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-: Hello, and welcome to The Sharpest Tool,
where we take the sting out of marketing.
My name is Joshua Smith, I'll be your host today,
and I'm really excited, 'cause we're cooking up
some really good information to share with y'all today,
and I have Peter Harabedian here in the booth,
our vice-president of corporate marketing.
Why don't you give our listeners a little inside scoop
as to what a vice-president of corporate marketing does
day in and day out, what's your day look like?
-: Yeah, so we have to distinguish,
because we're all at a marketing agency, here at Scorpion.
-: Yeah.
-: So, corporate marketing is basically
the department that is the marketing for the agency.
So my role is basically, from an operational sense,
to execute on a lot of the initiatives
that we're doing as a company,
and making sure they get done.
-: Ah, awesome, and you support, I assume,
the acquisition of a lot of new business to Scorpion,
is that how that works?
-: Exactly, the acquisition of new business,
making sure our current clients are happy,
and getting value out of what we're doing.
-: So, today we're talking about a really interesting topic,
I think it's very apropos for today's marketplace,
and that is the brand experience.
You know, we've talked a little bit
about branding on this show,
but never really about the positive experience
that you can get with a brand, or that you can create.
More importantly, how to create it.
I think a lot of our business owners listening,
they're like, "Yeah, I hear all this talk
"about brand and branding and experiences
"and things like that,
"I don't really know how to go about it.
"I'm just, you know, I'm a plumber,
"and I like being in the field and that sort of thing,
"but how do I think with this stuff?"
So let's kinda step back just broad, broad perspective here.
What's branding, in a nutshell?
-: In a nutshell, branding is what people are saying
about you or your business when you leave the room.
-: Okay.
-: It's that thing that lasts, or even shows up
before you do on scene somewhere.
From a business perspective, also on a personal perspective,
you have your own brand.
It's a function of how that lives in people's minds,
that's the key.
-: Interesting, and how much of that is controlled
or dictated by you as a business owner,
versus the consumer setting that tone?
-: You have to set it as a business owner,
but then it's also how you carry those things out.
And everyone, obviously,
all your customers are gonna be different
in how they respond or how they react
to your service that you're providing.
But it's then how you respond even in those situations
that leaves that legacy of your brand behind.
-: Sure, yeah, is there a psychology behind this at all?
It sounds very kind of ethereal stuff
that you can't necessarily always quantify.
-: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of times,
people see brand as your logo,
or the colors that you're using.
-: Sure.
-: And that's definitely an aspect of it,
but it's also, you know, what happens
when someone calls in their time of need
and their air conditioning's out?
What's that experience like on the phone for them?
Does the technician show up on time?
Do they make the person feel like they can trust them
while they're there?
Do they leave the house a mess after they leave,
or, you know, those are all aspects of someone's brand,
and every one is equally as important.
-: Okay.
Is there a psychology factor behind this
when it comes to marketing the psychology of the consumer,
putting yourself in the consumer's brain waves, so to speak,
and why is that so important?
-: To a certain degree, I see it as, you know,
everyone's obviously heard of ways to persuade people,
but I see it as a form of pre-suasion.
So, your brand, you wanna try
and get in people's minds ahead of time,
so, for example, you have to look at different stereotypes
of what might be in your industry.
For example, if you're a plumber,
what stereotypes are out there
that a consumer might be feeling,
as they're looking at who to call in that time of need?
And so maybe your brand,
if the stereotype is that the plumbing industry
has different elements that are dirty,
or things that people don't wanna deal with
or just that they don't wanna be a part of,
then your brand can almost be a thing of,
setting their minds at ease and making things clean.
And maybe from a visual perspective,
your website has a very clean, minimal look,
so it's to kinda counteract
what someone might be thinking that they're gonna get.
-: Sure.
I wanna tie this in, I just had an interesting thought
of the food market, just this idea of brand
and the psychology behind it.
Organic, is it a thing, or isn't it?
Or is that just a branding perception
that food companies have put out there to sell more,
and make it look and appeal to a broader audience
that's trying to get healthier food options.
