(Quick – anybody remember the 5 S’s of Unexpected Encounters™?)

When we set out on this journey, we had already identified 77 Customer Touchpoints hence the beginning of the series “77 Top Customer Touchpoints to Innovate…and counting.”  Our stretch goal was to reach 100.

Little did we know what “and counting” was really going to mean.  As of today, we have reached a whopping 176 Customer Touchpoints and I’m pretty sure that we’re not finished yet.

So, to avoid us completely giving away all of our secrets, today’s Innovation Insights will, as originally promised, complete the list up to #77.  But for the rest, you’ll need to stay tuned for the book.

If this is the first post in the series for you or if you are simply in need of a reminder of the rationale behind Customer Touchpoint Innovation, you can find the first three installments of the list at

77 (#10#17) Top Customer Touchpoints to Innovate

77 (#18-#30) Top Customer Touchpoints to Innovate

77 (#31 – #45) Top Customer Touchpoints to Innovate

Now, back to business.  What could you do in the next two weeks to turn just one of these Customer Touchpoints into an Unexpected Encounter™ experience that would remind customers why they should do – or continue to do – business with you?

#46   Articles (by you or about you, print or online media)

#47  Confirmations of appointments or meetings. (Ok – the phone reminder is great.  The email confirmation is time efficient. But surely, even within those contexts, there’s an idea for a message that not only reminds me of the appointment, but that takes the opportunity to remind me of its value in a way that results in me actually looking forward to the appointment. Remember, a Touchpoint missed is an opportunity missed to remind your customers why you?.)

#48  Badges worn by staff (I recently stayed at a Westin Hotel and noticed that each staff member wore a badge that in addition to their name, indicated the passion of that particular staff member.  Nice touch.  Unfortunately, when I asked the young receptionist Joelle why reading was her passion, she was at a complete loss for words.  Once she had recovered from the surprise of my question, she then told me that in all of the time that she had been wearing the badge, I was the first guest to ever engage her in conversation about it.  Westin’s badges may meet the S for surprising but I’m not convinced they meet the S for Strategic. What do you think?)

#49  Business Card Holder (We all know business cards are a Touchpoint Opportunity. But what about what you carry them in?  My friend Bob Abrames aka Voyageur Bob carries his wooden coin shaped biz “cards” in a black leather pouch.  What does your business card holder say about why you?)

#50  Check out Counters (What you sell, what people say, how the counter is set up – all of these count.  Not to mention the fact that how you handle waiting lines tells customers exactly how much you respect their time and value their business. And by the way, we all have check out counters of some sort.  When was the last time that you took a good hard look at yours?)

#51 Blogs (What you say on yours, how you respond to your readers’ comments, comments you make on other people’s blogs, when you guest blog on someone else’s blog, the type of guests you can get on your blog.  Ok – you get the idea…. )

#52  Containers (Think Starbucks cups with quotes and Dutch boy paint cans with handles. How could you turn your container into an Unexpected Encounter™?)

#53  Email subject lines (If you can’t get them to open the email, you can’t get them to  _ _ _ _ it!)

#54  Those horrible badges that they make us wear at meetings and networking events.  (Design your own custom badge holder and take it with you; For that matter, design your own badge. If you must use theirs, wear it upside down; wear it on your back or don’t wear it at all but at the very least, think.  Think about the opportunity for strategic differentiation that is lost every time you succumb to a badge that was designed by someone whose ultimate goal is to make sure that you blend in!)

#55  And while we’re on the subject of Networking events, what about what comes out of your mouth when someone asks you what you do? Is it an elevator pitch that sounds exactly like an elevator pitch? Or is it a surprising, strategic and seductive conversation starter? Only you know for sure…

#56  Media interviews and Press releases

#57  Your telephone hold menu if you have one

#58  Your online store

#59  Catalogues (online or print)

#60  Shopping bags

#61  Park benches

#62  Coupons

#63  Delivery (process and people)

#64  Holiday cards (Best holiday card I ever received: Not only did it arrive in a hugely oversized envelope and fold out to poster size; not only did it provide me with the opportunity to go to the sender’s website and choose from a selection of charities to which the sender would then make a donation on my behalf but it was all linked to a holiday theme that also just happened to tie in perfectly with the launch of their new website.  Pure Touchpoint Gold.)

