With a new foreword by Ken Blanchard

A straightforward and snappy guide to successful customer service from the author of the bestselling The One Minute Manager.

Raving Fans, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day – in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organisation or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.

Raving Fans is written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager and uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature – not just a passing fad.

Business is in the midst of a service crisis that has left millions of disillusioned customers in its wake. Raving Fans includes startling new tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace – and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.

Inside Flap Copy

Told in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach listeners how to define vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature–not just another program of the month.

America is in the midst of a service crisis that has left a wake of disillusioned customers from coast to coast. Raving Fans includes startling tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace–and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.

Description

The story of a golfer and his male fairy godmother who guides him through encounters with outstanding service in a variety of business settings is an eloquent parable about customer service. The three-part formula: First, decide on a vision-a level of service that perfectly reflects what you want to give customers. Second, discover the specific needs and expectations of your customers and weave them into your vision of how to serve them. Third, deliver your vision a step at a time, being absolutely consistent before stepping up the service to the next level. Everyone serious about customer relationships should hear this.

Foreword

Successful organisations have one common central focus: Customers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business, a professional practice, a hospital or a government agency, success comes to those, and only those, who are obsessed with looking after customers.

This wisdom isn’t a secret. Mission statements, annual reports, posters on the wall, seminars and even television programmes all proclaim the supremacy of customers. But in the words of Shakespeare, this wisdom is “more honoured in the breach than the observance.” In fact, generally speaking, customer service, in a word, stinks.

And no wonder. Look at how we’ve been training our managers. When I was in college, we took courses in marketing consumer behaviour. The assumption was that the public was a mindless group of buyers and that with proper advertising and promotion products could be produced en masse and sold to naïve buyers. Unfortunately, as I tour the country speaking, I find too many young managers still think this way. Advertising, product positioning and market share pricing strategies are all important. But when all is said and done, goods aren’t sold; products and services are bought.

About the Author

Ken Blanchard is the founder and Chairman of The Ken Blanchard Companies. His One Minute Manager series has sold over 18 million copies and been translated into more than 25 languages. He has also written or co-authored numerous other books, including Gung Ho! and Big Bucks! The Blanchards currently live in San Diego.

Our Opinion

Read it, read it, read it!

Pretty much everyone who ever ran a business knows that one of the best sources of business you can get is word-of-mouth.

When a customer recommends you to someone they know, they have already done most of the selling for you before you even say anything and it is effectively free advertising for your business.

So why would someone do this and perhaps more importantly, how can you encourage your customers to do it for you and your business?

But before we get into that, just ask yourself what makes you buy from someone?

• Price?
• Customer service?
• Having the best product?
• Availability?
• After sales support?
• Something else?

There are lots of reasons why you would buy from someone, but there is really only one that would compel you to recommend them to someone else…

Think about it…

You would only recommend a business to a friend, colleague, or associate if you felt that your experience in dealing with that supplier wasn’t just good; it was exceptionally good. Perhaps you received an exceptionally good deal. Perhaps you got an incredible price, or perhaps their customer service was simply outstanding.

Whatever it was, your whole experience of dealing with that business would have to have been exceptional for you to recommend them to others and create word-of-mouth. Why? Because by recommending a business to someone else you are putting your reputation on the line and to most people, their own reputation is something they hold in very high-esteem.

So now, turn this scenario around for a moment and look at your own business. Do your own customers get treated exceptionally well? Do you bend-over-backwards for them? Do you go out of your way to ensure that their experience of buying from your business is amazing? Do you do everything you can to ensure that you have the best products, prices, availability, after sales, and so on?

If you want to create word-of-mouth for your own business, take a cold, hard, clinical, objective look at your business and ask yourself three questions:

1. What are we already doing that we could do better?
2. What are we not doing that we should be doing?
3. What else could we do to make our customers’ experience truly exceptional?

Find the answers to these questions then strive for excellence and you will generate word-of mouth for your business on auto-pilot!

Overview

The secret to successful word-of-mouth marketing on the social web is easy: be likeable. Likeable Social Media provides 18 strategies for creating an authentic “brand personality” through Facebook and other social media platforms.

A friend’s recommendation is more powerful than any advertisement. Likeable Social Media shows you how to harness the power of the social web to become more responsive, transparent, likeable, and profitable.

Secrets on how to build a brand’s popularity by being authentic, engaging, and transparent on Facebook and other social media sites will be revealed. You’ll learn the same methods Dave has used to successfully redefine the brands of a number of large companies, including 1-800-FLOWERS.com, Neutrogena, and Verizon FiOS.

