Sheila led us through a series of questions which uncovered our philosophies of effective marketing and communication with our prospects and customers. At the end of the day – although Sherre and I had never met or talked – we had the same focus: open honest communication.
The customer must come first. Sherre hones in on the psycographics of the customer – “getting into the minds of their customers.”
She also talked about a strategy she employs for marketing to customers that doesn’t involve advertising – it is called C.R.I.S.P.
I first learned about Treasure your Customer Day from Entrepreneur magazine in 2006. But it certainly didn’t start there. Here is a blurb from a blog written in 2005 about Treasuring your Customers written by Kirsten Osolind:
August 7 marks “Treasure Your Customers Day.” Rewarding customers means more than quirky holiday discounts and thank-you cards. To treasure your customers, you need to begin with an inventory of your customer satisfaction levels and relationship assets. Sail the high seas by digging deep to discover your customers’ latent needs, acknowledging your flaws, resolving conflicts quickly and positively, and proactively encouraging feedback. Customers don’t think of themselves as revenue oceans; they simply want you to delight them.
Building customer relationships is a passion for me. It has been since I sold magazines and Camp Fire Girls candy door to door as a kid. I find it interesting that this wonderful day – a day that the card manufacturers haven’t embraced yet – also happens to be my birthday. It seems like a wonderful connection to me.
Anyway – happy day, my dear customers. You are truly a treasure in my life!
Sounds like a nice slogan. But it isn’t easy. Glenn Ross at All Business published a post called How to Lose Customers and Fail at Business which consists of a 20 question true/false quiz.
The quiz is divided into three sections: Employees, Online Presence and Customer Interaction.
I’ll let you in on a little secret – the correct answer should be FALSE. But ask yourself truthfully, would you answer “false” to some of the following:
If we have customer service training, we do not show the link between customer service and reaching our business goals.
We hire on the basis of how well we think the prospective employee can do the job, not how well he or she can interact with and assist customers.
We have not measured how user-friendly our Web site is in the past two years.
Our monitoring of incoming customer emails is delegated to low level employees.
We do not track customer complaints in order to identify trends.
Our senior managers seldom interact with customers.
Our policies and procedures were designed with the organization’s needs in mind, not the customer’s.
We like to think we put the customer first in all we do, but the need for sales and profitability tends to get in the way.
So how do you ensure that every department and manager put the customers first when hiring, marketing and measuring?
Constantly ask the question – is this for the benefit of the customer or my bottom line?
Listen carefully to customer complaints – is there a trend that needs to be addressed – an employee or a process that isn’t customer -focused?
If I were the customer – how would I feel about the sales process and the experience?
Do managers and executives regularly interact with customers? with front line employees? with customers in the call center?
You can have the best, well-intentioned front line employees that want nothing more than to serve and care for their customers but if the managers are out of touch with what the customers want in an exceptional experience, then eventually that will make it difficult for the employees to put customers first.
Take Glenn’s quiz and then pick ONE of the 20 questions and truly analyze how your business approaches that one item. Is there a way for you to change that one item and make it more customer focused?
If the customers are happy – they return, they refer and they bring the profits you need. Which came firsts, the profits or the customer? The CUSTOMER, every time.
My phone just rang. The caller introduced himself as Dave Somebody.
“Hi Dave, how can I help you?” I asked.
Well, I represent a company that compiles memorabila for your loved ones.” -pause – HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
I am racking my brain. Is this a prank? Is this my brother? I’m thinking back over his name – did I recognize it? Nope. He continues.
“We compile photos and stories into a book that you can present to your aging loved one, kind of a ‘this is your life’ keepsake. We find they like it a lot.”
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
pause.
I said “okaaaaaay.”
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER. “I always love to hear how people respond to our product. I’ve been in sales a long time and this is a very different product for me to sell.” HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
“So do you think this is a product you’d be interested in?”
This whole time I am waiting to see if this is a prank but I don’t think so. This is the guy’s sales pitch. Now he can’t know that my neighbor died unexpected yesterday or that I have a very close friend just diagnosed with stage four cancer. And yet the product he is selling is geared towards those wanting to provide a retrospective of someone’s life- perhaps a gift you give toward the end of someone’s life. A sensitive product. A product that would be filled with love and memories and yes, perhaps laughter but not the HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER this guy was giving me shortly after he said hello.
