What’s with the rash of everyday things being renamed in complicated ways?

First up is Pizza Hut. For years, this chain has been synonymous with pizza, salad bars and, if you’re a kid, their ice cream factory, which lets you keep returning to eat more ice-cream until you’re actually sick.

But what’s this? They don’t seem to have a salad bar anymore. For 2009, they appear to have renamed it the Salad Station. As their website explains:

“Grab a bowl & help yourself. Check out our all-new Salad Station, and get creative with new ingredients, dressings, drizzles and toppings.”

Umm, sounds a little bit like a good old salad bar to me. So what’s with the name change?

Ready what?

Next is that rather well-known US chain of coffee shops: Starbucks. As you might have seen, they recently launched a brand of instant coffee called VIA.

No, I don’t know why they’ve capitalised the name. And I also don’t know why they’ve decided to call it ‘ready brew’ instead of instant coffee.

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What’s passion? When you say you’re passionate about something, does it automatically become true?

I ask because I’m frequently astounded by the number of companies claiming to be “passionate” about some aspect of their business. Here are a few examples:

• Ryman: “passionate about stationery”
• Starbucks: “passionate about ethically sourcing the finest coffee beans”
• HP: “passionate about customers”
• Vaseline: “We are passionate about skin. And we want to share our passion with you.”

There are hundreds – probably thousands – of companies out there with similar statements on their websites. Just search Google. And because the word gets chucked around with such reckless abandon, it’s started to sound insincere.

When you’re kept hanging on the phone for hours by a company that claims to be “passionate about customer service”, or get a crap sandwich from a chain that’s “passionate about quality food”, you stop believing the word “passion” means anything any more. And why should you?

Show your passion

As your customers ignore this sort of meaningless hyperbole (“passionate about service excellence“, anyone?), it’s time to cut the crap.

The solution is simple. You don’t need to tell anyone that you’re passionate. You should be able to demonstrate it. In fact, it should be obvious to anyone who visits your website or walks into your shop.

Here’s an example: what inspired this post was my visit to Workhouse Coffee in Reading last week for the first Thames Valley Social Media Cafe (or, er, “coffee morning”, as my girlfriend put it).

Workhouse Coffee is one of the friendliest cafes I’ve ever visited. And even though it doesn’t say anything about passion on the sign, everyone there really cares about about coffee. You can tell from the moment you walk in.

When you say “I’d like a white coffee”, they don’t answer by plonking a cup of milky, generic brown liquid down in front of you. They ask you what type of coffee you like, then offer a taster or two so you can decide what to go for. In short: they care, and they show it.

That’s what you need to do on your company website. Show your passion. There are lots of ways to do this – here are a few suggestions:

• Publish useful advice, for free. You’ll win plenty of friends by providing practical advice, with no strings attached. If you’re knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what you do, people will see your passion.
• Show your face. A video of real people in your business explaining what you do can go a long way towards showing how much you care. Forget the fancy production values: keep it natural and snappy.
• Be available. I reckon about 95% of companies think they’re passionate about customer service. You should show it by making it easy for people to contact you and always responding lightning-fast.
• Be genuine. People aren’t stupid. If you try and put on a front, most of them will see right through it. Use natural language on your website and don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

Oh, and there’s one other thing. You can’t fake passion. If you’ve got it, it’ll shine through in the way you treat your customers and talk about your business. If you don’t have it, no amount of claiming otherwise will fool people.

Picture: Thad Zajdowicz, via stock.xchng.

It’s always good to meet new people in this business. So when I heard a few enterprising individuals had arranged the inaugural Thames Valley Social Media Cafe, a get-together for media and technology industry-type people in Reading, I decided to head along.

Similar events (sometimes called “tuttles”) are well established in London, Brighton and other parts of the country. With this one happening just down the road, it would’ve been rude not to make the effort.

Workhouse Coffee

Reading’s excellent Workhouse Coffee was the venue, and as I arrived, the cafe’s regular customers were looking confused by the number of extra people who’d shown up. The proprietor took it in his stride though, serving up first class coffee which was some of the best I’ve ever tasted in the UK.

I reckon around 15 people were there altogether. It was good to chat to old friend Matt Brady, as well as meeting lots of new people – some who I’d previously encountered on Twitter, some who I hadn’t.

They included Drew Benvie, Adrian Moss, Andy Piper, Neville Hobson, Ravi Nar, Catherine Warrilow, Nicky Davis and Steve Lamb.

The conversation veered from the state of the coffee (excellent) through to the state of the economy (less than excellent), but – as you’d expect from an event where everyone’s on Twitter – it tended towards the geeky. And that was no bad thing.

I really enjoyed the chat and exchange of ideas, and left nearly two hours later feeling like the morning had been well spent.

Till next time

If you were there on Friday, good to meet you. And if you weren’t, but you’re local, why not pop along to the next one? Nothing’s arranged yet, but hop on over here to register your interest.

More (and better) write-ups here, here, here and here.