The Little Things

We hear all the time that it’s the little things that count. In business, this is absolutely true. There are so many little things you can do that will make a big difference with customers. And what’s great is that these things are free. Retailers, below are some little things you can do. You would think these things would be obvious, but sadly sometimes they are not.

1. Greet customers when they enter your store. Have you gone into some business and the employees failed to acknowledge your presence? I have many times, and it’s a major pet peeve. It is not hard to say ‘hello,’ ‘good morning,’ ‘welcome,’ or whatever. If you are currently busy, let them know that you’ll be right with them. Ignoring them does nothing.

2. Smile. This one should be obvious, but maybe it’s not. Smiling at customers gives them a sense of ease and warmth. This can only help their evaluation of your business and products.

3. Show them the way. If a customer has a question about where to find something in your store, don’t just tell them where it is. Instead, take them directly to it. This little extra effort can pay big dividends.

4. Take an interest. Your interaction with a customer should not start with ‘how may I help you.’ You should start with ‘how are you,’ ‘nice weather we’re having,’ or something else that shows you are out for more than just the sale. It humanizes the employee-customer encounter, puts customers at ease, and helps to build relationships.

Again, these things are very simple and free to do. Hopefully you already do them, but if not, try to incorporate them into your company’s culture. It’ll work wonders.

"It's Not My Problem"

I was having a discussion with someone recently, and she said that she ran into a situation with a company. When she attempted to address the situation, an employee said, “it’s not my problem.”

I’m sure you already know what I’m about to say, but I’m going to say it anyway: “it’s not my problem” is quite possibly the worst thing you can say to a customer or potential customer. In what ways is this a terrible thing to say? Let’s examine:

1. It indicates a lack of concern for the customer.

2. It indicates a refusal to even discuss the matter.

3. It is very dismissive.

4. It opens you up to negative word of mouth via social media and personal interactions.

5. It is quite rude.

Even if the situation is not your problem, you need to find a better way to deal with it. Regardless of fault, you should apologize that things aren’t right. Then you should help them work through the issue as best you can. This doesn’t mean admitting fault (unless it was your fault). It means to go into relationship building mode and try to create something positive out of the whole ordeal. They are going to likely leave your business unhappy, but if you can reduce the level of unhappiness, it might save the relationship.

Instead of saying “it’s not my problem,” carefully explain what happened as you see it. By explaining your side, sometimes customers will see the error of their ways and own it. Of course, sometimes they won’t. In those situations, you can either choose to end the relationship or offer some sort of olive branch, either a refund, a discount, or some sort of incentive for future patronage.

But you don’t have to always give consumers what they want. Stand your ground when you feel it is necessary. You don’t want to become known as the place that is a pushover. Create some standards and stick to them. You’ll be better off in the end.

What is your plan?

Do you have your marketing all planned out? If not, know that it is important to do so. Small businesses tend to do marketing in a haphazard way. Something sounds good, they think about it for a bit, and then do it. This can sometimes result in positive outcomes, but sometimes not.

It is best to develop a marketing plan that lays out everything you are going to do for a set period of time. Let’s say a year for illustrative purposes. Create a plan that discusses in detail what activities you’re going to do and when, and most importantly, why you are doing them. These activities should be created and carried out with a goal in mind.

Make sure that you are specific. Are you going to do a coupon campaign? If so, lay out all the details. Who are you sending it to, how many, how long will the campaign last, what will it cost, what do you hope to get out of it, and how are you going to measure it?

Thinking through all these details ahead of time will make the marketing process go so much more smoothly. And it will help you improve the effectiveness of your marketing over time.

Managing Expectations

We all have expectations for goods and services. We base our evaluations of products using those expectations. Performance exceeds expectations and we’re satisfied. Performance does not meet expectations and we’re dissatisfied. So as a business, what should we do with this information?

Well, the answer is complicated. We aim to put our best foot forward with our marketing efforts. We promote our company and products in the most positive way. Why? Because that is what attracts customers to us. But there is a problem. Based on how successful we are in painting ourselves in a positive light, consumers can come to us with super high expectations. The higher the expectations, the greater the chances that we are not going to meet them.

So do we do things to create lower expectations in consumers? Well, you can, but then you have another problem. If you don’t promote yourself so highly, consumers might not be attracted to you in the first place.

The best approach is to take a balanced approach. Don’t make claims of performance that you cannot match. Don’t promise food to a customer’s table in 10 minutes unless you can actually deliver that. Set realistic expectations for the consumers. In this example, if you know it takes around 10 minutes to get food out, add a small buffer to that and communicate it to consumers. If you tell customers it will be 10 minutes and it takes 11, they might get a little impatient. If you promise 15 minutes and it takes 11, they will be happy it was early.

