Marketing Consulting Blog

Yesterday, I noticed a television ad for a local Tex-Mex chain named Tumbleweed that is based here in Louisville promoting a website (Tell Terry What You Think) to tell their CEO (Terry Smith) what you think. A couple of months ago, I had a rotten experience in one of their restaurants simply trying to place a carry out order when I dropped in on my way home one night, and I wanted to tell someone higher up within their company in hopes they'd do something about it. I decided to tell the CEO about my experience via his new website. I figured if the guy was willing to shell out the money to generate a television ad, he must be serious about fixing the company's many problems.

Tumbleweed's Main Problems: Tumbleweed used to be a thriving chain that packed customers in every day. There have been several upper level management changes over the years, and the chain has struggled mightily due to Authentic Mexican restaurants sprouting up all around in addition to the fast casual Mexican segment including Q-Doba, Moe's, LaBamba, etc. I used to LOVE Tumbleweed, but their customer service has been consistently poor, and their chips (always stale tasting) and salsa pale in comparison to their top competitors. Their burritos are good, but that's not enough anymore. Anyone can make a pretty good burrito--it's a lot like pizza. Even when it's bad, it's still good enough.

Back to the story: my e-mail outlined my experience in pretty good detail and even offered to help by consulting with the company since that's what I do. I tried to offer solutions to the problems, but it's apparent that all the money spent advertising the website is in hopes that the complimentary e-mails come flooding in because the complaints will be dealt with much like this:
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Roger,

Thank you for making use of my new website and for providing comments on your experience at our Springhurst Tumbleweed. I will pass your comments on to our team in Springhurst and know that they will be disappointed to hear of your experience. It does sound as if one of our team members "dropped the ball" during your carry out order and for that I am deeply sorry and apologize for the inconvenience that it caused you.

If you were to visit one of our restaurants today you would find a guest comment card asking that you request a manager's presence at the first sign of a difficulty in one of our restaurants. We have a new management team in Springhurst and the performance at this restaurant has been well above average over the past few months.

Again, I appreciate your comments and hope you have an opportunity to try Tumbleweed again and tell me what you think.

Terry
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First off, how does his recommended solution of trying Tumbleweed again (on my dime I might add) benefit me in any way? Obviously, in spite of his website and TV ad designed to welcome feedback, the guy doesn't get it! I have little desire to go back, and that's why I e-mailed him in the first place about my unpleasant experience and to offer consulting help. The place needs someone that understands placing the customer first, and this guy is out to lunch if that's really his genuine recommendation and not some detached assistant's. I sincerely hope a CEO doesn't think that's a viable solution to a customer service problem!

I don't like Tumbleweed enough to tolerate rotten service and a brush off from their CEO that basically says to me "get over it" and "visit again because we have new management." Who gives a damn that you have new management? How does that help me with my daily decision making when it comes to choosing a place to eat? I don't choose eateries based on their management team! There are far too many quality competitors out there to lower my expectations to help some self serving organization that doesn't give a rat's ass whether I tell you about my bad experience or not.

Guess what? I'm now telling anyone who will listen in the most public of forums because they neither listened nor cared enough to pay attention. I honestly could care less if they take me up on my consulting offer--I have plenty to do without having to educate this chain that customers pay the bills, and poor customer service is a sign of poor training, poor management, and/or poor hiring practices. In Tumbleweed's case, I vote for all of the above. Add to that: lack of committed leadership.

Lesson to be learned: if you're going to give people a forum to tell you what they think, be prepared for people to take you up on it by telling you exactly what they think--good and bad. If someone complains, take the time to listen and try to provide a legitimate solution as quickly as possible. Don't waste people's time with some canned response that shows you don't really read the complaints. If you only want compliments and positive referrals, it’s best to selectively target only those folks which will tell you what you want to hear. Those that tell you what you need to hear are obviously of little value to you anyway so why bother opening up the lines of communication to everyone?

