Come meet the greatest, most talented marketing consultant on the planet - Biff. You know Biff from his regular appearances on GrowthGAFFE, which can be found at www.GrowthGAFFE.com.
Meet the eXpert - Brent Brooks - Heroes And Villians! by editorga on November 19th, 2008 Brent Brooks, the creative mind behind Blank Stage Productions, was the featured speaker at the November GrowthANSWERS Meet the eXpert Live Learning Event.
I’ve blogged and written articles about this company before, but I felt compelled to do it again after a recent experience. Astute readers will notice that I often write about poor experiences, but occasionally I do see superior service and like to acknowledge it when it happens.
I have been a customer of Wade Ford here in Atlanta for quite some time. The dealership is quite far from my house and there are probably 3 or 4 ones that are closer to me. However, I always take my vehicles back to that location. Why? For one main reason - the service I receive from my sales rep. When I am looking to buy or lease a new vehicle, he makes the process as easy as can be. And when I bring my automobile in for service, all I have to do is call him and he arranges for me to have transportation waiting. Questions, concerns, whatever I need, he is there to help.
I leased a new vehicle from him last year, my 3rd from him. Now that means I won’t be looking for another vehicle until my lease is up in another 2 years. I’ve run across many a sales rep wouldn’t give me the time of day because I am not going to be buying anything from them for several years. Of course they’d love to talk to me when my lease is up, but they’re not around until then. This guy is great - I called him yesterday and told him I needed to drop off my car and get to a meeting. He said he’d make sure a loaner car was waiting for me early the next morning. I got there at 7:30 and the service rep came over, introduced himself and handed me the keys to the loaner vehicle.
Even beyond my experience with him, the service department is an absolute pleasure to work with. That’s why I drive 40 minutes to get my car serviced instead of the dealership 10 minutes away. While the auto industry is obviously having some tough times right now, its good to know customer service is not dead. By going above and beyond, he’s been able to create a loyal customer. I wouldn’t think of buying or leasing a vehicle that’s not a Ford.
If you’re in the Atlanta area and you’re in the market for a Ford car or truck, I highly recommend giving Ken Badalament a call at 770-436-1200. Tell him I sent you and prepare for the best car buying experience you’ve ever had.
10 Questions You Better Ask Your Customer by editorga on January 6th, 2009 Have you noticed that some businesses need reminding that marketing is the art and science of getting and KEEPING profitable customers?
They always seem to forget the “keeping” part…
We are always reminded that getting new business from existing clients is less expensive than finding new customers.
GrowthANSWER member Brent Brooks of Blank Stage Productions, a video production company, reveals his top 10 marketing strategies for ‘09. Will you follow suit? Send in your top 10 strategies to us and we may post them here…
So for my first blog entry I thought I would share my top ten strategies with basic explanations for ‘09.
TOP 10 MARKETING STRATAGIES FOR ‘09
1. Simple Solutions - I like this one. Sometimes it’s just the simplest thing to do to market ourselves, like asking for a referral.
2. improvAstorm - I may be cheating here. But this little service is selling itself, thus branding us deeper and deeper into the Atlanta business market and beyond. Does a really good product create a really good market?
3. Targeting Website Designers - OK this is a big one. Finally we will spend time aligning ourselves with website developers and firms. They need a creative video bullet and we will be their hired gun.
4. Targeting Marketing Companies - I think marketing firms will like our improvAstorms. We must be careful not to step on any toes. We like making videos, not marketing campaigns. We are a spoke on a wheel.
5. Targeting Advertising Companies - Read above. Can’t leave them out. They need to knew we exist just like the next guy. Why has it taken us this long to figure out.
6. Targeting Larger Companies - Oh yes. We are getting closer, but in ‘09 we will be bold and learn the art of dealing with a herd of people.
7. Demo Reel - Why don’t we have a demo reel everywhere we go. Oh yea, because we forget to market oursleves with the things we do best.
8. Business Cards - Just always have 30 everywhere we go.
9. Internal Videos - We had a blast entering the Dorito’s “Crash the Superbowl” video contest this year. Now Dorito’s and we have great demo’s out there. How did they do that?
10. GrowthANSWERS - A force to be reckoned with. Teaming up with these studs will prove to be big in ‘09. We are learning to trust each other, which we need to more of.
Meet the eXpert - Brent Brooks - Heroes And Villians! by editorga on November 19th, 2008 Brent Brooks, the creative mind behind Blank Stage Productions, was the featured speaker at the November GrowthANSWERS Meet the eXpert Live Learning Event.
Don’t you hate it when you are given a task to complete, or a problem to solve – and you aren’t given the tools to do it?
We business owners expect our employees to serve admirably on the front lines of customer service every day. But most of the time, it seems those same employees are told to serve with one arm tied behind their back.
My family uses Comcast. Without going into much detail, we’ve been having some problems with our DVR unit. And needless to say, when that happens, our world stops turning.
On a recent day when we had an appointment scheduled, we noticed a Comcast truck parked in the street. We assumed that was our technician, but learned this fellow was actually scheduled to visit our neighbor next door.
We, of course, expected he would immediately come to us when he completed his visit next door.
Nope.
He said he wasn’t allowed – that we would have to wait for “our” technician. When he tried to call his supervisor, he claimed he couldn’t get through. Mind you, our appointment had been scheduled for DAYS. This wasn’t a last minute emergency call. So there was no excuse for this not to have been scheduled efficiently.
