Sizzle! Posts

Checking Your Business Pulse. How Are Your Insides Working?

by Kas Kunz

How often do you stop and think about how your business comes across not in general, but at every point your company interacts with or touches your customer's?

I think about it when I go to the airport and the first contact I have with the airlines I'm traveling on is their porters who handle the luggage. The first thing they point out is the tip policy and how it's forced on them by their airline company.

I think about it when I go into my favorite pet store and I'm greeted with a smile and glad you came in today. Followed up by do you need help in finding a particular item, not a generic can I help you. I think about it when they ask me how I like a particular product, because it's a new item they stock and they want to know how well it's working for their customers.

I think about it when the cashier is friendly and patient when the credit card process is not clear, even though they've probably helped every other customer that day with the same issue. As opposed to the cashier who's impatient and makes the customer feel stupid and they're responsible for holding up the checkout line.

I think about it when I go to the car dealership and the cashier takes your coupon and says next time give it to the service rep so you don't have to wait... instead of making sure the service reps automatically ask the customer if they have a coupon.

I think about it when I call a business and it's handled as an annoyance and the whole tone changes when they realize I may actually be giving them some business.

I think about it when I call tech support, amazed when a tech asks me what the problem is and listens first before they go into a pre-programmed routine that has nothing to do with my issue and willingly stays on the line until they know its resolved.

I think about it when I have a very pleasant exchange with a bank teller and I get a hand written note in the mail thanking me for my business.

Do you think about the individuals that work within your company who are the first or have the most contact with your customer's? What is the value to your business with the type of exchange and interaction they have with your customer's? Do you think about the exchange and interaction your customer front-liners have with others inside your company and the affect on their response to your customer's?

I think about the enormous effort and cost it takes just to get a prospect or customer to call, to walk into your store, to visit your Web site — give you their email address, to check out and try your services, prospects to become customers, customers to recommend you to others, and the impact of just one exchange with them on your business. It's not just about efficiency, cost savings, and profit margins, but the impact the different touch-points with your customer's has on the bottom line.

Perception. Emotional not Rational.

by Kas Kunz

When you look at your business from within and make decisions based on internal perceptions only you miss out on a very important factor — customer perception.

You can make business decisions based only on the numbers, but customers don't perceive or buy things just by the numbers. You cannot always track the intangibles, but they still affect your bottom line. First and foremost whether it's business to business or business to consumer the driver to buy is emotion. The rationale for the purchase comes later.

When you decide to outsource your support for cost cutting measures only did you take into consideration how that distances you from your customer? What are the motivators for the third party provider? Does it match with your customer's expectations with your business? Will they continue to be your customer? What is the cost of getting a customer? What is the cost of losing your customer?

If you decide to close an avenue of customer communication on the Internet, because of cost or lack of internal support and time do you just abandon the project and leave it like an abandoned building? What perception does this give to your customers?

When you decide to cut back your advertisement, how does this impact your visibility in the marketplace? How does this impact the number of inquiries or leads? Maybe a better approach is to change where and how you raise your visibility in the marketplace?

Here's some interesting research just published by eMarketer.com.

 

What perceptions are you unknowingly giving your customers?

Company Growing Up, Are Your Competencies?

by Kas Kunz

Starting a business from scratch, growing a company, turning around a troubled company, maintaining success with inevitable upturns and downturns in the market or running a multinational company requires different skills. What does it require at each of these points in its existence? How do you market to achieve the different business goals?

Business growth and maturity — developing marketing intelligence is not something the business does by itself, but is intricately tied to the individuals who make up the company. Everyone is responsible for marketing — whether it's internal or external. What is done within the company always impacts the customer.  

Marketing is not something that is done once or periodically — it's always part of a successful company. It takes the business goals — defines what needs to be done and how they need to be implemented in order to be achieved. For a company to continue as a viable business a culture of learning, development, and growing competencies are always in the marketing mix.

Brought together in this video are two well-known individuals that have grown up in businesses started from scratch that grew into multinational companies, which have been part of major technology evolutions in the business world. No matter what scale of business you want to be involved in or achieve, as you watch and listen, imagine all the changes they made in their competencies as their businesses grew up.

Are you asleep at your business wheel?

by Kas Kunz

You really put in the hours and push, push, push... to make things happen in your business. You have the endurance to keep going — right? With market conditions you just have to stay on top of things!

In fact, you find yourself at times not being able to concentrate and take in what others are saying, there are moments when you're a little incoherent in your speech... realizing all you've accomplished in the last hour is to stare, because mentally you're sluggish... and you have this odd sensation your head is bobbing... sound familiar?

Karen Dillon, the Deputy Editor at Harvard Business Review, wrote a post on the HBR Editor's blog, about the myth of the tireless leader. Her points below are ones to give some serious thought to and how it's affecting your ability to have a successful business.

• Unfortunately, the myth of the tireless leader is just that--a myth. The ugly truth about sleeplessness is that it's linked to obesity, diabetes, depression and, yes, increased mortality. Forgoing sleep doesn't make you a hero. It makes you ineffective.

• In fact, getting that rest isn't a waste at all. They'll do better work. And you'll be a better leader for having let them sleep.

How does your personal effectiveness impact your business and a key customer — your internal customer? Who is your internal customer? — Your employees, co-workers, associates, colleagues, partners, etc.

Do you really want yourself and fellow co-workers and employees to make vital and on going day-to-day business decisions when at your least effective? Creating an internal culture of balance so your workforce can do an exceptional job is priceless. It's a marketing advantage for your business.

What are some of your experiences when 'sleep deprived' decisions were made?