“So is this a product you’d be interested in?” he asked.
“No.”
“Oh.” He sounds very surprised.
“And frankly,” I continued. “Your sales approach is offensive given the sensitive nature of your product.”
“Oh.”
I am still not sure if this was a prank. Or his first day on the job. Or just his approach. It is like the guy in the bar that comes up and says “haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” And you are like – really? That really works for you?
This isn’t a sales blog but certainly that sales conversation is all about make or break moments. Moments when you begin to develop a lifelong relationship with your customer.
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER over a product that encompasses the gift of memories isn’t going to win friends or influence people.
I just had to share because if you know someone who thinks this approach works…..it sure doesn’t with me.
I once heard someone say – if you can’t find exactly what you want – build it yourself. I love the lively discussions that happen on LinkedIn in the various groups. I belong to several; local groups with a variety of business types and industry specific groups for speakers, writers, customer service and HR professionals.
I have answered questions and joined/started discussions but I felt like something was missing. We talk about CUSTOMER SERVICE but I didn’t see a group that dealt with the “relationships” we have with customers.
Customer service is what happens the first time we see the prospect and hopefully turn them into a customer. It is all about that experience. But what about AFTER the sale?
So today I started a new group called Build Customer Relationships with the goal being the creation of a platform where we can share ideas for how to keep that relationship alive once the customer walks out the door so they Remember – Refer and Return.
I started by asking – What is the most important part of building relationships?
Zane Safrit • The most important thing? How do you build a sustainable business without building customer relationships? Riffing quickly here we can see our economy’s performance over the past few years reflects a lack of customer relationships and the investments in meaning, purpose, engagement, leadership required to build them. It is possible to see our economy’s recovery dependent on resuming that primary purpose of a business: to create customers.
Ivana Taylor • Well – you have to give yourself credit too. Building customer relationships is like motherhood, America and Apple pie. Yet we still think it’s more important to bring NEW customers on (and it is important) but then ignore the customers that have been with is.
So the most important thing in building customer relationships might be just to STOP IGNORING your existing customers and treat them with love and attention.
Jay Izenman • This is it, Answer the phone!! There is no better thing to build a customer relationship then answering the phone, getting back to people and just making them feel wanted as a customer. If you don’t talk to your customers, you will have nothing to build. And thats it in a nutshell…
Mike Link • In my experience, I have found that the ball is dropped after the sale. Too many sales reps out there think their job is finished as soon as they make the sale. Big mistake! To build and maintain customer relationships, the communication after the sale is just as important, if not more important, than the actual sale itself.
Those aren’t the only comments – others mention that building relationships requires trust, honestly, integrity and so much more. All good conversations.
I hope you will consider joining Build Customer Relationships. The discussions are monitored and I’m requesting that we use the forum for discussion not as a sale platform.
A favorite customer of mine called last week and asked if we could meet for an hour. It seems that she has a customer who asked her to do something that she isn’t comfortable doing. But her motto is to “just say yes and figure it out later.”
What a great attitude.
We talk about saying yes to our customers but when faced with a request that we just don’t have the answers for, we fall back on “gosh, I’m sorry, I wish I could help you but I don’t carry that product, don’t offer that service, don’t know how to do that process, don’t want to do something I’m not good at.”
Rather than look for a partner to enrich the customer’s experience and give them what they need – we leave them without a resource.
Think about the last time someone said “no” to you. How did that make you feel? The conversation is going along just dandy and then you ask a question – they say nope can’t help you – and you are left with this awkward silence. How do you pick up the conversation from there? You might ask “well, do you know someone who can say yes?”
Why not be that person?
In Alan Alda’s book “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed….and other things I’ve learned,”he talks about saying yes no matter what just to keep active in your industry. His example is saying yes to keep food on the table. He tells of a time when he said he knew a significant part in a play when in fact he didn’t – he learned quickly – but said yes first and learned how later.
As new business owners/sales professionals – we start by saying yes and taking every job that comes our way. Later we become more discriminating – but even so – we should still say yes.
To the customer we don’t want: “Yes, I understand exactly when you are looking for and ABC Company is a perfect resource for your needs.”
