The Hidden Power of Your Customers

Killer Customer Service, or Customer-Killer Service?

June 26, 2011 By Becky Carroll 5 Comments

A friend of mine has been a member of a particular airline’s frequent flier program (we will call this major US airline, AirlineX) for a number of years. He even has a credit card linked to that account to help accrue points. This friend had earned enough miles for a free trip to Europe but hadn’t been able to fly AirlineX for awhile since his company now required him to fly the cheapest option (which this airline never was). Knowing that his hard-earned points would expire soon, he called the airline to see what could be done to retain them. AirlineX told him that he had to fly a “qualifying flight” in order to retain his points. Unable to do that due to the aforementioned company policy (and with no other potential trips on the horizon), my friend lost his accrued points (and a future flight to Europe).

Now, this happens all the time; that is the part of the formula for points-based loyalty programs. Keep customers coming back so they will continue to earn points and hopefully continue to spend money with the business.

The real pain in this case is the monthly emails that my friend receives from the airline. Each month, AirlineX sends an email showing how many frequent flier points he has (or at this point, doesn’t have). This is most likely intended to help the airline stay top-of-mind with the customer and gently encourage them to book their next flight with the airline. However, in this case, the monthly email only serves as a reminder that this particular customer doesn’t have any more points with AirlineX – and that hurts.

Customers are watching the actions of your company. Every email they receive, commercial they view, social media site they “like”, and direct mail piece they read (or not) affects their view of your business and their overall customer service experience. It may be something that seems small to your organization which pushes the customer out the door.

What do your marketing communications say about your company? Are they helping your customers to buy more from you? Or are they painful reminders of a damaged relationship, resulting in customer-killer service?

(Photo credit: marco)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Featured Tagged With: airlines, Customer experience, Customer service

Announcing my first book: The Hidden Power of Your Customers

May 5, 2011 By Becky Carroll 13 Comments

I am so excited to share the news with all of you that I have a book coming out in July! And it is thanks to you, my faithful Customers Rock! readers, that it is happening. The book is called The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers, being published by John Wiley & Sons. The hardcover edition will be released on July 20, with eReader versions to follow.

This book has actually been a long time in the making – not so much from the perspective of how long it took to write it (see The Story below) but from the perspective that I have had this book in mind since before I began this blog in December of 2006. In fact, one of the reasons I started Customers Rock! blog was that I wanted to see 1) whether I enjoyed writing (I do) and 2) whether anyone else would enjoy reading what I wrote (you do!). So in a sense, this book has been over 4 years in the making!

This book is also one of the main reasons that I have been so quiet on my blog the past few months. I have definitely missed writing for all of you, and many of you have been encouraging me to get back out here and post. I am finally ready, and what better way to start back up than to introduce you to my book.

The Book

The Hidden Power of Your Customers is a book about how to focus on your current customers so that you can lengthen and strengthen your business relationship with them, thus bringing about increased customer loyalty, customer advocacy, and ultimately increased referrals. It is not a social media book (more on that in The Story below), but social media is woven throughout the book (as it should be woven throughout a company’s marketing and customer service strategies). It is also not a customer service book (but that is an important tenet). It is a book about growing your business through one of your company’s best assets – your existing customers.

Here is a short excerpt from the introduction:

It has been my experience that many companies spend most of their time and budget focusing on selling to new customers and end up neglecting their existing ones. This might work in the short term, but eventually these companies will find themselves losing more customers out the back door than they bring in through the front door. Additionally, the onset of social media is driving a major change in customer behaviors and habits, making it highly risky not to focus on existing customers. Social media has brought the customer experience to the forefront of discussions, so it is important for companies to be more vigilant than ever before.

As a result, some people will tell you that you need outstanding customer service. But customer service is not enough. You also need marketing that connects with your current customers. In fact, you need to consider the entire customer experience, and support it with a customer-centric culture, one that promotes an equally exceptional employee experience. And, of course, you do need outstanding customer service.

