In 2008 the average person spent 21 hours during the year deleting spam from their email. So how do we have the time to sift through the thousands of messages we download into our subconscious every day? We receive so much proverbial clutter in our email inboxes, phone messages, banner ads, direct mail, radio, TV, Face book, twitter, Google Plus and the list goes on. Is it any wonder that as the number of messages increases, the ability for us to process this information decreases?

Companies selling advertising today have come up with the most creative and compelling pitches to force feed their messages down their prospects throat.  At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the ROI on advertising dollars.

Advertisers today need to get back to basics with their marketing. Here are 6 ways to see a higher return on your advertising dollars.

1. Have a balanced marketing plan: that includes networking with other professionals in your contact sphere that have the ability to refer you clients. When it comes to marketing, it’s always better to fish with a net rather than a pole.
2. Market on the internet: Talk to a professional consultant that can help you to increase your internet footprint and SEO rank. These potential clients are performing key word queries by the thousands looking for your business. Make sure that they can find you quickly and easily.  Click here for a free analysis of your website.
3. Understand who you’re client is: Once you understand who your client is, find ways to market directly to that customer. The more targeted you can be in your approach the better.
4. Market to your existing clients: Studies say that clients you market to spend almost 70% more than customers you don’t, meaning that a 5% increase in sales can result in a 25% increase in profits.
5. Ask for Feedback: You must have a process for getting customer feedback. 68% of customers leave your business every year because of perceived indifference.  You must retain loyal customers!
6. Keep it personal: Nobody wants a transaction but everybody wants an experience. Do everything you can do to make their experience personal. Send hand written thank you cards, follow up with a phone call, and thank your customers for referrals!

Today, customers have more information and do more research than ever before. Get back to the basics and the profits will follow.

Derek Thielen
President, Velocity Marketing Group
Derek@findyourvelocity.com

When it comes to running a business having a healthy profit margin is essential.

Just because your competition has a cheaper price doesn’t mean you need to lower yours. There is nothing wrong with being competitive but be competitive on the high side.  Why would you want to work 50, 60, or 70 hours a week and at the end of the year have nothing to show for it.  Your goal if you don’t have one already should be to have a 10% net income at the end of the year.  That means after all of your expenses are paid including your salary.

As a business you can’t be all things to all people. Understand who you are, who your customer is and increase the value you add to your client by providing superior service. Have you noticed that companies that charge more usually have outstanding service? If you are going to be the low cost provider then you will not be able to offer great service because you won’t be able to afford to. Raise the understanding first in your own mind as to what your value is and charge a fair price.  You may lose a few customers but you will keep your most profitable ones and those are the ones you want anyways.

Here are 3 things that healthy margins can do for your business:

1. They can give you a raise.
2. They can give your employees a raise or better working conditions.
3. They can give you room to hire a team around you that can help grow your business.
4. They can give you room to invest in your brand.

Derek Thielen
Velocity Marketing Group

Here are 5 things to focus on when training your receptionists and inside sales people on acceptable phone etiquette.

Generally speaking, you should encourage staff members who answer the phones to be:

• Courteous
• Friendly
• Eager

Make it clear that when answering the phone it is not only that your employees simply assist callers, but at the minimum your employees need to employ these 3 qualities to turn more prospects into customers. The people answering your phones should be eager to help and to go the extra mile to find solutions to your customers’ challenges.Document your prospects information first! If you have the customers’ name, address, phone number, and email your representative will have the ability to call the customer back if anything should happen during the call like an accidental disconnect. If your potential customer didn’t set an appointment why didn’t they? Managers should follow-up by reviewing call logs and tracking those calls to determine closing ratios, then follow-up with those customers that for whatever reason didn’t schedule an appointment.

1.  Many untrained receptionists will unload everything they know about the company on the customer. No doubt this is good information, but not necessarily at the time of the call. There is nothing wrong with stating the positive attributes of the company. Your customer service representative must remember the goal – get your prospect to commit to an initial consultation.
2.  Build Rapport and focus on the needs of your prospective customer. Throughout the conversation your phone team should be building rapport with the prospect. One of the best ways to do this is to train your staff to refer to your prospective client by name and ask the customer questions about themselves and their needs. Once you understand what their needs are, you can frame your experience to your customers’ needs.
3.  Be flexible! There is nothing worse than calling a company and inquiring about the company’s services only to hit a wall at each turn. The following are not acceptable solutions to your prospects needs:
   • We’re not open
   • Were booked out 3 weeks in advance
   • We will call you when we have an opening

   Your customers don’t care about your scheduling issues or that your installer needs a 2-hour lunch break. Don’t make excuses. Learn to accommodate to your customers’ terms.

