Let me start with a story.

It’s a common tale, one of ambition and good-intent. Happens all the time. People in a company (or, “resources in an organization” if you talk like a corporate-weenie) figure out how to solve problems, often working around parts of the company that would rather prevent things from happening.

For example, I know someone who initially started with Amazon Web Services to quickly prove something out. All he needed was permission from his boss to expense the small monthly charges. And, they were small, until he proved it out… then they got bigger. And bigger. And he could no longer expense on an expense report what was effectively an outsourced data center for his solution!

I know another person, a developer, who was doing some internal coding to an HR system and took the initiative to expose a few services (API’s) around the HR information he had available. I personally asked him who else was using his service. His response: 5 or so other projects. Well, it turned out that it was a lot more than 5. It was more like 25¹.

What if, instead of it being an HR service backed by an internal system it was a search service using the free Bing search engine API?

People do stuff like this all the time — it’s available, it’s free, I’ll just solve this problem and move on.

Then, the solution becomes a bit widespread. Because it solves a real problem.

Well, what if that Bing search API were unknowingly used by 25 different teams when THIS HAPPENED? (cue thunder in the background). For those too lazy to click, Microsoft recently announced that they will start charging for the API.

Forgetting for a moment the not-significant impact of the changes to the API this entails… all of a sudden the company is tied into this service for 25 different solutions, and now has to start paying or it will stop working.

Or, they could change providers. That’s right, they would change API providers.

The same thing could happen even if it were originally a paid service like Salesforce.com or WorkDay. What if an API you used were acquired and shut down? What if the API you used all of a sudden cost a whole lot more than it did yesterday? What if the privacy terms on an API you use changed unfavorably?

If that weren’t enough, here in enterprise software land our customers are always trying to “avoid vendor lock-in” to make sure vendors don’t have too much leverage. Doing everything you can to make it easier to change API providers helps avoid lock-in in a very constructive manner. And, that’s always a good thing too even if you don’t care much for my stories.

1. In truth, I’ve forgotten the real number and I think it was much more than this. But, 25 serves to prove the point.

You guys are slipping. This is the second time this year my feather-free room wasn’t.

For context, I arrived at my hotel at 1:15 this morning. It’s not like I had a lot of time (or brain-cycles) to figure out if my room had been prepared properly.

Since my room was feathered, I’m now spending the whole day in a haze and sniffling/congested. While this makes business travel oh-so-much-more-pleasure, I’d prefer to just get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed.

Here’s what I suggest.

Why not either:

1. Mark the pillows VERY obviously, like with a different pillowcase color, or
2. Put a simple but easy to see note (how about something professionally made, not a sticky note, stuck to the mirror?) in the room that says my room has been made up feather-free.

You see, even when I remember to ask people at the front desk on check-in I don’t really trust their answers. Usually they don’t know, and I’ve had people tell me it’s been done when it’s not been. I know you try to provide good quality pillows so it’s not possible (for me) to tell by feeling the pillows whether they’re feathered or not. In my experience, you have two pillow cases and a zippered pillow cover, and there are 10 pillows between the two beds. In total, that makes for a huge pain in the ass to check the pillows directly.

A note or a pillow marking (or the absence of) would be a great reminder that would let me know either way, and let me take action. Certainty is way better than uncertainty. Said differently, not knowing for sure is really annoying. If it’s not done, and I can make a quick phone call and get it done (even at 1:15AM). I wouldn’t actually mind that, it would be mildly frustrating, but not really a big deal if it didn’t happen too often. In fact, I’d feel like we’re sharing responsibility for making my stay great. A much better alternative than the adversarial relationship you seem to be creating this year.

Thank you,

David
PS This is titled “Another…” because of some other customer service improvement suggestions I’ve made for hotels.

That’s why I so delighted to announce my friend’s new project: Happy Birthday Muffin (no comma).

Celebrate a birthday with a muffin, beautifully packaged and personalized for the birthday boy or girl. Simple.

