Joseph DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven, wanted to discover the secret of their most successful stores. He said of one location,

“It’s the epicenter of coffee for 7-Eleven. This store sells more than 2,500 cups of coffee every day. I need to figure out what makes their coffee business so great, so I can roll it out to our other stores.”

He finds out that in this store with the highest volume of coffee sales, it’s all about the relationship, not the product.  Watch the clip below:

After working with Delores, who greets most customers by name, Joseph DePinto realizes,

“That’s why we’re selling 2,500 cups of coffee. Not because we have great coffee but because we have Delores there.”

In a more unusual situation, Waste Management president Larry O’Donnell learns the local trash collector is the literal face of his company to customers. After watching trash collector Janice greet and hug customers, he began to see her job as building relationships with their customers, in addition to collecting the trash. He made plans to change Waste Management’s approach to productivity measurement.

The specific segment isn’t available, but the full episode is here: Undercover Boss – Waste Management (The segment starts at 30:00).

These corporate leaders got the opportunity to see what their customers and employees experience first-hand. They witnessed the value of customer relationships. But you don’t have to go undercover to build relationships with your customers- you just have to start doing it.

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To add up your own scores, take the test below. To use the automatic calculator, take the Small Business Marketing Test here.

1. Be easy to do business with:
Do you make your customers go through hoops?

Many small businesses don’t realize how their processes affect their customers’ experiences. Answer the following questions to identify if you are “easy to do business with.” Feel free to create your own questions to suit your particular business.

• Does our billing cycle consider the customers’ schedule? Or is it based solely on our convenience?
• Are we open when customers want to buy?
• When a customer calls, does a person answer the phone?
• Has a customer ever said something like, “I love that you are a small business. It makes things so much easier for me.”?

On a scale of 1-10, with ten being the best, how would you rate your company in this category?

2. Communicate with your customers in ways that are meaningful to them.

If you don’t communicate with customers in ways that are meaningful to them, your messages will be ignored. Evaluate your communications with the following questions.

• Do you know how different customers like to be contacted? Which ones prefer email? Which ones prefer phone?
• How is the response rate on your print/TV/radio advertising? Are you settling for the industry averages, or do you outperform?
• When you communicate with your customers, does the message resonate with them? Be wary of messages such as, “We have the best technology!”
• Do customers receive consistent messages from your company?

Based on your answers to these questions, how would you rate your company on a scale of 1-10?

3. Know where you want to go – What are your business goals?

If your company finds communicating with customers difficult, perhaps it’s because the company doesn’t have a future vision. Answer the following questions to determine if you know where you wan to go.

• What should your revenue be in three years?
• Are you planning on introducing any new products or services?
• How much do you want to grow, and what resources will you require to do it?
• What steps have you taken today to help achieve your company’s future success?

On a scale of 1-10, how well do you know your company’s intended future?

4. Involve your team

“No man is an island.” If you have employees, they should understand your business and should participate in communicating your marketing message to customers.

• Can you remember an instance where an employee came to you with an idea, and you let her run with it?
• Do you share financial information, like revenue projections, with your employees?
• Do your employees feel that they will succeed if the business succeeds?
• Do you help your employees focus on the big picture, or are they always caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of their jobs?

Rate how well your employees are engaged in your business, on a scale of 1-10.

5. Keep at it – How are your implementation skills?

We all know the best plans are worthless if they aren’t implemented.

• In the past year, how many initiatives have you started? How many have you finished?
• Have you ever heard an employee say something like, “Oh, we’ll never finish this project. We started something just like it last year, and management got bored before we finished.”?
• Once you make a decision, do you monitor its progess during implementation?
• Do you ever have follow-up reports on your initiatives to measure their success?

Are you an implementation novice or master? Rate your company from 1-10.

Add up your scores. How did you fare? If your company scored less than 50, there’s work to do.

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Not too complicated, right?

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Meaning of Love – Larger version

If you click through to the larger version, you can see that following synonyms of a word can lead to some surprising definitions. In business and marketing, it is especially important to know exactly what words mean to your audience. Using the perfect words can help us communicate more perfectly.

For example, I was purchasing a gift card last night and was disappointed to see that the gift cards came in specific dollar amounts. I asked the salesperson, “Do you offer gift cards in variable denominations?” I realized I had chosen the wrong words when my question was answered with a blank stare. Trying again, I asked, “Can I get a gift card with any amount I want on it?” “Oh sure,” he replied. There are many ways to say any one thing. The goal of good communication is to find the words best suited to the person hearing or reading them.

