Is your customer always right?
By Ken Varga | July 3, 2009
We have all had miserable experiences, and I hope that we have all learned from those negative experiences. When business colleague Rich Schefren emailed me this story, I thought it would be important to have you read about it too. It addresses one of the dilemmas we have to deal with as business owners. The story is titled “Golf Anyone?” but is about our interaction with our customers. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts.
Here is the link to the article: http://www.strategicprofits.com/strategy/golf-anyone/
To your success…
Topics: Customer Retention, Lifelong Customers, customer satisfaction | No Comments »
Building your brand!
By Ken Varga | June 26, 2009
I’m often asked the question, “How do I build my Brand?” My response often is, “What are you Building?” This really takes some thought.
You want your customers to remember the essence of your company, not just the image you give with your public face. For example the brand Coca Cola has a definite public image, but I often ask myself what is its essence.
Essence, I find, must come from inside a company. This oftentimes is expressed in your business and its core purpose.
You are building your brand on a daily basis whenever you interact with a customer, prospect, or in your networking.
When someone asks you, “What business are you in?” what do you say? Do you say “real estate”, the “insurance business”, or “I’m in retail sales?”
To illustrate, let me go over these three. Massage these to fit your business.
Real Estate: “I’m in the business of helping individuals build (find) their dream homes with creative financing.”
Insurance: “I’m in the business of protecting people’s life styles…for them and their family. I’m a Dream Doctor…I also protect their dreams.”
Retail Sales: “I create gourmet gift baskets that make people memorable when they give them.”
I can go on and on.
What business are you in?
Don’t define your purpose only by the products or services you offer. Rather, consider defining your company’s purpose in terms of what customer needs and benefits you provide. Answer the question, “What benefits does the customer receive from what you have to offer? Remember, a customer is always asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?”
When Western Union was founded, it was a telegraph company. I remember seeing the old ads where they showed miles and miles of poles with lines hanging from one to the other. Why are they thriving as a business today, without telegrams? Because, around 1980 or so, it started understanding itself as a “Money transfer” service.
Creating your brand may sound easy. It isn’t. It takes an awful lot of concentrated and continued effort. But done right, it’s worth it.
Topics: Branding | 1 Comment »
Profiting from the news…
By Ken Varga | June 12, 2009
I was flying back from a recent trip and was reading an article about a tax loophole that was ideal for businesses in the travel market. Since three of my consulting clients are involved in the travel industry, I tore the article from the newspaper to copy and send to my clients.
As I did it, I wondered how many of you do this consistently and deliberately. This is a great way to build your relationship with clients.
When you read an article, think about if it might be helpful to any of your clients, and send a copy off with a short note letting them know that you are thinking of them.
Profiting from the news is a wonderful addition to your marketing arsenal.
In my early years of running my corporations, I don’t think I ever read a magazine or a newspaper in any city I visited, where I didn’t tear out something to rush to different private clients.
Use this strategy to help increase the bond with your clients.
When you send out emails, you could send a link to a story. If you send out faxes, you could include the story. (I would recommend faxing short rather than long stories though.) If you send out mailings, it’s easy to include a copy of the story.
Introducing these stories to your clients is a way to boost their knowledge. However, the stories must be timely…that’s the key. If you wait, the opportunity will be gone.
Topics: Customer Retention, Uncategorized | No Comments »
A Million Dollar Idea
By Ken Varga | June 5, 2009
A million dollar idea
Last evening, I had the opportunity to visit my local Chamber of Commerce’s meeting, whereby they had approximately 52 tables set up by various local vendors. They called it “Sizzling Summer Business Expo 2009.”
They also invited all of the restaurants in the area to rent a booth and created an area outside the exhibiting area, just for those nibbling on the offerings from the restaurants.
Here are a few lessons from this experience…
The companies there paid $250 for a table, and no one…and I do mean NO ONE…thought to offer a response mechanism…something that would prompt the attendees to communicate with the vendor. Sure, they gave out many items as gifts with their name on it, but nothing to prompt anyone to do business with them.
Also, there were 22 local restaurants, which created 3 or 4 various dishes. There were lines for the food, but guess what? The attendees got their food and moved on. Why didn’t these restaurants offer a coupon, for let’s say 20% off your dinner when you come in? They didn’t have anything to give out to generate a customer. Sad!
But let me tell you about a million dollar idea I gave one of the exhibitors. His company does pest control. Two years ago, I was having a problem with birds nipping away at the caulking around my skylights, and I put an item called a Bird Repellent Spider on the roof near the skylight. In fact, I put 4 by my skylights. This exhibitor had one of these on the exhibiting table and when I mentioned to him that I also had Spiders on my roof, he was happy to hear that someone had installed the them. He asked me what pest control company installed them. I told him none. I googled bird repellants, found and bought 4 of them, and hired someone to install them on my roof.