In keeping things really simple, I like how they’ve packaged everything up into a single price — so no extras for shipping, and they pay sales tax out of their price.

I ordered my sister-in-law a muffin for her birthday yesterday and she was delighted (or so she said in voicemail). Frankly, I was surprised it got there in time. I ordered mid-day Thursday and she had The Muffin on Saturday. Sweet! (Literally)

Anyways, I’m going to put a little graphic on the front page of my blog to show my support. Why not give it a shot?

It’s exciting to think about the brand innovation possible as technology spreads through every aspect of our lives.

While watching TV last night I saw a Charles Schwab commercial. The commercial talked about all sorts of “regular people” who trade and invest with them.

The commercial triggered an “eh” response in me, followed by a “why don’t they do this…” moment.

I’d like to share.

There’s nothing like personal finance. We know so little about managing our money, or investing. Banks are no help. Their education materials are thinly veiled sales pitches that don’t do anything to raise the level of overall customer competency.

Most information seems to be a rehash of a small number of topics — like how much should I save for retirement, or which mutual fund is best, or how to minimize my tax burden. I’m given answers, but not enough information to make discerning and actionable decisions for my personal situation.

In the end, most people create a personal financial plan based on fear, or based on what their friends tell them that they do. People do more research before spending a couple of hundred dollars on clothing or electronics than they do before investing thousands¹.

Maybe I’m overly influenced by American Greed (the TV show). On American Greed I regularly watch people (yes, even “smart” ones) invest in schemes they can’t possibly understand simply on the recommendation of someone they trust. Invariably, what sounds too good to be true is, and they lose tons of money.

Here’s the insight:

We have all this formal education but most never learn anything other than the basics about personal finance (and some don’t even get the basics).

Why not educate people to build loyalty? Why not educate to build the customer habits you want to create?

And, it’s not just loyalty, it’s stickiness. A company that uses its online trading platform as the basis for the training, creates trained users of that platform while they educate customers about trading. Same for online banking or bill payment.

And, this brand innovation strategy is one that can be executed broadly which should excite creative teams.

This becomes a very sticky endeavor. People will be comfortable with the bank’s trading/banking software and they’ll have the opportunity to create new habits that are associated with the brand. With all the Macs around, why haven’t people adopted Apple’s iWork suite? In large part² it’s because we know how to use Powerpoint and Excel. Apple’s versions are different enough that it’s too hard to change.

And, by the way, with the right approach the bank would learn tons of invaluable information about their customers financial behaviors. (See this Forbes article for how Intuit is using “big data” to deeply understand their customer behaviors and to share for the benefit of all their customers.)

And here’s the punchline.

Why not create online training and reward consumers who complete the training with free services? Or with extra personal assistance and advice? Banks have the opportunity to educate consumers on their platform, build personal relationships, and teach customers how to interact with the bank in a constructive and confident way.

Even less obvious, let’s say a bank educates customers on how to not bounce checks (and how to use the bank’s tools to avoid bouncing checks). Then, as a reward for the training, they get a few fee-free-check-bounces… my thinking is that now that the customer knows how to avoid bouncing checks, the free ones are because the bank realizes that it must be a mistake or a real need in a particular month. So, in exchange for taking responsibility to be more careful about bouncing checks, we (the bank) will work with you to forgive a couple of mistakes, or give you some leeway when it’s a tight month. Banking would become a more positive experience with both sides working towards the same goal, instead of the current highly adversarial model.

Capitalizing on Emerging Technology Trends

Many people have heard of “big data” these days, but what about online learning?

I bet non-technical people don’t realize the newly emerging trend around online learning.

Companies are interested in applying branding innovation by capitalizing on the latest technology trends… why not online learning? Maybe it’s not as sexy as social media, or mobile (though in truth, an online learning solution should leverage both) but when a technology can drive user engagement and satisfaction while increasing stickiness it’s a sure thing.

