Hello my friends!
As I write this, I’m on a crazy deadline. My book, Fascinate, is going to be republished soon. I’m looking for a whole crop of new examples to describe what makes a company fascinating.
I’d love to get your input— and potentially feature you in the book!
I’m looking for ridiculously smart and simple examples of how brands fascinate their customers and their teams. The more obscure the example, the better!
I want this book to be chock full of yowza-cool examples. The kind of simple-but-genius examples that make you say WOW.
Have you had a fabulously fascinating customer experience lately?
Does YOUR company create a rabid culture of engagement among team members
Quick examples of the type of thing I’m looking for:
- LEGO® takes production very seriously— only 18 out of every 1,000,000 pieces fail to meet the company’s high quality standard.
- Google® used goats to reduce their carbon footprint. Instead of mowing down the weeds and brush on their property, they brought in 200 goats to eat and fertilize the grass.
- After initial training, Zappos.com offers team members $3,000.00 to leave the company. Those who take the money never come back, but those who refuse the offer remain-- wholly committed to the goals and culture of the company.
In the comments below, give me a quick description. Just let me know how a product or business used a fascinating insight to jumpstart sales, build loyalty, or get people talking.
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"Signs" is a restaurant in Toronto with an all-deaf staff where customers are asked to order in sign language (there are icons next to everything and it is a light-hearted environment without pressure if you make a mistake). Diners are entering a completely different world and getting an experience they can't help talking about.
I instantly get being your unique self, while also applauding the skill at better defining how to differentiate. However, I was most encouraged to see my sister, who has a masters in rhetoric and is dean in charge of 10,000s of public high students in LA, embrace the fascinating framework for young students to better respond and make their new world!
This is a simple example of fascination. A friend is working on her motivational speaking "elevator speech." I told her she will nail it when she validates how she fascinates. Notice I didn't say discover, because I had an inkling that the results would be spot on. They were. As a bonus, we discovered why we click; our top three Advantages were the same. So cool!
At our design firm, cross training and personal development are imperative parts of our training. We use team building exercises at monthly Planning meetings that involve the accounting department, client service department, the showroom team, their dept. team leaders, and the owners. At a recent meeting in order to train the group on both team building and communication, I passed out 20 piece puzzles to all team members present. However, 2 pieces of the puzzle were missing for each team member, 1 of the pieces could be found in the team leader's puzzle box, and 1 could be found in the owner's puzzle box. This was to demonstrate the use of communication between the groups, and it's team members. They learned that they have to collect all of the pieces of the puzzle (which sometimes are useful nuggets the team leaders and owners are hanging on to) in order to complete the big picture. It was a great engaging tool to fascinate our employees.
Hello 1st of all I do find Sally Fascinating ! My parents said if you can be the best, everything else will follow. ( wrong )! That's just the starting point. Location, Fascination & Results ! Would be my new answer.
At Central New Mexico Community College (Albuquerque, NM), all the faculty and staff of all five campuses (we have around 28,000 students) were invited to wear full graduation regalia - caps and gowns - to school on the same day, September 23, 2014. The purpose was to inspire our students and to emphasize the importance of graduation. Several activities were planned, for example, "flash advising," - on the spot graduation audits and academic advising. It was a huge success. It was featured in the local newspaper and a very supportive Editorial a few days later. I just presented our initiative at the national convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. It was a totally unique and innovative idea that many colleges plan to replicate. It will now be an annual event. But shhhhh... don't tell the students; it's a surprise.
I would like to highlight the website howtofascinate.com for running with the suggestion a commenter made recently (I'm about to make now...). The suggestion is for an abridged Fascination report for employers and job seekers. The full fascination report may be a little much to include with a cover letter but it would be great to include a redacted version. If you are competent and confident, clarifying a potential game-changing fit or mismatch is powerful way to look out for the both the organization and the individual. Does anyone seriously think the common practice of a hiring manager trying various interview questions, in the hope it will allow them to predict the future actually works? Adoption would increase if it was free for job seekers. The fee could be paid by the employee management system (i.e. Taleo, ADP, etc.), job sites, or perhaps for premium LinkedIn members. During later stage interviews with potential employers, I share my fascination profile. So far, it's cost me from being selected for the job. Thank you Sally; YOU SAVED MY ASS! Imagine an Innovation/Mystique skilled person being hired in a job that relies on high Trust skill.
Not a business example, more of an industry example: I work in the Information Security field. One of the 'bread and butter' roles we have is "Security Awareness." Many businesses have some form of awareness content for employees. You may have seen one of these courses yourself. I'm sorry! What most people know about is that these courses are boring and the messages are not memorable. Spoiler alert: they are not effective. Don't believe me? remember that suspicious email message that either you or a collegue clicked? Thank you, Vice-trigger, my point exactly. Hey! Wake up! The reason this problem continues is because the people who craft these messages, like me are selected for our jobs due to our technical expertise with information technologies; computers, not people. In fact, any skill with people is referred to as a "soft skills." Basically, this is the (human) appendix of security skills. Hey...stay with me! Security awareness IS important, too important; too important to be left to people like me! This is the point I plan to make at an industry presentation, this year. Security awareness can benefit from the principles of Fascination. You are probably thinking: "Fascinating security awareness, that's an oxymoron, moron!" When you stop to study the continuouis innefectiveness of security awareness, you'll see there is no alternative than to explore how to fascinate with awareness. I hope to steer my community away from the status quo it's stuck in so more people can benefit from these important lessons. Waking up yet?
Thank you, Sally for thinking of US. What an opportunity! Our company provides HR support, safety and security services, and investigations. What is fascinating? We have worked very hard to build a reputable referral network. We market other businesses as much as our own. We have become known as the "go to" people for resolution of pretty much any issue. One of our tag lines: If we don't do it, we know someone who does. This has stimulated business growth and strengthened the bonds we have with our community. Everybody wins! Helen Farmer, MA Chief Relationship Officer SACS Consulting and Investigative Services
I develop value added products aimed at increasing customer loyalty and new business. For a property insurance company a comprehensive home and telephone assistance program was created. It offers nursing, housekeeping and babysitting to clients returning home after being hospitalized as well as telephone legal, moral and health assistance. Client was voted the industry award however most important was the direct impact on customer loyalty and the new business it generated.....both well over expected or anticipated numbers. Selling the idea was actually easier than I thought and it had nothing to do with pricing. was the convincing phrase. All insurers speak about how much they value their customers yet they all offer similar products. This client accepted to move out of their comfort zone and it paid them . It also paid big time for me as I have since been solicited to create numerous other similar products by many insurers. Overnight I became the ressource person for value added products in the insurance sector.