Red Zone Marketing's Blog

The Service Dilemma for Small, Boutique Firms

When I call my favorite airlines, if I don’t get the answer I was hoping for or am having trouble getting the person to understand my request, I don’t continue trying with the same person. I politely end the call and redial to get someone else. More often than not I am able to get closer to what I am requesting by taking this action. It is a hidden benefit of working with a large firm.

The problem with a small company is that there is no one else to call - except another company. And if you think people do this, but certainly not to your company - I ask you to reconsider. Loyalty is harder than ever to come by and even harder to maintain. People have so many options and there is so much noise. Not having the skill set to help a client is one thing. Not having the ability to listen and service a client is unacceptable for a small firm. Some of the most powerful perceived benefits of working with a small firm are the lack of inflexible bureaucracy and the higher level of understanding and personal service.

Read More

Adding A Simple Referral System Into Your Business

Positive word of mouth is one of the most coveted outcomes of great products and service. It is also possibly the best thing that can happen to any business. A good reputation (that people are talking about) generates referrals -- which are often the most profitable leads that a business can receive. Clients acquired through referrals are more loyal, easier to close, more cost efficient; and in turn are often the ones to give you even more referrals.             

Consumers today trust a personal recommendation over traditional advertising, brochure, website, or other company communications. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States is influenced by shared opinions about a product, brand or service. Yet according to eMarketer -- a leading website on digital marketing and media research and analysis -- only 18% of businesses have a referral program in place.

While most of us inherently understand the benefits of having our clients refer their friends, family, and colleagues, we simply fail to actively make it part of our marketing plan – and realize that earning and acquiring referrals requires a systematic approach.  Here are 3 simple ideas to add a referral system to your business:

1. Put “Referrals” on your meeting agenda so you don’t forget to address them – even just briefly in your client meetings.
2. Answer the question, “Who Cares?” When you describe your firm, make sure you’re talking in benefits, not offering a laundry list of services. Benefits affect people. Your proposed and perceived benefits will be what is remembered and passed along.
3. Schedule a referral appreciation event. This is an event only for those who have already introduced you to others during a specified period of time (Don’t Miss The Boat). It is in stark contrast to the often ineffective client appreciation events where you hope your clients will bring a friend and often don’t.

The key is focus. Anything you focus on actively in your business will certainly have more results than if you didn’t!

Promises to Clients You Can’t Keep

Did you ever make a big promise you can’t keep? Oftentimes there is a disconnect separating what we commit to do and what we actually can deliver.  And not delivering on a promise is far worse than never committing to do something in the first place.

At a hotel this week I was offered 3 things at check in. It was midnight and I was tired, but I did answer the questions of the employee at registration. First he asked me if I wanted a USA Today newspaper in the morning. I said that I would. Then he asked if I’d like any other newspapers.  I said that one is fine. Next he told me that with my reservation, wireless internet would be free. He explained how I would be able to log on and asked me if I understood. I said that I did. Finally, he asked me if I wanted to be a part of the hotel’s “Green Program” where you can decline housekeeping service in return for points in the hotel rewards program. There were a few other options in the program, but I told him that I would just take the points. Frankly, I knew I’d be on the phone for most of the morning with clients so I didn’t want housekeeping.

The next morning things started getting weird. First, I tried to access the Internet but my mobile broadband did not have good reception. I remembered the free internet offer, but when I tried to log on the computer said I wasn’t a registered guest. So I called the front desk and they referred me to the help desk where I was on hold for nearly 10 minutes and finally had to purchase the service which they said they would take off my bill. Then I opened the door to get my newspaper. Every other door down the hall had newspapers – but not mine. Finally, I was on the phone with clients and 3 times housekeeping came knocking to service the room. I thought, perhaps I was not really there! I called to the front desk to find out if I was in fact checked in (not joking). They looked up my reservation and yes, everything was just fine. Yes, fine except for all the things I really didn’t want or truly need that they in the end didn’t deliver on.

I work with a midsize firm that made a promise to their clients to answer every phone call on the first or second ring with a live person. When they began to get busier they couldn’t keep up with the promise so they hired a second receptionist. Today they often have 3 people sitting at a large front desk answering the phones. Now that’s a commitment that few would follow through on.

