I was that nerdy child in the 90s who used to sit down and write while other kids used to do their childish banters. My inclination to writing started by accident and stayed by choice. I was a notorious kid and was a nightmare to my teachers and the caretakers at home. I was made to start writing as a way of getting the spark back.
Are you getting the spark back?
Soon my family and I realized how addictive this distraction was. It was doing more good than bad. I was more organized and focused compared to other kids my age. I was creative and made stories about mythical Indian demons and gods. Oh, that sparkle I saw in my friend’s eyes when they heard those stories were out of the world!
And then “Life Happened “to me, for obvious reasons. Some good reasons and some not so good. I grew up, went to college for graduation and masters. Meanwhile, the only writing I did was my assignments and essays. And then Job happened, and the writing got limited to just memos and MOMs.
Today I work with a company I had dreamed off during college. Things are good! Like most adults today I am stuck in the monotony of life. I have a sense of disorientation in my soul lately. Not that I am complaining (I am, to myself) but life is indeed a bit dull. I have the job I wanted, and it pays well too. I am traveling places, meeting new people and seeing the guy of my dreams. You might think what’s missing then? I miss that sparkle; I miss that joy of having things sorted and planned out in advance.
I might have missed that Sparkle as an innocent forgetful child. Or did the sparkle leave me because I had taken it for granted? By now you must understand that “Sparkle” means my habit of writing. Probably my sense of disorientation was born from the lost connection with myself. I know that feeling because I compare it to how connected and confident I was as a child. Writing as a habit, made sure that my thoughts were super organized. As a child, I knew what I wanted in life and what my priorities were. Now as an adult, I am confused thinking what my quarterly goals should be about.
I started writing again last summer, for my good. It was a desperate attempt to regain my lost connection to myself. I needed some serious motivation to bring in the right changes in my life. And believe me, when I say this, I already feel so much lighter. All I do now as a habit is write more often in my journal or even on sticky notes. Even these small habits have managed to organize my life and increase my productivity to impressive levels. The habit of writing is a powerful tool; you will have to use it for yourself to feel its gain. Writing is a great way to keep learning about self.
I keep these tips in mind for keeping myself motivated and productive:
Have the right platform to write, as per your convenience
I write in a handcrafted journal; its papers are so beautiful that they make me want to write more often. If you are someone who loves to illustrate while writing, it pays to keep the right pens handy.
Comfortable spot?
Have a comfortable spot, decide on a time and make it a habit
Having a particular spot helped me make my writing feel more private. Every time I see that corner of my house I am reminded to write. Having a particular time allotted for your writing trains your brain to make it a habit. It certainly does take time, but you will love the ritual you make with yourself gradually. I did, and I love it.
Getting the spark back … avoid distractions
Before and after you make your writing ritual, stay away from distractions during it. I turn off my gadgets when I am writing. The spot you select should be comfortable and be devoid of major distractions. In just a couple of months, even my dogs have understood not to bother me when I am in my spot doing my thing.
Be open and transparent when you write
I have realized as adults we judge ourselves too along with the people around us. Stop doing that; it harms you that you can’t imagine. Understand that you are writing for yourself and not to impress an editor here. Write about your goals and thoughts as openly as possible.
Writing down your goals and motivations is a must
Grabbing motivation?
Writing on Paper is a strong tool, that more people need to use. There’s a correlation between the brain and eyes. You tend to remember your points more clearly when you see them being written by yourself on a paper.
You are writing to de-stress
As you carry on with your great habit, it becomes important to remember this point. We write down or jot down points that we want to remember. This helps you to clear your mind. It is only with a clear and composed mind that you get new ideas. Try to make yourself a clean slate after every writing session. This will motivate you to try out new things and make new goals.
The bottom line
It is okay if you lost that sparkle for a while, that happens to a lot of us. It’s more important to realize its importance and get it back at the right time. Because losing that sparkle is a lot like losing yourself. It’s high time more people see how powerful writing is in making people productive and motivated in life.
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Bella Williams
As an academic researcher & private tutor, Bella guides the new age professionals and students with their career. A graduate of Monash University, Bella organizes free coaching workshops and promotes free sharing of knowledge. You can also find her on LinkedIn.
Within five years, if you’re in the same business you are in now, you’re going to be out of business. That is a pretty tough statement from Peter Drucker, isn’t it? Jeff Bezos would certainly agree though … look at Amazon over the past decade-plus. He has established Amazon as an innovation opportunities leader. And Amazon knows much about innovative growth opportunities.
No question. But most businesses would have a hard time agreeing, in our opinion.
In the past few decades, most innovations focused primarily on efficiency in response to mass market opportunities. While ongoing innovations in technology and operating strategies will continue to improve efficiency, future innovations will be more customer-facing and more focused on significant growth opportunities. Again, look at the growth at e-commerce businesses like Amazon.
