The Chief Storyteller

Milk and Cookies…Driving Stronger Relationships and Customer Satisfaction

I went to the grocery store the other day for a gallon of milk.  I was with my son and we were on our way home from a basketball game.  As is the norm in my house on weekends, we were in a hurry.

When we walked into the store, we found the milk prominently displayed in a refrigerator case at the front of the store.  As I went to grab a gallon of milk, my son pointed out the chocolate chip cookies located alongside the milk.  “Milk and cookies,” he said, “they go together.”  He was right, so I grabbed a package of cookies to go with the milk and we were on our way.  It was more than what I came for, but the smile on my son’s face was priceless.

This is an example of cross-selling or offering related items likely to enhance the customer experience.   Cross-selling offers retailers a number of benefits, including exposure for higher margin items and potentially higher customer satisfaction through the suggestion of complementary items of perceived value.

When your associates are interfacing with their stakeholders, what story are they telling?  Does their message enhance the stakeholder’s experience?  Are they offering X, or are they offering X, Y, and Z?  Cross-selling can be an effective relationship-building technique for customer service representatives in schools, associations, governments, and businesses of all sizes.

Once a customer’s reason for calling is addressed, offering suggestions on other complementary services that might resonate with the caller can lead to deeper customer relationships, higher satisfaction rates, and higher revenues.

Social Media – Are You Connected?

I have been actively Tweeting for a month now.  As of this writing, I have accumulated 35 followers and am following 37 others.  I have also posted 53 tweets.  I am now an official microblogger.  More importantly, I am connected.

Like many of you, I attend a fairly robust number of business and social networking events each month.  I also interact with people every day in my job.  One of my favorite conversation starters has become, “Are you connected?”  Invariably, this question leads to another, “Do you tweet?” And then another, “Why not?”
 
For those who don’t, and a surprisingly large number of people I meet do not, the most common reasons are:

- I don’t know what to tweet about.
- I don’t know what I could say that someone else would find value in.
- I’m too busy and don’t have enough time to do it.

If any of these concerns sound familiar to you, I may be able to help.

Before I sent my first Tweet, I wondered what to send.  I knew it had to be something more consequential than “Just took my dog for his daily walk.”  I also wondered why anyone would care about the Tweet I had just posted; i.e., the answer to the “so what?” question.  And, yes, with multiple email and instant messaging accounts to manage, I wondered where I would find the time to deal with yet another electronic messaging medium.

One month and 53 tweets later, my own experience has taught me three things.

1. Twitter is a blank slate.  You can write about anything you want.  It’s helpful to begin with a story, either business or personal.

2. There are many people who love a good story.  Make it positive and fill it with content (i.e., some interesting fact that others can use, links to articles, blogs, photos) and you will build a list of followers.

3. Scanning through a list of 140-character or less headlines while at the gym is a great way to keep current in any topic(s) you choose.

 
Get connected.  One well-timed tweet could be your next conversation starter.

A Personal Touch to Donating

An interview on National Public Radio a few years ago really caught my attention. It was in November, right before the holiday season. The NPR journalist was interviewing a variety of small charities with interesting niches. And what made it compelling was that there was going to be a charity day where you could meet representatives from each of these charities.

I grabbed my wife and we went to this wonderful display of passion for causes you never hear about in mainstream media. It was HeroRATS (www.HeroRat.org) that piqued my curiosity while listening to the radio and we headed straight to its table.

HeroRATS is now a charity that The Chief Storyteller donates to annually. I wanted to share a little of what we received after donating in 2009. Below is a picture of Hero Rat Allan and his trainer John along with the organization's postcard. We also received a personalized letter from Allan thanking us for our contribution. While I know that the charities that I pick all do great work, it is really nice to receive more than a thank you letter.

For this very reason, we personally inscribe and sign every one of our holiday and thank you cards.

About HeroRATS
HeroRATS are trained African giant pouched rats that detect explosives and diagnose disease. They use their highly sensitive and accurate sense of smell to identify the presence of both metal and plastic cased landmines, and can be trained to detect a number of different things like explosives, tuberculosis bacteria, tobacco, contraband, etc. Because of their light weight, the rats do not set off the landmines and are not hurt at all. Once trained, a HeroRAT can clear an area the size of two football fields per month.

