As we near the end of summer here in the States, and many are in the middle of what is a heavy traveling season. Whether its for a vacation with the family, a conference or workshop, or just business as usual. Many of you have caught a plane or two or more in over the past few months, and probably have more travel plans in the future.

For most people this is something that they dread. We’re all too familiar with the frustrations of flying: expensive tickets, delays, long lines, grouchy employees, lost luggage, wall-to-wall people in the terminals, more delays.

Sadly, the airline industry has become a necessary evil for most of us.

Back in March, Al St. Germain, Global Director for Airline Practice at Landor Associates, wrote an article titled Said and done: Stories from on board the airplane. He highlighted many of the overwhelming problems that the industry is facing, as well indicating how important an asset customer service is in the mix.

I clipped out his tips on developing great customer service because of how hand and hand customer service is to the concept of Human Talk. Who better to give a company a human voice than the people on the frontlines interacting with customers on a daily basis?

Germain writes:

What makes great customer service?

Consistency

The bigger you get, the harder it is to achieve, but nothing makes a customer happier than knowing what to expect every time they step on board. Every time a customer buys a ticket, it’s a promise from your brand. No one likes a broken promise.

Empathy

The airline industry is a classic example of employees rarely experiencing what its customers do (pass-riding does not count!). It takes significant effort to ensure that folks truly understand what a customer may be going through. And in the often high-stress world of travel, a little empathy goes a long way.

Support

Wonderful customer experiences are the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes. As a frontline employee, it’s much easier to create better interactions when your product works, the process is designed to make sense, and most of all, when your efforts are recognized by your leadership.

Style

While not everyone can (or should) be hip and cool, everyone needs to stand for something. What is the uniquely memorable aspect of your experience? Being “friendly” is great, but I guarantee every other airline has “friendly” in its service standards. What will your customers talk about when they get to their destination?

As you will notice, one thing that didn’t make it to Germain’s list is the need to explain break down the airlines cost structure to the passengers. I wonder what airlines are thinking when they decide to clutter procedures with extra fees for passengers to agree to, and the rabid slash and burn of any extra service that used to be included in the ticket price.

We all know that the price of gas is rising. Therefore, anyone with half a brain would realize that airline ticket prices will also rise. No reason to inconvenience and annoy passengers even more with added steps and decisions to make. All it does is add stress to what is already a stressful situation.

One airliner that seems to get it is Virgin Airlines. They realize that a little humorful Human Talk can go a long way.

Photo Credit: Flickr 

Photo Credit: Flickr

Photo Credit: Flickr 

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This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due.

Meet Ravi.

No matter what language you speak, there is a good chance that he can speak it (at least well enough to sell you a peacock fan).

Rohit Bhargava from the Influential Marketing Blog, points to these amazing videos. As he explains, the lesson here is

“…sometimes it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, just that you speak the right language.”

I’d also like to mention Rohit’s recently released book, Personality Not Included, which falls right inline with the Human Talk thinking, addressing the topic of building brands with personality. It’s worth checking out.

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This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due.

Seth shows us how we’re sucking all the juice out. I’m attracted to this idea, not only for the obvious citrus connections, but because it matches up perfectly with the underlying concepts behind the Human Talk series.

Almost everything you do has some sort of copyediting filter. It might be the legal eagle or the graphic supervisor or the customer service police. They’re excellent at making round things fit perfectly through round holes.

Boring and ignored is fine with them, because no one complains.

Consumers are changing the way they want to interact with their brands. They want brands with personality, not some boring, watered down, run and hide when the party starts brand.

Don’t squeeze out all the juice. We want brands with flavor.

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This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due.

Bill Gammell of ÜberEye Marketing snapped this photo on his cell phone because it reminded of the sign from Human Talk: Hand Tossed.

It works because it is an accurate reflection of the Chili’s fun personality and talks in their voice. You can hear the same guy that sings the baby back ribs jingle saying this.

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This post is part of the Human Talk series.

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due.

One of the biggest hangups I see with marketers working in the online space, is thinking that they must have newest and hottest technologies in order to meet their online goals with their website. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with web technology trends themselves. In fact, with as fast as the online industry changes, the ability to spot trends in the space is priceless.

The problem arises when this thinking leads to a web strategy that spends most of its time chasing the coolest trends on the web. This leaves the company persona to the mercy of technology, instead of bringing that personality to the web and bringing it to life with technology.