Both online and brick and mortar businesses will address the unique needs and desires of individual consumers to provide a more rewarding and memorable shopping experience.
They will innovate around new formats and distribution models, product and service offerings, marketing and customer communications, social commerce, and other components of the business model.
Let’s examine ten categories of innovation ideas from Jeff Bezos and his team and other innovative businesses. We’re sure they will help all of us get our thinking caps on.
Help customers with choice decisions
More products, brands, retailers, and shopping formats are introduced to consumers every year. At the same time, technology has resulted in an explosion of information. Faced with too many choices and information overload as well as more complex products and a lack of knowledgeable sales assistance, many consumers are struggling to make smart choices and are looking to businesses for help.
The ability to try it before you buy it helps consumers choose the products that are right for them and helps innovative marketers close sales. Supermarkets were among the first retailers to realize that once you taste it, you’re more likely to buy it.
Sporting goods superstores have jumped on the bandwagon with a variety of facilities for outdoor enthusiasts to test the equipment and have fun in the process. In-store listening posts and online music samplers let shoppers hear song samples from CDs to aid in the purchase decision.
Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” feature is one of its most popular innovations. Launched as a significant extension of its groundbreaking “Look Inside the Book,” it helps shoppers find exactly the book they want to buy. Now, instead of just displaying books whose title, author or publisher-provided keywords match the search terms, search results will surface titles based on every word inside the book and render actual pages of the books for the shopper’s review.
Time and convenience
In the old days, consumers made the pilgrimage downtown from miles around to shop. Then malls were created, and shoppers flocked to these huge centers. More recently, many retailers have been moving into neighborhoods to be closer to where their customers live. What’s next? In my home, in my car, at my workplace. New distribution models are springing up as businesses take the show on the road and reach out to consumers wherever they are.
From mobile pet grooming, car maintenance and optical labs to traveling carpet and home décor stores, mobile initiatives are gaining in popularity as time-pressed consumers to seek ever-greater convenience to save their time.
Help with solving my problems
Problem-solvers understand what the consumer is trying to accomplish by looking downstream at his or her ultimate goal. For example, innovative home improvement businesses such as Lowes or Home Depot understand that the consumer doesn’t want to buy a drill. The consumer wants to make a hole to build a deck.
Looking even further downstream, s/he wants to build a deck to entertain family and friends. Easy to build, flexible designs are the key.
Innovative companies are networking with companies in other business sectors to offer new products or services outside their core businesses. No one company will have the skills, technologies, channels, products or services that are needed to do this independently.
Try and be memorable.
Be memorable
As busy consumers turn to the Internet to satisfy more of their shopping needs, store retailers will focus more intently on providing experiences that can be gained only by being there. Individual businesses may not be able to own a product or service category, but they can own a buying experience.
The decision to create a customer experience shifts the focus from what moves product to what moves people. Experiences are more than entertainment, education or interaction; they engage customers in a memorable and meaningful way.
Sporting goods retailers REI, Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops have led the way in making their retail space an experience. Their stores have emerged as major tourist attractions by offering climbing walls, mountain bike tracks, fishing ponds, archery ranges, putting greens and a host of other opportunities to test one’s skills and try out products. The stores effectively bring the great outdoors indoors.
Permit easy sharing
Consumers have a fundamental desire to connect with one another, and technology is facilitating the exchange of ideas, information, and opinions. New types of social networks foster community among consumers who share a common passion or interest.
Marketers can forge stronger relationships with these consumers and earn their patronage by helping them connect in ways that matter to them and by responding to their emotional as well as their physical needs.
Hallmark, in a deal with Enpocket, enables mobile subscribers to send greeting cards to friends and family on their mobile phones. Users click on a branded image and text, add a personalized message and send the composite to the recipient.
Pointing out trends
Successful marketers take advantage of opportunities created by demographic, societal, economic and technological trends. These “green space” opportunities represent emerging growth patterns in the market. New products, new services, new retail concepts and new business models maximize these trends.
The needs of older people and ethnic consumers and the desire among a growing segment of the population to play a more active role in their health and well-being are among the trends providing fertile ground for innovative solutions.
The Home Depot, in an expanding alliance with AARP, is tapping into the growing base of older customers with innovative products and services to help seniors remain in their homes as they age.
Personalize shopping
Personalize shopping habits.
Shopping is becoming increasingly individualistic. This is being driven by the growing diversity of the consumer marketplace, technology enablers and the consumer’s desire for greater influence, control and uniqueness. In this new environment, the power structure has permanently shifted from sellers to buyers. Innovative businesses will look for ways to provide more unexpected gratification to shoppers and let them express themselves in unique ways.
But, can marketers seek out the desires of individual consumers and do only and exactly what each one needs or wants? For the most part, customizing each order to each demand point will remain outside the boundaries of economic feasibility. Instead, the goal will be better matching the market to the consumer.
