Tomorrow morning I am speaking at the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week Breakfast Series. I have no idea if tickets are still on sale or not, but you can check out the program and enquire here if you are interested.
I was somewhat surprised by the invite. Despite the persona underlying mag nation, I am probably one of the least qualified blokes to speak at a fashion event that you could ever imagine. My super stylish Spanish wife can’t stop laughing at the thought.
Luckily, I have been spared from embarrassment thanks to the topic up for discussion. Here is what is says on the MSFW website:
An exceptional line up of speakers will share their experience and knowledge on what it takes to create and maintain customer relationships throughout the retail lifecycle – from the temptation and seduction of courting new shoppers, through love and marriage, and how to ward off separation.
Learn more about the most evolved, savvy, feature-rich retail brands and online entrepreneurs and how they connect to their consumers’ desires at every touch point to seize their brand’s potential and build relationships that last.
We feel honoured to be thought of in this light. However, they have definitely put us in the wrong category. There are four breakfasts; the first on Temptation and Seduction was today, while tomorrow is Love. We have some really nice relationships with our customers and I would be happy to admit that with some of these people, there is genuine love which has gone beyond the courting stage. However, the vast majority of folks have never even heard of us. Ask outside the fashion and urban savvy crowd, and people will think that mag nation sells mag wheels (we still get calls about this).
We think it is a little premature to place us in the Love category (hopefully one day we will justify this tag). That said, I will do my best to talk about how we try to engage our customers. The problem with this is how do you talk for 15 mins on the following points:
• We talk to you
• We listen to you
• We respond to you
• We enjoy ourselves and let you be a part of it
• We are honest and open
The first 3 points are customer service 101. There is absolutely nothing new in any of that. Perhaps the greatest impact has been the last point. We constantly get told that we are really open and that people like this as it gives them insight into the personality of who mag nation is. We received massive amounts of feedback both online and offline from our first blog post, and perhaps this is the sort of thing we do a little differently from other brands.
In any case, I better now work out what I am going to say tomorrow. I think it will be a pretty discerning crowd, and 5 bullet points ain’t going to cut it. If anyone has any suggestions about what works (or doesn’t) in terms of our engaging with customers, please let us know. A very dangerous thing to ask in light of this particular post, as it will smell really bad if we get zero comments, but perhaps this is all part and parcel of us putting ourselves out there and taking risks.
I think you guys engage customers really well. You would get honours for your ‘customer service 101′. Between your stores and social networking sites, the way you listen to and engage customers is second to none. You even keep in touch when you don’t have an answer – I asked you a question on Twitter and when you didn’t have an answer within 24 hours, you sent me a message advising I hadn’t been forgotten and you were working on it! How many other businesses can claim this kind of personal attention??
Good Luck for tomorrow, you guys do a great job and I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say!
What a massive relief. At the very least, we received one piece of feedback. Given the topic, it would have been quite ironic if no one had responded.
Thanks heaps Sarah!
I think Mag Nation engage with the market extremely well. I think you are also a perfect speaker as you have hands on experience that you don’t mind sharing with your peers and speaking from the heart. Unfortunately, I think the challenges ahead are for the magazine industry mostly. How can magazines be more relevant in today’s society. Whilst magazines continue to proliferate (more specialist titles, etc), mass title circulation and readership continue to slide. Add to that printing, postage, distribution costs and less advertising dollars..Okay prob. getting off topic. But I guess how is the industry as a whole changing its ways?
Good luck. New audience even better.
The best example of all is….what you have just done.
You have demonstrated your collaborative approach, your community spirit, by making this task open to the community.
You have asked us to tell you what we think you should say tomorrow. And in doing so you bare yourself.
I think it is more than just being Open. It is being brave. It is saying – you know what, we have enough faith in ourselves and belief in our customers and our product/service that we are prepared to put it on the line.
That gives me faith, and belief, and trust. And I need those things to want to be a rusted-on customer.