Customers/Clients

You’ve got a bird in your hand. Now what?

August 8, 2011

… Do you value what you already have?

Like the old idiom goes…a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  I’d argue, when the bird is a customer, the ratio is even greater.

For years, at the risk of preaching, I have been banging on the idea that we spend way too much time and energy chasing after potential customers and way too little time and energy romancing (and creating a love affair) our current customers.

I’ve pushed on the idea that our math is all backwards.  It’s cheaper and easier to get more (and more profitable) business from our existing clients — and yet, our “new business” efforts are always aimed at strangers, rather than those friendly, pre-disposed to love us customers.

Which is why I’ve always enjoyed and respected Becky Carroll and her blog Customers Rock.  Becky is an Age of Conversation author and a huge believer in the power of treating customers like gold.

So when Becky emailed me and asked if I would read her new book The Hidden Power of Your Customers (click here to buy*) I have to admit — I already knew I would like it.  Because I knew it would tout the importance of creating love affairs with your customers.

I just finished it — and wanted to share it with you.  As I suspected, Becky spends time making the points that I’ve  made above.  But the lion’s share of the book is spent showing readers HOW to cultivate and celebrate their current customers.  Becky teaches us the how using the acronym ROCK.

R = relevant marketing. This is all about talking to your customers how and when and where they want it.  Which, of course, means you need to listen/ask them.

O = orchestrated customer experiences. Brilliant companies are very purposeful in crafting customer experiences that deliver delight and marvel their most valuable clients.  It doesn’t happen by accident.

C = customer focused culture. I don’t care how smart or insightful a leader you are — if honoring your customer isn’t baked into your organization’s culture… it won’t happen.

K = killer customer service. This is all about consistency. (as you know, one of the cornerstones to good marketing)  When your brand and values are woven into your organization’s culture…. your entire team is able to deliver incredible customer-centric service, regardless of circumstance.

One of the best aspects of this book is the collection of case studies.  Becky went beyond the usual suspects and tells tales of customer loving companies like Nicor National, Salon Radius and Sanuk.  (Nope, I’d never heard of any of them either!)  The fresh stories add a depth that other books are missing.  However, no book on treating customers can leave out stories from Disney and you’ll enjoy those as well!

If you want to build an organization that truly treats its current customers as a precious commodity — this book will serve as a valuable guide to making it so.

Check it out and let me know what changes the book inspired.

*Yup, it’s an affiliate link and I was sent a copy of the book by Wiley. However…as you know, I get 4 or 5 books a week.  I only recommend the ones I genuinely believe you’ll value and enjoy.

How CustomInk.com creates a love affair with me

July 19, 2011

...they even send love notes!

There’s no valuable and ROI focused marketing goal greater or more effective than to create a love affair with your customer.  Remember the perks:

• It feels good
• It’s easier to sell more to a current customer than something to a new one
• It’s more profitable
• It generates word of mouth
• It’s incredible for employee retention

And here’s a little case study to prove my point.

We’re an agency, I sit on the boards of several not-for-profits and I was very active in my daughter’s high school.  All of that adds up to a ton of t-shirt purchases throughout the year.   A few years ago, we stumbled upon CustomInk.  I was shopping for cheap, t-shirts for a fundraising event for one of the boards I’m on and couldn’t find the right quality for the right price locally.

The experience I had with CustomInk that first go around made me a customer for life.  And every interaction I have with them since that first one just reinforces my buying decision.

Here’s how they create a love affair with their customers.

They are accessible: Live chat on their website, a phone number to a real person, very fast e-mail support — I’m pretty sure I could even send them a carrier pigeon and they’d get back to me.

They give me the tools to be successful: Whether you’re a novice and need clip art and suggestions to a pro who wants to upload print ready files — they have easy to use tools to let you do business with them the way you want to do business.

Their store (website) is well organized, has lots of help prompts and let’s me get to it: God love them for organizing their site in a way that lets me search by price or by color or by quality.  I never have to wonder “where would I go to do XYZ” because I always know.

When things go wrong (on our end)– they bend over backwards: If they think your shirts (or whatever you print) aren’t going to turn out well due to a design issue or if they just think your logo needs to be cleaned up — they do it.  They’re helpful and they don’t make you feel like a dope.

They support what I support: Every time I do t-shirts for a fundraising type event — they call the organization and make a donation.  It’s not a huge dollar amount ($20 or so) but the gesture means a great deal.

I get a person: Once my t-hsirts are in production, the work is assigned a staff person who oversees the order until it is shipped.  When I e-mail or call – I am connecting directly to that person.  When I have an art question — I’m assigned an art person who helps me get it right.  Follow up question — go back to your person.