Complete with serious strategies communicated with wit and humour, Likeable Social Media is the definitive source for using social media to win new customers, gather valuable feedback, and increase the bottom line. With Likeable Social Media, you’ll learn how to truly engage your customers and help them spread your message far and wide.

Contents

Chapter 1: Listen First and Never Stop Listening
• Dave describes the importance of listening to your customers and others through social media.

Chapter 2: Way Beyond Women 25-54: Define Your Target Audience Better Than Ever
• With social media, the target audience can be more defined than ever before (Facebook ads, Twitter search, etc.)

Chapter 3: Think – and Act – Like Your Consumer
• How to get to the top of the Facebook newsfeed and why it’s so important.

Chapter 4: Compel Your Customers to Be Your First Fans
• Dave describes the importance of getting your already existing customers to “like” your page.

Chapter 5: Engage: Create True Dialogue With, and Between, Your Customers
• Feature your fans, hold contests, host specials, etc. to get your fans engaged with the page.

Chapter 6: Respond Quickly to All Bad Comments
• Make sure that all complaints are being heard; social media is the new form of customer service.

Chapter 7: Respond to Good Comments Too
•It is important to make sure that no voice goes unheard, let those who praise you know that they are appreciated.

Chapter 8: Be Authentic
• Don’t try to make your brand or company out to be something that it’s not; authenticity rules on social media.

Chapter 9: Be Honest and Transparent
• Honesty and transparency will build trust with your customers and in turn draw new customers towards your brand.

Chapter 10: Should You Ask a Lot of Questions?
• Questions are one of the best ways to get people involved with your page; let fans engage with you.

Chapter 11: Provide Value (Yes, for Free!)
• It is essential to give value to your audience without focusing on marketing yourself or your company at all.

Chapter 12: Share Stories (They’re Your Social Currency!)
• Let your fans know how your company got started, how you are involved in the community, unique employee stories, etc.

Chapter 13: Inspire Your Customers to Share Stories
• If your customers have a great story about your brand, let them share it by featuring them in unique ways.

Chapter 14: Integrate Social Media into the Entire Customer Experience
• Dave describes why it is powerful to include social media icons (FB, Twitter, etc.) onto your packaging, in store windows, etc.

Chapter 15: Use Social Network Ads for Greater Impact
• Connect to a thinly defined target audience to reach a specific group of people and make them feel as though you’r speaking to them.

Chapter 16: Admit When You Screw Up then Leverage Your Mistakes
• Use social media as the main channel to admit when things go wrong, then clearly define how you will fix the problem, then show the community what you are doing to leverage.

Chapter 17: Consistently Deliver Excitement, Surprise, and Delight
• By exceeding customer’s expectations through social media, you can consistently make them happy through excitement, surprise, and delight.

Chapter 18: Don’t Sell! Just Make it Easy and Compelling for Customers to Buy
• Social media should not be used as a means to selling your product, brand, or company, it should just simply make it easier and more appealing for them to buy.

Conclusion: Just Be Likeable

Appendix: A Refresher Guide to the Social Networks Which Matter Most
• Dave goes over best practices for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs.

Reviews

“Dave Kerpen’s insights and clear, how-to instructions on building brand popularity by truly engaging with customers on Facebook, Twitter, and the many other social media platforms are nothing short of brilliant.”
Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and Celebrations.com

“Alas, common sense is not so common. Dave takes you on a (sadly, much needed) guided tour of how to be human in a digital world.”
Seth Godin, author of Poke the Box

“Likeable Social Media cuts through the marketing jargon and technical detail to give you what you really need to make sense of this rapidly changing world of digital marketing and communications. Being human—being likeable—will get you far.”
Scott Monty, Global Digital Communications, Ford Motor Company

“Dave gives you what you need: Practical, specific how-to advice to get people talking about you.”
Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

Our Opinion

Learning to understand and use social media is something many small businesses really struggle with. This book cuts right through all the hype and nonsense that’s out there and gets to the stuff that really makes a difference for anyone in business.

Buy it now, direct from Dave Kerpen’s own website at www.likeablebook.com or from Amazon below…

Product Description

Brilliant Online Marketing covers every aspect of online marketing from website design right through to cutting-edge techniques from the online lead generation. Free from ‘technobabble’ and jargon it will appeal to anyone who wants to learn how to make the most of this fast-moving and exciting marketing channel.