The Hidden Power of Your Customers is based around the principles of Customers Rock!, and the sections of the book follow the ROCK acronym:

R: Relevant marketing – Organizations need to market to their customers in a way that is relevant to them, including recognizing them as customers, using their language, and meeting their needs.

O: Orchestrated customer experience – Every place a customer interacts with a company needs to provide a consistent, planned experience for the customer that is beneficial to both parties. We can’t leave the customer experience to chance.

C: Customer-focused culture – We can’t just expect that a company will become customer-centric because it hires a few great customer service personnel or states that it cares about customers in its marketing. We need to ensure that customers are part of everything that our company does so that customer-focus becomes part of the company DNA.

K: Killer customer service – Companies need to take customer service to the next level, and it needs to be an integral part of the customer experience. Customer service is where the rubber meets the road, as many buying and renewal decisions are based upon this critical touch point. It has to ROCK.

The book is also supported with many case studies (based on personal interviews I conducted with company leaders), lots of practical tips, and fun personal stories – all written in the Customers Rock! style that you are familiar with here on this blog.

The Story

This past summer, at the end of my Marketing via New Media class which I teach at UC San Diego, my students were encouraging me to take what I know and write a book. I told them I had a book in mind already, I just hadn’t made any inquiries about it yet. I went home that evening and tweeted out that I was thinking about writing a book. Less than a week later, I received an email from an editor at John Wiley & Sons. In it, he said that he was interested in working with me on my book. He said he enjoyed this blog and felt that I had good material, and good credentials, to write a book. I actually had already written a book proposal the year before but hadn’t tried to do anything with it. I asked the Wiley editor whether this should be a social media book, and his recommendation was no, it should not be; he felt there were already quite a few of those out there (and I agree).

So, after giving Wiley’s offer some thought, I agreed and signed the contract. The book was off and running!

I then spent the next four months doing interviews, pulling together information, and writing the manuscript. It was completed on February 1 (I think I missed out on most of the family holiday activities this past season). Since then, I have been working with Wiley on a few rounds of edits, approving cover artwork, seeking “blurbs” (endorsements) for the book, and getting a top-notch thought leader to write the foreword (Thank You, Brian Solis – author of Engage! for being so gracious).

The book is now just about ready for prime time, so I felt it was high time to share about it with you all. The attendees of my recent session at SugarCon got a sneak preview of some of the concepts, and I will be giving more talks in the next few months before the release where I will have the opportunity to sign some pre-release booklets and get the word out about the book.

Will You Help Me Share About It?

I am thrilled that the book releases in just a few months (July 20), and I plan to continue blogging, speaking, and sharing about it on my social networks. Will you help me? Here are a few ways you can get involved in sharing the Customers Rock! philosophy that is in The Hidden Power of Your Customers:

Share about the book on your own blog or social networks. Here is the link to the book on Amazon.
Go to the Amazon page and click Like (right under my name, at the top of the listing)
Pre-order the book
If you are in San Diego, come to one of my Book Launch Parties (more info on these as it gets closer)
If you are not in San Diego, you can help sponsor me for a Book Signing/Event in your city. I will gladly come to your city for a signing if you help arrange the event; please contact me for details.
Submit to write a review of the book on your blog! I will be reaching out to bloggers for reviews to take place in early July; please leave me a comment or drop me a note at becky at petraconsultinggroup dot com if you are interested.

Again, thank you all for your support, encouragement, and loyalty over the past 4 1/2 years of this blog. Customers DO rock, and I can’t wait to show you more about that in the book.

Let me know what you think!

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Customer Rock Stars, Customer service, Customer strategy, Customers Rock!, social media, Voice of the customer Tagged With: Becky Carroll book, Brian Solis, Hidden Power book, Wiley

Customer Experience Conference: NetPromoter

January 27, 2011 By Becky Carroll 1 Comment

I was recently contacted by the team running the Net Promoter Conference in Miami Beach, February 3 and 4, 2011. If you are a customer experience or other customer-centric professional, this is one event you should consider attending. I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix (who I have interviewed previously on Customers Rock! Radio), and John Abraham, General Manager of NetPromoter Programs, about the event, the speakers, and why a focus on customer experience is so important. Take a few minutes to grab a cup of coffee and have a listen to our brief conversation. Sounds like a great event!