The Internet enables this process by providing greater access to more information and more options, along with the ability to customize the shopping process to better meet shoppers’ specific needs.
The goal of Amazon’s personalization strategy is to build a store unique to every customer, filled with items selected just for them. As Jeff Bezos explains, “We not only help readers find books, we also help books find readers, with personalized recommendations based on the patterns we see.”
Don’t waste my time
Consumers value what is most scarce, and time is at the top of the list for many. They want it fast (speed up the shopping process). They want it now (immediate gratification). They want it first (latest and greatest).
The need for speed, particularly at the order-entry and checkout stages of the shopping process, will continue to drive changes in store concepts, design, location, merchandising, transaction processing and payment.
Having studied what items are highest on customers’ visits for quick trips, Food Lion’s new Bloom stores feature the Table Top Circle, an area in the front of the store stocking milk, eggs, bread, chilled beer and soda, meal solutions and other frequently purchased, high-traffic convenience offerings. In the parking lot, the first few rows are designated with 20-Minute Parking signs
Simplify everything
Ease-of-use is vital to the success of the shopping experience. Innovative process, service and design solutions that are simple, intuitive and in tune with shoppers’ needs—along with new technology tools— can save consumers time and effort. An easier and more rewarding customer experience will boost sales and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
With Staples Easy Rebates, they continue to deliver on its brand promise of making the purchase of office products easy for customers.
Easy Rebates, a paperless online rebate process, was developed in response to customer feedback about the frustrations of the mail-in rebate process, which typically includes filling out forms, cutting out and mailing in UPCs from boxes and providing duplicate receipts. Easy Rebates offers a “no hassles, no clipping, no mailing” guarantee that modernizes the traditional rebate process.
Do what I don’t need to do
Another way to solve my problem is to do it for me. Demographic shifts and lifestyle changes are steadily driving consumers into the do-it-for-me market for everything from home improvement and automobile maintenance to cooking and cleaning. Businesses are responding to consumers’ increasing do-it-for-me demands with innovative new services and conveniences.
Best Buy offers in-home installation services for appliances and home electronics. Authorized technicians will integrate a single component into an existing system or wire an entire room. Most Best Buy stores also are equipped with vehicle installation facilities and staffed with certified technicians to install a CD player, auto security system, or video system.
The bottom line
What do you think of these ideas for the innovative growth opportunities? Please leave a comment or question below.
It’s up to you to keep improving attention to your brand.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy in each of these steps to improving innovative growth opportunities for your business?
Do you have a lesson about making the innovative growth better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
The internet and digital technology have brought significant change and, occasionally, death to many industries. The newspaper industry is no exception, as advertising revenues and reader subscriptions have plummeted. A return to the old days is not going to happen. But does that mean that newspapers are doomed? Not yet, but certainly likely, if they maintain the status quo and follow innovative leadership ideas.
Here is a recommended roadmap for reinvention that I would pursue if newspaper ownership was my livelihood:
Carefullystudy the trailblazers and what they have learned
Over the past 5 years, there are many lessons. Here are a few of the best ones to start with: Huffington Post, Voice of San Diego, Business Insider, and Tech Crunch.
Innovative leadership … make customer engagement a top priority
A top priority in all reinvention ideas. Build communities for your readers and your business advertisers.
Your biggest customers, other businesses, are also going through significant change … make their success the centerpiece of your reinvention.
Innovative leadership characteristics … become a more predominant business leader
Look throughout the region. Be a hands-on leader, spokesman, and creator of change and improvement in ways that local governments have not been able to do.
Make the leadership to change the flagship of your new brand.
Go hyper-local
Hyper-local with the predominance of your news and information. Limit the state, national, and international news to summaries only.
Solicit from your customers on all critical issues.
Make crowdsourcing a competency
And use it for both internal as well as local issues. Experiment, prototype, and test fearlessly … iterate often. Make business model experimentation a top priority.
Note that 80% of the game-changing ideas over the last 100 years came from people outside the fields where the new ideas were successful.
Employ all emerging media platforms
Consider platforms such as video and mobile, two important examples. Identify creative, synergistic ways to integrate them.
Encourage new, innovative ways to collaborate with other businesses
Look for inventive partnerships that can yield win-win opportunities.
Become a medium for entertainment and local social sharing
On-line internet games and learning are in their infancy and would be a great place to start.
Many of the issues that your readers and businesses face are multi-faceted and complex.
Be more innovative in ways to present information and data visually
Look to improve education and bring clarity to these issues.
Finally, many of these ideas (and others) will require new skill sets.
Develop and hire new skills
Look for skills such as multi-media specialists, community builders, information technology experts, curators, and innovation specialists.
Several of these recommendations you are already pursuing, many others have yet to be defined or implemented.
The biggest obstacle the newspaper industry faces?
Letting go of the old ways fast enough so that the new ways have a chance to grow and develop.
