Experiences Spring Break 2006

No, this is not an MTV Spring Break type of post so if you are looking for some excitement, look elsewhere. I have been on spring break with my family in the Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge area over the last few days and have found myself tuned in to the importance of quality service more than ever. We all know in credit union land that service is at the essence of who we are and what we deliver. So, some highlights are as follows (don't worry I won't post a long slideshow of family pictures on here).

• Went to a family friendly comedy show called the Comedy Barn. These people get it. They are the masters of making you feel special and word of mouth marketing. Their two top selling souvenirs are a $9.99 red Comedy Barn t-shirt and a DVD of the show you watched. The t-shirt comes at a low price as long as you promise to wear it at least once during your stay in the area. Since they brought this to my attention I saw a ton of shirts - many hiking trails at the National Park. The DVD is guaranteed to have you in the DVD. They have many of the audience members participate in the show and they also have all of these cameras filming the audience during the show. How is that for personalization? People were lined up to buy these at intermission. The staff made you feel welcome and a part of their family. Something we can all learn from.
• A tale of two restaurant horror stories and how they responded. We went to the Cracker Barrel in Pigeon Forge (store #360) and waited one hour for our food. Our waitress was apologetic and promised that the manager was going to stop over and talk to us. No manager ever showed. Plus, my wife's order was wrong - which they corrected but again took way too long. The next night, we went to McDonalds (didn't want to risk waiting anywhere an hour for our food) and I ordered a fish sandwich without tartar sauce. The young lady at the register had entered my order correctly (displayed on my receipt) and when I went back up she apologized immediately for the mix-up. She rushed the order and said she would deliver a fresh sandwich to my table. She delivered. Then a few minutes later the manager comes over and says the young lady at the register had told him about the mix-up and he wanted to apologize. He then delivered three free apple pies. He noticed that we had four at the table and then ran back and got one more. McDonalds, which gets a bad rap many times, trumped Cracker Barrel on fixing the problem. Many times our quality of service is measured by how we fix problems not by how we deliver every day service. I was impressed with the two employees at McDonalds, plus my kids loved the apple pies, okay so did I.

Lessons learned - personalize the experience, a real life lesson on how to use viral marketing (how many will show off their Comedy Barn DVD to others?), and the value of fixing the problem to make a wow impression. All can be applied to improve our credit unions.

Unique Marketing Positioning

Been traveling the last couple of days and found two unique marketing or positioning situations. First, while sitting at the Indianapolis airport I glance over and see a power outlet. A long tall sticker surrounds the power outlet and then stretches upward to about five feet. The sticker says, "This power outlet works so you can too - Chase Bank". Wow, the power outlets are sponsored by Chase? It caught my eye.

Then while in Pinellas Park Wal-Mart. According to locals this is the busiest Wal-Mart in the United States. I was there around 8:00pm on a Friday night and it was full of activity. Well, I couldn't find the Tampa Bay Devils Ray jersey (for my son) I had been looking for all over Tampa (I know they are a dismal team but you would think they would want to sell some merchandise), however I spotted two things that made me go hmmmm. First, at the checkout counter you could order your McDonalds value meal and then go right over to the McDonalds and pick up your food. They don't want you to wait in two lines and trust me I had to wait in line to make my purchase. The value meals are posted at the register making it simple. Clever. Second, Achieva Credit Union had a branch in the store. I went over and introduced myself and got a warm greeting. The branch had three credit union mates working and they were in casual attire - it fits the store and I thought it was a good touch. They are open until 8pm Monday through Friday. I didn't check the other hours - sorry. The branch had three ATMs and one of the staff was walking a member through their ATM transaction. The employees report the in-store branch has been a success. Didn't have much time to chat as they were closing down.

BTW - Hulk Hogan and I shared the same security line this morning with one exception. He was put to the front of the line. He had his brand going.