In the end, our technician showed up a few hours later, and our problem seems to have been solved. But I will tell you this: had the first technician been empowered to make a command decision in the field to help a very frustrated Comcast customer, he would have gone a long way to build up customer loyalty from me and my family.
Instead, I continue to gripe and whine about Comcast. I might even write a blog about my experience.
Message to employers: empower your employees to solve customer problems WITHOUT having to jump through hoops – and you will go a long way towards building customer loyalty.
Get Innovative, Get Fast, and Give Back by editorga on January 4th, 2009 Want to survive and thrive in these tough times? If you believe the press, 2009 will be tougher than last year.
Brent Brooks, the creative mind behind Blank Stage Productions, was the featured speaker at the November GrowthANSWERS Meet the eXpert Live Learning Event.
Brent lead a creative and engaging workshop that lead our guests through a process, using mythical storytelling, to refine their marketing message.
Identifying your prospect’s many problems as the “villains” and your company’s ability to solve those problems as the “heroes,” Brent made messaging and differentiation easy…
10 Questions You Better Ask Your Customer by editorga on January 6th, 2009 Have you noticed that some businesses need reminding that marketing is the art and science of getting and KEEPING profitable customers?
They always seem to forget the “keeping” part…
We are always reminded that getting new business from existing clients is less expensive than finding new customers.
October eMERGE! - The Journal of GrowthANSWERS by editorga on October 8th, 2008 Closing the Loyalty Gap
In a recent interview with Strategy magazine, I stressed the importance of having loyal customers.
The adventure with AT&T continues. Ok, so as it got closer to the “new” scheduled date, I realized I hadn’t received a confirmation call about the appointment that weekend. And guess what?!? When I called them, they had no record of the re-scheduled appointment. So, I had to make another new appointment.
If you remember, they told me I had to cancel my old service before I could get their new one. So, two days before the installation I called a different part of AT&T (I had my DSL through Bellsouth, which then became AT&T) to cancel my current service. When the agent asked why I was cancelling (great question by the way - always try to find out why clients leave), I told her I was switching to U-Verse. She then proceeded to tell me that I was not supposed to cancel the service and that when the service gets installed, they would cancel it then.
I broke into laughter because while this was how I thought it should work, several people over at U-Verse told me otherwise. This agent, who was not in the U-Verse department, explained to me how it would work. Finally, someone who knew what they were doing! She tried to make excuses for them by saying U-Verse was new and that the agents would learn over time. Not a good excuse in my book…
So the installation date finally arrived - the technician called ahead and arrived on time. Great so far. But there was no way this was going to go completely smoothly, was there? Nope - first, my wiring was screwy so they had to run new cable. Certainly not their fault, just an annoyance that was tackled well by the technician. But the outside wiring guy never showed up so the technician had to call the dispatch and get someone out right away to put in a new box outside. To their credit, they did get someone out pretty quickly.
I won’t get into the problems I had getting my email to work and AT&T’s attempt to get me to pay for service. Well, wait, I will say something about it because I think it demonstrates a good lesson.
I was having trouble getting my email to send out using my own domain name. I was transferred to a service department that wanted me to pay for support to get it work. I complained that I didn’t think I should pay for support for something that didn’t work. The agent then proceeded to argue with me, telling me that since the Internet worked, that’s what I was paying for. They didn’t guarantee the mail working the way I wanted it to. Huh? I proceeded to explain to her that I had no problem with email before U-Verse and since I did now, their service was not working the way I needed it to. I finally got to someone who helped me for free. Word of advice - if a customer calls to complain about your service, DO NOT ARGUE WITH THEM.
Let me repeat - DO NOT ARGUE WITH THEM.
Even if they’re wrong, figure out how to deal with the situation WITHOUT arguing with them.
That’s one lesson - the second had to do with training. If you bring out new products or services, make sure your staff is well-trained on how the product works, how it gets installed and what the user has to do to purchase the new product. Like I said in the previous post, most of us have many competitors. It’s too easy to switch to a competitor that has their “ducks in a row”. Don’t make the mistake of unveiling something new and not have your processes in place to make it a smooth transition because you know what, someone else will.
Get Innovative, Get Fast, and Give Back by editorga on January 4th, 2009 Want to survive and thrive in these tough times? If you believe the press, 2009 will be tougher than last year.
10 Questions You Better Ask Your Customer by editorga on January 6th, 2009 Have you noticed that some businesses need reminding that marketing is the art and science of getting and KEEPING profitable customers?
They always seem to forget the “keeping” part…
We are always reminded that getting new business from existing clients is less expensive than finding new customers.
When speaking with business owners, the most common growth issue I’ve traditionally heard is one of lead generation. When digging deeper and discussing the findings of the Growth Gap Self Assessment, what I often find is that they also have an Expansion Gap problem. While finding new customers is important to growth, continuing to offer solutions to existing customers is not only easier, is much less costly.
If you’ve heard me speak, you know I preach focus, focus, focus. So I will say here it’s not about just adding products or services. It’s about adding the RIGHT products or services - ones that will further solve your customer’s problem. If you’re solving an issue of entertainment, offering a steam cleaner isn’t the right option.
And perhaps most importantly, make sure you can deliver the same level of service with those new products or services.
In our first article below, Mark Walker explains how to use questioning to uncover new opportunities. Zahir Palanpur follows up his “Meet the eXpert” presentation in October with a timely article on the use of innovation. Stone Payton’s unique writing style is on display in our third article. And finally, Don Rigby writes on the appropriate use of nurture marketing.
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