Tune Into What Customers Really Want

Customer relationship marketing is powerful in theory, but troubled in practice. We need to take time to figure out how and why we are undermining our own best efforts.

Perhaps we're overlooking the fundamental elements of a good customer relationship program. With the means to connect with customers easily, maybe we're rushing to cash in on the potential rewards, while forgetting the essentials of all relationships: intimacy and trust.

Close examination reveals that relationships between companies and consumers are suffering. U.S. satisfaction rates are at an all-time low. Complaints, boycotts and growing unhappiness with big corporations are strong indicators that most CRM isn't working.

Ironically, the very steps marketers are taking to build relationships with customers are often responsible for destroying these connections. Companies may delight in learning more about their customers and providing services to please them, but customers are fed up. They're tired of irrelevant survey questions, overwhelming product choices, features they'll never use in phone plans and cars, and rebate-driven buyer reward programs.

The New Frontier: Mining the Internet

With the proliferation of online stores that complement traditional outlets, companies now have a tremendous source of information about consumers' preferences. Because a traditional store may not always have a product on its shelves, purchase results are not always a good measurement of desires. Online stores can track consumer demand patterns more precisely, as they offer extensive ranges of products to national and global customers.

The web is more than a sales channel; it is a powerful means of collecting data in real time. The Internet is truly the new frontier in connecting with the customer, offering a huge opportunity for companies to improve customer relationships.

The New Social Marketing: Buzz and Word of Mouth

Where does marketing enter the mix? Some experts claim the old days of "push" marketing are over, where a company shoved a one-way message to customers via print or TV. Corporations are asking themselves just how much return on investment there really is from a 30-second Super Bowl commercial.

Consumers are turning away from media and, instead, tuning into each other. Engagement and word of mouth marketing are the buzzwords of this new era. Customers are doing their market research online and listening to each other. Unfortunately, many marketers continue to look at engagement in a one-sided way.

Corporate blogs have become an excellent resource for CEOs and others to connect with customers in a personal manner. In spite of the possible pitfalls in opening two-way communication between the public and employees, there is much to be gained by being personable, accessible, authentic and transparent.

Customers are already communicating with each other online about products and experiences with your company. If you can join the conversation in a real way, in real time, you'll have an advantage over those who remain silent and inaccessible behind corporate doors.

Now there is finally a way to discover what customers want, and a way to connect with them authentically. But there are risks involved in being honest and transparent. Will you and your company take the risk?

Why Educated Consumers are Better Customers

Educated Consumers
Not too long ago, a colleague asked me why we invest so heavily in consumer education. We have made a conscious decision to spend marketing dollars on consumer education for a very simple reason. Educated consumers are simply better customers.

Lets take a closer look at why educated consumers are better customers.

Less Technical Support.
1.) Educated consumers require less technical support. The reduced technical support results in lower overhead costs. Often educated consumers can further reduce the support burden by assisting or educating other customers or potential customers in forums, newsgroups, user groups or elsewhere in an industry community.

Often users with a strong technical background or understanding will often assist in the forums and provide users technical support. The result: an educated consumer is a happy and helpful customer.

Easier Sales.
2.) Generally speaking educated consumers have a better understanding of the technology, how it can be used and how it will benefit them. A customers understanding that an application will result in saved time, can easily justify the software's expense. Cost becomes less of an issue when long-term value is understood.

Reasonable Expectations.
3.) I hate to say it, but back in 1996 when we started out, consumer ignorance resulted in unrealistic expectations. Consumers purchased expecting that software would do their dishes and vacuum. Regardless of how well the software did what it was designed to do, if a customer expects it to do something else, they will not be a satisfied customer.

Educated consumers have realistic expectations and understanding of what can and cannot be accomplished.

Kinds of Consumer Education

1. Articles.
Educational articles not only propagate the success and understanding of a technology, but well written articles will often establish the writer as an industry expert.

Example http://www.feedforall.com/newsletter.htm (on the bottom)

2. White Papers.
Real world examples of how other users are using software to resolve problems or save time are often great illustrations of technology in action.

Example http://www.notepage.net/whitepapers.htm

3. PPT Demonstrations.
Power point presentations not only assist with user education, but also can be used by User Groups to further evangelize and educate potential users.

All in all, educated consumers result in a happier user with realistic expectations. Ignorance often results in dissatisfaction and unrealistic expectations while education leads to long term happy and helpful customers.

Permissions:
Permissions and notification of use not required.

Utilizing Customer Service at Your Home Security Company

For many people the most important aspect of a home security company is the customer service department. The customer service department at your home security company can really help you out in a lot of situations. They can be beneficial in helping you to choose with products and services to purchase from your home security company, can answer questions you have relating to the function of your security system and can help you to troubleshoot errors in the function of your security system.

The amount of products offered by a home security company can be overwhelming. In most cases a home security company offers way more products than you need to protect your home. Simply viewing a website or a catalogue can be quite confusing. The best way to determine just what you need is to contact the home security company directly and speak to one of there customer service representatives. These valuable employees of the home security company are typically very knowledgeable about the products and services that the security company provides so they can evaluate your situation and provide you with insight into which products and services would be most useful and which are not really necessary.

The customer service representatives at your home security company can also be of assistance if you have questions about how your security system works. Their knowledge of the products and services that the home security company provides enables them to explain the features of the system to you in a manner that is clear and easy to understand. Your home security company employees these individuals to assist you in answering any questions that you might have.

The customer service department of your home security company can also be very helpful if you experience problems with your security system. They might be able to answer your question or to test your security system remotely. If they are unable to answer your question or solve your problem, the customer service representatives will be able to put you in touch with the members of the home security company who will do the repair work, maintenance or testing that might be required on your security system.

A customer service representative is the consumer’s main contact in the home security department. If they are unable to answer your question, they can put you in touch with the member of the home security company who can help you. Whether your questions are related to installation, purchasing, testing, errors or payments, the customer service representative will field your call and either handles your question directly or direct you to another employee of the home security company who can assist you.

Why does every company need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?

First, let’s define what a CRM is: The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a system that connects different parts of a company through the thread of customer relationships. Sales, Marketing, Accounting and Customer Service can all be tied together with a powerful, centralized CRM software made to retain customer loyalty, increase revenue, deliver consistent and efficient customer service, and finally, evaluate which customers to focus on.

Basically, every company has customers, and every company should maintain some basic information about those customers such as names, addresses, purchases, contracts, invoices, etc. Therefore every company should have at least some basic "CRM Technology" to track and serve their customers. Even small businesses use Outlook, Quicken or other applications for this purpose. If you use Microsoft Outlook for your daily communications, calendaring, tasks and appointments and need a way to track sales leads and opportunities, to share data across sales representatives, to improve the understanding of your sales process, to communicate with a broad groups of people on a one to one basis, to improve your business process in the most important area – sales, and need a reporting system that beats multiple excel spreadsheets, then you need a complete CRM solution.

Why ? Because a CRM software can increase profitability for your business by reducing current operating costs, usually in the call center or distribution system, and by increasing customer value through smarter marketing using customer data to increase customer profitability.

Can you do it without a CRM ? Probably, but not as efficiently because only a CRM is built to take care of Customer personal needs “centrally”, meaning that by using a single software, all the employees of the same company can access an organised database via Internet, where sales, customer service and management have access to the same customer data using tools such as “Sales Force Automation” (provides Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account and Contact Management, Reports and Dashboards specifically useful for your organization's sales team), “Customer Support and Services” (provides Ticket Management, Knowledge Base, E-mail Notifications specifically useful for your organization's customer support team.), “Marketing Automation” (provides Lead Management, Mailing Lists, E-mail/Mail Merge templates, Product Management, specifically useful for your organization's marketing team.), “Inventory Management” (provides Products, Price Books, Vendors, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Invoices specifically useful for integrating your organization's sales, inventory, and accounting processes and enhance the sales effectiveness.) , providing a complete integration between pre-sales, post-sales, procurement, fulfillment, and other business processes within your organization.

In other words, a good CRM software will help you build customer relationships by setting mutually satisfying goals between organization and customers, establishing and maintaining customer rapport and producing positive feelings in your organization and for the customers.

Organizations that implement CRM and turn their business into e-businesses will find their competitors' customers ready to welcome them with a "smile". According to a study by IT Consulting firm Aberdeen - "The winners in this new economy will be those companies that can effectively leverage the Internet to redesign, automate and integrate all business operations".
Take the plunge!

Either jump on board with CRM and invest, knowing you need it, or get out the calculator and pencil and start adding up what you’re going to lose!

One thing is for certain – a few short months after implementing your CRM solution, you’ll wonder how on earth you ever got by without it!
http://www.momentustech.ca

Turn Online Window Shoppers into Customers

If you stand in front of a store on a slow Sunday afternoon, you will notice the same thing happening over and over again. People will pass by and carefully examine the wares in prominently displayed in the windows. Perhaps they will mumble something about the items on display. They will not even step into the store. These people are not customers. Rather, they are just window shoppers. On this particular Sunday they are looking, but certainly not buying.

It is even easier to "window shop" on the Internet, since you don't even need to step outside the house. People browse through many different web sites, look at the products and services on display, but do not buy.

However, if all you get are window shoppers, rather not buyers, you need to look into why at least some of your web site visitors are not buying from you. There are many reasons why someone does not become a customer of a store. They might not be interested in buying at this time and are just doing research; they might not be your target customers, or they can't find what they are looking for on your web site.

Let's look at several actions ways to improve your web site to generate more online sales:

- Get more targeted visitors to your web site. If you are selling sporting equipment, and people who come to your web site are couch potatoes, you will not get many takers.

The more targeted your web site visitors are, the higher the probability that they will buy something. Let's say you are a business coach who helps accountants get more clients. When potential customers come to your web site looking for a "generic" coach, they are not really targeted clients, since there are many different types of coaches who focus on different market niches.

If potential customers come to your web site and they are looking for a business coach, your targeting is better than in that in the example above. If potential customers find your site while searching for a business coach for accountants, congratulations! You have hit the jackpot. Your marketing campaign is as targeted as it can possibly get, since these people are a perfect match for your expertise. You should strive to achieve the highest possible level of targeting for your web site.

- Make sure that your target customers can find exactly what they came for on your web site. If you are a business coach for accountants, and you get highly targeted customers they still won't necessarily buy from you, unless they can find what they are looking for.

Some people may be interested in information about your services, while others are on a limited budget will only be able to buy just one of your products. Make sure that all the visitors who come to your web site can easily find exactly what they are looking for.

- Make it simple for your web site visitors to take action. People will go elsewhere if they can't figure out how to buy from your or how to sign up for your newsletter.

Take action now. Use the three steps above to generate more sales on your web site.

What’s changing in Customer Service? The top 5 new things that customers want.

We all know that good customer service is paramount to growing a business and increasing profitability. What many managers are failing to realize, however, is that rapid changes in technology have lead to equally rapid changes in the delivery of quality customer service.

In addition to the basics we all have heard time and again, there are five new areas of customer service that should be addressed to keep customers happy.

What do customers say?

1) Preserve me from auto-attendant hell! Customers are becoming increasingly annoyed and frustrated with having to sift through a multitude of options and press numerous buttons – only to be told that the desired service is only available through the company’s website. Worse is when the auto-attendant uses voice recognition – but doesn’t ‘recognize’ your voice.

It’s understandable that companies want to reduce costs by using attendants and, there’s no question that these are valuable tools. Yet, people want to connect with human beings; they don’t want to listen to a long list of prompts – especially not if they are having a problem (and let’s face it, that’s what usually triggers the call in the first place). To keep customers happy, here are few simple tips:

• Always make it easy for customers to reach a human being.
• Give people the option of voice prompt or touch prompt.
• If you do use an auto-attendant, limit the number of menus to two rounds of choices before the customer reaches a human being.
• If you have asked the customer to key in account information, transfer the profile along with the call.
• If the call has been answered by a company rep, and needs to transfer the call to another department, do not put the customer back into a long queue. Instead, let your customer service rep be able to jump the front of the line, and get them to stay on the call with the client until the next person has picked up. Once this happens, the first rep should introduce the caller and give rep #2 a précis of the situation so the customer doesn’t feel like he or she is having to start all over again.


2) Don’t make me wait more than a couple of minutes in a phone queue. Many companies are making clients wait 15 minutes or more in a phone queue. Anything more than 2-3 minutes is considered unacceptable by more than 80% of customers surveyed.

3) Don’t make me quote chapter and verse about my account to get simple information. In these days of increased white collar crime, it is reasonable, and sensible, for companies to protect their customers by ascertaining that they are dealing with the correct person before discussing an account. However, 3 questions should be the limit. Beyond that, it takes up too much time (costing the company money) and only frustrates your client.

4) Give me more flexibility in how I contact you. As communication options increase, so should the options that customers have for contacting your company. Offer clients the choice of scheduling appointments by going on-line or using their PDA to access a special appointment site. Let customers send a text message or e-mail to request that customer service call them within the hour. Enable customers to access their accounts on-line – and give them the ability to change billing and service options while there. Giving customers (who want it) the ability to interact more with their accounts will make them happier – and has the added benefit of saving companies money and employee time.