The bottom line:
We need to put more thought into how we adapt and use our communication assets. Surely, we all spend time attending meetings and conference calls, reading and responding to messages that could be used more productively. That’s frustrating.
However—and this is a crucial point—we don’t know those interactions will be fruitless until we actually employ them. While it’s easy to remember the frustration of having our time wasted, it is not much harder to recall times when we have come across a random thread of information that we were able to capitalize on by sharing with others.
It is also those chance encounters that often lead to bigger things, precisely because we are able to share them, get diverse viewpoints and mobilize the efforts of many others. Increasingly, we live in a social economywith collaboration at its center.
It is no longer just efficiency, but agility and interoperabilitythat makes businesses such as newspapers most successful.
Need some help in improving the creativity of you and your staff? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote for a workshop on creativity. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
Frederick the Great once said: It is pardonable to be defeated but never to be surprised. Frederick was not talking about customer service, was he? But this quote could very well apply to a service recovery plan, yes? Except we might argue that a defeat is as bad as a surprise.
Read on: How to Build Trust to Keep Customers Returning
Be prepared is the motto of the Boy Scouts. Also applies to just about everything else we do in life.
Does your customer service prepare for contingencies? Contingencies and strategy designs for when things don’t go as planned?
We’ll use a story to explain.
A story about poor customer service and a resulting bad customer experience at a restaurant. A large group of business people had arranged to get together for lunch to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They chose a restaurant that they hadn’t been to before, as they wanted to give it a try. Plans and reservations for the group of 25 people were made several days in advance.
Arrival at the restaurant was on time. However, despite having made the reservation, they had to wait 20 minutes before they could be seated. Once seated and menus had been handed out, the group was ignored. Everyone was hungry and ready to order. They also had a limited amount of time before everyone needed to head back to work.
A waitress finally arrived to take everyone’s order.
Disaster recovery plan checklist.
After waiting for longer than seemed necessary, and observing other tables get their meals ahead of theirs, the group’s meals arrived. EXCEPT ONE, for the meal ordered by the birthday guest. He didn’t receive his meal until most of the others were finished.
A complaint was lodged with the manager, with no success. He was totally indifferent to the situation. He offered no apology and, after being asked to comp that meal, refused to do so.
This bad experience triggered one of the group to write a letter to the head office of the restaurant chain. They detailed the experience and mentioned that in addition to the 25 customers they had lost directly — everyone would tell their friends they would not recommend visiting that restaurant as well.
Ultimately, that meant more customers that would be lost.
A few days later my colleague received a letter of apology in the mail and a $40 gift card.
However, they couldn’t find anyone willing to return to the restaurant to use it due to that bad experience.
Recovery plan … Key Takeaways
First of all, bad things happen in every business. But good preparation can usually eliminate most of them. For example, you need to decide how large of a group you can handle on top of your normal crowd.
If you can’t handle a group of 25 with your normal great service, then you owe it to the potential customers to let them know what extra wait time would be required. Or, just apologize and don’t accept the reservations. The key to keeping customers happy is through honest communication, being accountable for the poor experience, and being prepared to deliver what you promise.
Then, if things go wrong, you should have service recovery strategies in place, with everyone prepared and empowered to act. Prepared and empowered to make things right — on the spot. Research tells us that when we fix a problem on the spot that loyalty actually increases more than if the customer is simply satisfied.
Try and be prepared.
So rather than seeing a complaining customer as a problem — start seeing them as an opportunity to demonstrate your service recovery strategies as a way to build loyalty.
For example, if there was to be a delay in the preparation of meals, then the customer needs to be informed. Informed ahead of time. Offering something to help address the situation also helps — in this case perhaps a basket of bread or something else could have been offered while they were kept waiting.
In this case, the effort was too little and way too late. They couldn’t regain the trust of the customers they lost through one bad experience. And unhappy customers tell everyone. Not good for any business.
The key is to take steps to rectify the problem quickly — instead of ignoring it.
A simple reminder … we all know it’s easier to keep existing customers than to find new ones.
Do you have a customer service experience to share with this community?
Need some help in building better customer service for your customers? Have you noticed the growing importance from customer service you provide, especially for your marketing? Creative ideas to help enhance your word of mouth marketing?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your customer service improvement and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas for your service to customers.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer service from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Stunning Customer Service Lessons and Their Examples
10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
Best Buy Lessons in Customer Service
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
I stayed in a new hotel in Ohio a while back. The situation was that it was recently opened and should not have been opened until the problems were worked out and management was ready. There were many problems with customer churn, believe me.
Remember this: How to Build Trust to Keep Customers Returning
But not only did the staff take care of the issues for me, the manager, once he got me back to ‘even’, continued to build the relationship with me. His techniques included exceptional, personalized service – using my name in face-to-face greetings, and continued follow-up and attention to detail. He actually made me believe I was the best customer he had ever had. Not only did I forget about the earlier problems, but I was feeling great about the entire three-day experience.
