So it’s day 2 at a fairly swank RV park in Tucson, where I am staying for just a few days. I’m on my way out in the morning to spend the day with some of my favorite people, and one of the seasonal residents flags me down to day hello. At least, that’s how he presented it. Mind you, I’m driving my SUV out the gate and he’s on foot, so he has to really want to talk to me to flag me down like that. I quickly realized he was not just being friendly, he was trying to figure out if I was the right kind of person — it was an interview, not a conversation. Was I old enough to be staying here? (You have to be at least 40). Was my lifestyle compatible with theirs? Where did I really live the rest of the time? After a few questions, he decided to write me off and the interview was abruptly canceled. Fine with me, I wanted to get on with my day anyway. But it does trouble me that even in this peaceful, natural, trouble-free setting, he went looking for it.
I drove past a feedlot yesterday.
It was pretty gross. As I approached, I didn’t know it was there — I thought it was a dust storm on the horizon, so I closed my vents. As I approached, I started to see the cattle. It went on for over a mile. What struck me most was the smell, despite my SUV being on “recirculate”, the smell was powerful. It was not the smell of manure. It smelled like decaying flesh, like death. Acrid, sour, foul, penetrating. It also made me think of the proposed law in FL that would make photographing a feedlot from the road a felony. Agribusiness doesn’t want you to know where your food comes from. My camera wasn’t handy or I’d have taken a shot, since it’s still legal to do so for the time being.
I am driving cross-country!
So you can ignore my old post (way down the page) that says I have stopped updating my blog. I’m about to start again. Really. This time for sure. I just need to stop driving long enough to write things down. Stay tuned…
This could be your future
The operator of a teleconferencing robot from anybots.com uses it to fetch himself a scone, with the help of a cellular wifi hotspot stuck to the robot.
Of course I like the idea of anything that makes telepresence more palatable. I also like the idea of a personal real-world avatar that can fetch me a scone.
How not to show me you care
After the chore of moving all my remaining possessions to a new place comes the chore of changing all my addresses (and getting off of lists). Now it feels like I have more addresses to change than I had possessions to move.
So I began the daunting task yesterday. I found that although it’s 2011 and the corporations and banks I give my business to have had, oh, a few decades to work out all the kinks in online self-service, many have a long way to go. Half of the time, I had to call an 800-number to change my address, which is ridiculous and time-consuming.
Let’s discuss one finance company in particular that I had to call. I had a perfectly nice transaction with with the phone agent. We treated each other like human beings, and the call was mercifully brief. Then today, I get a “caller ID blocked” call and although as a rule I never answer blocked calls, this time I did, figuring it could be related to my move. It was a satisfaction survey, following up on my address change experience. The nice gentleman on the other end of the line had to ask me about 30 questions, most on a 1-7 scale, with a few on a 1-10 scale (why?), and I kept telling him “that question doesn’t apply to me” or “I don’t understand how I can rate someone’s product knowledge on an address change, since that’s not a product”, but he kept plowing ahead anyway.
About halfway through, I realized the conversation had gone from frustratingly strange all the way to relationship-damaging. It would have been better if they’d never called me at all. They had done a perfectly fine job of taking care of my original call, and as a result I liked them as a company. But this satisfaction survey was downright unsatisfying. It had the opposite effect of making me feel like they cared. I felt like the left had had no idea what the right hand was doing. I doubted their operational abilities. I felt like a nameless, faceless cog in their satisfaction-measurement machine — a feeling that was reinforced when, after we had finally slogged through all the questions, the last question I was asked was “what is your first name”? Then he thanked me for not hanging up on him halfway through, which was the most human moment in the entire call.
Question 27 was “on a 10-point scale, how likely are you to recommend us to your friends”. Well, it depends. Minus 5 points if you’re going to bother them too.
Lessons to learn from this: You’ll learn more by simply asking “How satisfied were you with the call? Is there anything you’d like to tell us to help us do a better job for you?” and see where the conversation goes. Structured, scripted customer interactions are so last century. The extra effort of acting human will be worth it.
Thoughts on rebranding
If you are considering updating or redesigning your company’s identity, here are some things to keep in mind:
Think Timeless:
Rebranding can be expensive — not only for the work but in reprinting material and altering your web site. So you don’t want to have to do it very often. Try for a look that will not be dated in 5 years. You don’t want people looking at your identity in a few years and thinking “oh, that’s so 2010″.
Capture your Essence:
If you’re redesigning, then you’ve probably been around a while. So I’d hope that you understand your brand’s essential message by now. Make sure your logo embodies what you stand for in the public’s mind. That way, once you launch your new or updated identity, it will feel inevitable and comfortable, and not like an old friend has disappeared.
Ride it Out:
There will be an uncomfortable transitional period where the new logo and look may throw people. But hang in there — if you and your design team have done your work properly, it will quickly feel like a new friend, and you’ll forget the old one. Again, it should feel like an inevitable and obvious upgrade, not like a jarring change that makes no sense.
How can you make sure your rebranding effort is a success? Hire a professional. Someone working in this country who you can really communicate with. Someone with a demonstrated history of branding success.
Obey and Obama – the artist behind both
I always wondered about the origin of the “Obey” stencils around Boston. Now I know — the graffiti artist, who also did the Obama “hope” poster, has a show at the ICA now. He’s also being sued by the AP for basing his Obama poster on a photo they own the rights to, and the Boston police have arrested him for illegal street graffiti. Hmm, artist or criminal? Theft or fair use?
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2009/02/shepard_fairey_3.php
–Lee
Best Boston-based portrait photographer
If you need a really good corporate portrait photographer, check out Boston Corporate Portraits.
Douglas MacArthur on war
These quotes have been timely ever since they were recorded, decades ago.
“It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.”
–Douglas MacArthur
“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.”
–Douglas MacArthur
Where did he go?
OK, so it’s pretty clear by now that I hardly ever post blog entries, and I have not found a theme for this blog. And it will only get worse, because I’ve been working as a creative director for the past 16 months at EPS Communications, so I’m not spending any time hanging around the lbdesign.com domain. Sorry folks.