In 2007, at a gathering of advertising executives and reporters in New York, Mark Zuckerberg said;
“Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend”.
He was unveiling his plan for ’social advertising’ that would spark the death of mass advertising and Facebook would own this space with recommendation ads being shown in front of people as content, using targeting from the demographic on their platform.
Fast forward to July 26th 2018 and Facebook loses over $120 billion from it’s market value, due to the extent of its recent scandals, which it reported in its second quarter financial results.
Is Facebook now a trusted friend?
I’d say it has lost the trust of the investors who buy its stock and the users in its audience.
Not only has it had to deal with fake news, privacy issues, fake accounts and election manipulation. But now the impact on customer trust, has led to reduced customer growth and usage.
Worse still, it has had to release the true cost, complexity and timeframe to fix the problems that it has uncovered. Further spooking out the audience and investors.
The impact of this to Facebook’s profit?
Catastrophic!
In the last quarter results for 2017, Facebook had an operating earnings to revenue ratio of 57%. A strong profitability measure.
In the 2018 second quarter results, this measure had dropped to 44%, and is expected to fall into the mid 30% range by the end of the year.
Thats a drop in profitability of approximately 40% year on year!
When people lose their trust in a brand, it becomes very difficult to regain that reputation and sometimes to the degree that it can wipe them out for good.
Look at the case of Gerald Ratner, where his loose humour at an after dinner speech over two of his products, wiped £500m off the value of the company and almost collapsing the world’s largest high street jeweller.
Will Facebook recover from this? Time will tell.
If they can do anything to recover the trust of its audience, it must accept responsibility, explain the path to recovery and then be transparent and honest with its communication updates.
Facebook is one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies. One which the media is itching to stab the knife into, given its impact on removing readers and advertisers from their more traditional channels.
So, whilst all good will be attacked, it only takes for the market to find a new trusted alternative platform and Facebook could be a distant memory in 5 years time.
Sharing the digital graveyard with Friends ReUnited et al!
Does the customer experience have a material impact on profitability? Damn right it does!
P.S. If you want to learn more about how to build a brand that people fall in love with, you can buy my No1 Best Selling book ‘Beyond Brand’ on Amazon now – http://bit.ly/AmazonBBB
Sorry to disrupt youJust 28 of the original FTSE 100 still exist today
And just 61 of the original Fortune 500 are still around.
88% are gone!
The world of business evolves so quickly these days that you could be a leading brand in one decade, then out of business in the next.
It doesn’t even have to be that your product is no longer relevant either.
Just that someone has evolved it into a better proposition than you previously had.
History is littered with examples of where the lack of evolution of a market leader has caused them to be replaced by a newcomer.
Apple v Nokia
Amazon v Borders
Dyson v Hoover
Netflix v Blockbuster
The list goes on….
The disruptor is probably the biggest threat to most businesses future success.
Especially if you are already a success.
And it is that easy to set up a business these days that you won’t even see it coming.
A business is set up every minute in the UK, every single day of the year.
Whilst not all of these will survive, a percentage of them will become the next big thing in your industry.
If your industry has a problem that customers hate and someone solves it before you do, the chances are they will take a significant share of the market.
Of YOUR customers.
Take Uber as one of those examples.
Only set up in 2009, this company entered a long established industry.
Probably an industry that said “There will always be a need for taxi’s, we’re pretty safe”.
Yet less than a decade later, Uber now owns 45% of the rides that previously went to taxi’s in the areas that they operate in.
In New York, more people use Uber now than they do Yellow Cabs!
How did that happen?
Because they took the elements of getting a taxi that frustrated people and they removed them.
Not sure when your taxi is turning up – We solved that by showing you where your driver is on the map.
No money in your wallet – No problem, we bill you direct to your account.
Prices that vary depending on how hard it is to get a ride – No problem, we’ll tell you in advance how much it will cost.
Not sure what the driver will be like – We’ll only allow drivers to work for Uber with a good star rating.
Simple.
All through an App.
Take an experience that is less than perfect, and then make it better.
Will people pay for it?
You bet.
Uber was valued at over $70 billion last year!
This same thing can happen in your industry.
Think it won’t?
Think you are “pretty safe”?
No problem.
I hope you’ll change your mind…
Before your competitors change it for you 😉
…
P.S. In case you are in any doubt, in 2017 the following happened:
ASOS became more valuable than Marks & Spencers.
Aldi overtook the Co-op and Waitrose.
Just Eat became more valuable than Sainsbury.
Tesla became more valuable than Ford.
And Jeff Bezos toppled Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man.
Still think disruption doesn’t happen to market leaders?
…
P.P.S. If you want to discuss how you can stay ahead of your market competitors, book in a call on the link below and we can talk through how to approach it.
https://calendly.com/craigbb/30min/
Once upon a time…… there was a story about a guy.
Just an everyday guy (who we’ll call a reluctant hero).
And this reluctant hero had a problem, but he didn’t know how to solve it. So he was discouraged.
But then he met a guide (a mentor) who gave him a plan.
And this plan called the hero to action.
The plan was good, amazing even…
But it didn’t all go smoothly.
There were dark moments…
Conflict…
In addition to seemingly insurmountable hurdles…
Many times the reluctant hero considered throwing in the towel…
Giving up…
Calling it quits…
But…
Where the strength came from, he didn’t know for sure…
But quitting just didn’t seem like the right thing to do.
Not on his watch…
He had a loving family…
And he felt that it was his God given responsibility to protect them financially…
To give his children what he didn’t have growing up.