Service recovery requires remaining with your customer, through follow-up, and through unexpected contact well after the issue. All customers deserve our best service … but the ones that have a negative experience represent an opportunity to define a business.
Such an opportunity represents an opportunity to turn customers into enthusiasts and maybe even advocates. And that requires going beyond the ‘break-even’ point for that customer.
Research has shown time and time again that customers who reported a problem and were delighted with the outcome have higher satisfaction with the business than the ones who never experienced a problem.
Why should any company not want to seize such an opportunity?
Try it … the next time you have a customer who has had a back experience with your business.
Need some help in reducing customer churn and building better customer service for your customers? Have you noticed the growing importance from customer service you provide, especially for your marketing? Creative ideas to help enhance your word of mouth marketing?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your customer service improvement and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas for your service to customers.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer service from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Stunning Customer Service Lessons and Their Examples
10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
Best Buy Lessons in Customer Service
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced. I’d like to introduce you to Kyle. Kyle is an example of the things that are right at Best Buy’s customer care service.
It’s not that Kyle is the only example of great customer service at Best Buy, but I was so delighted with my new Samsung Galaxy S5 that I didn’t get a picture of Jeff, who signed me up. Suffice it to say he looked like he just started to shave. But the perfect customer focused sales agent who knew all the lessons in customer service.
Watch out: 10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
He was very aware how much feelings impact the ways customers are influenced.
Here is how the story goes:
A customer walks into a store
A couple of weeks ago, I walked into my local Best Buy store to shop for a smartphone. What I wanted was to buy an Android phone that was not going to lock me into a particular service plan for two years and a plan that would give me unlimited phone minutes, data, and text for a price that I was happy with.
I certainly got that, but I also came out with an extraordinary impression of Best Buy. I’d been thinking a lot about customer service myself as my agency works with its clients on this subject. Over the first two weeks or so I owned my new phone, Best Buy’s customer service did nothing but reinforce my initial impression.
This may surprise you, but receiving actual extraordinary customer service is rare enough in my life that I find it difficult to find examples to learn from. So I thought I’d deconstruct Kyle’s and Best Buy’s customer service for what I could learn.
I gave every Android phone there a thorough working over, asked lots of questions, and Kyle never once treated me as if he was in a hurry to move to a new customer. Instead, he showed patience and understanding that this was a significant purchase that I’d be affected by for months, if not years, to come.
My clients are spending a heck of a lot more money with me than I ever will with Best Buy, for a design that is far more business critical than my cell phone is to me. No matter what other projects I have going, I need to constantly remind myself to take whatever time I need to take to ensure the clients’ designs are the correct ones for them.
Be Classy
When someone is switching to your services from working with another company, often they’ll explain to you what their reasons are for switching. I was pretty clear about what my reasons for switching were when I was buying my phone from Kyle.
While he was always helpful, he never once took my whining as an excuse to pile on the competitor. I’m not sure if this is something trained to Best Buy’s employees or if it is just how Kyle is, but I was impressed with the class he used in handling the situation.
Kyle took a few moments out whenever a new customer came into the department to greet him or her. And it was a genuine, friendly greeting.
I had the feeling that Kyle knew exactly how each person’s kids were doing in the little league. I really appreciated knowing that existing customers were treated so well. And, of course, the implication was not lost on me that if I became a Best Buy customer, that this is how I’d be treated.
Avoid paranoia
One of the things that Kyle said to me as he closed the sale was, “We want you to be with Best Buy because you want to be with Best Buy.” This was in stark contrast to my previous experience. Even though I’d been with them for eight years, they refused to sell me a phone I’d be happy with at a reasonable price without locking me into a 2-year contract.
That particular company exacerbated the problem by associating themselves closely with the manufacturer of their most over-hyped phone, one that claims to deliver wonderful experiences by forcing you to have exactly the experience they want.
Shortly after I went into business, I had several clients not pay me, to the tune of enough money that it pretty well fouled up my credit. So for a while, I was all about ensuring that my clients were locked down about as tight as I could get them. But you know what? If you do that for long enough and don’t ever extend any trust to your clients, sooner or later they’ll start not trusting you. And start counting the days until they are allowed to leave.
I don’t want my clients thinking about me like that.
Customer care service tips … don’t make clients feel bad
As I mentioned before, between having a couple of clients not pay early on and having my property hit by a major hurricane, my credit is not perfect. When Kyle ran my credit, Best Buy already had a plan in place that was perfect for where I am in the credit repair process. Everything went smoothly, and I didn’t have to stammer out any explanations about hurricanes and bad clients.
Once I had my phone, I had an issue where the flash would go on and off while I was trying to use the camera for QR code scanning. I called up the store with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was afraid I’d allowed myself to get stuck with a bum device, despite the fact that they’d explained I could return the phone within 14 days for a full refund.
