Word Of Mouth Has Become More Powerful
Social Web
The world is changing because of the internet, an obvious statement if ever one was made. What I am talking about is word of mouth has become more powerful than ever before. Numerous businesses particularly small businesses know that word of mouth is one of their best ways of garnering new clients. Unfortunately too many businesses don’t do enough to focus on this. They don’t systemise the process of ensuring that their customers do talk to others.
Presently Google is by far the most dominant search engine on the internet but it is also clear that with the advent of the rise of the various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc that what we know is real time search is becoming more and more important. We know that for a large number of service providers e.g. accountants, doctors, medical specialists etc we talk to our friends and family to determine to get their recommendation on who to use. The rise of the social media sites and also a large number of review sites e.g. Tripadvisor.com etc that we are putting out to these forums and asking people for recommendation for service providers, hotels, restaurants etc.
There is no doubt the internet is driving us more and more into recommendation based searching. I have utilised Twitter to ask for people I communicate with their opinions on things on microphones, monitors and other software tools. I have utilised this advice to then search further based on some of the links that have been sent to me and it has definitely affected my purchases. The likes of Tripadvisor and other websites that are providing reviews on hotels and restaurants etc these are having a profound impact on the various service providers people are selecting.
Unfortunately businesses aren’t necessarily what are happening because of the power of the internet. They are still locked in to the traditional way of marketing themselves by talking about their product and feature and trying to put up a glossy image or front as to what they do or provide. But the bottom line is that people who have experienced your product or service are writing reviews on websites and are telling their friends in a way that is so much easier than ever.
A business must focus more on being what they want to be rather than saying what they want to be. The future in this recommendation based internet search is for businesses to recognise they must provide phenomenal service to their customers, systemise the word of mouth marketing process and then drive the recommendations through the internet to other people.
Search is changing on Google to the utilisation of these other sites to review recommendations. It’s not just simply the book reviews on Amazon, these are reviews of restaurants, motels, hotels, airlines etc real-estate agents, plumbing, electrician every service provider you can think of.
Word of mouth marketing if it wasn’t important before has just become more important with the development of the web. How are you marketing to your customers? How are you providing fantastic service? How are you systemising the work of mouth marketing process? How are you reviewing the reviews of your products and services on the internet? Get ready for the recommendation optimisation internet. Not the search engine optimisation.
Photo by tobiaseigen
Not all customers are equal.
Do you treat all customers equally? But not all customers are equal.
Even in businesses that have offered different service offering eg Platinum, Gold, Silver etc I still some blurring of the lines. In businesses where they don’t have these distinctions all customers get very similar treatment.
Why is this so? Why does it matter?
Treating all customers equally means that
- clients that are marginally profit are getting the same service as customers who are very profitable.
- we are not tailoring our service offering to the customers needs.
- we have not taken the time to understand the customers in detail
- there are not KPI’s in place to ensure that this behaviour would be detected.
- there are not adequate systems and procedures in place
We hear the blanket statement from business that we provide great, awesome, fantastic (some other adjective) customer service to all our customers. But unless they have taken the time to carefully select the customers they deal with and also have taken the time to understand in detail their customers then this statement would be of little use. Now I am not saying you give poor service to the marginal customers. I am saying that if you decide to keep them as clients then they need to be educated on what to expect and it can not be the same level of service as the very profitable, high referring advocates.
Remember not all customers are equal.
United Breaks Guitars Song 2
The second song by Dave Carroll is now up. The power of social media and how your customers can react to your customer service is highlighted by what Dave Carroll has done. The first song on his experience has had over 5 million views on youtube.
Enjoy.
Two profound statements on team managment.
I recently heard a business owner state that “it is easy to get what you want when you are clear on what you want”.
Following on from this I saw a blog post from Andy Sernovitz in which he stated “want to get people to change their behaviour? Take away the excuses.” (Andy was primarily talking about managing customers.)
Both of these statements are full of gold in managing and engaging team members.
We need to be very clear and precise about what we want from the team and how they will be measured. Also if we remove the excuses the results will follow.
Often management complain about the team not doing aspects of their job or not thinking of the customer. But have they been clearly told what is expected. I mean clearly. Management may think they have told the team but is it in writing showing exactly the obligations, the measurements and the bonus upon achieving this.
It is necessary to teach the team the benefits of treating customer the way you would. The team are there to make money for themselves. It is necessary to show them the connection between the fact that way for the business to make money is to serve the customer. This sound trite and obvious but have a look at the exact messages that the management is sending to the team. What is being reward or recognised? Is it customer service or something else.
Remove the excuses. To often I see management accepting excuses from the team or having the systems set up so that it provides excuses to the team. Review all systems and procedures and KPI’s to ensure that customer service can never be ignored.
So remove the excuses and detail exactly what you want.