To our loyal customer: “Yes, I can provide that service.” And then, like my customer – quickly find a vendor partner that you can collaborate with to make it happen.
Yes is a great word. See how many times you can use it today!
I’m not one to give with an expectation of getting. In fact, I’m not a very gracious “getter.”
So I was recently befuddled when I received this lovely recommendation after giving a presentation at Podcamp Ohio:
“I attended one of Deborah’s speaking sessions and she is amazing! I learned a great deal from her regarding social media marketing, organizing my time better and walked away with a lot of tools. She is engaging and fun as well!” June 20, 2010
Sheila Clover English, Social Network Committee Chair , International Thriller Writer’s Organization
I didn’t know Sheila. Has that happened to you? Someone gives you a recommendation on LinkedIn and after you accept it for your profile page, you are automatically given the opportunity to do the same in return.
Only problem is – I don’t know Sheila to give her a recommendation.
So I emailed and said thank you and said – I’d love to return the favor – any thoughts?
She responded back – yes – I have a radio show, would you be willing to be a guest and then you can see what I do and if you are so inclined – you can give me a recommendation.
I was thrilled. Absolutely. Just tell me when and where.
Sheila’s online radio show airs on Thursdays and she offered me the date of August 12, 2010. And then she gave me the best birthday gift ever…
“Would you be willing to be on a panel with Chris Brogan?”
Would I???? You betcha! Bonus. The giving just keeps coming back and back and back. It is a sharing of opportunities that benefit both parties.
For the six of you in the world who don’t know Chris Brogan (My Mom and kids were three of them. I was jumping up and down and they didn’t understand the magnitude of my joy), Chris is the owner of New Marketing Labs, his blog is ranked #3 in the world on the top 100 Marketing Blogs and he has over 140,000 people following him on Twitter. Best selling author – noted speaker – he is a gem in the industry of marketing and social media. His THREE WORDS are a classic strategy to focus your year and I’m a big fan!
This all happened because Sheila GAVE me a high compliment with a recommendation.
I wanted to GIVE BACK to her and wasn’t sure how.
She GAVE me the opportunity to help her and in turn provide a way for me to GIVE her a recommendation. Bonus!
- Chris agrees with me about giving recommendations but only to those you can actually vouch for. He wrote this today on his blog:
Only Recommend People Whose Work You Can Vouch For
I’ll say this once: if you recommend someone and can’t really vouch for their work, you’re just setting your own reputation up for a blow. Don’t do it. LinkedIn and I disagree in the area that I’ll link to anyone (are you and I LinkedIn? Connect with meand use linkedin @ chrisbrogan . com as my email address). But I’ll never recommend someone whose work I don’t know enough about.
However, just like my experience with Sheila – just because you haven’t worked with them doesn’t mean you can’t in the future. A simple email of “help me know how I can learn about your business so that I can recommend you” has led to a new friendship, business relationship and the chance to meet Chris Brogan over the Internet!
How can you reach out to someone today to make a difference and build that relationship in further?
In his sermon this morning he had a quote that made the congregation chuckle but perhaps the laughter was a little uncomfortable because of the truth of his statement:
“I know that I’m nothing but I’m all that I can think about.”
Just think about that for a moment.
I have a house full of 13 year old giggly, girls today (remnants from the Twilight trilogy all nighter) and I shared the quote with them. Their response? “That’s SO TRUE.” OMG
It really doesn’t matter who we are or how old we are – bottom line – we think about ourselves an awful lot. That’s where the “what’s in it for me” and “what have you done for me lately” phrases come from.
So what does that mean for our customers? Or for our employees? Or our boss?
When I was a teen and obsessed over a new pimple, my Mom would say “No one will notice because they are all worried about their own pimples.”
That is still true as adults. Our customers, our employees, our vendors, our competition, our boss – they are thinking about themselves. So if we keep that in mind – it should help us in a variety of ways:
Putting ourselves in our customer’s shoes all of a sudden has new value
If the competition is thinking about themselves and their success and you think about the customer – how will that change the experience from the customer’s point of view?
If you remember your employees are thinking about themselves - might that change how you manage and respond to their opportunities for improvement?