A New Year’s Resolution

Looking for a New Year’s Resolution?  How about joining me at the gym?

I go to the gym on a regular basis.  What do I do when I’m there?

If I told you, “I go there to work up a sweat and make myself sore from lifting heavy objects,” very few of you would want to join me.   If I said, “I get up before the sun rises and run three miles uphill before the office opens for the day,” I would surmise that most of you would rather sleep in. If I said, “I go to build memories with my boys – like running a 5K with them, being able to slalom around the lake on water skis with them, and hoisting a full backpack and leading them on a hike to the summit of Mt. Washington when I grow older,” then I would bet that’s a resolution many of you would find appealing and easier to keep.

Building memories with our kids…now, that’s a resolution many of us can embrace and an example of turning a story into action.

I'm Six Foot Five...Can You Help Me?

William was seriously contemplating a last-minute trip to Europe. There were so many positive reasons to go. The hitch...he is six foot five inches. Unless he sits in the exit row, flying is very unpleasant for him. Over the course of two days we talked about how great the trip would be...and William always returned to the concern about the small seats.

I suggested that he call the airline directly and explain the situation to the booking agent. William balked and said that exit rows are impossible to get and with just a few days before departure, it would be impossible. "Ask" is what I suggested, say at least, five or six times.

Two days later William called excited. He is off to Europe! After just a few minutes of talking with the airline agent, he was able to secure an exit seat.

My father taught me early in my life about the power of asking. If you don't ask, nothing happens. In fact, I recently wrote about my father's advice in my ThinkBusiness article, "Life Lessons: Everything I Learned about Sales I Learned from My Parents."

AMC's New Slogan "Story Matters Here"

Around March of 2009 American Movie Classics (AMC) Television announced its new slogan, "Story Matters Here." Charlie Collier, president of AMC, said it "defines what the network stands for and is the common thread unifying everything we do."

Collier also said, "Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade, or creating insightful non-scripted programming and acclaimed original productions, the AMC experience is an uncompromising celebration of great stories." 

In the Wall Street Journal article (link below), Collier was quoted as saying, "We don't have an audience, we have audiences. The challenge for us is pulling them together."

To better connect with its audiences, AMC has developed a theme for each night of the week.

- Monday: geared for women with lifestyle, beauty, food, friendship and family
- Tuesday: Cinemania with hosted interactive short-form programs featuring sponsored trivia
- Wednesday: geared to men with action
- Thursday: red carpet news such as openings
- Friday: events
- Saturday: events
- Sunday: for original programming like Breaking Bad and Mad Men

Additional Resources:

- AMC saddles up for 'True West', article in Variety, 3/2009
- Television Commercial, Story Matters Here: Story Elements, aired 6/2009
- AMC Shakes Up Marketing, Wall Street Journal Article, 3/2009
- Copy of AMC's press release, 3/2009

Thanks to Video Games We are No Longer Passive Observers in the Stories We Encounter.

A few months ago GameSpot posted a nice article on video games and storytelling. The author writes, "when we talk about video games we often talk about the same things: gameplay, length, graphics, difficulty, multiplayer and online capabilities, how well it will sell, and who will buy it. But how often do we talk about the game’s story? How often do we discuss the effectiveness and purpose of its narrative?

In this GameSpot AU feature we look at game narratives, and ask the question: are video games an effective storytelling medium? To find out we talk to game theorists, scriptwriters, and developers from studios including Remedy, Quantic Dream and 2K Games, as well as the leading man of adventure games, Tim Schafer."

The article interviews several well known experts in the field of communications, storytelling, and gaming. Different perspectives are shared about interactivity, storytelling, game experience.

One telling comment was "the only way for video games to overcome the challenges of interactivity and become an effective storytelling medium is to successfully marry both story and gameplay in their development."

To read the entire article, visit Gamespot.

Transforming a Famous Street into a Board Game

How's this for publicity and exposure! In honor of it's 60th anniversary, Hasbro transformed Lombard Street in San Francisco, California into a larger-than-life Candy Land board game. Having lived in San Francisco, I wish I was there to take part.

Knowing what graphic artists can do today, you would think that somebody doctored the photograph. The setup crew started the night before to create this amazing event. Hundreds of children were there to take part in playing the life-size game, interact with the main characters, and eat cake (see below--it's a work of art).