Here are some of the speakers:

Andy Lark, Vice President, Large Enterprise, Dell
Brian Scudamore, CEO, with Simon Lowe, Director of Operations, 1800-GOT-JUNK?
Dan Cathy, President & COO, Chick-fil-A
Lara Wise, Vice President, Customer Experience and Customer Care, tw telecom
Mary Currier, Vice President, IT Relationship Management, Allianz Life Insurance NA
Michael McOmber, Customer Experience Manager, Siemens IT Solutions and Services North America
Richard Owen, CEO, Satmetrix and Author, Answering The Ultimate Question
Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company Fellow and Author, The Ultimate Question

Have a listen to the interview, and for those of you who attend, come back here and share your key takeaways!

Satmetrix interview

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Filed Under: Conferences, Customer experience, Customer strategy Tagged With: John Abraham, NetPromoter, Richard Owen, Satmetrix

Letting Customers Contribute to the B2B Experience

January 17, 2011 By Becky Carroll 3 Comments

How can companies get their customers more engaged and involved? Social media has been making it easier for user-generated content to appear as part of a brand’s marketing, usually with consumers. If a consumer is truly a loyal fan of that brand, they will be very excited to see their submission being used by their favorite company. There are many, many examples of companies using these tactics for marketing buzz and excitement as part of a social media campaign. When the campaign ends, the buzz usually dies down, and the new “fans” go look for other contests to enter. Not a great way to create long-term relationships. For this reason, I often say that social media is not a campaign; it is a relationship.

Customers Contribute

Some companies have been engaging with their true fans for years. For example, at Jones Soda their bottle labels are actually photos submitted by their customers via the Jones Soda website. Customer photos appear on the Jones Soda gallery, and a lucky few get theirs put on a bottle. Even though there is no fame and fortune to be received from this activity, Jones Soda fans love to contribute to the Jones community in this fashion.

Spice it Up in B2B

Spiceworks is a great example of letting customers contribute in the B2B space. Spiceworks is a free set of tools that helps over 1 million IT professionals manage their network, helpdesk, and “everything IT in small and medium businesses.” They have a very active online community which answers questions for each other and shares what they think on a variety of topics. Spiceworks put together a photo contest asking IT professionals to share some creative pics that contained the Spiceworks logo, brand name, or simply a red chili pepper. From that contest, a community mascot was born, SpiceRex. Submitted by one of the members, SpiceRex grabbed the attention of the Spiceworks team and the hearts of the community, and he travels the world to visit various members (he is made of paper, so he travels light). He has become so popular that Spiceworks will be featuring the red orange T-Rex in a series of ads, created by community members, to tell the IT world about their free software. Spiceworks recently won a Groundswell award for the way they have energized their customers and created tremendous word of mouth through them.

When you have information about your customers and their passions that your competitors don’t have, you have an advantage. When you use what you know about your customers and let them play a role in the experience, such as featuring a community mascot in your ads, now you are building on the customer relationship and increasing the likelihood of loyalty.

(Credit: SpiceRex created by akp982 @UnofficialSpice)

Filed Under: Advertising, B2B Marketing, Community, Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Customer strategy, Featured, social media Tagged With: B2B, Forrester, Groundswell, Jones Soda, social media, SpiceRex, Spiceworks

Tweets Not All Sweet on Black Friday

December 6, 2010 By Becky Carroll 1 Comment

Social media has brought the customer experience more in-focus than ever before, and this became very apparent during the start of the 2010 holiday shopping season on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumers made their lists of who had the best deals, based on what they learned on Twitter and other sites. The brave ones, armed with their mobile phones, made the trek into the brick-and-mortar retail stores to fight the crowds for their coveted items.

