Small Business Tips | Marketing: The Value
of Your Own Experience
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Years ago, when I was in graduate school,
I enrolled in a course titled, Services Marketing. Among
other things, my professor required that we document three positive and/or
negative customer experiences we had each week to share with the class.
We were asked to include the following:
1. Describe what happened.
2. How did this make you feel?
3a. What should they have done to make
your experience better?
or
3b. What did they do that exceeded your
expectations?
At first, I viewed this as just another
task on my to-do list, but soon discovered what a valuable
learning exercise it turned out to be! I continue documenting my
experiences in a log book (it s a lifesaver when I want to provide concrete
example that help illustrate a point) and recommend this activity to all
my clients.
As part of my preparation for this article
I decided to randomly select an entry I d included. So, I pulled out my
log binder, shut my eyes, opened it up and pointed my index finger anywhere
on the page.
Here s the one I selected:
1. Description: My company is getting
ready to participate in a trade show so I decided to but some trash
and trinkets (giveaways) personalized with our company s logo. Remembering
that I had recently received a direct mail piece from a local company I
decided to give them a try. I located the letter and was immediately impressed
with their ad copy. It contained all of the right stuff such
as:
* Great features translated into wonderful
benefits
* Powerful headlines
* Plausible testimonials
* Strong offers
* Customer First Platitudes
* Promises of quick turnaround times
Thrilled to have such a seemingly awesome
company so close by, I hauled out my corporate credit card, ready to buy.
The first two times I dialed their number
I got a busy signal. Since that s a rarity these days, I figured I had
entered the number incorrectly. After double-checking, I redialed. This
time my call was answered by robot man , or so it seemed, who said,
Hi, you ve reach Company X. We re not here now but you know the drill.
Leave a message and we ll call you back.
Question: How Did That Make You Feel?
Answer: Not Warm and Fuzzy
1. Annoyed - I had to dial their number
three times before I even got through to their voice mail system.
2. Disappointed Their advertisement
had created a picture in my mind of a professional company dedicated to
delivering quality products and superior customer service. Apparently
they hadn t made the connection between customer care and answering their
phones!
3. Confused Why on earth would
any business owner spend the time and effort involved in creating a first
rate marketing piece only to blow it when a potential customer
shows interest? It boggles the mind.
4. Surprised I completely understand
that many small businesses do not have the sophisticated phone systems
like the big guys. No problem. I am more than happy to leave a message
if all of the phone lines are busy (but I will say that if this is a regular
occurrence, they should consider adding more because there are still folks
who will hang up if they don t reach a live person. Something to
consider )
Question: What should they have done to
make the experience better?
Answer: Change their greeting, at
a minimum!
I should have heard something like this,
Hi! Thanks for calling AAAA Company . Your call is very important
to us and although we strive to answer each and every call personally,
occasionally all of our consultants are busy assisting other customers.
However, please leave your name and number after the tone and we return
your call today. We understand that you have lots of choices, so we re
thrilled that you called us!
Bottom line?
The AAAA Company
wasted money.
The AAAA Company
lost a sale.
The AAAA Company
lost a referral.
The AAAA Company
gained a detractor.
The AAAA Company
lost profits.
The AAAA Company
missed the opportunity to get a new
customer.
The AAAA Company
missed a chance for a repeat purchase.
Moral of the Story? Every single
time you communicate with a prospect or customer, it counts. Small
things may be worth a fortune!
Author-Bio: Mary Eule specializes in helping
small and medium-sized businesses get and keep profitable customers. Formerly
a Fortune 500 marketing executive; founder of 2 successful small businesses
and award-winning speaker, Ms. Eule is President of Strategic Marketing
Advisors, LLC. and co-author of a new book, "Marketing: What it Really
Means and How to Make it Work for Your Business". She holds a master
degree in marketing from Johns Hopkins University. Log onto http://www.StrategicMarketingAdvisors.com
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