Soon our bathroom will look something like this.

Here’s an unusual example:

This week started out with a ruined bathroom. My husband and I own a beautiful, 100-year-old home in a historic neighborhood of Cincinnati, but the bathroom plumbing finally showed its age and crumbled. We’re taking this opportunity to completely remodel and enlarge the bathroom, which might take several weeks.

Problem: This bathroom contains the only shower in our house.

Solution: Join a local gym to take showers (and maybe get some exercise.)

When we walked into the gym in our street clothes, salespeople beset upon us. The first question our salesman asked was, “Are you interested in cardio or weights?” How could we respond that we were interested in neither? Weary and desperate for a shower, we just wanted to buy a membership. It’s the closest gym to us, so we weren’t going to comparison shop. The salesman proceeded to show us every piece of equipment and describe all the classes before we were finally able to give him a credit card.

With a few questions at the beginning of his sales pitch, he could have saved himself a lot of time and made money faster. Instead, he treated us like every other person walking into that gym- with a polite, very well-rehearsed sales pitch. I’m certain he treated us exactly how the gym trained him to sell to us, and he will probably be recognized for sales excellence at the next quarterly meeting. But following a script doesn’t best help the customer, especially when faced with unusual customers like my husband and me.

Is your small business set up like this gym, to put impediments in the way of customers buying? If you train your salespeople to sell without considering the customer’s situation, then you are. Salespeople shouldn’t know exactly what they are going to say before they encounter an actual customer – they might miss a customer who is ready to buy.

Related posts:

1. Undercover Customer Relationships Who would have thought reality television would showcase the value...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This article focuses on the first rule- Be easy to do business with. Small businesses have the competitive advantage of being able to offer their customers flexibility, personalization and relationships.Your customers will be as loyal to you as you are to them- take advantage of this truism.

Being easy to do business with isn’t the only reason your customers will become loyal, but it is certainly a necessary condition. If you give your customers any reason not to buy from you, they probably won’t. If you make it difficult to do more business with you, they won’t do that either.

So how do you become easy to do business with? The first step is to analyze what your business is like from your customers’ point of view. This is not limited to marketing interactions with your customers but should include billing, customer service, waiting areas and every point of contact customers have with you. Ask your employees for their honest assessments and feel free to ask some of your customers about their experiences with your business.

Sometimes companies make operational decisions and neglect to consider how those decisions will affect the customer experience. A lovely restaurant near my office is open from 7AM – 2:30PM, which is brilliant for operations. They only require one eight-hour shift. It makes scheduling very easy. But how does it look from a customer’s point of view, when McDonald’s opens at 5AM for breakfast? How many potential customers avoid this restaurant when they have to be at the office by 8AM? You need to be available at the times your customers want to buy, even if it makes life more difficult for you.

Many small businesses avoid the hassle of accepting credit cards. Yet Nilson Reports show that there were 20.2 billion credit card purchase transactions in 2009. That’s about 65 credit card transactions per U.S. citizen each year. If given the choice, it’s likely your customers would prefer to pay by credit card (other studies also show consumers spend more when they use credit cards as opposed to cash, as well).

The next step to becoming easy to do business with is to test your processes internally before inflicting them onto your customers. I’ve received my fair share of speeding tickets, and I’m always amazed at how cumbersome it is to pay the fine. I’m certain all of my readers are law-abiding citizens, but you may have seen an acquaintance’s speeding ticket. In many states, the envelope provided to mail in payment is the same size as the ticket itself, requiring you to fold the ticket in quarters to mail it back. The government isn’t designed to be easy to do business with, but small business owners should learn from this lesson.

Accounts receivable is an area where many businesses aren’t easy to do business with. Have you ever tested the process required for your customers to pay you? Does your billing cycle consider your customers’ schedules, or is it simply convenient for you? Take a look at your invoices. Are they clear, professional and part of your branding experience? The worst invoices I’ve seen have a hodgepodge of clauses left over from process changes that were created for internal convenience.

