Customer Relationships with the Rabid Crowd
September 28th, 2007By Marijean Jaggers
Presenter: Jake McKee
Jake used to work for a little company called LEGO. He addresses the customer relationship:
“What we’re talking about at the end of the day are relationships. Long term connections.
The hope is that the idea that starts as a conversation ends up as a long term relationship.
It’s about human connections on an emotional level.”
The mantras (what he’s repeated to audiences for years) for customer relationships:
- Open and honest relationship
- Live the life, love the life
- The team is the family
- What’s your kink?
- Learn to take a good beating
- Success by 1,000 paper cuts
(Jake passes around a pumpkin full of chocolate to the audience; proof he cares about us.)
At LEGO, it was surprising how many people didn’t build with the bricks; ever. People building the strategy of the company need to be using the products they’re promoting. “At Apple, people use Macs. At GM, they drive GM cars.”
An audience member says he is a member of the media and is shocked how many of his colleagues do not read the paper or even look at the Web site — these are people writing for the paper or trying to sell advertising and are not even paying attention to the product.
Jake said the rabid audience is comprised of people who WANT to have a connection with you. The walls between inside and outside companies are starting to dissipate.
It’s a matter of credibility. Jake advised LEGO leadership to build before they attended fan events. Why? Because the fans’ first question would be, what have you built lately? The answer cannot be nothing.
Treat customers as well as you treat your own family.
People inside the company learned about an adult who spends $20,000 on LEGO bricks. Who is this person? “My best customer,” came the answer from the audience. Jake talked about how it was difficult to get internal people past thinking “what’s wrong with this guy who’s spending that much on LEGOs?”
A big part of working with audiences is getting people inside the company as excited about the product as people outside the company.
About learning to take a beating? Jake said he had to learn to take criticism from customers with a smile on his face. He said the first reaction should be to say, “Tell me what’s going on.” Talk about the issues and problems with customers. Don’t be afraid to find out what they want; why they’re complaining. Don’t just walk away without listening.
Admit when your product is bad; find out how to make it better.
If a customer is telling you they hate your product, they’re demonstrating their interest by taking the time to contact you in the first place. Respect that.
Success by 1,000 papercuts — putting many small pieces in place can be ultimately more successful than a huge effort.
“Everybody goes home happy” — another mantra, perhaps Jake’s most frequent. Provide good product, create good relationships with customers, listen and everybody goes home happy.
Question from the audience: How accessible did you make yourself at LEGO?
“I gave out my e-mail address to anyone who wanted it. As better relationships built up, I gave out my IM address. The relationships became so strong, the group started doing my blog monitoring for me, paying attention to LEGO and letting me know via IM or e-mail before I could even look. I had a whole army letting me know what was going on.”
Give the audience the understanding that you’re not just there to sell to them.
What kind of bad things happened?
In 2003, the LEGO testing department decided they were going to change some of the colors. One of the characteristics of LEGOs is that the bricks from 1960 should fit and look the same as bricks from 2060. Adult enthusiasts were not notified and were very upset. They demanded to know why they had not been consulted. The company just didn’t understand or realize how important a color change would be to their best customers.
Tag: BlogOrlando