What are some ways you could improve communication with your customers? Here are some thought starters:

• Most businesses use jargon and acronyms. When you use them with your customers, do they understand what you mean?
• Email and text messaging are notoriously bad at conveying inflection and context. Do the messages you send carry a double meaning if read differently?
• The best way for your customers to understand you is if you talk like they do. Do you listen for their terms and phrases? Do you use them in communication?
• How often do you listen to your customers? Do you make an effort to understand them?

If you talk to your customers in ways that are meaningful to them, your message will be more successful. Get to know different types of customers, the ways they describe your business, what they expect from the relationship with you and what words that they use. Successful communication will lead to success with your business goals.

(In future articles, I’ll delve into how to develop business goals for your small business. Marketing starts with knowing what results you want.)

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It does if you’ve ever posted something like, “I can’t believe how long it’s been since I updated my blog!” Even though posting regularly is the number one key to blogging success, it can be hard to keep a schedule. From finding time to finding something to write about, there are many obstacles to keep you from posting as much as you should.

Here are some tips to keep your blog regular.

Know your blog’s purpose.

Many writers can’t figure out what to write about because they don’t know the goal they are trying to reach. If you have a business blog, what are the business goals you are trying to achieve? One goal could be to find qualified buyers interested in your products. Another could be to engage your current customers. You might be trying to get referrals. What is your blog’s purpose? Write to fulfill that purpose and reach your goals.

Record your thoughts.

If you find it hard to sort out your thoughts in writing, don’t! Use a voice recorder to compose your blog posts. Many people find it difficult to write, but almost everyone can have a conversation. Once you determine what you’re trying to say, use the transcript as your blog post.

Make notes.

It seems obvious, but ideas for a blog post can strike at any time. Be prepared with your favorite notebook, iPhone app or even that voice recorder. You never know when a visit to a restaurant, dramatic sunset or chance encouter could be the impetus for a fantastic post. Capture the details as they happen.

Use your notes.

Don’t just take notes! Use them to write blog posts. And here’s a secret: if you’ve written a book or two, you’ve got hundreds of pages of notes conveniently published for your convenience. Use advice from your books, coupled with current events or recent experiences, to create fresh, engaging blog posts.

Develop an editorial calendar.

You should post to your blog at least once a week. To keep that goal, you need a schedule. You probably schedule appointments for oil changes or hair cuts, so why not schedule writing time? Your calendar can be as detailed as deciding on topics in advance or as general as just deciding on the day and time a post will go out each week. Get someone to help you stay accountable to your calendar, and you’ll have even more success.

Get ahead.

A counter-intuitive strategy to saving time is to write several blog posts all at once and schedule them for the future. It saves more time to get in the writing mindset once and write five posts than to find time to write on five different occasions.

Get help.

If blogging is truly part of your strategy to reach your goals, then it would be worthwhile to invest in a writing coach or professional writer. A coach will hold you accountable to schedules and topics, while a writer will consult with you and write excellent posts that meets your goals. (Might I mention that Zoo in a Jungle Marketing provides such services?)

I’ve developed these tips after years of making and breaking writing commitments to myself and my business– and seeing many others do the same. If you have any tips of your own for keeping your blog regular, I’d love to read them in the comments.

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At the peril of using negatives, I want to give small businesses advice on how not to treat their customers. In the following examples, imagine how your customers would respond if you tried these bad tactics.

Don’t offer customers a make-believe loyalty program.

Any customer can tell that buying six smoothies in a month in exchange for a free one is not a good deal. If you insult their intelligence, customer disloyalty will skyrocket.

Don’t try to trick customers with sneaky advertising.

A company named Sneaky Advertising tried to post a spam comment on my blog. I visited their site, and took the screenshot shown below.. There’s no such thing as stealthy profits, because no one is fooled by those haphazard advertisements. If you trick customers into viewing your advertisements, two things can happen: they ignore it, or they get angry about it. If your customer gets angry at your advertisement, that means they are really angry at you. Only advertise to your customers in ways they find acceptable.

Don’t act like a large company when you’re not.

Small businesses can offer customers things that large companies cannot. Use your size to your advantage– don’t try to hide it. Large companies have many faults that small businesses must avoid such as unnecessary bureaucracy, unwieldy communication and treating customers like a number.