Can you keep your promises – even those you made years ago to your clients, your staff, your vendors? How about yourself? My friend Wendi Kelly, an author and superb business coach, shared with me that if you don’t keep promises to yourself, will you honestly keep them for others? She’s right! Here’s a link to a powerful blog she wrote on this very topic: http://lifeslittleinspirations.com/a-promise-to-my-heart 

Promises, promises…

Guest Blog: Better Service Equals Better Referrals

Guest Blog from Bill Cates, President of Referral Coach International

Know Your Competition

When you know your competition well, it not only gives you a selling advantage early on, but also continues to help you serve and sell to your client throughout the relationship. You should always serve your clients with the knowledge that they are your competitors’ prospects.

Do you know what pressures your clients are under to move their business? Do you know what they say to all those other financial professionals who call them? If you don't, I suggest you get to know your clients better and find out. The more you know about your competition, the more you can do to make sure you are better than they are.

Your clients may not use you for all their financial needs. Do you know who else they are using and why? Do you know what they like and dislike about them? Not only will you learn from this, you may also find opportunities to increase your percentage of the business they do with you.

Get to Know Your Clients Better

Whenever possible, get to know your clients beyond what brought you together in the first place. Form business friendships with as many clients as you can. Get to know them as people. Take a genuine interest in them. Not every client wants you to do this, but most will appreciate it.

The clients who give me the best referrals and continue to give me referrals long after I've served them are those I now count as business friends. If your attitude is strictly business, you are probably missing tons of opportunities for referrals, not to mention more business from your existing clients.

Bottom line - creating business friendships increases client loyalty and enhances your referability.

Survey Your Clients – Over the Phone

You should be constantly asking your clients, "How am I doing?" "If we could do one thing better, what would it be?" And you should be asking these questions over the phone – not in writing. Here are 6 reasons to conduct your client surveys over the phone:

• You obtain more useful information – it’s easier to talk than it is to write.
• You demonstrate how much you care about serving them well.
• You obtain more honest information – it’s easier to “open up” over the phone than in person.
• Your response rate will be much higher – close to 100 percent.
• This is another personal contact with your clients.
• You can communicate feelings and intentions much better in a conversation than you can in writing.

Sometimes the Little Things Are the Big Things

- Serve them by giving referrals. If they have a need, financial or otherwise, and you’re not the right person to serve them, connect them with someone who can. Follow up to make sure your referral has “gone through.”

- Don’t just be there for them from 9 to 5. Handwrite your cell phone number on your business card as you give it to them. They’ll likely never use it unless they really need to, but it reassures them.

- Keep your word. Doing what you're supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, is the very minimum required to provide good client service and get referrals.

- When something goes wrong and it will, apologize. When you apologize, you’re not admitting fault, you’re just sorry they are being inconvenienced. It reduces tension because it demonstrates you are there for them. (Almost no one in business ever says they're sorry.) Then, immediately after you apologize, fix the problem as quickly as possible. Even if it’s too late to fix the problem, they’ll feel better if you really listen to them.

- Set high service standards for yourself and your firm, and tell your clients about them.

- If a clients stops doing business with you, don’t burn the bridge. Go out of your way to make them feel comfortable about coming back.

- Say “thank you” every time you get the chance.

Want to learn more? Sign up for Bill Cates & Maribeth Kuzmeski's 2011 Client Acquisition Boot Camp. Register today and save $100!

Unconditional Fans

Win or lose, true fans don’t stop cheering for their team. Unconditional fans cheer for their favorite team to win again and again, to move closer and closer to their goals (beating a rival, clinching a series, winning a championship, etc). When our team is losing, we figure out ways to cheer for them some more (rally caps on!). And when they pull through, we share in their success, feeling like winners ourselves because we had our allegiance in the right spot.
 
It is the same for true fans of your business. A fan of yours WANTS you to win. They cheer you on, want to help you, and are proactive in their support. We all have fans that we are grateful for, but the question is -- how can we get more fans? I’d venture to say that all of us could use a few more no matter how many unconditional fans we have.
 
Why does someone become a fan? Being a true fan is more about a feeling than about the tangible products we sell. Observation of successful firms has shown that perhaps the best way to get this loyalty may be through the little things, not the extravagant ones. Listening more than talking, more face-to-face with our best clients, and truly making them feel important. Intangibles.

