Technical crap aside, it’s all fair and well having a faster, more expensive car but if you don’t have the after sales service to go with it you may as well not bother. I did not buy the Merc new, but it was recently due for it’s second service and so my first experience with Merc Sandton came to pass.

What a breath of fresh air. There’s not much between Audi and Merc, car-wise. I mean, there’s not much between an A4 2.0T and a C200. But there certainly is a big gap in service ethic between Audi Sandton and Merc Sandton (I can’t speak for other branches). From the moment I pulled up this morning, I was surprised – friendly staff, freshly-brewed coffee, orderly processing of vehicles, and a swiftly organised lift from the dealership to my breakfast appointment – all done and dusted in about 10 minutes.

When I picked up my vehicle the seats and steering wheel had been covered in plastic to prevent dirt or scuffing, and the car was spotless. It took another 10 minutes to pick up my keys, sign the paperwork and leave.

And then my heart sank.

I realised my CD changer was empty. All my CD’s were gone. A Leatherman I keep in the middle console was missing. So was the loose change, and, I kid you not, my gum and tissues were gone too.

I was livid. So much excitement, followed by such devastating (and all to familiar) disappointment. In fact I lost a wedding ring to an Audi dealership the same way.

In a state I phoned the service advisor Martin Fortuin to ask if he knew anything about it. He asked me to hold for a second, returned to the phone and broke the news…

My stuff, all of which had been carelessly left in the car by me (I’m bad that way), was all tucked away neatly and safely in a Ziploc bag back at the dealership, ready for my collection. Wow. If only all brands understood service and honesty like Mercedes-Benz do.

I might never own another brand of car. I mean, who needs more than the sound of that V8?

His presentation included a reference to a ‘pact’ Get Satisfaction has authored, detailed here on their site, which states that:

“…customers and companies alike need to trust the people with whom we do business. Customers expect honest, straightforward interactions where their voices are heard, before, during, and between purchases. Companies work to inspire customer satisfaction and brand loyalty by constantly improving the products and services they offer.

It is evident that we all have a crucial stake – and responsibility – in transforming the adversarial tone that all too often dominates the customer experience. If we work together and share the responsibility of furthering effective conversation, we can build mutually respectful long-term relationships.

By adopting these five, practical values, we can together realize a meaningful shift in our business relationships…

I’d encourage you to visit the Pact and read about the five values which include being human, authentic, accessible, patient and productive. I like the pact because it doesn’t lambaste companies, emphasizing over and over again how archaic they are (like say the Cluetrain Manifesto as an example). This pact encourages customers to take responsibility for the influence they have – something I think often gets overlooked by social media enthusiasts. The role of the customer is as critical to meaningful relationships as the role of the brand.

What are your thoughts?

I’ve also included Lane’s preso from the conference on Slideshare FYI:

Considering that, and how blown away I was with the second annual Bookmark Awards evening held last night at Movida in Jozi, it’s clear that digital in South Africa is definitely growing up and competing with it’s print, TV and radio cousins for quality.

From the high quality of the judging panel, to the evening’s entertainment (1st Project and the Dirty Skirts) to the really funky awards themselves, it really was a world class event. Huge congrats goes to Adrian from Habari, Ben from Stonewall+ and Rob from Quirk (Rob justly walked away with the best contribution to digital in 2009 award) for their roles in the success of the event.

Big winner’s on the evening included Gloo, Quirk and Stonewall+. Afrigator walked away with an award, while Women’s Health (a Cerebra project) was nominated in the publishing category.

I look forward to next year’s event!

Thanks needs to go to eBucks who sponsored cocktails for all in attendance and gave an insightful talk on virtual currency, and also to our guest speaker Ronnie Apteker. The inimitable Toby Shapshak kindly offered up a pile of Stuff magazines for those in attendance, and it seemed fun was had by most.