Don’t talk negatively.

Remember the pink polar bear example earlier in this article? Speaking in negatives is not an effective way to communicate your message. Focus more on your strengths than your competitors’ weaknesses or jabs. Just try to read the following excerpt from DirecTV’s website without focusing on, “NO!” and “ONLY!”

All of these points have something in common and can be summarized in one statement:

Don’t treat your customers like they are stupid.

Your customers are smarter than ever, have access to more information than they did a year ago and grow more discerning with every sales pitch they hear. Most importantly: they can tell if you are trying to trick them.

Use your marketing budget to treat your customers as the intelligent, discerning people they are. If you do, you will have the opportunity to grow loyalty, sales and referrals.

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Later in the show, I analyze what makes an effective Mission and Vision Statement. I explain how DenaliTEK uses their Mission and Vision Statement as an internal marketing strategy to create strong beliefs about their organization’s purpose and future. DenaliTEK has built a very strong internal brand. It is especially impressive how Todd developed a set of criteria called, “The 10 Keys to Success,” that DenaliTEK uses to evaluate  prospective employees to determine if they will help build the culture. The company lives its brand every day.

Not every company is this successful in implementing their Mission and Vision. Many times, these items are left as bullet points in the dust-heap of executives’ PowerPoint slides, never to become implemented. Another pitfall is making them too vague, so that in trying to say everything, they communicate nothing.

For more insights, listen to the podcast below:

Download the internal marketing MP3 file here. (7.6MB)

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Laura starts by telling us what she enjoys about owning her own business:

I love the freedom I get from owning a business.  I have full creative control over all my work, so I’m free to try new techniques and experiment with new ideas.  I’m also able to work at my own pace, set my own hours, and choose my own assignments.

But all small business owners discover challenges as they grow. For Reflected Spectrum Photography, Laura was already an experienced photographer, but running the other aspects of the business, such as sales, marketing and finance, was difficult at first. Since her core competency was photography, she sought advice:

I continue to learn as much as I can about these fields to improve my knowledge and skills in those areas, but I have also benefited greatly from the help of good consultants, such as Zoo In A Jungle Marketing and Andrew Technology. Having expert advice available has been extremely helpful to give my business a head start.

As with most successful small businesses, Reflected Spectrum Photography focuses on the customer experience and building relationships. Relationship-building is easier for small businesses than with large ones, which is a key competitive advantage of being small. Laura agrees and adds, “I really enjoy building relationships with all my clients. I find it very rewarding to be present at the most special moments in my clients’ lives, and to see how their children have grown at each new portrait session.”

Laura realizes that satisfying her clients involves more than delivering beautiful photographs, so she ensures they have a great experience during the photo shoot as well:

I try to help my clients feel relaxed and get them excited about having their pictures taken. If my clients are enjoying themselves, that allows me to capture special moments as they happen and preserve them as art, and I hope that they will be treasured for years to come. The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the expression on my clients’ faces when I’ve captured the perfect expression of happiness on their child’s face, or caught a spark of real emotion from their wedding day. If my customers enjoy the experience and love the results, they are likely to hire me again in the future and refer me to their friends.

As for building her customer base, Laura has employed a very successful web marketing strategy and client referral network. She says, “Before you can make a client happy, you first have to actually get some clients, so well planned sales and marketing strategies have played a key role in my success.”

As a successful small business owner, Laura parted with the following advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

Before you start to focus on selling your products or services, build a solid foundation for your business to grow on.  Once you become successful, you may be too busy with your clients to focus on building a good web site, formulating targeted marketing initiatives, or finding a record keeping system that works for you.  If you need help with any of these things, don’t be afraid to ask!  Help is out there in many forms.  Books, forums, internet articles, and expert consultants are all available to help you get your business off to the right start.

Contact Info:

Reflected Spectrum Photography
Laura Poland
http://www.reflectedspectrum.com

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One of the most powerful concepts in marketing is Brand Harmony, developed by Steve Yastrow. I work closely with Yastrow & Company, and have seen the benefits of Brand Harmony for our client companies. Steve Yastrow’s book of the same name, Brand Harmony, defines your brand as, “Every experience your customer has with your company.” (14) If these experiences blend into a harmonious whole, your customer develops a rich, positive brand impression of your company and products.

