#67 – News from Disney, a Brilliant Video About Marketing, How to Convert More Visitors to Your Website into Customers, and a BIG Marketing Lesson from TGI Fridays
August 5, 2009Episode #67 – “Windows: Just Another Pane” 
Websites and resources mentioned in the show:
Infusion (Download the free guide from Infusion)
Paid for Life (San Diego Charity Seminar)
Mesh (Easily share files between computers)
NiftyClicks (Discover the very latest web tools and resources)
Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)
Buy This Week’s T-Shirt (from National Media Services)
Great news from Disney! One of their executives phoned me the other day. They had watched the episode where I told you about the dining disaster at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom, Florida. You’ll discover what they told me and I think you’ll be as pleased as I was.
Thanks to Reuven who alerted me to an excellent video by marketing agency 22Squared. Let me know what you think of it.
Our question comes from Louie Bernstein, who tells me that he’s needs more people to try his software, so it’s an issue of conversion. I dissect his website and give some suggestions about how to improve the conversion. You can apply the same principles to your website.
Microsoft Mesh is a relatively new service that’s currently free. It allows you to easily transfer files between computers, say a desktop PC in the office with a laptop you use when you travel. I used to use a service called ‘BeInSync’ which worked well until the company went out of business! At least Microsoft aren’t going anywhere, so I feel good about using their service. Actually, it’s very impressive.
The BIG marketing lesson is from the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s. The way they promote their loyalty scheme is very impressive. There’s 3 key points that I want you to take away to adapt in your business. See if you can spot them.
Enjoy the show!
Regards,
August 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Andrew, your whining and complaining worked. Too bad your constant whining and complaining of airlines don’t work.
When I whine and complain, I have a bad attitude. When you whine and complain, it’s a marketing lesson. Go figure.
August 5th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Actually Andrew, I don’t frequent TGI Fridays very much and their marketing is one reason. If I’m out for a meal with friends, it annoys me to have to sit through a sales pitch (as brief as it may be) to get signed up for yet another list/service. It may be an effective tool for them, but as a customer, I don’t particularly like their proactive approach. Leave cards and pens on the table with a little sign telling about it, but don’t waste five minutes of my dinner time by giving me the canned speech about why I should want to sign up.
August 5th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Andrew – Of course another great lesson from you. I remember when I worked at Outback Steakhouse, yes I wore a purple shirt and had boomerangs on it. If I had known now after watching this show I would have given them some marketing pointers. Great company, but their internal marketing could have been better, instead of just asking the main ?, have you ever been to Outback before, they could have added at the end a comment card and asking for suggestions on how to keep you a loyal customer.
Keep the great info flowing. As always love the show and watch it before I head out to the JOB.
August 5th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Andrew – The Design-A-Course site needs some short testimonials as well as a short Video to demonstrate how a typical completed course looks/works. I also thinks I would use a course type that is the same as the most often previously courses.
Testimonials always help.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Hi Andrew,
That BLANK video is very annoying. Did not like it at all!
Happy to hear Disney finally refunded you.
See you next week!
August 5th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Bob,
Sorry you viewed it as ‘whining and complaining’
I don’t view it that way, I view it as championing a cause for a wider group of people! If you goto a restaurant and have a really good OR bad experience, you tend to want to tell your friends about it, don’t you? You want them to experience the same pleasure (or avoid the pain).
Dan,
Sounds like you were pitched too hard. The servers I’ve experienced simply invited us to take a look at the benefits and signup if it was of interest. There was no pitch or hard sell. It lasted no more than 10 seconds. I agree with you, and your experience would have annoyed me too.
Derek,
I know Outback very well, my wife really likes it so we go there fairly regularly. What’s interesting is that our local restaurant seems to have an excellent manager, many don’t. She always checks in with us to see how the service is, and is genuinely interested in making improvements constantly. I had a chat with her about marketing on one occasion, which was interesting. The little details are what matter in restaurants in my opinion.