When I asked him how many homes his company had installed these units on, he said “None.” He mentioned how difficult it was to convince a homeowner how important it was to install these spiders. To make a long story short, his company had no way of convincing a home owner about why they needed these Spiders and how they would benefit by installing them.
Here’s what I said to him. Research the damage birds do to a home, or building, and the health ramifications that would result when someone catches a disease that many birds ccarry, then present it to the homeowner as a health and safety issue. He and the others at the table loved the idea.
I then told them to research articles or studies that were done where birds have done serious damage to light posts along the road, light posts in Marinas, or any kind of poles. They can create a new market to sell to by extolling the reasoning that the Spiders installed atop the light posts will stop birds from destroying the metal, and over the long run save the township, or marina, money.
This product, the Bird Spider, can be used in many other areas as a deterrent, so I told them to think of other areas to create a new market.
I asked them what this idea meant in money to them, and they said over a million dollars and that is why I titled this article “A Million Dollar Idea.”
Let me know your thoughts on this or any input you might have.
Topics: Grow Sales, innovating, lead generation | 2 Comments »
Domino’s pizza, sneezing employees, and your reputation…
By Ken Varga | May 30, 2009
I was watching the morning news, and the reporters were talking about a video that was on You Tube about Domino’s Pizza, and about how two of their employees in North Carolina taped themselves sticking sticks of cheese up their nose and sneezing into a sandwich, and using the cheese sticks they stuck up their nose into the sandwich.
Well you can imagine the uproar individuals seeing this video felt about Domino’s Pizza.
I was left wondering what Domino’s could have done to limit the damage that occurred when the video appeared on You Tube?
All of us, at some point, could have negative publicity staring us in the face. I doubt if we could absolutely avoid it occurring, but there are mechanisms that could be in place to react immediately.
I say “immediately”, because Domino’s didn’t react positively immediately. When it did respond, it issued a statement to the press and created a Twitter account to answer any questions the public might have had. They also created a You Tube video, where the president Patrick Doyle, conveyed his outrage, announcing the arrest of the workers, and extra vigilance in hiring.
These types of responses could be too little, too late these days. First of all Doyle’s apology came 48 hours after the video was posted, after it was viewed nearly one million times, and it also had a lot of play on other social media sites. Individuals on Twitter were wondering about Domino’s silence.
Even LinkedIn created a forum on what the company should do.
If there is a lesson here, it’s that companies must have an active presence on the Web to monitor their brands continuously and to enlist loyal customers to help deal immediately with any damage.
Pizza Hut, a competitor, just announced it is seeking a Twitter-based intern to monitor its reputation online. And Domino’s now has their own Twitter account with over 1000 followers.
So, have a monitoring mechanism in place, then react immediately.
Let me know your thoughts about this, and other suggestions you might have for other companies. For example, what should a real estate firm do, a Medical provider do, or others?
Topics: Business ideas | 4 Comments »
On Seth Godin and Innovation
By Ken Varga | May 23, 2009
I recently read Seth Godin’s blog about change and it reminded me of the blog article I wrote about Innovation a few weeks ago.
Here’s what Seth says, "In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things. This is hard for a lot of marketers who are used to defending the status quo, but it’s truly the best option.”
“If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting?”
Seth is a seminal thinker. I highly recommend reading his blog, if you don’t already do so.
For the original post, and other comments by Seth, you can go here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/change.html
Also, re-read my blog post on Innovation at http://www.kenvarga.com/news/willing-to-innovate-like-this-guy-did/ and let me know your thoughts.
Topics: Business ideas, innovating | No Comments »
Bonding with customers
By Ken Varga | May 2, 2009
Many of you reading this blog have daily and consistent communication with your customers and prospects.
Here are a few steps on what you can do to create a bonding experience with them when you meet them, or when they experience your business for the first time. It’s good to remind ourselves about these basics from time to time.
The first step should be obvious…Smile.
I’m sure you’ve visited businesses where the salesperson approached you without a smile. Make sure your employees don’t’ make this mistake. They are often the first people your prospect or customer meets. Train your employees to greet customers and prospects with a sincere smile.
The second step is to greet your customers or prospects the way you would greet your spouse…on a great day, that is. Be ecstatic to see them, and again, be sincere.
The third step is to use the right kind of handshake. The secret of a great handshake is not just in the firmness of the shake…a must…but also in the amount of palm-to-palm contact. Studies have shown that opening your palm to someone is akin to opening yourself to them.
In my manual, “How to Capture The Mind of Your Customer and Get them to Say YES”, I go over a Neuro-Linguistic Programming method where you match your body language with that of your prospect or customer. Matching body language is a non-verbal way of telling your clients that you like them.
The idea is that people prefer doing business with people like themselves.
The concept is called Miming or some call it Mimicking.
Once you start mimicking your client’s body language, you will notice that they start to subconsciously mimic yours.
This is when you have the opportunity to open up. If your hands are crossed, uncross them, lean forward, and speak directly to them, and they will now open themselves up to you.
