Archive for the 'Why People Buy' Category

Blamestorming

I was watching golf over the weekend and a commercial came on for DirecTV, the series of ads that has the Board of Directors for the “Cable Company” sitting around a table trying to figure out why they are losing customers to DirecTV.  One board member suggests a “blamestorming” session, where he promptly “blames” their problems of one of his fellow board members.  Hilarious.

According to www.unwords.com, the definition of “blamestorming” is as follows:

(blām’stôr’mĭng)

1.      (n.) A method of collectively finding one to blame for a mistake no one is willing to confess to. Often occurs in the form of a meeting of colleagues at work, gathered to decide who is to blame for a screw up.

So, my question to the small business owners of the world today is, are you spending your strategic planning time “blamestorming” or are you actually brainstorming?  It is very easy to fall into the trap of excuses about the economy, your lack of sales, the consumer not spending, etc.  What is harder is to come up with out of the box ideas that can gain market share or retain your current customer base.  My challenge to you today is to come up with one idea that can either bring new clients to your door or add value to your current customer and then act on that idea, violently.  As General George Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”. 

Please leave me a comment letting me know what your idea is!

Published on Tuesday June 23, 2009 in Customer Retention, Direct Outreach, Keep-in-Touch and Why People Buy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Voting is like buying, right?

My wife got up early today and headed to the polls while I stayed home with the kids.  She texted me shortly thereafter and said, “Oh My God, you should see the line!” (of course she didn’t use punctuation, after all, she was just texting).  She left, got her free cup of coffee from Starbucks (give away to everyone who voted) and I went about two hours later and there was still a line out the door.  I thought that was pretty cool and here’s why:  In our small town in Illinois, a state that is going to vote Democrat, in a county that always votes Republican, there is still massive voter turnout.  Why?  We already pretty much know how it is all going to come out, right?  As I said, the state will go Democrat and the county will go Republican.  It has been that way for years.  But still, there is a line.  Why?

I think people want to be a part of this election.  I think people want to have “ownership” in this election.  I think people are “buying” whatever the candidates are selling, regardless of who the candidate is.  Both sides, on the national level anyway, are selling “change” and we, as a country are “buying” by showing up in droves to vote.  The morning talk shows showed lines everywhere, especially in the so called “battleground” states.  So, the business of this election has succeeded, we will have more buyers than we can handle today at the polls.  Like I said, I think that’s pretty cool.

So, how does this all relate to sales and marketing?  Well, I think that too many of us take our customers and clients for granted sometimes.  When was the last time you reached out to your clients?  Do you have a “keep in touch” strategy that continues to add value to your relationships with your customers?  Are your customers so excited about you and your business that they are out there selling for you?  If not, maybe you can take some cues from the candidates and their campaigns. 

Let me know your thoughts on this by leaving me a comment!

Published on Tuesday November 4, 2008 in Customer Retention, How to Talk About What You Do, Keep-in-Touch, Personal Brand, Who Knows You & Do They Like You? and Why People Buy. 0 Comments

Customer Service?

This is a personal story about less than ideal customer service I experienced this past Saturday night.  I need to give you some background first to paint the picture.

I hired my favorite local BBQ “joint” to cater my family’s reunion this past summer.  They did a great job.  Realy, really good sauce.  The chicken rocked.  A couple days later, I received a nice thank you letter from the owner (cool!), along with a “$20 off your next food purchase” coupon (even cooler!), which brings me to my story.

We wanted take-out on Saturday night, I worked all day, plus my son had a friend over and we were taking care of my wife’s friend’s little girl.  “Let’s get chicken!”, I said.  Logged on to my the website of my friend’s BBQ place and ordered the “bucket of chicken (includes fries or beans, plus coleslaw)”.  $26.95 is what the online menu said.  Added a bowl of their awesome chili for $3.95. 

Off I go to the “joint” and am greeted by the person at the counter shaking her head at me, looking down at the coupon in my hand.   She gets off the phone and says, “That’s for dine-in only, and besides you can’t use it on Saturdays”.  Now, it did indeed say “Dine-in only” in the small print, my fault.  Nothing on the coupon about not being able to use it on Saturdays.  She then rings me up, and says $41.56.  Wait a minute I said, doing the math in my head, it should only be around $32.  I asked why it was so high, she said, “We raised our prices”.  I said, “Well, the menu on the website said $26.95 for the chicken and $3.95 for the chili”.  Her response was, “We raised our prices”.  My response was, “Well, you should have updated the website”.  Her response was, “We raised the prices”.

So, there I was, not being able to use my coupon, and facing a 37% price increase(the bucket of chicken is now $36.95), and a employee who couldn’t care less.  No offer to do something to accomodate me, no offer to honor the internet price, nothing, just a blank stare. 

I kindly told her she could keep her chicken, watched her cancel my credit card transaction and left.

Was it the right thing to do for me?  I am not sure.  How about for her?  Should the owner have uploaded the new menu to the website?  For sure.  Should the employee have been empowered to accomodate me?  For sure.  But, instead, I now no longer consider this place my favorite BBQ “joint”.  Too bad, because their sauce is to die for!

I did follow-up on Monday with a letter to the owner outlining what happened.  We will see what happens. 

What would you have done?  Is there a customer service lesson to be learned here?  I think so and it looks like this:  Empower your employees to please the customer, no matter what.  Keep your website updated, people like me use it.  Don’t send out coupons that have lots of restrictions.  Most of all, do whatever you can to keep me as a customer.  And don’t ever forget Mr. BBQ Joint owner, there is a brand new Famous Dave’s that opened just down the street from you, their sauce is almost as good.

Published on Wednesday October 29, 2008 in Customer Retention, Web Strategy and Why People Buy. 0 Comments