#65  Your charitable donations (Giving to charity is always a great idea.  Giving to a charity whose purpose is linked to yours and can remind customers of that purpose, is a strategically great idea.)

#66  Your landscaping (Hey… why should highways have a monopoly on messages in the grass?)

#67  Your storefront and any other physical spaces that your clients are exposed to.

And to close up the list for now, here are a few Touchpoint Opportunities that haven’t appeared on the list so far that apply more specifically to my speaker, trainer, coaching and consulting buddies.

#68  Your book

#69  Your bio (The definition of biography is an account of someone’s life not just a list of their accomplishments.  What makes your bio stand out in a way that is at once surprising, seductive and strategic?)

#70  Your photo (One – would your photo stand out in a group of 100 photos? And  two, would it stand out in a way that helps remind people why you?)

#71  Your program/course/presentation titles and descriptions

#72  Your introduction (Need I say more?)

#73  Your stage props

#74  Your Power Point presentation if you use it. (background, content etc… )

#75  Your DVD’s, CD’s and any other learning products, on line or physical

#76  Your webinars, teleseminars etc…

#77  And, of course, your presentations themselves

I hope that you have found this list helpful but most importantly, I hope that you will use it to create your own uniquely innovative Unexpected Encounters™ that will attract, keep and engage more customers more often.

Bottom line: A list is just a list until you choose something on that list to work on and a Touchpoint is just a Touchpoint until you decide to turn it into a compelling customer experience that will remind customers why they should do – or continue to do – business with you.

Because after all, growing your business is not about you.  Growing your business is about why you?

Now, go Imagine the Possibilities!

I think we all do.  I’m not saying that we want to grow at any cost and I’m not saying that the definition of growth is the same for you as is it for me.  I do believe, however, that what we all have in common is the desire for our perfect customers to know who we are, what value we bring to the market place and why they should do – or continue to do – business with us.

Over the last few weeks we have been on a quest to create a list of over 77 Customer Touchpoints that businesses just like yours can innovate into Unexpected Encounters that will help  you attract, keep and engage more customers.

Today we share #31 – #45.  (Earlier posts:  #1-#17 and #18 – #30)

But here’s a reality check folks.  A Touchpoint isn’t a Touchpoint until you do something with it. Knowing that your checkout counter is a Touchpoint is a bit of a no brainer until you begin to truly live the commitment to transform that Touchpoint into an Innovative Customer Touchpoint Experience or Unexpected Encounter. Unexpected Encounters are experiences that position your brand promise in such a way that customers know Why You?  Experiences that inspire your customers not only to do and to continue to do business with you, but to passionately promote you and your business to the members of their extensive networks as well.

If you are reading these lists only to say to yourself  ”I know my business card is a Touchpoint. Duh!”  then you are missing the boat.  These lists are Unexpected Encounters checklists.  Some are obvious.  Some are not.  So, read these posts but remember – the value is not in the list.  The value is in what you do with the list – one Strategically Innovative Touchpoint Experience at a time.

#31  Your company name (You already know that I’m a fan of 1800GotJunk? But what about a marketing and communications company called Red Envelope?  Owner Peggy Miles says Think about reaching into your mailbox and finding a red envelope mixed amongst the regular white mail. Don’t you get excited and automatically want to open the red one first? So why should I do business with Red Envelope? Because they can help me stand out from the pack.)

#32  Your Focus Groups

#33  Your Loyalty Program(s) (Don’t have one?  Could you? Don’t focus on what is.  Focus on what could be.  Don’t focus on the way things have been done by others.  Focus on the way that things could be done by you.)

#34  Your Loyalty Program card(s)

#35  Your Autoresponders (Oh please… don’t get me started on this one.  The next time you are about to create one of those incredibly boring totally predictable “out of the office” autoresponders please keep the following in mind.  1) I don’t really care that you are out of the office.  I care about getting my email answered.  2)  There is a HUGE opportunity here that almost everyone misses all the time.  Why Not! think about how you could use the autoresponder technology (because that’s what it is) to create value for your customers while managing expectations?  Why Not! create an autoresponder that is Surprising, Strategic, Seductive, Sustainable and Simple.)

