The Evolving Internet Marketer

Are Your Customers Happy? Ask One Question to Find the Answer…

What’s the question?

Would you recommend this product (or service) to a friend (or colleague)?

I came across this gem in a pile of articles (Business 2.0, September 2005, The Only Question That Matters) that have been gathering dust waiting to be filed on my desk. This question is derived from consultant Fred Reichheld’s work in the area of customer satisfaction. He found that rather than asking tons of questions of customers it was better to ask just one question, “Would you recommend X to Y?” Reichheld calls this the ‘net promoter‘ approach. (Mr. Reichheld captured this technique in his 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth)

Really, what else matters? Have you satisfied your customers to such an extent that they will recommend, even evangelize, your product to their circle of friends, peers and colleagues? I’m sure that you, like me, have found yourself adequately satisfied with a vendor’s products or services but not thrilled, not impressed. You felt lukewarm and lukewarm doesn’t garner enthusiastic raves to those we come in contact with.

“My bank’s okay but they’re just a typical bank, no better or worse than any other bank I’ve dealt with…”

“The car’s okay, nothing special. Gas mileage is decent. Dealer is okay. Hasn’t ripped me off; as far as I know…”

“What computer do I recommend? Well, I have Brand X and it’s alright but I’m thinking of changing to Brand Z next time I buy…”

Are the above what your customers are saying about your products, your services? Or are they saying things like:

“You’ve got to get Y, it’s a great product but, what’s more important, when I had a problem their support group bent over backwards to take care of me!”

If you’d rather have this response than the others then start asking your customers, “Would you recommend my products to your friends?” And if they won’t or if their response is lukewarm, find out the reason(s) and fix the things that are preventing your customers from being your best salespeople. Chances are, if they won’t recommend you to a colleague, they probably won’t be a source of repeat business themselves. So not only do you lose all the business they might influence to try you but their business as well.

Does Email Marketing Matter?

Yes! But it’s not easy. But the payoff can be huge…

A couple of stats:

Forrester found that customers who buy email advertised products spend 138% more than customers who don’t buy through email. That’s a huge difference. Why? I believe that if you’ve established a strong enough relationship of trust with a consumer to the point that they will not only open your email messages but click through and purchase then you’ve already created that most desirable of attributes in your relationship – commitment. And commitment drives credibility and credibility drives action which translates to sales.

Second, GfK Research Dynamics reports that 73% of email users have made an online purchase as the result of relevant email offers they’ve received. That’s online purchases. There is no doubt an additional percentage who’ve been driven to pick up the phone or visit the store to purchase merchandise originally presented to them via their email inbox.

Note the emphasis on relevant. Amazon is great at populating my inbox with highly relevant offers. I may not act immediately on their offers but I don’t discard them. I maintain most of them in a wish list type folder in my email inbox. What do I mean by relevant? Well if I buy a book on search engine optimization or search engine marketing, Amazon makes sure to notify me of additional relevant titles in this category. Look at the list above. Are the titles relevant? Yes. Am I likely to buy? Not only am I likely but I have on numerous occasions. Do you know what’s relevant to your online customers? Are you capitalizing on this information?

Yeah, there are lots of snakes and dragons in the world of email marketing. Email deliverability issues being foremost among them but the rewards for making ongoing investments in resolving and overcoming these issues can be well worth the additional effort.

Sprint, Customer Service and Wondering if it’s Ever Okay to Fire Your Customers

Is it ever okay to fire your customers? The small or struggling business may gasp in horror, “NEVER!” But the truth is that we fire customers everyday; too often in a passive aggressive manner of being slow to respond, offering shoddy products or delivering sub-par service.

You should delight your customers but I think that customers should delight you as well. Otherwise, what’s the point? Oh yeah, money… but sometimes there’s not enough money in the world to make certain customers worth it so why not focus on finding customers that are a delight to delight! Businesses are, after all, relationships and don’t we all work harder to maintain & nurture relationships we enjoy?