And to provide freedom for his amazing wife who stood by him through all the pain and hardship…
The low moments…
And when “friends” pointed fingers and said, “You’re crazy! Be realistic. You’re no hero!”
He dug deep!
He found strength he didn’t know he had…
And finally…
It produced positive momentum…
Small wins first of all, which started turning into big wins…
As a result, his loser friends started asking him, “Hey man! Can you show me, too?”
Success, ultimately, was inevitable for him.
Looking back, he wasn’t the same person he was when he started his crazy journey years earlier.
The hard knocks had reinforced his drive, his passion, his self-confidence and clarity to do something that truly made a difference.
Still reading this blog?
How come?
Let me give you one reason why…
While numbers and facts and sales pitches may provide information…
Stories have a unique power to move people’s hearts, minds, and wallets in the storyteller’s intended direction.
This story could have been from any Entrepreneur on their journey.
But it was told within a time tested framework…
The same story framework used in multi-billion dollar Hollywood movies.
Seems like these stories are not restricted to just the entertainment industry then.
It’s the same story framework the best companies in the world use to tell their brand stories to millions (even billions) of people.
It’s the stories behind brands that people remember…
Not feature X or benefit Y.
Whether that brand is a company like Apple, Coca-Cola, Tesla or Lush…
Or a personal brand like David Beckham, Roger Federer or Elon Musk
… or YOU.
And me 🙂
Story is the emotional delivery mechanism of our company messages…
It allows us a way to reveal ourselves and create a deeper connection with those we touch.
It allows us a way to communicate how our ideas, concepts and products translate into VALUE for the people who matter in our target audiences.
Think about it.
From attracting and connecting with new prospects, to generating revenue and profits through the products we lovingly create…
Story is at the centre of it.
And story, told well, has the almost MAGICAL ability to connect deeply and EMOTIONALLY with the reader.
It moves hearts.
And it drives people to open wallets and purchase.
Rich people don’t buy a Ferrari because it’s fast.
There are plenty of options they could choose if they just wanted to go fast.
They buy a Ferrari for the same reason a woman buys a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes.
(Hint: It has nothing to do with comfort…)
It’s how it makes them FEEL. Because of the unspoken STORY it tells to others about them.
Get good at connecting your brand’s message within a story that evokes an emotional response…
And BOOM! …you win.
If you have a product or service that people need to hear about, then you also need a story that those same people will connect with (emotionally).
Telling great stories isn’t reserved for fiction writers or Hollywood Blockbusters.
The smart companies, brands, individuals, and marketers, use the power of story to communicate their brand’s message…
… so that it touches and moves the people they care about serving.
So, what story are you telling?
A story told badly is a story not worth telling at all…
…. so make sure you are connecting with your target markets by telling the right one!
P.S. If you want to improve the stories you are telling your prospects, book in a call on the link below and we can talk through how to approach it.
https://calendly.com/craigbb/30min/
99 problems and you ain’t oneI remember the first time I started speaking to businesses outside of the corporate markets about Customer Experience.
Businesses just like yours.
They would look at me like I was from Mars!
It wasn’t entirely their fault though.
After 20 years of working with Corporate clients, I was a little bit brainwashed with their terminology.
We’d start a conversation at a business event or networking group, which would go something like this:
Business Leader: “So, what do you do then?”
Me: “We help people build brand advocacy and loyalty”
Business Leader: “Oh”
(Silence)
Business Leader: “Ok, well have a good evening, I really must say hello to Dave over there as I haven’t caught up with him in ages”
It just wasn’t their language
They had 99 problems to deal with, but I wasn’t one of them.
This was so alien for me
In the Corporate world Customer Experience was in the Top 3 priorities of 95% of CEO’s i spoke to. Was there really such a difference in the mid-market and larger SME’s?
Perhaps it was because I was new to the groups, I thought.
So I joined several business groups to build more long term relationships and break down the barriers.
I got on great with the people, but it was still the same several months after going to those same groups and getting to know people.
It was only when I got to speak to people on a 1:1 level that I would be able to explain it effectively…
and even then it would start with “I don’t really understand what it is that you do….”
But after a while I learned to transform from that corporate monster into a normal human again
And I remember the message getting through a lot easier once I started saying to people “We help business leaders attract and retain more customers, by creating experiences that their ideal customers fall in love with”
That kept their interest long enough for me to then explain that by doing so we were able to give them sustainable business growth, higher margins, loyal customers and lower operating costs.
These were words that they understood very clearly and held in their highest priority.
It turns out that by delivering a better experience I was able to tackle over 50% of the priorities they already had on their list to deal with
Growing customer numbers…
Growing profit & margin…
Reducing operating costs…
Improving product proposition…
(I must write a blog on differentiating your proposition. Market disruption seems to be on everyone’s list at the moment and I have a great case to share with you)
Anyway, where were we?
Sales….
Marketing….
Employee Engagement….
Customer insights….
The links to their priorities just went on and on and on.
So it turned out that most business leaders have 99 problems in their business, but the challenges and topics are just the same.
It turns out that we just talk about it in a human language.
And once you get to that place, it’s easy to demonstrate how Customer Experience can make serious improvements to your business.
Problems that you already have!
If you want to talk to us about your problems to see if we can help (Just business, we are not paid therapists), then book a call in on the link below. Chances are we can probably fix some of your biggest challenges you have right now too
https://calendly.com/craigbb/30min/
Speak soon
P.S. If you want to read some more about how to stay ahead in your industry this year, download a copy of our latest whitepaper. I think you’ll like it