Successful Blog

Are Your Customer Relationship Management Skills Up to Par?

by

If you see your sales numbers and return on investment (ROI) taking a significant dip as we near the midway point of 2012, perhaps it is time to give a second look to your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) skills.

Sit down and simply ask yourself as a small business owner what tactics you are employing to make the experience every one of your customers has better each time.

Among the steps that you should be employing:

  • Properly branding your product – While other companies scale back their marketing efforts when dollars get tight, others see the chance to take advantage of the tough times and gain an edge on the competition. When it comes to branding, it is more important than ever to make your product stand out;
  • Determine value to your customers – At times when consumers are concerned about their financial security as many have been in the last few years, they are in need of reassurance. Consumers are not likely to make binge purchases; many want the sense of making sensible purchases, control, security and simplicity, leading them to be more frugal when it comes to their buying habits;
  • Social media presence – Whether it is Twitter, Facebook or another venue, social media offers a great means to engage the customer and find out what they like and what they don’t. You may or may not want to employ someone in your business on a full-time basis to oversee this area, but at the least it should be attended to on a part-time basis;
  • Customer experience – Another main area to focus in on is the customer experience. Customers have a lot of options with which to choose from, so how are you going to set yourself apart from your rivals? The key here is making the customer experience worthwhile enough where they want to keep coming back time and time again. Do your employees put your customers first or are they an after-thought? Do your employees who work the phones treat the customers like they’d want to be treated, or are they short and rude with them? Finally, do your employees provide the necessary answer/s when a customer has a question about a product? Know these things and don’t take them for granted;
  • Customer rewards – Lastly, what are you doing to reward your customers for their loyalty to your business? A customer will continue to come back over and over again if they like the service and feel the prices are reasonable. It is important as a business owner to treat returning customers properly and reward them for their continued patronage, be it through special rewards programs like discounts and the like. There is a reason this particular customer came back to you for purchases, so never forget that.

Make customer relation management skills a top priority at your small business in order to better position you and your employees to reap the rewards.

Dave Thomas, who discusses subjects such as business plans templates and customer service call centers, writes extensively for San Diego-based Business.com.

Turn Procrastination into Business Building Ideas

by

You Know You’re Procrastinating When . . .

insideout logo

. . . cleaning the refrigerator takes on a new and miraculous sense of urgency with a heavenly glow.

Go ahead give in and do it, but don’t lose to procrastination. Turn that refrigerator chore into an exploration for ideas. Here are three things you might think about.

  • What is your customer experience of the products that you are tossing out? Can you use those experiences to seed an article for your blog?
  • Refrigerators are filled with products. How do the companies who make those products promote them? Can you rethink any of their ideas into ways to promote your business or your blog?
  • Is there a brand in there you are attached to? What do you value about that brand? Can you put those thoughts and feelings into words? How can you use that brand value you feel to strengthen your personal brand and the experience people have when they meet you?

Procrastination just became an idea session, and on top of that you’ve cleaned your refrigerator! That’s productivity where you could have been doing what I’ve done — standing in front of an open refrigerator door thinking about how the light goes on and off.

Bet you can think of more ideas to find inside of that Big Box. How about sharing some with us?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What’s the YOU in What You Do?

by

Your Strategy Is Uniquely Yours Alone

cooltext443809602_strategy

I spend most of my days thinking about, reading about, writing about and talking about strategy for individuals, small businesses, and huge corporate brands. When you look closely at what I do, it will soon become apparent that like snowflakes that every strategy is uniquely different and in that way they’re all the same.

True strategy draws from who you are, where you’ve been, what you know, what you’ve experienced, and decisions you’ve made. So even though an individual, a small business, and a huge corporation might all have the same vision, mission, and goals. The opportunities that come to them are as different as who they are and what they know.

A solid brand is like your character. Build on who you are, not on a strategic plan.

It’s a serious risk to invent a brand that isn’t you or the values that your business is built upon. What happens when you do is that the brand becomes a bad facsimile of what you really are. And sooner or later the true you leaks out in some way — you don’t live up to what you invented.

You can’t write my blog post. You can’t give my talk. You can try to copy me, but you’ll always be a copy.
The value in what you do you is your own version of the way you do things.