Good Old Fashioned Customer Service
Recently I had the occasion to need two new tyres on one of my vehicles. I took it to the tyre shop that I have been using for over 20 years now to get them to replace the tyres. While I was there, I had a good chat to one of the principals of this small tyre business, and we were talking about the current economy and its impact on business.
The two people who own the business have been in it for close on 40 years; one of them is nearing retirement, and the other is probably within 5 years of retiring. They have the next generation that will probably take over from them already there involved in the business.
This is not the Wal-Mart of tyres, it is not the biggest tyre shop that you’ll find, but I keep going back to them, and during this conversation, it highlighted why I’ve been a customer of this place for 20 years. It was good, old-fashioned customer service. As Frank (one of the prinicpals) said, all business is about is talking to your customers, finding out what they want, and giving it to them as best you can.
As simple as that statement is, it’s something that often in business we make too complex. It was stating that if business just talked to their customers, asked them what they wanted, and gave it to them in the best way that they can, then the business will thrive.
The reason I keep going back is the fact that I can talk to them; they talk in the language that I understand. I have limited motor vehicle knowledge; I like a car but I have no idea how to maintain one, that’s what I pay others for. They take the time to talk to me. They take the time to ask what I want, explain why they recommend a particular tyre over another, and do the work required as fast as possible, working in with when it’s convenient for me, and I leave happy. Simple!
So why in business do we forget this? Why in business do we try to complicate it? We have procedures and systems and beaurcracy that take us away from the simple practice of engaging with our customers and delivering what they want.
It is imperative that we return to this simplicity of business, this good old-fashioned customer service – understanding your client, conversing with your client. And then the important last point he mentioned was “to give it to them as best you can”. He wasn’t giving all the great MBA phrases of “customer experience” and “the experience economy”, but in essence what we was saying was, “Don’t just supply a product or service to a customer, give it to them as best you can”. Give it to them in a friendly way, give it to them in the right manner with the right education, with the right desire and passion to deliver that product or service – and your client will be happy.
So I walked away from this business, once again happy, and I realised something else. After having left the business, I don’t know what they charged me. I’m an account customer because I’ve been there so long; they send me an account at the end of the month and I pay it. But before getting the tyres and getting those tyres fitted, I didn’t get a quote. I didn’t compare their price to another store; I didn’t get online and check which tyre is the best tyre suited for my vehicle versus other tyres. Twenty years of good, old-fashioned customer service meant that I wasn’t even worried about the tyres, because I know aI will be looked after, and they will be fair.
How many people have I told over the years about them? Plenty.
These owners are not any great intellectual MBA students, and I know if they see this post they won’t be offended – they will understand that it’s simple customer service that is delivering them customers.
So, in conclusion, Frank and Jeff’s Discount Tyres, at Ipswich, is the business. No, they don’t have a website. You’ll find them in the phone book, if you want a tyre business that just believes in simple, old-fashioned customer service. Take this lesson to heart in your business. It really is quite simple. Provide good old fashioned customer service.
Listen with many ears
Brand engagement and financial performance
Charlene Li for Altimeter Group has recently released an interesting piece of research. Deep brand engagement correlates with financial performance. Her report is stating that the companies that are the most engaged on social media have a distinct financial advantage. The most engaged companies had a superior financial result.
To quote Charlene “Social media engagement and financial success work together to perpetuate a healthy business cycle ; a customer oriented mindset stemming from deep social interaction allows a company to identify and meet customer needs in the marketplace, generating superior profits. The financial succes of the company, in turn, allows further investment in engagement to build even better customer knowledge, thereby creating even more profits – and the cycle continues”.
Whilst Charlene is not saying that there is a proven cause and effect relationship just a correlation, it would seem that the key point is that the companies have a customer oriented mindset. With this mindset you will always be looking for ways to engage more with your customers whether online or offline. The other point is deep engagement. It is not a superficial exercise to collect the most followers but rather having a deep engagement.
Remember a customer oriented business leads to greater financial rewards to everybody involved.
Interesting Grocery Store
Recently I was in Hobart on business and was invited to go to a grocery store in Hobart that I was told was “Australia’s best grocery store”. The person who told me this was just a customer, not in any way involved in the ownership or management of the business. The grocery store is Hill Street Grocer, which can be found at www.hillstreetgrocer.com and it is an interesting story. The business is a gourmet grocery store specialising in fresh fruit, vegetables, deli goods, locally grown meat, dairy products and specialist breads and cakes. They source most of their product from the local growers, and their fruit and vegetables don’t travel very far, to ensure the maximum freshness.
So I went into the store at 6pm on a Saturday evening. It is not a large grocery store. Upon walking in, the thing that most struck me within metres of entering was that there was a buzz, and that the design, layout and presentation of all aspecs of the store were excellent. The attention to detail was extremely good. The fresh fruit was perfectly displayed in a very appealing fashion. Hanging from the ceiling above the fresh fruit was garlic, leeks etc making a interesting display. Behind the counters was quite an array of local wines. Further around were the specialty breads. Overall, the store had a fantastic feel, and at 6pm on a Saturday night, it was buzzing. There was a lot of traffic to and from the store. It was well staffed store with attention being paid to the display. It is a small business taking a niche within the grocery industry in providing fresh fruit and vegetables and specialty breads and wines amongst other grocery items, and creating an atmosphere that encouraged you to visit again.