-: Oh, it's definitely a marketing ploy.
Or things like gluten-free and things like that,
when you start seeing gluten-free
on things that never had gluten in them to begin with,
but it's a marketing ploy, same thing with organic.
And it's funny, I come to find out organic means, by law,
something different in every single state.
So organic in California
is very different from organic in Texas.
You can't really come to expect something,
unless you know where that's been certified organic.
-: Sure.
-: Which is kind of a funny thing.
-: What are some of the marketing psychological traits?
I've heard reciprocity thrown out before,
people building that trust,
and the different things that humans interact with
on a day to day basis.
What are some of those that you deal with
in the marketing space
that are really important and relevant?
-: You know, it's definitely something you wanna do,
you can only create a first impression once, right?
-: Sure.
-: And so making sure that first impression
is something that is going to give the customer
a look into what they're gonna be experiencing
with you on a regular basis.
And it can work in your favor,
and it can also work to your detriment,
in terms of how that comes across.
If it comes across as a positive experience,
then that will cover a certain amount of mistakes
that come out later on,
and if it's negative in the beginning,
it takes a lot more to try and cover that up later on,
even if it was a mistake.
So some of the things that we institute
is we always try and come up with a,
what we call a uniquely striking impression,
or a USI, for different things,
and that's to create that first impression.
And so it's a marketing tactic that we use
to really cut through the noise
of different marketing messages that might be out there,
and it can be anything, as long as it's unique
and it strikes through to the person
that you're sending it to.
And it works very well, and it does,
it sets the tone for that first impression,
and it makes that phone call a little bit easier afterwards.
-: Who do you usually send those out?
Are these people who have been exposed
to the business before, brand new prospects?
-: These are brand new prospects generally,
but it can also be people
that have received something in the past.
It's again, it's something that's just unique and striking,
and so what we do is we will do a highly targeted,
based on the person that we're sending to,
and something that they would really enjoy.
But also, if it's something that
where we made a mistake on something,
and we really want to show that we don't take that lightly,
we will send a uniquely striking impression,
or what we call a USI,
to kinda get back their trust on different things.
-: How would you say psychology
affects the impression that your brand makes on a consumer?
-: I mean, it's everything.
Branding is psychology, it's what's that reserved spot
in someone's mind for that area.
And it's hard to share
with other brands of the same industry.
It's like, I have, and when I think of, my sports team,
that sports team's logo comes up in my mind.
That is my football association,
that's the brand that I go to.
Same thing for my plumber, my electrician.
I have a certain part of my brain dedicated to that brand,
and it's hard to shake, but once you do shake it,
then you're able to kinda replace it with something else.
So that's the goal, is to have your brand,
for whatever business you do,
to control that spot in someone else's brain,
so that it's harder for your competition
to take that out of their mind as well.
-: Got it, got it, and storytelling,
how does that fall into this, why is storytelling important?
-: So storytelling is something that is crucial.
It's become even more popular lately,
it's become almost like an organic type thing,
like we were talking about.
-: Yeah.
-: But true storytelling,
it really taps into people's emotions.
And where it really comes from is,
throughout human history, stories have been
the largest form of communication there has been.
And it's an effective way of teaching, as well.
And so, the stories, your brain on average
spends about 30 percent of its day, daydreaming.
-: (laughs) Interesting.
-: Which is really interesting,
but what's even more interesting
is that you don't do any daydreaming
when you're watching a movie.
-: Hmm.
-: Because your mind is engaged in that story,
and it's the same thing.
It's why we spend millions upon millions of dollars
for the entertainment industry,
because we like people telling us stories.
And so, to do that as a business
helps you to engage with your customers,
or your prospects, in a much greater sense,
because now you're creating an emotional tie with them,
as well as an educational tie.
-: Are there certain stories
that resonate with people more so than other stories?
-: Well, it's gonna be different for everyone.
It's gonna be, if that person's story that I'm listening to
or hearing about is similar to my own,
that's the one that's gonna resonate with me.
-: Got it.