A better strategy would be to look for ways to make the online experience less of an interaction with technology and making more of an experience with the human qualities of the brand.

Amazon does an amazing job of this by personalizing my experience, and talking to me like a human being. They could have just as easily said, “You are logged in” instead of greeting me with a hello.

The Redbox is not only my favorite place to rent a movie. I’m in love with their website and computer kiosk screens because of how much thought has been put into every message. They have taken every opportunity (even if they are just confirming that the rental process is complete) and use it to give the company a voice and personality.

Human talk goes further than just making sure your website copy is written with a human voice. Talking like a human also means understanding what your visitors are looking for and organizing them in logical way, making the whole website easy to navigate.

Take the American Airlines website for example. Why are there so many choices under the “travel information” section?

JetBlue does a much better job, by taking the time to understand what their visitors want, simplifying the whole process, and then making it easy to navigate to.

Lets not forget about 404 pages, and the lack of attention these neglected pages receive. It’s page that usually says something like, “Page Not Found”, and it often looks nothing like the rest of the website. 

This is a place you hope visitors don’t show up at, but should take the time to make sure that even this page shares the same voice as the rest of the website.

Smashing Magazine compiled a list of 404 pages with personality. Technorati has one of my favorite 404 pages, because even as it is informing you that the page you are searching for can’t be found, it is subtly telling you that Technorati is a powerhouse when it comes to blog tracking.

Here’s the Fresh Peel custom 404 page.

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What other ways can a website create an experience with the human qualities of the brand?

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This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due.

This week’s topic for Human Talk is “No Food or Drink” signs. (If you didn’t catch the bold graphic above.)

I was in the mall a few days ago wasting some time before seeing a movie, and I started to notice these signs posted on the outsides of some of the stores. Then I came to a store that had a big sign that said “Grand Opening” in huge letters and posted next to it was a “No Food or Drink” sign. It was your typical mall store for teenage girls that sells clothes and jewelry. It’s not like they were selling something Italian leather jackets and mink coats. So why were they making such a fuss?

This got me thinking, about the purpose of a “No Food or Drink” sign. It is put up in an effort to reduce the risk of a customer dirtying up the store and ruining a product by accidentally spilling their drink or getting Auntie Anne’s pretzel cheese on it. Damaged goods and dirty stores would obviously be bad for business.

Here’s the but… 

This is where I think you have to look beyond what you see on paper. What about the percentage of potential buyers that don’t enter at all just because they have a soft drink from the food court in hand? For every 1 slobby customer that puts their frappuccino fingers all over the merchandise, 20 customers may walk on by and never come back just because they don’t want to pitch the $5.00 drink they just bought in the trash.

It’s a bad idea to build a business and enforce policies around changing the habits of customers that you don’t want.

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What do you think a better strategy would be?

This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due. 

The Brand Chef, Andrew B. Clark sent in his take on the Human Talk series that he jotted down while watching The Terminal. As usual, Andrew looks beyond surface matter to come up with a pure gem of insight.

Victor, the Tom Hanks character, epitomizes the truth in speaking humanly and breathing a fresh breath of reality into a standardized and surreal environment.  His character comes in as a completely square peg, and through empathy, compassion and understanding (as well as some diligent self-education), changes the lives and perspectives of everyone involved.

Through business and personal events, I find that if you listen; if you identify; if you (at least) empathize, then the Human Talk can take its course with natural and unfettered distraction.  But as the Stanly Tucci character finds, if you only follow the rules, the conversation will die from lack of oxygen.

Andrew is spot on when he talks of empathy. If you are truly empathetic to your audience, whether you are writing a blog post, an email, a tag line, or even just a simple notice for your customers, the question of whether or not you sound like a human, doesn’t even need considering.

This is something that’s often much easier to say, than it is to do.

Finding true empathy is a subject that I’ve discussed before on The Fresh Peel. It’s a deep subject, but there lots of ways that you can learn to become more empathetic. Dig in and explore the subject of empathy!

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This post is part of the Human Talk series. 

If you would like to contribute your good or bad Human Talk examples, Email me. I’ll accept photos, stories, videos, audio, etc. and give credit where credit is due. 

What could be a harsh posted warning, instead comes across as a lighthearted, friendly suggestion.

This post is part of the weekly series, Human Talk.