Recession-Proof Marketing
Posted by Becky Carroll on March 25th, 2009
When I was speaking at the SXSW Interactive conference last week, I had the chance to catch up with one of my good friends, Saul Colt from FreshBooks. Saul is the Head of Magic there, and he is the one who is responsible for the fabulous customer dinners that they do with their customers. These dinners are focused completely on the customers and providing them networking opportunities with each other; they are NOT about pushing FreshBooks! In fact, these customer dinners are part of the reason FreshBooks was named one of the Top 3 Customer Rock Stars for 2008!
Saul has honored me back by interviewing me on what it means to market in a recession. Take a listen, then go listen to Saul’s complementary video on his blog. Thank you, Saul, for the opportunity!
Becky Carroll (CustomersRock.net) shares thoughts on Customer Service! from saulcolt on Vimeo.
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March 28th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Becky/Saul,
It’s unbelievable how many businesses don’t get what you said here. Or maybe the CEOs get it, but they don’t realize their front line folks don’t get it and worse, don’t practice it. Forget going the extra mile, I’ve heard produce guys in grocery stores loudly cursing when a customer asks if they have fresher lettuce.
March 29th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Working in client service for a software company, this post was inspiring. Thanks for “introducing” your readers to Saul. Really liked his blog.
@Tsufit: In a weird coincidence, I’m reading your book right now. It ties together nicely a number of other marketing/business books I’ve read. I liked your point on not being a person of many hats.
@chadhorenfeldt
March 30th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Becky,
This is timeless. Great info in your interview.
Regardless of what industry you are in, how big or small your company is, focusing on the customer makes or breaks your business.
Any marketer that has done their homework should know that a customer is more valuable than a prospect. Not only do you already have the relationship with them, they are more likely to talk about you, more likely to buy from you and the amount they purchase will be greater too.
The problem really isn’t that this is some groundbreaking new strategy – to focus on the customer – the problem is that many business owners and marketers focus on the wrong metrics. They look at how many new members do we have? How many accounts have been added? How many new leads did our ads bring in? These are all key numbers and should not be forgotten, but…
The mainstream doesn’t seem to talk about retention rate, cost per sale, order size increase – are these numbers not sexy enough?
It’s amazing how small things you do to take care of your customers can add up and impact the above numbers – which makes them pretty sexy in my mind … not to mention they can hugely impact a business’ growth.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:58 am
Tsufit, you are right, hence the reason Saul and I are trying to spread the word about getting the basics right! It always amazes me when employees don’t think about how their actions might look to a customer – and what influence those actions might have on future purchases. Thanks for your comment!
Chad, good to see you here, and glad you liked Saul. He is a great guy with a real heart for customers. Tsufit’s book is a fun read, too – and she sent me a copy with a hand-written note inside. She practices what she preaches!
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:08 am
[...] a Recession By Tdasilva | Filed in Uncategorized | Becky Carroll was recently interviewed by Saul Colt from Freshbooks in which she shared her thoughts on what it means to market in a [...]
October 15th, 2009 at 2:58 am
While customers are the number one in our priorities, businesses are mostly affected by the type of market they are in – those who depend on imported goods and services are more affected than others.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Going an extra step is something that each business that wants to survive is urged to do. In building industry it is even harder because it is also affected by winter season
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Um bom atendimento é realizado com boas instalações, em uma moderna e espaçosa.building