find, keep and grow your customer

April 12, 2009

Are you a good marketer? 17 questions to ask yourself every day.

Filed under: social media, customer experience, Innovation, customer service, branding/differentiation, internet marketing, marketing strategy —

BY TODD SCHNICK

We at Intrepid want you to be an intrepid marketer. And whether you are the CEO, the Marketing Director, or the janitor - we believe we are ALL in the company marketing department, and have a critical role to play.

So, we present this series of questions you should ask yourself - EVERY DAY - to see if you are doing the things necessary to be intrepid:

1. What have I done to destroy the status quo?

2. What actions have I taken to make a customer say “wow!”?

3. Have I reviewed and held myself accountable towards my written long-term plans?

4. Have I spent time trying to innovate and make my product or service - or customer experience - better?

5. Have I made the effort to meet someone new, and expand my network?

6. Have I done even a little something to Give Back?

7. Have I considered my customer when making any and all business decisions?

8. Have I helped anyone connect with someone of value?

9. Have I spent even a few minutes learning something new and continuing my education?

10. Have I identified the thing I least want to do - but most need to do - and just done it?

11. Have I refined and improved my ability to convey the value of my product or service?

12. Have I focused our sales process on solving problems or fulfilling needs - instead of pushing products and services our prospect might not need?

13. Have I brushed up on my ability as a storyteller - using this skill to make our prospects feel more emotionally attached to our company and brand?

14. Have I reminded EVERYONE in the organization they have a role in our marketing? And have I encouraged them to see themselves that way?

15. Have I realized that we are not really in the business of producing a product or service - we are in the business of marketing that product or service?

16. Have I refined my ability to differentiate my company in the marketplace?

17. Again, have I thought about ways I can destroy the status quo?

What are some other questions one should ask - each day - to become a better marketer?

BE INTREPID.

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14 Ways To Improve The Customer Experience by editorga on April 5th, 2009
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April 5, 2009

14 Ways To Improve The Customer Experience

Filed under: social media, customer experience, Innovation, customer service, internet marketing, sales team development, branding/differentiation —

BY TODD SCHNICK

Over the past several months, I have done a lot of thinking about how to better assist my clients with their business. One thing we are doing is focusing on the customer experience.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your customer’s experience:

1. Get your customer’s FEEDBACK. While you may not want to hear negative complaints from customers, trust me - you do. This is the only way you can solve problems - and actually it is the best way to build loyal customers. They will appreciate when you bend over backwards to handle their concerns, thereby building a stronger relationship. Here are ten questions you can ask your customer.

2. OBSERVE your customer. What they say, and what they actually do, are sometimes different. Point is, you should always monitor the behavior of your customers, and see how they go through your company experience. It won’t be a smooth as you might expect…

3. Be sure they understand the VALUE you bring. Tell them that story. Often. Be sure they understand what value you bring to their business - how you are making them better. This enables them to better spread your story to their network.

4. EMPOWER your employees. It is critical that you give your employees the freedom to handle customer complaints and needs - on a moment’s notice. If you do not empower your employees to make decisions on their own - then you are seriously limiting your ability to satisfy and serve your customer.

5. Make yourself ACCESSIBLE. Make it easy for your customers to find you when they need you. In this day and age of easy communication - there is no excuse not to be easily found.

6. BE your brand. You must always live your brand. If you position yourself as a green company, you better always live that brand. If at any time you deviate from your brand, you will injure that reputation, and business will suffer. People will pay a premium to live the brand with you.

7. Never stop INNOVATING. Looking for ways to improve your service, product offerings, and customer experience - never stops. The minute you stop seeking improvements is the minute your business begins to fade away. As soon as you bring a new innovation to market isn’t the time to start looking for the next one - you should already be on that path.

8. Make your website EASY. Sometimes you, the business owner, may like the look and feel of your company website, but what does your customers and prospects think? Your site won’t always make the same sense to a new user as it does to you.

9. Make the experience UNIQUE. A person makes lots of transactions and decisions each day. They buy goods from the grocery, pay a utility bill, buy songs from iTunes, etc. What you should strive for is a unique business experience - one that stands out and is memorable. And what happens when your customer experiences this? They come back. And they tell others!

10. COMMUNICATE. Reach out to your customers. Often. Use social media tools. Blog. Send newsletters. E-newsletters. Progress reports. Keep them in the loop about what is going on.

11. TRAIN. If you want your employees to behave a certain way, and learn habits that will serve customers well, you need to establish good training programs. But also know that training never stops. The best athletes never stop practicing.

12. Install SYSTEMS. Establishing set processes and systems that are meticulously followed by you and your employees can create a standard that customers will come to trust and expect. Don’t get trapped into never changing (always be looking for improvements), but a system allows your company to perform consistently, and systems bring comfort to customers.

13. Have FUN. If you aren’t enjoying yourself and having fun running your business, you are not providing an environment suitable for you and your employees to give a good customer experience. Make working your business fun - and the customer will certainly benefit.

14. Think Customer FIRST. It is a mistake we all make. When we make decisions, we sometimes don’t think about how those decisions will impact the overall customer experience. You should not do ONE thing (however remote) in your business where you don’t question how it will impact the customer.

What are other ways to improve the customer experience?

Be Intrepid.

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February 28, 2009

Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of Business

Filed under: customer experience, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy —

BY DON RIGBY

As published in the Tri-City Journal of Business

The need to stay in touch with customers, to cultivate top of mind awareness, to create preference for doing business with you has never been greater or more difficult to accomplish.  With the advent of exciting new communication methods, the ability to communicate effectively and respectfully will differentiate winners from the losers. Customers have an unprecedented number of choices in the marketplace — so the need to connect and be compelling is both imperative and urgent.

HOW TO CONNECT:  Don’t sell …Nurture.  This powerful communication strategy aims at the core of why people buy.  It’s fueled by an understanding of human nature, the need for trust, relationship and enabled by fresh new technology. It’s a way of connecting personally to build rapport and gently embed your brand in their hearts and minds causing them to call you when they’re ready to buy.  You can automate many of these processes to help you be more efficient and effective.   

With each prospect and client, teach them how to buy through ongoing, personalized correspondence and carefully sequenced touch-points.  Begin by documenting your approach. Map your process.  Do this and you’re ahead of 85% of the small and mid-sized companies who don’t.  This step-by-step process outlines your expectations of the sales and marketing teams.  You’ll minimize failure from human error while celebrating the human spirit.  People don’t care what you know until they know you care.  This simple idea revolutionizes the cultivation of loyal customers.  Set yourself apart.  Don’t sell. Through a nurturing philosophy, help people buy. 

HOW TO BE COMPELLING:  You earn it.  Your product or service offering is deeper, more relevant and better strategic fit than your competitors.  That’s because you know your customer–you’ve taken the time to understand their wants, needs and desires.  You’ve analyzed competitive offerings and created an added dimension that further solves the customer problem.  You operate with a true differentiator.  The only one that matters is one that’s admired by your customer.

Are the promises of quality and service good differentiators?   It’s not enough. You sound like your competition which adds noise and confusion to purchase process leaving price as the primary consideration.  Give your customer tangible reasons to make emotional decisions they can justify logically.

HOW TO CREATE PREFERENCE:  Live your brand promise.  Your brand is the sum total of what you say, how you deliver and the customer experience you provide.  In essence, your authenticity.  You can certainly influence your brand, but you don’t own it as it is the perception of how your prospects, customers, partners and vendors view you.  A well articulated brand strategy is the bedrock foundation of every successful enterprise.  It’s no longer optional or nice-to-have. It’s required.  

Your brand strategy serves as a blueprint for management and marketing decisions.  It articulates what makes you unique, supports long-term vision, explains why customers buy and aligns all your employees with messaging elements to reinforce the values and principles your company stands for.  

WHAT EXACTLY DOES YOUR COMPANY STAND FOR?  Hint: more than shaking the money tree.  The best brands are created from the inside out.  This requires outside objectivity.  I can’t empathize this enough–seek outside expertise to analyze your competition, talk to your customers, interview employees and review industry trends.  You’re too emotionally tied to you business.  Even though your opinions and bias make you less than objective, you should be involved in the co-creation process so the brand values of your company are authentic.

Your brand is more than your graphic logo, your positioning statement, your unique selling proposition.  You own and manage those elements.  Your brand is owned by your customer and their beliefs.  The single most relevant thing you can do is deliver a customer experience worth repeating.  When you properly manage customer expectations and then exceed them, you create brand ambassadors.  These non-paid soldiers will do more to validate and create demand for your business, but you must give reason. The good news, you don’t have to spend a dime.  Spending time to innovate around customer experience pays big dividends and begins with speaking to those who have already had one.  

To summarize, let’s break things down into two actionable takeaways; 1) If you’re not making enough sales, you’re not talking to enough people, 2) If you want to change your income, change your marketing.  Key word is change.  Yes, the market has changed and so must you. When the market was good, you could exist without a refined brand strategy, without documented sales processes and without compelling messaging to build awareness, preference and a solid foundation for a customer experience worth repeating.  Today is very different.  The market you compete in is less forgiving. Assuming failure is not an option, there’s really no choice but to out smart, out market, out sell your competition.  Do this and you won’t be out of sight, out of mind or out of business.   

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February 7, 2009

GrowthANSWERS’ Don Rigby Makes The AJC!

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

Business owners are being tested for courage. Some are reacting, others are pro-acting. Here’s an encouraging story published in the 2/1/09 edition Atlanta Journal Constitution how forward thinking businesses are proactively advancing customer growth.  Don Rigby, Managing Director of GrowthANSWERS, believes business owners must stay on the offensive. Smart companies use this down cycle to rethink, reinvent and innovate their way through this and win early in the rebound. To view this article (click here), but we want to know what other proactive business owners are doing today to ready themselves for tomorrow.  Share yours or other acts of courage your observing in the business community. 

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January 26, 2009

It’s The Experience, Stupid (Part 1 of 5)

Filed under: customer experience, Innovation, sales process optimization, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy —

BY STEVEN WINOKUR

I had the pleasure of speaking at the GrowthANSWERS Meet the Expert meeting this month on the topic of customer satisfaction. More specifically, the discussion focused on the concept of the customer experience. We talked about the benefits of focusing on the customer experience as well as why it’s so important. Once everyone understood how it impacts their business, we demonstrated 4 tactics to create a better experience.

We’ll be addressing those 4 thoughts over the next week or so, but for now, let’s take a look at why the experience a customer has with your organization is so important.

Before proceeding, let’s all get on the same page. Defining exactly what the customer experience means can be a challenge in and of itself. I’d like to define it this way:

“The perception of the sum of ALL interactions a customer has with a given provider.”

It’s crucial to notice the use of two words: perception and all. Perception is used because the experience is in the eye of the beholder. The perception has to deal with the actual experience and the expectations that lead up to that experience. All is used because that’s exactly what makes up the customer experience. Every interaction – not just the ones with customer support or during the use of the actual product or service. Every touch influences the perception, either positively or negatively.

Now that we have the definition sorted out, let’s move on.

Creating a better experience for your customers isn’t some altruistic belief that people should be treated nicely. It’s about hard and fast business results. Having a superior experience can lead to increased revenue, greater protection of premium pricing and increased brand loyalty. In fact, studies have shown that the single most important attribute of driving customer loyalty is the customer experience. Not price or some fancy loyalty program. It’s the experience.

With the economy the way it is, customer retention is priority #1 for many firms. And retention is not about slogans or trinkets or loyalty programs. And it’s certainly not about locking customers in contracts or using other tactics to force them to stay.  Maybe it’s time to borrow an old campaign slogan here – “It’s the experience stupid.” That’s how to get them to stay.

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January 6, 2009

10 Questions You Better Ask Your Customer

Filed under: customer service, direct response marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy —

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.

In a blog post from the other day, I suggested a tactic one could do right away to kick off your 2009 marketing - mailing a survey to your existing customers. I want to expand on that idea here.

The survey piece could come in many forms, whether it is a comprehensive survey form that is completed and mailed back, a simple letter inviting responses via email, questions that are answered via the phone, or an online survey. Whatever the format, demonstrating that you care about your customer’s inputs is important - whether they take you up on it or not. But you know as well as I that a dialog generated by the mailer can ultimately lead to new business.

Here are some questions to include in your survey:
1. Ask how their business is going. Show that you care.

2. Find out what their biggest problem is. Identify what is holding them back most.

3. Since they are an existing customer, they have purchased from you. Sincerely ask if your product or service is benefiting them.

4. If your product or service isn’t living up to their expectations, find out how it is falling short (and do something about it).

5. Ask for new ways to improve your customer service. Things like response time, tech support, billing, front desk etiquette, etc.

6. Ask if there are other products or services on the market that intrigue them.

7. Does our product or service fit comfortably into next year’s plans? How can we modify it to continue serving you well?

8. Share ideas on ways to improve on our products or services. Use these answers to identify new ways to cross-sell and develop new offerings.

9. Suggest ways we can improve our communication flow. Blog? E-zines? Monthly reports via mail or email? Other social media tools?

Finally, ask for time to discuss these issues with your customer. Use this time to serve and provide solutions.

At the end of the day, this exercise of reaching out to your customers is just great customer service - service being the key word here. If you take great pains to SERVE your client, they will always be appreciative. And you will find that even if they are not pleased with a particular application of your product or service, the act of understanding how you can IMPROVE that customer experience will go a long way towards them remaining as your customer.

Customer satisfaction isn’t enough anymore. Customer DELIGHT is. And this tactic can help you begin to achieve that. Let me know of other ways you have achieved the same, or other questions to ask of your customer!

Todd Schnick. Be Intrepid. http://intrepid-llc.com

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January 4, 2009

Get Innovative, Get Fast, and Give Back

Filed under: customer service, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy, General —

Want to survive and thrive in these tough times? If you believe the press, 2009 will be tougher than last year. So you will need to distinguish yourself and your business to stand out and succeed.

What to do?

Get innovative. Get fast. And give back.  (The first two are obvious, the third less so…)

In this tight economy, you’d better get innovative - both with your marketing and with your service delivery. Innovation is simply a new way of doing things, and it generally applies to a change in your thinking, product offerings, or your systems and processes. Getting innovative may go a long way towards helping you do things better than the competition.

And you better move fast, both in delivering on your products and services, and in being first in the market place with your marketing effort. As my friend Stone Payton likes to say, “speed kills the competition.” You cannot assume that your competition will wait around - you must assume they will be out there trying to beat you to that prospect. Get moving.

And you better distinguish yourself by giving back. As I said, these are tough times, and there are a lot of people in need. There isn’t a better time to make this a cornerstone of your marketing effort.

Not a bad idea to differentiate yourself by giving back. Don’t we always say the more you give, the more you get? And with the social media boom, you now have no excuse to contribute to bettering your community. That feels good in and of itself. But it also reflects well on your personally - and your business.

How can you serve by giving back?

1. Join and serve on a charitable Board (this is what I am doing).

2. Donate services, such as PR or Social Media advice to a local charity.

3. Commit to raise money.

4. Volunteer your time.

There aren’t many guarantees in life, but there is one I can promise: The gift of giving back will make you feel good. And feeling good makes you a better person and a better businessman. And we need that in these times.

I joined a board of directors in 2008, and can’t wait to make my contribution in 2009. On these pages over the coming months, I will share with you my experiences and my learning. I hope you will comment back and tell us how you are giving back.

Todd Schnick. Be Intrepid. http://intrepid-llc.com

Want to help us out? Visit http://www.furniturebankatlanta.org/

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January 2, 2009

Three Things You Can Do NOW To Be Intrepid Marketers

Filed under: 1-to-1 relationship marketing, web/interactive marketing, customer service, internet marketing, direct response marketing, branding/differentiation, lead generation, marketing strategy —

I wonder why some people are so afraid to market their business.

They say they want new customers - they say that want more revenue - they say they are worried about the impact of the economy. But they don’t take decisive action to do anything about it.

I think most of them are dealing with fear - or they are procrastinators - or they don’t have a plan in place to proceed. A fear of failing holds way too many people back from bold action.

I have resolved to JUST DO IT in 2009 - to just DECIDE to take action - to mercilessly kill any evidence of procrastination.

Yes, even I hate to admit - I too sometimes get snagged by procrastination. And it really stresses me out when I catch myself doing it. The only way to fight it? Take action. Smart action, of course, but action nonetheless.

When it comes to boldly marketing your business - here are three things you can do RIGHT NOW:

1. If you haven’t already done so, get active on social media. Start a company blog, get on Twitter, create a company Facebook page. They are free and can be set up in minutes. They are not all time-consuming, and they are a great way to promote your business, build your brand, and make new relationships.

2. Start a direct response campaign to find new customers. Assuming your have your niche target market defined and your marketing message secured, there is no reason not to do a campaign right now. If you have a good product or service, get it out there so that you can help new people. But get out in front - don’t assume your competitors will remain stuck in the goo. Be first in 2009!

3. Send out a survey mailer to your existing customer