4. Always honor commitments presented to customers. For example, if your prospective customer is told that an issue will be investigated in a particular period of time, then it is imperative that your company’s first-contact get back with the customer within the designated period of time. If the customer is told they will be given a call back in 2 hours, then they need to be given a call back in 2 hours. If a commitment is broken then from your prospects’ perspective breaking small commitments leads to bigger ones. Be warned, if commitments are not respected then your prospective customers’ confidence will most assuredly be lost. Your goal should be to exceed expectations at every opportunity.

Many businesses don’t particularly need more prospective customers, your firm needs to do a more efficient job with the opportunities that do arise.  Don’t assume because your receptionist has 10-years of experience that she necessarily knows how to answer the phone in a fashion that best represents your firm.

Make on-going training and continuous-improvement a priority in your company and the profits will follow.

Derek Thielen
Small business coach and Velocity Marketer.

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

Exceed expectations with quick response to your customers needs!

This is a great way to improve service. It can make good service great and great service even greater.

How fast do we return calls, send out proposals, etc.? Overnight mail, courier service, fax machines and email have made it possible to deliver information to our clients faster than ever before. Speed differentiates.

Twenty years ago mail order companies used to promise their products would get to you in six to eight weeks. Over the years it was cut down. Today you can usually get the product by the next day. In some cases, the same day. And, there are certain items, such as software and publications, that can be had in minutes thanks to the ability to download from the internet.

So, incorporate an element of speed into your service strategy. This doesn’t mean rushing people through a business transaction. You must pick and choose the best places to use speed. Thanks to technology in a fast paced world, people expect and want things fast.

When you are about to send out that next proposal, ask your customer when they would like to see it and then do everything you can to exceed their expectation. It’s easy to be average but doing the little things well can be the differentiator in your business.

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

Understand Your Customer

A good word for this one is communication. This may be the cornerstone to creating Moments of Magic. You must understand what your clients want and expect of you. This sounds pretty simple and basic, but it is an easy one to blow. And, if you do, you not only fall short of your clients’ expectations, but you tend to make mistakes, misunderstand their goals, etc.

Are you ready for the secret to understanding what your customers want and expect?

Ask them!

But, then you must take it one step further. Once you hear them, ask more questions. That is the key. Sometimes people say one
thing and mean something completely different. Or, you think they mean something completely different.

My favorite example comes from something that happened to my wife and me. My wife and I miscommunicate all of the time. She says one thing and I think she is saying something completely different. Now I have learned about how she thinks. Almost every night I walk into the kitchen and she says, “Honey, the trash is full.” I look over and guess what? She is right. The trash is not only full, it is over flowing with trash. So what is she really saying? Is she making a statement of fact? Or is she looking for a trash man? I think she is looking for a trash man. So why doesn’t she simply say, “Honey, please take out the trash!” It is just the way she communicates.

Our customers communicate the same way with us. I could send you ten year’s worth of emails just on this subject, but I won’t. Just remember this. If we don’t take the time to listen, ask questions and totally understand our clients, we are going to misconnect or make a mistake – have a Moment of Misery! So, spend extra time thinking about this one. As I mentioned before, it is probably the more important messages that I’ve sent you.

There are many things that sound good but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is butts in the seats.  The real question an advertiser needs to ask before signing a contract or running a campaign is “Will this put butts in the seats” and if so what is the return on my advertising dollar?

Text message marketing is the most cost effective way to reach your customers!

Text Messaging vs. Twitter:

90% of your customers have a mobile phone and can send and receive text messages vs. 9% of people who have twitter accounts. The number of messages the average twitter follower is exposed to every month is 9100 versus 534 text messages. Text is quick and to the point without all of the clutter of social media. Open rates for text messages are 94% within 10 minutes.

Text Messaging vs. Facebook:

56% of people have Face book accounts which are good but still a small number compared customers who have cell phones. Like twitter, face book users are exposed to 9100 messages per month versus 534 text messages.  Opt ins for text are 3 times as likely as a Face book like and 9 times more likely than a twitter follow.

