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What to do when you are dealing with Humans?

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by Shashi Bellamkonda

I have been in the people business for many decades. First in the hospitality industry and now in the small business technology space. Some of the companies I love are for their ability to make every employee of theirs “human.” I find it odd that I have to use the term “human” to describe living things that are already human. Such is the cost of the pressures of economy, technology and pressures of the world we live in.

We hear that mobile is the next big thing. Of course the effect of it is that a pair of otherwise loving human beings now take walks and instead of holding hands, hold their phone feverishly typing as they walk. Family dinner outings become shorter, with dad’s addiction to checking in to every possible location app and show the virtual world that he is alive and well while kids and spouse lovingly tolerate crazy dad ( Guilty here!)

How does this apply to business?

Rule No 1: The Human in front of you is better than a Byte

When I worked for the hotel industry we learned to give preference to the “Human” who was in front of us rather than the one on the phone. Are we now driving away “humans” and making them communicate with us virtually? I don’t know if you agree or not but face to face is still the best way of communication unless you are talking about a couple breaking up.  Train your employees in thinking of customers as humans and communicating with the same friendliness that they would expect. Assign clear rules to follow when faced with situations where your staff may be faced with a face to face customer versus one on email or the phone.

Rule No 2:  The Human needs help not your computer

This is an incident closer to heart when a few months ago my 10 year old niece was flying back from India and was travelling 3 legs of the journey on different airlines. In Bombay she is told by Swiss Airlines that the computer shows that she has already flown the flight which has yet to take off. How ridiculous does this sound? Luckily she was with her parents, but they were forced to buy a ticket for that part of the journey even though they had already paid for it. So in this case this was a total failure of making the situation human.

An experience that was nice was when I was flying back to DC on SouthWest and realized that I had made a mistake and my return flight was to Dulles instead of Baltimore where I had parked my car to take the flight in. Thinking about the horror of trying to get to Baltimore from the Washington Dulles Airport and the time I would waste making the journey, I approached the SouthWest counter  and the lady listened to my story, called a supervisor and changed my booking to Baltimore and did not charge me for it. I will always remember SouthWest fondly. I could give you countless examples – the ticket counter at Silja Line in Helsinki where to my horror I had booked a cruise the next day and had no hotel and they changed the booking without any fuss. The lady at the London Eye in the UK who agreed to let us take an earlier ride.

Humans have a good memory for both good and bad experiences. The important  thing to remember for companies when things happen is to “humanize” the situation immediately. Worry about the Human in front of you and how to help them rather than your computer that gives you an impossible answer.

Rule No 3: How to retain your customer even if you disagree with them.

A conversation with a customer should never be carried to an extreme. I fought my insurance company all the way to the State Attorney’s office and I lost. Yet  I still am a customer and think they provide the best customer service insurance companies can provide. I disagreed on a rate increase that I thought was not justified and the company stood its ground but always kept me in the loop, listened to me patiently looked for other ways to help me reduce my bill. All this comes from a inbuilt spirit within companies to help the customer and not engaging in a conflict that leaves the customer unsatisfied.

As your business grows , think about your customers as members of your friendly neighborhood. Think of them as humans first and not as 140 characters or bytes in an email. Your business will flourish when you “humanize” it.

What do you think? Do you have any tips for businesses to humanize themselves?

 

Author’s Bio: This guest post is by Shashi Bellamkonda, senior director of social media and public relations — employees call him Social Media Swami — at Web.com, a company that helps small businesses establish an online presence and conduct online marketing. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Were you naughty or nice to your customers this year?

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As much of the nation enjoys Christmas and other cherished celebrations this month, many small business owners can’t help but think ahead to 2013.

With the clock winding down on this year, what are your business aspirations for the next 12 months. Simply put, how will you and your customers work together in 2013, making it the best relationship yet?

If you were the small business owner who maybe did not spend as much time as they should have coveting their customers these last 12 months, how will you improve upon that task going forward?

Among the things to review:

* Did you go that extra mile for your customers in 2012?

* Did your employees (where applicable) return customer calls promptly, answer any and all questions, and solve problems when necessary?

* Did you gain referrals from many of your customers because they appreciate the products and/or services you provide them? If not, do you think doing a little more for them may have helped you in gaining the trust of their family, friends and co-workers?

* Did you do the little things like send them a year-end holiday card or email?

These are but four of the items that you should be asking yourself, more importantly, answering without hesitation. Remember, without your customers, there is no small business to run.

Many people make New Year’s resolutions on a yearly basis, but how many truly keep them?

In a day and age when customers have a variety of shopping options, what will you do in 2013 to stand out from the competition?