Tumbleweed, you let me down. I honestly thought you might be trying to recapture some of your past glory by welcoming feedback of all sorts this time and actually doing something about the poor customer service that has marred your chain for years now. Oh well, have fun filing for bankruptcy within the next 3-5 years. It was good knowing you!

I just received another e-mail from Terry (or is it one of his assistants?)

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Roger,

Here's what's in it for you; a juicy USDA choice ribeye steak aged 21 days and grilled over a superhot mesquite wood fire until it's juicy flavor is just right for he your palate. Get this with two great sides and you have one of the best meals for the money found anywhere in Louisville.

If that's not reason enough to visit Tumbleweed you'll just have to guess at what you are missing.

Terry
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WTF?!? If he actually is the one reading and responding to the e-mails, he's more out to lunch than one could ever imagine. This is getting downright comical!

I generally try to stay away from soap opera garbage, but this one is simply too good to pass up. First, let me say I consider myself a Trump fan as I admire what he's done in the business world. In contrast, I have never seen what Rosie O'Donnell brings to the table. She's always come across to me as an obese loudmouth with very little talent and ability. I have yet to figure out why or how she ever got on television in the first place, but it must have been a case of right place right time somehow. Whoever signed off on propping her up on television should be ashamed!

In things such as this, I'd normally try to see both sides, but I'm so happy someone finally blasted Rosie in a public forum that it is hard for me to look past my own giddiness to evaluate whether Rosie even has a point or not. In the Miss America case, I'm going to side with our Kentucky girl (Tara Conner) because what is the real harm in living it up a bit in the Big Apple? Everyone makes it sound like she committed murder by drinking before she turned 21, but 75% of us have done that so what's the big deal? I know, I know--she's supposed to be a role model for young aspiring beauty queens, and she has "duties" to perform. In my mind, she made a mistake that far too many of us have made, and it's not the end of the world nor should it be the end of her crowned career.

People like Rosie never have been viewed as attractive by the mainstream, and she's always battled the bulge so she's likely speaking from a position of extreme jealousy when it comes to Tara Conner. Same with her out lash at Trump--he gets to interact with these young beautiful women and befriend them in many cases whereas Rosie is more like a drunken sailor washed ashore. My only hope is that Rosie does disappear from television for good, and we no longer have to endure her loud and obnoxious antics again. Not that I watch The View now, but I certainly wouldn't with her on it. Her television show was a turd so how could she possibly add anything to The View? Anyway, I hope The Donald keeps blasting her again and again until she disappears from television's sight.

Advantage: Trump by a landslide.

I'm happy to report I'm more or less finished with the Christmas shopping chores for 2006, but I'm rather disappointed in myself again. This was to be THE year I got all of that stuff done in September or October instead of waiting until December to knock it all out. This is probably the 10th year in a row I've told myself that, but it hasn't happened yet. Thank goodness for Amazon.com and E-bay as they saved me a lot of headache by enabling me to avoid the messes that are the shopping malls and popular outlets.

I am not a fan of crowds unless it's a sporting event or concert. Crowds attract masses of idiots who can't make the simplest of decisions, and they seem to draw in that mom with three or four kids she can't control yet she yells at the kids while attempting to shop as if the other people in the store can't hear her or will have sympathy for her. I'm sorry, but I have zero tolerance for that nonsense! If you can't control your kids, you don't need to take them out in public to embarrass you because that's what they're going to do. They know when they have mom in a pickle, and they'll exploit that with little to no hesitation. It's punishment for being an overzealous and overprotective parent. Full Disclosure: I'm in no position to give parenting advice since I don't have kids for which I'm responsible, but I seem to see a lot of kids these days that have parents who have forgotten what it's like to be a kid so they try to control their kids in an attempt to "protect" them. It's not going to work--kids will be kids. Anyway, I digress.

