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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Maybe Parts of Your Service Should Be “Broken on Purpose”...


     In the “Business Story-Telling and Branding” class I am attending this month I saw an amazing video of a talk given by Seth Godin on Ted.com titled “This is Broken”. In the talk, which was apparently filmed at a Gel Conference in 2006 and posted to Ted.com’s “Best of the Web” page in 2010, Mr. Godin inspired the audience to think about the things they can do to improve customer relationships and explained that sometimes things are broken on purpose, and sometimes things are broken because no one takes the responsibility to make sure things work right. Mr. Godin showed very funny examples of how easily a company or service not paying close attention to their brand story or the basic needs of those on the receiving end of a product or service could damage a customer relationship. While moving through his list,"7 Kinds of Broken", the speaker built trust by using anecdotes that common people can relate to like why long lines at airport terminals and refreshment areas at movie theaters are completely flawed but don't have to be.
     Mr. Godin does an outstanding job of "breaking down" how these mishaps occur and how they can easily be avoided by people taking responsibility when they see something that just doesn't work in the customer experience or delivers the wrong story about your brand, or as Mr. Godin puts it when the service or product is "broken." I encourage everyone to watch this video, which is only about 20 minutes long, and really think about why some things in your product, service, or personal brand are “broken”, and then think about some of the things you may want to “break on purpose”… let me know you’re your thoughts… Mr. Godin’s list of the “7 Kinds of Broken” include…
- Not my job
- Selfish jerks
- The world changed
- I didn't know
- I'm not a fish
- Contradictions
- Broken on purpose

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