Seeds of Growth - Be Attentive

Do you know what your customers are saying about you...you better!

Kevin Stevenson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:45:51 -0700

Here is a powerful example of why customer feedback is so important to your business. Events like this happen everyday...are you making it easy for your customers to tell you what they think. Think of how "deadly" this word of mouth story could have been:

"A customer, Janet, recently gave us a feedback score of 0 and wrote a long story about the terrible haircut she received. She basically said she would never come back to Fantastic Sams. I sent her an apology e-mail and asked her to call me so I could apologize live, versus just e-mail. After a short phone call, she agreed to come back to the hair salon and let someone fix her haircut. I called the salon and arranged for her to call on her way in and ensure she had absolutely no wait when she arrived. I called her after her haircut and she was thrilled. She was amazed that I took the time to follow up with her again on the phone. . Janet also sent out 3 referrals through Promoterz. She also scheduled to come back to the salon to have her hair colored! I never would have known this woman was so upset without Promoterz. Think of all the people she would have told her story to. Now she is telling a new story...how great we are! Promoterz just saved my business thousands of dollars in potential lost revenue...thank you Promoterz!"

Scott Weintraub
Fantastic Sams
Owner
New Jersey
908.806.7272

Is this happening in your business?....are you sure? You have thousands of reasons to find out.

You work hard to make sure your customers are happy. Don't waste happy customers. How easy is it for your customers to share with their friends? Learn more

Perfect opportunity for feedback...lost!

Kevin Stevenson — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:23:27 -0700

Last night, my family and I went to a "practice" dinner at a new, well known steakhouse in town..you'd all recognize it. My daughter works there, so last night was free to family and friends of employees of the steakhouse. Obviously, not a new concept, it makes a lot of sense. What didn't make sense to me, was that no one asked us how the experience went. Love the idea of having a dress rehearsal before you expose yourself to the masses, but why not take the opportunity to get real feedback and know how everyone did.

There was no feedback vehicle offered to the hundreds of people who had a FREE meal. If offered, I am sure 90% of the customers in attendance would have loved to give feedback. My meal would have cost me $72...I would have vacuumed the carpet if they asked me to do it. I would have gladly given them a "grade" on our overall experience.

The restaurant could have learned what they needed to fix before the big opening...But nothing. No comment card, no 800# on a receipt, no invitation for feedback card ...nothing. They have no idea how good or bad the experience was for the hundreds of people who attended. ...no idea. Huge opportunity lost. Customers are your company's greatest asset...what are they saying about your business? Don't miss the opportunity to find out.

Old marketing with new tools

Seth Godin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:10:03 -0700

Remember hand-written thank you notes?

Then they became xeroxed form letters.

And then mail-merged form letters.

And then Amazon order confirmations by email.

We tend to use new tools to do less. We try to save time and money at the same time, and end up depersonalizing and commodifying what we do.

A simple example: cost and speed pressure means that when you get your car serviced, it's unlikely you'll be greeted by the mechanic himself, wiping his hands on a greasy rag, telling you exactly what he did to your car. Instead, you'll get a difficult to decipher printout.

Why not use the technology to give more?

The mechanic can have a simple digital voice recorder. As he works, he can describe each thing he's testing and what he finds. You can then email the digital file to Iowa, India or Israel, have it typed up and beautifully formatted and waiting for the customer when he returns. How can that not be worth the $1.50 it would cost?

Or have your private school or summer camp record a 7 minute video on every student every month (that's a seven minute a day commitment per teacher) and post them privately. Seven minutes is the equivalent of a three-page personal letter, with far less resistance on the part of the teacher.

A friend of mine is wrestling with this right now. It's so so easy to hide behind technology, to use it as a shield, instead of as a clever tool to actually get you closer to the customers you depend on.

Another example: if you have high-value customers, you should never give them a mass Survey Monkey type survey. It's dehumanizing and it sends exactly the wrong message. Instead, ask them for feedback by email or web form. A few easy toss up questions and then just ask whether they'd recommend you and why.

If you get 200 responses, you ought to care enough to read and reply yourself. If you get 2,000, go hire someone to digest them all and make it easy for you to see the trends.

Inertia is one reason that techniques like these aren't done often, but the real reason is fear. We use technology to insulate us from our customers instead of bringing us closer.

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Should you ignore the n00bs?

Seth Godin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:47:03 -0700

In the old days, a common DOS warning ended with, "...press any key."

And yes, there were plenty of tech support calls that asked, "where is the ANY key?"

