Philip Sheldrake

Tag: cat (page 1 of 1)

4 February 2011 / 0 Comments

Thank you

Just over two years ago I posted about a 'lost cat' poster stapled to trees in my neighbourhood, but a poster with a difference... this was a 'cat found' poster saying thank you to everyone who had helped recover the treasured pet.

Sometimes in business it's too easy to think that the value exchange, where I give you what you want in exchange for what I want, is the be all and end all... the customer has the product or service they were looking for, and we get money (or other currency, like attention).

But every business must strive for a relational rather than transactional customer, moving the focus from the once-off purchase to the lifetime value of the customer and the network of friends and family he / she might bring with them; so emotion comes into it, not just economic arithmetic.

Moreover, perhaps the transaction doesn't complete. I always check my shed to make sure I haven't locked the latest lost cat in there – and whilst I wasn't directly responsible for returning the cat in question above, I was thanked anyway.

Do you say "thank you"? If you do, do you do so in a way that's believable? Authentic? Or in a "have a nice day" automated sort of fashion that communicates no emotion whatsoever and just constitutes pollution?

I have a hypothesis that only those that are passionate about what they do and what they sell can find genuine feeling when conveying their thanks. And I look for this enthusiasm when considering my lifetime patronage of a cafe, bank, web host and, well, everything.

Thank you.

Thank you for your attention, to this Friday Roundup and the previous 160 or so!

Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more

8 January 2009 / 2 Comments

Communication when you don't have anything to flog

What a lovely thing to see at the start of the New Year, particularly this one! A photo of a loved tabby cat under the word "Found" rather than "Lost".

cat%20found%20poster%20tree

And a thank you message to neighbours for the help they may have given in recovering said cat... I knew immediately that I'd take a picture of it and write a blog post.

Why?

Why did the cat's owner feel compelled to go back to her PC, bring up the "Lost" file, edit to "Found", print it, go outside and staple it to the tree? On the face of it, he or she obviously really loves that cat and might not have had anything else to do with her time... but that's being cynical. Oddly enough, I now feel more compelled to check my garden and outbuildings next time someone posts up a "Lost" poster because I've been thanked in advance. I know someone really cares.

It has also made me think about what our company and clients could say to our public, our neighbours, with this unusual case study in mind... with altruistic intent or more simply for 'feelgood'.

How about you and yours?