Slow down. Look around. Observation is a powerful business tool.

by Kas Kunz

Why take the time to look around, to observe the responses of others and tune into your own experiences with businesses, services, and products you use? What's good? What isn't? Why encourage others within your company to do the same and share and talk about them on a regular basis? How does this affect your prospects and customers?

It's easy to become oriented and focused on the company solely from an internal perspective. This often leads to inaccurate assumptions about the expertise and knowledge prospects and customers have in regards to the company's products, services, and industry. It creates unnecessary missteps and road blocks to new opportunities.

Learning to pay attention and share experiences and observations can give you good insights into what your customers could be experiencing. Don't get caught up in negative rants, but use all the experiences as a way to look at your company from an outsiders perspective. Does your internal company perspective and external perspective of prospects and customers match? 

Cultivating a view point that leads to a prospect and customer oriented focused perspective keeps your company in-tune to potential new products, services, and markets.   

Using the power of observation and first hand experiences can put you back-in touch and keep you connected.

What first hand customer experiences have you had and observations you've made which changed the way you do business for the better?

The Art of Conversation, How Does It Work Online?

by Kas Kunz

If you're online every week and regularly visit online news Web sites or surf the Web in general you've probably seen or read about Twitter. You might even be using their service.

If you're not familiar with Twitter, it's a free online service started in March 2006. Within the last year its grown in popularity and gained a large number of users and media attention. According to it's Web site it's a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Twitter puts a 140 character limitation on answering the question. You can send them through mobile texting, instant message or the Web. You choose different individuals to follow their tweets (comments)with their permission and vice versa. The tweets are mostly public and can be connected to display in blogs, Facebook, and other online accounts you might have. It's real easy to let everyone know what you'e doing... simple enough.

Not everyone that uses Twitter is just answering the question: What are you doing? They're also letting you know their thoughts, ideas, and giving you a heads-up about something or answering a question. And this additional use of Twitter has made it a very valuable resource to get answers and help in a variety of areas.

For business use some have direct conversations with customers, with the goal of helping them when they "tweet" about a problem they're having with their company. These exchanges have resulted in great customer service experiences for the customer. Others have used it to let their "followers" know about promotions or specials. At events such as conferences it's been a great way for groups to network by putting the word out where everyone is getting together. And some use it to make business or professional connections but are okay with giving personal details about waiting in an airport, they're at lunch, and so forth. In all fairness family and friends might want to know this or a person you're scheduled to meet. But if most of your followers and the ones who follow you are business oriented... and you randomly put it out there I'm eating a cheeseburger, you might reconsider. On the other hand if you're traveling and would like information on a place you've never been to before, its proven to be a great resource to get answers. And you might make a connection you would not have otherwise over something as simple as... where to eat.    

With Twitter, if you choose to, you can give others a minutiae view into your world. As with every social connection whether it's through technology or in person paying attention to others response to how you are communicating with them is essential to make a positive connection.  

Some of your communications will get kudos others will get push-backs. Online it's easy to loose sight of how you're coming across and who might be listening. One good check is to make sure you're doing your fair share of listening!

The video below, produced by LandlineTV.com, is a fun — over the top, irreverent look at the unknown response you might be getting by how you answer the question: What are you doing?

What are your thoughts on the art of business conversations online and experiences you can share?

A Call to be Human!

by Jane Betters

Over the last week I've moved my offices from one location to another. That meant contracting a mover, porting phone numbers and DSL and installing at the new office, changing utilities and a lot of sweat labor! What I found was the good - and the bad - of customer service. Let me count the ways!

• BAD - a 'select a shipper' site that wouldn't let you communicate through email or phone with the mover until you accepted their bid. Scary. Wouldn't do it again, though I was lucky.
• GOOD - a mover who always had a smile, a good word and did an excellent job
• BAD - a major phone company who didn't tell me in advance that porting my numbers over (same company, same area) would mean my Internet would be down for a WEEK and had to come out twice to get the jacks wired correctly.
• BAD - a big box electronics store - almost empty - where I 'interrupted' 2 employees chatting with a couple of phone and computer questions. I was sent to their 'computer geeks' and told it was either a hardware or a software problem (oh really?) and they'd need to do the full blown $199 diagnostic. I went back and rebooted and it was fixed.
• BAD - over 4 hours in one day on the phone trying to get DSL to work. Being told by a tech - "maybe you should go to an Internet cafe". Where might I find one of those in Dallas! Especially lugging an iMac!

I've had plenty of time to think about these interactions and I observed 3 things that could make the world a happier place:

1. Listen! In two instances I had phone technical support argue with me over things that were right in front of me. . . one example, the tech said I could not possibly be connected directly from a modem to a computer - there had to be a router in the middle. I told him multiple times that I was sitting there staring at the connection and there was no router involved. Arghhh! I finally laughed and he did too! I'm still not laughing at the other instance, too complicated to discuss - plus I don't want to relive it!
2. Be real! That goes for the customer as well as those in customer service. We all get stressed. We all can lose patience. But a kind, empathetic voice delivering bad news - like "it will be a week before you get Internet" - makes an enormous difference over a cold, robotic, script-reading voice that lacks humanity.
3. Remember the Golden Rule! Do to others as you'd want them to do to you. Wow. All these interactions were between people. Each of us wants to be noticed, to be heard - especially during trying situations. 

So, here is the good news. There is an amazing opportunity to keep customers and gain new ones - just by being human. By caring. By going that extra step. By putting yourself in the place of your customer. And customers, remember that you have an opportunity too. To be a bright spot in a day of complaints and problems. We're in this together! Let's make the most of every moment - every interaction. You may just make someone's day!