Every interaction with your public runs the risk that some people just won't get it. They won't understand the protocol at your jazz club, or figure out how they use that new thing you just built. They won't get your verbal shorthand or they'll be frustrated by your presumption that they're insiders.

One approach is to n00b-proof your offerings. To create products and services so simple and so well-explained that every single person will get it. Big warnings, extra paragraphs of copy, limited features... make it idiot-proof.

The problem with this approach is that you can never be simple enough. And of course, the bigger problem: Once you dumb it down so every single person gets it, you bake out the magic and the mystery and the elegance. Simple example: it's not obvious how to use an iPhone, not obvious what to do when you walk into a church for the first time, not clear what to do when you visit Facebook for the first time either. At the symphony, should there be big applause signs so that people don't clap at the wrong time?

Great design is intuitive. Great design eliminates confusion. But not for everyone, not all the time. The words and interactions you use often have a sophistication that will confuse some portion of your audience.

Why not consider making it easy for the confused to ask for help? And treat them with respect when they do. If you don't create a little confusion, it's unlikely you've built something remarkable.

And to go one step further: sometimes it's okay to lose the n00bs. Not in an arrogant way (except for some brands) but in a way that says, "this might just not be for you..."

Unhappy customers tell on average 22 other people. If you ticket price is $50 that is $1100 in revenue. How would you like to know before they tell 22 others? Learn more

More on why online WOM matters

Church of the Customer — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:46:12 -0700

Here's why: 61% of respondents to a recent survey said they check review sites, blogs and other customer feedback forums before buying a new product or service.

Furthermore, 80% of those people said online word of mouth influenced their purchase.

Put into perspective, the 1% Rule holds that only about 1% of the total number of visitors to a community where content be created, like Wikipedia, Yelp or CitySearch, will actually do so.

This means 1% of your customers could be influencing 61% of your prospects.

For any business that serves at least 100 customers per week, especially content-savvy Millennials, monitoring online word of mouth has graduated from a future to-do, to a must-have.

Do you remember your customers on their birthday? On their anniversary? Do you give special notice to recently acquired customers? Promoterz does. Learn more

Remodeling customer surveys

Church of the Customer — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:57:56 -0700

The other day, a big company sent me an email, asking for feedback about my recent purchase experience.

That's the good news. Even though sites like SurveyMonkey have made it ridiculously inexpensive (and easy) to gather and calculate quantitative customer feedback, I'm rarely asked for feedback. When a request arrives, I always consider it.

The bad news is that this particular company's web-based survey was too long. Some of its questions backed me into a corner. And it didn't ask me the most important question of all: would I recommend them.

I almost gave up after the second question: "How long has it been since you last used our service? Less than 2-3 months, Less than a year, 1-2 years, 3-4 years, More than 5 years." (I continued, knowing it might make for a good blog post.) I couldn't remember the last time I used them, but "I don't know" wasn't an option for that question, nor any others. Memory isn't factory sealed. Besides, what bearing does it have on my recent experience?

I trudged through some 15 pointless questions, dying to give up after each one. The things we do for blogging.

"Would you use us again?" the survey finally asked.

I don't know, I thought. Yes or no were the only answer options.

Well now. The product was good, but the service was pretty bad. If I found a viable alternative, I'd switch. So I answered no. It wasn't the correct answer but backed into a corner, why say yes? The answer is not always binary.

The survey concluded by asking me my age, income, gender, etc. Questions that help ensure survey drop-off rates.

What the survey never asked: If I'd recommend the company, and what I'd say if I did (or how I would recommend against them). This national company, known for its transportation solutions, squandered a free opportunity to understand word of mouth.

Which leads us to what a good survey does to gather valuable customer feedback:

Its first question is: "Based on your recent experience with us, would you recommend us to your friends, family, colleagues, etc.?" Yes, no, or I don't know are the possible answers. (You could use the Net Promotoer methodology here, too.)
Based on the answer to question 1, the survey then asks, "Tell us more about the reasons for your previous answer." Then I could select from a pre-determined list of reasons for my answer, or blank boxes for me to write my own.
It would ask me how I would describe the company and/or my experience to friends and colleagues. Again, a list of possible answers could be presented along with a blank field for my own description.
Finally, it would ask me how the company could improve. I could rank the importance of specific items or provide my own idea which, who knows, could be the dumbest idea ever or somewhat innovative. Process improvement is a never-ending marathon.

That's it. A short and easy survey based on recommendability. The data are actionable for operations, marketing and human resources, which could tie results to team reviews or if done right, to a key metric any employee can appreciate: compensation.