They’re grateful: They go out of their way to let me know they appreciate my business.  I’m sure I am a small fish in their pond but they always check to make sure we were happy once the t-shirts get delivered and as you can see, every once in awhile, I get a hand written note.

None of what they do is rocket science but all of what they do is a sincere effort to connect with, support and thank their customers.  They’re an online company that understand the importance and power of creating real relationships.

I feel the love…and love them in return!

How about you — is there a brand that’s created a love affair with you?  How’d they do it?

If you really walked a mile in their shoes…

July 16, 2011

…have you really walked a mile in their shoes?

We give lip service to wanting to serve our customers better, but I see so many examples where people clearly didn’t bother to even consider their customer, that I wonder.

I’m betting we could walk into any business today and point to things that make life better or more enjoyable for the employees but make the customer feel less important or considered.

Here’s what it might look like if you genuinely walked a mile in your customer’s shoes if you owned/worked at…

A take out food establishment: I’d put all the cold food in one bag and all the hot items in another.

A oil change shop: I’d have more than just car magazines in the lobby.

A CPA/business banker: I’d take the forms I make you fill out every year and put them into excel so you could easily update them rather than re-writing pages and pages of numbers.

A pest control company: I’d show up at your house in an unmarked van so all your neighbors wouldn’t know you had a bug problem.

A movie theatre: I’d have a “in your seat 5 minutes before the show” rule like they do in live theatres.

A lawyer: I’d provide you with a cheat sheet of all the important legal documents you need, have and where they’re stored.

Your financial planner: I’d give you a template that captured all of your financial data (investments, bank accounts, credit cards etc.) to put with your will in case something happened to you.

A clothing store: I’d have a room you could enter and have a store employee take a picture of you (with your phone) so you could get other opinions on the potential new outfit.

Did you notice that none of these changes are a big or expensive deal?

If I can do this with 8 types of businesses — I’m pretty sure we could do it with yours too.  Your turn — tell us your organization’s core business and what you’d do differently if you truly walked a mile in your customer’s shoes.

Customer surveys: Tell them what you heard

May 20, 2011

…Close the loop on customer surveys

Last month, I wrote a post which suggested that you stop guessing what your customers were thinking and instead (dramatic pause for novel thought) you just asked them.   I offered up several different ways you could “survey” your customers from traditional surveys to secret shopping and advisory boards.

But… what I forgot to mention was this:

When you ask your customers (or employees, or vendors) for their opinion or assessments – be sure you close the loop by telling what you learned.  Let them share in the insights you gained AND tell them what you are going to do with this new knowledge.

Let’s say that one of the key pieces of feedback you got was that when your customers couldn’t get a hold of their normal account rep, they didn’t know who else they could talk to if there was a problem.

One way to handle that would be to create a contact sheet (headshot, name, title, phone number, cell phone number, e-mail, etc.) of the entire team that works on the client.  Write a letter, explaining that this was something you learned during the survey, so you’re sharing this contact sheet with them in case they were one of the people who wasn’t sure who to reach out to if there was trouble.

It doesn’t have to be fancy or formal.  A letter from your CEO with these elements would also work just great.

• Thank you for participating in our survey if you did
• Here were the things you loved the most (share the good news too!)
• Here are the top 3 things we learned we could improve upon
• Here is how we’re going to address those items
• Again, thank you.  If you have more feedback, please feel free to call me.

You could also write a story for your newsletter or put it on your blog, website or Facebook fan page.  No matter what method — be sure you close the loop and let them know that you appreciated their time and that they were heard.

P.S.  The other plus of closing the loop is that it reinforces the message that you care about their opinion, you listen when they offer feedback and you are always trying to get even better.

Stop giving it away

May 17, 2011

….Are you giving away your expertise?

“Actually, I get paid to do that.”  I hear this every day in a client’s story as they lament a prospect expecting to get their thinking for free.

I say this every day in my own head too.  And, I’m betting you mutter it under your breath as well.

And yet, most people struggle with finding the words to tell yet another “prospect” that what they’re asking for isn’t free.  It’s actually the most rare of fruit that only comes from years of experience, study, real life trials and walking through the fire with a lot of clients.

You wouldn’t call a plumber and expect him to come to your house and diagnose and fix your problem for free – and yet every day, professionals, especially professionals of the creative class (doctors, lawyers, business coaches, marketing professionals, accountants and other knowledge based workers) are being asked to do that very thing.

If you’re a professional who draws on complex bodies of knowledge and experience to solve specific problems – you’ve probably faced this issue.  So how do you keep from having this recurring problem impact your business?