I was quite disappointed in FTV as a venue (I paid R27 for a beer – ridiculous), and so we continue to search for the ideal venue. Your suggestions are welcome if you have any ideas!

To promote their new range of mens and ladies shavers, Philips linked up with the very impressive and professional teambuilding outfit, The Poker Room, the brainchild of Cape Town entrepreneur Mark Bernberg.

I love poker. I started playing poker late last year, after my brother encouraged me to learn the game with ‘play money’ chips on a poker website. It didn’t take long to get hooked, and to cut a long story short poker is fast becoming my favourite sport (yes, I said sport) – and I’m not the only one. Millions of people the world over are falling in love with the highly strategic, thrilling game that is Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit poker – it is in fact the worlds fastest growing sport. Having graduated from it’s seedy roots and history poker is now ranked closer to it’s strategic equals – chess, backgammon and bridge – rather than slot machines and blackjack.

Recognising this trend and acknowledging the numerous analogies that can be drawn not just between poker and business, but poker and life, Mark’s business seeks to take the game of Texas Hold ‘Em poker to companies and brands in such a way as to help them understand just how critical it is to build relationships, understand people and leverage yourknowledge of those people in today’s economy – skills that are essential in poker too. From their site: “If good business is all about relationships, then let’s stop and think about the relationship. Any relationship is the simple interaction between two people. Therefore before attempting business interaction within any relationship; it’s in your interest to understand what that other person is thinking, and more importantly, how this thinking can affect the relationship. And this understanding is defined through the economic and financial principle of… Game Theory”

I was deeply impressed with The Poker Room’s ability to link their offering with Philip’s message, the professionalism of the staff and just how quickly newcomers to the game picked up on the sheer thrill of poker. Only negative side? I spent all of last night’s drive home thinking “now why didn’t I think of that!!?”

• Stay true to yourself

  There is a plethora of self-help books, training programmes and online resources that will help you become a better speaker, not to mention formal clubs like Toastmasters that are brilliant for honing your craft. Also, it’s essential that you pick up tips from colleagues in the speaking industry. But I want to encourage you to stay true the the characteristics, traits and sometimes even habits that make you who you are – it is one of the ways you’ll differentiate yourself and develop a style that will be memorable. I have given up trying to be like the speakers I admire and instead borrowed valuable stuff, while celebrating what it is that I do uniquely.

• Know your audience

  It’s embarrassing to admit but I have found myself doing some last minute tap-dancing on more than one occasion because I took for granted who I would be speaking to. Do some research, ask for a briefing from the organiser of the event, spend some time understanding the industry – certain anecdotes, jokes, stories or illustrations just won’t work as well with some audiences. Rather save yourself the pain and spend those extra few minutes preparing.

• Tell stories

  When I think about great presentations I have seen, I remember the stories the speaker told. If you want people to remember what you have to say, tell a story. The nice thing about stories is that you can, unless you’re speaking about a factual event, be quite creative and elaborate. The ability to communicate meaning effectively through metaphors and stories is fast becoming a competitive differentiator for leaders in business, so it’s a no-brainer that us public speakers should refine this skill as part of our craft.

• Use props

  One of my favourite stand up comedians is Demetri Martin. His brilliant use of a flip chart inspired me to start using atypical props in my presentations. Today I tend to incorporate flip charts, brooms and even the remote for the data projector in random moments in my presentations. It doesn’t work for everyone, but if done right, can be extremely effective and memorable.

• Speak for free!

  What!? Speak for free?? Earlier this year I advertised on this blog that I would be offering anyone who booked me in a specific period of time my social media talk, for free. I pitched it as an initiative to improve my preso, but in actual fact the primary motivation was a marketing one :) I wanted to get out there and get seen, and hopefully use the exposure to land more gigs. It worked. I did 29 free talks and a plethora of consulting business and more talks sprung from the experiment. Why not give it a go?