I can’t be Copyblogger Chris Brogan, Oprah, or even my own mother, but I’m one heck of a Liz Strauss.

The closer we get to understanding who we are and what we value, the more people trust us to show up in ways that we say. They see, feel, and respect that we are living what we’re saying and they know they can trust that. It resonates with others when we ARE who we ARE, not just how we act.

And within us, our businesses and our corporation, the integrity and confidence of know who we are offer rich context that telegraphs itself to anyone who hears any one of us talk or anyone talk about us..

Don’t reinvent yourself. Don’t re-engineer new ways of reaching out.
Reconnect to your values and be what the best version of you is about.
That’s how you’ll attract the people who share those value with you.

It’s the YOU in what you do that makes the brand, the business, and the team work the way it does. No one can compete with that. People can join in, adding to the story and enhancing the mission.

The you in what you do is the ultimate barrier to entry. It attracts opportunity, but defies replication.

Read that sentence again. Information, products and services are all over the world and all over the Internet, but there’s only one YOU. No one can do, see, think or add the difference you make in exactly the same way you do. Anything that isn’t you … isn’t your brand – it’s discounting your true value and values.

That unique YOU is the part that people love, protect, stay loyal to, and bring their friends to experience.

You are the value. You are the difference.

Have you figured out what’s the YOU in what you do?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Should You Build A Brand Online Or Use Traditional Offline Brand Building

by

A Guest Post by Jason Nash

cooltext443809602_strategy

Does a Website Change How You Build A Brand?

There comes a time for every small business to, with some great webhosting, build a brand online and focus their efforts on gaining a stronger consumer basis throughout the Internet. Many entrepreneurs prefer using traditional offline brand building to gain consumer spending, but find it difficult to connect with younger generations without the aid of technology. The target demographic will usually encourage a business to focus their efforts with either online or traditional brand marketing. However, a business entity will always focus these pursuits with the primary goal of greatly improving its revenue.

Within an industry, there are few cases where a company does not have to compete with an overwhelming number of national competitors. Even in small communities, consumers have the ability to order products directly through the Internet to obtain goods that could have been bought in local stores. When a business is forced to realize its anonymity within its market, it is up to the business owners to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack to secure a particular niche with consumers.

Large Business or Small Business?

Larger businesses with well known brands can charge more for the same product while offering fewer overall goods to their customers. This is due primarily to the marketing of their brand to be synonymous in the minds of their consumers with the product or service they sell. For instance, when you add up the price of the physical components in a large company, it will still be significantly less than the amount it would sell for due to its brand name being sold with it. This virtual commodity often has a higher price than any other individual aspect of an entire firm.

Which Generation and Where Are They Found?

Products that are intended to be used by the younger generation or consumers who use Internet access for their work will need their brand to be marketed throughout the Internet. When a company chooses to build a brand online, they have the advantage of generating a large consumer base that will only increase through time. Unlike traditional offline brand building, Internet use is becoming a universal tool that is taught to most children throughout the nation and not much is needed to get online.

Cheap web hosting is often sufficient. Once you got this you’re ready to get started with setting your online presence up. And remember that older generations will decrease over time and the traditional brands are expected to go with them if they do not revitalize their images. This can be seen by many established names trying to build a brand online to prevent the inevitable switch from damaging their profits.

Companies that offer products oriented to consumers who more frequently use television and printed materials for their information can gain more through traditional offline brand building. This marketing is quite popular currently due to the aging baby boomer population that is less integrated in social networks. Since the level of computer illiteracy is on average higher for older generations, it can actually be a wasted effort using online marketing for products that would be bought directly by the consumer.

What if it’s multiple consumer groups?

Since some products can be bought by multiple consumer groups, these items will often require both traditional and online brand marketing. This is true for products and services that are non-age oriented and for age-oriented products that can be given as gifts. It is important to focus each marketing task on the specific consumers who would be reached through media and online sources. For instance, when older generations look for a particular luxury service, they want to see a diligent staff that is both polite and friendly. For this same luxury service, younger generations will be more interested in the accommodations and the comparative price. Creating a brand that fills both of these needs can be done when each demographic is reached with the portrayal they desire.

