Talking yesterday with Karri Flatla of Snap! Web Marketing relating to some of the very cool projects we are both involved in right now. Check out her website and blogs for tips and trends on SEO and sharp web communication. Karri is an amazing copywriter who specializes in helping businesses understand how to ramp up their web content, and her firm is collaborating with me on a new community project promoting young entrepreneurs. Watch for more news on that over the next few weeks...
And in the meantime, what do you think of the other blog template I have developed using Wordpress?
10 Steps to Turn Unhappy Customers into Loyal Advocates
When you turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer, they are much more likely to spread positive word of mouth advertising for your business than they would be had they never been unhappy. Our Six Steps to Turn Unhappy Customers into Loyal Advocates, is built around the ‘Golden Rules’ of business.
Golden Rule #1 is, “The customer is always right.”
Golden Rule #2 is, “When the customer is wrong, referto rule #1.”
1. Listen, Listen, Listen. More often then not, a customer’s biggest complaint is “no one listens”. Learn to listen attentively and always demonstrate empathy. Empathy is defined as, “one’s capacity to participate in another’s thoughts or feelings”.
2. Learn.Bill Gates says, “Welcome your most unhappy customers, they can be your greatest source of learning.” When you do uncover a customer complaint, assume other customers have, or will have, a similar problem. Conduct a post-mortem with your staff and put systems into place to prevent that problem from occurring again.
3. Listen again.Often, a customer’s initial complaint is NOT their underlying complaint. Once they have vented and explained their problem, ask “Is there anything else?” Keep asking this question until all of the complaints are on the table.
4. Don’t become defensive. When you are passionate about your company and your service, it is easy to go on the defensive and refute every complaint. Sometimes we become defensive or argumentative in an effort to not give a refund or cost the company money. When you push back, it’s human nature for the complainant to push back even harder.
5. Listen again. Then listen some more. Once you have carefully and thoughtfully listened to the initial complaint, ask “Is there anything else?” This power phrase can be very disarming! Seldom is the initial complaint the real complaint, but rather it’s often the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. You’ll know when you have reached the real source of aggravation when the customer answers your “is there anything else?” with, “No.” At that point, they actually do an about face and start telling you about all the things they DO like about your company.
6. Take responsibility.Customers don’t want to hear excuses or blame….and angry customers certainly don’t want to hear that your ‘company policy’ prevents you from solving their problem. Apologize for the problem and take responsibility for solving it to the customer’s satisfaction.
7. Break even is not enough.When you offer a refund, that’s only break even in your unhappy customer’s mind. Your breakeven solution doesn’t account for their time, aggravation, gas and other inconveniences they suffered in their attempt to do business with you. Rather than offering your proposed solution, ask the customer, “What can we do to make you happy?” If you have let them vent and shown empathy for their situation, they often propose a solution less costly than what you would have proposed.
8.Empower your staff. Make sure your staff understands they are empowered to compensate customers for errors up to a pre-determined limit, and that they are trained to do so quickly and cheerfully.
9. Show that management cares. During or after the complaint, management needs to personally acknowledge and apologize for the problem, preferably face to face, but at least by phone, email or letter.
10.Follow up. Plan a courtesy call 30 days after the problem is solved to ensure the customer is still happy. A follow-up call to ensure your solution turned your unhappy customer into a happy customer will remind them to generate more positive word of mouth for you.
A couple of final points…
1.) If your company has made an error, call the customer BEFORE she finds out. Waiting for them to contact you leaves them with the impression that you were hoping they wouldn’t notice the problem. When an angry customer calls you, the relationship is much more difficult to handle than when you notify them about the problem or error before they have discovered it.
2.) There are exceptions to every rule! There are customers who will try to take advantage of the liberal customer complaint policies we prescribed here. You need to know when to fire a customer. Firing should be extremely rare and only executed by management. And be aware that your fired customer will vehemently spread negative word of mouth about you and your company.
More wisdom from the desk of Chris Lytle http://www.max-atm.com/: "A sales manager told me a sad story last month. "We lost two people in one month to another industry. They left because the company that recruited them offered a one-week sales training program in Chicago."
A 23-year-old rookie who was driving me to a presentation told me she had interviewed with several companies and chose to work for the company that had a "more formal training program."
Your training program may double as a recruitment tool and triple as a retention strategy. A wise man once said, "If your people see the company as a place to grow and not just a place to work, they will stay with you 12 to 18 months longer."
I have been working on developing a new email campaign for a client, and am once again reminded about the affordability and flexibility of using email to meet a multitude of business objectives and so cost-effectively.
Computers have forever changed the way we do business, and nowhere is that more evident than in the ways that we stay in touch with clients, subscribers, members or prospects.
My belief is that as human beings we are all selling something all the time. If you are a parent trying to persuade your teenager to cut the grass, a non-profit society creating a public awareness or fundraising campaign, or a business person wanting to round up new customers, it’s all selling. You want to convey your point of view with another person in a way that will (hopefully) bring them around to your way of thinking.
So, we use the term ‘marketing’ as a global umbrella for that process of telling others about your product, service, program or need... and email offers many benefits; quick, adaptable, cost-effective, and encourages client sharing and referrals.
Even if the intention of your email project isn’t about ‘selling’ something, the steps are the same. Every email campaign will be based on understanding these four basic elements of marketing as they relate to your business or organization:
1. Intention, goal or objective – what do we want to achieve
2. Audience – who are we speaking to, contacting, selling to and how/where can we find them
3. Form & Content – what should this look/sound like in order to create a desired response from our audience
4. Delivery – how can we put this information in front of the target individual or group
Wow! Some amazing news last week when to find out that a book I produced a couple of years ago is being featured as part of the course materials for the Community Rehabilitation Diploma program. One of the instructors, Cara Milne of M-Powered Planning, is including the book Our Journey in her course materials for the spring session of this class for students all across Canada.
This book truly was a labour of love, both for me as the project manager/writer/editor, and for the Lethbridge Association for Community Living who contracted with me to produce it. It was an amazing opportunity, to meet with families and individuals, to hear their stories, to laugh and sometimes to cry with them at the joys and challenges of raising a child with a disability.
My friend Bruce Hunter, deafened at 18 months but also a professor at Seneca College and himself an author of several books, said this about Our Journey... "I wept in recognition reading these painfully honest and beautifully moving stories of challenge and triumph by disabled people and their families - as they strive to experience the things in life most take for granted. These are not strangers, but our brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, employees, our coaches and teachers.
The disabled are the world's largest 'minority', the 10% of the population that transcend class, culture, religion and race. This book bears poignant witness that we are not alone."
Thank you Bruce, for your kind words. Thank you to our corporate sponsor Meyers Norris Penny for helping to cover the print costs, to LACL for trusting me... and thank you to the families for opening their homes and hearts to me for this project.
Colette
