Posts tagged customer satisfaction


Twitter as super hero

Sep 9th

6 comments

My friend Dr. Jerri Yates passed this story along illustrating the amazing power of Twitter. It’s from a mommy blog and it’s a tale worth telling, or in this case, summarizing, because the original post is LOOONG!
In this Twitter as hero tale, the star is blogger Heather Armstrong, who purchased a new washing machine to keep up with the diapers of her propitiously-pooping newborn. The brand-new $1,300 machine didn’t work. After several weeks of botched service calls, Heather vents on Twitter:
“So that you may not have to suffer like we have: DO NOT EVER BUY A MAYTAG. I repeat: OUR MAYTAG EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE.”
After a few similarly-scalding messages, the magic began. She received messages from Maytag competitors offering to help. Then she received a phone call from an executive at the Maytag corporate office who contacted an alternate repairs service, had the appropriate parts over-nighted, and had the machine repaired in less than a day. And Bosch offered to give her a free washing machine, which she accepted and donated to a local shelter.
If this doesn’t help you understand why your company needs to be in the thick of social media, you must be brain-dead.
A) It’s where your customers are (and that includes B2B, too mister!)
B) It’s where your customers speak to you
C) If you don’t listen and respond, your competitors will!
Illustration: Monkey Works
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Fanatic-focused marketing

Sep 8th

2 comments

 
Research shows that the good old 80-20 rule is going out the door (meaning 80% of your business is driven by 20% of your customers). New database and monitoring technology demonstrates that as little as 4 percent of your customers may drive as much as 65 percent of your business.
One recent study showed that just 1 percent of a petfood producer’s customers drove 80 percent of its profits! Your core 4 percent are not consumers, they’re fanatics! What are the implications of this mega-trend?

a) If you don’t know if this trend is applicable to you (hint: it probably is), it’s important to find out! Tap into your existing data to discover core users and trends. If you’re not a data person, I know two people who can do this type of analysis quickly and affordably. Drop me a note or call me and let me know if you need a reference.

b) Word of mouth is 4X more effective than personal selling and 7X more effective than most types of traditional advertising. If your fanatics are driving sales better than any marketing effort you could dream of, what are you doing to make it easy for them? Wouldn’t fanatic-focused marketing be the most effective ad dollars you can spend?

c) Surround your 4 percent with the tools to help them recruit others to your brand. Ideas – special deals, gifts, logo-clothes, programs available for them to pass on to friends.

d) These people want to give back to your brand. How do you engage them, encourage them, and listen to them in a special and personalized way? Ideas: Invite them to special one-on-one sessions with company employees and executives; develop personal portal websites where they can submit ideas, stories, photos; feature them in your ads and promotions.

e) If you are building your brand with a limited budget, don’t focus your marketing dollars on the masses. Start small with your core fanatics.

f) Now that you have identified and nurtured your core 4 percent, how do you replicate them? Do a simple profiling exercise. Click here for a previous article that will give you ideas on how to do this quickly.

g) Here’s the most important point of all – LISTEN to them. These people are your leading indicators of customer satisfaction and a potentially powerful source of innovation who WANT to help you! Dig deep. Spend time with these people! Show them the love!

Illustration: Cheryy8_15

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Why B2B’s MUST adopt social media strategies

Jun 17th

4 comments

With most of my career with Fortune 100 blue chip companies, I know what it’s like to market in a hyper-competitive, show-me-the-money environment. I’ve been aggressively skeptical about the role of social media in an environment where there is a finite number of customers, an emphasis on long-term contracts, and no patience for fluff.

But after spending a few weeks assessing the state of social media among industrial companies, I’m changing my mind.

To be sure, B2B social media successes have been scarce. According to a 2009 Forrester research study, 86% of B2B companies had NO integrated social media strategy. These are smart folks — if there is a way to market effectively for less, they’ll be doing it. But there are good reasons why there is slow adoption in this segment of business:

  • Social media takes time and new skillsets. The recession will depress any rapid change in marketing capabilities.
  • In a failing economic environment, the emphasis is on near-term cash generation and survival, not “community.”
  • Building a community seems less relevant when you have a small number of known customers tied up in long-term contracts.
  • Understanding the shift in marketing channels, customer dynamics and relevance to B2B will take time … and maybe a few retirements.