Once you identify the areas where you are difficult to do business with, you need to fix those areas. This step can sometimes be impossible in large companies, where a labyrinth of bureaucracy cements processes in place. The great advantage of small businesses is their flexibility, though. Start by prioritizing the most important interactions and the ones with the most room for improvement.

Finally, tell your customers about your improvements. It doesn’t matter how many fixes you’ve made if your customers don’t give you credit for them! At your next appropriate interaction with each customer, mention your new, more convenient billing cycle or that you are now accepting credit cards.

Being easy to do business with should be a cycle of continuous improvement. Each improvement in your customer experience- no matter how small- will grow your customer loyalty a little more. Occasionally, ask some of your best customers what you could do to serve them better or how you could better meet their needs. Always be on alert for how you can make your customers’ experiences better- and actually make those changes.

Related posts:

1. What experiences are you creating for your customers? With a small business, marketing can be defined as, “The...
2. Marketing Communication: It’s All About Meaning In celebration of Valentine’s Day, I want to proclaim my...
3. Small Business Marketing Spotlight: Reflected Spectrum Photography Reflected Spectrum Photography is an Indianapolis-based firm specializing in wedding...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.)

Related posts:

1. The Communication Trifecta Content, timing, media – this sums up the marketing communications...
2. Be easy to do business with. Recently, I outlined five small business marketing rules and invited...
3. How not to treat your customers It’s said that the brain cannot process a negative. We...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

Related posts:

1. Existing Customers Create New Customers An existing customer who is loyal to your company will...
2. Paint-By-Numbers Marketing Marketing Technology is Not Enough Advances in marketing technology allow...
3. What experiences are you creating for your customers? With a small business, marketing can be defined as, “The...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

Related posts:

1. Brand Harmony: New Paperback Edition Recently, I was given the privilege of designing the cover...
2. Existing Customers Create New Customers An existing customer who is loyal to your company will...
3. Marketing isn’t war on your customers. Most marketing metaphors seem so violent. Many of these metaphors...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The idea for Sugar came late in 2008 when Krista and her family were in Delaware for Thanksgiving. They stopped by a cupcakery in Washington D.C., and she thought, “This would be a really fun business to have.” From there, the plan was set into action. She credits Karla for the creative energy behind Sugar Cupcakery’s design.

Karla, a photo stylist, develops the recipes and designed the trendy, colorful interior of Sugar. She explains that one of the challenges to effective design is creating a good plan and sticking with it, even in the face of contrary opinions. “Don’t listen to naysayers if you know your plan will work,” she advises.

Small business marketing focuses on relationships

Krista knows the importance customer relationships play in small businesses. She says,

“People who have never been here before are surprised by what they get. We deliver an experience with our cupcakes. It’s more than a take out place where you get a cupcake on a napkin. Our menu is very vague because we want to talk to people, and we want people to ask questions. We have a relationship with our clientele.”

Because they get to know their customers, Krista and Karla are able to help people with special dietary needs. They’ve worked with parents to create special recipes for children who’ve never had cupcakes—letting them share in the same birthday fun other children enjoy. They also offer special-order vegan and gluten-free cupcakes. Krista notes, “We only need a day’s notice for special orders. Just call us, and we’ll work with you.”

Social networking is a key marketing strategy

In an environment where many small business marketing departments can’t make heads or tails of social networking, Karla attributes Sugar’s success to two factors: location and social networking. She elaborates,

“Everyday, I post on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. I try to link them all together. We get a lot of feedback. Social networking enables our customers to tell us what they think. It’s so rewarding because customers come in and say, ‘I follow you on Facebook! I know what your specials are!’ We try to get people to share their pictures. You just have to know how to tag everything, so that it links back to who you are. Always make sure to include the city, state and name of the business.”

Developing social networking and local relationships together have allowed Sugar to expand its influence to other opportunities. They have several corporate accounts, including with PNC Bank. Recently, Sidewinder Coffee in Northside starting carrying their cupcakes.

