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.
Idris Mootee said: Innovation occurs at the intersection of previously unconnected and unrelated planes of thought. Does your business regularly, or maybe just occasionally, try innovation exercises? Can you name a couple of the innovation activities you may have performed in these exercises?
Yes, there is more to innovation than these four points, but you get the drift, don’t you?
Related post: Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Let me tell you a story about Alexander Fleming. Ever heard of Fleming?
When Alexander Fleming, a brilliant but sometimes haphazard scientist, returned to his lab after vacation holiday in 1928, he found his work ruined. Fungus contaminated a bacteria culture he had been growing and, as it grew, it killed all the colonies it touched.
Most people would have simply started over, but Fleming was very curious by what had happened. And his curiosity caused him to switch his focus from the bacteria to the fungus itself.
First, identified the mold and the bacteria-killing substance, which he called “penicillin,” then he tested it on other bacteria cultures. Seemingly in a single stroke, Fleming had created the new field of antibiotics.
Is that how you see innovation? That’s how most of us see innovation. A flash of brilliance and Eureka! A new world is born. But not so fast.
The truth is far messier. In fact, it wasn’t until 1943—nearly two decades later—that penicillin came into widespread use and only then because it was accelerated by the effort helping World War II efforts.
But we need far better and faster results, don’t we? To achieve that, we need to discard old myths and deal with a process of change and innovation as it happens.
Truly breakthrough innovations are never a single event, nor are they achieved by one person, or even within a single organization. Rather, they happen when ideas combine to solve important problems.
Let examine another situation.
In her bestselling book Mindset, psychologist Carol Dweck argues that people who see their skills as a fixed set of strengths and weaknesses tend not to achieve much.
On the flip side, those that see their skills as dynamic and changeable can continually grow their abilities and soar to great heights.
In the growth mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities can be developed through passion, education, and persistence. For them, it’s not about looking smart or grooming their image. It’s about a commitment to learning–taking informed risks and learning from the results, surrounding yourself with people who will challenge you to grow, looking frankly at your deficiencies and seeking to remedy them. Most great business leaders have had this mindset because building and maintaining excellent organizations in the face of constant change requires it.”
-Carol Dweck
And surprisingly enough, businesses behave in the same way. Most see their business models as a permanent facet of their DNA, so when their environment changes, they fail to adapt.
And that, my friends, is why 87% of the companies on Fortune’s original list of 500 top firms are no longer there. You heard me right … 87%. Over time, most companies get better and better at things that people want less and less. Quite a paradox, isn’t it? WOW, an amazing fact!
Of course, that’s not 100% true. Firms like Procter & Gamble, General Electric, and IBM still thrive after a century or more. The reason they endure is that they don’t see their business as fixed, but have continually reinvented themselves and are vastly different enterprises than when they started. In an age of disruption, the only viable strategy is to adapt. Even the best of the best, like these guys, teeter on the edge of disaster occasionally.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It has been said:
“If you don’t go, where you don’t go; you don’t know, what you don’t know.”
In other words, look for innovation in the places you never look.
The more I have thought about that bit of insight, the more profound it has become for me. We are all creatures of habit. So are larger organizations. Doing things the way we’ve always done them is comfortable, familiar and easy. It’s human nature to choose these “easy ways.”
Do you drive to work the same way every day? Most likely. Do you read the same type of publications? Again, most likely. How about TV and the Internet? Watching the same group of shows or using the same set of websites is also a common habit. When you do this, what do you feel? You get a lot of familiar and comfortable feelings.
But true innovation often doesn’t make us comfortable. It makes us uncomfortable. And yet, it is in that discomfort that the new ways, the new ideas, and the new feelings come to light.
When you drive to work via a different route, you see different places and sights. If you go to the newsstand and peruse the magazines that you never otherwise look at, you will see things you simply would never think about otherwise. You have done that occasionally, haven’t you?