#36  Your referral generation program. (Don’t have one? Hmmmmm)

#37  Your testimonial generation program. (Don’t have one? Hmmmm.  Check out http://www.testimonialdirector.com/

#38 Your Price List

#39  Your Sign in Book (Why Not! make your sign in book more like a Guest Book?  You may need to know who has left the  building and when but wouldn’t it be cool to at least remind me why I’m there in the first place when you ask me to sign in? Just thinking out loud here…)

#40  Your Guest Book (ok – that’s kind of like #39 … but it’s still another Touchpoint Opportunity!)

#41 Your Trade Show Booths, Banners etc…

#42 Your On line advertising (Google adwords, banners etc…  And by the way, if you don’t think that you advertise on line because you don’t buy online advertsing, think again.  If you have any online presence, you advertise on line.  Is each and every touchpoint that makes up your online presence doing its Unexpected Encounter duty?)

#44 Your Shopping carts (physical and online)

#45 Your Gift Certificates

More coming next week.  In the meantime, please share with us any Unexpected Encounters that you have encountered in your travels or created in your business so that we can cite them in the blog and put them in our book!

Comments? Thoughts?  Opinions to the Contrary?

Imagine the Possibilities!

Click here to view Touchpoints #1-#17

18.  Products

19.  Packaging (and if you’re really innovative, you can do like the advertising team for Cooper/Mini and throw fake packaging into the recycling pile at around Xmas time and see what happens. )

20.  Instruction manual (Check out Ideapaint’s incredibly  innovative Unexpected Encounter instruction sheet.  And while you’re at it, check out the countdown on their landing page.)

21.  Contract

22.  Invoice

23.  Phone number  (Doesn’t get much better than 1-800-GotJunk?)

21.  Pricing (Yes… pricing…  My colleague Mark Leblanc does an Achiever’s Circle weekend that has no fee.  At the end of the session, people pay what they wish based upon the value that they have received from the session.  Now that is an Unexpected Encounter.  Another colleague of mine charges an unusual $377/hr for her coaching services.  Both get noticed because they are different.)

22.  Call centers

23.  The automated direct message that you send to anyone who decides to follow you on Twitter

24.  Those annoying Join my Fan Page announcements or Come to my Event messages on Facebook.  (ooops – did I say annoying?  Have you checked your account recently to see what those messages say on your behalf and how often they are going out to the same people?  Has technology lulled you into giving up control of your brand experience?)

25.  Each and every time that each and every employee ever comes in touch with a customer.

26.  Letterhead

27.  Envelopes

28.  Stamps (Surprised?  Check out Picture Postage from Canada Post. We had some made for our business.  Send me a letter and I’ll send you one back!)

29.  Receipts (Esso’s receipt says “We’re drivers too.”  Does your receipt remind your customers why they should do business with you?)

30.  Promotional items

Ok – so we’re 30 out of 77.  47 more to go.  What are you waiting for?  Share some of your best Touchpoints or some amazing Unexpected Encounter Touchpoints Experiences that you have come across and help us all Imagine the Possibilities!

Why you? Why should they spend their hard earned money with you? Why you and not the guy down the street or the gal across the continent whose products or services may or may not be the same as yours but whose customer experience is so compelling that the customer is driven back to them and away from you.

As I’m sure most of you are already aware, one of the most powerful ways to remind your customers “Why You?” is through your Customer Touchpoint Experiences.   In fact, the real goal is to create Innovative Customer Touchpoint Experiences (what we call Unexpected Encounters™) that can help you attract, keep and engage more customers so that you can grow your business.

All good in theory.  But it occurred to my partner Gerry and I today that what the world really needed was an truly exhaustive list of Touchpoint Opportunities so… we started one.  We’re up to 77… and still counting.

Here are the first 17 but we need your help.  We’re going to publish the list in four parts in the hopes that you will help us grow the list with your thoughts and ideas and that by the time we get to the last installment, we’ll have collectively discovered over 100 Customer Touchpoint Opportunities.

Some may be more obvious than others… some may be more obscure.  Where we have a great example, we’ve provided it.  But bottom line: Each of these Touchpoints represents a powerful opportunity to help you attract, keep and enage more customers so that you can grow your business.  If you can work on being more strategically innovative about even 1 or 2 of these Touchpoints each month, your business is guaranteed to see the results.