According to Hasbro's press release, "CANDY LAND is often a child’s first board game."

Experience a Vibrant, Forward-thinking Day of Creativity and Innovation

Michelle James (my creativity and humor buddy for years) at The Center for Creative Emergence has set up an amazing conference on creativity and innovation in the workplace. Join me and many leaders in their field on Sunday October 4th in Washington, DC. Join us for a little push or a big push outside your comfort zone. Leave with practical and immediately useful approaches, ideas, and suggestions. More information is below and you can visit the conference site here.

Creativity in Business Conference, Sunday, October 4th
Come experience a vibrant, forward-thinking, content-rich day of exploration, examination, learning, play, discovery, connecting, collaborating and emergence! Leave with principles, approaches, frameworks and a "navigation tool kit"  you can start applying to your work, life or business right away.

Creativity is the capital of the new economy. Join creativity thought leaders, pioneering entrepreneurs and business innovators - in the fields of applied creativity and innovation, organizational change/development/storytelling, social media and transformational leadership - from around the country for a full-day event focused on:

> Harnessing and focusing individual, group and organizational creativity
> Fostering a work environment conducive for creativity and innovation
> Integrating creativity, business, and serving the greater good

Conference: 9:00-5:30

Conference includes:
> Experiential Breakout Sessions
> Compelling Thought Leader Panels
> Real-time Ideating/Crowdsourcing
> Facilitated Improvisation
> Arts and Business Services Auction
> Pioneering Thinkers and Facilitators

Speakers (see the website for biographies):
> Jennifer Abernethy, Americas first Sales Stylist™, www.thesaleslounge.com
> Cherie Beck, master practitioner and trainer of Spiral Dynamics integral, www.cherie-beck.com
> Larry Blumsack, Founder of Zoka Institute, www.zokainstitute.com
> Mike Bonifer, author of GameChangers, www.gamechangers.com
> Diane Cline, PhD, Over The Horizon Consulting, www.OTHconsulting.com
> Jen Consalvo, co-founder of Shiny Heart Ventures, www.shinyheartventures.com
> Frank Gruber, well-known for the blog SOMEWHAT FRANK, www.somewhatfrank.com
> Stan Gryskiewicz, PhD, founded and currently leads Association for Managers of Innovation (AMI), www.aminnovation.org
> Sam Horn, America's Intrigue Expert and creator of the POP! Process, www.samhorn.com
> Michelle James, Conference Chair and Master of Ceremonies, www.creativeemergence.com
> Jeff Klein, CEO of Cause Alliance Marketing®, www.causealliancemarketing.com
> Ira Koretsky, business storyteller and strategic messaging, The Chief Storyteller, www.TheChiefStoryteller.com
> Jennifer Lee, MA, CPCC, PCC, of Artizen Coaching, www.artizencoaching.com
> Michael Margolis, business storyteller and change strategist, www.thirsty-fish.com
> Nick O'Neill, Founder of Social Times, Inc., www.socialtimes.com
> Brian Robertson, pioneer of Holacracy™, www.holacracy.org
> Paul Scheele, chairman of Natural Brilliance Productions, www.reclaimyourgenius.com
> Russell Schoen, partner at New and Improved, www.newandimproved.com
> Gail Taylor, Founder of TIA - The Integrated Approach™, www.TheIntegratedApproach.com
> Jesse Thomas, CEO and Founder of JESS3 – a creative interactive agency, www.jess3.com
> Win Wenger, PhD, pioneer in the fields of creativity and creative method, founder of Project Renaissance, www.winwenger.com

Being Persistent Pays Off to Handbag Designer

It's exciting when someone you know starts becoming more recognized and successful. I met Cherry Kwunyeun about two years when she attended a presentation I made to the alumni of the Robert H. Smith School of Business (where I went for my MBA).

Over time I have seen Cherry at various events. Recently a newsletter came out sharing that one of her handbag designs (see below) was a finalist in the annual Independent Handbag Designer (IHDA) Awards. The final judging occurred in June.

I'm delighted to share that Cherry won the "Most Socially Responsible Handbag" award. She has been tenacious and persistent in generating buzz. You can always find her "advertising" by wearing her handbags. She has examples of local celebrities toting her designs.

What are you doing to promote your brand and products/services?

Find Cherry and her chi designs at Blumpari.