The bottom line
Whether your firm uses “open innovation” to get the ideas from external parties, or practices business model innovation to transform not just products but your business model; you still ultimately end up with the same basic innovation activities.
Please share an innovation or adaptation experience with this community.
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation 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 innovative 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.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in 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 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
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz likes to write about the topics that lead to small business success. He also likes to share his many business experiences. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other. In today’s socially engaged and networked marketplace, word of mouth marketing has moved to the top of the marketing campaign elements at your disposal. And guerrilla marketing campaigns are one of the best ways to get potential customers talking about you.
Guerrilla marketing campaigns take consumers by surprise, make an indelible impression, and pop up where and when people least expect it.
They often have a large targeted audience and often can be accomplished at a reduced cost. By being a little more clever and unpredictable, you challenge consumers who appreciate a little fun in their products.
Guerrilla marketing was made for small business owners. It requires creativity, flexibility and a willingness to take a little risk. We use Guerrilla programs usually when a client says to us, we don’t have much budget but we’d really like to get some media attention. They can be an awesome way to get you noticed, set you apart from your competition and earn you a reputation for being fun and different–all tailored to whatever budget you desire.
A small business should ask themselves, what’s their essence–what’s the core message that can be distilled into a 5-second exchange or in a clever installation?
Have to have a goal in mind and understand who your customer is and what would intrigue and appeal to them.
Using humor is crucial to the success of guerrilla campaigns, especially if they involve online activity. Humor can help break the barriers between the company and the consumer, just as it often does in regular human interaction. Humor also can play a significant role in turning campaigns viral, which means reaching a larger audience. Mixing surprise with humor is also a key strategic element to a successful guerrilla campaign.
In this article, we are going to focus on how to get customers talking about your messages. So how do you craft messages worth your customers talking about?
Consider these 7 tips and several examples of each:
Guerrilla marketing … consider customer needs end state
Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. For a very familiar example, customer’s needs are on a hole, not a drill.
In this first example, customer’s needs are for exciting, thrilling park rides, like roller coasters. So Six Flags Amusement Park has built a simple sign to represent a roller coaster thrill ride.
In the second example, people are focused on collecting shells walking on the beach. So a creative restaurant has strategically placed clamshells, that when opened by curious customers, call out the seafood menu at their restaurant.
Make the message as clean and simple as possible. Simplicity is achieved when nothing more can be removed from the message.
Look at the 3M security class holding all the cash. Simply screams security at you, doesn’t it?
Dual function works well in this example, as the customer uses the watch strap to hold on and gets the simple visual of how good the watch looks on his wrist.
Guerilla marketing ideas … use comparisons
Use comparisons where you can. Even direct with competitors, if you can solidly substantiate the claim.
The simple Scotch tape is better than a nail in many instances.
And the picture of the FedEx delivery truck ahead of the DHL truck, illustrating the FedEx tag line of always first.
Be and do differently.
Guerrilla marketing … be and do different
Be different and avoid normalcy at all costs. Do things different and unexpected.
In the first example, Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant advertises on a fire hydrant. They also received media publicity because they saved the city the costs of having to paint the hydrants. Two bangs for the buck.
The plumber sitting on the toilet is certainly unexpected, isn’t it? Great way to show that the brand has a humorous personality also.
Be controversial
It’s OK to be controversial. Try and create conversation through the ‘buzz’, things that beg to be talked about.
Here the sign has ‘dropped’ the word drop to emphasize what we hate most in cell calls. That certainly catches your attention.
The bus door represents the shark’s mouth … certainly something you’ll remember?
Picture of value
Paint the picture of value and make the value stand out. A successful guerrilla marketing campaign will take advantage of common human behaviors. Nothing drives human behavior more than the desire to have the best of the best. A clever campaign will leverage this behavior and leverage its power for customer desire.
Two examples here that certainly paint the picture of value. The first is the suction power of the Miele vacuum cleaner and the second is the strength of the glue holding up to bridge structure.
