Providing Customer Solutions = Profit
June 18, 2008
One of the biggest issues I get “push back” on from clients is encouraging them to focus on the problems their customers are facing when creating their marketing messages. When you can provide customer solutions to problems, profits will follow almost automatically.
This is why I hammer pretty hard on “focus on your customers as individuals so you can provide solutions” in my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results.
See, if you know what PROBLEMS your prospective customers are facing, you can then create marketing messages which focus upon the CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS your business provides.
The beauty of targeting your market as individuals instead of “groups” is that groups don’t have “problems”… individuals do.
When you define your target market as individuals, it’s easier to address the specific individual’s unique goals, desires and problems. When you define your target audience as individuals, it prepares you to create effective marketing messages… ones that enter into the conversation that is already taking place within your customer minds.
Results of Poor Customer Service
June 13, 2008
Building a business is hard work. You invest blood, sweat and tears (not to mention truckloads of cash and every waking moment of your life) to get your business started. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you may be nurturing a dream of your business getting big, becoming successful and then you sell it and retire to somewhere warm. But for now.. you put your head down and keep paddling as hard as you can upstream.
As you build your business, remember that the results of poor customer service can destroy any business, big or small.
You get your first customer… and your second… then your third. Oh, you’re rolling now. Ten, twenty… hey, this is fun AND profitable!
In the beginning, you treated each and every customer like gold. Your customer service was beyond extraordinary because you treated those first customers better than you treat your spouse on your anniversary! Then you got busy… busy finding new customers… busy running your business… busy, busy, busy.
But wait… that second customer is calling. Seems he’s not getting email from his website. Why? Well, because he never set up his email client to grab messages from the server. Of course, he has no idea how to do that and that’s why he’s calling you.
Oops.. the phone is ringing again. This time it’s a more recent customer who isn’t able to see her website. After 30 minutes of trying to determine what the problem is, you ask her to go to Google’s homepage. It’s only then that you realize she isn’t connected to the internet. She checks and sure enough, her DSL isn’t working.
Ah the joys of entrepreneurial growing pains. Yarak Starak writes in his post :Growing Pains: How To Manage Customer Service As A One Person Enterprise:
For a small business with a limited marketing budget, good customer service resulting in an above average reputation in the market, can result in acquiring new customers through existing client referrals - a “free” form of marketing.
During the start-up phase you have limited funds and one of the best strategies to survive this period of business growth is to use your existing clients as a marketing tool to bring in new clients (actually - this is a good strategy at any stage of business growth).
The cornerstone of achieving that outcome is good customer service, since your existing clients will not be willing to help you, nor will they feel compelled to talk about you and refer you to others, if they are not significantly impressed by - and benefit from - their interaction with your business.
The results of poor customer service is of course that your customers won’t be willing to help you grow your business by telling others OR by returning themselves.
Advertising and marketing alone can not build a business. If you must pay for advertising to bring in each and every customer, then your business will not survive… PERIOD! Advertising helps bring NEW customers into your business. Exceptional product PLUS exceptional customer service means not only that those NEW customers will return, but it also means they’re refer their friends and family. If every new customer your advertising brings in then goes on to bring in 3 more customers… THAT is the key to advertising success!
Getting To Know Your Customers…
May 7, 2008
When Sam Walton was alive, he was notorious for “showing up” unexpectedly in his stores to talk with his customers. He’d wander the aisles and talk to associates… in the later days these unsuspecting associates weren’t even aware that they were talking to their boss… and the founder of the largest retail company in the world.
Sam Walton enjoyed knowing his associates and his customers in a personal way. It’s a trait shared by other successful business men and women throughout history.
The 247 Wall Street blog talks about CEOs Who Don’t Get Out Often Enough, And Some Who Do
The hallmark of some of the most successful companies over the last fifty years is that the CEOs spent a great deal of their time with customers and company locations around the work. Probably the two most famous travelers were Willard Marriott and Sam Walton. At one point, Walton visited hundreds of stores a year. If these CEO wanted to know how they were doing with the consumers who spent money with them, they did not have to check with anyone else in management.