When this happens, it is a signal that you have built trust and rapport, and you can guide the direction of the relationship.
Some of you have created unique ways to make this bonding happen between you and your customers. Share some of your methods with us here, so we can all learn. Also, after you have used the steps I just gave you, let me know what results you get.
Topics: Lifelong Customers, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Acres of Diamonds
By Ken Varga | April 25, 2009
Can you imagine acres of Diamonds? Well, everyone has them. I call them Lost Customers. Because of today’s economy, being as bad as it is, it is imperative that you have a system of mining these Lost Customers.
Here are some ideas.
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The first and most important thing I can tell you is this…Figure out ways to Prevent Lost Customers from becoming Lost Customers in the first place. Find out Why they are leaving you. Can you be more in touch with why they are leaving you, so that you can catch them before they fall through that hole? There are certain times of the year that people drop thru the holes in your buisiness, and when you recognize that period, you can set up a system to gift them something just prior to that period of time. Let’s just call this “Being Preemptive.”
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Create a sales letter, that you can send to them, and remember the most important item in the letter is an apology from you that you didn’t meet their expectations and that you will rectify this and make doing business with you an experience that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. And then, don’t disappoint them.
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Devise a system to periodically reach out to all of the customers you’ve lost over a period of time. You can offer them a great discount, but you want to make it an “irresistible offer” that they can’t possibly refuse. Many of you are in the restaurant or cleaning business. Those of you who aren’t can still use this next idea. Make a totally FREE offer. A free dinner on you on their birthday. All they have to do is to present their Drivers License. Do you think they are going to come alone? Of course not. Or offer a suit or shirt cleaned FREE. If you are in the medical profession, offer a complete free exam or treatment. What I’m saying here is, “Bribe" them to come back and be your customer again.
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When you do re-capture that lost customer, be sure that you WOW them with their first experience back…and all of your follow-up to this experience.
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Lastly, make sure that you go back as far as you can to reactivate lost customers. You might get a lot of return mail because of people moving, but the results are more profit for you and your business. You must spend as much on reactivating your lost customers as you spend on getting new ones.
I have seen companies jump sales by 50% from their old lost customer files.
Do not let this be a whenever-you-think-about-it event. Set it up as a consistent yearly thing you do to reactivate lost customers. Let me know your thoughts and what systems you’ve created to reactivate lost customers.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Helpful hint…
By Ken Varga | April 17, 2009
Last month, I flew from Aruba to Las Vegas to attend the Speakers & Authors Networking Group Event. When the event was over 3 days later, I flew back to Aruba.
The reason I went to all of this trouble of flying, is because I’m still investing in myself and still learning from others. And whenever I learn anything, I impart it to you.
The speakers at this event included Alex Mandossian, Tony Robbins, Rich Schefren, Joe Polish, Joel Bauer, Les Brown, and quite a few others who are making tons of money in these tough times.
The key message from everyone was that there definitely is an economic problem and we won’t come out of it soon, but that it is in these tough times that we all need to help each other to survive. I’m doing my part to help you survive, so that you and your company are still here when the economy turns around.
If you are having problems in any areas of your business, get some help. Don’t try to solve it all by yourself. Get input from others. As a matter of fact, you can get input from me by asking your questions using the comment box under this message.
Topics: Business ideas, Recession | 1 Comment »
Coke Fiasco
By Ken Varga | April 11, 2009
I was just thinking about why Coke made the decisions they made when they took the old Coke off the market and created New Coke; it turned out to be a disaster.
I googled Coke and found out some interesting information that I feel pertains to all of us who are in business.
In the early 1980’s Coke was the dominant soft drink in the world. Then along came Pepsi with their Pepsi Challenge, in which they had groups of individuals sipping a sample of Coke and a sample of Pepsi. When asked to choose between Coke and Pepsi, the majority chose Pepsi.
Coke then did their own blind study and found the same thing. When it came to a sipping challenge, the majority chose Pepsi.
So what did Coke do? It took their best seller off the market and created New Coke. What a disaster. You probably remember it.
They made New Coke sweeter because Pepsi was sweeter.
Following their error of judgment, they listened to their customers and reintroduced the old Coke back as Classic Coke.
Here is what Coke didn’t realize about the taste test…the test was just a sip test. Tasters don’t drink the entire can. They just take a sip from each of the brands, or as in the Pepsi and Coke example, a sip from each, then make their choice.
When Coke did the test differently, where they allowed the taster to finish the can, they found that the majority chose Coke over Pepsi.
Pepsi happened to be a drink that shines in a sip test. Does this mean that Pepsi mislead people?
I don’t think so. It just means that people have two different reactions to colas, depending on the type of test.
Think about how this might apply to your business.
Also, the color of a product makes a big difference. I remember reading a while ago, that Margarine was originally white in color. When they changed it to yellow, people accepted it more because it looked like butter.
Just a few examples for you to consider when you are getting feedback from your customers.
Topics: customer surveys | 2 Comments »