Actually – it’s a marketing issue.  And here are some ways to communicate away the situation.

Stop giving it away: This first suggestion is certainly the simplest in theory and the hardest in practice.  If you keep rewarding the bad behavior, you will just get more of it.  When someone asks you to share your expertise for free, you need to have a practiced and comfortable answer.

That answer should be based on your organization, your brand and your comfort level.  It should respectfully and clearly explain that your advice is not free, in fact that’s how you make your living.

Set the expectation early on: Long before someone ever gets you into a meeting – you need to establish the rules.  On your website, in your brochure, as a part of your “get to know us” PowerPoint – spell it out.  Be very clear that your thinking time/expertise is delivered for a fee.

You don’t have to list prices if you don’t want to get that specific.  Avoid being too nice and push yourself to be blatant that there will be a cost.

Don’t run after them: If they balk at being charged or try to get you to reduce your fee, be polite but stand firm.  (This requires being fair when you set your pricing to begin with).  If they walk away – let them.

I know this is tough when you really want the project – but they have just told you what value they’re going to assign to your years of experience.  Is that really a client you want?

Give it away but with intent and purpose: One way to demonstrate the value of what you sell is to give it away. (I’m not contradicting myself, I promise!)  So go ahead and give it away to a non-profit or a start up you’re sponsoring. (like our adopt a charity program)

Use that generosity to set the contrast for prospects.  “Now as you may know, we did this same sort of XYZ plan for charity 123, but naturally, in that case, we actually donated our expertise.”

Next time you find yourself grumbling about this problem, remember – you ‘re actually the one giving it away.  And only you can keep it from happening down the road.

Addendum:  Someone just shared this post with me from Kevin Dugan.  He’s ranting about the “can I buy you coffee and pick your brain” call, much in alignment with the post above.  See — it is something we’re all facing.

Either they trust you or they don’t

May 3, 2011

• Marketing
• The art of selling
• Customer loyalty
• Brand promise
• Social credibility

All very important concepts on this blog.  And in your organization. At the core of every one of them is trust.  Or the lack thereof.

Think of any relationship you have — personal or professional.  How close you feel to that person is directly correlated to how much you trust them.  The deeper the trust, the deeper the relationship.  And the deeper the relationship, the more likely it is to be long lasting.  Which from your business’ point of view translates to more profitable. (This works the same with employees, by the way)

The only thing more painful that being in a relationship where you are not trusted… is being in a relationship where you cannot trust.  In fact, no real relationship can exist where trust does not.

So sooner or later… it will go away.

Notice that I didn’t say like, love, respect, or admire.  We can like or even love someone and not trust them.  We can respect someone’s work or intelligence and not trust them.  We can even admire someone’s abilities or talents and still not trust them.

I can be the most innovative, proactive, on the cutting edge, smartest marketing guy in the world — but if you don’t trust me and believe that I have your best interest at heart — you simply won’t be able to do business with me over the long haul.

Why?  Because there will always be that nagging doubt.  You will always question my sincerity.  You will see hidden motives and meanings, even if they don’t exist.  Even when I offer rationale and truthful explanations — you’ll wonder what’s underneath.

Trust defies logic, fact and truth.  It’s all about the gut.  Factually accurate or not — it is innate in nature.

I know with certainty (and you know this about your company as well) that clients hire us based on how they feel about us.  And in our case, being a marketing agency — they are bringing their hopes, dreams, fears, baggage, dirty laundry and secrets with them.  They are hoping like crazy that they can spill that bag onto our conference room table and let us see it all and help them sort it out.

But first, they need to decide if they trust us.  Do we really care or are we just trying to get their money?  And your clients are asking themselves the same questions about you.

So how do you create an atmosphere of trust?  How do you reassure prospects and current clients that you’re worthy of their trust?

Be human: We make mistakes.  We don’t know all the answers.  We forget things.  When any of those happen with a client — say so.  And point it out before they notice.

Example:  I honestly don’t know how to get our software to give you the information you need.  But, I’m on it and will report back.

Be honest about what you can/can’t do: You’re not the best at everything.  You have strengths and weaknesses as an organization.  Disclose those and show how you overcome them.

Example:  Our strength is really in the writing and directing sides of things.  We partner with a very good videographer to shoot.  Their costs are already included in the estimate.

Care: Don’t say that you care — actually care.  And caring is an action verb.  Do things that demonstrate that your customer’s best interests matter to you.  Go out of your way.  Regularly.