Response Rates:

Response rates for text messaging are 5 to 7 times that of twitter, face book, or email campaigns and 7 to 14 times the response that of direct mail.

In Summary:

Text Messaging Marketing works and with only 1% of customers currently using text to reach their customers there is a tremendous upside for companies wanting to market to their existing client base. Customers you market to spend 67% more than those you don’t. Before taking on any advertising campaign have a goal and a way to measure the effectiveness of the campaign through redemptions. At the end of the day the only way to measure ROI is “Butts in the seats”.

Derek Thielen
President, Velocity Marketing Group

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

This is a powerful one. You may have recently noticed a number of books and articles about a concept called the “Wow” factor.

Many consultants and business experts have been talking about this for years, but it was probably Tom Peters who really brought it to the forefront.

The “Wow!” factor boils down to one thing; not just meeting, but exceeding the expectations of the customer. In short, the basic idea is to bring the element of surprise into your business. The concept of Wow! yells out, “Surprise! Aren’t you glad you decided to do business with me!”

A couple of years ago I bought my wife a new car. Normally the quest for purchasing a new car is not one I look forward to, and this time was no exception. However, to my surprise, the experience was great, and the follow-up even greater. The owner of the dealership knew I was surprising my wife with the car. He called the next day, on a Sunday, to see how she liked the surprise. Wow! A few days later we received a thank you note and a fruit basket. Wow!

Bill Gates, multi-billionaire and chairman of Microsoft, recently wrote a book on the future of technology, The Road Ahead.

Surprise! The book included a CD with the entire book and more on it to be popped into your nearest computer. He predicts that books on CD ROM will be the norm in the future. And shouldn’t his book “practice what it preaches.” If you travel with a laptop computer that has a CD ROM drive you don’t have to even take the book with you. Just take the disk and read from the screen. Wow!

A few years ago I bought some fruit baskets from Harry and David for some of my clients. Harry and David is a high-end catalog retailer that sells food through the mail. One day the mail came and I was surprised to find a gift box from Harry and David. I couldn’t wait to open it to find out who sent me this delicious box of chocolate truffles. Surprise! It was a gift from Harry and David saying thank you for doing business with them. Wow!

The list of examples can go on and on. The “Wow” comes from, “Surprise! You weren’t expecting this, were you?” How can you build this into your marketing and business strategy? It doesn’t always have to be something tangible that might cost a lot of money. It can be a follow up phone call or a simple thank you note. It is meant to make the client feel good about doing business with you. I remember getting a phone call from a restaurant that some friends and I had been to the night before.

I wondered why they would be calling me. Did I leave my credit card there? No, they just wanted to follow up with me to make sure I had a great meal and experience at their restaurant.

That’s all. Wow!

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken.
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. Permalink on Hyken.com

What is customer loyalty? I asked a number of business people this simple question and received similar answers from most of them. Most agree that customer loyalty means that the customer will come back, again and again.

However, what customer loyalty doesn’t always mean is that the customer is loyal to you, and only you. In other words, they may do business with you, but are also or still doing business with your competitors.

The concept of “wallet share” came to mind. I’ve been talking (and writing) about the concept of “wallet share” versus “market share” for many years. Quick explanation: The concept of market share has to do with how many customers that are able to buy your product actually buy it. For example, if there are 100 customers in a given area that could buy your product, and 60 of them buy it, then you have 60% market share.

Wallet share takes the concept of market share to another level. Of those 60 people who buy from you, how many of them will still buy from someone else? If they only buy from you, then you have 100% of their “wallet share.” If they split their loyalty between you and someone else, you only have 50% “wallet share.”

At the highest level of loyalty, your customer only buys from you. In other words, they give you 100% wallet share.

So customer loyalty has two tiers:

1. The first is that the customer is a repeat customer.
2. The second is a repeat customer that doesn’t do business with your competitors – just you.

This is where my Amazement Revolution strategy of “partnership” kicks in. You want a relationship that is so strong that the customer wouldn’t think of doing business with your competitors.

I put together a quick “Top Ten” list of simple ideas to help you get to the level of partnership and 100% wallet share. Realize that these are common sense expectations that are easy to do – and unfortunately, easy not do if you don’t stay customer focused.