The Happiest customers tell on average 8 other people. Who are your happiest customers? Promoterz knows. Learn more

Keeping Growth Going in Slowing Economy

The Entrepreneurial Mind — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:12:42 -0700

Rhonda Abrams believes that small businesses should keep trying to grow even though the economy is slowing. She says this is exactly what has happened in past recessions:

In previous recessions, one of the things I'd observe is that many small businesses actually can grow by taking advantage of opportunities, such as weakened competition and big company cutbacks.

Small business owners' attitudes seem to back this up. A new survey from Intuit, which she cites in her column, finds that growth is on the mind of most entrepreneurs. From the Intuit survey:

In a considerable showing of solidarity, nine out of 10 U.S. small business owners reported seeing opportunities for their businesses in the current recession, and more than 75 percent expect growth. To make this growth a reality, small business owners say they'll rely on their experience and passion; nearly two-thirds have survived previous downturns. And to recession-proof their businesses, respondents plan to put their customers first, with 63 percent naming customer retention as their top priority, followed by focusing on their finances.

Abrams offers several ideas to help small businesses grow during the current downturn. You can see them here.

I add to her suggestions my recipe for success in the face of bad economic times -- strengthen your cash flow.

- Reduce debt

- Bootstrap more than ever with a focus on becoming more efficient and productive -- squeeze more out of your current staff, equipment and space before investing in adding more resources

- Focus all of your marketing on growing high margin transactions and the most profitable parts of your business -- your focus should be on growing the bottom line, not on growing sales.

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Keeping up with the social media fire hose

Church of the Customer — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:42:49 -0700

A few days ago I marveled how Salesforce.com rapidly responded to my tweet on Twitter about one of the company's products.

I asked Kingsley Joseph of Salesforce how he saw my tweet so quickly. He sent me a link to his Yahoo Pipes setup that tracks Salesforce's online word of mouth.

Yahoo Pipes allows you to build a single feed that is made up of other
feeds and dat). Kingsley's pipe tracks online mentions of Salesforce and other
company products across social media sites like Flickr, Technorati,
Bloglines, Digg, Techmeme, YouTube, Friendfeed and Tweetscan (for
Twitter.)

Kingsley is kind; he coded a generic pipe for CotC readers to track mentions about your company. Here's the pipe.

According to Kingsley, here's how to use the pipe:

In the search field, fill out the terms you want to track. For example, Salesforce Ideas could use: "salesforce+ideas", ideaexchange, ideastorm, dellideastorm, mystarbucksidea.
Usually the second field (URL fragment to ignore) should be .yourdomain.com . This is to prevent posts made in the your own blog/community from showing up. The dot before the domain is important.

The first time you run the search, Yahoo might return an empty list. To force it to go fetch feeds, click "More Options" and then click "Get as RSS". You can then hit back and re-run the pipe successfully.

Titles are de-duplicated and sorting is reverse chronological. Multiple search terms can be used and the matched term will be prefixed to the title of the post.
This doesn't do mass media, because there are good tools for that (Google Alerts come to mind).
Send any feature requests Kingley's way, but don't hold your breath. He's a busy guy : )

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Mouthonomics

Church of the Customer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:29:29 -0700

A new study from Satmetrix provides some new numbers on how customer evangelists can help grow your business. And how customer vigilantes can hurt it.

The study examined customers in the computer hardware industry and found, using the Net Promoter
methodology, that "promoters" would spend about $1,818 of their own money and refer an
additional $816 of revenue from friends and associates.

That means a customer evangelist helped inspire sales that was nearly equal to 50% of what she'd purchased.

Some quick math shows the potential of customer evangelists more dramatically: Let's say a business has 1,000 evangelists whose average purchase during a period of time is $1,818. That means the group will have spent $1.8 million of their own money and referred $816,000 of business for a total of $2.6 million. Very quickly the cost of goods sold begins to decline while gross margins go up.

Satmetrix found that detractors (or customer vigilantes, as we like to call 'em here) spend a little less, but their bad buzz caused lost sales amounting to $1352 per detractor, nearly negating any of their actual value as a customer.

The bottom line with evidence like this: diligent listening is key. It's imperative to know whether customers are referring you or bad-mouthing you.

The talkative ones are the leading indicators of your future.

The growth of your business will be determined by what your customers say about it. Do you know what they are saying? Learn more

Legislating the Sun

Joe Free — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:17:26 -0700

I live in Arizona, in the "Valley of the Sun". This is the place where all winter we flaunt our clear blue skies, our spring training baseball, and the fact we can give our kids bikes for Christmas and they don't have to wait till April to use them. (Of course, from June to August we are all visiting family and friends in cooler climes...but I digress.)

Arizona doesn't legislate the sun. We don't participate in the daylight savings time nonsense. But most other places do which means in the summer we are at the same time as California and in the winter we are the same time as Utah.

The standard argument for daylight savings time was that it saved energy. You needed less lights, so you saved energy. It seemed obvious and everyone seemed to have bought off on it and now the nation happily believes they are doing their part in saving energy by participating in daylight savings.

But it seems that no one really looked at the data. USA Today had an article recently describing research done at the University of California in Santa Barbara that showed that daylight savings does save energy used for lighting but that it used even more energy on heating and cooling costs. So the net effect is participating in daylight savings actually uses more energy. Now this is not an article intended to start "digital fisticuffs" about daylight savings. But rather the interesting point that people and governments think they are saving energy when in fact they are expending more.

Does that happen in your business? Do you assume that your customers are happy with something you do or provide when in reality they don't like it? Remember back in the "continuous improvement" business craze of the 90s the phrase "In God we trust...all others bring data". That is still true. Get the data and know what you know.

"What you don't know might kill you" could also be "What you think you know could kill you". So the point is get some data, some fresh live real data of how your customer's feel. There are lots of ways to do that. I personally feel that Promoterz is a great way since it provides a way to continuously monitor the heartbeat of your company rather than just a twice a year "exam". But whatever you choose, do it. You will be surprised at what you learn from the ones that really know. Your competition will be doing it.

If you are not regularly staying in touch with your customers someone else will. How do you stay in touch? Learn more

Sorting out

Seth Godin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:28:36 -0700

Gavin Potter says, “The 20th century was about sorting out supply, the 21st is going to be about sorting out demand.”

Think about that one for a second. Not about maximizing demand, but about sorting it out. When your messages reach the right people at the right time in the right way, magic happens. It's not about forcing or pushing or attacking or targeting or closing.

This is a huge step forward in how you can think about your customers and how they act.

You work hard to make sure your customers are happy. Don't waste happy customers. How easy is it for your customers to share with their friends? Learn more

Lead Nurturing is about Relationships, not e-mails

B2B Lead Generation — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:10:37 -0700

Carrying on the theme of my recent post on lead nurturing as trusted advisors with the human touch, I came across Mike Volpe's post over the HubSpot Marketing Blog. I thought he did a nice job of showing the human touch in action as part of the lead nurturing process.

The goal of lead nurturing is to maintain a relevant and consistent dialog with viable future customers - regardless of their timing to buy. It’s about relationships. As you read Mike’s story, you'll notice how he helped “Kristen” move through her buying process not by selling but by seeking first to be a relevant resource to her.

Lead nurturing requires shift away from the traditional marketing mind-set to a new way of thinking centered on the following tenets:

Companies don't buy - people do. Don't ever forget the human touch.
Trusted advisers win more sales than slick brands.
More ROI is reaped from the patient tending of future customers (relationships) over time. Think: customers for life.
Lead nurturing is a conversation, not a series of disjointed campaigns.
A multi-tactic and multi-touch lead generation portfolio will always outperform marketing tactics that stand alone.
Build relationships with the right people and companies regardless of their timing to buy. Engage these people early in their buying process (preferably before) and you can co-create and influence their vision.
Generate relevant content that engages the right decision makers/influencers.
The first impression matters. So does the second. So does every single touch after that. Consistency and relevancy is key.

If you keep these ideas top of mind, the way you nurture leads will naturally go beyond just e-mail. You’ll start thinking about how you and your sales people can be a relevant resource. When you do that, you don’t have to sell to people. They will come to you first when they are ready. Again, it’s about relationships.

Link: Inbound Lead Nurturing - Relationships not Emails

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Get Your Helmet Mounted Cueing System Now!

Dave Free — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:23:15 -0700

The F35 is an amazing jet. It can reach mach 1.6 and then stop in midair and hover while landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in rough seas. You can see it in action here . For more than 50 years the Air Force has provided its pilots with "head up" displays so that the pilots can monitor key indicators they need without taking their view off the horizon. I guess when you are going mach 1.6 and dealing with an enemy it is pretty important not to take your eyes off the horizon. The Air Force is now testing new technology to replace the head up display specifically for pilots of the F35. According to a recent post on CNET, the new system uses infrared to actually let the pilot look right through the floor of the aircraft. It also displays the feedback that pilots need no matter which direction they are looking. The company that is developing the new technology calls it a "Helmet Mounted Cueing System."

So your business is moving along pretty fast, wouldn't it be nice to have a Helmet Mounted Cueing System to help you make better decisions? What information would you want on your cueing system? I don't think you'd want to clutter it up with important but not critical information. For example, I don't think I'd want to wander around with a copy of my latest balance sheet always in front of my eyes. The current cash balance in the bank, on the other hand, might be very useful. I don't know about you, but sometimes every second counts in getting a deposit to clear before payroll starts hitting! How about some indicator of how your customers are feeling? After all, everything we do as business owners is (or should be) about making customers happy so that they will buy from us again and again and tell their friends. Seems like knowing what they are thinking about our business and what they really want from our business should influence every decision we make. What else would you add to your HMBICS (Helmet Mounted Business Information Cueing System--got to have an acronym if we want to get any government funding!)

If you're not quite ready to pull on the Star Wars helmet (your customers might turn and run), you might check out our sponsor product, Promoterz. Right now--without government funding--you can keep a pulse on how your customers feel about your business. There is no head up display, but your customers' comments will go directly to your email so you will always be in touch and better able to take your business to mach 1.6!

The Customer/Employee is always right

Joe Free — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:05:18 -0700

A recent BusinessWeek article describes India's HCL Technologies unique management ratings program. In essence, each manager is ranked in several areas by those that report to them. Lot's of companies do these "360" types of reviews, but what is different about HCL is that they publish the results on their intranet for the employees to see.

CEO Vineet Nayar was rated 3.6 out of 5 for how well he keeps projects running on schedule by 81 managers that rated him, and everybody at HCL knows it.

According to Nayar "In our day and age, it's the employee who sucks up to the boss. We are trying, as much as possible, to get the manager to suck up to the employee."

In addition they have an online complaint system where anyone can voice concern over a particular issue ranging from the air conditioning to bonuses. Each of these concerns becomes a "ticket". What is unique is that these tickets can be "cleared" only by the employees, not management.

Imagine applying that to your small business. Your company is the "manager" and your customers are the "employees". What if companies posted online for all customers to see how they are ranked. What if noted problems remained listed until the company deals with them and the customer removes them.

Employee retention rates have increased at HCL. How would you like to have your customer retention rates increased? Have you asked your customers to rate you and your business? They are the only ones that know how they feel about your business.

Reicheld discovered the customer question that seems to track with the future growth of a business "Would you recommend us to your friends and colleagues?" Our service, Promoterz, helps you ask them that question with the addition of "Please provide specific comments to help us understand the rating you have assigned". You will know how your customers feel and have actionable data you can use to improve.

Perhaps small businesses should include Nayar's words in their business plan "We will try, as much as possible, to get the company to suck up to the customer!"

If you are not regularly staying in touch with your customers someone else will. How do you stay in touch? Learn more

Crowdsourcing product improvements

Springwise — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:29:44 -0700

Customers are dying to help you make your product or service better. How easy do you make it for them?

It's a rare product that can't benefit from at least a little bit of improvement, and many leave room for lots more than that. RedesignMe is a Dutch site that is putting crowdsourcing to work to refine and revise product designs of mass-produced consumer goods.

Consumers frustrated by mobile phones, coffee machines, or products of virtually any type can submit a photo or video of the product along with a description of what they think needs redesigning. One user, for example, complains about excessively sensitive buttons on his cell phone that frequently get pressed by accident; another describes an alarm clock that won't go off. Other users on the site can then submit suggestions for redesigning the product in question, with the option of using an online design tool to annotate pictures with post-it notes, text balloons and arrows. Users can rate each other's submissions and add comments, and prizes are awarded each month.

After a beta period beginning in late July, RedesignMe just officially launched a few weeks ago, with the goal of "promoting simplicity in product design" and giving "a signal to the industry." About 60 problem products have been submitted so far, and more than 30 have been redesigned. The site's developers are now looking for design schools, investors and entrepreneurs to partner with.

RedesignMe's site could use some refinement itself—navigation can be tricky—and it's not yet entirely clear how ideas generated there will translate into actual products on the market. But if the site continues to gain traction, smart consumer products companies and inventors will start paying attention, and maybe even start sponsoring it. After all, who needs expensive market research when consumers are right there, showing you what they want? And the obvious opportunity for entrepreneurs in other parts of the world is to set up their own versions of RedesignMe, focusing on products (and services!) sold locally.

Website: www.redesignme.org
Contact: info@redesignme.org

Spotted by: Sheila Wigman

If you are not regularly staying in touch with your customers someone else will. How do you stay in touch? Learn more