Guerrilla marketing campaigns … use pictures/visuals to surprise
Use pictures/visuals, they are much better than words. If you convey the message with absolutely no words, all the better. Especially if there are surprise and shock involved.
The first example surprises customers through a simulation of a lot of press taking your picture as you pass by.
The second example is an employee handing out coupons to a restaurant sitting in a spilled milkshake … surprise and shock.
The bottom line
Our world is in flux. There is no part of the consumer experience that is untouched. Digital technology is disrupting the marketplace, while changes in our understanding of the psychology of decision making have overturned centuries of conventional wisdom. Even a brief summary such as this one can make the challenges seem overwhelming.
So what to do? First, start somewhere. It can be one place or the other, but at least start. The change will be unfolding for years and everyone else is as confused as you are.
“You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other”
James Farley, CMO Ford
When was the last time you employed word of mouth marketing messaging?
We specialize in ideas to create effective word of mouth marketing … give us a call today for a free consultation.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
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 to 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?
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 marketing strategy 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 Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
The customer never buys what you think you sell. Great quote from Peter Drucker. Have you ever stayed at a Ritz Carlton hotel? Attracted by the Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy?
Do you agree with Peter Drucker in thinking that the Ritz-Carlton doesn’t know what its difference-maker is? More importantly did you decide to stay with this hotel chain because of its difference maker? Not sure? Maybe you will be more certain after you read this article.
Marketing strategy and the Ritz Carlton?
When choosing to learn from other companies’ marketing strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the unique approaches to marketing.
It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there were no true marketing professionals.
What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science, and analytics, and applied them to the marketing arena. Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.
Today technology is transforming marketing once again. Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation. This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do but how we think.
Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?
Meet Ritz-Carlton. They have been successfully executing their marketing plan since the early days of their existence. Their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ritz-Carlton is perhaps unnecessary. But we’ll give a little refresher just in case. The Ritz is a big brand name for luxury hotels and resorts all over the world.
With 77 locations in major cities and 25 resorts in countries worldwide, they are featured on Zagat Top Survey Lists for dining, hotel, and services. They represent the top brand in the Marriott International list of brands.
What are their secrets to marketing strategy success? It’s pretty simple. It is it’s exceptional customer service and unparalleled hotel experiences. Their goal is to create customers for life.
Here’s how they strive to achieve this lofty goal, with some great examples.
Brand identity at marketing core
The heart of the Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy is their brand. The brand is built into and reflected by its tag line. It is ‘memories by the Ritz-Carlton’. The brand image is the number one factor that drives business.
Since brand image is so important, it’s crucial for you to cut through the clutter and differentiate your brand. Make a difference as an organization that is truly relevant to consumer needs.
If you want to improve the public image of your brand, then what better way is there to do so than by defining it yourself? The Ritz-Carlton does this by telling stories about the hotel through its online content strategy.
Their Stories that Stay with You page elaborates on ways in which their employees and the greater hotel have gone out of their way to ensure a great stay for guests.
The Ritz-Carlton is excellent at not only framing their stories, but in behaving in such a way. That is by providing great customer service at every level. That is where their that great stories happen.
Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy … understand the value of every employee
If you’ve ever held a job where you didn’t feel appreciated, you understand how frustrating it can be. Well, the Ritz-Carlton avoids this pitfall by valuing every employee.
By empowering the employee, the hotel creates a staff that is passionate about the hotel, its services, and its success. Furthermore, happier employees mean happier guests.
In fact, the Ritz-Carlton has empowered employees so much that they have the ability to spend up to $2,000 to ensure guests have an enjoyable stay without seeking permission from management. Wow, now that is impressive, isn’t it?
In Robert Cialdini’s famous book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he notes that:
The impressive aspect of reciprocation with its accompanying sense of obligation is its pervasiveness in human culture.
