Does Your Customer Care?

An Applebee’s ad in a local newspaper was an excellent example of mistakes made buying advertising.  The ad  was three column inches wide and three inches high.  Across the top in capital letters was a headline, “Menomonie Applebee’s Gets a Full Makeover.”  Three small pictures were stacked one above the other along the outside of the ad.  The inside of the ad contained two and a half columns of information in very, very small type.  I guessed the size to be two point.  In contrast, you are likely reading this Insight in eleven or twelve point type.

I readily admit that I am an unusual consumer of advertising.  That’s why I took the time to read the teeny-weeny type of the ad. 

The first and second paragraphs stated the Applebee’s location closed for three days to undergo a complete transformation.  New light fixtures, carpet, booths, chairs, and wall decorations were installed inside while new signage and window awnings were changed outside.  The general manager was quoted that this was done for a “Wow effect”. 

The third paragraph detailed the changes in the bar area with a sleek bar, more TVs, and booth seating.  Murals of the area and local sports teams were added, too.  This paragraph also ended with a quote from the general manager who stated all this was done to “show the community that Applebee’s is still your neighborhood grill and bar.”

The final paragraph said to “stop in and see the new look” followed by the restaurant’s hours.

What mistakes were made in this ad?

While I was very glad to see an actual headline, putting that headline in all capitals was not smart.  All capitals are hard to read.  Upper and lower case is easy to read and much more inviting to the reader.

Using two point type was a size that customers will not read.  They might glance at the headline, but they would not read the two-point-type wording.  As I read the small type, I wondered if this was a press release that Applebee’s could not get printed in the main section of the paper.  In frustration, the store manager squeezed the release into an ad.

As to the content of the ad, I don’t think customers care.  Yes, the business spent a great deal of money upgrading and changing the décor, and, yes, restaurants need to do that at particular intervals.  Yes, management gets bored with the same old décor and is proud of the change.  However, what’s in it for the customer that the décor has changed?

The principal reason customers go to a restaurant is the food.  A nice décor is a plus, but, if the food is not good, a nice décor will not bring in customers.  Applebee’s would have been much wiser to have promoted the food first and the décor second. 

Whenever you tell customers of a change which is not the main reason customers frequent your business, promote “What’s in it for your customer” first.  Look at the change from your customer’s point of view, not yours.  Reinforce their reason for doing business with you.  That is the best way to generate the most revenue from the change. 

This week's marketing trivia challenge is How have you seen a change promoted? E-mail me your answer.

Web Site Frustration

Yesterday I urgently needed to buy software and found a list of a dozen Web sites which offered it. Thinking that I could easily find what I wanted from the first few sites, I began opening them. The first one had a bunch of text offering articles and advice on the home page. After a couple of clicks, I could not find where to buy the software or if the site even had it for sale. I moved on to the second site. Again, the home page had a great deal of text and no easy way to find the software which they supposedly were selling. With agitation building, I moved on to the third site. I found the same situation.

“What are these businesses doing?” I said aloud. “Don’t they want to sell this software?”

Needing the software badly, I plowed through sites four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, all with the same results. Finally, number eleven, the next-to-the-last one, clearly displayed the software on the home page. To end my frustration and move forward, I bought the software from that site without checking out site number twelve.

This is my biggest complaint about Web sites. As a customer, I have difficulty finding what I want. I quickly become frustrated, give up, and move on. As a marketer, I have thought this through and realize why this happens. Do you know?

Web sites that frustrate customers were not created from the customer’s point of view.

Instead of sitting down, talking to customers, asking what they want, and giving it to them, some person or persons at the business and/or the Web site development company met and decided what to put on the Web site. They started with a blank sheet of paper as to what to include. That was followed by blank minds and then blank stares. “What should we include on our Web site?” someone questioned.

“I have no idea,” replied someone else. “What do you suggest, Tom? You are the Web site guy.”

Tom swiftly brought up a Web site for a similar business on his laptop. “Well, for businesses such as yours we typically do this.”

You may find this difficult to swallow, but a conversation similar to this one takes place at the inception of most Web sites. It must. The fact that I found ten Web sites which had a similar format and did not make it easy to find the software proves my point.

Instead of finding out why the customer would use the site and what the customer wants to find at the site, a committee applies what the members think should go on the site. However pretty or cool the site, their efforts are for naught if the site doesn’t work for the customer.

I read that a Web site’s home page ought to feature the three main reasons someone would visit the site. Each of these should be short and linked to a landing page regarding that subject. The landing page would give additional information on the subject with links to more pages as applicable. If this concept were applied to the sites that I visited looking for that software, each would have had on the home page a link to the software landing page. This link would have been easy to see, not hidden in a bunch of text. That would have developed the Web site from the customer’s point of view. A site such as that would be very effective.

Take a look at your company’s Web site. Are the three main reasons that a customer goes to your site easy to find on the home page? Do you know these three main reasons?

If not, ask your customers.