I’m sure most of you have heard by now about Sprint’s decision to fire about 1,000 customers. You might have reacted in outrage or bemusement at Goliath telling David that he’s tired of being pelted with those stones, so just go away.

Sprint’s in the business of making money and when you have a significant population of customers who are costing you more money than they return in profit — yeah – get rid of them. According to Sprint these ‘customers’ were averaging 50 calls a month to customer service. In my view that’s pathological. Sprint nicely informed them that it was pretty obvious they weren’t happy with Sprint so we think you should take your business to someone who can make you happy.

It was the business equivalent of, “It’s not you, it’s me!”

A question to ponder, as posed by Seth Godin, “What would happen if you fired (nicely) the very few customers that take your best effort but rarely appreciate it or spread the word?”

I think you’ll be happier, your employees will be happier and it will be easier to delight the customers you keep . After all, sometimes, “It’s not me, it’s you!“

Track What People are Saying About You, Your Company, Your Products

Don’t be caught off guard by negative reports about you, your company or the products and services you offer. Likewise, don’t fail to take advantage of the positive buzz that the online community generates on your behalf.

Failure to track and react to the negative as soon as it appears limits your opportunities to control the damage while not tracking and leveraging the latter can be a waste of golden opportunities. It’s one thing when we say something nice about ourselves, it’s exponentially more powerful when it’s said by an unbiased 3rd party.

The web presents us with a wonderful array of tracking tools and services. Google Alert is one such service that will track whatever topics you specify for you. They offer a limited free service as well as more robust personal and professional paid offerings. Do-it-yourselfers can achieve the same results by merely searching on their name or product names at Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN Search and whatever other search engines you feel are relevant. Don’t forget to search news services, blogs and social book marking sites.

A few resources to use in tracking your reputation online:

• News :: Google News
• Blogs :: Google Blog Search, Technorati
• Social bookmarking :: Digg, del.icio.us

Don’t be the last to know when someone says something bad, or good, about you on the web. Be proactive, not reactive in managing your and your company’s reputation.

Praise for GetHuman.com

My PayPal account was hijacked recently and I’ve had to make several calls to their dispute resolution department to deal with the situation. Each time the process has been…

1. Hunt all over their website for the phone number (because I’m too stupid to write it down)
2. Endure voice prompt hell before I can finally get to the right person. I will say that once I’m talking to a human they express true courtesy and concern in attempting to resolve my problem.

Anyway, I’m angry enough about the hijacking but by the time I get through VPH, I’m even angrier with a side of frustration thrown in, too boot.

I can’t tell you how grateful I was to my creaky, leaky brain when it reminded me of GetHuman.com. This is Paul English’s Nobel-deserving customer service database. You need a contact number and the inside poop on bypassing the robo-gatekeepers to get to yes, A HUMAN? Then GetHuman(dot com)!

My process this time:

• Click to the GetHuman.com website.
• Scroll to PayPal’s number, read their Get Human advice
• Dial and press 0 at the first prompt.

Wow! A human voice. Like they say in soccer: “Scooooooooooooooooooooooooore!!!!!”

Thanks Paul!

Grow Your Blog Readership the Mack Collier Way

Mack Collier posted a great primer on growing your blog readership with 8 easy steps. I’ve listed his steps below as a handy reference with my comments following each step. His article goes into additional detail so don’t forget to read the whole thing. Published at MarketingProfs.com, Eight Easy Ways to Grow Your Blog, is good stuff.

Mack Says…

1. Post regularly

3 times a week to start and spread them out. I’m guilty of posting multiple times on one day and none on others. I’ll spread out from now on. It’s attractive to both readers and search engines alike.

2. Develop a comment policy

Encourage comments and make sure they get posted quickly – just beware of the spam monsters ready to kick the crap out of your blog if you let them in…

3. Reply to comments

Hadn’t thought of this one until somebody else mentioned it but yeah, show ‘em you’re listening and you care about what they have to say even if you don’t agree with it. It’s true, people like and respond better to others who express an interest in them.

