GrowthANSWERS » 2008

AT&T’s Lack of Customer Service

Filed under: branding/differentiation, marketing strategy —

BY STEVEN WINOKUR – www.tpstrategies.com

So I decided to make the change from Comcast to AT&T new cable offering, U-Verse. I sign up on the website and pick an installation date. I receive a confirmation email with some additional instructions and a reminder of the time and date. The email includes this statement.

As a reminder, you are responsible for disconnecting services that you may be replacing. You can prevent interruption of your TV/Internet service if you wait to contact your previous provider until after we install your AT&T U-verse service.

Makes sense to me - don’t cancel what works until you know the new service will work. A perfectly reasonable and safe statement.

Earlier in the week of the installation date, I receive an automated call reminding me of the time and date. Great, I can’t wait. The day of the installation arrives. They’re supposed to be here between 8 and 10. I arranged to be home for the 4-6 hours they say is the average installation time. Nothing ever goes smoothly with AT&T so I should have seen this coming.

A little before 8:00, AT&T calls. They asked if I had disconnected my old DSL service. I informed them that I had not, both because of the email and the fact that I can’t be down for any period of time so I wasn’t going to risk canceling what I had before the new service worked. Even though my current DSL provider is AT&T (used to be Bellsouth), I need to cancel the service beforehand. Since that needs to happen in advance, no installation that day. We rescheduled for early next month.

The story gets better from here - at 8:30 I get a call from a technician who is out in the field about the installation. He’s ready to do the outside wiring. I explained to him that the appointment got cancelled and why. He tells me that’s not how it’s supposed to work and I shouldn’t have to cancel my old service. GRRRR - I call AT&T back and they explain that indeed, you need to cancel your old service. At 9:30, I get a call from the inside technician ready to install the service inside my house. What?!?! Does no one talk to each other? I explained to him the same story.

At no point did anyone apologize for the lack of communication, for the delay and for the annoyance of me having taken the day off to stay at home. Not a good brand experience by any stretch.

And to make matter worse, over the past few days, I’ve gotten a few more automated calls asking me to call back in to re-schedule my missed appointment. My missed appointment? Holy smokes - doesn’t anyone speak to anyone over there?

Needless to say, I am really ticked off with them right now. The problem is, there aren’t a whole lot of other solutions so they don’t have to worry as much about poor service. Where I am going to go? Comcast - they’re not exactly at the top of their game either.

Don’t make the same mistake - most of us compete in environments with many competitors and low switching costs. A minor miss-step is service can easily drive a prospect or customer to a competitor. Make sure the experience your customer has with you is impeccable so they don’t walk away shaking their head wondering why they ever did business with you in the first place.

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“Would You Like Fries With That?” How this simple phrase – coupled with your Direct Response Marketing program – can power your sales!

BY TODD SCHNICK – www.intrepid-llc.com

Do you know how many times I have pulled up to a drive-thru window with the sole intention of buying a single burger? My intentions are sincere. Honest. Fries are high in carbs. Salty. Lots of reasons to avoid them. I think to myself, this time I will avoid that bad, bad food.

But then that pesky sales person in the first window says those magic words that get me every time. You’ve heard them – uttering that phrase sprinkled with mystical pixie dust that turns me into soft goo every time…

“Would you like fries with that?”

“Yes,” Todd says quickly and matter of factly, as if it was his intention all along.

Seems ridiculously simple, doesn’t it? But this little sales technique is so powerful, so common sense, that every business utilizes it, right?

Wrong. You’d be surprised how many businesses – both large and small – don’t ask the equivalent of “would you like fries with that” for their products or services.

Can you apply a similar technique to your business? Yes you can. Can you engage your direct response marketing program to execute it for you? Again, yes you can.

How?

Remember, the advantage of direct response marketing is that it is direct. It can be targeted with precision – unlike mass media. If you have an existing database of customers – you know precisely what they have bought from you – and why. (And if you don’t – you’d better…)

The teenager sitting in the drive-thru window at the burger joint knows you just bought a burger. They also know there isn’t anything better with a burger than fries. And even if you don’t think you want fries, it’s hard to resist. Even harder when someone asks. You need to apply the same principle to your business.

Utilizing this database, you can build your business by cross-selling. What is cross-selling? Cross-selling is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “that of selling an additional product or service to an existing customer”.

The teenage kid asking you if you wanted fries was engaging you in the most basic form of cross-selling. Another classic example is selling vacuum cleaners. If you are selling new vacuum cleaners, you are a fool not to sell your customer an additional supply of vacuum bags.

The beauty of cross-selling is that you are actually providing your customer better support and service, since the products or services you are cross-selling are helping that customer better fulfill their needs – or solve their problem. Sometimes, you are merely asking them to consider something they haven’t thought about before, or didn’t know was an option.

Now, how can you retool your direct response marketing program to do this? Well, what direct marketing tactics are you employing? Direct mail? One-to-one marketing? Telemarketing? Email marketing? All of the above?

You sell widgets. You have a database of the customers who have purchased widgets from you. You also sell whatzits – which nicely compliment widgets and make them much more efficient and effective.

Your customer base would benefit from adding the whatzits to their widgets. Send them direct mail (or a coordinated one-to-one campaign, or an e-zine article, or call them thru your telemarketing program) and explain how whatzits improve the efficiency of their widgets and will help them further grow their business.

Make the call to action simple and easy – just as easy as ordering fries – and not only will you better serve your customer – you will make additional sales and grow your own business.