Among the things to consider:

* Offering online shopping (if you do not already), delivery services (where applicable), mobile payments, and providing follow-up service with each and every customer;

* Utilizing social media to the max. If you are not currently using SM, why is that? You are essentially passing on free advertising when you are not social;

* Surveying customers from time to time on what they like about your business, what they do not like, and how you could improve things.

Lastly, use the coming year as the chance for a fresh start for both you and your small business.

In the event you could have done more for your customers over these last 12 months, make it your gift to them to make 2013 an even better year.

Photo credit: teamaltman.com

About the author: Dave Thomas covers small business topics for a variety of websites.

 

How Internet Business Changes with Video Chat

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Jason Phillips

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What Offline Businesses Know

Small businesses have always been built on customer relationships. Strong relationships with your customers mean stronger stability for your business. Mom and pop stores on main street have lived off this truism for years and they continue to do so because so called brick and mortar businesses deal with customers in person every day. In many ways, customers are their business.

The Limits of Internet, Email, and Text

What internet businesses have forgotten, however, is that dealing with customers is their business too. That means that whatever Internet business you are in, dealing with customers is what you are all about.

Internet businesses, for all of their convenience and stocking capability, have always had been at a disadvantage from local brick and mortar businesses due to the lack of credible customer relationships. When a customer shops at a local business, they have the advantage of asking for a sales associate from behind the counter when they have a question or concern and a real person will show up and help them out. In addition, the customer and sales associate can build a solid relationship with each other over time. This means that if the customer is familiar with Jane because she was kind and helpful last week, he can come in the next week with his concern and ask for Jane again with a good reason to believe he will receive the same quality of service.

This kind of long term personal relationship model breaks down over the impersonal Internet.

Email and text chat have been the mainstay of customer support for most online businesses, but customers can’t connect to a user name the way they can connect to a face. For all the customer knows, a different representative could be using the same name each time and the customer would never know.

There is something about face to face communication that builds a connection between people that email and text can never do. While brick and mortar may have had the monopoly on this face to face personal touch to customer service in the past, video chat is quickly evening the playing field.

How Internet Business Changes with Video Chat

Have you ever noticed how a little baby will stare at your face for minutes on end while you hold them? This early staring at people’s faces is a developmental stage that is vital to all humans. This trains us to distinguish the thousands of different facial expressions and subtle emotions that are communicated through face to face communication. Text chat and email certainly can’t come close to this level of communication. And while voice communication provides the addition of voice inflection, it still comes nowhere close to the depth of communication achieved by face to face communication.

This is why video chat is vital to your online company’s customer service strategy.

The text based, impersonal and anonymous nature of the internet is changing under us with the advent of video chat. The internet is about to become a much warmer place because of the depth of communication now available between people.

The bottom line is that video chat is a great thing for your online business because it begins closing the gap between brick and mortar customer service and online customer service.

Make no mistake; this is going to be a challenge for some of us to get used to. After years of sitting, and maybe even hiding behind email and text, we are going to have to get back to the basics of good old person to person communication. We need to relearn good eye contact, good clear speaking and the elimination of all those “ums” and “ahs”.

Author’s Bio:
Jason Phillips shared this post. Jason is a freelance writer who enjoys the challenges of creativity and attention to detail. His articles on webcam chat are really appreciated by his readers. Jason always tries to provide unique and interesting content in his articles.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Negative Reviews and Consumer Complaints: How Your Business Can Keep a Positive Image

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Rich Gorman

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How Your Business Can Keep a Positive Image

Business owners typically take a lot of pride in the goods and services they offer. Hearing a consumer offer positive feedback, then, is one of the best feelings a business owner can experience. By contrast, negative reviews and customer complaints tend to sting. They tend to hit where it hurts —- at the business owner’s own sense of pride and accomplishment.

Negative Reviews and Customer Complaints

Unfortunately, negative reviews and customer complaints don’t just hurt a business owner’s pride. They also hurt a business owner’s sales. That’s never been truer than it is today, in the Age of Google, Bing, and most importantly, perhaps Yelp.

The Trouble with Online Reviews

Yelp and consumer review sites like it have effectively become the new word of mouth. Study after study finds that consumers turn to these review sites before making big purchases, and that they trust the information they find there. What this means is that online reviews and consumer complaints can prove massively influential over consumer behavior — good news if your business’ reviews are excellent across the board, but bad news if they are not.

The trouble here is that no business owner can trust that his or her reviews will always be positive. A negative review or an online complaint can come from any number of sources, so simply ensuring that you offer excellent products and superior services is not enough. A bad review could be planted by a business rival, or even by a disgruntled ex-employee.