Other customers started their own Cyber Monday on Black Friday and decided to stay home and shop online. Armed with their own lists, and easy access to their social networks, they shopped and Tweeted heavily on both days.

Tealeaf, using advanced sentiment analysis from Crimson Hexagon, took a look at the tweets which occurred between Black Friday and Cyber Monday about the online customer experience, and here is what they found:

Twitter conversations about online shopping increased 256 percent on Black Friday and 202 percent on Cyber Monday compared to a regular shopping day.
Shoppers were not shy about sharing their victories and failures as they strived to beat the in-store crowds.
38% of customers were delighted with the online shopping experience.
However, nearly a quarter, 24%, of online shoppers cursed and complained their way through the process.
50% of the frustrated shoppers tweeted about the specific issues they were having, such as website errors, out of stocks and other classic online customer struggles.

Here are some examples of the frustrated tweets:

· well, so much for THAT christmas present. couldn’t even figure out how to order. Thanks. *rolling eyes*.”

· Why doesn’t the website work!!!! Need to buy my ticket home. -___-

· I was going to go nuts buying lots of stuff on the website, but it’s been down all day – lots of angry comments on their facebook

· I tried! website won’t let me checkout! I keep hitting refresh!

· I would love to buy the album, but there are issues with the website

I spoke with Geoff Galat, VP of Worldwide Marketing for Tealeaf, to learn more about the social media report they conducted. Geoff shared with me that these numbers are similar to the percentage of customers that experience online shopping frustrations on non-holiday occasions; there were just a lot more of them over the last weekend. More importantly, we discussed how the expressed experience of online shoppers might affect the perceptions of others. In a previous customer survey, Tealeaf found that 51% of online shoppers said social media had influenced their online transactions. When they read a negative comment online, 74% of consumers said it influenced their likelihood to do business with that company; 56% said they would avoid a particular vendor after reading bad reviews. Yikes!

On the other hand, 52% of consumers said they would use a particular vendor after reading good reviews.

What is the key takeaway? Social media has made the consumer online shopping experience one that everyone shares, at least vicariously. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all out in the open for anyone to read – and it is impacting their perceptions and potentially their behaviors.

It is important for companies doing business online to take a closer look at their online experience – not just for purchasing, but across the entire customer lifecycle. Each of these little website experiences might not look like much to the enterprise, but when they add up over time and across many customers, they could result in “death by 1000 cuts” for the website, and for the customer base. Companies need to understand all aspects of their online customer experience, including how customers use the site as well as customer expectations (which could be set by other great websites!), in order to make sure they are delivering the best service to prospects and customers over the holidays – and every day.

What are you seeing happen in the online customer experience that is best – or worst – practice? Please share some thoughts in the comments.

To see the Tealeaf presentation of the report, go here.

(Photo credit: YanC)

Filed Under: Customer experience, sales, social media Tagged With: Black Friday, Crimson Hexagon, Cyber Monday, Geoff Galat, Tealeaf, Twitter

Bathroom Blogfest 2010 – Stuck in the 60s?

October 26, 2010 By Becky Carroll 14 Comments

Once again this year, I am pleased to be participating in the Bathroom Blogfest. This is the 5th year of the Blogfest (4th year participating for me – now with 34 other bloggers in 2010), and we use this opportunity to focus on the customer experience in one of the “forgotten” spaces, bathrooms! This year’s theme is inspired by Mad Men, and we will look to see whether some of these areas area still “stuck in the 60s”. Unless your business is 60s-inspired, it probably won’t work for you!

Now, here on Customers Rock!, I like to focus on the positives. So, I will show you one bathroom experience that is definitely “stuck”. However, I will then share photos of bathroom experiences that do a beautiful job of carrying the customer experience from the establishment into the washroom.

This Bathroom is Really Stuck!

I always advocate looking at the entire customer experience and working to ensure positive feelings as a result of those interactions. Recently, I was in Las Vegas for the BlogWorld conference, and I went to eat at Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay with some friends. The bar had a lot of great beers on tap, as well as a wide selection of bottled beers; it was a point of pride with them. So when I went to use the restroom, I wasn’t surprised to see the hallway lined with metal beer signs.