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Leading and Coaching a Selling Team

Filed under: sales team development —

BY MARK WALKER – www.jmwalkergroup.com

Recently I met with a young sales executive for the first time. He inherited a sales organization of about 15 people in a technical industry. They are in a rebuilding mode with new corporate initiatives. As we shared breakfast and talked, I asked him about his management style. He made several excellent points:

§ He recognizes that everyone is not a super star, but that each one has value.

§ Regardless of his opinion of the person, he gives them all the same opportunity to succeed by providing the training and the infrastructure. § He does not micro-manage. This attracts potential super stars.

§ He looks at results and the activities that he knows will lead to those results to determine how a person is progressing.

§ He teaches that their first job is to find out what the prospective customer needs, and then get their products specified, if possible.

I predict that this young man will soon lead a much larger organization, making more money and enjoying higher levels of personal gratification. Here is why:

§ He is a “people builder.” Rather than “beating them up,” he encourages them.

§ He is customer needs focused in his philosophy, his training, and his work in the field.

§ He focuses on results first, not just activity. He knows that any sales person can look busy – can learn to “play the activity game.”

§ He trusts people to go out and do their jobs. If they prove untrustworthy, he can decide whether training them can solve the problem, or whether they need to be doing something else.

After more than 40 years in sales, I have concluded that the most successful sales managers don’t just “manage.” They lead and coach! Think about a person in your past who was influential in your personal and professional growth. While the personalities will almost always be different, if we could all meet and compare notes we would see some common characteristics, such as:

§ He saw more in me than I saw in myself.

§ She helped me understand that I was growing to become the person I want to be.

§ He would not let me goof off, but forced me to think through the situation and confront the client tactfully with the truth.

§ He helped me understand how to set and achieve both personal and business goals.

§ She patted me on the back when I did something right.

§ He traveled with me and coached me after every call. I learned what to do right by doing it right.

“Leading” a sales team is more like coaching little league than it is like “managing” a department. Top sales people crave “coaching!” They resist “management!”

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October eMERGE! - The Journal of GrowthANSWERS

Filed under: promotional marketing, eMERGE!, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy, General —

Closing the Loyalty Gap

In a recent interview with Strategy magazine, I stressed the importance of having loyal customers. Without a loyal customer base, you’re constantly having to find new customers just to replace the ones you lost. Having loyal customers that will buy new products and services is a huge benefit. Businesses often forget its MUCH easier to keep a customer delighted then it is to continually find new ones.

In our first article, we have a guest author, Jack Welch! Oh wait, it’s just Don Rigby referencing an interview and expanding upon Jack Welch’s thoughts and how they apply to the Fortune 100,000. Todd Schnick discusses how important it is to incorporate a plan for customer loyalty into a marketing plan in our second article. Expanding business with current customers by examining the “Voice of the Customer” is the point of Michael McClellan’s article. And finally, George Fergus educates us on guidelines for gifting customers and employees during the holidays.

Remember, customer loyalty can be measured in two ways - how often a customer makes a purchase and how many purchases occur over the lifetime of the customer.

What would happen to your top line if you were able to get a significant % of customers to increase their number of purchase occasions? And, what if you were able to retain that customer for a longer period of time?

If you’re interested in receiving our newsletter in your mailbox each month, please subscribe here.

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The Great Girl Scout Cookie Brush Off…

Filed under: direct response marketing, General —

BY TODD SCHNICK – www.intrepid-llc.com

This past week, I received the following email. I wanted to share it with you…

Q: After I send direct mail to a targeted prospect list, I usually follow-up with phone calls. But too often, I am told that they never received the mailing. Why does this happen?

A: That’s a great question, and unfortunately, a frequent response. I get the same response often when I follow-up on my own direct mail. Even from people I know personally. Sometimes it is legit. Sometimes the mail just doesn’t reach the intended recipient. Usually the mailing list you are using isn’t 100% perfect.

But sometimes that person on the other end of the phone is trying not to engage in what they have determined is a “sales call.”

We’ve all done it. We’ve all said “NOT INTERESTED” when we get pinged by telemarketers. We’ve all shooed-away people at our doorstep. Heck, we’ve all even brushed aside sweet, innocent Girl Scouts selling cookies outside our local grocery store. [Unless they present Thin Mints, then I buy every time…]

This is just a part of business. This is what makes sales so challenging. How you respond to this objection is what separates the men from the boys. How do I answer that question when I get it from my clients? I tell them “so what?” Sending that initial piece of mail makes that phone call easier.

My response to that line is always: “well I am sorry you didn’t receive it, but let me take a minute to tell you what it was about…”

If you just do a straight up cold call, you have to first establish who you are, why you are calling, etc. This is a harder call to make. But if you have initiated contact with direct mail, then the phone call becomes a “follow-up call” instead of a “cold-call.” And that – certainly for me – make that phone call much easier. And one I am much more willing to make.

But keep in mind that the quality of your mail lists can impact the success of your direct mail program. If you are mailing to people you’ve met over the last several years – keep in mind that they move on to other jobs, get transferred, fired, promoted, etc. That business card you got from someone in summer 2007 may not be where they are today.

And if you rented a list from a list broker, keep in mind that those lists are never perfect. Even the high-end lists you get from top-notch vendors aren’t perfect. And keep in mind that our own Postal Service isn’t perfect either.

At the end of the day, it is about making contact. If your mailing has a compelling service or product offering – and it is sent to the right target – you will get response. If not, your product isn’t something they want – it wasn’t presented in a compelling way, or you mailed the wrong target audience. The good news? These are things you can fix!

Following up your mail with phone calls is a good thing to do. Just know you will hear all kinds of pushback. But following-up your mail with phone calls will be easier than a straight-up cold call - every time.

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October 26, 2008

AT&T’s Lack of Customer Service

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October 19, 2008

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October 8, 2008

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