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Customer Experience: Do You Really Know Your Audience?

It’s no surprise that the increasingly social web have enabled customers to be heard while helping to improve the very products and services they’ve purchased. As millions of people continue to search online for the product they need and the service they want, do you know how the recession has impacted your customer’s value perception?  How are you going to improve the customer experience to optimize your products and services?

Your customer may have already shifted their spending in favor of private label brands over name brands or reduce the quantity or frequency of buying altogether.  Perhaps the freemium business model has become the new standard to get your customer to try your product. Whichever way you look at it, consumer’s perceptions of an interaction are influenced heavily from their purchasing experience, by how they research to who they trust.

To understand and improve customer experience, companies should first research their customer’s natural behaviors, and then seek opportunities to influence those behaviors through targeted strategies and niche offers.

According to a recent Nielsen analysis revealed generationally shopping habits that reflect...

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Where do you find the ROI for listening to your employees?

With growing topline revenue.

Companies who listen to and engage their employees for ideas and suggestions, recognize them for their work, hear/see what their strengths are and their dreams...are companies who grow. Those that don't, don't. Ask GM.

Sure, I could wordsmith the above into a more eloquent presentation. I could gather up a bunch of gallup polls with data about engaged employees. But that's like gathering up data about the sun that proves it's bright.

And, everyone who's worked within a company who listens to their employees nods their heads and says ...yeah, you're right. And those that haven't, nod their heads and say yeah you're right.

Where else will you find the ROI for listening to your employees?

With lower GS&A expenses.

In lower employee recruiting costs. Engaged, recognized, employees recruit those they want to engage and recognize.

In lower employee turnover costs. Employees rarely leave the rare company that listen to them.

In higher customer satisfaction scores? Yes.  (Who here thinks an unhappy employee = happy customers?)

In lower marketing costs. Happy customers refer their friends...
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Twitter to SXSW: You’re Using Our Product Too Much.


I’m at the Dachis Social Business Summit here in Austin right before SXSW kicks off. Like all conferences they’ve established a hashtag #sbs2010. While trying to follow along with the rest of my attendees, to see who’s here and what’s resonating with them and I got this message:

Possibly the most disruptive technology in social media was when Twitter acquired Summize which later became Twitter search and they’re limiting it at probably the biggest geek event of the year, SXSW, the very even that launched  Twitter several years ago. And the SXSW Interactive hasn’t even started yet.

Could you imagine if Bing limited search... 

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Companies Spend More on Email Than PPC; 39% Have No Clue of ROI

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you spent more money on email marketing than pay-per-click marketing, you’d have a reasonable explanation for that choice?

Well, according to the data discovered in Econsultancy’s 2010 Email Marketing Census, companies are spending more on email marketing (17% of online budgets) than PPC (16%) despite not fully understanding the return on investment (ROI) achieved or taking advantage of one of the most important benefits of email marketing: segmentation.

When you run PPC campaign, you attempt to segment your target audience by using different ad creative and targeted landing pages. You wouldn’t bring a “window shopper” to a landing page that displayed only one product, would you? So it’s a shock that many companies are still not using segmentation to target their email campaigns and deliver messages, or offers, that are tailored to their customers’ known interests and...

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Tax free money from your business!

This is one of the few sure fire ways to get tax-free money out of your business. Legally, I mean. Misused and misunderstood, I am setting the record straight on Director's Expenses.

But first, you have to be a director of a limited company. If you are a sole trader and have no intention of becoming limited, I am sorry, no tax free dosh for you here.

A perk of having a limited company is being able to claim standard rates for expenses, which means you get to write a regular cheque to yourself out of the company tax free. Hah? no tax? are you kidding? Yes I am, sort of. It just feels like it's tax free. Let me explain.

There are two ways to take care of travel, meals and accommodation expenses. The first way is to just keep all the petrol, restaurant and hotel receipts for every business trip, log them into your accounts and pay yourself back through the company, or even just use the company credit card to pay for everything. This can be very tedious after a time and if you are a sole trader I am afraid you have no other choice but to do it that way.

Trip Record

If you are a director or employee of a limited company...

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Customer Service or Customer Care?

Portrait of a male employee at a gardening store helping a woman

With prices of just about everything high and going higher, part of what's offered as value in the marketplace now is customer service.  It's not enough just to exchange goods for legal tender.  Business owners who want to see their businesses grow and see customers who give repeat business AND refer their family and friends must offer more.  That more is customer service

Typically customer service is defined as whatever suite of before, during and after the sale services you offer to customers and clients.  These include, but are not limited to:

  • helping a potential customer locate an item
  • offering suggestions for colors, flavors, sizes, add-ons
  • bagging, packaging, wrapping the purchase
  • helping to take a purchase to the customer's vehicle
  • delivery of purchases
  • follow-up communication to ask for feedback on customer satisfaction of the product/service purchased
  • follow-up communication to ask for feedback on the customer service itself

The newest take on the term customer service is customer care.  This phrase carries with it the idea of humanizing the buy/sell environment...

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We Need to Completely Rethink How Business Operates Using Social Media

Writing a book

I’ve mentioned the book I’ve been working on. I’ve actually made considerable headway on the weekends (except I can’t come up with a good title to save my life) and thought I’d share my current working summary. I’d love to hear your feedback.

I am looking for examples where social technologies have been used by companies to build trust, retain  knowledge, foster collaboration and spur innovation. If you or your company have any good examples please leave me a comment or shoot me an email: tac@newcommbiz.com

Social Media has brought about a groundswell of change that has swept the business world up in its wake. Antiquated processes, organizational structures and technologies  have kept companies from staying tuned in and engaged with customers and employees, to say nothing about keeping up with smaller, nimbler competitors.

No one can dispute that the Internet has radically reinvented the financial drivers and restraints of  traditional business models. It has lowered almost every barrier to entry in almost every industry. What the Internet has done to business models, the technologies behind social media...

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8 Signs of a Positive Leader

Yesterday I added my two cents on sensationalism across so many aspects of our lives. 

Today - I want to share my perspectives on the signs of a great leader. Not the sensationalism oriented gurus that seem to be popular today. Those approaches may not be the best to follow. As Dale Carnegie said, "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do."

So how do we know when we're following a true leader? Well, that's something we all have to decide for ourselves. But I have some ideas about what it takes to excel- as an expert and a leader. So here's my list.

1. Positive, no Matter What.  Leaders don't jump on the easy bandwagon of negativity. A true leader is determined to find the positive no matter how ugly things appear. They hold fast to their positive vision - tirelessly seeking the best outcome for all. Anyone can throw in the towel and succumb to  negative, woe-is-me, finger-pointing thinking. Leaders rise above the negative path - finding positive aspects in any situation to help their followers find a better way to live and grow.

2. Problem Solving. When there are issues, leaders focus on solving them...

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Edelman Digital: When Is Your Website A Community?

 

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One of the pet projects I've taken on since joining Edelman has been assuming the responsibilities of the "website", an initiative that as many professional services firms can relate to began to head down the path of the "cobblers children". One of the first things I was empowered to do was to hire a resource, fully dedicated to this property—this was probably one of the more innovative moves on the initiative since the property isn't a content destination nor a product platform. It does however allows us to be content publishers, facilitators and provides us with the flexibility to integrate 3rd party platforms (for example, a Foursquare widget will tell you who has checked into a local office).

   

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Having found the perfect community manager (Suzanne Marlatt), who acts as part curator, editor, blogger, and developer, we began to streamline efforts on the property to move it forward along our vision. Suzanne (below) and I both half jokingly describe this vision as a "Mashable for marketing", but that underscores our determination...
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When Persistence Doesn’t Work

We’ve been taught that if we just persevere and persist, we will ultimately win.

Like the man who is told there is a million dollars behind a thick brick wall, and he is given a small chisel to get to it. His hands bleed and he persists day and night, breaking a way through the wall.

He seldom sleeps, never quits, works as hard as he can, denies himself rest and entertainment. He persists until finally, after months of backbreaking work, he gets through the wall, only to find that he was lied to – there is no money there.

Persistence Works When

Before you start on a mammoth task, make sure there is money behind the wall. Do your due diligence.

But when you are convinced that you’re on the right track, that your goal is legitimate, and that it’s up to you to achieve it, persistence is the way to get there.

It’s not about intelligence or who you know or some silly college degree – the hallmark of champions is persistence. The only time it doesn’t work is when the goal is wrong or you quit.

Persistence separates the men from the boys...

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Making Micro-Services Markets Within the Enterprise

Here is an interesting idea. Marc Andersen, my former Renaissance colleague, posted recently on his blog on applying "product service systems" to corporate environments.  He was inspired by a Boston Globe article, The Leased Life, on how people should share products across their communities. Many people purchased tools and other things they rarely use, causing an unnecessary strain on their budgets and the environment.   The globe reported that this has been recognized and Web sites have started to facilitate these transactions.  This is another example of the potential of Web 2.0.

Marc wrote about how this practice makes sense for more efficient use of services inside the enterprise and I agree. He also noted that today’s collaborative tool sets can facilitate these internal marketplaces.  Enterprises would have to modify their cost structure and accounting to facilitate these exchanges but that should not be too hard.

However, making people aware of the services and arranging for micro-efforts and the associated micro-accounting would have potentially difficult with older technologies. However, just as on the Web with Web 2.0 sites...

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Social Media Cheat Sheet

Screen shot 2010-03-04 at 11.21.55 PM As I speak to conference audiences across the country about social media, one of the questions I always get asked is... how do I know which social media sites to use?

Of course... there is no single, magic or easy answer to that question.  It all depends on your goals, your overall marketing strategy, your resources and your industry.  It's not a cookie cutter sort of thing.

However...there's nothing wrong with a little cheat sheet to help you determine which sites are best for:

  • Customer communication
  • Brand exposure
  • Driving traffic to your site
  • SEO

Which is why the cheat sheet created by CMO.com is so handy.  It ranks the most popular/used social media sites (from the biggies like Facebook and Digg to the less talked about Reddit and del.icio.us) as good, okay or bad for the...

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Social Media in Business: "It Doesn't Work"

The title for this post stemmed from a conversation overheard in a group of supposedly forward thinking individuals who were discussing their business plans.  When success stories of contacts made and leads gained were used as examples of social media success these were dismissed as being irrelevant as there was no cash being made.

This created a question to the "social media sucks" brigade;

What avenues were you using?

This elicited the right answer. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Well so far, so good.  But then the next question identified where the problem was;

How long have you been doing it for?

We stopped after a few weeks, we weren't making any headway.

And therein lies the issue. It amazed me that business people were still thinking that they are going to elicit an immediate response to their social media campaigning and that they will start making money straight away.

Those of us who are actively engaged in social media as part of our marketing strategies know this. We know how much time and effort it takes to generate meaningful contacts which, in turn, will generate revenues...

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Is Your Employee Appreciation Backfiring?

People who work in an environment where doing their best is recognized have a better chance of feeling good about their work and a better chance of becoming successful producers who enjoy pleasing customers. Genuine praise goes a long way in helping workers stay productive, especially when demands are high. When it comes to appreciation, it’s often not given, infrequent or ineffective. When it is given, it isn’t always helpful. Why? Because certain types of appreciations BACKFIRE!  Appreciation can be tricky business. Sometimes the most well meant praise brings unexpected results.

Just imagine you come to work in an old suit that doesn’t quite fit you anymore. Your boss says, “You look FANTASTIC in that suit.” Would you feel flattered? Probably not. You’re more likely to think: “What does she want from me?” The kind words leave you feeling suspicious of the boss’ motives and on guard for fear of being manipulated. Compliments can also backfire in other ways:

 

 

 

Suppose you’re practicing your golf swing, and like me, you’re a lousy golfer. Then in one rare moment you swing your club...

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