Online brand marketing will often be through social networks and other informational sites that directly market to the consumer. The most effective form of designing a brand online has been to involve the consumer into the company’s daily operations. This often requires forum moderation after the marketing is over and special content that is designed to make these consumers feel included. Social chats with head officials to reassure consumer groups have proven to be effective. Corporate paraphernalia, including T-shirts, hats, and other trinkets can be displayed on site shops for dedicated consumer groups to show their brand loyalty.

Keep Track of the Traditional

Traditional brand creation will focus on telling consumers why your company is unique. This has the disadvantage of being a one-way conversation and relies on the trust consumers will place in your promises. Orienting the appearance of your company to the desired viewpoint of your consumers will lead to a higher reception. Since the general consumer will need only a positive psychological improvement to buy your products, traditional brands will often give the illusion of superior quality. For instance, focusing on a particular detail that is different from other competitors in a positive light can build a brand with targeted audiences. This does not even require the detail to be important or affect the performance of your product. It is simply something that makes your brand unique.

No matter the path you take with the marketing of your brand, it is important to remember that the revenue for your products and services will increase dramatically with a successful campaign (and don’t forget that a lot visitors/customers require strong hosting solutions, such as for example dedicated server hosting – otherwise your successful campaigns will be in vain). Before you branded your company, the costs were only in the material and labor that was incorporated into the product. Afterwards, you can take into account the worth of your brand and increase the prices to meet this improvement in the psychological satisfaction gained by your consumers.

—-
Author’s Bio: The article is from Jason Nash from webhostingsearch.com Jason writes
about technology, social media and online marketing strategies and
follows brands online and off as part of his work.

Thank you, Jason!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Deeper Shade of Viral: How 1 Brand Hero Delivered an Irresistible Experience

by

A True Story of How to Win a Life-Long Advocate

cooltext443809437_relationships

Now, more than ever, growing brands search for connections that mean something to their customers and the people who help their business thrive. The good ones reach to their employees to put human values inside their value proposition.

That isn’t a new thing.

And the brands that long for their messages to “go viral” might check out this story. It happened over 25 years ago, yet it’s so powerful, memorable, and moving that I think of it and repeat it every time I see the FedEx logo. I still choose FedEx over the others, because of this one event. I still forgive their occasional mistake as an accident. That’s a lifetime customer relationship and since I’m still telling the story, in my book I’d call that hugely viral.

In the last century, when Federal Express was at its peak performance. I was working at home right after my son was born. The work in my hands was on a drop-dead deadline that day. I called FedEx for a pickup because I was not going to be able to deliver the package myself.

We were in a suburban disaster – a fast-rising flood. Hours after the rain, we watched from our second-floor balcony as the water from the Des Plaines River in the parking rose above the door handles of our only car. My husband, my infant son, and I were waiting to hear when we’d be evacuated and for how long?
Then the phone rang. It was the FedEx man. He was on a high spot across the street. “Ma’am, I have a delivery. Do you need this package today?”
“I’m sorry. Yes, I do and I have one going I out too,” I explained the uncertainty, the deadline, and the evacuation.
“No problem,” he said. Then he confirmed the entrance he should use. The door was on a slope above the water line still.
I hustled to ready what I had to send. Then I went on the balcony, just in time to see a young man holding package over his head, walking through water that was up to his chest. Amazing! The neighbors on their decks were as transfixed with the image as I was.
We met at the door. We did the business of trading packages. Then he went back out. As he stood on the stoop, he thrust the new package up over his head and before he set off through the flood again. He surveyed my neighbors with a huge grin and shouted,

“We not only deliver. We pick up!”

He Delivered More Than a Package

That day that FedEx man delivered more than a package to the people who saw him. He delivered hope and trust to folks silently wondering when they would be evacuated, how long it would last, and what would be waiting when we got back.

He was a hero to people who were in distress. He saw what he saw – opportunity not a problem. He knew what he knew – he could use his power to refuse or do something outstanding, heroic, and incredibly cool. And with a huge and generous grin, he walked through four feet of water to make things work better than they were supposed to work.

He was living the values of company. Their tagline at the time was “Relax, it’s FedEx.”