“If I can’t get this resolved, I’m going to have to return it,” I proclaimed.
“OK,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.
Completely took the wind out of my sails. And when I took the phone into the shop, Kyle competently verified the problem, not remotely implying that I was stupid or insane to even have a problem. Amazingly, she even knew what to do to fix it, though we were both surprised that it worked.
How many times do we as designers feel the need to “prove” that a problem that the customer is having is because they’re doing something wrong? Even if they are, a better way to handle all around is just to tell them what the right procedure is, going to screen sharing if necessary.
If it really is your problem, you haven’t said something nasty to someone you then need to apologize for.
When I left with my new Behold II, I had something else as well–a business card from the Best Buy with Kyle’s personal phone number on it, in case I had questions. I strongly doubt that Best Buy insists its employees do this, but it’s hard to beat having motivated employees who will take it upon themselves to extend this kind of personal touch.
What Have You Learned?
How about you? Do you have stories of people or companies that have completely “wowed” you with their customer service? Please share.
Do you have a lesson about making your customer service better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer service from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Stunning Customer Service Lessons and Their Examples
10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
How to Build Trust to Keep Customers Returning
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open. Frank Zappa certainly makes a great analogy here, doesn’t he? Yesterday, the Microsoft Board of Directors confirmed Satya Nadella as only the third Microsoft CEO in history.
Let’s hope he has a very open mind and an imaginative vision. Our objective in this article is to examine the Microsoft CEO employee letter for what we learn about his personality and style. Each topic heading is followed by an excerpt from Satya’s letter and our thoughts about them.
Lack of ego
Today is a very humbling day for me. It reminds me of my very first day at Microsoft, 22 years ago.
Let’s hope he maintains this attitude. It would be a welcomed change from the Steve Ballmer personality.
Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation. This is a critical time for the industry and Microsoft. We are headed for greater places — as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world.
While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. I’ll pin most of my hopes on their ability to do more to change the world.
What defines him?
… a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences.
Many who know me say my curiosity and thirst for learning also defines me.
I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity, and hunger for knowledge all define me.
Family, curiosity, and hunger for knowledge … hope he sticks with them.
Why am I here?
I am here for the same reason I think most people join Microsoft — to change the world through technology that empowers people to do amazing things.
Avoiding any ego statement.
Vision / insight
I believe over the next decade computing will become even more ubiquitous and intelligence will become ambient. The coevolution of software and new hardware form factors will intermediate and digitize — many of the things we do and experience in business, life and our world. This will be made possible by an ever-growing network of connected devices, incredible computing capacity from the cloud, insights from big data, and intelligence from machine learning.
Not much new or insightful here … probably because he doesn’t want to tip his hand?
Self-confidence
I am here because we have unparalleled capability to make an impact.
I like his use of we in this context.
Why are we here?
In our early history, our mission was about the PC on every desk and home, a goal we have mostly achieved in the developed world. Today we’re focused on a broader range of devices. While the deal is not yet complete, we will welcome to our family Nokia devices and services and the new mobile capabilities they bring us.
… empowers the world to do more of what they care about — get stuff done, have fun, communicate and accomplish great things. This is the core of who we are, and driving this core value in all that we do — be it the cloud or device experiences — is why we are here.
Can they rekindle even a small amount of their earlier historical spirit of new product creation?
New mission?
As we look forward, we must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world and do new things.
To paraphrase a quote from Oscar Wilde — we need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable.
This starts with clarity of purpose and sense of mission that will lead us to imagine the impossible and deliver it. We need to prioritize innovation that is centered on our core value of empowering users and organizations to “do more.”
Priority on the need for creativity, innovation, and a reimagination of everything would be a welcomed focus.
Next, every one of us needs to do our best work, lead and help drive cultural change. We sometimes underestimate what we each can do to make things happen and overestimate what others need to do to move us forward. We must change this.
Like the comment and emphasis on company culture and employee engagement.
Find meaning
Finally, I truly believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know that it does not work, but something that will improve other people’s lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company.
Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have all the elements required: talent, resources, and perseverance. Microsoft has proven that it has all three in abundance. And as the new CEO, I can’t ask for a better foundation.
Looks like a good motivator, doesn’t he?
Hubspot’s Dan Lyons call to action
Dan Lyons of Hubspot posted an interesting article yesterday with several calls to action for the new CEO. Here is some of what Dan had to say:
But there’s one thing I’d love to see him do right away, and that drops the nutso anti-Google “Scroogled” campaign that Microsoft has been running for the past two years. For good measure, Nadella should boot Mark Penn, the political hatchet man and Ballmer appointee who orchestrated this idiotic crusade.
The only thing that the Scroogled movement has accomplished is to draw attention to how badly Google is beating Microsoft in these markets. As Danny Sullivan of Marketing Land put it after viewing the anti-Chromebook ads: “Wow. How sad.”