It is so widespread that, after intensive study, Alvin Gouldner (1960), along with other sociologists, reported that all human societies subscribe to the rule.
The point is straight forward: Reciprocity is likely something that has evolved in the human brain in order to keep a majority of transactions “fair”.
We often feel obligated to return favors, even if they are unasked for.
This is the ultimate reason why great customer service has such a fantastic value to the marketing objectives.
The research points to this being a universal truth in social interaction and reciprocity.
Small surprises that feel like they were “just for you” can spawn some incredibly strong goodwill from the receiver.
Go the extra mile
Here is a great example of how this hotel staff goes the extra mile for its customers.
A family with three young children arrived at the hotel for a business/leisure weekend. On the last night of their stay, they dined in the hotel’s signature restaurant.
Upon closing of the restaurant, the server attendant found a small stuffed animal tucked underneath a seat cushion. The server immediately recognized that the stuffed animal belonged to one of the young children who had dined at the restaurant earlier that evening.
It was too late to return the stuffed animal then, so they planned a fun way to present the toy the next day. They grabbed the community camera behind the front desk and positioned the stuffed animal to look like it was dining in the restaurant, playing the piano and cooking in the kitchen.
At each location, they captured the moment on camera, and then made a storyline to go with each photo. They then printed all the photos and created a book of “animal adventures” for the young guest.
The picture book and stuffed animal made its way to the guest’s door at 9 a.m. the next morning. The young boy was jumping out of his skin with excitement when he saw his lost companion.
His mother responded, “The Ritz-Carlton always goes that extra mile. This is exactly why my family will only travel to your hotels.”
Ritz-Carlton employees are trained to anticipate the unexpressed wishes of their guests. Frequently the receptionist called early departing quests to ask, ‘We see that you are scheduled to leave very early tomorrow. Can we leave a pot of fresh, hot coffee outside your door?’”
This sort of planning helps employees remember key touch-points with customers. This will in turn aids their ability to provide exceptional service more consistently.
Related post: Social Media Campaigns to Stimulate Learning
Be prepared
One lesson that you might not expect to find, however, is how proactive Ritz-Carlton employees are in planning for mistakes and accidents. Since complaining customers are unavoidable in totality, Ritz-Carlton always focuses on being prepare and ‘planning ahead’.
One of my favorite examples is their practice of “resetting a customer’s internal clock” when the service is taking too long in delivering food orders.
Here is an example. A customer and his wife were staying at the Ritz-Carlton and having dinner at the hotel restaurant. Just when they were about to ask about their order, the waiter appeared and gave them a tomato and mozzarella appetizer.
Notice how this tactic works: With a relatively small gift, the staff can reset the internal clock with a customer by establishing a new time reference point.
While it’s not as the entrée early delivery, it’s certainly better than a waiter returning to a table multiple times to say ‘I’m sorry’.
Perform the unexpected
Here is a great example of doing the totally unexpected. In this case well beyond what was anticipated.
Because of their son’s food allergies, a family vacationing at the Ritz-Carlton, in Bali, was always careful to bring their own supply of specialized eggs and milk.
In this particular instance, however, the food was ruined en route. The Ritz-Carlton manager couldn’t find any of the special items in town, but his executive chef recalled that a store in Singapore sold them.
The chef contacted his mother-in-law, who lived there, and had her purchase the items, then fly to Bali (about 2.5 hours) to deliver them.
The bottom line
Marketing always has been and always will be about telling stories… stories that influence behavior and convince people to act.
Make sure your content tells a story and that your story is compelling and relevant–especially your headlines.
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
Do you have an idea that will change the world? Well, it’s not worth anything unless you can turn that idea into a reality. So take the plunge and see just how far that idea can take you. Or, you can sit around trading advice over the internet.
Wow, talk about unexpected service. Have you ever received an unexpected service from a business that you would share? Do you have any comments or questions to add 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. 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?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy 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.