Gus,
Nice tips for Louie, I agree with you.
Lisa,
Hey, we’re all different aren’t we? I thought the video made a really powerful point.
Regards
Andrew
August 5th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Andrew, since your a frequent visitor to Disney, you purposely mentioned the Disney incident because you wanted your money back. You even mentioned it in a future episode as an update. Even tough you were to “too tired” to handle the situation while at the restaurant, your the type of person who would record a conversation at a Honda dealership and post it on the web in protest after you signed a contract.
My advice, that you’re probably not going to take, is to handle the situation at that time. If you really didn’t want a refund from Disney, then don’t accept it.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Hi Andrew thanks for using this “Blank” video for your show. And thanks for Mesh very helpful for me!!
August 5th, 2009 at 9:53 am
My son told me to check out your blog and I must say I’m impressed, very helpful.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Bob, although I can see that Andrew made an effort to see renumeration from Disney for their tresspass against him, he has also done a lot of good for disney as well, promoting their above average service and experiences. Such as the “make your own commemoration” video that he showed a long time ago, where they put your name all over the slides, coasters and signs. It could be just as easily assumed that Andrews loyal viewers were emailing him to ask “What happened with the disney thing?” and he answered it in one fell swoop, similar to the issue of people always asking where to buy the shirts.
However, Andrew, to really drive the point home for the viewers that you were doing more than just using your public eye “Clout” to stick it to disney, perhaps in a few months, go BACK to the restaurant, using the money that you were refunded, to see how the dining experience has changed, since your complaint. To see if your reply from disney was more a “here, have your 200 bucks and a kiss your butt statement, now shut up and quit talking about us” Because giving a refund on a meal to one customer, and sending a fluffy email, is just to get you to correct your negative press, Im curious to see if they ACTUALLY make a difference.
Now Bob, quit hating on Andrew, even if the show isnt perfect and you find value in being some kind of conspiracy theorist or trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, there are very few resources like his show online, I am waiting for Andrew to hurry up with Gotbiz.tv so hopefully I dont have to look like a cultist only being loyal to one business podcast on the web.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I forgot to mention, while it’s very nice of you to be “championing a cause for a wider group of people” at an expensive Disney restaurant which only a few viewers have to, I’m sure there are a more wider group of viewers viewers who fly on airlines and stay in hotels so you might want to do more good by contacting Delta Airlines for their bad service or any hotels who charge $5 for a bottle of water. You seem to be only interested in your interests.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Adam, thanks for your comments but I hope you misspelled hating from “quit hating on Andrew”.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Wow Bob, you’re intense. I’m a subscriber to the idea of: if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. It’ important to give feedback, although it’s more important to give constructive feedback. I’m of the opinion that your feedback is not constructive in the least.
Andrew, thanks again for the show. I enjoyed the BLANK video and learned some valuable lessons as well. Thank you.
Dr. Scott
August 5th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Andrew,
Have you watched “The Story of Stuff”? It talks about people choosing a new paradigm. One of stewardship, sustainability, and closed loop production.
Your site seems like a good one though. Lots of practical info!
August 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Bob,
Everything you say seems to be negative or inflamatory. I honestly don’t know why you watch the show – it’s obviously not your cup of tea so again, so I encourage you to find something else that’s more your taste. You seem very unhappy.
In this instance, your comments are way off base, and you make many assumptions that are false.
I couldn’t care less if Disney refunded me or not. That was never the point. Since they already refunded me, I’m not going to refuse it, that would be just silly, and pointless. I’m not a martyr. Fact is, Disney wanted to keep me happy, and that’s part of their core philosophy with ALL customers.
I would very much like to revisit te restaurant on a future occasion, to see if things have really changed. That’s what interests me most.
There’s two ways to view my show, and apaprently some people don’t understand this:
First, your view as you expressed here, is that I whine and complain in a public forum for my own self interest, and that you’re simply a fly on the wall observing that happen.