If that same experience happened today, all of us watching the FedEx man in the water would have taken pictures and video with our smart phones. In seconds, we would have uploaded the pictures and video with the caption “We not only deliver. We pick up!” to YouTube, Flickr, Twitpic, and Twitter. Within seconds, thousands of people would be sharing his quote with the picture or the video.

What the FedEx man did was irresistible and shareable by definition. He made everything easy. He made me feel good about being part of it. And he left me with a story that I’m proud to pass on. It’s an unforgettable feeling when a guy is willing to trek through half a block of river water for you. You can bet I became a fiercely loyal FedEx customer.

FedEx built their brand on a company community of employees who were the value in their value proposition. It’s hard to compete with a community like that. The true stories about FedEx hero employees made them the company we trusted, relied on, and got to know as our friends. We didn’t think about other options until the heroes started to look the same as “the guys” who delivered packages from the lower priced brand.

And because my experience with the FedEx man actually happened, I’m still sharing it 25 years later.
Will you even remember the Old Spice Man in 5 years? Human relationships are a deeper, more lasting shade of viral.

Whether you’re a brand of 1 or 1,000,000, the deeply loyal relationship you make with your customers can outlast any single offer, product, or incident.

What is your brand doing to build a winning community?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help building that winning community? Work with Liz!!

What Soundbyte Do People Use to Describe YOU?

by

cooltext443809602_strategy

The importance of a professional personal identity isn’t hard to explain. We all want to let business contacts see us as high caliber individuals with strong positive qualities and competence. A strong professional personal identity can differentiate and position us an irresistibly attractive asset when we want to work with a most prestigious team.

But a great professional identity more than clever packaging. It’s more than a 30-second pitch on who we are. To set our personal potential into action takes self-awareness, reflection, information, conversation, consideration, reorganization, and a vision that we can translate into action.

By identifying personal and professional brand synergies, aligning your personal brand goals to your professional pursuits you can have your cake and eat it too. By identifying opportunities that serve both your personal and professional brand objectives, you can effectively multitask, utilizing the professional support and resources at your disposal while building your own brand. Dan Schawbel

It takes work to identify, understand, define, and articulate the unique value that is your personal value proposition. But it’s worth it to get the right words, the right values, and the right talents and skills to talk about when we talk about ourselves in a business context.

It’s harder yet to take that down to a shareable sound-byte that’s clear, concise, and dead on true.

What Soundbyte Do People Use to Describe YOU?

Call Tony. He can fix anything.
That Vanessa, she’s so sweet.
If you want it organized, accurate, and complete, Anne’s the one.
Ryan’s a problem solver. He’ll have this figured out in a matter of minutes.
David will give you the shirt off his back. Don’t take it. He never forgets that he gave it.

Those soundbytes, mini-descriptions, might be accurate, or they might be legend. The point is that the people talking believe and share them. The people they’re describing have communicated those traits strongly over time.

What do people share about you when you’re not around? Being able to articulate and highlight your value can define and even change what folks share with each other about who you are.

You probably have a sense of your strengths and some of your weaknesses. It’s hard to get through school and get a job without having a sense of what they might be. But few of us actually take some time to pinpoint what they are. Take the time to determine your most outstanding assets–your highest proficiencies, your core competencies. Ask yourself these questions to gather the relevant data.

  1. What am I often asked to teach others?
  2. What responsibilities are often delegated to me?
  3. What kinds of meetings and tasks am I asked to lead?
  4. What special skills and competencies do I have that others rely on?
  5. What parts of my job description would be hardest to fill?
  6. What traits make me a valuable and unique member of the team?
  7. What work isn’t work at all?

Spend serious time reflecting on each question. Reflection is how we understand what we know. You might think about one question for set time or for a few minutes at different points in a day. As you get ideas and remember things, take notes. Write down what comes to mind. When you’ve got notes on all seven, roll up what you have gathered into one single big idea — the short bio that we hear people use all of the time — something like …

Liz can articulate what could make any product irresistible and how to turn any problem into a win.

Make your big idea a statement of your unique value in ways that others can see it, can believe in it, and can share it easily.

What is the sentence that people should be saying about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!