Measure it! How are you doing? How many clients do you have that are loyal? How many unconditional fans? Maybe 2011 could be the year of the fan – your fans!
 
I have been a Packer fan forever. I’ve seen them in terrible years (remember the 1970’s and early 80’s?) but I never stopped cheering. I’m a fan and would be even if they lost last Sunday to the rival Bears. And it’s a sure bet that I’ll be cheering like wild on February 6 in Dallas. Now if I only had tickets…

Cultivating Relationships NOT Worth the Time?

Proactively cultivating relationships is often an afterthought. We are just too busy trying to get through the workload directly in front of us. And, relationships are not what we DO in our businesses, right? Most firms are not in the “relationship business.”  You are in the [INSERT your core offering] business. Simply spoken: We need sales, not more friends!

STOP RIGHT THERE!! Above is an excuse that we often create (myself included), subconsciously or consciously, for not finding the time to do one of the most important things directly affecting growth and profitability. 

Intuitively we know that relationships are important, but let’s just focus on the logical. When you look back on your sales from last year, evaluate the “why” when thinking about your best clients and your biggest sales. Quantify the value of the referrals you received, the word of mouth, and repeat business. When you add it all up, you may notice that the way others “feel” about you is critically important. They certainly would not go out of their way to do business with you or talk about you with others just because of your product or service offering.  There are probably many others who can do or provide the same offerings.

There's often a direct correlation between the quality of your relationships with prospects and clients, and the rate of sales and growth in your business. The question is, what will you do about this in 2011? How about you reach out to 1 person each day above and beyond your regular work. It may just make the tipping point difference.

Why is it so darn easy to say NO?

Oftentimes, there is more risk in customer service when the answer to our concerns is “yes.” Can you help me? Will you make an exception and do this for me just this once? Could you look into this issue I’m having? Being helpful comes with a price, and the price is more work. But what if the tables were turned and the risk was actually in saying “no.” How much better would our interactions with companies become?

Last week I called my cell phone provider to modify the service, cancel a line, add a data line, etc.  I wasn’t getting the answers I wanted from the one person I was talking with - he kept saying “no” - so I politely ended the call. I immediately dialed back reaching a new customer service person that liked saying “yes” much more than the first person.

Ultimately, there is a lot less work for the employee who says “no” (think compliance departments). If the person says “yes” they may have to do something and then take a risk for doing it. And frankly, it seems that some service people don’t feel like they are being paid to say “yes.” It’s too much hard work.

What if service people were given incentives for the “yes” answers they gave to customers and were docked pay for their “no” answers? I guarantee they’d find ways to say “yes” more often.

“Yes, I can change that for you.” “Yes, I can do that for you over the phone right now.” “Yes, I can add that to your order.” Yes, I will talk to my manager and see if we can do that for you.” How about, “YES, I can do some hard work for you even though it would be easier for me to just say no.” The result? Happy clients that go wild about you because of the surprising way you serve their needs.

Killing Your Competition with (Client) Kindness

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

Five Core Principles for Turning Clients and Prospects into Raving Fans

Once upon a time customer service meant more than pressing 2 to wait (and wait and wait) for “the next available representative.” Companies valued those who bought their goods and services and went the proverbial extra mile to make them happy. Today we’re more likely to hear about a company that’s ripped off its customers.

Failing to make your customers happy is more than a shame. It’s slow-motion corporate suicide. If you want to make it in today’s crowded, recession-wracked market, you absolutely must create clients and customers who rave about your company the way they would their favorite sports team.

Obviously, making raving fans out of your clients is easier said than done. If it were easy, then corporate giants that have plenty of money to throw at such a concept would be overrun with happy customers.

In my new book, …And the Clients Went Wild! How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010, www.AndTheClientsWentWild.com), I lay out a blueprint for cultivating loyal clients and generating growing sales through a collection of principles and tactics that have proven successful for others in business.  These businesses have effectively created a loyal following of passionate vocal clients, and with the execution of these principles, you can too.

1st Principle: What Are YOU Doing That No One Else Is Doing? In order to gain exposure, it helps to be or to offer something unique—or do something that no one else dares. It’s true that standing out from the crowd is probably the riskiest of the five principles. However, it may be equally risky to run a conservative, “under‐the‐radar” firm these days—you risk becoming an anachronism. While successful firms stick to their values, they also find ways to be so exciting that people don’t have a choice but to pay attention…and buy.