Here goes….in no particular logical order

1.  Business card

2.  Website (Particularly your landing page. Check out http://producten.hema.nl/ for inspiration)

3.  YOU!!   (http://www.hellomynameisscott.com/)

4.  Voice mail message on your phone

5.  Voice mail message that you leave on someone else’s phone

6.  If someone answers your phone live, what they say.

7.  Garbage  (Yes… garbage… check out this Fun Theory video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7MfxFjbHWw)

8.  Email (branding, email signature, subject line etc…)

9.  Facebook pages (home, fan etc..)

10. Each and every FB post

11. Twitter page(s) (home, list etc…)

12. Each and every Twitter post

13.  Linked in page(s) (profile etc…)

14.  Each and every Linked in post (Are you getting the idea here?  I think you can fill it in for each of your social media platforms)

15.  Blackberry or any texting signature (My great friend Rich DiGirolamo, the genius behind Recess at Work Day changed the standard “This message has been sent from my Blackberry” to “Do you really care that this message was sent from my Blackberry? Hilarious.)

16.  YouTube videos

17.  YouTube channel home page

18.  YOU!! (oh – I already said that. Doesn’t count.)

That makes 17.  Lots more to come but send us yours.  Examples too if you have them.

Other food for thought…

What is your definition of Touchpoint?

Now that I think about it, what is your definition of a Customer?

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine….

It was our first weekend in our new cottage and after a glorious morning of sitting looking over the crystal clear shimmering lake, watching the ducks paddle towards us and listening to the birds sing, we decided to check out the local restaurant pub.

From the minute we arrived, our waiter David made us feel welcome, valued and perhaps most importantly, part of the family. He was personable, helpful and a great ambassador for the pub as he told us about upcoming events and encouraged us to come back soon.  We were impressed.  Now, to be fair, David’s job may have been made a little easier by the fact that we were basking in the sun on a magnificent terrace on a perfect spring day and that the food was pretty darn good too. But whatever the reasons, we liked David, we felt connected to him and to the restaurant, and when we left, we had already decided to go back before the weekend was out.

And that’s exactly what we did two days later.  Only David wasn’t our waiter.  What’s-her-name was.   Same magnificent terrace, same perfect spring day and same great food. The only variable was What’s-her-name, whose name was never offered and whose name, quite frankly, we never bothered to ask because she was so obviously disconnected to us and to our customer experience that it was simply not worth the effort.

Will we go back to the pub?  Probably.  Are we in a hurry to go back?  Not as much.  But here’s the kicker.  If our first first impression had been with What’s-her-name, we might never have gone back at all.

Bottom line:  Each and every one of your employees is a Customer Touchpoint and each and every time on of them interacts with a customer, they have the power to create or destroy a first impression which means that each and every one of them has the power to influence whether or not your customers decide to walk back through your door.

Today, have a look around at your front line employees and ask yourself, if you were a customer discovering your business for the very first time, what kind of first impression would each of those employees create?  Are they a David or are they a What’s-her-name?  Give the Davids a healthy bonus and tell the What’s-her-names to find another job.  Now.

Well, actually, I love Seth’s blog most of the time….

You see I count on Seth to help me grow my business. I count on Seth to provoke remarkable, Purple Cow, Dip, Tribes, Small is the New Big type thinking so that I can out think and out innovate my competition. In fact, I count on Seth to write blogs that I can retweet to my network so that they can have access to Seth’s business brilliance too. And today, Seth’s blog talked about How to buy a house.

That’s it. How to buy a house. Ten long bullet points about the thinking behind buying a house in today’s market. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There had to be a marketing or business connection in there somewhere, right? There wasn’t.

In the context of Customer Touchpoint Innovation™, or CTI, this is what in we call a Touchpoint Disconnect™.  It is the moment when you break your brand promise to your customers.  It is the moment when you leave them with more questions than answers. It is the moment when you create an opportunity for them to choose to spend their time and money elsewhere and that is NOT good.

Seth’s blog, like any blog, is a Touchpoint. It is a interaction between Seth and me that, when done well, reminds me why I love Seth Godin and why I should not only buy and read all of his books but why I should recommend them to everyone that I know through my newsletters, social media, presentations etc….

I love Seth Godin but love is fickle. Love doesn’t like to be disappointed. Love doesn’t like a disconnect. And today, Seth’s blog was a huge Touchpoint Disconnect™.