-: So it's understanding,
how you're doing storytelling with your brand
really depends on who your audience is,
who your target audience is,
and what pains they might experience,
or roadblocks they might encounter
in coming to you in the first place,
and then knocking those down with the stories you tell,
or those testimonials.
And that's really what a testimonial is, right?
It's a story that someone else tells on your behalf,
and it's, as I'm sure most listeners will agree,
those are, the people that have come to their business
through hearing about it through someone else,
is a lot more powerful
than any marketing message that we could send.
-: Definitely.
People that identify with themselves.
People do business with like people, right?
-: Exactly.
-: Birds of a feather flock together, you know?
-: Exactly.
-: I think that's so true, and the branding aspect,
how would you say that
it actually impacts the customer experience?
Positively or negatively,
if you have a positive brand association
versus a negative brand association,
what impacts do those have in the experience
that a new customer might have?
-: Well, something to keep in mind is,
no matter what, whether you think you have a brand or not,
you have a brand.
And whether you are being intentional about it or not,
it's creating a positive experience for people,
or it's creating a negative experience.
So you need to be purposeful about it, first of all,
and be purposefully trying to go
with that positive brand experience.
And what that will do is, that sticks in that person's mind.
It reinforces the trust
that they have going with your service, or your company,
and then it makes them more likely
to come back in the future.
And how that relates to experience,
it's kind of interesting as well.
Customer experience has been terrible
for a lot of companies.
It seems like the companies that start doing it right
are the ones that truly succeed.
And their brands succeed as well,
and stand out in people's minds as a result of it.
So people not really caring, you know,
you think of some of these big companies,
and you have some sort of issue and you call them,
it creates even more frustration and anger a lot of times.
And so, creating a solid experience
really reinforces that brand image in that person's mind.
-: Yeah.
-: There was something that, a case study that happened,
I think it was Hilton hotel that did these case studies.
And what they did is they had people come to their hotel,
and they gave people one of three experiences.
They gave them top-notch experience,
you know, they upgraded them to a suite,
they did all these extra things for them.
Then there's people they didn't do anything for,
and then they also did, gave people an experience
where they had issues,
but then resolved those issues for them.
And they found that customer loyalty
was the highest among the people,
not the people who they gave an incredible experience to,
but the ones that they gave a terrible experience to,
but then fixed for them.
And that's so crucial, because people wanna know
that you are going to do what you say you're gonna do,
that they can trust you, and that you're gonna fix it,
because they're looking for peace of mind
on whatever they're trying to get done.
If their sink explodes on them,
if their air conditioning unit goes out,
they're not skilled to fix something like that.
They just know that they're hot,
or that there's water everywhere.
And they just want it fixed.
-: Yeah.
-: And whoever can do that for them,
and give them a good experience in the process, will win.
-: I wanna go back to the uniquely striking impression
that you mentioned.
I think that's a little foreign, probably,
to a lot of our listeners.
They may never heard of that before,
they've never thought with that before.
How does a home service business
develop a uniquely striking impression
when marketing to a customer?
What are some potential avenues they could go down?
-: That's a tricky question, because it really is based
on what everyone's doing in the industry already.
Because the main point of it,
besides creating that first impression,
is also to cut through noise.
'Cause rest assured that you are not the only one
marketing to your potential clients for your services.
You've got competitors out there doing the same exact thing,
so the biggest thing is how to differentiate yourselves,
and make yourself stand out from the other ones.
It could be something small.
You have, like, for in the plumbing world,
you have the Mike Diamond
that focuses on the smell good plumbers.
I mean, that's an aspect, but people remember it
because it's a differentiator.
Now, have people ever really complained about,
"Oh, my plumber smells bad"?
I don't know, I hope not.
(laughter)
But they've created a brand around that,
and it's caused them to stand out,
for something that might not be a big deal for people,
but it's still, it's a differentiator.
A big part of that is knowing who your customer is,
and even at its most specific sub-group
or subset of your customer base,
find those 10 ideal customers, and then expand from there.
Don't just say, "I want to hit every residential household."
You'll never, I mean,
there's so many different avenues there.
But it's knowing who your customer is,
and knowing how to get to them.