The bottom line
I suspect the reviews on Satya’s selection won’t be that great. But I also suspect there will be a lot that won’t be apparent to most of. So we’ll have to wait a while. It will be very interesting to see some of Satya Nadella early initiatives, won’t it? We wait with a lot of anticipation for what we expect will be some surprises.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to Satya.
It’s up to him to keep improving his abilities in learning to learn. Lessons are all around him. In many situations, his competitors may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within him already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Do you know your customer needs? Peter Drucker believed there was a frequent disconnect. Is this a question you and your staff ask often? It’s a question we ask a lot, and yet we often find so difficult to answer.
How a business handles this question and the answers will go a long way in determining its ultimate success. If you consistently offer your customers what they want at a price they feel is fair, you’ll have too many customers. Is having too many customers possible?
Many times when we consider this question, we go immediately to the complex side of the answer spectrum. But the truth is if we focus on the simple things and do them very well, the complex answers take care of themselves.
How often do you look to your customers for a true understanding of their challenges? We collect huge amounts of data on them, but rarely use that data. In fact, only 0.5% of the data available to us is ever used or analyzed according to MIT Technology Review.
To understand insight, we must understand the data that fuels it. Customer analytics data helps to understand the path your customers take, and insight is what we derive from the data. If, for example, selling something online is your goal, then you should know what your customers did before and after they reached the checkout.
Here are the top 10 simple things that we feel customers care the most about:
Acknowledge my presence quickly
One of the best ways for customers to get a very positive first impression is to acknowledge them as soon as they come in. Don’t make them have to ask. If you with another customer, explain that and tell them you will be with them shortly. If you cannot, ask staff to help them.
What customer want.
Customers needs … smile and be nice to be around
Smile and be pleasant to be around … smiling is not rocket science and makes a BIG difference.
List of customer needs … listento me
When a customer is telling you his issue, give them your complete attention. Customers consistently tell us they hate dealing with employees who don’t listen or pay attention.
When you begin talking with a customer, stop whatever else you are doing and focus on them. Don’t multi-task. Don’t half-listen. Write down what they are telling you and get specifics from them. Make appropriate eye contact, listen, nod and show them you are paying attention. Then confirm that you understand.
Be easy to work with
You can tell when employees are trying their best to make them as easy as possible for you, can’t you. It adds up when done in others things on this list.
Show me you care
Showme you care
You may not be the owner, but you should care like you’re the owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees. Then copy them. Act and care like you are the owners.
When talking with a new customer, give them your name and get theirs right away.This makes your conversation more personal and enables you to connect better with your customer.
It also tells your customer you’re willing to be accountable for helping them because if you don’t, they know who you are!
Identifying customer needs … knowmore than I do
We are definitely in a time where information on products and services is readily available. And customers have usually done their research well. So you need to be prepared with a good knowledge base. Whatever you do, don’t bluff.
Be honest
Tell the truth, ALWAYS … with no hidden agendas and ulterior motives. Marketing puffery is not the truth, and consumers are very educated on products and services.
Offer help without selling
Offer alternatives if you don’t have what I want. Have good referrals on hand; customers like to get those.
Always do whatyousay
Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. Always follow up and follow through.
One of the biggest complaints people have is they never hear back from sales or service employees. Someone promises to do something, and it never happens.
An easy way to thrill your customers is to do what you say you will. Whatever you promise, do it promptly, thoroughly and accurately. Then do a little more. It thrills them every time!
Follow through and keepme informed
A great way to assure people is to make a promise. Commit to something and give them your word. Then you are honor-bound to get it done. People respect others who make a promise and then keep it. It builds great credibility and loyalty.
Key takeaways
This list is your gold-plated ticket to increase customer loyalty. Make sure your company does all these things for every customer every time, and your customers will keep coming back again and again.
What your customer perceives about your company is what determines whether they will stay with you. And their perception is built one contact at a time. Even one bad experience can taint their perception of you.
So make sure every contact they have is a great one. Create customer evangelists by caring about your customers and showing it with everything you do.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on customer service insights from our library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Although you may think that it saves you money by doing everything yourself, the truth is that with all the time you are putting in, learning by trial and error, you may have well hired a business or a professional to carry out these tasks for you. They will help improve your business.
By hiring the services of a professional, you will get someone that knows the ins and outs of their particular expert knowledge. They will be able to navigate their way through territory that is so familiar to them but is totally alien to them.
#1 Social media
It is vital to the success of your business in today’s world that you have a social media profile. With so many social media platforms available, it makes sense to take full advantage of what you have on offer to you.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are a great way to engage with your customer’s past, present, and future and keep your business within the public domain as much as possible. There are different ways of doing this, and all can be time-consuming, especially if you are working on a learning curve.
Hiring the services of a professional that is used to dealing with social media to elevate businesses can not only prove beneficial when it comes to getting your business out there but will also understand the correct language and angle to word your posts to get the right demographic for your business.
