What's Next > What's Now. Part 5

I’ve never told this story publicly.

I have no idea if, by telling it publicly, I’m breaking an ancient NDA that I've forgotten I signed. I hope not. If I am, I expect I’ll hear about it soon, so read up now in case a cease-and-desist requires me to take it down.

Although I’ve shared the story a few times over the years to select people in select and specific situations, what prompted its very first public telling today was this article I read earlier from Entrepreneur and guest writer Andrew Reid - Best Practices for Marketing During and After COVID-19: Marketers need to proceed with caution and empathy.

Reid offers up some solid suggestions on how brands should be thinking about marketing during the pandemic, but this line about doing certain things not for immediate sales but to a greater end struck me:

“These moves transcend marketing and may not increase sales immediately, but they’ll build goodwill and help drive long-term loyalty.”

And it took me back.

Years ago, in that post-college world many of us find ourselves in before we really lock on a career path (or think we do, anyway, before life throws us its unexpected curveballs), I spent two Christmas seasons working in telemarketing at LL Bean, the well-known and greatly-admired outdoor retailer located in Freeport, Maine. 

It remains one of the best professional experiences in a career of numerous great professional experiences, primarily due to an exhaustive training program (pretty sure I could jump on the phones today and recreate the patter of taking a call), the incredible camaraderie and spirit amongst the team (I was on the phones the day the company had its first-ever million-call day - we celebrated briefly then promptly went back to work), and the fundamentals of phenomenal customer service (which were stressed and taught daily while we also learned the computer, products, and processes).

On the last day of training, all the new “recruits” were given a small LL Bean canvas tote bag (along with the company's Bean Boots, one of the most iconic items the company sold at the time - everyone in Maine had one or more). Inside the bag were copies of all the company’s current catalogs, so we could look up products with customers on the phone in case there were any questions.

And as we prepared to head for the phones, the trainer told us that if we had any catalogs at home from any of LL Bean’s competitors - Eddie Bauer, Land’s End, Filson, Cabella’s, etc. - we were encouraged to add them to the bag as well.

“Huh?” we said, surprised.

"Say what?"

One of the group asked why, and the trainer answered with no hesitation, and full transparency. 

It is inevitable, she said, that at some point during this holiday season, we will be out of stock on an item and unable to fulfill a customer’s order, incapable of checking off every item on their Christmas list. When that happens, you are encouraged to find a similar item in one of the other companies’ catalogs, and provide the caller with all the information required for them to get the products they're looking for - the company’s phone number, the page number of the item, the stock number of the item, whatever they need.

“Huh?” we said again, now more incredulous than surprised.

"Wait, seriously?"

Although it seems highly counterintuitive to most retail philosophies which are about protecting the company’s customer at all costs, the strategy was brilliant for how it played out in practice. 

In the handful of times in which I used it (Bean’s merchandise team was A+, so it was extremely rare that any items were out of stock), the customers’ response was the same as ours was - “What? You will? Why?” usually asked with a measure of shock, skepticism, and a sincere consideration that the person they’d called might be going rogue, operating outside the bounds of what we were allowed to do.

The answer we were trained to give was about making sure the customer got everything they needed.

But the real answer was about building an unbreakable customer relationship, about creating, although it certainly wasn’t verbalized this way at the time, a pandemic-proof brand.

It’s something they’ve done in a myriad of ways over the years outside of just the telemarketing efforts - in their products, retail experience, most recently with the truly wonderful “Be an Outsider” ad campaign created by the exceptional Portland, Maine-based agency VIA, and so much more.

Known for being open 24/7/365 to service the outdoors people who traveled into Maine at all hours of the day and night on their way “up ta camp,” when I first visited the store 40 years ago (a very different store than it is today), there were literally no locks on the doors.

And over the years, those doors (which were replaced following a fire, and locks were added) have only been locked a total of 5 times in their 108-year history.

They’re locked now as the company does everything in its power to keep its employees and customers safe. Like all retailers, LL Bean will be adversely affected by the coronavirus, and it will take time for them to crawl out of the hole the disease has dug.

But I have complete faith that the relationships they’ve built with their customers over the years - in part due to an over-arching philosophy about customer service which led to that one seemingly nonsensical request made during their training program - will be a big part of guiding them out of the current situation.

Because unlike many other retailers, LL Bean has been thinking and working for years - long before this current crisis - on the principle that “What’s Next” will be greater than “What’s Now.”

And despite the certainty that what’s next will undoubtedly be different than what they imagined, I’ve seen firsthand the company’s ability to do things that, to paraphrase Reid in Entrepreneur, transcend marketing, not to increase sales immediately, but to build goodwill and drive long-term loyalty.

Those doors will be unlocked, those calls will come in again.

All of which begs the question, what’s one thing your brand was doing before now that you can lean on to help you prepare for what’s next?

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, please do consider Liking, Commenting, and/or Sharing. In future installments, I'll continue to discuss more of what you can be doing now to prepare for what's next. As always, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, questions, and contributions below, or you can DM me directly.

Haven’t read the whole series? Binge them now with these easy links!  

What's Next >What's Now. Part 1 - Apollo 13

What's Next >What's Now. Part 2 - Breakfast Club

What's Next >What's Now. Part 3 - Apple & Frederick

What's Next > What's Now. Part 4 - Shawshank Redemption

What's Next > What's Now, Part 6 - Homeostasis & Aron Ralston

What's Next > What's Now, Part 7 - Live Nation

What's Next > What's Now Part 8 - Listening

What's Next > What's Now Part 9 - Jigsaw Puzzle

What's Next > What's Now Part 10 - India and Showing Up