How many Touchpoint Disconnects™ does it take to lose a customer? Hard to know. But chances are, by the time you find out, it may well be too late.

In what seemed like no time at all, she reappeared at our side. ”Oh my, I did forget your tea.”, the extremely apologetic stewardess said. ”I’m so sorry. I’ll be right back.”

I was so embarrassed. I really didn’t mean for her to overhear me.  All that I had whispered to my partner was “I just realized that I never got my tea.”  And now that I think about it, how could she have even heard what I said anyway? She was three seats away!

So when she did bring my tea, I asked her.  ”How did you manage to hear what I said?” “Practice”, she answered. ”The key to being really good at my job is training myself to hear what my customers are saying even when they don’t think I’m listening.”

Bottom line? Eavesdropping. Simple, systematic eavesdropping. More commonly known as listening when you’re not supposed to be. When was the last time that you eavesdropped on your customers? Do you know what they’re saying about you when they don’t think that you’re listening?  Or, as another generation might have said, are your ears burning as often as they should be?

Four Innovative ways to eavesdrop on your  customers

1.    Create Forums: Although many businesses still use traditional client feedback strategies, social media has become the client survey of the day and as such, is probably the most powerful eavesdropping tool that exists in the market place. The trick here is to create forums that encourage provocative conversations, keeping in mind that there are at least two types of conversations that are worth eavesdropping on: one – the conversation between the company and the customers (actual or potential); two – the conversations amongst customers themselves.   Which conversation would you rather listen in on?

2.    Reward employees for eavesdropping: Imagine how much unsolicited customer feedback your employees overhear… overhear and never report back to you. Now, imagine how much more unsolicited customer feedback you could have access to if  a) your employees were better intentional eavesdroppers and b) they were rewarded for the fruits of their eavesdropping labors. Why Not! launch an eavesdropping program.  Teach staff how to master the art of discreet but intentional eavesdropping and then make it easy for them to report their findings for points or some other kind of incentive.

3.    Google yourself: We recently went through a pretty frustrating kitchen renovation. The owners of the company are such hopelessly bad business people that quite frankly, telling them how we feel about our customer experience with them would be a waste of our breath. But telling the world? Now that would be worthwhile. So, I put their name and the word “reviews” into Google search and lo and behold, I discovered a whole community of people anxious to share their experience with this particular company. Now, some reviews were good, (well, one was good), and the rest were not. But each review represented someone who was passionate enough about their experience that they took the time to write the review and share it with the inhabitants of cyberspace. Feeling courageous? This is one way to find out what some pretty passionate customers are saying when they don’t think you’re listening!

4.    Ask the question: What if…. What if you were to call one loyal, enthusiastic client each month and ask them “What would you tell someone about our customer experience if you didn’t think we were listening?”  First of all, the question will surprise them which is a good thing. Then, if you’re lucky, they’ll start with all of the good stuff. But don’t let them get away with that. Push them to describe the flaws in your customer experience. Reassure them that the challenges in your business are as important as the successes and that you are counting on them to allow you to eavesdrop on this imaginary conversation so that your business can serve them better in the long run. Ask the tough questions. Get the tough answers. Grow your business.

So… get your ears burning more often.  Practice simple, systematic eavesdropping to find out what your customers are saying when they don’t think you’re listening. Then apply imagination to the information and innovate your way to attracting, keeping and engaging more customers so that you can grow your business.

What do you think about the value of customer feedback?

What are some of the most innovative ways that you have tried or experienced for finding out what customers are really thinking?

Which do you prefer?  If you are like most Canadians, you know exactly what I’m referring to and, perhaps more astonishingly, you may even know that most people prefer Diamond Shreddies (62%) over Square Shreddies (38%). What many of you may not know, however, is that the incredibly simple and yet incredibly innovative Diamond Shreddies strategy managed to drive radical growth for what, just a short time ago, was a seriously struggling brand.

If you have ever heard me speak, you have heard me refer to the Five S’s of Unexpected Encounters™, Unexpected Encounters™ being those strategically innovative Customer Touchpoint Experiences that provide us with the opportunity to influence what our customers will think, feel and do next so that we can attract, keep and engage more customers.  Over the last few months, many of you have asked me to review the Five S’s and the success of the Diamond Shreddies campaign is a great opportunity for me to do just that.