These reviews can be disastrous to any business. But the good news is, there are steps that you, as a business owner, can take to minimize their visibility and negate their effects.

Watch Out for Your Online Reputation

If your company has any kind of an online presence at all, then it has an online reputation. The question you need to answer is simply this: Is your online reputation a positive one or a negative one? If a consumer searches for your brand name, does that consumer find information about how wonderful your company is; or does the consumer find one-star reviews and customer complaints?

Knowing where your business stands is crucial. That’s why it’s important to search for your brand name on a regular basis. There are a couple of professional tips that will make this a little more efficient:

  1. Set up Google and Yahoo alerts, which will let you know when any new online listings appear. This will help ensure that you have up-to-date information delivered directly to your inbox.
  2. Log out of Google before you search for yourself. Google, after all, offers personalized search results. If it knows that you own the business, it may try to protect your feelings, and hide the negative stuff that’s out there. Logging out ensures that your data is more objective.

Protect Yourself from Defamation

The next step is to build a strong, defensive wall — enhancing your brand and keeping your company insulated against negative reviews. The underlying concept here is that you cannot stop bad reviews from being written, but you can keep them from being seen. If the first page of Google is filled with positive information about your brand, then the negative stuff will be relegated to page 2 or 3, where it will do little or no damage to your brand’s online reputation.

Protecting yourself starts with registering for exact-match domain names, which will rank well on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. For instance, if your company is called Braverman Industries, make sure that you’re the owner not just of bravermanindustries.com, but also .org and .net. These sites will help you fill out that first page of search results. Signing up for exact-match account names, on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest, is also helpful.

Merely registering for these accounts is not enough. You also need to be proactive in building your brand, by using these domains and social media accounts to publish positive, brand-enhancing content. The more content you’re able to publish, the better insulated you will be against the threat of damaging online reviews.

Reviews Happen

Of course, there is no way to absolutely guarantee that negative reviews and customer complaints won’t happen, or that they won’t breach your defensive wall. The question, then, is how you, as a business owner, can respond. If the review is a positive one, of course, or even if it offers genuinely constructive feedback, then it’s important to simply be nice, grateful, and prompt with your response.

And when the review is flat-out negative, to the extent of being unreasonable or even defamatory? Don’t respond at all. Any response is only going to serve to lend that review search engine traction, which means more consumers will see it and you’ll have an even tougher time suppressing it. Avoid the response, and simply double down on your efforts at brand enhancement and Google insulation.

Author’s Bio:
Rich Gorman is a serial internet entrepreneur with an extensive background in direct marketing, affiliate marketing, and online reputation management. In addition, Rich manages the Direct Response industry’s official blog where he shares his thoughts on Direct Response Marketing. Currently, Rich leads the team at reputationchanger.com

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Does Your Business Make Subtle Promises You Can’t Keep?

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Making Promises Without Thinking

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Back when every client was a “new” client, I occasionally got caught up in the spirit of doing what I loved with people I like. In quest to give them an outstanding experience, I’d make a promise without thinking about it and fall down when I tried to keep it. Eventually, I learned to think through what I say I can do.

Most of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned by doing something wrong.
I don’t recommend that tactic. Falling down hurts. Falling down on the job often injures customer relationships.
Still doing things wrong it’s a powerful way to learn.

I got a reminder of that this week, when I received an email from a hotel confirming my online reservation.

Be Sure You Can Keep ehe Promises You Make

A fundamental key to credibility and influence is keeping promises. None of us wants to make promises we can’t keep. Broken promises lead to disappointment and disappointment leads to loss of trust. It might be easy enough to catch ourselves when we offer what we can’t deliver. But sometimes we make subtle promises we can’t keep without knowing it. Or can we.

Does your business make promises you can’t keep?
Think not?
I’m willing to bet this company thinks not too.

The promise was simple.
It’s described in this email.

I got this email yesterday from a hotel where I’ll be staying soon. Because I’m waiting to tell them in person when I stay at the hotel, I’ve removed the identifiers from the email. That’s only fair.

Elizabeth Strauss
We look forward to serving you during your upcoming stay at the XXXX Hotel. If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail or contact us at 416-XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,
The XXXX Hotel Team
416-XXX-XXXX

As it turned out, I had a simple 5-word question regarding the hotel.
I replied to the email with my question. Minutes later I received an email that said

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

The email made an offer, a promise of service, that I didn’t expect.
I spent time writing an email back.
When I did, they couldn’t deliver on the promise.
I was disappointed.

I know how technology works.
I know that sometimes this happens to everyone.
Perhaps that’s what happened here.

Another story that happened the next day.

