Today, I heard Anthony Miller, a friend and colleague in the Oregon Chapter of the National Speakers Association give an outstanding presentation on how business can succeed in tough economic times. Anthony, who is the president of a sales training company called Stepping Stones Solutions, told an insightful story about how one of his friends is thriving in the mortgage business when many competitors are going bankrupt in today's difficult economic environment.
Anthony said his friend attributes his success to a laser focus on customer service and building a referral based business. For instance, when a customer completes the arduous mortgage approval process and receives a loan, Anthony's friend sends a box to the customer's office containing a big helium balloon that pops out when the it is opened. Inside the box is a handwritten thank you note, a t-shirt with the name of the mortgage company, and a few business cards. Invariably, people notice the balloon and have questions. Commonly, the story of the successful mortgage process is told which oftentimes leads the person hearing the story to ask for information about the mortgage broker and a business card is passed. The mortgage broker who spends about $15 for for the contents and delivery of each balloon package has gotten many great referrals and sales from this effort and considers it his most successful marketing tactic.
What do you do to wow satisfied customers once you've made the sale? How do you still instill excitement that gets people to refer their friends and colleagues? If you have limited marketing dollars, you have to make sure that you spend them wisely in a way that will be noticed. I would be curious to hear what you do.
“Men are rich only as they give. He who gives great service gets great rewards.” Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 – 1915), American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher
Ten years ago, while working in my family’s office furniture business, I learned that negative customer experiences are the best source of new business opportunities. Recently, I relearned that important paradoxical lesson.
The furniture industry is often frustrating for consumers and retailers. Customers wonder why it takes 12 weeks to have a new sofa manufactured and delivered when they can drive a new car off the lot immediately. When I explained how the two industries are different, my words did little to assuage customers tired of long waits.
I vividly recall one customer who received a desk, credenza, and file pedestal from our store about three months after ordering them. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the quality of veneer did not match what he saw in our show room. Furthermore, when the furniture was delivered, our drivers accidentally dinged some corners.
Irate, the customer called me and unloaded his frustrations in a three minute expletive-laced tirade. After hearing him out, I apologized and asked what we could do to make him feel better. He asked for new furniture and a reasonable discount amount which I agreed to provide. Furthermore, I told him that I would do everything possible to expedite his order.
Fortunately, his new office furniture arrived in perfect condition and we delivered it without incident. He came into the store to thank me personally for resolving the issue. On that same visit, he ordered an expensive desk chair. In the following months, he referred at least three people to our store who made big purchases. One of them told me, “John told me that you screwed up his order but worked with him to make things right. That’s why I’m here.”
Our customer service manager told me that many of our most enthusiastic customers were the ones that experienced the biggest problems with their orders. When she bent over backwards to solve these issues, these customers, who were used to lackluster retail service at other stores, were ecstatic. Invariably, they would come back to our store and send in their friends.
My wife and I dropped off Bella, our company’s Director of Goodwill (DOG), at our local boutique pet hotel. Since she had enjoyed three previous stays there, we were confident that Bella was going to have fun. About an hour after leaving Bella and en route to a conference we would be attending for three days, we received a phone call from the pet hotel’s owner informing us that a puppy had accidently nipped our dog while playing. Her calm demeanor and proposed solution of taking Bella to our vet for stitches made us feel like the situation was under control.
Although we were worried, we were also grateful to be informed immediately about the situation. Over the next couple of days, we received updates on Bella’s situation and what was being done to ensure that she had optimal care. Furthermore, we were given the direct cell phone numbers for both of the pet hotel’s owners in case we had any questions or worries. When we returned, the owner greeted us with a profuse apology and waived the $100 cost of Bella’s stay - a nice gesture considering the vet’s bill was $350. (As a side note, Bella was her happy self the whole time. For her, it was an adventure!).
While we have no idea whether Bella’s bite might have been prevented, we know that she received great care and we felt like the pet hotel’s owners were truly concerned about how we and our dog felt. We’ll have no hesitation about having Bella stay at the pet hotel again and we’ll continue referring our friends.
While it’s true that excellent repeat business and referral opportunities come from customers who have had far from perfect experiences, it’s the savvy business owner who realizes this and works hard to turn unhappy customers into excellent company evangelists.
Today, I read about an intriguing website called GoodShop in the First Unitarian Church of Portland newsletter. GoodShop is a brilliantly simple yet valuable idea. Instead of going directly to your favorite shopping websites like Amazon, Expedia, and Zappos (and hundreds more), you access them via the GoodShop shopping page. Then, you type in the charity you want to support and click on the link that takes you directly to the ecommerce business. When you purchase a donation of 1% to 7% of the total purchase price goes to the cause you selected. (If you know a charity looking for money, tell them to register at GoodShop and let their supporters know. It's a great way to raise money.)
