Recently I wanted to contact Starbucks about changes in their membership program. I looked at the back of my membership card and saw the number was 800-starbuc. Clever. Only problem is my BlackBerry doesn't have old fashioned numeric keys that have the ABC, DEF, GHI letters on them. So, I had to use my home phone to figure out the number since the clever people at Starbucks didn't think to also list the actual number on the card.
Ever try to dial one of these vanity numbers from memory on your smart phone? Hard to do.
Here's my point on this. Times are changing. We once all had phones with the letters on the number keys. Now many of us don't. As a marketer you need to stay in touch with the changing marketplace and make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you.
Another example, I was at a board meeting for Junior Achievement today. I'm on a regional board. We were talking about individual giving and how it's a major part of some charitable organizations' annual receipts, but for JA not so much. We're working to change that to some extent. One of the board members pointed out that we need to make it really easy to give and pointed out the Text Haiti campaign, which brought in millions upon millions of dollars in a very short amount of time. Excellent example of making it easy.
Last example taken from my last post on Costco vs Target. Costco only takes Amex, cash and debit cards inside the store, but take MasterCard and Visa online. Why don't they make it as easy as possible for people to buy in the stores? Don't know. Target does.
Look at your business really carefully. Dissect your processes. Is it easy or hard to do business with you. Is it as easy as possible? How can you make it easier. I invite you to share your examples of businesses that make it easy for you to do business with them and others that make it hard.
Wait one more example – restaurants that don't take reservations!