This is a pretty neat experience; I felt immersed in the atmosphere as I proceeded (the door to the bathroom is at the end of the hall).

Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to this ugly scene:

Apparently, the restaurant shared the bathrooms with other stores/restaurants in that area (it was similar to a shopping mall), so their cool Beer experience ended at the door. It was such a stark contrast that at first it made me wonder whether I was in the right place! The Burger Bar is “stuck” with this experience. Much like a parking lot, this bathroom situation was out of the control of the establishment.

What could be done to make this experience better? I don’t think there is much that could be changed, other than to create a sign at the end of the hall, before the door out of Burger Bar, noting that you are now leaving the restaurant and entering shared space. I am not sure that would completely remedy the situation, but sometimes simply setting expectations is all that is needed to turn a crummy experience into a tolerable one.

And Now For Some Great Bathrooms!

Las Vegas is definitely the city of glitz and glam, and the casinos and resorts make sure that feeling is carried through to every corner of their facilities.

Mandalay Bay

This washroom in the casino area of Mandalay Bay conveys the lush feeling that permeates the whole facility. The opulent furnishings mirror the carpets and upholstered walls leading into the bathroom. Luxurious.

The Mirage

We went to The Mirage to see the fabulous Cirque du Soleil show Love (which was an absolutely wonderful experience itself, and one I highly recommend!) The bathroom was beautifully decorated with drawings of flower arrangements, which can be seen on the walls as one enters the restroom. (I definitely got some strange looks as I took this photo!)

What interested me was that the floral art actually continued right into the stalls themselves. There was a floral drawing mounted above each toilet (yes, I peeked into more than one stall to confirm it); see pics below for proof.

While the pictures were indeed lovely, it would have been more practical to make the marble shelf a little larger so that a purse or small package could be placed there while using the facilities.

New York, New York

New York, New York hotel and casino is designed to look like something out of New York, and there were a lot of Broadway-style touches to the decor. We finished up our evening by sending the younger members of our party onto a voyage aboard the wild and long roller coaster at this hotel. While waiting, I stopped into the ladies room to check out the scene. The entrance to the bathroom had photos of famous stars from earlier decades (Marilyn Monroe, for example) lining the walls. The most striking feature of the restroom, however, was the fireplace! I don’t believe it was operational, but it looked very extravagant, especially with the chandelier above it.

What About Your Bathroom?

We have looked at the good, bad/ugly in this post with respect to how the customer experience carries over to the washroom. Whether your business is a retail establishment or a commercially-focused company, your bathroom still speaks volumes about your company. Is your bathroom “stuck in the 60s”, or are is it fully present in the year 2010, reflecting the best image possible about your organization? Let me know what you think about the bathroom experience!

Thanks to the Participating Bloggers!

Here is the list of all the participating Bathroom Blogfest 2010 bloggers! Thank you to CB Whittemore of Simple Marketing Now for her hard work pulling this blog festival together. I am honored to be a part of this effort

http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/

http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com

http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/

http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/

http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/

http://fromthefloorsup.com/

http://blog.mybigbobs.com/

http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/

http://www.laurenceborel.com/

http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/

http://blog.jmbyington.com/

http://customersrock.net/

http://www.resultsrevolution.com

http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/

http://www.professortoilet.com/

http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/

http://livepath.blogspot.com/

http://www.awarepointblog.com/

http://circulating.wordpress.com/

http://spap-oop.blogspot.com

http://yourfifthwall.com/

www.josephmichelli.com/blog

http://www.modenus.com/blog

http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian

http://www.people2peopleservice.com/

http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/

http://blog.polinchock.com/

http://trendsblog.co.uk/

http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/

http://www.arounddesmoines.com/

http://www.purplewren.com/

http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/

http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/

http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/

http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/

http://experienceology.blogspot.com/

http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/

http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/

http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/

http://carpetology.blogspot.com/

http://lindaloo.com/

http://secretsinsandiego.com/

Filed Under: Bathroom blogfest, Customer experience Tagged With: Bathroom Blogfest 2010, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, New York New York

The Latest at Customers Rock!

