I figured out yesterday morning that I probably go through drivethru to get coffee about 400 times in a year. On weekends, I frequently forgo coffee for tea at home, but often I have more than one coffee in a day, so an average around 400 sounds about right. The reason I mention this is because it’s a process so simple, yet repeated so many times that the smallest changes are noticeable, and yesterday I was startled out of my early morning daze by a change in scripting.
On autopilot, I’d prepared to order my regular double-double, say no to the inquiry for anything else, and say thank you when given my total. Instead, the drive thru attendant threw me off my game by asking me if I’d tried some new product the restaurant was featuring, and when I stumbled to say no, she listed a quick recitation of the benefits and asked me if I wanted to buy one for $.99.
I passed, but later the same day, I visited another store in the same chain, but a different city, and was startled to get exactly the same short, friendly script from an entirely new attendant. The wording, inflection and timing were virtually identical. When I got to the window, I looked around the attendants work area, and sure enough; there was a script sheet from head office.
Consistency in scripting is one of the ways that marketers can ensure validity in their data. If every customer is offered the same product in exactly the same way, marketing executives can be sure they’re controlling for one element, leaving them free to look at time of day, correlating products, and even method of payment as reasons why or why not a product was purchased. This company had clearly gone through some effort to ensure that their staff in multiple markets were given a script on the same day, for a smooth rollout of product.
Consider if you’re truly controlling for delivery of messaging in your campaigns, and if your vendor partners are all on the same page. If not, a product like MarketingBox, which lets you reach all your partners with consistent messaging, might be the solution.