Unfortunately, this story doesn’t end there. I believe that the Hill Street Grocer is a very positive business, and if you are ever in Hobart, I would recommend that you do visit the store, because you will see aspects of the business that can be applied to all manner of businesses – the attention to detail, the creation of an atmosphere, the presentation, a niche produce or service, consistently delivered.
But I had a disappointing experience after this. Looking around the store I realised I want to share this story on my blog and to my clients so I took a phone on my IPhone of the display. I was approached by one of the management, who having seen me take the photo on my iPhone, asked me to stop taking any more photos. He did not ask why I took a photo or anything about it. If I was a competitor, they wouldn’t need to take the photo to understand the value of the business, but at the point I had taken the photo, I was going to be putting an extremely positive story on my blog, and whilst this post is a postiive story by and large, I don’t feel as positive towards Hill Street Grocer as I did, after being reprimanded about the photo.
To me, he neglected an opportunity to further encourage word-of-mouth marketing by allowing a photo of his store to be put on the web. By allowing the promotion of something unique that would surely, through word-of-mouth, deliver more customers. his immediate reaction was that my taking of a photo was somehow a breach of his privacy and accordingly, without asking me why I took the photo, or what I was doing, or anything, recommended that I cease taking any more photos and delete the photo.
So I respect his request but I feel he has neglected an opportunity to develop further word-of-mouth marketing, I’m still somewhat impressed by his business, though I think he could learn more on how to engage with his customers in a way to promote further word-of-mouth.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that I shouldn’t have taken the photo? Or do you think, like me, that he neglected an opportunity of a way to engage further with his customers?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Customer Service Lesson – Social Media Lesson.
Recently the story of Dave Carroll and United Airlines has been a great lesson in customer service and the impact of social media. Dave Carroll is a singer songwriter from Halifax Canada (www.davecarrollmusic.com). He traveled on a United Airlines flight from Halifax to Chicago and at Chicago a passenger noticed that the baggage handlers were throwing guitar cases. Dave and his band looked out and and their guitars were being thrown. Unfortunately one of his guitars got broken and then he spent 12 months trying to get an apology and compensation from United. United ignored him.
Then the story gets interesting. Being a singer songwriter he wrote a song and shot a music video and posted to his website and youtube. Check the video out at youtube (it is great) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
This video now has over 3.1million views. Yes over 3.1 million views.
This carries some very useful lessons for everybody. Firstly Uniteds customer service was ordinary and its response to a passengers issue was atrocious. So please take the opportunity when there is a complaint to wow the customer and you will have a loyal customer. Don’t drag the issue out, make a decision and think of the lifetime value of the client.
Secondly – the power of social media. Businesses must be on youtube,twitter, facebook and communicating to their customers who are on the there. Businesses must be managing their brands and engaging their customers otherwise others will be.
There use to be a saying that a happy customer tells another person and an unhappy customers tells ten others. Well now a happy customer through social media can tell many but an unhappy customer will tell MILLIONS.
So get on social media and always remember to take the opportunity of an unhappy customer and wowing them.
A few points on the pricing emotions.
In this post I outline just a few points on the psychology of pricing. People tend to buy emotionally and justify intellectually. How many houses have been bought for emotional reasons? Then afterwards intellectually we say it’s a good investment.
There are three pricing emotions:
1. Price resistance.
2. Price anxiety or buyers remorse.
3. Payment resistance.
In educating our clients during the sale process we need to be able to address these pricing emotions. The mere obtaining of sticker shock is not necessarily a negative as once a client is educated to the value then they will often be your best customers. It’s a known fact that the luxury car ads are aimed at existing customers more than potential owners. These companies understand that after making such a large purchase, customers want reassurance that they have made a good decision. People don’t go out and buy a BMW because they saw the ad on the TV. But those who have bought the latest and greatest BMW or Mercedes or what other marquee brand and have spent a significant amount of money need to be assured. These companies understand that they need to address these buying emotions. It does not mean that they are addressing it by reducing the price, it means addressing it by educating their customers.
Prices need to be set at the beginning or as early as practical so that we get the pain out of the way and then deal with the pleasure. We get the ability to educate the client on the value at they are receiving but of course, we need to understand the value equation to be able to do this.
Pricing is a marketing issue. Pricing by itself as has been countlessly realised in the dust heap of business will not lead you to business success but pricing coupled with great service, understanding what the customers expectations are and delivering value can lead to increased net profit, increased revenue to the business and increased loyalty of your customers which in the long run will be the best growth strategy for your business. Don’t neglect pricing.
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