October 4, 2010 By Becky Carroll 1 Comment

There has been a lot going on lately here at Customers Rock! October is going to be a busy month.

BlogWorld

I will be moderating a panel again this year at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, October 14-16. My session this year is a special one. It looks back at the first panel I was ever involved in at BlogWorld 2 years ago, with some very special people. It included Frank Eliason (with Comcast at the time, now with Citibank – his first talk ever!), Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos), Brian Solis (author of Engage!), and Toby Bloomberg (Diva Marketing Blog). We discussed

social media and customer loyalty, a very new topic at the time. Fast forward two years to 2010. Much has changed in the world of social media, and customer loyalty/customer service is just now being discussed as a social media goal. I am very excited to have a panel this year with some of the same players (Frank Eliason and Toby Bloomberg are returning), as well as a new person (Melissa Lacitignola from Zappos) to revisit the topic of Creating Customer Loyalty and Social Media – A Look 2 Years Later. If you are coming to BlogWorld, please come to the session and meet the panelists – and me. And say “Customers Rock!” (On the right, there is a pic from the original panel.)

Customer World/NACCM Customers 1st

Later in October, I am speaking in Orlando at the Customers 1st Conference, which is now co-located with two other customer-focused events at the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel, October 25-27. In my role as Community Manager at Verizon (where I am a contractor), I am speaking on how to use a branded community to engage customers and move from customer support to customer relationships. There are many great sessions throughout the three conferences (including another Verizon session at the Customer Uninterrupted event on using technology to support customers). Let me know if you plan to come; it should be very helpful for those of you in customer service!

Customers Rock! Blog on Assistant Edge

My blog Customers Rock! is a Featured Resource on the new content site Assistant Edge. It is a community site that gathers great information for executive and admin assistants, and Customers Rock! was asked to participate. There looks to be some very helpful information over there for assistants as well as for others in business; check it out and let me know what you think.

And more news…

Will be coming later this week, with a very BIG announcement. Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Customer experience

From Reach to Relationships: microMarketing Chapter Review

September 27, 2010 By Becky Carroll 8 Comments

I was recently asked to participate in a review of Greg Verdino‘s book MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small This is not to be an ordinary book review, however, although I enjoy doing those on occasion. I was asked to participate in a chapter-by-chapter review. Per the request, “In essence, the chapter-by-chapter review process is a way for us to offer experts in each area the opportunity to review chapters that correlate directly with their area(s) of expertise and interest.” Great! This is a customer-focused approach. I was asked to review Chapter 7, From Reach to Relationships, as this is the chapter that relates the most closely to my Customers Rock! blog. (Full disclosure: I was sent a complimentary copy of microMarketing.)

The Concept of microMarketing

Greg’s book endeavors to help us move our thinking from mass marketing to microMarketing. He shares that mass communications are no longer hitting their target, and it is better to offer the right thing to the right person than to try and offer what you have to everyone. Since I have a background working with Peppers & Rogers Group, this is not at all a foreign concept to me. For years, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have talked about the death of mass marketing and the new world of 1to1 Marketing. As you will see in Greg’s book, the time is really right for this type of marketing to make a huge impact through a fresh, individualized channel, social media.

More Than Interesting Tweets

Chapter 7, From Reach to Relationships takes this concept into the realm of the customer and their social networks. Companies can best reach a customer when they are able to make meaningful connections with them, which means they must understand and meet that customer’s needs. Just being a nice person representing a brand on the other end of a Twitter handle won’t cut it. Neither will campaigns that strive to amass thousands of new “followers” or “fans”. As I tell my students at UCSD, social media is not about campaigns – it is about relationships.

