My wife and I recently got the Motorola CLIQ. We both love the phone!
However, less than a week after buying it I wasn’t getting reception. My wife called up T-Mobile (our carrier) and asked what was going on. T-Mobile said it sounded strange–there was no problem with the 3G network. The operator then told us to take the phone back to the store we got it from to see what was the problem.
“If they can’t fix it,” she said, “let them replace the phone.”
So we went the same night.
When we got there the T-Mobile employee said, the problem might be the SIM card. He said he wanted to troubleshoot and it would take him a few minutes, would I mind?
“No problem,” I said.
While we were waiting another couple came up and asked him about our phone, they were interested in buying it. He said, “Sure! I’ll be with you guys in a few minutes.”
My wife then chimed in, “We got that phone and we love it!”
The wife of the other couple said, “Really…why?”
She then proceeded to tell them why we loved the phone. She showed them the features, the benefits, the touch screen, the QWERTY keypad. Her sales presentation lasted a good 5 minutes!!
The employee looked up from his computer and said to me, “Man! She’s doing my job for me!”
Needless to say, the couple bought the phone.
Why Did This Happen?
Did T-Mobile pay my wife?
Nope. Not a dime!
Was it planned?
Nope. Just happened.
So what can I learn from this?
I’m glad you asked:
- Service is the Best Form of Marketing: We love T-Mobile! They’ve treated us well as customers. If we call in because of a problem and that problem takes hours…they patiently handle it with us. This is contrast to the other carriers we’ve had. The phone is great but our loyalty wasn’t to Motorola…it was to T-Mobile.
- Marketing is Communication: Many people just think of marketing as direct mail, commercials, and etc…not realizing what it actually is. Marketing is communication and everything you do communicates. Marketing is tied into everything you do.
- Have a WOW factor: According to Seth Godin “Remarkable” is a necessity in marketing today. Not “ok,” “good,” “not bad”… but “WOW!!!!!” The phone WOWed us and we had to tell people about it!
Word-of-mouth is still the best form of marketing, don’t you think?