Take a look at emerging distance learning technology like Udacity to deliver a high end course with a real curriculum. It’s not about more “marketing materials” but about a structured education and curriculum just like you’d get in university.

For the banks, I’d even create different levels of education, and create a benefits platform that rewards customers at different levels (similar to the way Frequent Flier programs have multiple tiers of benefits). Then, it’s easier to create education targeted at different experience levels.

Why Udacity? They’re not the only ones, but check out this interesting article on how Udacity was launched out of Stanford.

When it comes to “big data” — remember earlier how I said “people do financial planning based on what their friends tell them they do”. Yeah, people often “say” and “do” different things. Imagine knowing that all of a bank’s customers with salaries in a particular range, in a particular geography, behave a certain way? That’s powerful insight, and can be used to educate households on how to better manage their finances. Really, read the Intuit article and you’ll see what I mean. In the article they’re talking about small business financials, not household financials. I believe the same conclusions can be reached despite the different target audience.

Technology is making a lot of brand innovation possible, but I think it’s the minds that can bring it together that are really holding us back now. I hope brands can get a little more innovative in how they think about their brands, and the possibilities that technology brings for brand engagement.

1. My opinion, not a statistic
2. Another opinion, they’re so much easier to use than statistics. Though, seriously, these are the sorts of things that could be validated through research if pursuing a strategy like I’m outlining if they’re relevant.

I keep hearing about how few apps are making money, and how hard it is. I’m sure it is. But I think that’s the wrong lens to view your idea through.

Look at your app as a feature in your overall business model, not as the business model itself, and you’ll come up with a much greater value proposition to the community you wish to serve.

I thought it was refreshing.

Remember, we manifest our experience with the words we choose.

Ice cream.

1. I read a partial transcript, so I don’t know if he did it every time

Read Neil Ward-Dutton’s analysis for good perspective.

What we need to do is get them interested enough to take the next step.

So, in fact, we often need LESS information, and the information we share needs to be presented in a way that tells a story. A story the prospect can identify with¹ . A story the prospect wants to be a part of.

Want to grow as a technical sales person? Give yourself half the time you think you need to get your message across on your next meeting and have a go at it.

1. I know it’s bad form to end a sentence with a  preposition. Don’t worry, I’ll do it again in a second.

Answer: Do what the MTA in NYC did… set your data free.

I’ve seen this MTA/Subway ad before, but its implication hadn’t sunk in until yesterday. The implication being that the New York Transit Authority has an advertisement for their data APIs on the subways. And, in the ad they’re poking fun at themselves by acknowledging that they’re not innovative enough to create their own apps like true “whiz kids” can.

This tells me a few things:

1. APIs are no longer important only to edgy companies and startups,

2. APIs and the strategies around them are reaching consumer awareness, and

3. APIs can be a component of a companies marketing and brand strategy — which means they’re not just about developers.

And, if that weren’t enough, in searching online for more information about this ad campaign I found an even more interesting article. The (reasonably) new MTA Chief made a personal effort to convince developers that they MTA’s attitude towards them was going to change. It’s about 15 months since the MTA shut down an independent developer who created an iPhone app with their data, so this is a real about-face. And, if the article title is any sense of how they’re doing, it’s working.

To the list of key points above, we can add one more biggie:

APIs can be important to the board room.

WIth all this visibility outside of the developer community, it’s becoming increasingly important to deliver API’s in a way that’s manageable, scalable, and secure.

Or,  you can choose to tell your customers you don’t want their money, just like LinkedIn did this week.

This post was written for in January 2011, and originally appeared on my client OpusGrid’s blog.

Bank of America has a social campaign that lets consumers create their own BoA Ads, and calls it “Your Bank of America”. The first few times I looked, I didn’t realize the fun you could have by clicking on the ads that customers have created.

Please, go see what people are saying about BoA, and then click on your favorite and see how much fun you can have!

This reminds me of the McDonald’s #McDStories campaign that went horribly sideways.

By the way, if you have a social media campaign/strategy, it should include a crisis management plan.