Greg then goes on to discuss the research published by the Institute for Public Relations on the types of relationships companies can have with customers, urging the type of relationship that engenders loyalty, which leads to evangelism about a brand or a product. This reminds me of the concept of energizing customers found in the book Groundswell – giving customers what they need to really help spread the word about the brand. The right customers will raise their hands and volunteer to do this, not because they have any kind of monetary incentive to do so but because they truly believe in the brand. Zappos customers, for example, are encouraged to do this through emails sent to them encouraging reviews after a purchase, but Zappos customers evangelize the brand because of the great customer service they receive.

The rest of the chapter focuses on two mini case studies of companies, Panasonic (Living in HD program) and Wal-Mart (Eleven Moms program) that have focused on micro-relationships with their customers, finding the right people to help share about the brand with their own personal networks and online communities. What I like about both of these examples is that they focus on individuals rather than mass demographic segments. I believe there is an opportunity to take this even further, beyond microMavens and to the everyday consumer or business person. Greg closes the chapter with a short discussion of McDonald’s Moms Online Hubs, who is doing exactly that with regular moms in the USA and Canada, providing them a place to blog and be heard. These types of relationships can be built over time, with some effort from a company, and they do get results. The challenge for organizations large and small is to determine who the right people are to connect-with and enroll into your marketing programs.

To Summarize This Chapter:

- Don’t fixate on the numbers

- Look for ways to strengthen relationships with your “hand raisers”

- Empower your customers, and they will spread the word for you

Thank you, Greg, for the opportunity to review your book and to begin to digest it within the context of building customer relationships. You rock!

More Chapter By Chapter microMarketing Reviews

Chapter 1/9-20: Adam Strout

Chapter 2/ 9-21: Lucretia Pruitt, Mitch Joel

Chapter 3/9-22: Jason Falls, Toby Bloomberg

Chapter 4/9-23: Kayta Andresen, Murray Newlands

Chapter 5/9-24: Amber Nashlund, Marc Meyer, Chris Abraham

Chapter 69/27: Ari Herzog

Chapter 7/9-28: Danny Brown, Jay Baer, Adam Cohen, Becky Carroll

Chapter 8/9-29: C.C. Chapman, Elmer Boutin

Chapter 9/9-30: John Moor, David Armano, Beth Harte, Justin Levy

Filed Under: Customer experience

Growing Business the Old-Fashioned Way

August 28, 2010 By Becky Carroll 8 Comments

Here is a blast from the past, a classic Customers Rock! post on taking care of your current customers. Thanks to @Foundora for bringing it back to my attention. Enjoy!

Many companies spend a lot of time and money on attracting new customers to their product or service. Much of the marketing budget is spent on mass approaches such as advertising and direct mail. While those media may have their place in attracting prospects, they don’t help companies with their most valuable asset: their existing customer base.

Taking care of existing customers is a fantastic, cost-effective way to grow your business.

Drew McLellan shares some advantages we have when we concentrate on the “old” customers. I especially like the first advantage he lists:

“They know who you are and trust/like you enough that they’ve done business with you”

How well is your organization doing in its communications with your customers? What would cause them to trust you and want to come back for more?

Take a brief break here and think about the last 5 communications you received from companies you (or your company) are doing business with. What kinds of touches were they? Interactions with existing customers tend to be one of the following types:

A bill
An upsell offer
A cross-sell offer
A renewal offer

While there may be some customer value in these actions, they tend to be more favorable to the company than the customer. In order to keep and grow existing customers, a proactive strategy is needed. Here are some great ideas from a few of my favorite bloggers:

Meikah of Customer Relations shares with us some insight from Jack Stahl, former president of Coca-Cola and CEO of Revlon, on how to strengthen relationships in a B2B setting:

“Persist in offering value. Give consistent and routine attention, which shows that you are always interested in your customer’s business, in good times and bad. Also, have an ongoing dialogue with the retailer, when an opportunity arises to regain your business.”