I was impressed with the excellent press that GoodShop and its affiliated website GoodSearch has garnered. Their press room does something that all businesses which land good press should do to leverage the incredible residual value of publicity. Rather than just having links to their press, GoodShop and GoodSearch highlight a few of the most interesting sentences from each story. Even if you don't click to any of the media websites, the excerpts provide outstanding credibilty for GoodShop and GoodSearch and make you want to support them. And, once you've made this decision, the clever folks at GoodShop and GoodSearch have figured out some easy ways for anybody to spread their buzz which would apply to many other businesses as well.
My friend Hermes Aleman, a business banker at Affinity Bank in San Mateo, California started a blog in February 2008 that provides interesting information to business owners and to people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs. I especially enjoyed his excellent post on why PR is much more powerful than advertising at a fraction of the cost. He also included a plug for my free buzz marketing seminar in Berkeley, California on April 10.
I've met a lot of business bankers and Hermes is the first one I know who is blogging regularly. Hermes' blog makes business sense for many reasons but here are the top three:
It show his existing clients and prospects that he offers a lot of added value.
It will keep him on the cutting edge of knowledge as he generates content for his blog.
Over time, his posts will make him appear in top search engine listings since blogs are much more "Googlelicious" than websites. This will surely drive new business his way.
If Hermes gets so busy that he can only blog once a week, he will still enjoy the three aforementioned advantages. That said, why aren't there more business bankers and other professional blogging when it costs nothing to set up a blog?
Today, I was thrilled and surprised to receive a box of delicious chocolates and a lovely decorative plate as a thank you from my friend Christine Richards, an outstanding sales training guru and professional speaker. Inside was a nice card thanking me for recommending her services. Honestly, I had forgotten that I had done this. I can't remember the last time I received a referral reward as nice as Christine's.
Christine's generosity made me reflect on what I do for the people who refer business to me. Sometimes, I'll thank them in person. Other times, I'll email them or drop a thank you card in the mail. But I'm sure that nothing I do has the impact that I felt when I opened the package today.
As a small business owner, I don't have a huge marketing budget. But, as I consider where to invest marketing dollars, I learned a valuable lesson from Christine. If there are people enthusiastically spreading buzz about my business, rewarding them is not only the right thing to do but it's an excellent to gain future referrals.
Do gifts you receive for referring business make an impact on you? How do you reward people who recommend your services?
Here's wishing all Buzz Builder readers a happy and prosperous New Year!
I always feel a bit of a let down after the holidays. The dreary, gray days between now and the end of March are the toughest ones of the year - perhaps it's just a mild form of seasonal affective disorder.
It's likely that many of your customers could use a boost this time of year. If you didn't have the chance to send out Christmas cards, consider reaching out to people with New Year's wishes. Unlike Christmas, when many people get so many Christmas cards that they barely take the time to read each one, a New Year's missive just doesn't have to cut through so much clutter.
When was the last time you picked up the phone to thank your best customers for their business? Now is a great time, and you might even consider offering to take them out for a nice cup of coffee to learn more about their goals for the new year and how you might help them achieve them. If you're like me, you'll find that reaching out to others will put a spring in your step even if is spring is a few months off.
Over the last four months, I've noticed an uptick in the number of invitations that I've received to join people's LinkedIn networks. LinkedIn is an online network of eight million experienced professionals from around the world. It's rapid growth is featured in an excellent story on NPR's Morning Edition today. For those interested in building a word of mouth marketing network, LinkedIn is a valuable tool and a great way to tap into wider networks.
When you join LinkedIn, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.
Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals. The key to leveraging the power of LinkedIn is to fill out your profile as completely as possible. Make sure to include as many keywords as possible relating to your business or the type of opportunity that you're seeking.
I'm confident that online networks will never replace the need for real world neteworking since many people will only do business with or refer business to people that they know and trust. That said, online networking is quite viable for many and has a lot of room for growth so now is a great time to jump aboard the online networking bandwagon.
When I first started shopping for CRM software, I thought choosing ACT! 2006 from Sage Software would be a no brainer. Even though I had never used ACT! in the past, I had always heard that it was the best CRM system for small businesses. Yet, when I started poking around, I found hundreds of horrible reviews complaining about buggy, slow, and ineffective software that was giving users fits. Check out the product review page on Amazon to see how ACT! 2006 is driving people nuts.
I looked at other CRM systems such as Goldmine, Maximizer, and Salesforce. These systems were all more expensive than my budget allowed, and they all suffered the wrath of many users and media critics. Thanks to Google, I discovered Prophet 3.0, a CRM alternative from Avidian in Bellevue Washington. The positive user testimonials that I discovered on the Prophet website were intriguing, and I couldn't find any negative review through the major search engines. Instead, I discovered a lot of positive press that convinced me to buy the product.
Prophet is simple add-in for Microsoft
Outlook which allows me to leverage my existing contact database with cool features such as
enhanced contact management; a sales assistant that lets me send pre-set,
timed e-mails to my contacts; a workflow engine that helps me automate
sales-cycle actions and create consistent sales processes; advanced reporting
options; and an opportunity-management console. I was particularly impressed with how easy it was to set up, and I nearly fell out of my Aeron chair when I called the company for assistance and a live service person answered the call on three rings and was able to solve my problem on the spot. Figuring out how to use Prophet has been no harder than learning how to utilize Outlook.