By contrast, MOST viewers of the show view my experiences, stories, anecdotes and examples as LESSONS to improve their own businesses. That’s the aim of the show. I cite many examples of what other companies do that are good or bad. There’s much to be learned from both extremes.
Regards
Andrew
August 5th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I’ve been subscribing to your videos through Miro ( http://www.getmiro.com ), but episodes 66 and 67 don’t download. As far as I know I have done no changes to my install, so I’m guessing you did some changes to your feed. Any chance of getting your videos working again with Miro?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Really interesting show. The Disney refund is great. The “Blank” section was great and funny. Ask Andrew had really good suggestions. Definately going to check out mesh.com. I’m going to watch more episodes in the future.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Even though I don’t run a business, I found this video really interesting. It’s neat to see what goes into making things run effectively. The presentation is really well done. It’s clear and the host seems very approachable, which makes the advice seem even better!
August 5th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Great episode ! Thanks
August 6th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Go Disney!
however I must say Disney still works and I will take my child there when I can! Its a good example of even when parts of the business might not work well, still business model will hold strong.
Had experienced something similar in Paris – no the best food and customer services
August 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Andrew,
I wanted to post a comment in support of your reply, and the replies from others, to Bob’s post. I find your stories about your experiences with various companies INCREDIBLY helpful. I’m sure the majority of your loyal viewers ‘get it’ and understand these stories serve as ‘real life’ examples of ‘marketing is everything’.
In fact, as a result of your Delta Airlines story, where you were sent coupons from Delta to distribute when you noticed a ‘job well done’, I went out and purchased $500 worth of $25 gift cards from Starbucks, Wolf Camera & Chipotle to distribute to my team of photographers when they recieve a favorable testimonial from a client. At our annual BBQ gathering I read testimonials I’ve recieved over the years and gave each photograher their first gift card to announce the new program.
I find the lessons from your program very helpful and I’m thankful I don’t need to pay a subscription to watch ‘Help My Business Sucks’ . . . so, please keep the great ideas coming and thank your sponsors for allowing your programming to be free!!
Mark
August 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks Mark,
You truly do get it! You are an entrepreneur!
I love hearing positive stories like yours about how people have implemented the PRINCIPLES that they’ve learned from watching the show. Thanks so much for sharing what you did.
I applaud your success, you deserve every bit of it, and the way you launched your rewards program was perfect. I’m sure that most of your employees will be keen to be part of it.
You clearly understand that no business achieves anything great unless there’s massive action on a continual basis. Every business, including mine needs to make constant improvement in order to grow long-term.
Regards
Andrew
August 6th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
wow you persistence really helped you out in the end we should all take a lesson from that!
August 7th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Nice Video mate Cheers. I got to learn a lot for this video about internet marketing which would help me develop my business in a better way from now ! Thanks Mate ! Cheers !
August 7th, 2009 at 6:21 am
hmm one of my friend asked me to check this blog, was not interested in doing but worth a watch
cheers
August 7th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Andrew! im late to get this video. Perhaps i have missed a lot from you. Hope in future i will be watching your’s and be benefited as now. Thanks.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:38 am
This is a very interesting video.I have learnt a lot about the internet marketing.They are worth the watch. good job!!!
August 7th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Bob is what my good friend (and yours) Dean Hunt calls a Negativity Vampire. They’re everywhere and completely unproductive!
August 7th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
that is a nice episode i must say…i urge people to see others too in order to take advantage.Internet marketing is explained in such a wonderful way..i must appreciate !!!
nice job!!
August 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I just discovered your website. Very enjoyable video and informative. It was good to hear that Disney sure knows the meaning of customer satisfaction. TGIF also knows the definition of marketing. It is clear why some companies prosper and others just get by. I will be returning to your site to view your past videos and to read more about your course on starting your own web tv show at http://www.startyourowntvshow.com/.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I liked what the video said about Marketing being a behavior. That is an angle that is good to take and approach as apposed to just advertising for the sake of it.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I loved the blank video. Great! Thanks for the other information too.