#2 Your website
It is surprising, but most businesses could do with a website revamp more often than they might think. Keeping your website up to date and relevant with current information and offers really should be a must, although there does seem to be quite a few that have information dated on them from years and years ago.
When you visit a website with out-of-date information on it, the first thing that comes to mind is that they have gone out of business, the second is that if there is a lack of care of their website, what must their work or services be like – not good probably.
By hiring an established and reputable website designer, your business website will not only look the best it has done in years, but it will become functional and user friendly, and with old information removed and updated, you will find that you will be able to connect with your visitors more easily.
#3 SEO
SEO is a big area, and if you do not know what you are doing can be a very costly learning curve. Hiring the services of someone or a business that knows what they are doing is a must; otherwise, you could end up just pouring money into your long-tailed keywords, pay per click, or pay per impression without getting any good quality traffic to your website.
An experienced business will be able to show you results quickly for the work that they are doing on your behalf. They will also know what the best phrases and words are to use in order to get the right people entering your sales funnel, which will result in a much higher sale rate. They will also be able to get your business on the front page of search engine pages such as Google.
Suppose you’re in the market to hire the best digital marketing agency. Or perhaps your goal is to become the world’s best digital marketer. What are the attributes of digital marketing solutions success? Would you be satisfied with doing the common thing uncommonly well like Rockefeller says?
After spending many decades developing marketing messages, advertising, and integrated digital marketing campaigns, here are 19 attributes and skills of a great digital marketer that stand out to me. You can use them to help your own self development or as criteria to find the best agency for you to hire.
Great marketers are like six–year-olds; they always want to know why. Curiosity is the gateway to clarity. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.“
Marketing solutions … clarity
The difference between a marketer and someone who writes is that the former enlightens the reader while the latter tends to confuse the reader.
Passion
Further down, I’m putting words like “boring” and “trivial” in quotations because to great marketers , nothing is boring or trivial if that’s what they’re marketing.
Its personal.
Self-motivation
The manager who motivates a marketing copywriter to write by screaming, “WRITE!” has yet to be born.
Marketing solutions examples … self-editing
Arrogance undermines quality. Great marketers know when their own messages stink and treat them accordingly.
Go for versatility.
Versatility
Some marketers are uncomfortable with the concept of a hard sales pitch; others are uncomfortable with “boring” assignments. Both are uncomfortable when not working campaigns.
Quick on the uptake
Because of deadlines, marketers often have to learn on the job and on their own – and quickly.
Knows when to ask for help
A good marketer has two choices: struggle endlessly with a vexing problem or get help from a subject matter expert. The latter option improves speed and accuracy.
Has perspective
Great marketers don’t make mountains out of molehills. Those who continually get hung up on small matters of style or approach infuriate coworkers and bosses.
Knows when to skip the rules
Selectively breaking rules is a sophisticated technique for capturing attention. Apple’s “Think Different” campaign succeeded in part by departing from the boring and pedestrian phrase, to think differently.
Related post: How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Marketing solutions company … understands the business world
The best marketers are ones that work best with what they know. Thus, a first-rate marketer understands the business process, customer behavior and basic business concepts such as features and benefits.
Anticipates reader questions and concerns
Because great marketers understand the business world, they are able to identify probable reactions from the target audience – and address them in the marketing strategy. In addition, this knowledge enables them to discard messaging points that are not pertinent. An ounce of anticipation is worth a pound of verbosity.
Tells stories
Today’s content strategies have circled back to perhaps the oldest technique of all, storytelling. The ability to spin yarns is essential for grabbing and holding attention as well as influencing audiences.
Listens
Most great marketers I know are better at listening than talking – maybe because they are often introverts by nature. Listening is crucial to many aspects of business, including content creation, because it is the surest way to understand the needs of a company’s leadership and its customers.
Think logically
Most business writing is aimed at influencing action – influencing prospects to buy, customers to stay, investors to invest, etc. Since business decisions are made in part based on compelling arguments, marketers must be able to lay them out logically.
Influences with emotion
Because business decisions are also based on feelings, marketers must be able to provoke emotional responses in their messages. Warm prospects freeze when exposed to cold messages.
Digital marketing success … not a desk jockey
Great marketers aren’t just about reading and writing. Instead, they go out into the real world and talk to employees, customers and even competitors. Without this, they lose their feel – or never acquire it.
Is imaginative
Although in some business situations, imagination may be seen as a negative, employers should not come down too hard on marketers who appear to be daydreaming or throw out lots of ideas.
Sylvia Plath and Edgar Allan Poe were brilliant writers, but neither would be particularly effective or happy writing an infomercial script for miracle meat slicers. A lighthearted spirit helps marketers plow through “boring” and “trivial” assignments, connect with readers and work well collaboratively.
What would you add to the list?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