If we put the customer first – understanding that they are really just thinking about themselves, their own needs, their own budget, their own problem that needs a solution – if we think like they do and recognize and respond to them – won’t we stand out in their minds as being sympathetic, empathetic, understanding and the only business they want to do business with?
I think so.
Think about this. Have you had a conversation that just dominates your time together? You barely have a chance to get a word in edgewise except for “oh my” or “tell me more” or “how did that make you feel?” We share nothing of ourselves. We say almost nothing. Yet what is their memory of your time together?
“That Debbie is the best conversationalist. I just love talking with her!”
I know I’m nothing but I’m all I can think about.
How can you use that truth to stand out from the competition today?
I love pretzel rods. When I was a kid I would pretend they were cigarettes (hey it was before the Surgeon General). They are a great snack.
I recently bought a tub of pretzel rods and was reminded of how a similar tub of pretzels once made my career!
Several years ago I was a field manager with Pearle Vision in New England. I had about 50 franchise locations that I assisted. I’d been with the company about 12 years and loved my job. However, there is always that desire to be promoted and have more opportunities to make a difference. My opportunity came in 1999 when I was promoted to Director of Corporate Stores and moved to Ohio to work in the home office.
In my interview with the vice president of stores, Peggy Deal, I asked “how will you know you’ve selected the right person for the job?”
“When they start coming to you for the answers instead of me.”
I remembered that and was sad to realize that during my first few weeks, people walked past my door to her corner office. How could I get people to come to me? They didn’t know me. They didn’t trust me. They had no way of knowing if I could help them. Conversely – how would I ever develop relationships with the other associates to learn about them, if they never came in my office?
So one day while at Sam’s Club I bought the biggest tub of pretzels I could find. I put the tub on my side table and let a few people know that they were welcome to stop by for a pretzel if they needed a mid-day pick me up.
The word spread and pretty soon people were coming to my office. People from the mail room up to and including the president, would stop by for a snack and a chat. We started to learn about each other. And soon people came to my office for a pretzel and to let me know about a new project they were working on.
They came to vent.
They came for my opinion.
They came because they needed a sounding board.
They came for my ideas.
They came for my answers.
Sometimes they just came for a pretzel.
However, in less than six months the stream of people going to my boss’ office took a detour – allowing her to work on the bigger picture items.
All on a count of a tub of pretzel rods.
What tool have you used to help build relationships with those you work with?
I have been saving a torn out letter to the editor since May 26. The letter struck a cord with me.
This election year the local school put a levy on the ballot. They wanted the residents to vote for adding a sizable tax amount to our real estate taxes for the purpose of…..well, I don’t know that we ever knew.
I have one child in the school system and she participates in many extra activities, most of which we now pay for as we go. I received a letter that talked about some of the programs that are available but it didn’t say what would happen if the levy didn’t pass.
Yes, isn’t it nice that we have all of these programs. How is that tied to the levy.
The letter to the editor from Kathleen Hooker, a friend of mine and a savvy business woman and articulate communicator had this to say, shortly after the levy didn’t pass:
“While I am disappointed thta Hudson voters defeated the school levy, I am not surprised. As someone who monitors macrotrends for a living, there is a fundamental shift occurring in society; the emergence of the “value-added buyers.” This buyer desires transparency to make better decisions against their own judgement of value, calculated as current value (e.g. property values or test scores) or future value (student job prospects, quality of life). ……The school district should tell us about its investments like corporations publish in their annual reports and we can become better investor partners in the Hudson City schools.”
Beautifully said. Our customers want to know the “whys.” All the more reason we need to strive to build a relationship with our customers. As Kathleen put it – we need to make them better investor partners.
How many of you have had to raise your prices (or perhaps you hesitate to raise them) and then have to justify the price increase to your customers? Do you say something like – it is the economy or cost of living or do you actually take them on as partners and let them know how the price increase affects them and why you’ve come to the decision. Perhaps your suppliers have raised prices. Perhaps a local vendor you used went out of business and now you have shipping costs you never had before.
Full disclosure or as Kathleen says “transparency.” If our customers see we are being up front and honest – they will trust us and remember, people buy from those they like and TRUST.
Do you convey your value? Do you invite your customers to be trusted investors in your relationship?
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In Alan Alda’s book 
All this week the preacher at the 