-: Yeah, absolutely, that's extremely vital.
And so, how does one make a strong first impression
in person, versus the marketing?
So you got in front of them, you're in front of their house.
What are some ways that home service businesses
can actually make a strong first impression
when they meet them in person?
-: Yeah, I mean, again, going against
the different stereotypes that may exist.
-: Sure.
-: And I think a big thing for, in the service industry,
especially the home service industry,
is creating peace of mind.
People are calling you because they've got an issue,
an issue that's probably uncomfortable in some...
Whether the lights aren't on, whether the AC's not working,
whether the toilet's backed up, whatever,
they're having an issue, and they just want it resolved,
and they want it resolved quickly.
So showing up on the scene and giving them peace of mind
that you're gonna take care of it is huge.
And then following through on that,
and making them feel like, "You know what,
"you guys don't have to do anything,
"go sit in a pool somewhere, and when you come back,
"it'll be fixed," type of thing.
And also, it seems like a big thing is trust in general,
and just like, you're in my house working on something.
Unless you want me standing over your shoulder
the entire time,
like are you taking something from my house,
are you scoping it out?
Making them feel at ease in that sense as well
is a big thing, and you know,
a lot of people that are gonna be probably listening to this
are probably the home service owner, the business owner.
But it's something you have
to teach to your technicians as well.
-: Oh, yeah.
-: Because they are your biggest marketers,
as scary as that may sound for some of you.
You have to be intentional
about teaching them how to respond to certain situations,
because they are your first
and last impression on a customer,
so that's important as well.
-: Yeah, that last impression, I think, is crucial, too.
So maybe we could talk about just in closing here,
a little bit about the importance of the follow-up.
What happens after the job's done?
How important is that in creating a long-lasting impression,
or is it all upfront,
is it all that first impression that matters?
-: No, I mean, anything you can do to show that you care,
that you genuinely care about their situation
goes a long way.
Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt
what you did fixed their problem
and it's no longer an issue, give them a call a week later.
"Hey, wanted to check in with you
"and see how that was doing,
"also, I wanna see how my technician did for you.
"Did he do a good job, did he leave your area clean?
"I wanna make sure that we're
"giving you guys the best experience."
That, something like that goes a long, long way.
-: Absolutely.
-: It's big, especially coming
from the business owner themselves.
-: Oh, yeah.
-: I know business owners are always strapped for time,
but it's huge.
I was just reading an article recently
about Sir Richard Branson.
Virgin first-class people,
when they're flying into Heathrow,
they're actually given a limo
to go to their destination in London.
-: Oh, wow!
-: As part of just flying on the plane.
And what he'll do is, at random,
he'll call that limo, and ask the driver
to hand the phone back to the person in there.
-: Oh, wow.
-: And so could you imagine you just got in
on an airplane to London,
and all of a sudden you get a call,
"Yeah, it's Richard Branson on the phone for you."
"Oh, okay, of course it is."
And he'll just, he'll ask them
what their experience was like.
And he uses it not in a way just so he can find out
all the negative things they experienced,
but also he uses it as a way to praise
and encourage the flight attendants
that may have done something really well, or the pilots.
Things that he may have never have heard of,
if that hadn't happened.
So it's a way to always get that feedback,
and we see it all the time now,
these surveys, these satisfaction surveys that go around,
and no one ever really fills those things out.
But now you've called them,
you're checking in on the status of the job,
and making sure they're happy,
and that the service you provided was well-received.
Now, on top of that, you're also getting
a little bit of a survey in.
"How did it go for you, I wanna make sure
"there's nothing we can't improve on for you."
-: Definitely.
Well, Peter, this has been awesome.
I really appreciate you taking the time
out of your busy schedule to talk about this with us.
-: Absolutely, I'm glad to do it.
-: Well, thank you so much, Peter,
we'll definitely have you back in here next time.
-: Awesome, thank you.
-: Awesome, for all of you listening,
and if you're enjoying the content here,
hit that subscribe button wherever you're at,
so you can get more of this awesome content.
And from all of us here at The Sharpest Tool,
we will catch you next time, thanks.
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