4. Showcase readers who make special contributions

Giving your commenting superstars the VIP treatment encourages them and others to keep the love flowing.

5. Build your blogroll with your readers’ interests in mind

You build your value by being not only a resource but a portal to other, relevant and valuable resources.

6. Offer unique content aimed at your blog’s target audience

Like the old groaner goes, “Why was the farmer so special? Because he was outstanding (out standing) in his field!”

7. Make your blog’s feed available for RSS subscribers

Hey, how many of us would read the newspaper if it wasn’t delivered to our front door?

8. Offer email subscriptions to your blog’s content

Like step 7, don’t make them come to you–cuz most won’t)–go to them.

Mack’s advice is grounded in applied common sense so listen, learn, implement and watch your blog grow.

Want more of Mack Collier – start with his own post on his Marketing Profs article and go to town…

The Importance of Focus to Internet Success

You’ve heard the saying, “A jack of all trades but master of none.” Success on the internet, and off, is largely dependent on how tightly focused you are; focus well and you’ll prosper, focus poorly and you’ll likely go out of business.

The days where you can be all things to all people has gone the way of the dodo. Consider the success of the following companies as an illustration of the rewards waiting those who focus best:

Google – focuses on search – they own that space and have won it with focus.

Amazon – focuses on books — yeah, they sell other stuff too but their focus on being the book seller to the world is what got them where they are.

Apple – focuses on ‘cool’ — they build cool products that appeal to cool people. They could never out geek Microsoft but they’re winning the war on their ‘cool’ factor.

Starbucks – focuses on coffee — and the multiple permutations thereof that they’ve been able to dream up.

Wal-Mart – focuses on price — the largest selection at the lowest price. They’ve rolled over all of their competition except those who’ve chosen to compete with them with focus. They’ve focused on a niche and provide service and expertise in that niche that a behemoth like Wal-Mart can’t begin to touch. You ever see any five and dime or family department stores anymore? No; they lost focus and were runover by Wal-Mart and its big box brethren.

The most successful clients I work with have the tightest focus. They intimately understand the niche they occupy and work with dedication to own it.

A recently launched website profiled in the local newspaper, www.myplanafter50.com, is focusing exclusively on baby boomers. They’re going after the fastest growing segment of internet users with some of the deepest pockets anywhere by presenting themselves as the go-to resource for life decisions after 50. With focus, they stand a good chance to succeed.

One of my oldest clients, Eric Chester, has established himself as the leading authority on intergenerational work force issues by focusing on Gen Y’s (he’s even coined his own term for these youngest of employees, Generation Why; referring to their tendency to not accept direction dociley but always ask ‘why?‘.

Eric made the transition from another ‘me-too’ high school motivational speaker to in-demand corporate keynoter and consultant by realizing that the same struggles he faced in motivating his young audiences were being faced by work place employers every day and with substantially less success than he was enjoying.

Focus, you’ll be happy that you did and a lot more prosperous to boot.

Optimizing for Your Customer Not Google

A friend of my recently blogged about using News Alerts to feed your customers content they can use and establish your expertise while you’re at it. A nice little one, two punch I’d say.

The biggest diamond I found in his post was this comment…

No matter what business you are in, if you want to know more about “optimizing” your web site, pay attention to what Jerry Rouleau is doing. He does it by optimizing what he provides his customers.

Yeah, let’s quit talking about optimizing our websites and put the focus where it absolutely needs to be — on our customers.

Kind of Relevant Note: I unsubscribed today to one of the many internet marketing ‘rags’ I follow simply because all I ever got were thinly disguised infomercials that ended with a link to buy whatever their particular blog post or ezine was pitching. Hey, throw me a bone of content once in a while. Give me something to chew on while you’re patting me down for my wallet. Don’t just show me a picture of the bone and promise me “…and there’s a great big steak attached to it too!”