
Yes... the little butterflies that can build and destroy your brand. An ever-increasing important component to retail marketing. Allow me to share a quick story, or novella if you will:
I happened to be in San Jose for business travel pertaining to
Balihoo's Dental Marketing team,
which is completely irrelevant to my story and more of a shameless product plug, when I experienced a perfect example of the power of these social networking butterflies.
It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon in downtown San Jose. A nice high pressure system had brought with it a cloudless spring evening with temperatures hovering around 21 degrees Celsius. The anemometer was showing a NE breeze of 5-7 knots. I decided to visit one of my favorite chain restaurants, and perhaps one that might benefit from implementing Balihoo's
local marketing automation solution, commonly referred to as
Gordon Biersch. Great beer, great food, great atmosphere... really just an all-around great place.
I was by myself (accepting applications for dates - all candidates may apply by commenting on this blog with appropriate contact information) so I decided to sit at the bar. I placed my order and then proceeded to read the newspaper on my handheld Blackberry device via my favorite
CNBC app. I noticed the waitstaff continually peering over at me as though I was up to no good. While most who know me know that I only misbehave on weekends - but the waitstaff didn't know me, my intentions or lack thereof. After about 10-12 minutes from the time I placed my order, the Shift Supervisor came up to me and very politely said, "Sir, your food should be right up. We are a bit backed up in the kitchen but please accept our apologies for the delay."
I told her that it was absolutely no worry and went back to reading a CNBC feature story about
flesh-eating vultures taking over an abandoned luxury Florida condo complex. Seeing as how I had hardly been waiting, I found her apology a bit peculiar and certainly unnecessary. After putting further thought into it, I put two and two together. To find the restaurant, I used the
Bing app on my phone and searched for casual dining restaurants that had the best reviews and were located within .5 miles of my hotel. Just as easily as I found the restaurant from positive reviews, I could have been a social networking butterfly (or moth in the eyes of any restaurant chain marketing department) and write a bad
Yelp or Bing review while I was waiting for my food. Wouldn't be the first time someone has done such a thing.
For the record: the service was exceptional and I encourage all visiting San Jose to grab a burger and beer there.
Long story short, I'm not sure if restaurants are now training staff to be cognoscente of anyone using their Blackberry, Droid, or iPhone while sitting alone but I have to say that I was damn impressed with the supervisor's awareness of the situation. Kudos to her and the Gordon Biersch organization. Little did they know that I would now write this blog and not only compliment the great Hawaiian Kobe Burger with Garlic Fries, but the even better level of customer service that I experienced.
When building your brand, don't neglect the little things. Marketing goes far beyond the advertisements and promotions you run. It's the little things that add up and allow you to build an army of Social Networking Butterflies and not Social Networking Moths, the ones that you can never seem to swat and when you do, they leave a film of gray dust on your wall, err... I mean brand.