Allister told me today how he once met Richard Branson. He was bartending at the Nelson Mandela Foundation 46664 concert in Cape Town a few years ago while studying. Richard Branson came in and introduced himself to all the staff members and treated all of them like good friends (future customers?). Guess which airline Allister will prefer to fly for the rest of his life?
Another, more everyday example: I met Rob Wilkinson, the founder of Butler's Pizza, a few weeks ago at a party. I've always liked Butlers' Pizza and often ordered them, but had no particular preference over the 5 other fairly good pizzerias in my immediate area. Butler's does quite a few things right. I think their website is one of the best ever and it seems every fridge in Cape Town always has a menu attached by a Butler's fridge magnet! (This picture is on our fridge, spot the difference between this and the website)
But the reason Butler's is Skyrove's 'Preferred Pizza Supplier' is because I found Rob to be a genuinely interesting (interested?) and nice guy!
It's not possible for every entrepreneur to be as outgoing as Rob, but at least make sure you have a decent web presence. One of the first things I look for if I hear about a new service is the About page. Then I google the names on there. I want to know WHO built the service, much more so than what the service purports to be.
Remember, no matter what you do, someone else (Branson? Google?) is doing the exact same thing. It's much harder to differentiate your product than it is to differentiate yourself.
5 comments:
Too true Henk - more than often we buy people over the products and services they are offering.
I reckon people like to feel special and that they've made the right choice when buying something. Make them feel both of these things and you're well on the right track.
I also think that it takes genuine interest in people to break that boundary - we are skeptical consumers these days and seek integrity in the the products we consume.
Dell are out the window for me now - they have handled the situation with very little integrity - it wasn't so much that we didn't get the laptops but the way in which they handled it - very poor!
Allister met Richard Branson - he's never told me that!! he was behind the bar Henk, you sure he hadn't had too much wine!!
Are you being sarcastic? I'm sorry, but I think Butlers has an absolutely crap website. It's an image of their flyer/menu. That's it. It sucks.
Atleast it's better than the previous one, an age old newspaper clipping of how they supplied the department of finance with Pizza's... about 2 years back. I always found it incredibly frustrating as I like Butlers pizza's but for some obscure reason we never have one of those flyers around. So it meant I could never really view the options available.
Their site is still crap.
Uno,
Not being sarcastic at all.
Butler's website tells me EXACTLY what I want to know. That is what pizzas are available, how much it costs and what phone number I must dial to get it.
I think too many people spend way too much time building websites loaded with aesthetic nonsense.
Butler's website has a clear purpose in mind, which is THE most important thing about any website.
Check out Seth Godin's "Knock Knock" eBook about what websites are all about...
I think the butlers site is crap as well! its so budget!
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