The point of this was to be how time got away and how the lesson to be learned is not to procrastinate, but I'm obviously in no position to give Christmas preparation advice to anyone since I always tell myself that "this is the year." Next year will now have to be that year. Oh yeah, another pointed takeaway is don't take your kids with you to shop thinking it'll be cute when they misbehave and force you to make a scene. You know exactly who you are so don't play coy like your kids are somehow different.

I'm done rambling about pretty much nothing. Another season is almost in the books so the focus can return to helping clients achieve greatness. Are you ready to propel your firm to greatness in 2007?

I hope you have a great holiday, and please share your perspectives with us.

Once again, I'm overly frustrated with UofL's basketball program. We lost to UMass at home last night which makes our record 1-2 versus Atlantic 10 schools this year. Before I get into this, UMass has a nice squad, but they shouldn't be marching into Freedom Hall and taking home a victory. This comes on the heels of a rather poor showing over the weekend where the Cards played three mediocre teams in three days (all at home) and struggled with each one of them.

Usually, I try not to call people out, but it's time to address the issue head on. Rick Pitino has lost his fire to coach I'm afraid. He made a ton of money with the Celtics, he's getting $2 million plus per year here, and it's deadened the value of a lucrative salary as motivation. He's made it already! He's not hungry like he was at UK or Providence. Yes, he took Louisville to the Final Four two seasons ago, but last year's team and this year's collection of athletes look absolutely lost, they don't defend well like "typical" Pitino teams, there is no improvement noticeable, and the player rotations leave the majority of fans scratching their heads.

This is a prime example of someone's salary being too high which shows in the final product. Would your company allow its leader to get away with this? If so, what about that particular person allows them to get away with such? If they own the company, that might explain part of it, but they would eventually be forced to sell or retire if their objective was to keep the company afloat.

If a major corporation repeatedly missed its numbers, and the CEO gave flimsy excuses every time as to why, that CEO would be replaced. That's all I'm asking in this situation--hit your numbers (Rick) and honestly tell the public what is going on. Enough with the excuses and mind games--we're not falling for it anymore. The product you're producing is very below average, and it's not delivering the value your customers paid for and you promised.

Many have criticized me for taking such a hard stance on this topic so early on in the season, but I took a similar stance during Denny Crum's last season--it's either the coach gets replaced or my season tickets will not be renewed. It's come to this unfortunately. I was very excited when they hired Pitino, and I was thrilled with the Final Four run, but I refuse to waste my time watching a piss poor product that costs a lot of money for two straight seasons. The value equation is all out of whack, and that falls back on the CEO (head coach). It's his "corporation" to run. He's CEO of the basketball team, and he's paid very handsomely to be that. He’s no different from Bob Nardelli at Home Depot or Terry Semel at Yahoo! They need to go too.

If you have a better solution to this dilemma, please share it.

If you've visited this blog before, you probably saw my post on the seminar Seth Godin gave here last week in Louisville. If you haven't, please check it out as it will make this post more sensible to you. In short, Seth made a statement that we're mostly a society receiving "average goods for average people" and most things are "already good enough."

After watching UofL's basketball team play three games in three days this weekend, I realized I'm (thankfully) not part of the majority. Average doesn't sit well with me in the least. I demand excellence from myself and the products I use or support. That may make me radically different, which I'm happy with, but why does the majority accept mediocrity? Where does fitting in with the average Jane or Joe really get you? Since I rarely half-ass anything, the mentality to accept mediocre status in anything irritates me. Either do something or don't--there is no in between!

The basketball product I witnessed this weekend is very mediocre at best, and this will be the second year in a row that the product on the floor is not up to par for my tastes. Does that mean I'm no longer a fan? No, but it means that I probably won't vote with my wallet next year and renew my season tickets. That's the price of mediocre--you lose interest from people like me if you try to fool me more than once. I feel as if Rick Pitino is trying to fool me with this team by telling the media that this team will be very good by year's end. Unless he has some sort of magic trick he's going to implement in the next few days, it ain't happening with this bunch.

