Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

It’s Hard to Be Irresistible When You’re Kissing Up to Folks Who Don’t Care About You

Filed Under Customer Think, Marketing, Successful Blog | 5 Comments

Invest in the Customers You Want to Attract

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Dreams are good things. Strategies to get us there are essential to making those dreams real. A key strategy in any business plan is knowing who the customers are that we want to serve.

Sometimes we think we know that, but then we make decisions worrying about what the whole world of customers will think of what we do. We want the whole world to love us, even though we know we’re not building a business for the whole lot of them.

Do you see the disconnect in that?

It’s hard to be irresistible to our ideal customers when we’re not showing them they’re the only ones we care about. Yet, sometimes we change our business because worry about the opinions of folks simply because they have opinions about us and what we do.

Before we change we really ought to consider whether the the folks having opinions are part of our ideal customer group.

The strongest businesses, the best web apps, the biggest celebrities and rock stars know that serving and celebrating their loyal fans is what builds a foundational brand. As Becky McCray and Sheila Scarborough pointed out so brilliantly at SOBCon2010 – If we narrow the niche we serve, the opportunity gets wider. If we invest hugely in the people we want to attract, the attraction factor becomes huge.

If we hedge our bets, those ideal customers can tell we’re not with them 100%.

Give your listening, your love and your best work to the ones who love what you do.

Think a minute. Have you been taking time from your ideal customers to please folks who’ll never care about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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I Asked for Hot Fudge and Cool Whip but I Got Skittles

Filed Under Customer Think, Marketing, Successful Blog | 10 Comments

The Gesture Was Lovely

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It was a mission. The task was simple.
On the way home from dinner, he said “I need to go to the store.”

We hired a taxi to place him at his destination.

On the way out of the car he asked, “What for you?”
I said, “hot fudge and cool whip.” I was thinking hot fudge with the butter pecan ice cream we had for a late night sundae. I was thinking Cool Whip for an early morning “blogger’s latte.”

Didn’t get the hot fudge or the Cool Whip.

What he brought home was Skittles.
I like Skittles, but Skittles — they are his favorite!

The gift was lovely, but … he got me what he liked, rather than what I asked for. It was nice thought and I said, “thank you.”

Still uou can’t make a blogger’s latte with Skittles, no matter how much anyone loves that candy …

Ever been there? How do you respond when someone — maybe a favorite company — gives you what THEY want.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Are You Mission Critical?

Filed Under Customer Think, Marketing, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

A Position of Power or a Call to Service?

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I know a man who describes his ideal job in a simple nine words.

Whatever I do, I want to be mission critical.

When he first said that, I thought he was describing a position of power and adrenalin. Now I see it more as call to service and collaboration.

Are You Mission Critical?

The difference between a truly strategic mission and a shaky vision is the practical and human understanding that we can’t go it alone. Strategy only works when it serves the people who help us grow.

The people we serve have their own missions.

Great service wraps our mission around the mission of the people we serve.

What people do or how they do it is less important than the mission that drives them. If we understand their mission, we can be the catalyst that gets them to realize that goal. That is the definition of mission critical.

How do you wrap your mission around the mission of the people you serve?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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To FAIL Is Human, to Respond Is …

Filed Under Customer Think, Marketing, Successful Blog | 6 Comments

Who Always Gets a Perfect Score?

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So we put our heads and our hearts together into what we do.

In this environment, we think fast. We move fast. We execute with the information that’s available. Sometimes we make the wrong choice. Sometimes the other guy gets there first. Sometimes what we built doesn’t work the way we thought it would.

We could put up a sign to let folks know that working on it.

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But when the sign goes up often enough to become an icon, when people make new versions that involve Home Simpson and tattoos, then we’re an exponential FAIL. We all know about Twitter FAIL FAIL FAIL. But we’re not Twitter and we don’t have millions of new accounts signing on everyday.

One little fail can knock down a whole lot of good that we’ve built up.

What’s critical is our response.

When people point out a FAIL, stand beside them. Look where they are pointing.
It’s so much more productive than standing in front of them and feeling pointed at.

Always remember there’s a person on the other end of the issue.

To FAIL is human, to respond is more than service. That’s when humanity and character show through. Relationships built in a FAIL situation, often become FAIL SAFE in the end.

When has a FAIL served you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Accidents Happen … The Extreme Customer Service of the IT Man

Filed Under Customer Think, Marketing, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

The Wisdom of the LAN Specialist

We all have winning days that the world goes exaclty as it should. Business is fun and customers are a pleasure. Then there are others. On those days when it seems that nothing knows its proper order, life might be easier if we remember what this IT Man said.

Readers, clients, customers, family, friends, even the guy selling papers on the corner, it makes it easier if we show them the extreme customer service of the IT Man.

Do you believe in the wisdom of the IT Man?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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