Another tactic is to couple expectations with a guarantee of some sort. Promise a certain level of quality or service and back it up with a refund or some other compensation. This will help consumers manage their own expectations. If you do this, you will need to make sure you are able to meet those expectations consistently. Because if you cannot, you will be paying out frequently on the guarantee and that is not good for business.

Managing and dealing with expectations is always a challenge. Consumers are more demanding than ever. So have a plan in place to manage expectations and address the ramifications if they are not met.

Answering Negative Comments Online

Social media is a beautiful thing. It allows you to get closer to your customers and get instant feedback. This provides companies with lots of really good feedback, both good and bad. However, the question is….what do you do with the negative comments found on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, etc.? This is a big question.

You basically have three options:

1. Do nothing. This is the easiest alternative. You can choose to ignore the comments. However, this is not a good idea. Ignoring the comments don’t make them go away, nor do they fix a potential problem. The complainer may cut off patronage and continue to say bad things about you.

2. Apologize. You can say you’re sorry for what happened. Thank them for their feedback and promise to prevent the problems from happening again. This resonates with customers. They like to know that you are listening and care about their customers. With this alternative, you could also provide some sort of reparations as well, e.g. refund, coupon, etc., but you don’t necessarily have to.

3. Refute. Finally, you can refute the negative comments. Maybe the customer did something wrong or had unrealistic expectations. In these cases, defend yourself. The mantra ‘the customer is always right’ is wrong. Customers shouldn’t necessarily be able to get whatever they want, whenever they want, especially when they are being unreasonable. In fact, some chronic complainers use online complaining as a form of blackmail, expecting you to apologize, give them their money back, etc. If you use this option, be sure to be tactful, thanking them for their feedback before refuting their claims. Other customers who see this course of action might be impressed that you didn’t simply lay down for unreasonable customers.

Being able to effectively respond to online complaining should be a crucial part of any company’s promotional strategy. Need help with this? Feel free to contact me.

Be Who You Are

Not everyone wants to buy your products. Let me repeat that. Not everyone wants to buy your products. It’s a hard thing to hear, but it’s true. Knowing who does and doesn’t want your products can allow you to focus on those most likely to buy from you.

Because you can’t be all things to all people, it is important to be who you are. That will serve you and your business well. Stay focused on what has made you successful and you will continue to be successful. By trying to branch out into other customer segments, you may marginalize your business. You may end up pulling resources away from those more valuable segments. This is a big no-no. Stay true to yourself.

For example, if you are a screen printing business who has become well known for a line of quirky, funny shirts, moving into other types of clothing or themes may water down that image that consumers have of you. And if that built up image has created significant value for your company, you don’t want to do anything to harm it. The results could be disastrous.

So, resist that urge. It will serve you well.

What are your Goals?

Does your organization have specific marketing goals? And are those goals evaluated regularly?

If your answer to either of those is ‘no,’ then you should consider revamping your marketing activities. By having specific goals, you create specific targets to work towards. This allows you to focus and have direction. Alternatively, if you don’t have goals, your marketing efforts are likely not going to be as effective as they could be.

Your goals should be clearly written, easy to evaluate, and measured regularly. For example, “increase month over month sales by 5% in each of the next six months.” This is a clear goal, it is easy to evaluate, and can be done so monthly. If you miss a goal, you can then reconfigure what you’re doing to improve your chances of meeting the goal at the next measurement period.

If you don’t have goals, or you do but don’t measure them, how can you know how well you are doing as an organization?

An added benefit of creating goals is that it forces you to step away and take stock of where you are and where you want to be. This allows for some consideration of changes in what you do to improve the performance of the company.

Final note: the creation, evaluation, and updating of goals should be treated like any other marketing activity you do. It is probably as important as your promotional activities.

Sales Patterns

Do you have a firm understanding of the ins and outs of your sales data? Are there different types of customers who purchase different types of products from you? In a previous career, I was involved in digging through our company’s sales data to develop a deeper understanding of what our customers bought. This was a B2B business, and we had detailed information on each customer, including their industry and location. We were able to develop profiles of different customer types and identify clusters of products that they commonly purchased. This allowed us to arm our salespeople with lists of products to focus on during sales calls. We also used this information to create promotions targeting various customer types. This helped our salespeople be more efficient, which was good for them as well as the company.

If you have the ability to link sales data to specific customers, you can also do this type of analysis to gain a better understanding of your customers and how to target them with products that they’re most likely to consider purchasing.

Hello World....

Maranello Consulting is a marketing consulting operation based in Dallas, TX. We have experience in many areas of marketing, including strategy, planning, social media, customer service, data analysis, market research, and marketing troubleshooting. Maranello can also develop and deliver custom corporate training workshops on all things marketing. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at maranelloconsulting@gmail.com.