Customer Service Brightens Everything – Even ER
May 22, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 2 Comments
The Montrose Memorial Hospital plastic bag contained my day’s needs: pain pills, Kindle, lip gloss, Nano, notebook and pen. I tossed my treasures on the table. Today’s task: get back on track blogging, even with one hand. Have to start somewhere. It would be a bit before I got back on the bike, I thought. A broken humerus bone. My left humerus. Could they mean humorous? Jeez, I digress.
I should explain I discovered Montrose Memorial Hospital at 5pm Sunday after an easy vacation bike ride with a friend turned into two wheel hell. The first responders, Montrose Fire Department paramedics, gave me first aid and took me to ER. They get my best regards and sincere thanks.
No question. Marketing is everything you do. My biking accident showed me the value of a complete customer marketing program. What I learned from Montrose Memorial Hospital:
Every piece of information markets for you. The plastic bag reminds me of my experience nearly one week later. That wasn’t the only thing. My DVD was labeled with the date, my information, and complete information for the hospital. The DVD with all the test data will serve as a reference/history for my orthopedic follow up appointment.
Every employee contributes to the overall experience. Wheeled into the darkened room for an x-ray, I didn’t notice the guy at the controls. He waited for me to scan the room and then waved, introduced himself, and told me the role he’d play. Every member of the staff was courteous and concerned for my welfare. My questions were answered thoroughly and clearly. Each person spoke to me in a friendly, concerned manner.
Nothing substitutes for good information from the highest possible source. The physician on duty, Dr. David Dreitland, M.D., explained in detail my injury and discussed the normal healing process. He answered all my questions and gave me a printed copy of my x-ray.
The little things make a big difference. The nurse on duty told me the local pharmacies were closed, and gave me enough medication to get through the night. She also gave me additional bandages and Neosporin packets. Then, she asked if there was anything else she could do.
It all adds up. Every interaction was positive and encouraging. There was no unneeded advice, no judgment of riding skill, no unnecessary commentary. Mine could have been the exception, but I doubt it. Montrose Hospital CEO David Hemple should know his employees did him and the hosputal’s five star customer service program 
proud. Many thanks.
Will I get back on the bike? Absolutely. Sorry, Mom. (“You shouldn’t be doing that anyway,” she said on hearing about the trauma.)
It’s my understanding this injury will take about a month to heal. I anticipate being on the trail again by the end of June. And yes, for those who didn’t ask: I was wearing my helmet; I’ll have a new one on later this month
Loyalty – Build it into Your Business
April 30, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Like many entrepreneurs, you may be looking more closely at revenues during tougher economic times. Shore up your business with basic tenants of loyalty. Just as sandbags shore up a river bank, basic loyalty moves can keep your customers.
Premise #1:
People prefer to do business with those they know.
Loyalty Action:
Assume your current customers plan to continue doing business with you. Reinforce this premise by assuming the re-sale. For example, ask for referrals.
Example:
As my hairdresser (Debra Grasser, color specialist, of Avalon Salon, 9533 Osuna NE) scheduled appointments across the summer she chatted about her life. “Jake’s getting older,” she said. “His independence lets me expand my hours at work. So when I penciled in my summer schedule I realized I could accommodate more clients. I’m giving each of you three cards (she handed me three business cards with my name printed on them) and asking you to refer your friends to me.”
What worked:
- Positive, proactive approach
- No discussion of the economy
- Prepared beforehand
- A plan that was thought through
- Personalized approach
How can you incorporate positive elements like this into your business?
Don’t Derail Business: Cut Costs Proactively
April 20, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Everyone rides the cost-cutting train these days. Add value. Cut costs. (Eliminate words such as luxury from your vocabulary.) Instead of waiting for a pink slip from one of your customers, get proactive.
Jan, a floral supply business owner called all her clients: “We know you’re looking at your costs,” she said. “How can we help?”
Not surprisingly, most clients indicated they planned to slash expenses. They also asked for a proposal and thanked Jan for being proactive.
Although her floral supply lost a small percentage of business, she controlled the profit level. She presented three alternatives to the client. With each proposed solution, she managed to cut overhead more than she cut profit.
A graphic artist service provider found himself in a similar situation. Business had slowed and one of his larger clients predicted a much lighter workload for the rest of the year. “We’ll just handle our changes in-house,” the contact said.
The quick-thinking artist offered to negotiate fees on a project basis rather than lose the account.
The flexibility demonstrated in these two examples is typical of today’s approach to sales.
At some point, cutting costs alone no longer works. Then, demonstrating affiliations can help. For example, one vendor began adding “certified woman-owned business” to her email signature. She’s convinced that companies look for additional value in a tight economy. Consider also:
- Shop local. Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance
- Consider the environment before printing this email
Have a conversation with your clients. Talk about what’s important to them, what’s keeping them up at night. Share what’s important to you. Your goal: find ways to resonate with your customers, saving them money, sharing concerns, adding value.
Customer Basics: Publish content with a customer component
April 9, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
You don’t have the problem, right? This blog post isn’t for you because your collateral is perfect. It’s generating hundreds of inquiries, sales and interest. No?