1. Deliver great customer service. It’s expected.
2. Always do what you say you will do.
3. Don’t be late.
4. Don’t make excuses or blame others – be accountable.
5. Help solve their problems.
6. If you catch a problem, call them before they call you.
7. Trust them, if you want them to trust you.
8. Be accessible and easy to reach.
9. Return phone calls, emails and social media comments quickly.
10. Create confidence. (Do all of the above and you will have a good start.)

So maybe the goal shouldn’t just be customer loyalty. It should be 100% customer loyalty.

(A few years ago I wrote an article titled “The Gap” which addressed the concept of wallet share. If you want to read more about wallet share, go to: hyken.com/articles/the-gap/)

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken.
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. Permalink on Hyken.com

This customer service tip focuses on customer loyalty, which is one of the coveted bi-products of delivering good customer service. Yet good – even great – customer service by itself will not create loyalty. It takes more, such as quality, reliability and dependability. On the flip side, it doesn’t take much to erode loyalty.

Below is a list of “twenty loyalty killers.” This may seem like a negative article, but please don’t view it as such.

Look at this as a checklist to confirm that you are avoiding any of these behaviors. There, I’ve put a positive spin on it. So, here is a list of a twenty “loyalty killers” that you must avoid to maintain your customer’s confidence and their loyalty:

1. Uncertainty is a loyalty killer.
2. Complacency is a loyalty killer.
3. Apathy about your work is a loyalty killer.
4. Lack of confidence is a loyalty killer.
5. Bad customer service is a loyalty killer.
6. A bad attitude is a loyalty killer.
7. An aggressive attitude is a loyalty killer.
8. Indifference toward a customer is a loyalty killer.
9. Lack of enthusiasm is a loyalty killer.
10. A communication breakdown is a loyalty killer.
11. Inconsistency is a loyalty killer.
12. A weak relationship is a loyalty killer.
13. A long wait time is a loyalty killer.
14. A slow returned phone call or email response is a loyalty killer.
15. Arguing with a customer is a loyalty killer.
16. Making a customer feel that they are wrong is a loyalty killer.
17. Making a customer feel ignorant is a loyalty killer.
18. Being impatient with a customer is a loyalty killer.
19. Using unfamiliar jargon or acronyms is a loyalty killer.
20. A failed promise is a loyalty killer.

Are you or your company guilty of any of the above loyalty killers?

Remember that customer service by itself will not create loyalty, but it helps to get you there. You need your customer’s confidence. The old cliché is that people want to do business with people (or businesses) that they know, they like and they trust.

What are you doing to create those feelings?

A post by customer service expert Shep Hyken.
Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. Permalink on Hyken.com

The letter comes and it is a complaint from an unhappy customer. The customer tells the story in clear detail.

It’s obvious, we made a mistake. This had nothing to do with an employee’s indifferent attitude. We just messed up.

What happens next is that we respond to the customer, hoping to get their business back by fixing what was wrong.

Then, we analyze how it happened. We debrief, brainstorm and come up with a solution to minimize, if not completely eliminate this problem in the future. This failure becomes a great learning experience. In short, we learned from our mistake.

The next day another letter comes. This time it is from an ecstatically happy customer. Not only were our people exhibiting amazing customer service, our system worked.

The customer felt we went above and beyond to take care of him.

What happens next is we congratulate the people involved – maybe even give them a little recognition in front of their peers. And, that is it.

According to a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review, that focused on failure, this scenario, as it applies to failure in general, is very typical. We learn from our mistakes and simply celebrate our successes. Several of the articles on failure go on to say that we can learn as much, if not more, from our successes. So, I thought about how this applies to customer service.

Learn from our happy customers, especially if they are willing to tell us their story. Interview them to find out the details. Go back with a team and analyze why things worked. Is this the norm? What’s in place that always works? Can it be improved upon? Can it be repeated? Why did this interaction stand out to this customer, while others didn’t? Do other customers have similar ecstatically happy experiences?

Years ago I took a course offered by the Afterburners, a group of former military fighter pilots who teach corporate America how to bring military strategy into their boardroom. One of the very powerful lessons I learned about the military way of “doing business” was that they debriefed after every mission – both failed and successful missions. To really get strong feedback, everyone in the debrief session went rankles. In other words, everybody was equal. Rank was not the issue. Open communication and feedback was more important than genuflecting to the hire ranking officers.

There is a lot we can learn from our customers’ accolades.

Don’t just revel in success. Learn from it!