While Avidian might be newer to the CRM game than some vaunted competitors, there is no doubt that it will dethrone some of its competitors. Avidian is a quality product that is so easy to install and use that positve word of mouth is inevitable.
Saul Hansell has a fascinating article in today's New York Times about how big advertisers like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Volkswagen are trying to leverage the power of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube to market their products. There are some great case studies of how some large companies have pulled off successful word-of-mouth campaigns via social networking sites.
Now that the big media players like Fox, which bought MySpace, and Google, which bought YouTube, are taking a dominant position in the social networking space, it will become increasingly difficult for companies to gain marketing traction using these tools. As the corporate owners of the social networking sites seek to earn a return on their large investments, one should expect a more robust array of features offered to advertisers.
Paradoxically, more bells and whistles doesn't mean better results for advertisers. Rather, consumers, who are exposed to 10,000 commercial messages a week on average, are cynical of advertised messages and tend to tune them out. In contrast, spontaneous and less polished messages tend to be much more successfu. Hansell wrote:
"Sometimes marketers find that in the end, the unplanned is what
works best. Crispin Porter placed a new crop of Volkswagen commercials
on YouTube and a handful of people watched them. Then a user uploaded a
grainy version of one of the same commercials. It has been viewed more
than 1.7 million times.
'You can’t explain this,' said Mr.
Benjamin of Crispin Porter. 'Someone passed it on to a friend, who
passed it to others, until eventually it gets in the right people’s
hands. You just can’t predict what will happen.'"
Has a friend or significant other invited you to a holiday party that you dreaded since you don't know many of the people who will be attending? Instead of blaming bad egg nog for a last minute illness, think about the party as an opportunity to meet interesting new people while enjoying good food and drinks. With a positive frame of mind, you're more likely to have fun and who knows who you'll meet. So far, this holiday season I've talked to a lot of interesting new people at holiday parties, two of whom proved to be excellent business contacts. What's better than closing out the old year and ringing in the new one while making new personal and business connections?
Enjoy the holidays and this great creamy egg nog recipe from my favorite cooking website, All Recipes. The buzz about this website in the cooking community is great because it provides the opportunity for people to rate recipes and read what others have to say about dishes before making them.
Websites
Galvin Communications The website for my word of mouth marketing and PR firm. Sign up for The Buzz Bulletin, a free monthly eNewsletter, and receive a complimentary public relations handbook.
WOMMA: Word of Mouth Marketing Association An outstanding resource for word of mouth marketing information. This respected organization also puts on a variety of well-organized and information-rich events and conferences which are worth attending.
Speaking
Looking for a Creative Marketing Expert & Dynamic Speaker? Learn more about my customized keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and half or full day seminars on word of mouth marketing and other topics that galvanize business success.
Books
Al Ries: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR Credibility is the crucial ingredient in brand building. This book explains why PR should be used to launch a brand while advertising should be used only once major PR opportunities have been realized.
Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Why do major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly? Ideas, behaviour, messages, and products often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. This book will help you understand how social epidemics take off and reach critical mass.
Mark Hughes: Buzzmarketing This book contains some great stories from an experienced buzz marketer that illustrate the importance of finding angles that make you stand apart from the competition. I loved the story of how getting the town of Halfway, Oregon to change its name to Half.com generated a flood of publicity. You'll learn some great practical tips from this book.
Fred Reichheld: The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth Too many companies are addicted to bad profits. These corporate steroids boost short-term earnings but burn out employees and alienate customers. Learn why the answer to one simple question can determine your company's future: Would you recommend us to a friend?
Andy Sernovitz: Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking This is the perfect book for an entrepreneur looking for a "how-to" on word of mouth marketing rather than a theoretical or academic overview. Andy Sernovitz built the Word of Mouth Marketing Association using many of the intriguing word of mouth marketing tactics he describes. His strategies are practical for both small and large businesses as his interesting case studies demonstrate. You may put this book down a few times while reading it so you can start implementing some of its excellent ideas.
T. J. Walker: Media Training A-Z Walker, an accomplished media trainer, provides great practical insight into maximizing the value of the media spotlight. By following his simple suggestions, you'll go into interviews much more confident and come out of them with much better results for your business.
Chip Heath: Made to Stick This is the best business book that I've read since The Tipping Point since it provides a new way at looking at how you try to tell people about your products or services. You'll have lots of new ideas for promoting your business when you've finished reading this book. And, you'll discover that the best way to promote yourself doesn't involve spending money on marketing rather its all about learning how to tell your business stories better.
Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz: Go for No! A great parable about a salesman who learns that every "no" brings him closer to "yes" - an important lesson for anybody who wants to create buzz.