Example:  We didn’t replace the gasket because we couldn’t get your car to act up the way you described.  So, we called the dealership and they didn’t know.  Then, we called Ford and they faxed us some information and it turns out, it was your flibberdejibbit.

Behave in a way that creates trust: Trust is strengthened or weakened by actions.  There’s a reason we all know the axiom — actions speak louder than words.  It’s harder to mask true intentions in a behavior than it is to sugar coat some words.

Examples:  Create simple, easy to understand invoices.  Always be happy to over explain when a customer has a question about your process, your costs or your intentions.

We want to create love affairs with our customers.  That can’t happen without earning their trust.  Trust is what drives word of mouth.  Trust is what earns loyalty.  And trust is at the heart of any relationship worth having.

Note: Today (May 3rd) is the International Day of Trust.  You can read more about it on the Entente site or their Facebook page.  This also ties very nicely into a project I’ve been working on with some friends — the Connection Agency.

So today — imagine a world built upon trust.  Feels pretty cool to me.  Maybe tomorrow we can start to build it?

Stop guessing what your customers are thinking

April 25, 2011

… Want to tap into your customers’ minds?

We spend way too much time in “I think I know” land especially when it comes to customers. We make huge decisions based on “my best guess is” or “it seems like…”

There’s absolutely no reason for you to not know what your customers are thinking. Here are a few ways (short of the brain probes in the photo) to ferret out exactly what’s going on in there.

Secret Shopping with a Twist: Invite your customers to sign up to be secret shoppers.  Let them sign up on your website and pick a good blend of them.  Then, after every experience (or in a given time interval) give them a little form to fill out, rating performance,, quality, or whatever else you want to know.  Every time they send in their form (or submit it, if you put it online) they get some reward.

Bonus: Even those you don’t select will now know you want their feedback.   So they’ll speak up more often.

Create a customer survey: Just ask them already!  Afraid of what they’ll say?  Steve Olenski’s tells us in a recent post that we shouldn’t worry about that. In fact, according to the study he cites — most customers who participate in surveys (even if they have a tough message to deliver) care about the company and want it to be successful.  That’s why they invest the time in answering your questions.   We do these for clients all the time and it’s remarkable what we learn and how tiny tweaks (that you learned about in the survey) can change the customer experience.

Bonus:  They feel important and valued because you asked.

Create a customer board of advisors: If you are going to be making some big decisions, why not create an elite group of your best customers (the ones you’d like many more of) and bring them together monthly or quarterly for a couple hours. This requires you being willing to bare it all — they can’t give you good advice if they don’t know the whole picture.   But their insights, questions and counsel will amaze you.

Bonus: They shift from customers to full on evangelists for your organization.

There are, of course, more ways to check in with your customers.  Some may be better suited for your industry than others.  But… guessing is never the best choice.

What say you?  How do you stay in touch with your consumers?

5 ways to build a sticky Facebook fan page

April 22, 2011

… The McLellan Marketing Group’s page

With well over 600 million people on Facebook, it’s no wonder that businesses are flocking there to create a fan page for their organization. But what should that page contain?  How should you use it to connect with your customers?

Here are 5 tips for creating a Facebook page that people won’t ignore.

Connected: Be sure you use your Facebook page as a launching point for learning more about your product or service.  Link it to your website, a testimonials page or a third-party site that sells your product.

Good example: Ace Hardware offers us special FB discounts, links to their retail locations and you can even view your own local ad flier.

Be the resource: Know your audience well enough to anticipate what else they might want to know.  If you sell business training, link to other HR and employee related sites or tools.  Think beyond what you specifically sell and build a more well rounded resource center.

Good example: Arbor Springs shares their expertise in dementia by offering a free ebook and other links to resources valuable to families facing this disease. (disclosure — they’re a client and we built the page)

Let them talk: Don’t make the mistake of treating your Facebook page like a one way broadcast tool.  One of the best elements of Facebook is that you can actually talk to your customers and prospects.  Don’t turn off their ability to comment on your page.

Good example: Check out the questions we get asked on our FB fan page.  We might start the question/discussion but sometimes people pop on and ask us something out of the blue.  We love that.  (disclosure…duh, it’s us)

Let the games begin: No matter how old we are chronologically, we like to play games.  One great way to get Facebook page fans or to get them to keep coming back is to create contests and games that hook your audience and keep them coming back for more.  Or, have a regular contest –like a weekly trivia game.

Good example: Northwest Savings Bank offers contests and giveaways to their customers.

Serve with a smile: Use your Facebook page as your customer service portal.  Let customers ask questions, post problems or give you feedback about your product or service.