5) Don’t tell me how I have to deal with you. Right now there are multiple generations of customers – which means multiple ways in which people want to interact with companies. Don’t force everyone into the same mold, or you risk alienating at least one of the generational groups. It makes no sense to tell someone who is older and computer-phobic that they can only get their bills on-line (and yes, a large percentage of people 60 years and older does not trust on-line “banking” and “account management” in any form)… just as it could cost you a customer if you were to tell a Gen Xer that there is no on-line access to their accounts. More than ever it’s important to know how your customers want to be treated – and do deal with them their way.

Why Your Customer’s Buy: 3 Motivators Small Business Owners Should Know About

Whenever you go into a shop or pick up the phone to place an order, something has prompted you to take action and buy. Have you ever stopped to consider what that prompt was? What thought went through your mind, which led to you putting your hand in your purse or wallet?

It’s all down to motivation – what motivates you to buy. Understanding your customer’s motivation will help increase sales and profits! So, let’s spend some time examining what motivates people to buy and how you can apply this knowledge to help make your business more successful.

Motivation – 3 basic drivers

Any purchase boils down to satisfying a need, want or desire. These are 3 distinct stages. You usually have to satisfy your needs before you can progress up to wants and desires. Let’s have a look at each of them in turn.

Needs

Abraham Maslow, in his work on needs, highlighted that at the basic level, before we can consider ‘bettering’ ourselves, we have a set of requirements that are essential to survival. The most basic of these needs include food, water, heat and shelter. This is mass-market appeal, from the big supermarkets down to your local corner shop. Sell into the ‘needs’ category and you are looking at high volume, low margin.

Other than the odd special promotion, you rarely see the local shop advertising; they know that they will always get a core trade because they are satisfying needs (a bottle of milk at 9 o’clock at night!).

Unless you have a huge market penetration, you will never make a fortune just satisfying needs. Find another market if you want a high-living lifestyle!

Wants

You’re getting warmer now! You are getting into the realms of people who have satisfied their basic requirements and can afford to step up the ladder to satisfy their wants.

These are ‘nice-to-have’ items – not essential but they make life comfortable. A car, a TV, a CD/DVD player – generally a decent standard of living. To capture the market of satisfying people’s wants you will have to work a bit harder on two fronts.

Firstly, the customer can take it or leave it. He may not really need it at the end of the day, so you have to clearly highlight the benefits. Secondly, there is always someone else offering the same product. In this day and age you could argue that wants, to many people, have become needs, so there is an element of mass-market selling in this sector. You are up against many other businesses offering your product; you have to advertise, make people chose you over your competition.

You will make a decent living and create a decent business. But you should want more than this! To achieve greater success, you have to find a product that satisfies desires!

Desires

Desires spring from emotions. Big, profitable sales are achieved on the back of emotions. Why? Because if someone has a burning desire to satisfy, then logic more or less flies out of the window! Someone buying on emotion will pay a high price – excellent profit for you.

If you are in the business of satisfying desires then you are probably selling niche products or services, something, which doesn’t have mass-market appeal. You are focused on people who are happy to pay a premium to get what they want. A businessman’s heaven!

Understand the real motivator

Having identified the 3 buying motivators, the next step to sell effectively to these groups is to see what the underlying need, want or desire is. Getting an idea of what drives your customer to buy means you can tailor your sales message accordingly.

The need motivators

• To eat and drink – to stay alive!

• To stay warm

• To have shelter

• To be healthy and clean

• To avoid pain

• To ensure general security and protection

The want motivators

• To be sociably acceptable – “everyone has one”

• To look and feel good – sex appeal!

• To save time or money

• To improve general comfort levels

The desire motivators

Although some of these can be similar to the want motivators, desire motivators are more driven by emotion and so the need to achieve is more passionate – money is almost no object.

• Sex appeal

• To improve social standing – not just keeping up with the Joneses but to be better

• To demonstrate love

• To gain prestige or to impress

• To be popular

• Regaining a forgotten youth

You can see by comparing the various motivators that selling to the desire group can be easier and more profitable. They have more money and so you don’t have to try hard to sell your product. All you have to do is uncover which motivator is pressing them to consider purchasing and exploit it! There’s nothing better than being in a niche market.

Steps to take

In summary, here are the steps you can take:

• Identify which of the motivators you are out to satisfy – needs, wants or desires

• Speak to your customers and find out which of the specific motivators is driving them to buy

• Tailor your sales and advertising pitch to match

Spend some time thinking and studying your customer’s motivation and you will be richly rewarded.