BONUS TIP:

Record your talks and put the videos on your site – many of you think this will lead to people stealing content or showing their staff your video instead of hiring you. That might well happen, but the fact is that it’s probably going to happen anyways. Rather put your content out there to be viewed, passed on, commented on and who knows – if you’re good enough it might go viral!

I trust these few tips from my speaking experience will help you improve your business, regardless of what level in your speaking career you are at. Good luck!

Prizes on offer:

• The first five valid entries drawn out win FREE tickets
• The next ten qualify for R4000 subsidies from the standard price of R6500 – attendance costs R2500
• Every other valid entry qualifies for R3000 subsidies from the standard price of R6500 – attendance costs R3500

How to enter:
To qualify to enter entrants will need to send an email titled “I would like to win a free place for Mobile Web Africa” to info (at)allamber(dot)co(dot)uk with these details: Name, Position, Company, Telephone, Email, Company Website Address, Years company has been operating, Number of staff working at the company.

The competition closes on Friday 18th September and the Winners will be notified on Monday 20th September

Get your emails in now!

Here’s a vid of one of the campaign ads:

The really interesting part is that Checkers have just launched a nationwide campaign with the tagline, “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket”. Little too close for comfort in my humble opinion.

Listen to it here: Checkers “Don’t change your lifestyle” radio spot.

Update:

I received a response via email from Andrew Brand this afternoon (05/05/09) – it reads as follows:

Hi Mike

I saw your blog regarding the “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket” tagline, and would like to respond.

The new Checkers advertising campaign, which started flighting in April, showcases the brand as one that’s ideally suited to answering to consumer’s needs, particularly during the current financial situation. The campaign sets up the proposition of “Better Living” solutions, showcasing various product and category offerings in which Checkers offers exceptional quality and value.

The commercials end with the logical tactical proposition of “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket” which succinctly implies that the consumer still has a choice in these current tough economic times – that they can still afford great products at an affordable price at Checkers.

After the idea was pitched we researched the “Better Living” and “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket” propositions and found that both phrases were already being extensively used internationally with the “Don’t change your supermarket…” phrase being used by Aldi Supermarket Group in the United Kingdom.

After discussions with our clients, it was agreed that although the line had already been used by Aldi, it was still the most succinct way to express the desired sentiment and met the tactical requirements of the campaign. It’s not unusual for certain phrases to enter the lexicon at similar times for similar brands or categories – over the years many brands across the world have positioned themselves similarly.

The television campaign bears absolutely no creative similarity to that of Aldi’s (bar the tagline in question) nor any other local or international supermarket chain, and the response to the advertisements in the marketplace has been fantastic thus far, with Checkers demonstrating their positioning of being “better and better” to an ever-growing, and increasingly loyal, customer base.

I appreciate the opportunity to give perspective on our position, and wish you and your blog all the success in the future.

Kind regards

Andrew Brand

Managing Director, NINETY9CENTS

I guess that’s fair enough – kudos to Andrew for the transparent response.

More impressive than Simon’s titles is his published material:

He was the winner of WPP’s top Atticus Grand Prix in 2002 for ‘You’re Getting Old’, his study on ageing societies in Europe. He also won the 2006 Atticus Grand Prix for ‘My Brain Hurts: how the digital revolution is leaving the consumer behind’ and the 2007 Atticus Grand Prix for ‘How To Think Digital’

All of Simon’s stuff can be downloaded here.

So, not wanting to waste the man’s time, we had a quick conversation about Africa, social media, the recession, London and Andy Flower. Though Simon’s not a big cricket fan so that part of the conversation was dominated by me ;) Simon was down to earth, smart, insightful and interested in what I had to say. I really appreciated the opportunity to connect with him, and by the time I’d got back to the office he’d added me on Facebook, Twitter and the rest. Very cool.

A big thank you to Michelle from Y&R Brands for organising – I look forward to doing more work with Y&R as they seek to push the envelope in the new digital age.