UofL has now lost to Dayton (a mid-pack Atlantic 10 School), only beat Ohio by 3 (a mid-pack MAC school), and struggled with Division II Bellarmine yesterday. Yes, I said DIVISION II!!! I'm sorry, but the Big East Conference is anything but "mid-pack" or average so something has to give based on the results thus far. Yes, things can change with a few weeks of hard practices, but I fear that isn't going to help because this team just doesn't seem to get it. They allow lesser talented teams to hang around. They take highly contested and un-make-able shots and miss easy wide open shots very badly. Guys who shouldn't be shooting from the perimeter (T-Will!) shoot far too many jumpers, and guys who should dominate inside (Juan Palacios--a.k.a. Pele-acios) are completely soft and get their stuff pitched by smaller opponents.

In the years Pitino has been coach here, his teams rarely stop dribble penetration on fast breaks especially in the middle of the lane, and they frequently run away from shooters. That's a sure fire way to keep a lesser team in a game, and it's no way to discourage easy shots. When he was at UK, he had a boat load of talent to mask his shortcomings as a coach, but he doesn't have that talent here (yet) so his weaknesses as a coach are readily exposed. He's simply not a good bench coach--all anyone would have to do is watch his teams following a timeout to see what kind of play they run. It's, more often than not, a guy going one-on-one and taking a highly contested shot. That's coaching 101--your team should get a great look following a timeout, and UofL rarely does. It was the same at UK, but the talent level was much higher so the players had greater ability to overcome the lack of a set play on their own. On the flip side, he is a great motivator so his teams will stick around in games they have no business sticking around in so it gives off the impression to the "average fan" that his coaching abilities are responsible for that.

I'm here to tell you, Denny Crum would run circles around Pitino when it comes to play calling. Denny just couldn't recruit the modern day athlete toward the end of his tenure, but he could call plays like nobody's business. Same goes for UofL's football coach--Bobby Petrino--he's a master play caller (and great recruiter to boot), and that's why his teams have great success. As frustrated as I am with the basketball program, I'm elated with the football program and Coach Petrino. He does things "my way" which means the football program is on par with my goals and objectives in life, but the basketball team has some work to do to win me and my money back. I'll still attend the games this year and watch in hopes that I'm proven wrong, but I'm not holding my breath with this year's, average to date, basketball team. If things don't change, my wallet will vote for an alternative product next year. I'll always be a UofL fan, but season tickets are becoming far too expensive to cast any wallet share on a sub-par product any more.

Bottom line: don't settle for average--do something great for a change. The world needs more "great." Or as Seth says, "be remarkable." I couldn't agree more.

WARNING: RANT AHEAD

Tonight I went to Panera Bread to grab a bite to eat and catch up on some magazine articles I've been meaning to read to feed my brain with some writing ideas for the next wave of article submissions to various media outlets. I do this every once in awhile to get away from the "usual" distractions around the house/office. For some reason it works for me even though there is a lot going on (especially noise wise) in places like that. It forces me to concentrate, and I frankly don't give a rat's what people think if they see me sitting there by myself reading, writing, or looking off into space trying to create the next article worthy of printing in some magazine or business journal. I'm not there for them and vice versa. Many years ago my insecurities wouldn't have allowed me to go anywhere alone, but those days are long gone thankfully.

Taking the "show on the road" really gets my creative juices flowing. I notice things I normally wouldn't, and I sometimes get on a roll with business ideas and concepts. Don't ask me why because I honestly don't know. It was during one of those creative moments this evening I noticed some knob playing his cell phone messages over his speaker so everyone could hear although he was alone at his table so it wasn't like he wanted anyone else in particular to hear the dumb thing. Granted, the place is pretty noisy to begin with, but it's random noise that isn't aimed at any one person or thing. That's the nature of a restaurant with people in it, and general noise doesn't tend to bother me when I'm deep in thought.