Good example: Check out how Scrapbooking for Less customers ask questions about products and classes.

Facebook is a very powerful tool.  But just jumping on board and slapping up a page without a strategy will leave you and your page getting chilled from a lack of attention.

Who do you think is doing it better than most?  Post the URL so we can check it out.

There’s actually a person on the other side

March 24, 2011

You can’t do it all from the box

It’s incredible that you can now do business with anyone on the globe.  It opens up amazing possibilities for all of us.

It also creates some new challenges.

We launched a very complex and challenging project with a new vendor recently.  It was complicated by the fact that it’s outside our area of expertise — but we still needed to drive it from a project management and brand perspective.

What we needed was very specialized and there aren’t too many proven choices out there.  So we selected a vendor who clearly had the skills we needed.  We contracted with them and the work began.  Then, this sequence of events happened.

1. They sent us an e-mail, outlining what they needed from us.
2. I sent an e-mail back, admitting that I was nervous about the project due to our lack of knowledge — and could we please talk it through on the phone.
3. They wrote back and said they preferred to do everything via e-mail so there was a record and no details would be missed.
4. I said… I was all for capturing the details but I have some overarching questions and want to give them a better sense of what we’re trying to do, big picture.
5. They wrote back — great, e-mail us your questions and tell us about the big picture.
6. I did this to the best of my ability — which I believe wasn’t all that hot.  I just didn’t know enough.
7. They asked us how we wanted to handle a technical issue.  I said…I have no idea.  We need your recommendation.
8. They gave us a recommendation and we took it.
9. 2 weeks later — it turns out their recommendation was wrong.  Had we talked on the phone and explored the project together — they would have made a different recommendation.
10. We have to make a change, based on a new recommendation.
11. Oops…turns out their 2nd recommendation was also not quite right, because they didn’t know enough about what we were trying to do — and I didn’t know enough to tell them what they really needed to know.
12. 3rd recommendation is fine.  Project is complete.  But…they had to do a lot of extra work and take a lot of extra time that they could have saved — if we’d had that initial phone call.

Every project should begin with a phone conversation.  I don’t care how tech savvy you are.  I don’t care how simple the project.

Do not hide behind your computer with the excuse of capturing details or efficiency.  I don’t care how much you prefer e-mail — when a client asks to talk to you on the phone — talk to them.  They are no more interested in chatting than you are.  You will learn so much more in a phone conversation — because you can ask questions, and based on those answers — ask more questions.

Even if it’s just because the client is worried — talk to them.

It sounds pretty basic doesn’t it?  But it’s happening more and more.   I can hear you in the comments section now — “duh, Drew.  When they wouldn’t talk to you on the phone — big red flag.”

I know it.  I knew it then.  But, I kept trusting their process rather than that nagging voice in my head.

My mistake is your marketing lesson.  Don’t do this to your clients and don’t do business with anyone who does it to you.

Is your brand an April Fool’s joke?

March 21, 2011

Some brands are better suited at being playful than others.  The same is true of their customers. With the pending arrival of April Fool’s Day, you may be thinking about pulling a fast one on your unsuspecting clients.  Tread slowly…

While most people enjoy a good chuckle… you walk a fine line when it comes to practical jokes.  Some people like to laugh but really hate it when the laugh is on them.

Last year, several big name brands shouted “gotcha” at their loyal followers and it seems like none are any worse for the wear.

Google asked members to sign up to test the newly unveiled “store everything” feature in Google Docs. Google Docs was allowing users to store more than documents; they could store their pet rock collections, winter clothes, apartments and even their pets for a competitive price.

Starbucks announced that in response to customers requesting more beverage sizes, they were introducing the 128-ounce “Plenta” and the 2-ounce “Micra.” Starbucks explained that the additions were a result of direct customer feedback from MyStarbucksIdea.com and a year’s worth of research.

As seen above, Nike released a video revealing the secret behind where they get the air for Nike Air shoes. The video explains that the air is collected from star athletes to help you perform at your best.

GameStation added an “immortal soul clause” into their terms and conditions in which consumers surrendered their souls to the company if they chose not to opt out of the clause. GameStation collected a total of 7,500 souls who decided to skip the terms and conditions (or didn’t mind the new clause).

Coldplay revealed on their website that they had released a perfume called, “Angst.” The  bottle was featured in the band’s online store but unfortunately it was all sold out. Frontman Chris Martin said, “This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. People like to smell nice and we thought we could help them out.”

What do you think?

• Is this a gimmick that only works for big consumer brands?
• Can you see this playing well with your customers?
• Is the risk of it backfiring worth taking to create big buzz?