This book will show you how to use email, blogging, social networking and online media to reach your customers. Focussed on actions that produce results, online support is also available through author’s website www.alex-blyth.co.uk

From the Back Cover

Whether it’s display advertising, e-mail marketing, social media engagement or some other form of online marketing, the Internet is fast becoming the place where businesses market their products and services.

Brilliant Online Marketing covers every aspect of online marketing, from website design and search engine optimisation through to blogging and social networking. You’ll learn all the cutting-edge techniques to help you (and your business) take advantage of this exciting marketing channel.

• Brilliant outcomes
• Gain a comprehensive, jargon-free overview of online marketing
• Understand how to tell an online fad from a genuine opportunity
• Know which methods yield the best rewards and how to use them

About the Author

Alex Blyth is a freelance journalist who has many years experience writing for publications in the small business sector, such as Director, First Voice, New Business, Accountancy, PR Week, Retail Week and Print Week. You can find out more, and read hundreds of published articles, at www.alex-blyth.co.uk.

Our Opinion

Sometimes I come across a book that not only all our customers, but all small business owners should read. Brilliant Online Marketing by Alex Blyth is one of those books.

A few years ago I read a brilliant little book about business. It was called “The Game of Business And How To Play It” and was written by Paul F Gorman. Then, a few days ago a business associate sent me a copy of this little book for Christmas (thank you).

Having now re-read the book, I still think it is a brilliant little book; 64 pages of business wisdom and pure genius, so I wanted to share it with you in this blog post.

First I went to Amazon to find the book, only to find that this little book, packed with business brilliance appears to be one of those rare books that can be hard to find; Amazon only has a few copies listed, all of them used.

I continued searching and have now come up with several sources for the book (listed below). Some are the original paperback book and some are ebook versions, but they all contain the same 64 pages of business wisdom found in the original and I cannot recommend reading any one of them highly enough.

“The Game of Business And How To Play It” contains 21 chapters and is virtually a step-by-step manual for business success. It focusses on the things most businesses should be doing, but are not. It points out mind-bogglingly simple truths that once read, you cannot dispute.

It covers a whole host of business topics including buying, selling, production, communicating, hiring staff, training, the entrepreneur mindset, business strategy, marketing and creating an exit strategy.

This little book is an entrepreneur’s blue print for success, a business bible and an exercise in profound wisdom.

Whether you run a new business, an established business, or are considering starting a business, you will benefit from reading this little book.

Where to obtain “The Game of Business And How To Play It”

• Business Balls – Free PDF download
• Abe Books – Used Original Paperback
• Smashwords – Online eBook
• Lighthouse 365 - Free PDF download
• Amazon – see below

I’m sure like me, you have had lots of Christmas cards and Christmas emails from other businesses you deal with.

You know the kind of thing… “Merry Christmas and thank you for your business and here’s to a prosperous New Year.”

Its lovely to be appreciated and great to be remembered.

But have you also had a Christmas card or Christmas email, which as well as wishing you a Merry Christmas, also includes a sales pitch?

YUK!

That sales pitch, special offer, discount code or in the worst case I ever saw, a brochure inserted into the Christmas card totally undermines the good wishes.

It comes across as desperate, lacking in integrity and utterly insincere.

It devalues the Christmas message completely and devalues the sales pitch too.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I support the idea of sending Christmas cards to business contacts, perhaps even gifts too, but to devalue them with a sales pitch is crass, rude and completely unnecessary.

So if your are going to send Christmas cards, emails or gifts this Christmas, send them without the sales pitch. Leave that for another day and do your business, your reputation and your customer’s impression of your business some good.

Finally, here is my simple Christmas message to small business owners everywhere…

Merry Christmas – have a fabulous one because you deserve it!

O₂ Priority Moments

Free local advertising for small businesses is always good news and this is definitely good news.

The O₂ mobile network has a scheme for its customers called O₂ Priority Moments.

Priority Moments is a free loyalty service for all O₂ customers. It gives them access to a wide range of exclusive offers and experiences from shops, services and leisure brands.

O₂ customers can access Priority Moments by mobile or on their computer. The mobile app uses their location to show the offers nearest to them first.

What is a Moment?

A Moment is an offer created by a local business to run on the Priority Moments service. Popular Moments include money off, free gifts with purchase and special experiences (for example an exclusive event for Priority Moments users.)

The best Moments are those that offer great value and are exclusive to O2 customers.

What’s in it for Your Business?