August 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I thought the blank video was very amusing. I for the most part just see marketing as another tool in our unofficial state of social Darwinism. Companies exist on a seesaw of sorts where they must rise above their competition but like you showed with TGI Fridays they also have to submit to the needs (laziness) of their customers. Finding that balance is the key to success.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Hey, this wasn’t as boring as I expected it to be. Great work, because the host is delightful and he presents the information in a compelling way. Most importantly, the information that is here seems helpful for small business owners and people who just want to be in the know! I’m gonna check out other videos soon, because this is good stuff.
August 9th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Far more interesting than I though it’d be, honestly. The information is good and helpful. Very much worth my time. Definitely going to watch more!
August 9th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
This is my first time watching this video series. At first I found Andrew somewhat annoying but it works. It’s like those commercials that are terribly annoying but then you go and purchase the product or service. I found the “Blank” video very funny! I agree with Andrew about how the web site needs to be reorganized, but also has to be easy to navigate. If stuff gets to spread out on a web page i usually leave and find another site that is more user friendly. TGI Fridays has a terrible marketing plan considering I have never eaten there or even considered eating there. But overall very help full video.
August 9th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
The video is really going to help me.It is of much worth.It is in a compelling way.Nice work..
August 9th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Andrew this episode was awesome. I have learned alot from you and I am waiting for you to show us more on how you are using resources like Itunes, Podcasting, RSS, wordpress blogging, eBay and social media to drive traffic.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I love hearing positive stories like yours about how people have implemented the PRINCIPLES that they’ve learned from watching the show. Thanks so much for sharing what you did.Even though I don’t run a business, I found this video really interesting. It’s neat to see what goes into making things run effectively. The presentation is really well done. It’s clear and the host seems very approachable, which makes the advice seem even better!The Disney refund is great. The “Blank” section was great and funny. Ask Andrew had really good suggestions. Definately going to check out mesh.com. I’m going to watch more episodes in the future.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I think there are alot of useful tips in this video. As with many techniques some work for people and some don’t. I see alot of negative comments on here, but people need to realize that not all techniques are perfect for everyone but it is nice to see people are sharing these techniques.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Wow the video about “Marketing” is very informative and useful. This is really a very very good lesson from TGI fridays. I am expecting some more works from you on the business side. It was really interesting. Keep up the great work.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:20 am
Dear Andrew,
I think that both stories you told (Disney and Blank) point in the same direction: you MUST care for your customers!
Whether something has gone wrong or not, we (customers) just want a bit of attention. Regardless of how you (company) will handle the problem you might have caused us, we just want to know that you LISTENED to our complains, and that you CARE about them.
Oh, and your tips about websites reading patterns are awsome!
Best regards, Rodolfo.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:14 am
Great show, nice interface.This is the first time i’ve watched your show and it seems you really know what you’re talking about.The blank video…maybe i would shorten it a bit but otherwise it is 100% right: ” when advocates talk, brands grow “
August 21st, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I am late to this thread (just discovered this series, and am happily going through the archives), but I still want to add my two cents from my time as a waiter.
I think the bigger lesson from TGI Friday’s is not how the loyalty program was presented, but that the loyalty program actually has value to the customer.
Before becoming a personal trainer, I worked at a restaurant where the servers had to push the loyalty program on the guests. Unlike TGI Friday’s, there were few, if any, benefits to joining the program (for example, you would get an e-mail if a new restaurant was opening). There were no fun events or coupons or anything worth getting. As you can imagine, it was very difficult to get people to join the program. A lot of servers lied to guests (saying they could win a prize or something like that) or wrote in names of their friends and families. While it did always help to give as many pens as cards to fill out, clear benefits to joining would have made the program more successful for the restaurant .
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