Make your customers look good

Here in the Czech Republic it’s a long weekend. And by long I mean very long; there are two bank holidays, on Monday and Tuesday.

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You’re nobody till somebody hates you

You know you’ve made it when otherwise sane and rational people spill bile and hatred all over the internet at your company, your product and your customers.

This week ought to see Apple reeling from the sucker punch of the ever-so out of context reporting of recent suicides at a subcontractor’s plant in China. Reporting that goes to great lengths to mention that Apple’s iPhone and other products are assembled there whilst neglecting to mention that HP, Dell and Microsoft all have their products made by Foxconn.

This has made the news, and given Apple-haters plenty of opportunity to point fingers. Someone I’d previously thought a friend took exception to me adding some balance to a Facebook post about Apple/Foxconn, in so doing branding all Apple owners as ‘a cult of smug wankers’ then laying into me in no uncertain terms.

Personal sleights aside, this week has also seen Apple surpass once-mighty Microsoft’s market cap, the international launch of the million-plus selling iPad, with lines around the block in London, Sydney, Tokyo and many other cities across the world ,I shouldn’t wonder.

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Who needs social media when you’re too busy being awesome?

Catching up on some blogs this weekend, I found this post about Comcast’s usage of Twitter by Lisa Barone over at Outspoken Media.

Not living in the US I don’t have the opportunity to try Comcast’s service. My overall opinion of the way Comcast use Twitter is that it’s great for the people who get help that way, though it creates a two-tier support system – people savvy enough to turn to @comcastcares get ‘premium hotline’ support. Those who aren’t so connected (if your internet connection is out, you’re probably using your iPhone) are subjected to phone trees and hold music. If the team that use Twitter in some way can generalise problems and drive organisational improvements then I can see the up-side. Otherwise @comcastcares is just an insiders’ priority support channel.

Anyway, to my point. I’ve been in the Czech Republic since 2001. Over that time I’ve used numerous internet providers (cable, ADSL, Wi-Fi), but the one that’s always my first choice if it’s available (a few years ago we even paid to have a building wired up) is UPC‘s cable internet service.

Every year since I moved here their offerings have got faster, when their infrastructure could take it, or cheaper. They’ve driven a stake through the ADSL internet provision business of Telefonica O2 (previously Czech Telecom) by always beating them on price AND quality of service. They were the first ISP here to get rid of FUP limits. They don’t have blanket coverage of the city yet but where they offer service, you’d be crazy to go with anyone else.

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Holding On – The right and wrong way in customer retention

Customer retention seems to get little thought in some companies. The fact that retention tactics only kick in when you tell them you want to terminate your contract is a significant part of the problem. Customer acquisition is an expensive business but it seems that some marketers are obsessed with it, accepting churn as a fact of life, with holding on to existing customers given only cursory attention.

Keeping customers is too important to be left to a salesperson calling the customer after they leave, you should be aiming to be so good for your customers that they never even think about leaving. Good marketers do this by making sure that all parts of the customer experience are faultless. ‘It’s not my department’ marketers on the other hand constantly have to come up with ways to retain customers that are disappointed by the service delivery.

A personal example

My dad recently decided to switch gyms. He even took the time to tell the Fitness First retention agent that called him the reasons why he was leaving.

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Because special doesn’t have to be perfect

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How to Get More Reviews

We all know that reviews written by real people help to flesh out the details of a business. So why is it that hardly anyone writes reviews?

Several of my friends love to talk about their favourite places to eat, or shop but very few of them write reviews of anywhere they go. We talked about the reasons why this was the case. For some it was time – they just didn’t think it was worth their while to spend the time writing it. For others it was that they weren’t sufficiently moved either positively or negatively to bother. Always keen to solve the insoluble I’ve put together this list of how to get more reviews.

0) Be remarkable
In case you were wondering why I’ve numbered this point zero, this is because being worthy of comment is the ground zero of getting reviews. Ever wonder why Seth Godin just won’t stop banging on about being remarkable? That’s because it’s important! If the average response you illicit is ‘meh’ and would have most people ticking the ‘just average’ box on a comment form, you’ve got serious problems. Take care of this first. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, if you can’t find something to give people to talk about, ask your customers what would blow them away and find a way to do that. If you’re still stuck, and wish you weren’t, maybe change your line of work.

1) Just Ask
Granted some people just won’t write reviews but in a lot of cases all it takes is asking someone if they wouldn’t mind spending a few minutes, next time you get a compliment on your product/service, to share that sentiment with others. (The same goes for referrals by the way). Afraid of coming across as needy or narcissistic by asking straight out? If you really want to avoid that, soft-pedal with the suggestions below.

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Get outside your comfort zone

We’re all guilty of sticking to what we know; whether it’s in our choice of where to eat, or which brand of breakfast cereal we buy, and the way jobs and careers go we often find ourselves ploughing a very similar furrow. I’m all for specialisation – that’s how you get to be the best in your field. A deep network of contacts and domain knowledge are excellent reasons to hire someone.

But what if you were to get outside of your chosen vertical for a while? Whether that’s giving some marketing advice to a friend or family member, helping out at a non-profit or a small local business that you use. Doing this gives you the opportunity to test out your marketing abilities in a completely different direction.

In our day-job we (should) know the customer inside out. Things are a little different when you’re presented with the challenge of marketing to a customer base you don’t know so well — even if you’re one of them. It’s then that you can strip away the accumulated domain knowledge and get back to applying basic principles, testing your assumptions and truly stretching yourself. You might be the world’s best marketer of widgets but that’s almost irrelevant when you’re marketing a gourmet deli. It’s time to apply what you’ve learnt to a completely different niche and see just how universal your skill-set is.

Whilst I’m in transition between jobs I’m using some of the time to reach out to small businesses which can’t afford big-shot marketing consultants and don’t have all the skills in-house required to shift their marketing up a gear. Both of the business owners I’m working with have agreed to me posting details of my work for them here and I look forward to chronicling the development of their marketing and (hopefully) the lift this gives their businesses.

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Helping out your competition

Sparked by a comment on twitter recently by Justin Levy, co-owner of a restaurant and social media proponent.

I own a restaurant and we’re doing great due to SM. But I see a lot of restaurants closing which sucks to see happen

he was replying to this question by Dave Ferrick:

Last few local restaurants I visited in the past 3 months said they’re closing down despite excellent service. SM Gurus where are you?!

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Fish where the fish are

Or “grill where the people are having beer”

One of the many things I love about Prague is that there are many places, just out of plain sight, that tourists hardly ever notice – little oases for real Czechs to drink Czech beer and eat grilled meat (and vegetables too at the better places, like this one).

Here’s a map of where I had dinner recently.

So, Location, Location, Location eh?

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