Custom content offers a common opportunity for small businesses today. It seems easy
. Publish stuff. Post it. Build a list. Get sales. If you aren’t seeing this kind of automatic progression, welcome to the new world.
Your customers expect to get information from you. But publishing content just for the sake of getting it out there is hardly the answer. The market – your customer(s) – votes on content with what it accepts. Every day new opportunities present themselves. How can you stand out? What problem can you solve? Where does your customer go when they need an answer?
Communication requires form and structure. From newsletters to web pages to postcards, brochures and product sheets, one thing’s for sure: information is available. It’s growing. More than 3,000 new books publish each day. A week’s worth of New York Times contains more information than lifetime during the 18th century.
Funny, the thing that hasn’t changed is the necessity of focusing on the customer. So, the artist with whimsical animal prints building a website begins by looking at the terms people use in their search. The custom builder starts his postcard campaign with an appeal to the boomer’s sense of dream home. A textbook publisher talks with home school parents to discover what meaningful support mean to them.
Where are you in the content building cycle? Have you talked with a customer lately?
Show Some Loyalty, Customers!
April 2, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 1 Comment
In a market where businesses cry “Where’s the money?” the new buzzword is customer loyalty. You’ve probably experienced a loyalty program: frequent buyer cards, written thank you notes, membership sites, surveys, to name just a few.
My conversations about loyalty start and end with questions like these:
“How are you making the customer experience better?”
“How do you add value?”
“What are the little things you do to make a difference?”
Customer loyalty is more than a program. Certainly special offers help. I maintain the experience of interacting with you can build far more loyalty than any special price or contrived incentive.
People recognize the experience, the engagement, of doing business with you no matter what your communication. Here are just a few of this week’s missteps:
Confusion. Three people show up for a cancelled seminar. Had they submitted an RSVP, they might have gotten the cancel message. Q – Who’s responsible for the error? A – You are.
Indifference. “The paper always gets it wrong.” Q – Does the customer care? Who’s responsible for communicating? A – You are.
Denial. “You’ll have to call technical support. It looks fine to me.” Q – Why would I return to this store? A – Although it took 90 minutes, I did work out the technical problem with someone who was not in India.
Unclear calls to action. “You got my offer wrong.” “We no longer honor those coupons.”
The business person who methodically builds relationships day after day and encourages his/her employees to do the same is the one who creates loyalty. The effort doesn’t include blame. Rather, there’s an ongoing effort to listen, to eradicate misunderstandings, correct problems and treat customers with genuine care and concern.
Communication either creates or dissipates loyalty. How’s your loyalty communication these days?
Slow Down. Quit Multi-tasking. Check the Detail.
March 23, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Tired of checklists, endless streams of email and voice messages never returned?
Frustrated with errors?
Stymied by employees/customers/people who just don’t “get it?”
Pause. Check your communication systems. Sometimes entrepreneurs move so fast they overlook seemingly obvious connections.
Employees have no knowledge of special offers.
A website with no auto-responders began promoting a subscription service; the initial rollout went to more than 1,000.
In order to meet a publication deadline, one author decided to skip the final proof. Now, Amazon reviews point out problems to the public.
Every business markets to five critical audiences:
- Stakeholders – those with a vested interest in the company: vendors, bankers, family, investors
- Employees – those who work for the company
- Customers – those who buy from the company
- Media- those who publicize the company, the industry or its stories
- General Public – those who may not yet know about the company
The average entrepreneur thinks in big pictures, not details. If that describes you, find someone to follow the checklist. Until you put that person in place, pause and check your communication systems.
Customer Stories: Share NOT Scare
March 17, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 2 Comments
Stories connect us to customers, friends, the world. What stories do you tell? In a B2B world, do your actions create stories that scare rather than stories to share?
- One client required precise design work for a project. A known vendor completed the job, producing a file with no style consistency. Some paragraphs justified right, others left; some were spaced evenly, others randomly; various fonts and sizes of headlines appeared throughout the text. In spite of a number of revisions, the final product did not work. What story did the client tell about the experience?
- Another vendor sold a web product. At each meeting, the vendor asked for client input. He listened carefully and communicated an understanding of the changes that needed to be made. Many meetings later, nothing had happened. In spite of a pleasing one-on-one relationship, no results told a different tale. What story did the client tell about the experience?
- A third vendor listened to a project request. The organization needed help. Like many non-profits, there was no money and little recognition. The question from the organization: “Would you help us put together and execute a marketing plan?” With no hesitation, the vendor said, “I’d love to.” What story did the client tell about the experience?
If you guessed story #3 as the story to share, you’re correct.
I’ve told dozens of people about that call. The positive attitude, the immediate follow through and the consistent repetition of the two make it a pleasure to do business and tell the story. What stories do clients share about you?
Increase Loyalty as You Remove Obstacles
March 12, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Loyalty begins with removing obstacles, the small things standing in the way of your success. We frequently and unintentionally erect barrier to business. Consider:
Obstacle: Errors on your website. You know the drill. You click on a link and get a 404 error. Or, you see someone touting their checklist for perfection and you spot a spelling error.