A company we work with, Prairie City Bakery, creates a great experience with their baked products. They sell baked goods such as cookies, muffins and doughnuts to food service vendors, convenience stores, drug stores, etc. They have faced the challenges of offering a great-tasting and high-quality product while also providing a quick snack for consumers. Part of this experience is the packaging, which makes it look homemade. President Bill Skeens is fond of saying, “People eat with their eyes,” a statement which shows an understanding of the importance of customer experience.

Netflix also creates good customer experiences. The system learns which movies you like and dislike to recommend other titles to you. If you lose a DVD, they don’t accuse you of stealing it. With their increasingly populated Watch Instantly section, you hardly even have to bother with DVDs. (But every company has room for improvement. Netflix team members…if you are reading this… please add a “Holiday” movies genre. It’s ridiculously difficult to find those titles.)

Each time a customer comes into contact with you or your products, you are creating an experience for that customer, even if you aren’t trying. Sometimes, especially if you aren’t trying. The worst– and most memorable–customer experiences come from brand disharmony.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “The system won’t let me.” from a customer service representative or retail store cashier? Technology is an area where many companies create disharmony. Rarely are systems designed with the customer experience in mind. Recently, I discovered that my bank’s idea of offering electronic payment is to print a physical check and mail it to my vendors for me. Imagine my surprise when I received a late notice from a vendor that I had paid “electronically.” The bank told me they needed four days’ notice to process the payment, and I had only given them two. How is that a better experience than simply writing and mailing a check myself? Why would they design such a useless system?

When you create brand disharmony, you confuse your customers. They don’t know what to think about you– Even worse, they know exactly what to think about you, and it’s unfit for print. But when the experiences you’ve created for your customers create Brand Harmony, they feel an affinity for your company and have a rich sense of why they want to buy from you.

Think of some companies you have an affinity for and that create great Brand Harmony with you. What experiences do you have with those companies? Now, ask yourself: How can I gain inspiration from these companies? What experiences should I create with my customers?

Don’t just think of your “traditional” marketing communications. Customers don’t care if your billing department and marketing department are separated by a chasm. If your invoices and advertisements don’t create complementary experiences, your brand will be weak in their minds.

By thoughtfully considering what experiences your customers should have and putting those thoughts into action, you can help your customers know exactly why they buy from you. If they have a good answer for that question, they will be less likely to switch to a competitor or make do with a substitute product or service.

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Advances in marketing technology allow us to learn so much about our customers. With the information customers share with us, it’s never been easier to develop customer relationships and loyalty. But when the technology is used to create paint-by-number experiences, customers will feel a dissonance and know you aren’t actually interacting with them. Customers are very clever and can tell when companies use marketing technology against them instead of for them.

Laura Poland, an Indianapolis wedding photographer and close friend, experienced this technology dissonance first-hand with OvernightPrints.com. She usually orders business cards and brochures using her professional email address. However, one time she placed an order using her personal email address. OvernightPrints.com stored both of these addresses in their marketing database but didn’t record that the addresses belonged to the same person.

OvernightPrints.com’s records showed that Laura was a loyal customer when she used her professional email address. They sent her the following year-end coupon for 25% off any order:

But OvernightPrints.com also had Laura’s personal email address on file. Clearly, the personal email address wasn’t loyal to them. It had only placed one order. In a bid to “activate”  this dormant customer, they sent a sweeter deal to the email address that had only ordered once:

We wanted to give OvernightPrints.com a chance to respond to Laura’s disappointment at finding her loyalty was not rewarded. Here is the email from their customer service department:

Part of our marketing strategy to reactivate “inactive” customers is to send them different offers, which sometimes offer greater discounts.  We also have a Loyalty Program for our top customers, which provide excellent discounts as well. Should your purchases reach the level that qualifies you for the program, we would very much like to invite you to participate.

So it seems that Laura is neither loyal nor disloyal enough. OvernightPrints.com uses their technology to categorize their customers, and it seems some categories are luckier than others.

What lesson should we all learn from this marketing faux pas? (Besides that ordering infrequently from OvernightPrints.com is the best way to score deeper discounts). If a company tries to use technology to “cheat” some customers, the customers will find out. And that will erode their relationship with the company. No one stays loyal to a company (or friend) that doesn’t show loyalty to them. Carefully use your marketing technology to bring you closer to your customers, instead of further away from them.

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