What possessed this person to play his messages over his cell phone speaker really got me wondering 'what makes you feel you are so important that everyone should hear your messages?' or 'are you THAT damn lazy that you can't put the phone up to your ear to listen to the messages like a normal person?' Or better yet, 'why can't the messages wait until you leave the place?' I would think most people would have more common courtesy in them than that, but I guess I'm all wet to believe that. The self-indulgence of some people really frosts my ass sometimes. Ok, truth is I wasn't that worked up about it, but it did make me stop and think for a moment about how pompous this person must be to do something like that. Nobody is that important, and the rest of the world couldn't care less about some stupid voicemail. He thought we all wanted to hear the messages for some reason, but I honestly couldn't tell you what the messages were about or who they were from. I don't make a habit of eavesdropping even when someone is trying like hell to get everyone to do so. I just don't care about the mundane things that go on in strangers' lives. Besides, who needs some self-consumed knob in their life anyway?

Am I wrong to feel this way? Does this make me abnormal in any way? Please tell me other people find this irksome, too.

I'm sitting here watching the news this evening and a story about America's favorite murderer appears talking about how News Corp (a.k.a. Fox) has pulled the plug on the book and the pending interview to promote the book like we’re somehow being deprived of quality “content.” Thank God someone came to their senses before a major public faux pas!

I keep wondering every time I see this joker masquerading around on television like everything is great and he's a just a swell guy, "what WON'T this guy do for money and publicity?" It never fails—every six months or so the "Juice" makes the news for something that really isn't noteworthy, but the media can't get enough of this cat. Maybe the public can't get enough of him so that's why the media pours over every bit of "news" about this guy like he's contributed something to society worth a damn. I'm confused as to why anyone would care though. The guy whacked two innocent people in a jealous rage, got away with it and tries to play it off like he really didn't do it. I'm sorry, DNA evidence is a pretty strong indictment of guilt in my book. Newsflash—he did it! I don't care if the stupid glove didn't fit--he's still guilty!!!

Can we just get over this guy already and quit promoting his self righteousness at every turn? He obviously needs money although he finds plenty of time to hit the links which I know can't be cheap. I suppose he’s still hunting for the “real killers” on the golf courses throughout the country as that’s where most hardened criminals hangout right? Where is he getting his money anyway? Shouldn't every penny he has go to the Goldmans and Browns?

While OJ remains a large mystery to me in terms of his popularity, he’s not fooling anyone with half a brain—he’s a guilty man who got an innocent sentence. That internal guilt has to eat at one’s soul like nothing else. However it ultimately ends, I’m ready for our television and news airwaves to be freed of this low-life fraud once and for all.

Before I get into my little rant, I have to disclose that I'm a total Type A personality all the way so this may strike you as a bit of hypocrisy if you know me at all. I at least admitted to it so now I can get into my thoughts for the day.

The other day I was riding my bike alone on a nice country road that isn't traveled a lot, but it does get some traffic during "normal" commuting hours. I ride this particular route quite a bit because it's peaceful, near my house, and it's reasonably challenging. Generally when I ride solo, I'm off in my own little world not harming a soul, but I guess I must have offended a couple of dump trucks because two took a swipe at me even though there was no traffic coming in the other direction. Luckily I wasn't going very fast since I was climbing a fairly decent hill, and it was good that I maintained my "line" on the right of the road, or you might not be reading any of my thoughts.

Since I obviously made it through the ride unscathed, I began thinking about how we all seem to have become obsessed with being in a hurry. I'm guilty of it as much as the next person when I'm driving and riding the bike, but I guess I had one of those enlightening moments after the dump truck incidents.

What are we in such a hurry to get to? Would five seconds really kill someone to have to wait to pass someone exercising outdoors? Is it too much to ask that a big heavy dump truck give a cyclist a little room when there is zero traffic coming in the opposite direction? Does swerving at the cyclist accomplish anything? Is it worth all of that just to keep your hurry on? Judging by the two incidents the other day, I guess the "hurry" is more important than anything else at that particular moment.