The post goes on to list 9 CEO’s who are apparently ‘out of touch’ with their customers. Of course, the measurement tool used is the price of the company’s stock, which if you think about it is a GREAT indicator of how “in touch” management is with the “people”.
They also list CEO’s who are doing a great job. Amongst their list is James Sinegal of CostCo (COST).
He isn’t just in the stores. After a fashion, he is the stores. He started the company in 1983. According to the company, he tries to visit every one of the CostCo stores at least once a year. He gets the gold metal for CEOs who spend time in the field.
I work with business owners who have fewer than 20 employees. Because of the nature of that business, it’s hard for the business owner to get “isolated” from their customers. To you who are toiling in the “trenches” take heart!!! Your connection with your customers is essential to your success.
Several of my clients are doing everything in their power to REMOVE the connection with their customers. I get it… because sometimes I LONG for a barrier between my clients and me. However, when I get in those moods… I try to shake it off… because when I start looking at it from the CLIENT’S point of view, I inevitably get great insight into how I can make my services more VALUABLE to my clients.
If you don’t already, get to know your customers. When you know your customers, you can craft compelling message which enable you to get more customers just like them!
What Are Your Customers Really Worth?
March 7, 2007
If you’ve been in business any time at all, you’ve heard the following:
“Rule #1: The Customer Is Always Right.
Rule #2: If the Customer Is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule #1.”
Giving lip services to focusing on the customer is nothing new…. what is as rare and beautiful as a flawless diamond are business who truly get that business success has its roots in focusing upon the customer. Read more
The search for Black Hawk Down Team Saber
November 29, 2006
While shoppers across the United States were crowding malls and stores seeking discounted booty for the holidays, my two teen aged children were on their own quest: the search for Black Hawk Down Team Saber.
Earlier, I wrote about Game Stop and their stumbles in the customer service arena. One of my son’s friends had signed up on a waiting list for the Sony PS3 and was anxiously awaiting notifciation that his pre-paid order had arrived. As the magical release date approached, my son’s friend was bombarded with phone calls from Game Stop, not informing him of the status of his purchase, but rather offering him “opportunities” to participate in surveys. His reaction to the “opportunities” was comedic in it’s own right and should be appearing on Myspace videos any day now. (Pending rating of his video: AO for Adult Only…)
I thought we’d never do business with Game Stop thanks to that vicarious experience. Then, my daughter went on her own quest for the new Black Hawk Down game release. Though the release date was 11-21, it hadn’t arrived in our local stores by 11-22. (24 hours is a long wait when you’re a game obsessed teenager.) That Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my 19 year old college freshman’s trip home from college took three times as long as it usually does as she stopped at EVERY SINGLE retail establishment that sold video games between the Palm Beach Atlantic campus and our home. Her vast store of knowledge was increased as she discovered that it takes a long time for a game to travel from Canada to the southern part of Florida.
Her desperation drove her to the local Game Stop store, where a young employee redeemed the entire chain’s reputation with our family. While they didn’t have the game in yet, the young lady who worked there told my daughter to come back Friday at 5 and there would be one there for her held the game for my daughter.
This young lady didn’t take a DNA sample or require a cash deposit. The young employee merely told my daughter to come back Friday at 5 and there would be one there for her. AND THERE WAS!
When my son called Friday at 4 to see if the game had arrived, they told him that the only copy they had was being held for a young lady who had come in on Wednesday.
My daughter was thrilled and jumped into her car to claim her bounty. She is now a devoted fan of Game Stop. All because of a young Game Stop employee.