Priority Moments is a self-service, online tool that allows independent businesses to create and publish offers (or Moments) for Priority Moments users to see.

It’s sure to get your business noticed, as all Moments published using Priority Moments will appear on Priority Moments via the mobile web, as well as via O₂‘s app available on iPhone, Android, Windows 7 and Blackberry phones.

And as the Priority Moments service is location-based, O2 customers can now find great deals near them, no matter where they are – deals from your business.

Why Should Your Business Use O₂ Priority Moments?

Priority Moments was designed specifically with independent businesses in mind, putting you in control to ensure great results.

O2 Business customers can join now for free, and start targeting potential new customers in their local area. Unlike other offer creation services, it gives you complete control over what you offer and when you offer it.

Find out more about O₂ Priority Moments

To find out more and start using O₂ Priority Moments to advertise your business free of charge visit the O₂ Priority Moments website. They have a great video on the site showing you exactly how to create a Moment too.

So many websites never list well in Google.

Why?

Usually for one of these 3 reasons:

1. The web designers who built the site have guessed at the SEO (search engine optimisation) rather than doing it properly. This approach is much more common than you might think.
2. The web designers who built the site have no knowledge of SEO (search engine optimisation) at all. This approach is alarmingly commonplace.
3. The web designers who built the site have out-of-date knowledge of SEO (search engine optimisation) and have done the site’s chances of listing well more harm than good. This is more the norm than the exception.

These 3 reasons are then often compounded by a business owner buying a website who doesn’t know what they need to be asking for and therefore have no idea these things are a problem until after they have paid for their pretty new website and some months later are still paying out a small fortune for pay-per-click advertising while getting no free traffic from Google at all.

So how can you avoid this?

Simple – get good, up-to-date SEO information.

Where from?

Here are my top 5 sources for good, up-to-date SEO information…

1. Google Webmaster Guidelines

This is the bible of website design; yet it would appear that most web designers don’t even know it exists. If you are going to build a website, READ IT!!  (and keep reading it regularly because it gets updated). Read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

For the layman’s version, download Google’s free PDF Guide to SEO called Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

2. Keyword Research

Thorough keyword research is a necessity, not a luxury. If you want to get listed, you have to do it.

Here are 3 great keyword research tools:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
• Market Samurai
• Traffic Travis

3. Help My SEO

Read a good book about SEO. One of our guest bloggers, David Amerland is a published author. His books are available from all good booksellers including Amazon. He writes about SEO and social media. Read his books, they are full of great SEO advice.

4. Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts is the head of web spam at Google. It is his job to improve the way in which Google chooses who gets to the top of the Google listings. He is THE man at Google when it comes to SEO.

• Read Matt Cutts’ blog
• Follow Matt Cutts’ on Google+
• Follow Matt Cutts’ on YouTube

5. SEOmoz

SEOmoz is a popular provider of SEO software. Their easy to use tools and tutorials make search engine optimization accessible to everyone.

• Find out more about SEOmoz
• Read the SEOmoz Blog

So now you have the right information, you can stop guessing about SEO (or hiring a web designer who does) and go and get your site listed well in Google.

…and if you still need help, talk to us about a new Google-friendly website.

It seems to me that probably the biggest mistake small business owners make when marketing their business is to focus on brand awareness rather than creating individual targeted marketing campaigns.

Almost every day I see small businesses creating advertisements, flyers, newsletters and all manner of other marketing materials that completely lack focus and instead talk in general terms about their business and the whole range of products or services they offer.

They say things like “for all your XYZ needs” or “no job too small“.

It also seems to me that these ‘generalised’ advertisements and marketing campaigns are based upon a fundamental flaw in their thinking. Clearly these small business owners believe they need to explain about everything they do, just in case someone wants something they haven’t mentioned.

The problem with this approach is that unless you have VERY deep pockets it is highly unlikely to increase your sales.

Why?

Because in order to increase sales you need to focus each advertisement, flyer, newsletter, or whatever marketing tool you happen to be using, on just one single product or service AND give your potential customers a really good reason to contact you about it or place an order for it right now.

It needs to be about a single product or service because people buy things according to their own agenda and current circumstances. They are only really interested in their own situation as it appears to themselves right now and solving the problems they are facing right now. So offering them lots of different products or services means that you will only dilute the effect of each and every one of them.

Added to that, it needs to give them a really good reason to contact you or place an order right now because they are busy and if you don’t get them to do it now they will postpone it and most likely forget to do it altogether.