The "microwave society" touches each of us every single day whether we realize it or not, but it’s getting a little stale to me. Don’t ask me why it suddenly hit me during the ride, but it made me take a little stock of my life and some of the ways I go about doing some things. Maybe the vision of the dump trucks wiping me off the earth drove home the message, but I think I got it—it’s not cool to always be in such a hurry that you could cause harm to others. That’s flat out unhealthy and dangerous so I’m going to be working on myself from here on to dial it back a notch and not be in such a hurry all the time. Look at it this way: if something negative happened to someone else as a result of my hurry, the consequences are likely to stop the hurry altogether for a long period of time.

That's a different perspective isn't it?

By Roger Bauer

It struck me the other day during lunch at a local Moe’s Southwestern Grill that a new phenomenon has swept the restaurant landscape in the form of poor attempts to differentiate from the competition—renaming accepted terms of business with cutesy nicknames. This is readily visible in the faster food sector, and it’s becoming more prevalent as companies struggle to connect with the consumer in manners which create loyalty and/or preference.

Take Moe’s as a primary example. Personally, I believe they have a very good product to offer, but they’ve gone and out “cuted” themselves with ridiculously silly nicknames for their fare which only serve to confuse and frustrate the customer. It’s easy to see them thinking behind the scenes, but it’s a risky attempt at product differentiation. They’re in fierce competition with franchises such as Qdoba, Baja Fresh, Chipotle, LaBamba, Taco Bell, and Tijuana Flats, (plus many others) but those competitors don’t require a translator to order a simple burrito or taco. Try popping into one of those places one day or night to order a “Joey” or an “Alfredo Garcia.” You’ll get looked at like you have three heads (with good reason).

What would possess a franchise to resort to childish nicknames to try to differentiate themselves? It’s probably an executive’s poor excuse of a marketing concept designed to separate from the competition, but that’s not the type of separation that enables your concept to survive long term. It will ultimately separate them all right—the competition will eventually gain as the initial shtick gives way to annoyance and turns consumers off to the point they prefer the competition even with all other factors being relatively equal.

Sure, things look great for Moe’s presently, and the concept seems “fresh” today, but that can change on a dime without warning. Their current growth could be sapped with one false step because there is less room to wiggle when you’re attempting to retrain your customer base to conform to your concept. What happens if the consumer collectively says “I’m no longer in the mood for Moe?” Would being “cute” be overruled by a desire to becoming truly different (i.e. better)?

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of positives. Their restaurants are well laid out, the décor is modern, the lighting is appropriate, and the food is tasty not to mention reasonably priced. The physical atmosphere is hip and inviting. There are glaring negatives, too. The staff collectively insisting on yelling “Welcome to Moe’s!” at the top of their lungs as a new customer enters doesn’t make me want to setup shop for very long. I can’t wait to get out so I don’t have to hear that any more than I have to. I’d like a little peace and normalcy with my meal Moe, thanks.

Topping off the frustrating concept Moe’s obviously insists upon cramming down the consumer’s throat is the staff correcting the customer when ordering by the desired ingredients instead of its nickname. You’re not training me Moe, you’re supposed to be providing a quality and quick meal which I am going to ring your register for—don’t correct me, simply make the food, take the money, and let me eat in peace!

Moe’s is not alone in this feeble attempt at differentiation, and they won’t be the last, but the lesson to be learned is to keep customer service just that—customer service. The customer is paying so don’t believe you’re going to train the customer as long as the equation is structured that way. If you begin to pay people to come into your franchise or business, you’re well within your rights to try to train them to do business your way. Stick to doing business as the industry dictates until you develop a better way of doing things. Then, and only then, you will have a true differentiator. Simply renaming a common item or process doesn’t make you different—it makes you contrarian. Don’t confuse the two.

Roger Bauer is Founder and CEO of SMB Consulting, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky based small business consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, web presence, internet marketing, SEO, technology, and business analysis. To learn more, point your browser to Business Consulting. To contact a small business consultant today, e-mail info@smbconsultinginc.com.