So, Diamond or Square.  For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, flash back to late 2006 when Hunter Somerville, a 26 year old intern with Oglivy and Mather advertising, found himself trying to come up with a fun idea for the back of the Shreddies cereal box. In another room – probably a much larger room with lots of natural sunlight, way down the hall from Hunter’s cubicle – senior execs were grappling with the “real” Shreddies challenge: How to get customers thinking about – and buying more of – the 67-year old brand of cereal. (Shreddies, a Post brand, is sold mostly in Canada, the UK and New Zealand.)

It was Hunter, however, with his photo of Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report staring down at him from his wall, who was destined to discover the big idea that would turn Shreddies around – or at least turn them on their side.

Diamond Shreddies.

Yes – Diamond Shreddies are simply Square Shreddies turned on their sides but you wouldn’t know that from the results that the campaign has achieved.  A 10% increase in sales during the trial launch in Alberta followed by an 18% increase in the first month after the roll out of the national campaign in January 2008.  Sustained baseline increases over the previous year have been maintained resulting in numerous awards for Ogilvy including the coveted Grand Prix Cassie award which recognizes the ability of ad campaigns to generate business for the client.

From the initial TV spot explaining that an accident at the Shreddies plant had resulted in the extinction of Square Shreddies, to taste tests, viral videos and commentary on YouTube, not to mention almost 130,000 Canadians registering their vote for Diamond versus Square Shreddies at www.diamondshreddies.ca, this campaign has been a perfect example of today’s Innovation Insight.

Innovation Insight

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Think of the Five S’s as an Customer Touchpoint Innovation™ checklist for success.  Imagine that they are the pillars that make up the foundation of any touchpoint strategy or idea.  Plant all 5 firmly in the ground and your idea is sound and secure, ready to stand strong against the elements.  Remove any one of them – or any number of them – and your BIG idea is left teetering in the wind, swaying precariously, and prone to collapse.

Surprising:  Does this idea have the element of surprise? Will it get noticed?

Makers of cereals have trained us to “expect” brand extensions and new varieties of cereals as their preferred method of increasing sales.  In fact, there are so many new cereals appearing on the market every day that many of them go unnoticed.  Diamond Shreddies did the unexpected by turning its own cereal into a fake line extension.  Some people loved it. Some people hated it.  It didn’t matter.  It got noticed.  And remember, if you can’t get noticed, you can’t get heard. And if you can’t get heard, you can’t get the job done.

Strategic:  What is the idea designed to accomplish? What is the next thing that we want people to do or think as a result of this idea?

According to an AC Neilsen Market track, sales volume for Shreddies had declined 2% year over year since 1998. The one thing that this campaign was designed to do was increase awareness that would result in a 4% increase in sales.   What did they want people to feel next?  A warm connection to and reminder of an old favorite. What did they want people to do next?  Buy more Shreddies!

Seductive:  What value does this idea have for the customer? Is it a right brain value (engaging or emotional) or a left brain value (provides the customer with something that they want or need) or both?

Diamond Shreddies was designed to create right brain customer engagement in the brand and it worked.  The viral nature of the comments and the videos that flooded the marketplace are proof that many consumers were seduced by the spoof.  Even those of us who loudly exclaimed “They can’t be serious” at the beginning, were quickly hooked by the staying power of the campaign. No improved taste. No fancy new ingredients.  Just pure fun.

Sustainable:  What would need to be true for this idea to work?  How long is the idea designed to be sustainable for?

For Diamond Shreddies to work consumers had to get the joke!  In fact, they had to get that it was a joke.  Many didn’t.  But enough people got it to increase sales way beyond expectations.  It was a calculated risk that definitely paid off.  And although the campaign has had more longevity that anyone expected at the start, the team behind the BIG idea is smart enough to know that Diamond Shreddies can’t last forever.  Wouldn’t you love to know what they have planned next?

Simple: Is the idea simple to implement?   Is it simple for us and simple for the customer?

It doesn’t get much simpler than Diamond Shreddies!  Create a fun but slightly controversial campaign and let the media and the consumer do the rest. Nice work if you can get it!

Diamond Shreddies is a great example of Customer Centric Strategic Innovation and it worked because all of the Five S’s were in place to support it.

So… How could you be inspired by Diamond Shreddies and the Five S’s to create Customer Touchpoint  Experiences that can help you attract, keep and engage more customers?  After all, it could be as simple as making something new out of something old simply by turning it on its side.