Offering something of value to your customers is very important to furthering the relationship. If there isn’t value, customers may continue to do business with you for awhile, but the relationship will be short-lived. Keeping the communications line open, whether or not the customer has recently purchased something, is one of the keys to keeping up a conversation with customers.

Joe Rawlinson of Return Customer gives us some ideas on communicating appreciation with existing customers.

“When was the last time someone told you how much they appreciated you? How do you feel when you get a thank you note? If you’re like most, you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. You smile. You feel a little bit better.

Don’t you think your customers would like to feel that same joy?”

Words of thanks are greatly valued by customers. They are a nice antithesis to all the sales calls and could actually make the next call more fruitful!

Rosa Say of Managing with Aloha tells us how to deliver on the promise of our customers’ dreams. She tells her readers about the art of creating loyal customers:

“Managing with Aloha incorporates the art of Ho‘okipa to achieve a service and product delivery that is unparalleled in the dreams of your customers, turning them into loyal customers for life. When people feel they have experienced the ultimate in good service and in hospitality, they return for more of it time and again.”

Customer loyalty comes from more than just great products and services. The customer experience has a very strong influence on customer attitudes towards an organization. I love the way Rosa describes it above – an experience that makes you want to return again and again.

Other ideas on how to create meaningful interactions with existing customers:

Birthday cards/anniversary of start of relationship
Invitations to customer appreciation events
Asking for customer feedback, then acting on it and letting customers know the results
Customer apologies, where needed
Customer advisory boards

Which types of interactions you use depends on the company, it depends on the culture, and of course, it depends on what is important to the customer.

Finally, one can always use the element of surprise to keep relationships fresh. Here is an unexpected example from Bounce fabric softener shared in Andy Nulman’s blog.

Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference.

(Photo credit: cookelma)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service

Is Your “Lack of Remarkable” Preventing Customer Loyalty?

July 28, 2010 By Becky Carroll 9 Comments

Today we have a guest blogger with us here on Customers Rock!, Nate Bagley. Nate is the Social Media Expert at Mindshare Technologies. Mindshare is a leader in the Voice of the Customer industry, helping companies foster consumer satisfaction, build customer loyalty, and support employee retention. Click here to learn more about Mindshare.

Is Your “Lack of Remarkable” Preventing Customer Loyalty? by Nate Bagley

The most important aspect of any customer-driven business is consistency. If you cannot provide a consistent experience, it is impossible to generate loyalty within your customers. Without loyal customers, a business is just a whole lot of wasting assets.

The businesses that thrive despite a struggling economy, intense competition, or market saturation are those who have built intense customer and employee loyalty.

The best way to create loyal relationships is rather simple: You must measure the customer experience continuously. Measuring your customers’ feedback and acting on any inconsistencies (both good and bad) should be how you approach your business every day!

Recently, I attended a sports themed restaurant to watch the World Cup match between England and the United States. By the middle of the first half, the restaurant was packed with crazed fans… standing room only. I kept an eye on our server as she tended to dozens of guests within her section. She remained pleasant, yet incredibly busy.

Somehow, through all of the tumult, she managed to check on our table every few minutes. When she noticed our cups were running low on water, she brought us a pitcher, knowing she wouldn’t have time to fill them individually. She kept us happy, assessed our needs, and did it with a smile, despite having to work a section that was far over capacity.

Will we be returning? You bet we will, especially if every subsequent experience is of the same caliber as this one.

How can this restaurant chain ensure that every location provides the same level of service consistently to every customer? How can they make sure every staff member within the organization is consistently hitting customer service home runs like this? They must set a standard and then measure as many transactions as possible against it until they are consistently hitting the mark. The easiest way to identify irregularities in customer experience is through customer feedback. You must consistently listen to what customers are saying! Keep doing the things they love, and improve the things they don’t.

“When we measure satisfaction, what we’re really measuring is the difference between what a customer expects, and what a customer perceives he gets.” (“The Experience Economy,” Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore)

What are you doing to provide a consistently remarkable experience for every transaction in your business?

(Flickr Photo Credit: ogimogi)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Guest bloggers

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