Reap some benefit from a down market

This is not a silver lining…make the best of it….type post. There is much to worry about in a down market and business owners and managers are pushed to innovate and come up with new ways to survive. For those companies that invested in building a solid customer experience practice they will have an easier time of it.

This week theWisemarketer.com published some very interesting findings that will help businesses be more responsive to customer needs and wants. These findings are relevant to any business that has an online presence. For the full article go here: http://www.thewisemarketer.com/news/read.asp?lc=q77042ix3050zz

74% of respondents said that they value customer loyalty programs more when they offer discounts based on their personal shopping habits.

In other words, recognize that customers do not want to be just another name on a marketing list. Show them you are paying attention to them and show your appreciation for their business. Discounts are just one way to do this.

…they want convenience and relevance to help speed up and simplify their online experience, with two-thirds (66%) expecting to view web site content that is specific to their interests and needs.

It is a common practice among internet marketers to push out these ridiculously long-winded sales pages that talk about everything except the details of the program or product. This is going to have to change if they expect to find new customers. It is like the carfax commercial where the consumer wants to see the carfax report and the car dealer offers something else to distract the customer by saying he has a note from the previous owner…” a promise” that all is in order… so just trust me.  No, the consumer wants the truth, not a pitch.

The recession has prompted 30% of internet users to shop online more often than they did previously

No surprise here but it puts businesses that sell online on notice to make sure they are providing what the customer is looking for. Hyped up copy and testimonials to sell a product- all the while providing no substantive details about the product itself- is not going to work.

84% of internet users would be less likely to visit web sites that hit them with unsolicited and unwanted information (like pop-ups and emails)

I get emails from at least two dozen marketers (sometimes if I am evaluating a program its more) and at least 95% of the follow up emails have nothing to do with improving the customer experience. Nearly all the emails are pitching something else. Marketers that do not wake up to the fact that the consumer is not looking for this kind of exploitation will see their mailing list shrink. Consumers do not like being played for a fool and no matter how clever the copy they will know when the marketer is adding value to the relationship or merely pitching another product in hopes of milking more cash out of  them. Companies like LL Bean have learned how to balance the need to always sell and at the same time provide content that is of interest to their target audience. I expect that when information marketers figure this out they will announce the discovery of this “secret” and try to sell a course teaching others how to provide a valuable customer experience to their customers.

Businesses that sell information or “How-to” courses are in a great position to add real value to their customers and grow their business in down markets. To do so they will have to change their business model to be more upfront and customer centric. Consumers are getting wise to the hyperbole so prevalent in online sales pages and pitches. For example I saw one product claiming to “reverse the aging process” another claimed that even though he was a convenient store clerk for several years he now consults with corporations (not other marketers) that pay him $25,000 per day or roughly $3000 per hour. Not even big blue IBM charges close to that so I think we can chalk that up to exaggerations or maybe lying? Either way I do not recommend you do business with a business or person that stoops to such tactics to try to make a sale. A quality product will always stand on its own merit. Consider the iPod for a moment. That was a revolutionary and cutting edge new product -never seen before-and yet it was not sold with sales pages that ran on for over 5000 words.

Whether you are selling information or a product, consumers want you to offer value and to deliver a good customer experience. Here are some thoughts fro you to consider.

1. Tell them what the product is all about. Do not just pontificate about how wonderful it is without giving the details.

2. Don’t obfuscate or exaggerate. My rule of thumb is the more bull they throw into the pitch the bigger the fool who buys it. There is a proverb that basically says with many words trouble is not far behind. An updated version would be with much hype and verbiage buyer beware! You can read more on this at http://dontscamus.blogspot.com

3. Deliver value after the sale. This is a post in and of itself, but in a nutshell…Ask what they think about your product and their buying experience? Provide information learned from others that will enhance their success and/or enjoyment with your product. If there are changes or improvements let them know. And, if there are problems with the customer address the concerns quickly and in earnest.

Who is Customer Experience?

I am having some fun with my title today. Certainly not a good one for SEO but oh well. But it is an important question. Many companies have spent time and effort trying to implement customer experience on a shoe string-a duck tape and baling wire project-only to fail.

I was speaking to an executive from an outdoor retail company and she acknowledged that a customer experience process is necessary- she was struggling with the who and how-to part of the process.  So here are my thoughts on the who…the how-to is a project in and of itself.

The person that leads the CE effort has to be someone who has the following qualities:

1. Passionate about the company and it’s customers.

2. Compassionate and understanding of the needs and wants of the customer

3. The CE officer needs to know HR, Marketing and Operations.

4. Has to be a good communicator

5. Creative

6. Possess and unshakable commitment to personal integrity

I’m sure there are other qualities you can think of but these are a few that I see a need for time and time again. The above are the minimum qualifications for anyone who wants to implement and lead a customer experience effort at any company.

On the company side no one should try to run a CE effort unless:

1. The CEO/President has a commitment to the customer-THAT IS KNOWN COMPANY WIDE

2. Employees manage customer expectations (teaches them) and these expectations are regularly communicated to the customers. It will save you a lot of aggravation later on and a lot less ‘he-said-she said’ arguments.

3. Employees and work groups have cross group communication and accountability–no silos

4.Management has communicated to all employees that taking care of the customer is job#1

5. The company takes pride in its product or service but at its core it is customer centric. This made the list because many companies focus on making the widget and so long as it is being bought take that as a tacit endorsement of how they do business and that they are treating their customers well. This is why when a company adds CE to their business strategy they win customers away from companies that are product/service centric.

Of course, there are more items for this list but this is a good start and I think it covers the most important aspects of a company’s culture that are necessary to have a good shot at implementing an effective customer experience practice that will show benefits in:

1. Employee retention

2. Less customer turnover

3. Increase in revenues

Customer Experience: The key business differentiator

I am going to share a fairly long article with you so I will keep this short. The link below takes you to an article where the author shares several shopping experiences-some good, some bad. What should not be over looked here is that this is one of hundreds of articles and posts wherein customers express their satisfaction or anger with a company they have done business with.

We know that most consumers DO NOT tell a store when they are unhappy with the service. We know that a small percentage (less than 25%) will make an attempt to get a problem resolved in a store but will not make a fight out of it. The rest leave resolving to never come back and if they have the chance they will tell as many people as they can about what happened. You are one of the lucky ones if you catch it online–you can make amends and if you are smart make changes so the bad experience is not repeated.

When you are focused on getting customer experience right it will also help you to know how to properly manage expectations because a customer with unmet expectations (reasonable or not) can spread a bad word as fast as someone with a genuine complaint. As you will read in the article the incident with the Apple display could have been easily avoided with a better pre-sale process in the store.

Here is the article out of CIO magazine:  http://bit.ly/