The bigger the bastard, the bigger the bastard.

Marketing student Alissa Tilla set us a cry from the heart: "Customer service is dead!" (Her email is below.) My response: Declare war.

ALISSA -

The bigger the bastard, the bigger the bastard.

MK

PS. It's the thing they don't teach you at marketing school: God is on the side of the biggest battalions. They can ignore the principles of customer-centricity and customer focus. Telstra, Qantas and McDonalds are so dominant in their markets, they can get away with anything. It is the eternal advantage of leadership. The lagging indicator is share. They gain sales from customers who hate them, who know they will dud them, and who would love to give them the finger. But inertia, fear and cynicism keeps them rusted on. To activate this hatred and turn it into share gains, challenger brands must do more than slash prices. They must build an activism, a lynch mob atmosphere, an "Aussie Home Loans" campaign (John Symonds is a genius) that is a crusade, like Branson's strategy. Belt the bastards so often you reforge their brand image, using their weakness (size and insensitivity) against them. You can speed the process by running a 'bad case study/anti-testimonial" campaign featuring heart-rending stories like Cancer Boy in "Thank You For Smoking", illustrating how brutal the big bastard is. In extreme cases, you could run some investigative probes into their operations, seeking weak spots. Always within the bounds of ethics, you can gain access to sensitive information via many avenues: eg. interview their staff for employment opportunities (many staff will reveal problems in interviews); set up a website to collect complaints from the big bastard's customers; keep an eye on corporate disclosure around issues like environmental claims, etc. Make sure your own nose is clean, though. In extremely extreme cases, a dedicated unit that trolls for bad news and disseminates it might be justified. Why not? Marketing is war. Consumers deserve more than they get. Big bastards deserve more than they get, too.

On 27/03/2008, at 9:57 PM, Alissa Tilla wrote:


Dear Michael,

I was reading a back issue of Marketing Magazine and saw your piece on bad customer service. I think customer service is dead! Recently I was served a raw chicken burger from McDonalds. The head office wiped their hands of the issue, claiming that the store needed to contact me; despite being a company owned store. One week later the manager called me; the voicemail message she left said that she was going home and would call me the following day. Another week on, and two phone calls later (from my end) I could not get in touch with this manager who was never at the store. When I finally spoke with her I was unhappy with her lack of empathy. The response from McDonalds has been underwhelming to say the least; impersonal, uncaring and not in a timely manner. To make matters worse, if I want a refund for my meal I suddenly have to deal with head office, writing a letter of demand. These organisations have become so procedural and clinical that they have lost any decency in their dealings with customers. These large organisations think they are invincible. Good on you for speaking out. It’s about time these organisations are put back in their place and remember what their main focus should be, serving the customer. In this case, I think Ronald would be very unhappy. Being a marketing student I am so aggravated by McDonald’s response. You need to continue to use your influence to make these issues public and start a revolution whereby the customer comes first!

I would love to hear back from you about what you think.

Kind Regards,

Alissa Tilla