When the economy improves, I believe mainstream B2B companies WILL make the shift as they understand how technology is already re-defining their customer relationships. Here’s why:1) Sales and marketing is about building relationships … and that’s what social media is all about. The intense, high-value B2B industrial relationships are like a marriage. B2C is a flirtation — gimme a coupon and I’ll go out with you baby. There are probably lots of ways this important, long-term B2B bond can be enhanced through the constant contact enabled by social media, especially throughout a long sales cycle. Perhaps it will take place behind a firewall — most people don’t want to discuss their marriage in public!

2) It’s where the customers are. In some of my seminars, I challenge attendees to find their “truckstop“ — the place where customers hang out. That place has changed dramatically over the past few years. Even baby boomers are spending enormous amounts of time on the Internet. The lines between professional “truckstops” and social “truckstops” are blurring. In the old days, business networking took place on the golf course or at glitzy trade shows booths. Those days are over. We need to find the new truckstops and they’re online (53% of Facebook users are over 35, up from 46% in 2008).

3) Social media can play a critical role in the information-gathering process. The consequences of a major buy are high and purchasing agents use all available means to gather data on your company and product. They’re going to Google the heck out of you. So why not help them and gain an edge by putting quality content everywhere — blogs, videos and social networking communities that can help your cause.

4) It can help build loyalty. Compared to impulsive B2C behaviors, there are probably fewer opportunities to influence direct sales through SM. However, that’s just one piece of the sales pipeline. What about service? Technical support? Product development? Customer involvement and loyalty? I’ve been guilty of focusing too much on the lead-generating opportunities of social media and have not given enough credit to the other parts of the sales cycle.

5) Social media is a way to engage and inspire far-flung employees. Today, every employee can be your best sales advocate or a corporate terrorist. It has never been more important to enlist your employees and engage them through the power of social media. For example, Ingram Micro, the world’s largest technology distributor, has open Facebook sites available by country so their employees can connect and collaborate. IBM, GE and others are actively engaging employees to tell their company story through this global Town Hall meeting.

6) If you don’t engage, it will be done for you! My previous blog showed an example where Dow’s name has been hijacked for several fake social media sites that pillory the company. Today, every customer can be a critic, every employee a reporter, every activist a broadcaster. Without an active voice in social media, your company will be defined by others.

Props: In the best spirit of social media, my enlightenment on this subject was nurtured by blogs and thought leaders such as Chris Brogan, Jamie Wallace, John Bottom, Nathan Egan, and Jason Falls    . If you’re interested in social media’s impact on marketing, follow their tweets, blogs and insights.

How is your B2B company coping with the transition to this new world of “community?”

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More marketing for less: Profile customers

May 14th

2 comments

Here’s a simple but important tip for getting more for your marketing money: profile your best customers.
The term “profiling” has negative connotations from a social perspective but for your business, it’s one of the most effective tools for determining where and how to conduct your business. If you have a grasp on what type of people are most likely to purchase your products or services, you can seek out the location and the marketing plans that give you the best opportunity to reach those people.
The number of ways to sort your customers is endless and really depends on the needs of your business. Here are just a few of the ways you can segment your most profitable customers:
1) What do your best customers have in common?
  • Are they in a common industry?
  • Do they seem to have the same role at their company?
  • Do they face a similar problems or challenges?
  • Similar buying patterns?
  • How do they use your product?
  • Do they belong to similar clubs or charities?
  • Do they have the same interests, attitudes and habits?
2) How did you attract your top customers?
  • Website?
  • Advertising?
  • Conference?
  • Networking?
  • Cold calls?
You may be surprised at the results! Once you’ve divided customers into sub-segments, consider the implications for your marketing strategy:
  • Are your initiatives aligned with the profile of your best customers?
  • If your customers strongly share certain characterstics, how can you adjust your message and channel to better appeal to these folks?
  • If one marketing channel seems to be working better than others, do more of it and cut the rest.
If your business is down due to the recession, this might be the perfect time to step back and do some introspection on your sales and marketing strategy. While there are many sophisticated techniques, databases and CRM software applications aimed at helping you organize this information, even a small business on a budget can do effective customer profiling with little expense.
Here’s one simple analytical method available to almost everyone. Most small businesses use Microsoft Outlook to organize emails, contacts and calendars. In the “business” edition, it’s possible to set up searchable, custom fields to collect detailed information. If your profiling needs are simple, you can even search words you’ve added to the “notes” section of the basic Outlook edition. Start logging the source of new customers in their profile (like “cold call” or “website”). You can then enter these terms in the search function and, with the push of a button, generate a list of customers who share these characteristics.
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