Category Archives: Best Practices

Mission Accomplished? Say So!

Posted on 30 April 2012 by | Leave a comment

President George W. Bush claimed credit for winning a war only just begun and Vice President Al Gore once famously claimed credit for inventing the internet.   Probably a good idea to do some fact-checking before opening one’s mouth, but claiming credit itself isn’t wrong.

In a previous post I wrote that claiming credit was an optional step in customer communications.  But it would have been more accurate to say that claiming credit is natural step as a company evolves.

At the start of a customer experience journey you may spend all your energy investing in delivering basic service.  At that juncture, claiming credit may well be an afterthought.  However, as Andy Sernovitz reminds us in a thought-provoking post, claiming credit helps change the WOM (word of mouth) dynamic.

Focusing on strengths and victories can also invigorate an entire ecosystem.

  • Employees – Imagine what a positive charge your customer service team would experience if they were reminded of happy customers.  It’s as basic as positive reinforcement vs. negative.  Positive momentum includes every department in the company.  Human Resources?  Sure.  It makes it easier to attract great talent.
  • Shareholders – Institutional and individual investors alike want to know that your company is doing things well and impressing customers.  First person testimonials are worth sharing!
  • Prospects and Customers – People want to be associated with success.  Positive WOM helps de-risk buying decisions and validate good choices.  Negative WOM gets out one way or another.

Now consider 2 alternatives to positive WOM:  silence OR negative press.  Neither is going to boost share price, energize employees or add loyal customers.

So I stand corrected, the pivot point is to make the most of your wins.  Make sure you’ve accomplished the mission… and then say so.  It’s important to point out your good work and to thank customers.  It is even more important to let your prospects, employees, and shareholders know the same thing.

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Posted in Best Practices, Customer Service, How to Deliver Customer Service

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Make your 2012 Resolutions on Mercury Time

Posted on 11 January 2012 by | Leave a comment

Another year dawns… and we go through the time-honored (but not people-honored) tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions.  We set them with the best of intentions, yet forget them and quickly fail.   You can either continue with what you tried last year (did it work?) or make some changes.  This year make your resolutions on Mercury time.

Make this year different.  This year, instill revolutionary change:

  1. Be selective and intentional – not all goals are created equal.  Choose fewer goals.  Choose the right goals, those that will matter in your life and your business.  Lose 20 pounds?  Or exercise 20 minutes daily?  Grow revenue 25% annually?  Or close one new deal each week?
  2. Set goals continuously – one of the jobs of a leader is to ensure the goals are appropriate as the environment changes.  To do this effectively one cannot wait until next quarter or next year to assess the goals.  Has your team met the challenge to close a new deal a week?  Set the bar higher.  Don’t wait for the earth to circle the sun again.  Do it now.  Too hard?  Then at least consider setting goals as Mercury circles the sun (every 88 days).
  3. Track results with a vengeance – where are we?  Assuming you’ve set the right goals, ensure that progress towards meeting them is known, published publicly and discussed in the hallways.  I once worked for a company that launched a company-wide initiative but failed to report results to employees for over 9 months.  The result?  People assumed the initiative was tabled, unimportant, or worse.
  4. Celebrate often –People appreciate knowing that you noticed a goal was met.  If we fail to celebrate or acknowledge we miss one of the simplest ways to build momentum to accomplish more each day.  (Author’s confession: an area for personal development.)

The pivot point is to set fewer goals that have more meaning and to focus on them relentlessly.  If we set our aspirations on the basis of the earth’s path around the sun, we would be better suited to becoming farmers than business people.

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Posted in Best Practices, Leadership

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The Third Secret – Targeting Qualified Prospects

Posted on 3 October 2011 by | Leave a comment

The third secret customers keep from you is which [future] customers to target.  If you knew the answer to this question, you could grow your customer base in a cost-effective way by amortizing customer acquisition costs across a larger number of clients.  There are two ways this may occur:

Wanted: Qualified Prospects

Ask for Qualified Prospects

Customers tell your company who would benefit from your product.  This information won’t appear magically so you have to ask for it.  (Note: some companies offer referral bonuses for this information.  I’m against such perks because they introduce a quid pro quo aspect that resembles pork-barrel politics.  Better that your product is so strong that they feel like their reputation will be enhanced in the process.)  The company actively and directly participates in this method.

Earn Qualified Prospects

Customers tell their contact that you would help them solve a problem.  This method is word of mouth (WoM) marketing and is one of the premises behind NetPromoter Scores.  To make it work, the customer’s experience with your brand must be so positive (or cult-like in the case of Apple) that consumers purchase goods and services to be part of the experience.   The company actively but indirectly participates in this method.

Gain Customer Trust

Regardless of which method you choose, your goal is to gain customer trust through a valuable customer experience:

  1. Know thy customer
  2. Create a great product that meets customer goals
  3. Support the customer like they’re the last customer on earth
  4. Develop some market buzz by appealing to perceived customer needs
  5. Laugh all the way to bank like Apple

The pivot point in this secret and others is that customers must trust your company and brand.  Products and service must work together to create an experience that customers value.  When this work is done customers become willing to reveal qualified prospects and interactions become collaborative endeavors which benefit company, customer, and shareholder.

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