Unlike big businesses who often have huge marketing budgets, small businesses need to make every penny count when spending money on marketing. So be sure to make your marketing campaigns highly targeted. For each individual campaign focus on a single market sector or group of people. Only promote one product or service to them at a time. Make sure you include an offer that makes that product or service really attractive to them and if possible make that offer limited by time or number of items sold. Next be sure to include a clear call to action – something like “Call us today on 01263 340808” or “Contact us now to book your free consultation“.

Remember: If you are a small business, probably every penny of your marketing budget counts, so keep your brand awareness campaigns for your business cards, brochures and website. Instead, focus your advertising and marketing campaigns on targeted, single item, limited offers and you will increase your sales.

A final word of warning:

Always make any offer a genuine offer – people are not stupid and will see straight through any bogus offers or exaggerated claims.

By now you probably know that Google is looking at your social signals as a part of its search engine algorithm.

This means that when Google is deciding who should be listed at the top of their search results, one factor they take into account is whether people are talking about your business on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

As a small business owner, this means you need to be giving people a reason to be talking about your business on those sites.

A great way to do this is to run a free prize draw. Particularly on Facebook, free prize draws work really well for stimulating social signals. They can increase your ‘Likers’ by hundreds or even thousands and encourage new subscribers to your mailing list too. They also get people talking about your business and sharing your prize draw details with others.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Choose a prize

Choose something to give away which has real value in itself. Something which has a genuine monetary value to the recipient – something they would want to win. Whilst giving away one of your products or services can be very effective, if you can get your hands on the latest ‘must have’ gadget, or fashion accessory you could really create some ‘social buzz on steroids’.

Good prize examples:

• A free product
• A free service
• A gift voucher
• A product or service which is hard to obtain

Bad prize examples

• A discount voucher
• An offer which isn’t unique
• An offer which is available elsewhere
• An offer you are already promoting

2. Write clear and simple details of how to enter

Before you rush off to get started, remember that in most countries there are strict laws about prize draws and competitions, so check these out carefully first.

A good system to use for a free prize draw is to ask would be entrants to ‘Like’ your Facebook page and subscribe to your newsletter. You need to write very clear and simple instructions telling them exactly what they need to do to enter your draw. Include a link to your Facebook page and a link to your newsletter sign up form, and a screenshot of where the ‘Like’ button is on your Facebook page. Make it very clear that to enter they need to do both.

2. Blog about it

Having created your instructions, now create a blog post about your competition or prize draw. Set a firm closing date and make it clear that your own employees etc. are excluded from entering. Explain that you will notify the winner by email. Include pictures of the prize, perhaps a video of it and always include the retail price too. Now lets say for example, you have managed to get your hands on the latest Google Nexus 10 tablet and you are going to use that as your prize.  Make sure you include a link to the Google sales page for the Nexus 10 and really importantly explain how they completely sold out within minutes of launch and as a result are now really difficult to get hold of – but you have one and are going to give it away! In other words, if you genuinely can, create some hype, scarcity and desire in your reader. This will really help the social buzz about your prize draw.

3. Send a newsletter about it

Now write a newsletter about the prize draw, include a link to your blog post about it and send it to your list.

4. Use social media to promote it

If you want social media users to start spreading the word about your free prize draw, tell them about it. Post a link to your blog post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and any other social media sites you use. Make sure your headline is attention grabbing… e.g. “Win a Google Nexus 10 in our Free Prize Draw“.

5. Use competition websites to promote it

There are loads of competition websites our there that will promote your prize draw for you free of charge. They are frequented by people who love entering competitions and free prize draws. These sites are a potential gold mine for your business, so use them. Be careful to read their rules first though. One of our favourite competition websites is Loquax, and there are many others too.

6. Choose a winner at random

Straight after the closing date have your draw. Choose the winner at random. Do this honestly and ethically. If at all possible have an independent 3rd party choose the winner for you; better still have a celebrity do it!

7. Send the prize to the winner

Gift wrap the prize and send it to the winner – preferably by special delivery or courier – make a fuss of your winner – make them feel special. Enclose a hand written note congratulating them. Add a P.S. to the note asking them to post a picture of themselves with their prize on your Facebook page.

8. Promote the results

Post the name of the winner and publicly congratulate them on your Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Send out another newsletter doing the same and write a blog post about the winner and include the picture of them with their prize.

9. Repeat

Repeat the process as often as possible.

10. Share your success stories

Feel free to come back here and share your success stories with others by leaving a comment below.