Solution: Go through your website and check every link, call every phone number, click through every option. Have an outsider proof your work.
Obstacle: Your newsletter deadline arrives, it’s time for the special of the week, etc, and you have no materials or no product. Every entrepreneur faces the time famine. Life gets in the way.
Solution: Develop a plan and stick with it. Treat promises to your customers as true deadlines.
Obstacle: Satisfaction guaranteed, but no contact options offered. Research shows voicemail loops only serve to escalate customer frustration.
Solution: give potential customers several options including a phone number, mailing address and email information.
Obstacle: You send mixed messages because of a ‘disconnect’ between what you say and what you do. You talk professionalism and project casual; for example, you show up for a new business presentation in jeans and sandals. Some would label this the Birkenstock syndrome.
Solution: Dress for the occasion.
Obstacle: Special offers that have expired.
Solution: Update collateral on a regular basis.
Obstacle: Saying one thing and meaning another.
Solution: Think it through. If you have a tendency to transpose names, re-read emails before finalizing.
The bar is high. In tough times, standards become more important because consumers are looking more carefully at their money. Loyalty can increase your customer retention. Build it at every opportunity.
Dozens of obstacles exist. You’ve probably noticed a few this week. Go ahead. List them here.
Renewal Through Recognition OR, Re-energize With Feedback
March 9, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
If you’ve questioned the difference you make, pushed through negativity, or simply tried to re-energize your commitment, you know the value of review. Review your successes or victories and watch your enthusiasm resurge. Outline for someone else the difference they made and see what happens to you. Let me explain.
A busy schedule led me to question choices. I seemed to have switched the amount of “pro bono” time versus billable hours. Overwhelm threatened and for a time I wallowed in the self-pity of “poor me.” Then, as I avoided work by addressing email, I discovered a note that made all the difference:
Mary Ellen: I noticed that you will be a speaker at that conference this Saturday at UNM Cont. Ed.
Just a brief note to tell you that a lot of things are finally coming together for me. I put a lot of your great ideas from your class on my New Years’ Resolution list. The title of your class was prophetic. Every week I try to do a little something to push my work by updating my site, getting on Facebook, printing and framing my art. Etc, etc. and sure enough, I am hearing more of a “buzz” about my work. I have a couple of jobs lined up and one project (cross your fingers) that I hope will turn out to be a great opportunity. I’ll tell you later, don’t want to jinx it.
Anyway, doing well, thanks Debbie
Debbie made an impact by telling me about her progress. What a great note to receive at a time when I experienced some doubt. The simple act of caring, of reaching out to connect with people makes a huge difference to you and to them. Because I’d recently heard from Debbie, I re-thought my commitments for the preceding week.
Wednesday: A budget planning session for a non-profit involved three hours and four dedicated women. It feels good to be a part of an organization that inspires such commitment.
Friday: The evaluation of a friend’s query for a book publisher suddenly seemed more of a privilege than a chore. After all, he’d fought brain cancer and survived. I just had overwhelm.
Creating excitement is the key to re-energizing. Review the things that work. Take the time to send an email or follow-up note to someone who made a difference for you. Then, get back on those tasks.
Join the Launch Party for just-published Life Simplified, a one-day only opportunity!
February 23, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
I’m participating in the launch of a new book, Life Simplified, published by Life Coach Leslie Gail. Buy Life Simplified Tuesday, February 24th and receive $800 in bonus products. Leslie’s goal is to achieve best-seller status in just one day. Find out more.
Why am I part of this? Three reasons: first of all, a simplified life has more and more appeal to me and to virtually everyone I know. Leslie’s comments caused me to review my own feelings when I went through a career change six years ago. Readers of this blog know I experienced similar overwhelm when I started working on a content management system for my website.
Have you ever procrastinated making changes in your life because of feelings of fear or overwhelm with the process? Are you tired of struggling or feeling like you are constantly swimming upstream? Would you like to live a more purposeful and passionate life?
I joined this launch secondly to walk my talk. I regularly recommend entrepreneurs align with those who have similar interests and goals. Leslie Gail meets the criteria. She’s reaching out, bringing a focus to me and to more than a dozen other experts with her product launch. Read the list of bonus offerings totaling more than $800. Leslie is providing value-added and I support that type of offering.
Action advocate, Coach Rachelle Disbennett Lee, a friend, advisor and associate referred me to Leslie and presented her as yet another person who “walks their talk.”
Finally, I see this launch as an additional way to create valued experiences for my readers. I look forward to reviewing Leslie’s book for myself and reporting on it to you. Her book points to specific steps you can take now to simplify, including these and more:
Be in the Moment
Embrace more gratitude in your life
Learn to get your own needs met first
Handle stress with ease
Learn the key to success
Live a life of no regrets
Bring more passion into your life
If you want more of any of those things, buy Life Simplified. Best of all, get $800 in bonus offerings when you do this. Check it out Tuesday February 24, 2009 and let me know what you think.
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