In How Dubai Builds Brands, I wrote about Dubai’s brand and how it always creating a promise of exciting events, thrilling brand extension and uniqueness of architects and buildings.

UAE didn’t stop to the examples that I wrote before two years, they continue the excitement by opening Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the largest indoor and first Ferrari theme park, located on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Also, Armani Hotel Dubai opened his first hotel in Burj Khalifa and much more!

What makes me write this post is Real Madrid building $1 billion resort island in the United Arab Emirates. The 4.6 million-square-foot venture is in partnership with the government of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah is set to open in 2015 and expected to attract a million visitors in its first year of operation.

UAE is doing a doing an excellent marketing. Marketing for their brand by using other brands. Attracting other brands fans to talk about UAE brand. Moving the brands fans from brands home and bring them to UAE so they feel their brands overseas too.

Smart strategy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WYBtaiPyfg

I am a big fan of Ralph Lauren, Nike, HUGO BOSS, and many other fashion brands. Whenever I visit my favorite brand stores, I see people, I see joy, and I see people in line for the cashier.

Whenever I visit Lacoste stores, I see Lacoste sales people. I see new products. I see colorful shirts. I see high prices. I see clean floor.

Today, we are lucky to have many communication channels open to talk about brands and empty store stop the conversation about your brand. All what people talk about Lacoste brand are high prices and good products but good products should attract more cu$tomer$ not the opposite.

Smart business owners and store managers should keep their stores busy, they should activate the power of brand conversation by developing innovative ideas such as:

• Make every Saturday a day for people to buy according to their budget, make it like a car dealership bargain.
• With every $100  or more purchase, offer one free piece with free shipping to be delivered after a week, make them eager for your product.
• Offer the customer a tablet with smart app to make him design a model they want, send customer design to manufacture and share it once it’s ready on Facebook or Twitter, do you think the customer will “share” it on social sites or buy it online?
• Develop some co-marketing strategies with stores that customers visited before yours (and study why?).

I don’t go to empty medical clinic, I don’t try empty restaurant, I don’t step in empty shopping mall but I could go to empty gas station . I believe the crocodile is frighten people from entering Lacoste stores.

It’s just another day that I go to the barber. Nothing new, going on time so nobody take my place and reading some magazines which all of them talk about Kim Kardashian!

The cleaner at the barber bought Perfect Pushup and he was trying to make some push-ups while all the barbers are making fun of him! Here is what happened:

1 – All barbers did a push-up.

2 – All customers did a push-up (including me).

3 – All customers decided to order Perfect Pushup (including me).

4 – Everyone was HAPPY, period.

Happy customers > strength relationship > build trust   > story telling  > word of mouth > $$$

Here is what the barber can do to keep or bring more customers or to make new business:

1 – Make a show case for Perfect Pushup or any other tool that the barbers can experience in front of the customers. They will buy because I did.

2 – Make it competitive for the customer by offering free haircut, hair color, etc.

3 – Make a record table for the winners to build emotional connection with the brand (barber shop) and to make other customers ask about that table.

4 – Share some pictures on the barber Facebook page or Twitter. Other customers will like to have that experience.

The customers are coming to have their haircut done but if you have it done with a remarkable experience, they will come back again and again. BTW, I did not notice my new haircut until I get back home and my mother told me about it. I was enjoying the experience during the haircut.

If you are looking for instant customer experience for your hotel, restaurant, hospital, etc.

1 – Provide a computer with a camera at the reception desk connected to the Internet (home page http://YouTube.com) and the customer experience is about one click from reaching the world.

2 – Offer 5%  discount at the checkout if the customer follow you on Twitter or like you on Facebook.

3 – Live steaming of the brand’s social media mentions right at the lobby, fitness center, rooms TV and bathrooms : )

4 – Offer free Brownie if the customer check-in on Foursquare/Gowalla and write something about the brand.

5 – Offer free lunch if one of your customers shot you a Twitter #FollowFriday 3 times.

6 – Write the brand or customer care  Twitter handle on the room key/card with a note.

7 – Empower your customers by welcoming them with a tweet, text message or email. Make instant impression.

8 – Offer free night or 50% discount if the customer blog about his/her experience. Let’s hope it’s positive!

Very soon, we will never hear these boring messages:

All of our customer care representatives are busy. Your expected wait time is 42 minutes!

This call may be monitored and recorded for training and quality purposes!

You can expect to receive our response in 2-3 business days!

Today’s customer service is a real-time which means we hate to wait until company’s representative come back from lunch to answer our queries. Even most people don’t have real-time mindset yet but they will soon as the social media tools increases and the companies integrating these tools in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are hugely increasing.

From Wikipedia, Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect. Telepresence has been described as the human experience of being fully present at a live real-world location remote from one’s own physical location.

Even it’s very expensive for these tools to be in the hands of everyone but very soon, all of us can have it and calling a customer service will not be boring anymore.

Imagine you call your bank for a question and you have ex: Cisco Telepresence technology, the customer service representative appears in your house answering your questions in real-time. He/she will not be a robot but a human being standing in front of you. Humanize the customer service finally after years of speaking to walls and wasting our time waiting for emails and phone calls!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfNC_x0VvE

All companies are serving others by somehow so not having a real-time mindset or not testing each new media tool with your audience or may be waiting your competitors research about Telepresence while your representatives are reading the script will send your company to hell!

You have two things to prepare: as someone who has influencer role in the company, you need to make sure that the company is ready to change and your manager or CEO has the capability to understand that real-time customer care is not an option. Today  as Tony Hsieh said “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department–it should be the entire company.” It means that whatever title or role you are serving in the company, you can influence or change the customer experience.

The other thing to do is to make sure that your customer service first line is the most qualified line in the company. Supply them with tools, training and freedom because your company’s brand is what your customers being treated by the first line. Monitor your lines via “Continual Service Improvement” all the time.

Telepresence is here already and it’s matter of time to see this vision reality, who knows, we could select the sex, age and voice of the person who serve us