Excel at Customer Service

Arrrgghhh!  I hate being on the receiving end of bad customer services!   Why oh why would a company go to all the trouble, never mind cost, of getting a customer to sign on the dotted line and then treat them like an unwelcome surprise guest?

How Not To Do It

For the past two weeks, I have been trying to get my bank to return my calls and give me information that I need that will help me to grow my business.  Although I do not take this personally and see it indicative of a large business treating its customers badly, this has enraged me on so many fronts.

In a global recession, why would any business, especially a bank, not bother to get back to its customers?

My bank in particular has for many years, ran advertisements across all media, stating that they are not like other banks.  Business account holders instead have a personalised business manager.  In all honesty, I have no complaints about my business manager but the systems and procedures that the bank has. 

I spoke to the Banking Customer Services line and asked ‘what can I do to get my manager to return my calls’.  The Customer Services representative then proceeded to tell me what she could not do!  When I repeated my question, the only option left to me apart from leaving another message was to complain.  How ridiculous is that?

Customers Services as a Guerrilla Marketing Tool

So with my personal rant over, what has any of this got to do with marketing your business?  The most important point to remember, especially in the current challenging economy, is not to take your customers for granted. 

In any economy, customers/clients have the right to choose where to spend their money.  In a recession, your bottom line is just going to be affected so much more if you lose customers just because you have a hit and miss approach to customer services. 

If you are the only business offering a particular level of service, you can create a revenue generating niche for yourself.  Imagine a situation where you treat your customers well and their reward you by staying with you and spending more?

Manage Expectation About Your Level of Service

Make a commitment to your customers/clients and let them know what level of service they can expect from you regarding the products and services that you sell along with how you interact with them.  This can then become one of your marketing tools e.g. ‘next day service’, ‘we will get back to you in 24 hours’ etc. 

Get feedback from your customers - don’t just wait for a complaint before you respond to an issue.  Ask them what they want from you and then do everything that you can to make sure that you meet and exceed their expectations.

Selling Benefits Versus Features

Many business start ups are based on a hobby or because friends and family have said ‘someone will pay good money for that!’ It makes sense to follow your dreams demonstrating your passion and hobbies are often a good way to start.
But, just because you, your friends and family love the idea, it really doesn’t mean that everyone else will also be raving fans. Nor does it mean that there will be enough people interested, never mind willing to part with their hard earned cash to generate a good enough revenue for you.

If you are just trying to earn a little extra cash, then selling your goods and services to your friends and family will work just fine. That famous phrase, of ‘selling to a warm market’ just will not work if you want to start a business if your ‘warm’ list too small.

The real work begins when you have to start selling to people and/or businesses that do not know you, are not related and have plenty of other options. Instead of just listing what your products and services are (the features) you absolutely must show what the benefits are. We are not talking about lightweight issues but the real reasons why people buy goods and services.

If you buy a car, it will have a very full list of its features. For example, the time taken to go from 0-60 miles per hour, the miles per gallon of petrol, cost to run, the materials used to construct the car, security features etc. The corresponding benefits for these features include saving money and increasing safety.

The real reasons why people are motivated to buy are varied. These ‘benefits’ that motivate a sale, help a buyer to:

• Avoid pain or gain pleasure
• Fulfil needs and/or wants
• Save time 
• Increase security and safety
• Feel and look good
• Save and/or make money
• Become successful

It’s How You Say It
Make sure that you truly understand the benefits for each of the features of your products/services and include them in all of your marketing materials. You should then find it pretty easy to answer the question ‘why should I buy your products/services’ and come up with a meaningful list that you can incorporate into your marketing materials.  That includes sales pages, newsletters, product descriptions and advertising.

Anticipating the Changing Needs of the Marketplace

It is a difficult predicament when the products and services that you successfully sold in the past suddenly become unwanted by your target market.  Many businesses keep doing the same thing but the needs of their customers have somehow changed.  This is a problem if you do not notice what is going on around you.

A booming market can disguise the fact that your share of the market is in fact in decline if you only measure your success by the revenue that your business generates.  If you have a desire to grow your business you must measure how well you are doing compared to your competitors and the size of the market as a whole.

Taking Woolworths as an example.  Most of us have childhood memories about buying something from that store – for me it was the pick and mix.  At its best, Woolworths was kind of the ‘go to’ store where it was possible to buy a range of items for the home or family.

But Woolies lost its way.  Many of its stores were unprofitable and Woolworths as a brand had no point of difference and no definable position in the market. 

Woolworth’s sold the same things as its competitors but was beaten on price by the veracious £1 stores found on every high street.  Products were often priced relatively high but Woolies could not compete with other aspirational brands.

Finally, a lack of specialism in any one area, which was key to the success of Woolies soon became one of the reasons for its failure.  Over time, an insufficient number of customers chose Woolworths as a destination point.

What Can You Do?

Spend a little time finding out what your customers and clients actually want and need and integrate it into your marketing strategy.  Don’t guess or assume – ask them.  Telephone them, send an email, send a questionnaire or use an online survey form.  Use the information that you gather to help to determine your next steps.

How Does Deflation (Negative Inflation) Affect Your Pricing Policy?

The potential of deflation has been talked about for what seems an age.  Now it has hit home with a rate of -0.4% as inflation has not dropped below zero since the 1960s (nearly 50 years).

Low mortgage interest rates have helped to take us into negative inflation.  As a consumer, you will have personally been affected by fluctuating prices – food and fuel in particular.  Likewise, your consumers and clients will also be affected, not just by the amount of money that they have in their pocket, but also by how confident and secure they feel about the future.

