怎样把顾客变成粉丝

    如今，希尔通过一本薄薄的新书（156页）《是粉丝，不是客户》（FANS Not Customers），用轻松活泼的笔调阐述了他创造伟大品牌的颠覆性策略。书的主旨是：任何服务大众的业务要想取得成功，秘诀是一流的客户服务。希尔的方式非常人性化。为了吸引超级忠诚的“粉丝“，而不是那些为了略微好一点的交易就会抛弃你的客户，企业必须与老顾客建立一种人与人之间的联系，培育牢固的情感依赖，甚至是喜爱。对于希尔而言，构建这种稳固的联系就是打造品牌。

    希尔认为，他之所以能形成这样的观点，与个人的零售背景密不可分。他说自己刚开始工作时，在麦当劳（McDonald's）餐厅巡店的经历，有时还是和一手打造麦当劳成功传奇的瑞•克罗克一起巡店。这本书不出所料，也赞扬星巴克（Starbucks）的霍华德•舒尔茨和家得宝（Home Depot）的伯尼•马库斯和阿瑟•布兰克等伟大的品牌先驱。但希尔主要要阐述的是，为什么这种“服务即一切”的方式适用于传统上死板、冷冰冰的银行和保险领域。

    下面看看他对于在美国和英国经营银行的中肯看法。努力提供最佳的存款或住房贷款利率是吸引客户面临的最大挑战。否则，就会沦为平庸之辈。储蓄利率增加0.25个基点无法培养忠诚客户。一旦别的银行提供更高的收益率，他们就会把钱取走。“如果一定要给传统银行业定性，”他写道，“那将是低增长、低成本、服务差，以产品和价格为重心。银行是公用事业公司。”他声称，它们的成长大多来自毁灭企业文化的收购交易。银行就像公用设施一样，品牌忠诚度为零。没人对斯普林特（Sprint）或英国电信（British Telecom）有感情。英国的四大银行占据了市场的主导地位，希尔让每家竞争对手都感受到了痛苦。他写道：“现有的寡头利用垄断力，对设备、基础设施和服务投资不足。”

    Now, Hill explains his highly original strategy for creating great brands in a brief (156 page), breezy new book, FANS Not Customers. Its theme: The secret to success in any business serving the broad public is superb customer service. Hill's approach is highly humanistic. To attract those ultra-loyal "fans," rather than customers who'll abandon you for a slightly better deal, a business must create a personal connection with patrons and breed a strong, emotional, even loving attachment. For Hill, forging that sturdy link is what builds a brand.

    Hill credits a background in retailing for shaping his vision. He describes how he started his career scouting sites for McDonald's restaurants, sometimes in the company of its legendary architect Ray Kroc. The book predictably praises the great brand pioneers such as Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Home Depot's Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. But Hill's major contribution is describing how a service-is-everything approach is the way to go in the traditionally colorless, chilly fields of banking and insurance.

    Here's his pointed view on branch banking on both the U.S. and the U.K. The big compete for customers by striving to offer the best rates on deposits or home loans. Otherwise they all converge into mediocrity. Adding a quarter-of-a point on savings is no way to breed loyal customers. It's renting their money until the bank across the square posts a higher yield. "If I had to categorize the traditional banking industry," he writes, "it is low growth, low cost, low service, with an emphasis on product and price. Banking is a utility." Their growth, he charges, comes mostly through culture-destroying acquisitions. Banks, like the utilities they resemble, garner zero brand loyalty. No one has an emotional attachment to a Sprint or British Telecom. In the UK, four big banks dominate the market, and Hill leaves no rival unscorched. "The existing oligarchy used its monopoly power to under-invest in facilities, infrastructure and service," he writes.