2nd Principle: Focus Your Marketing on Benefits, Results, and a Call to Action. Another way to gain success is to ensure you are answering the question, What’s really in it for me? for your clients. Too many businesses accentuate the features of their products or services rather than the benefits—what your clients really care about. “Open 24 Hours” is a feature. Benefits are value statements about the features of a product or service, with an emphasis on what the customer gets. For example, a benefit might be that a product makes you look slimmer or saves lots of money on gas. Too many companies leave it up to their prospects to figure out the benefits of their products or services.

3rd Principle: Go Viral! A viral message is an idea, notion, or practice that’s transmitted from person to person through speech, gestures, the internet, email, or other media. It ignites and motivates people to move the message. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention—free benefits, information, software programs, or downloads. It’s essential that you do everything possible to make it easier for people to access information or material that may go viral.

4th Principle: Leverage Your Business Network for Incremental Growth. It takes a plan, but using your network—business and otherwise—can be the miracle alternative to the typical grind of cold calls and prospecting. A productive business network is filled with respected, well-connected, influential people—called “Centers of Influence”—that share your target market and have a complementary rather than a competing service or product. You can capitalize on these connections by creating strategic alliances or by simply sharing your networks and making referrals.

5th Principle: The Ability to Execute Is Critically Important to Your Game Plan. In today’s fast‐moving, completely networked world, superior execution is clearly driving success for business. Small business owners are great at adopting many new marketing ideas. What they are not so great at is finishing. The best marketing strategy is the one you can pull off completely.

Perhaps more than ever before people want to do business with those they feel they can trust. They are attracted to businesses they feel will go out of their way to provide them the absolute best products or services available. And the absolute best way to elicit that trust in prospects is by having clients who cheer you on at every turn. So, don’t waste another second waiting to develop a marketing plan that will influence your clients to go wild for you.

| More

Guest Blog: Lessons from the Sky

What sells?   Build your Client Base with Experience Differentiation

Guest blog from Joseph Anzalone of Asset Marketing Systems

As independent business owners, it’s often enlightening to consider case studies and success stories from the business world, especially those from challenging industries that operate under volatile conditions.   Is anything more difficult than building and maintaining a successful and profitable airline?  Consider this:

Airline A is an established American icon, boasts a 75-year track record, and was founded during the golden days of American aviation, 1931.  It offers such amenities as first-class seating with free cocktails, upgraded economy seating for a reasonable price, and routes that bring their customers to virtually every major city in the world.   It has one of the industry’s best safety records.  Its reservation system is ultra-convenient because Airline A can be found on virtually all internet travel sites.  Finally, it has formed strategic partnerships with 15 other airlines around the world; as a result, its frequent-flyer program has been consistently ranked in the top three for customer satisfaction. 

Airline B was founded in 1971, and for the first several years of its inception, it only offered routes in the state of Texas.  Since its expansion it offers routes to most major American metropolitan areas, but some are highly inconvenient.  Fly to Boston?  Sorry, you’ll have to go to Providence, RI instead, and drive 65 miles.  Fly to San Francisco?  Well…yes and no – you’ll have to go to Oakland first.  When you hold a ticket at Airline B’s gate, you don’t know where you’re going to sit, because there is no reserved seating.  If you’re lucky enough to hold a ticket in the first seating group, it’s best to arrive at the gate early to avoid waiting in a long line – most passengers are forced to stand in line an hour before takeoff to ensure a decent seat.  There is no first class seating.  Airline B’s reservation system does not interface with any internet travel sites.  You need to take the extra step of visiting their website to book your vacation. 

Which airline would you rather fly? Before you answer, consider one more fact about both companies:  from 2002 to 2006, Airline A experienced the largest and longest bankruptcy restructuring in the industry’s history.  Airline B is one of the world’s most successful and profitable airlines, posting a profit for the 35th consecutive year in January 2008.

By now, you may have realized that Airline A is United, and Airline B is Southwest.  The reasons for their respective business struggles and successes are complex, but Southwest Airlines’ story will stand as a case study on how to acquire and maintain a client base by offering that which is different. 

And it’s those differences that the consumer is buying.  Yes, Southwest’s fares are low, but discount branding alone is not enough to keep an airline in the sky (as the 2006 demise of Independence Air has demonstrated.)  Rather, it is Southwest’s fare service that is truly different.  It purposefully features one-way flight options and several fare selections for the same flight, encouraging the consumer to mix and match choices.   Southwest’s  flight crews often perform their own comedy routines during their FAA-required security briefing as each plane taxis toward the runway.  And Southwest made a conscious decision to focus its efforts on addressing those typical airline mishaps that most frustrate travelers- flight delays and lost baggage.   Southwest’s ground crew can turn around a flight in 20 minutes – a vast improvement over the industry average – and it offers special incentives to its ramp staff.   Conventional luxuries have been jettisoned: “To have opted for a first class, business class, or any form of luxury class seat would have been excess baggage; most people would prefer to do without it if it meant for cheaper ticket price.”

Clearly, the client has spoken, and it sounds something like this: “…just get me there on time, have my bag waiting, and make the flight go by a little faster.  I don’t need a reserved seat or an extra bag of chips.” 

The case of Southwest has demonstrated two important facts useful to us:

1.    We are in the service industry.  The client is paying for an experience, not the product we deliver, so we must do everything in our power to enhance that experience.
2.    The client’s idea of what that experience should be may be different than ours – probably more different than we think, and perhaps easier to deliver.

Are these “lessons from the sky” relevant to the independent financial advisor? 
Turn to your own company, particularly your own client base, and ask yourself the following questions:

1.    Who is my client?
2.    What service do I deliver them?
3.    Am I sure the results are what my client wants?
4.    Is there a way I can deliver that service in a different way?

Examples of the power inherent in unique service delivery are well known: Disney, Lexus, Cirque du Soleil, Federal Express, eBay, and others have proven the case.  Indeed, the same effect can be achieved on the smallest scale.  We offer a basic, yet powerful, service – advice on retirement and income planning.  Our goal is to deliver that service in a powerfully different way.  As you consider your solutions, it may be wise to remember the following:

1.    Don’t assume anything.  What your client wanted or needed in the past may be outdated.
2.    Understand your client.  Use probing questions constantly.
3.    Everyone is intrigued by the unique.  If you have something your competitor doesn’t, focus on that.  In that conversation, the competition becomes irrelevant.
4.     Don’t be afraid of new ideas.  If you have a service concept that seems unusual, consider it anyway.
5.    Study every point of contact- marketing, phone, in-person visit, follow-up, referral- and make each experience powerful and unique

What do your clients and prospects really want?  Perhaps it’s just something different.

| More

Are Your Client Delight Efforts Misplaced?

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

I have spent many years speaking about the concept of creating an exceptional client experience. I even have the term, “Client Delight” trademarked because of the educational materials I have created around this topic. But recently, I read something in Harvard Business Review (July-Aug 2010) that made me change my thinking on this topic, quite drastically actually. The article, “Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers,” makes a case that to really win a client’s loyalty, you need to forget the bells and whistles and just solve their problems. In essence, solving their problems efficiently IS the experience. And it is where loyalty comes from. Doing an excellent job of delivering on a promise of standard, expected, and basic service, according to the article, is much better than trying to over-deliver.

The reason: firms rarely can pull off the over the top, unbelievable and unexpected client service that delights. And, most companies lose clients by underperforming on the basic service tenants. So where should we concentrate our efforts?

Here are some shocking statistics from the research:

The Customer Contact Council, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, conducted a study of more than 75,000 people who had interacted with service departments at companies. Here are some key findings:

25% of customers are likely to say something positive about their service experience while 65% are likely to speak negatively. 23% of customers who had a positive service interaction told 10 or more people about it while 48% of customers who had negative experiences told 10 or more people.

80% of the success of service at organizations is based on customer satisfaction scores. However, the finding is that there is little relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. 20% of satisfied customers will leave anyway while 28% of dissatisfied customers will STAY. And customers are 4 times more likely to leave a service interaction feeling DISLOYAL.

The main finding: Delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty. Reducing the work a customer must do to get their problem solved does. It’s the basic service, not the over-the-top, that makes the biggest difference.

To read this HBR article, go to: www.hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers/ar/1  

| More