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"Real
life" productions are experiencing a surge in popularity. You only
have to look at the success of talk back radio and programs such as
RPA, Sylvania Waters and radio station's 2MMM's 'House of Horrors'
to appreciate that people prefer the credibility of real life education,
entertainment and information to carefully scripted performances by
actors.
Sydney-based small business Customer Driven Communications (CDC),
owes its success to this call for realism. Partners John Studdert
and David Sawicki founded their globally unique business on the basis
of using real people to create customised communication tools.
Initially
using the universal medium of the audio cassette, Studdert and Sawicki
have developed an innovative range of services that "bottle" the voices
of real people. - whether they be the company's high achievers sharing
their success strategies, satisfied customers giving credible testimonials,
or management informing its staff about company changes.
With
an impressive client list that ranges from the ANZ Bank, Arnott's
Biscuits and the Australian Defence Force to Foxtel, GIO, NRMA and
Telstra, CDC's services include audio brochures, testimonials, 'on
hold' telephone recordings, training and education tools, change management
tools, success profiling and live internet audio and video broadcasting.
Studdert and Sawicki are a dynamic duo who complement and compliment
one another. "Our working relationship is extraordinary. We've got
such good communication," Studdert says.
Before
meeting with clients, they talk through how they plan to tackle each
meeting and bounce ideas around.
"John
and I are blessed. We never listened to the way things should be done.,"
Sawicki says.
When people start a business, they usually go to their mates first
to test the market. Studdert and Sawicki purposely tested their product
with people they'd never met. They felt that if they could be successful
with people they didn't know, that was a true measure of success.
Formerly in sales and marketing positions in competing hotel chains,
Studdert and Sawicki built their business from scratch in three years.
Now there are nine employees, with additional offices in Queensland
and Victoria.
The
concept of CDC was conceived when Studdert was working as a marketing
consultant for Orrefors Kosta Boda. He was curious to know why the
company's top salespeople maintained their success after moving to
a store that previously had lower sales.
No-one seemed to know what made these people successful. So Studdert
hit on the idea of interviewing them and creating an audio cassette
that captured these high flyers' tips and secrets to success. One
copy went to every employee and the feedback Studdert received was
so positive, he began to imagine future possibilities.
He joined forces with Sawicki and they began producing Success Profiles
for other large companies. "We take the sales and training managers
out of the picture and capture the strategies of the company's high
achievers," Sawicki says. "We have a few people around the table and
the facilitator asks questions, recording everything that is said,
then we edit it." "The spoken word has real emotion and credibility,"
says Studdert. "It's like talk-back radio. If you try and script anything,
it sounds flat and boring.
Being such a versatile medium, the audio tapes tapped into the time
employees spent travelling to work. Companies found an extremely high
repeat usage with some staff listening to the tapes up to six times
within six months. The tapes became a useful induction tool for new
employees, cutting six months off the 'learning curve'. Employees
took the tapes home to help their families gain more of an understanding
of their job.
CDC found that companies had a need for internal communications, particularly
when major changes such as a merger were taking place. The people
at the 'coalface' often have the least understanding in these times
of change. CDC began producing Change Management programs which aim
to "send the information back to Management", rather than the normal
process of information trickling down from the top.
The recordings are produced using an interview process to allow the
workers to have their questions answered by Management, in the style
of talkback radio. "People are emotional beings and yet we often work
in a structured environment where emotions aren't really dealt with.
There is a growing trend to look at the human factor and to acknowledge
the fact that people need to feel appreciated," Sawicki says.
"People
may be negative but they usually love the business they work for.
We can turn negative feelings into ones of team building and encourage
all employees to think about how they can do things differently."
After
deciding to produce an 'audio brochure' for itself, CDC found its
clients wanting one for their own companies too. By interviewing past
clients and asking them what it is like to be a customer of the business,
they are able to 'bottle' these insights and use them as an extremely
powerful tool for sales presentations or information packages.
"We
found that audio and video testimonials are even more effective than
written testimonials because you capture the enthusiasm and energy
of a happy client better on audio than you do in a more formal letter,"
Studdert says.
Clients who have used the audio testimonials have found that they
give prospective clients a 'real life' and often very personal insight
into what it is like to be a client before they buy.
This is particularly important with big ticket purchases, such as
buying a franchise, when testimonials can make or break their role
in giving prospective customers the confidence to proceed with a purchase.
"Most of us make a lot of decisions based on word of mouth.
However,
businesses don't have much control over their word of mouth advertising.
"If a business owner or salesperson says "buy from us, our service
and price is second to none", the customer is saying to themselves
"Of course you'd say that, it's your business." When a customer says
how fantastic a product is, then you really sit up and take notice."
The tapes are used by some companies to cut down the time it takes
to answer complex customer enquiries or as background for prospective
investors.
More recently CDC has moved into internet broadcasting with the development
of Customer Driven Communications Interactive (CDCi). The launch of
the Australian Democrats Election Campaign and the Australia's first
live house auction by John McGrath and the Sydney Morning Herald,
are just two projects undertaken by CDCi.
Internet and intranet users can watch and/or listen to video and audio
programs live and on-demand.
Applications for internet broadcasting include coverage of conferences
and seminars, meetings, public announcements, sales force meetings,
internal corporate announcements, training sessions and enhancement
of web sites. "When we go into a company, there are so many applications
that people see we could take on," Sawicki says. "There's no-one out
there doing what we do." CDC is confident that it has a unique concept
that has global application. The guys plan to head to the USA to test
the waters.
CDC uses risk reversal when dealing with clients. That is, clients
pay nothing until the finished product is presented to them and they
are given the option to purchase it. According to Studdert and Sawicki,
this gives them more control over the project while ensuring clients
are completely satisfied with the end result before they spend any
money.
"The
only reason a lot of these companies took us on at first was because
of our passion for what we do. Now more than 70% of our clients bring
us repeat business." Studdert says.
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