When my wife and I found out we were expecting our first child, I was exhilarated. Then my thoughts naturally went where most men’s go:
There’s no way in hell I’m buying a minivan.
But as the months clicked by, we realized a second vehicle may in fact be necessary for our small family. So with marching orders in hand, I turned to the Web and buried myself in reviews, rankings and all kinds of gearhead forums. I needed to figure out what we should buy.
Then one day I stumbled across a blog post announcing the availability of the new 2011 Ford Fiesta. Embedded in the post was this clip from one of my favorite TV shows:
A Ford. Really?
I’ve always bought imports. Never even considered buying domestic before… Besides, were there even any US car companies left? (I kid!)
But this car felt different. It looked fun. Plus, if my family ever had to make an amphibious landing I knew it could handle it.
I decided to take the next step. I filled out the online form requesting more information. Tentatively, I pressed the submit button. I knew my info would be entering some vast and murky CRM system. I’d likely get spammed, dripped on and all sorts of other unpleasant verbs.
I was now a lead.
But what happened next surprised me.
Three days later a package came in the mail. Inside, a nicely worded letter thanking me for my inquiry and a gift: a 1GB USB key in the shape of Ford Fiesta.
And not much else since. Blissful peace and quiet as I make my decision.
My point with this whole tale (other than an excuse to embed a pretty awesome video) is to get you to think about the experience you offer when a web visitor arrives at your site
Remember, Ford did all of this for a vehicle whose MSRP starts at $13,000.
You’re dealing with someone who’s looking for a home in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What kind of experience are you offering?
When Marc wrote about user experience he said it “…encompasses all aspects of your customers’ interaction with the brand.” A $10 tchotchke and nicely worded letter thanking me for my prospective business is not a huge investment. But Ford made the effort.
And the fact that they didn’t aggressively sell my info to the lowest bidder and then subject me to a barrage of phone calls or emails from hungry salespeople took remarkable restraint.
But the positive sentiment this experience has left on me is immeasurable. Hey, it even got me writing this blog post, right?
Most importantly though it got me thinking about buying a Ford.
Something I’d never even thought of before.
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Hi Joel, Interesting post. I’ve only bought one car in my life – well, that is until today when I signed for a new Infiniti G37x! – and that car was so bare-bones I barely expected a thank you when I drove it off the lot, let alone a freebie and a written thank you in the mail. So it should be interesting to see whether my experience will be different this time around. The price tag on the Infiniti is more than 3x what my current car cost (a Jeep Wrangler SE) but I negotiated my tail off so a thank you when I drive it off the lot next Tuesday may be all I have coming. This week I also bought a diamond necklace shaped exactly like the key in my company logo (yes, I’m doing my part to shore up the sagging economy!) and i’ve got the local jewelers working on a smaller version that I can present to clients (well, nice ones anyway) at closings. I believe this will be a smart investment because, like the bags Apple gives away that folks then use as knapsacks, people tend to notice a beautiful necklace and want to know where the person got it. It can also be made into a broach for a jacket or coat. In sum, I’m hoping the key will be both appreciated by clients while at the same time being good for branding and marketing.
Joel,
I grew up in a town known locally as “Fordville” because it has such a large concentration of Ford’s executive population (I’m guessing more than any other town in the world). So I know a little bit about that company.
And I’ve seen that company make more good changes in the last 18 months than in the previous 20 years – literally – combined.
Thanks for highlighting another while making a great big-picture point. It’s time for more companies to do things like Ford did with you.
Great idea. Great post. Provocative.
Best,
Michael
Reading this post, I swore it was going to be about Toyota’s Swagger Wagon campaign.
Admit it… The mini-van looks cooler than you remember..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4
(I drive a Venza, which is NOT a mini-van.)
I will only buy Ford vehicles because of their keypad door lock feature. After all, where do I put my keys when I go surfing? If you own a Ford, you can leave them safely locked in the car.
How come no other car manufacturers offer this?!
Proactive customer engagement is a top priority in enhancing customer experience. There is always a need to connect with the customer and its those little things that get customers engaged. a distracted customer is more or less a lost customer.
That Fiesta will definitely come in handy during a kid-napper chase in a mall or the next Normandy incursion. Congrats Joel on your impending fatherhood!
Joel, great article, but only a few people got your point. The only experience Realtor’s offer is a horrible one…because they don’t get it. The days of waiting around for buyers to come to you are over…we now have to make them want to come to us, and we’re so bad at it. Just imagine a world where Brokers and agents are creative…naaahhh it’ll never happen.
Justin,
To chime in, no other car offers this because auto manufacturers seek ways to make their products unique from their competitors and pride themselves on developing their own hooks that appeal to their respective customer base.
Such is realty throughout the product business.
My take away here is how much energy real estate entities expend trying to emulate their competitors instead of seeking ways to create difference that matter within the services they provide albeit physical within the transaction or intellectual based on the collection of agents they offer.
A fleet of BMW’s really speak well about the brands they come from as Ford is as well. The differences between their cars, their personalities, their attributes and ultimately their customers is clearly defined.
No so within our industry – something we continue to believe does not have to be the norm.
Marc, you took the words out of my mouth…and you even said it better than I would have. One day I’d love to hear what your perfect site and business model would be. I know what my ideas are, and I’m developing it as we speak for a large media company in my region. I see so many opportunities for improvement that others fail or neglect to see, or don’t want to see. What’s your thoughts?
Brad, you don’t have to wait to someday – here it is.
The perfect site is one built from the core DNA of the company that not only reflect their vision, their values and their intelligence but one that provides it in effortlessly based on their sense of what the user wants and needs.
As for the business model, the perfect model is one that creates profit for all parties – financial for the providers of the services (agents and the broker) and value for the customers. How each individual broker arrives at that… well there are so many paths forward that it sometimes drives me insane watching so many brokerage miss them and instead spin in the turnouts, detours and dead ends.
There are some fundamental business rules that seem to be endlessly ignored in real estate. I don’t buy the fact that the real estate brokerage business is different that most and that’s why. The only reason why there is any truth to that is because so many brokers who don’t know how to run businesses made thing up that don’t work, other followed it and that’s why it’s like it is. There are enough examples of great brokerages earning profit run by smart business people to prove that point.
It’s no different in the world outside real estate. There is a reason Ford is coming back strong while many of its traditional American competitors aren’t. They have access to the same ideas, visions, examples, people, products, innovations and platforms as everyone else. It’s how they decided to use them is what is making all the difference in the world.
As long as brokerages continue to follow the wrong advice, the wrong people and emulate things that don’t work, the more behind they are going to get.
It’s that simple.
Perfect! It really is that simple, but an outdated culture with outdated concepts, make it incredibly hard to penetrate. People who learned the old way and are comfortable staying there. They fear change, more than they fear not changing.