The word “disruptive: isn’t necessarily negative. In the business world, it’s one of the highest compliments you can receive because it means you’ve created something brand new and successful.
On today’s Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg, Nichole Montaya of online group payment site Cheddar Up and Peter Shankman of HARO and the author of Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans explained why entrepreneurs should aspire to be disruptive.
Here are their top soundbites:
Like / Dislike:
On naked bacon-cooking protector:
“Dislike unless it’s someone attractive cooking it for me, then like.”—Peter.
“I like it and I’ve used it.”—Peter
On $150 computer that must be built and coded:
“I’d buy this for my daughter. Computers saved my life when I was a kid.”—Peter
“I don’t know how useful it’d be if I put it together but maybe for my daughter.”—Nichole
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Nichole Montaya, CEO & Founder of Cheddar Up
“The idea for Cheddar Up came because I was writing dozens of checks to my daughter’s school.”
“Why haven’t payments innovated in schools?”
“I wasn’t inviting my friends to go to concerts because it was such an awkward transaction waiting for them to pay me back.”
“We see a huge spike that’s cyclical. Fall and spring are busy with sports and holiday time are busy for teacher gifts.”
“A lot of group transactions ended up on the lap of the mom. School, sports, party planning.”
“Every time we get a question it’s a valuable nugget of information—a data point where we have to ask ‘is this a trend?’ We even listen in on Live Chat conversations.”
“It’s great to hear the feedback directly on Live Chat.”
On her 13 years of marketing experience: “It’s a new world of social media. Customer recommendation is more important than marketing.”
“We’ve spent little to nothing in marketing. I would equate customer feedback to our success. Moms loving telling others about a product they like.”
“As many customers we can delight, the likelihood of them sharing it with their friends will lead to our success.”
“People are comfortable with huge purchases online. It’s quicker. Time is valuable.”
“Individuals are clamoring to have the option to pay online.”
On the average transaction: “$145 dollars, which is oddly high. We thought it’d be more around $30 because of school transactions.”
“We have a lot of schools who use it for annual giving. People aren’t shying away from making large transactions.”
“I would say that raising money is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my professional career. We started with friends and family but that wasn’t our goal so we went to angel investors.”
” Pitching to men ages 60 to 70 is hard when pitching a woman centric product may not be the best use of time to audiences like that.”
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Peter Shankman, author of Zombie Loyalists & creator of Help A Reporter Out.
“I wish I knew about Cheddar Up before. I’m currently getting the cash for all the doorman for the holidays. They have you by ransom every Christmas.”—Peter
“Tell your own story. Turn to the mirror on the elevator and give that 15-30 second pitch. Try to get it in before the elevator doors open.”
“Get other people’s opinions. Your pitch is different than your co-workers.”
“Companies who act nicer tend to have happier customers who want to tell their stories.”
“It won’t be about friending or liking, social media satisfaction is going to live in my history.”
“Zombie Loyalists is a collection of positive and negative experiences and how companies learned to create a better experience from those.”
“We expect to be treated poorly or at least one level above crap. Think about the last flight that you took. If the airline gave you exactly what they were supposed to, that’s a pretty low bar.”
“Zappos is great. Tony hires for people for people. Uber hires for people who can drive. That’s going to come back and bite you.”
“The Ritz Carlton calls their employees ladies and gentleman serving ladies and gentlemen.”
“Some internet drama queen had an issue with Jet Blue and complained, so they did everything in their power to help but he still boycotted them on Twitter so they boycotted him from all their flights.”
“The last thing you want to do is show your employees that you don’t value them either.”
“Instead of waiting for social media whining, fix customer service before it hits Twitter.”
“Let employees know they matter. I get business cards with their name on them, and candy they like and leave it on their desk on the first day. Win employees loyalty.”
“Let your employee know they will never be fired for attempting to do right by the customer. You WILL be fired if you let the customer walked out the door unhappy.”
“Loyalty matters.”
“If you trust your employees, social media shouldn’t be a problem.”
“There’s nothing better for a customer when the employee can do something without having to transfer them to a manager.”
“I was staying at the Sheraton on my birthday. They left 2 dozen helium balloons in my room. I put the photo on Instagram. Sheraton got reservations from that photo.”
“I mention Morton’s steakhouse because they ask if you’re celebrating anything. There’s a menu is printed Happy Birthday whomever and then they Instagram that photo. People like to be treated well. The infection spreads.”
“I just recently invested in Mumzy, a Kickstarter for moms.”
“Send out a 1 question survey ‘do you think we should do this or this?’ To everyone who responds, send out an email thanking them personally.”
“Your question as a money company should be ‘What can I do to make my customers feel invested in this company?’ Do it in a way that’s subtle.”
“The CEO of Patagonia’s mistake was not looking enough ahead in the future.”
“Show me someone who’s never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who never got ahead in business.”
“Mistakes are how you grow.”
“Our expectations of customer service are really, really low. To be better than the rest just have better customer service.”
Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg on Sirius XM will be on hiatus until January 7th. Until then have a happy holiday season and remember to UNPLUG!!
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