See Andy's other stuff:

Contact Me >>

Newsletter #932: The “Give Them a Ride” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]

Clever car services and other car sharing applications are starting some awesome conversations by knowing who their talkers are, recruiting their fans to spread the word, and doing cool stuff for their customers.

Here are some great lessons we can all learn from them:

1. Find the right talkers
2. Give them a mission
3. Show them some love
4. Check it out: Color.Hailpixel

1. Find the right talkers

If you mention influencers and advocates, a lot of people start thinking about bloggers, celebrities, and other spokespeople. But have you thought of the people who talk to your customers the most? Have you thought about taxi drivers? These folks were the target of TED’s campaign to get people in Buenos Aires excited about TEDx. Why? Because for the cost of bringing 50 taxi drivers to a TED conference, they reached seven times their audience for TEDx Buenos Aires in a week, just by letting the drivers do what they do best: talk.

The lesson: Instead of spending big bucks on a famous spokesperson, reach out to the people who are already talking to your audience.

Learn more: Adverblog

2. Give them a mission

To get pictures of famous athletes using their service in Chicago, Uber turned the city into bounty hunters. The luxury car service commissioned their fans to get a picture of a professional athlete using Uber around town to get a $250 credit. Companies pay a lot to get people to notice their stuff, and they pay even more for celebrity endorsements. This was a clever way to get people to look out for their cars and a frugal way to show celebrities using them.

The lesson: What’s a fun way you can get your fans involved in promoting your stuff?

3. Show them some love

Zipcar lets you rent a car without ever stepping foot in a rental office. So how do they show great customer service without ever seeing their customers face-to-face? They leave little gestures of goodwill in their cars, like gift cards in the visor, some snacks in the cupholder, or other little surprises. That’s an inexpensive way to show some goodwill even with a self-service customer experience.

The lesson: It doesn’t take a lot to show your customers that you care about their experience, even if you’re not a large part of it.

Learn more: Zipcar

4. Check it out: Color.Hailpixel

This interactive color generator changes hue as you move your mouse left and right, lightness as you move it up and down, and saturation as you scroll. See a color you like? Click it to save it.

Check it out: Color.Hailpixel

[contact-form-7 id="27185" title="contact-form 3 TellAFriend-Post"]