Imagine the Possibilities!  And then please share your thoughts with us….

-Toni Newman

Quote of the Week

Inspiration of the Week
Just for fun, check out the “focus groups” conducted for Diamond Shreddies … and Imagine the Possibiltiies!

Diamond Shreddies on YouTube

Turning Ideas into Results!

Please feel free to contact me at toni@toninewman.com
with any stories about how Innovation Insights has helped you to turn ideas into results.

Better still, what if you could double your revenue simply by optimizing pre-existing customer behavior?  Would that be of value to you and your business?

Canada Post recently released a promotional campaign called Picture Postage™.  It’s so simple it’s scary.  Picture Postage™ allows you to personalize your mail by creating  customized stamps using your favorite digital photos.   As their website says , “Picture Postage™ is a unique and creative way to capture special moments in your life – whether it’s to mark an occasion, celebrate a loved one or commemorate a pet – and share it with friends and family”.

What it really is, however, is an incredibly innovative business strategy for seriously increasing the revenue generated by the sale of stamps.

For example, it presently costs 57 cents to buy a Canadian stamp pretty much regardless of the quantity that you purchase.  However, when you buy the sheets of stamps from the Picture Postage™ program, depending upon the package that you choose, the price comes out to anywhere between .89 cents and $1.39 per stamp.  Now I don’t know about you but I’m thinking that growing your revenue by at least 63% per stamp is a pretty solid return on investment.  Not to mention that fact that it definitely meets my 5 S’s of Successful Strategic Innovation.

Now it’s not often that I throw kudos in the direction of crown corporations but as an innovative revenue generating strategy, Canada Post’s Picture Postage™ Program is simply brilliant.  It’s brilliant because individuals will buy these stamps to celebrate special occasions and because businesses will buy them to promote their brand.  (I know they will because I’ve already purchased mine!) And the idea behind their idea – or the Flashpoint as I prefer to call it – can be summed up in three easy steps.

1)    Identify a pre-existing customer buying behavior.  (People buy stamps.)

2)    Create a simple (making your own stamps on the website takes just a few minutes); cost effective (other than setting up the site, the only costs to Canada Post are some shipping costs and my guess is that they get a good deal on postage!); high value (unique gift or great marketing opportunity – both make it worth the investment which, although more than we would normally pay, is still quite low given the impact of the final product) way for your customers to personalize that purchase.

3)    Charge a premium. (63% and up isn’t bad!)

How could this approach apply to you and your business?

How could you think differently about to drive revenue in your business?

What will you do this week to double your revenue?

Other thoughts and comments?

(Click here to check out this great innovative strategy Picture Postage )

Imagine the Possibilities!

Well, one evening we had the privilege of meeting Larry and his wife Janet. The conversation would have been interesting enough even if we had just stayed focused on the fact that the plane that Larry flies had been delivered to him in pieces with instructions – something like a model car – and that he had then proceeded to assemble it in his garage. Imagine the looks on his neighbors’ faces when they looked out their windows one day to see Larry removing the entire front of his garage so that he could take off for the day in his new plane!

But here’s the really amazing story behind Larry and Janet and their Ultralight plane. When Larry was 7, he looked up at the sky and promised himself that one day he would build and fly his own plane. And so he did. In his mid 50’s.

You see Larry and Janet are the kind of people who just don’t let their dreams die. Larry works in a mill, Janet works in education and they live their life by one very simple philosophy. If you want to do it, find a way to do it. If you have a dream, find a way to make that dream come true. Larry and Janet are Why Not! people.

They spoke with us about some of their friends who don’t live their dreams because they believe they can’t afford it; or because they believe that it’s not the right time; or because they believe that they have other more important things to do. Larry and Janet, on the other hand, don’t spend their life dreaming. They spend their life living their dreams. And they truly wish that other people would do the same.  The world, it seems to them, would be a better place if we did.

What dreams have you put on hold?

How many of your childhood dreams have you abandoned because of some misguided notion of adulthood and what may or may not be expected of you?

What beliefs are standing in your way?

If you could do one thing – one thing that you have never done but have always dreamed of doing – what would it be?
Remember it. Dream it. Do it.
Imagine the Possibilities!

Thoughts? Comments?