Among their cupcake and tea offerings, they also have a private room for parties or meetings. It holds between 20-40 people, has a patio and a flatscreen television for presentations or slide shows.

As with all small business endeavors, it hasn’t been easy to achieve success. In the beginning, obtaining cost-effective, fresh and organic ingredients was a challenge—sometimes they had to settle for what they could get. But through much research, networking and negotiating, they finally have suppliers that meet their demanding standards and still leave room for profit.

In their final comments, Krista and Karla leave us with advice for entrepreneurs just starting out:

“Save your money and be patient. It’s a lot of work. You have to do all the work yourself at first. You have to make sure you’re really organized, motivated and know what your business plan is. You really have to plan and outline. It’s less overwhelming if you plan.”

Sugar Cupcakery is a great example of a small business that understands marketing, customer relationships and how to use technology to get closer to their customers (instead of further away from them). They realize that having a great product isn’t enough to ensure success– although I can attest that their product is amazing.

Contact Details:

Sugar Cupcakery
32 Main Street
Milford, Oh 45150
sugarcupcakery.com
513-340-4166
sugarcupcakery@gmail.com

Hours:

Tuesday – Thursday 11am – 7pm
Friday and Saturday 11am – 10pm

Related posts:

1. Small Business Marketing Spotlight: Reflected Spectrum Photography Reflected Spectrum Photography is an Indianapolis-based firm specializing in wedding...
2. Small Business Marketing Spotlight: LMB Associates In the marketing spotlight this week, we have Lorena Blonsky,...
3. Small Business Marketing Spotlight: Legacy Farms Legacy Farms is a family farm in Indiana, owned by...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let’s hope that company is selling something that has a margin of more than $80, or they won’t see any profit. If only they knew that keeping existing customers happy naturally creates new customers. And it costs very little.

More often, companies treat existing customers like chopped liver. They forget about—or worse, punish– someone as soon as he buys something from them.

If you are a satellite television customer, the cable company will be glad to give you three months of free cable to become their new customer. If you are an existing cable customer, you know to expect the onerous contracts with rate raises and dread calling the dismal customer service when your signal goes out.

Companies focus on acquiring new customers at the expense of maintaining existing customers for mainly two reasons:

1. That’s what they’ve always done. When a product or company is brand new, there are no existing customers. All marketing efforts have to be focused on gaining new customers. This marketing inertia carries through well after a company has become established.
2. Those evil competitors! We must act now to steal market share away from them! What companies don’t think about is that it costs more to steal a customer from a competitor than to keep an existing customer.

An existing customer who is loyal to your company will buy more products more often and will rave about you to their friends. We all nod appreciatively when we are told that word-of-mouth and referrals are the most powerful motivators to encourage customers to try a new product, but then we go on with our e-mail blasts and Val-Pak coupons. Instead, we should be creating that word-of-mouth by inspiring our existing customers to rave about us!

But how do you create raving customers? Anticipate what would delight them. Then, deliver it! Netflix recently sent me an email that because of their increased operational efficiencies, they would be lowering my monthly subscription fee. Oh, and by the way, now I can watch thousands more movies instantly, and they created a movie player that works on my Mac. All without me having to ask. I’m delighted! I’m loyal! And here I am telling you about Netflix.

But what if you don’t know what would delight your customers? Ask them. A part of my consulting work is finding out what a company’s favorite customers love about them and to help them do that for every customer.

Remember, if we have existing customers, that means prospective customers don’t even exist yet. Companies should only spend a proportionate amount of their marketing budget on customers who don’t exist yet. Don’t invest yourself too heavily in imaginary friends.

Instead, we should focus a higher proportion of our efforts on relationships with existing customers. If we delight them, they will reward us by buying more from us with higher frequency. And, as a benefit, they will create our new customers for us.

Related posts:

1. What experiences are you creating for your customers? With a small business, marketing can be defined as, “The...
2. How not to treat your customers It’s said that the brain cannot process a negative. We...
3. Growing Profits through Habits As you might expect, most regular purchase decisions get delegated...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.