I was in a nice department store. It was also a first contact with the business. The sales associate was firmly focused on helping me find boots to fit my hard-fit-feet.

When I got to some that seemed to fit (if the boots stretched just a little), I asked if they had this boot a 1/2 larger, so that I could check that fit against the ones I had on.
She said, “No, I could order them. Wait a minute …” She left for a moment. Then she returned to say that she’d the manager for permission to have a stock person check the ladder-high shelves of unopened shipments to find the boots in my size.

In a great example of service, the manager came over and said we would have to wait for a stock associate to come over from another department. He said, “Can we get you some water and perhaps buy you lunch? This might take some time.”

I asked ‘Are you sure that my size will be in those boxes?”

He said, “Yes, the associate checked the store inventory.” Then in a moment of clarity. He said, “Let me be sure of that.” He approached the associate and after their conversation, the associate returned to say that they didn’t have my size.

Broken promise averted. My time wasn’t spent.

The offer to check the stock WAY up was a subtle promise that I didn’t expect.
The manager investigated before he made a promise.
The undeliverable promise wasn’t made.
I was delighted that they’d tried on my behalf.

Does Your Business Make subtle Promises You Can’t Keep?

Great and growing businesses want to do well for customers. They know that customers are what keep them great and growing. But the first incident has left me wondering if that business lives up to their aspiration of service while the second lets me know that when they say something they mean it.

I was disappointed with the first.
I was delighted with the second.

That’s the ROI of being thoughtful about the promises we make.

How do you make sure your business isn’t making subtle promises you can’t keep?

Keep every subtle promise you make this week.
Keeping promises is irresistible.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

7 Keys to Loyal, Lasting Customer Relationships

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Every Business Is Relationships

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It doesn’t matter what your role is in business.
You won’t get very far without the help of other people.

It doesn’t matter whether your work is solo or as one of thousands in a big corporation.
Your work will require you to interact with people.

To build a product, offer a service, tell people about that product or service, make a sale, solve a problem, or gather feedback. It’s hard to imagine a business situation where people aren’t involved. To be successful, some social skills are an imperative. To build a team or grow a business, we need to get other people engaged and involved.

Business is relationships and relationships are everyone’s business.

Transaction is not Connection

In some ways, every person we interact with — employees, bosses, vendors, partners, shareholders, family, friends — is a customer. Those interactions can be transactional. You do this and I’ll do that. Relationship over until the next offer.
We do the this so that we get that prize.

We see this and do this online and off.

  • “Like” our Facebook page, and get a coupon for a free taco.
  • Follow us on Twitter and we’ll retweet you 5 times.
  • Enter our contest and you could win!
  • Buy our product and get 10% more.
  • Buy from us and get a free hat!

The problem with that transaction — the quid pro quo agreement doesn’t develop a relationship.

Our attention is on the prize not the person or even the business who offered it. We earned the prize.
Unless they offer another prize, we don’t really have a reason to interact with that business or person again. If someone offers a better prize for less work or investment, they’ll get our time.

Transactions are not connections. It takes a connection to have reason for returning.

7 Keys to Loyal, Lasting Customer Relationships

Transactional business is tough. And it’s risky. It’s tiring and costly to keep reminding customers to come back and buy again. Another vendor can offer a better, or even the same, transaction and if the timing, placement, or prize is attractive when customers have a need to buy again they’re gone. How far will you walk to get a lower ATM fee?

But, build a relationship and the game changes. You’ve suddenly established context. Context shows people how you fit into their lives. Now that other vendor can’t replicate or replace what you’ve built. It takes a little more time and maybe some thinking, but the investment is worth it. Invest in people and they’re more likely to invest back.

If you want customers to form a relationship a fiercely loyal customer, stick by these 7 keys to a loyal, lasting customer relationship.

  1. Show up whole and human. Listen when people talk. We respond to generosity and compassion.
  2. Talk in your authentic voice. Let your values speak for you. You’ll attract people who share them.
  3. Tell your own truth. Tell the best true story about you — the one that gets customers to see that you’re like them.
  4. Have room for customers to tell their best story too. When they do, find a way to applaud.
  5. Don’t try to tie ideas up in a bow. Leave room for contributions, conversation, and growth through collaboration.
  6. Invite the best people to contribute. Let customers into your business to do things unrelated to buying, like swapping success stories, sharing their wisdom, and helping other customers have a better experience.
  7. Be helpful, not hypeful. . . . Make everything about them not you.

People make relationships with people, not with businesses. Investing authentic attention in customers, taking time to see, hear, and understand their needs, wishes, and wants, builds trust. Trust makes things faster and easier. We buy more and bigger things from people we trust.

Got advise on how to win your loyalty as a customer?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss