as you could possibly want it. Even a section for students who might be doing research on their company. Of course, they have all the cool stuff like screensavers and videos of their ads. And they even have their logos and images for download - that's how strong their brand is, and how smart they are about sharing the happiness. Wow.

It's All About the O

Megan and I attended the AMA luncheon yesterday and really enjoyed the event speaker, Stormy Simon from Overstock.com. Her presentation explained how Overstock's marketing department and customer care department "tied the knot" (with a few Pacman and Ms. Pacman references thrown in). One executive is responsible for overseeing the marketing department and the customer care department, opening communication between both departments at all times, and thus it has evolved into a perfect union!

Ms. Simon is even copied on emails to customers that have had problems with their orders if their complaint is not resolved the first time around. She gave us a recent example: A customer ordered an ottoman, and it arrived broken to the customer. So, Overstock sent him another ottoman; but that one arrived broken too. So Overstock sent him another one; same thing - broken. By the time Ms. Simon was added to the communication loop on the arrival of the third broken ottoman, the ottomans were out of stock. Ms. Simon called the customer and spoke with him directly. He said that this was taking up a lot of his time receiving broken ottomans and then calling Overstock each time to report it, and he mentioned that he wouldn't buy from them again. Ms. Simon says that she has the customer scheduled in her Outlook to call him 6 months from now to see if he'll reconsider buying from Overstock again.

She touched on how their website has evolved and how they are approaching social media.

And you know the familiar spokesmodel in their TV commercials? Ms. Simon says that are constantly going back and forth on if they should stay with that same look/messaging or try something different. Guess we'll see!

Overstock.com is currently rated #2 in customer service nationwide, as announced by The National Retail Federation.

Breaking Ground

Courtney and I spent the morning (and early afternoon) in Hampton. Our client, Virginia Company Bank, had a ground breaking ceremony for the new banking office set to open this fall in Hampton. As usual, we enjoyed an opportunity to celebrate with the Bank - executive team and Directors alike.

Check out some photos from this morning's festivities.

Did you know?

I've been updating our Employee Handbook and Procedures Manual today in anticipation of our summer intern! That's right; we've been getting everything in place to make sure that our intern starts out on the right foot and has all of the resources they need to feel at home at MBM.

So when I was updating our employee manuals this morning, I basically had forgotten how much information is provided. I didn't realize how many step by step procedures and document templates we have at our fingertips. When was the last time that you read through your employee manual? It has probably been since your first day of work. But I encourage anyone to re-read it from time to time. You just might learn something new! Like, what is your company's vacation policy if a holiday falls on a weekend? Keep that one top of mind, because the Fourth of July falls on a Sunday this year!

Blogging and other bad habits

Like Courtney just posted, I'm part of the office blog slump - which is weird, because I love to tell stories about myself, and a blog post would just be a continuation of that, right?

I thinking blogging is like any other routine habit. When you keep up with it, it's easy (thus why Maggi's so good at blogging)... when you slack, it can be hard to get back into the habit. Just like going to the gym or calling your mother - although both my mother and my step instructor have been known to track me down when they don't hear from me!

So why blog? Why get (and stay) in the habit? Our blog is a great tool for so many reasons. From the back end, it helps give us another voice on the web, which helps our web traffic - for free. On the front end, it helps our clients, partners, friends, potential clients, and even Kelly's mother learn more about MBM and the people behind it.

An additional bad habit of mine? I'm snacking on jelly bellies right now. Better go get some lunch!

Blog Slump

Boo on me, I haven't posted anything to the blog in a long time. I blame it on LOST. The show has filled my mind with so much myth and angst over how it will end that I have no room for smart marketing blog creativity! One more regular season episode next week and then the big 2.5 hour finale on Sunday, May 23! Megan and I recommend EW.com for in-depth LOST recaps and still love our girl Erika Olson and her Long Live Locke blog.

What will we talk about at work after May? I think that was a sigh of relief I just heard from Kelly and Maggi...

Customer Service & Empowerment

OK, those are words that we all hear too often in the business world. We need to "exceed customer service expectations" and "empower our employees" to make decisions. Just yesterday we were talking about these in the context of storytelling, and by example the Nordstrom tire return story. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not - either way, it's a powerful story that's repeated often as a shining example not just of customer service, but also of employees who are empowered to make decisions regarding how to treat their customers.

Today at the Willow Lawn Chipotle, I experienced the same customer service and employee empowerment. And I swear it's true. I'd faxed in our order, called to confirm receipt and headed over to pick up the order. I was a few minutes late picking it up. The guy at the counter said the order wasn't received, did I call to confirm? "Yes, I did." And off he went to find our order, jump onto the line, make the food himself and deliver it to me in record time. And then the zinger: "no charge," he says. "I've got this covered. Really. Sorry about your wait, come back again soon."

Wow. I was stunned. I offered again to pay, then thanked him, and was so flustered I left without picking up napkins or forks (which are essential for Chipotle). I headed back to the office, still shaking my head over this encounter with customer service, and employee empowerment. I mean, this is basically a fast food restaurant and this guy wasn't even the manager.

If Chipotle can get it right, then there's no excuse for the rest of us not doing so.

Intern Excitement

We are coming down to the final interviews to fill our summer internship position. With so much going on over the past few months, we knew that taking on a summer intern would be helpful and exciting. We are looking forward to the fresh perspectives, ideas and energy we hope our intern will bring to MBM.

Megan and I have been reviewing resumes and interviewing over the past 2 weeks, in hopes of finding the perfect fit! I have already been amazed at some of the classes that our potential interns have taken as preparation for the real world. It wasn't that long ago since I was in college, but they certainly didn't have classes about social media back then!

Smart Beginnings

I spent this morning at Lewis Ginter at the Greater Richmond Early Childhood Summit learning about the importance of making sure children are prepared for life, from prenatal stages to preschool. There was amazing data presented about brain development in infants and toddlers: did you know language skills are most impacted in the first six - eight months of a child's life!?! And the Minneapolis Federal Reserve economists studied the cost benefits of preparing young children for school, with outcomes of a $16 to $1 benefit cost ratio (with an 18% annual rate of return!). Most importantly, I learned that the Richmond Region has been, and is committed to continuing, to make sure every child is "ready for school, ready for life." Check out Smart Beginnings and see how you can make a difference!

64 West

A recent client photo shoot took MBM to the coal mining town of Man, West Virginia. Our client needed photos of their coal mining operations and headshots of their office management team. With our trusty photographers, Doug and Ron, we headed west to Beckley, WV then west some more to Man, WV. We had an exciting 2 days and learned a lot about coal mining and saw some beautiful, mountainous scenery. See me above on the Komatsu 830E on in the shovel pit on the surface mine. And yes that is a hard hat and those are steel toes boots!