In a perfect world, the young lady who held the game and kept her word, thus gaining a rabid video game fan as a customer, would receive a portion of my daughter’s business for life. She would also get a % of the business my daughter sends their way. That’s not the way retail works. It’s a shame because that young lady should get SOME recognition for what she’s done. She resurrected Game Stop from the dead in our family, at a time when my three children are convinced that true holiday cheer will come in the form of the PS 3, Wii AND the Xbox 360 (all separately wrapped and surrounded by games for each.)
Even if those dreams don’t come true this holiday season, they will be fulfilled on other gift giving occassions and Game Stop will be the benefactor of that business. All because a young lady in their employ did her job.
This young lass who couldn’t have been more than 17 years old reversed the major screw ups of someone much older who decided to use their customer hold list for telemarketing purposes. Â Now THAT is a heartwarming holiday tale.
The human experience
November 20, 2006
Technology is a wonderful thing. It allows you, as a business owner to purchase software that actually tries to simulate an actual relationship with your customers. It’s called CRM which is short for Customer Relationship Marketing.
See, people like to feel like they are important to the businesses with which they do business. They foolishly believe that they, as the customer, are actually number one. In some cases, they truly are the focus of the business, but often they are merely viewed as mobile cash units whose only purpuse is to drop specified amounts of cash into the business coffers.
Chris Baggot tells of an experience he had with a business who has bought into the “CRM” model.  OUTSTANDING POST!
Customer Service and the power of 12
November 13, 2006
TechDirt calls it “Tech Rage,” where people get so frustrated with technology products not working as they should that customers are driven to the brink — often breaking the very object of their frustration.
According to USA Today, “About 85% of those polled said they’ve become so flustered, they’ve ended up swearing, shouting, experiencing chest pains, crying or smashing things.”
The thing is, there’s nothing more frustrating than purchasing a product only to discover that it doesn’t work as promised. Then, frustration builds as you try to get resolution from customer service reps stationed oversees whose disinterest could be cut with a knife.
I think what is most frustrating from the customer’s point of view is the lack of respect. Yes, it’s an issue of respect.
Recently, I experienced just such “tech rage” at my favorite Virus Protection program. I first became aquainted with CA way back in the day when they offered their virus protection program as freeware. Yeah, it was a while ago. Those were the days… when your only online threat was an incoming virus through your email.
Well, CA moved to a paid model, and as someone who was THRILLED with their free product, I gladly followed them with my CC in hand. Then, this year, when my virus protection was getting ready to expire, I got a full screen notice. Weird, but my love for CA was such that I thought I could trust them.
I purchased my new subscription and was alarmed that as part of the installation process, all of my beloved “e-trust” programs had to be removed.
“Wait?!?” I thought. Have I been phished? No, so I continued on with the installation. That marked the beginning of my journey into hell.
Suddenly, my browser began freezing up and shut down was impossible. Everytime I tried to shut down my computer, I would get error messages. When I checked the source of those messages, they were programs which were part of my CA virus/security suite.
So, I went to the CA site. I tried to submit a support a ticket. At the end of the process, I was prompted to download software, which crashed my browser.
So I resorted to using the phone. After sifting through three screens, I finally found a number to call. When I tried to call, I got caught in some kind of parellel universe where I kept ending up with a corporate account executive instead of a SOHO rep. While she spoke fluent English, she could only give me yet another phone number to call which again landed me right back in the same building as before.
In frustration, I purchased Norton and uninstalled CA. I wasn’t happy with Norton the last time I used their software, but you know what? My computer shuts down now and my browser isn’t crashing every 45 minutes.
CA may have gotten my money this time, but they won’t be getting any more. Not only will they not get my $$$, when my clients ask what to use, I won’t be recommending CA. One upset customer who can’t get through the highly automated customer support system will end up costing CA dozens of customers. While one disgruntled customer may be acceptable, I know from searching message boards across the internet that I’m not alone. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands just like me out there. We’re “geeks” to whom non-technical users turn for guidance and advice. So take the hundreds or thousands of disgruntled customers and multiply that by 12.
