Comments on: A Case of Why Brands Need to “Be Awesome” More Often

By: Getting freebies with Twitter - Michael Yung - M.Y. Lessons Learnt

Getting freebies with Twitter - Michael Yung - M.Y. Lessons Learnt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:50:25 +0000

[...] probably know with good use of Twitter, you can fix your hotel reservation issue and even get a free dessert / appetizer. What about getting some freebies by just tweeting? You can certainly do that [...]

By: brian ragsdale

brian ragsdale — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:36:48 +0000

Larger website. As Well displayed normal in my new browser HexaBit Junior.

By: Brian Siegel

Brian Siegel — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:28:36 +0000

Interesting and creative way to connect with and build a relationship with a customer!

By: Greg Williams

Greg Williams — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:54:48 +0000

With PF Chang's or any restaurant chain trying to gain and/or keep customers, the key is customer experience. Even in this short discussion, we have comments that shout out PF Chang's with a great experience and then another who says not such a good impression in their recent visit; but they will come back because of other past good experiences. The underlying thread in either situation is consistency … how does the brand perform over time; do they have the training in place to garner great customer connections. It seems that if the goal is to be awesome, it can't be a one-time effort, but consistent performance. And if consistently great performance leads to an entitlement mentality, because we are "awesome" I think most companies would say no bad profits here.

By: Adam Kmiec

Adam Kmiec — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:55:19 +0000

To me it's all about "mutual exchange." In theory, you should get something for giving something. In my opinion, often that exchange is not in the proper balance. In this case, the customer shared feedback. That feedback was rewarded with the free food.

The real question is what would have happened had the feedback from the customer been negative. For example, "these are the worst lettuce wraps I've ever had, WTF?" The customer is still sharing feedback. But, what would they have gotten in return?

By: Steve Poppe

Steve Poppe — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:54:03 +0000

I love the idea. Also, there is a difference between customer service and a thank you gesture. Both can delight, but they're different animals. A "thank you" even without a spiff, can make a good impression.

By: jcioban

jcioban — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:49:58 +0000

I am not sure the promo in this case is so organized as to create "bad profits" although I do agree that such a thing exists. I DO think that the real win was the engagement…reaching out in real-time. These is a lot of "love" being bought by the engagement…the coupon just helps cement the relationship since problems eventually occur.

Case in point…I was in a PFC in MD recently. First, only one of our two meals was initially delivered… the second came 7-8 minutes later when they realized the mistake. The table was never cleared…we just kept pushing plates off to the side. Then the wrong drink order was delivered. Finally, the the bill rang up wrong. All things considered, it did not make for a perfect impression, but the food, and my past experience with PFC's, were good enough to likely overcome the problems. But like any service chain dependent on lots of lower level staff to deliver on "awesome", creating more outreach and little goodies to drive WOM, is immensely valuable for overcoming the hitches that always crop up.

By: IanSchafer

IanSchafer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:47:53 +0000

Being "awesome" every once in a while earns you goodwill — deposits in the emotional bank account — that can be drawn against when needed (i.e. when you break a guitar). Little things like this define who you are as a brand. For example, who would you define as a better person — one that donates to a charity in one large lump sum once a year, or one who gives a little bit *very* often? Of course, that's subjective, but so are humans. When companies behave (well, or poorly), humans subjectively analyze their behavior and draw conclusions. Being awesome, or doing awesome things once in a while, will contribute to the conclusion that you'd *like* your consumers to draw.

By: Peter Kim

Peter Kim — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:32:20 +0000

Thanks for engaging in the conversation. Good to hear an opinion from the source.

My point – along the lines of Reichheld's "bad profits," in my experience, promotions and similar one-off events are suboptimal ways to acquire customers with any sort of long-term value. As long as you bake awesome into your core product, adding even more awesome on top will compound loyalty. But companies that don't start with awesome are just throwing away short-term money and attracting pests.

And I'd like to see "awesome" listed as an ingredient on your menus in the near future.

(Disclosure: I'm a customer, props to your downtown Austin location.)

By: Tim McDougall

Tim McDougall — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:20:02 +0000

A few responses — full disclosure, I work at the P. F. Chang's home office:

@afhill: Of course we expect to get more out of it. That's the idea of great customer service. Give people a great experience, and they'll want to come back. And talk about it with their friends. Our servers have been doing this for years, and take a lot of pride in it — Kelly from the video above is one of our trainers, and is a great example. Twitter can help us better support our servers. (And also gives our guests more ways to tell their friends, which is fine with us.)

@Peter Kim & DKnoxMU: Fair questions and appreciate the thoughts. Don't you want your customers to expect great things from you? Isn't that what keeps them coming back?