I got mad so you don’t have to
Wow it has been quiet around here. But there is a good reason.
I have been busy flattening the top of my forehead by slapping it repeatedly on my desk. It was slightly involuntary, but I call this tried and true practice “Launching a website”.
Yes, I know my methods are controversial, but aren’t most genius-like endeavors? Ok, enough, if I keep slapping myself on the back, my arm will fall off.
What I did was not really that spectacular, but it is something close to my heart. It is something important to me. It has to do with customer service and providing your members with a true value.
I think customer service trumps almost all marketing and branding efforts. See, you can prop yourself up as being the biggest and best, but when the chips are on the table, you have better have the deck stacked with solid customer service. Otherwise, you have just wasted a lot of money on marketing.
Second most important is having a product with value beyond its price. As a mentor of mine once told me, “Overpriced garbage may look like a great deal, but it still stinks”. He meant was that there has to be a true value beyond perceived value. You can’t create true value where there is none. Now this is an arguable position (Starbucks, Evian and Overpriced Foreign Cars to note a few) but the sentiment is clear. If you are going to charge a premium, then you had better have a premium product.
This is what brings us to where we are today…
Customer Service vs. Product Value vs. Your Competition
It started almost a year ago with a phone call from a client who asked me to sit in on a conference call with a vendor that was going to provide web development services. I know why credit unions use these services (instead of going through us). It is easy and convenient as they already have some sort of internet-like relationship with the vendor. I don’t take it personally and I try to help as much as I can to facilitate the process in the advantage of my clients.
The problem arises when I think the vendor is gouging. I take it personally when I think my clients are getting ripped off (or at least when I think they are getting ripped off). I am a little “Old School” in that regard.
I think that anyone who trusts me with their business also deserves my loyalty and, when applicable, protection. With this credo in place, it is sometimes hard for me to sit in on a meeting or conference call and listen silently while a client evaluates a service that is supposed to help them, knowing when a vendor is “pulling a fast one”.
So, as it goes, a client (who I will not name) was speaking with a vendor (who I will also not name) and the vendor told the client that they were going to charge the credit union several thousand dollars to copy and paste the content from their existing site to their new CMS credit union website. We are talking about 30 pages of copy and paste with maybe one or two text links on each page. Basically, this was a few hours of work or better described as several hundred dollars worth of work.
We hung up with the vendor and I freaked out. I told the client that there was no way I was going to let this guy get away with that kind of fleecing. I told the client that he should just let the site go up and I would copy and paste the content myself. I was a little beyond upset. The client, not to take this laying down (as in he doesn’t take crap from no one anyway), called the vendor and challenged the charge. The vendor backed down and did not charge them several thousand dollars. All was well in the world.
This little experiment made me say “There has got to be a better way”.
What was really at play here was that credit unions needed a CMS solution for their web sites. They needed an affordable internet marketing solution (that vendor’s package was super expensive already). They needed a selection of attractive designs - have you seen the template options out there (yikes)? Credit unions needed sites that could be launched in weeks (instead of months). They needed a true internet marketing value for their financial investment.
What they got were people with long arms reaching into their pockets.
Ok, so you are pissed and motivated. What did you do about it?
This is the type of experience that causes action. What did I do? Glad you asked. I decided that since there were no solutions that lived up to my expectations, I was in a position to put up or shut up. So I put up.
We launched CUQuickSites.com at MAC 2008 this year. While we launched the concept at MAC, we just turned on the site a few days ago. CUQuickSites hit all the points that I thought were missing from what was currently out there.
Affordable solution – A complete credit union website for less than a month salary for a web designer.- Solid CMS framework – Easy to use and simple to navigate robust in capabilities
- Quality layout designs – Not a “one size fits all” approach. New layout designs added monthly. Customizable for your credit union.
- Quality support – Video tutorials, telephone support, graphic design support
- Quick turnaround – launch in weeks instead of months
- Scalable – Easy to add pages, menu items and stuff like blogs and RSS or video to the layouts.
- Content Support – Access to our CUQuickBlogs content library to help you support your blogging efforts.
- Google and search engine friendly
Now I don’t normally like to advertise on this blog. At least I try to keep it to a minimum as much as I can. I really do try to keep this blog full of content of value and not a back door to our agency. But I think there is something here you can take away from our adventure in launching this internet marketing product.
So, here is the moral of the story.
Approach each relationship with “Service and Value” in mind and nothing will be able to get between you and your member.
When you put too much emphasis on the bottom line (like these vendors I mentioned) and not enough on providing value and service to your member: it is only a matter of time before someone figures out a way to make you obsolete.
Most importantly, make sure that your staff understands this too. Make sure they wear this philosophy on their sleeve. Make sure that they know that they may end up talking to someone who is willing to find a better way to serve your members.
By losing this focus, your staff member may inadvertently supply the fuel to cause action by your competition and not even know it.
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