The Retail Price Index (RPI) measures prices of over 1400 items that includes transport, mortgage interest, food, fuel, leisure, catering, alcohol, services, clothes and shoes.  See National Statistics - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/instantfigures.asp for further details. 

Pricing as a Marketing Tool

Pricing is a crucial marketing tool and can either win or lose customers.  Pricing can help you to position your products and services in a particular market aiming it at a specific target group.  Whatever you are selling, the end user/consumer must feel that it offers value, solves a problem and that they can afford it.  If not, you will lose the sale. 

Impact of Continuously Lowering Your Prices

If you keep lowering your prices, then your potential customers and clients might put off buying from you thinking that your prices will fall again at some point in the very near future.  There is nothing wrong in lowering your prices to a level that you feel the market will tolerate.  However, you need to be aware that you can devalue your offering, and feed into the downbeat news that feeds into negative inflation. 

Add Value with Pricing Options

1. Consider putting promotional packages together (consisting of your products/ services) for set time periods and sell at a discount. 
2. In a downturn, consider maintaining your prices but offer more for the same cost.  Keeping your prices the same can demonstrate your confidence in what you do as long as you are completely in tune with what your target audience needs and wants.

The Pirate Bay Business Model

You have probably seen a tremendous amount of coverage for this Swedish based file sharing website recently.

Pirate Bay provides links for users to download videos, music, audio files, games, video and applications. The problem is that the materials that they provide access to are copyrighted and the big movie studios and record labels are not playing ball.

Even though the Pirate Bay do not host the items (save on their servers), they provide access to it. This, according to a Swedish court, has been deemed to be unacceptable – well illegal to be more accurate. The founders have been sentenced to jail time with a huge fine. Whilst the courts work through the appeals process, it’s fair to ask what has this got to do with marketing for entrepreneurs?

Apart from the obvious point of making sure that the products/services that you provide are not illegal, a few issues sprung to mind.

Copyright

The Pirate Bay quite clearly infringed the copyright of lots of companies who have substantial legal clout. In your endeavours, make sure that if you use material that does not belong to you, you correctly reference it. Don’t fall into the trap of just copying what someone else has written, take the time to interpret it and put it into your own words if need be.

Delivering What the Customer/Client Wants

The Pirate Bay team clearly found a gap in the market and delivered what people wanted at a price that they can afford. In order to succeed, you must take the time to find out what your target market wants and then deliver it in the format that they want at a price that they can afford.

Driving Traffic to Your Site with Freebies

The Pirate Bay business model is difficult to compete with as items that would normally have a price attached to them, do not cost anything at all. Aim to offer something free to potential/actual customers or clients in return for them to provide their email address or respond to research questions for example.

Overcoming Barriers to Business Growth

As an entrepreneur, I am sure that you have already realised that success is not a given and that consistent ‘action’ is essential to drive your business forward. It takes more than good luck to acquire new customers, sell more to existing customers, increase your profits or successfully introduce new products or services to the market. 

Growing in a Competitive Economy

There are many businesses relish the challenge of growing businesses in a competitive economy and will capitalise on opportunities that come their way.  However, it stands to reason that a large proportion of entrepreneurs have found the current economy difficult (and in some cases impossible) to trade in.  Some businesses have found the issue of change very unsettling as the rules of the game have changed completely. 

Change can ultimately erode confidence especially with continuing stories of doom and gloom in the media.  You have a choice as a business owner of whether to stand still and hope that everything will be OK or to take action to change your situation.  The key issue is not that challenges are there but really that we have knowledge, strategies and tools to overcome them. 

Free Tutorial Video Series

Sign up for the ‘Overcoming Barriers to Business Growth’  tutorial series which highlights key issues that can prevent you from achieving your business goals. This is an interactive process where remedies will be provided in the form of action points.  You will be able to see how each issue affects your business.  You will also be given prompts to make immediate changes as they apply to your business today.

The five part tutorial video presentation series is divided as follows:

1. Overcome Fears of Change
2. The importance of having a vision and being open to new ideas
3. Time Management & Planning
4. Customers & Clients as the lifeblood of your business
5. Marketing your products & services

Marketing Defined - A Dark Art?

Believe it or not, marketing is not a dark art only perpetrated by ‘those in the know’.   Marketing is often thought to be public relations (PR), sales or advertising – the kind that can be heard on the radio, seen on the TV or read in newspapers and magazines.  Furthermore, many businesses treat sales and marketing as two separate disciplines where the two sides can be in conflict with each other working towards different goals. 

The Marketing Process
In reality, marketing is a process that includes reviewing current trading conditions, setting business growth goals with a marketing strategy and implementing a tactical plan to achieve chosen objectives.  The marketing ‘umbrella’ includes a variety of disciplines where specific tactics or tools are used to promote brand benefits attached to your products and services to a chosen target audience. 

Marketing in the Past
For many entrepreneurs, the foray into the world of marketing is an uncertain one.  In the past, it wasn’t unusual to have a business that was running for some time to generate revenue relatively easily using basic marketing techniques. 

Perhaps the marketing activity was called sales or lead generation but either way revenue is generated.  However, as the economy becomes more competitive and it becomes more difficult to make a sale, you need to establish a strategy and plan to stay in business and a halt potential decline in your revenue.   

Marketing for the Future

It should be said that a marketing plan will not, in its own right, guarantee that your business will be successful.  In the first instance, you must have a pretty good business idea along with a thorough understanding of your market/sector.  Your challenge is then to know how to position yourself in the market to distinguish yourself from your competitors, promote the benefits you offer, fulfil the wants and needs your customers/clients and track the results of what you do. 

Whatever you do to grow your business doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but you do need to creatively target the right people with the right information at the right time.Most importantly, you must implement your plan – without putting your ideas in practice you will be dead in the water.