If you are like me, you are concerned about getting more customers.
At the same time, you may have noticed unexpected results from your traditional communications campaigns.
For example, have you noticed how much less mail is coming through your physical mailbox - and how much more through your emailbox?
My natural inclination is to delete these messages - there are just so many.
At the same time, I'm worried about missing critical insights.
Overcome, then, with some guilt, I check out the offending emails - only to discover that the messages are barely focused on me. They don't acknowledge me as an individual and don't seem to care that most messages are irrelevant to me. For the most part, they barely acknowledge that I was a customer!
What a way to not connect with customers!
Imagine instead coming across as genuinely human and caring, and being less interested in pushing some special promotion rather than making a human connection.
I would surely rather connect with someone who cares. I bet others would, too!
Given that backdrop, imagine my reaction when I received an email from Crocs with pictures of four Crocs employees [i.e., not super models] explaining why they love a specific product.
I was completely taken. I also enjoyed every moment of it and couldn't wait for my next Crocs communication.
Imagine if all of your customers felt that way!
What made these email communications different? What about them acknowledged that customers are people and offer tips for getting more customers?
1. These email communiations were customized and acknowledged me as me.
2. They included photos of the people sending the messages - making me much more willing to consider them as people and to consider commonality.
3. If I wanted to contact the senders, I could. These email messages included an unique and person-specific email address. Talk about a strong message!
4. These messages were NOT 100% sales focused. Rather, they included insights and perspectives on products I had purchased and which the store carried. They provided perspective and wisdom - both of which I respected and appreciated.
Based on my experience, I recommend the following:
1. Convey that you are human! Include a photo or signature.
2. Make yourself easy to contact. Include you email and phone number.
3. Offer value! Don't always focus on promotions and sales. Focus first on what makes you unique in the marketplace.
4. Welcome visitors! Whether they are ready to buy or just browsing, be welcoming.
5. Be relevant. Don't just send out an email annoucing an event you are offering. Rather, focus on the issues your audience experiences and explain in your message how your event addresses those issues.
What would you add to this list? How do you acknowledge in your communications and interactions that customers are people? What tips would you recommend for connecting with customers?
Welcome to the 5/11/12 issue ofRetail Experience in the News! This week's stories range from puffy purple coats, re-appreciating the department store, to making sense of mobile and video to strengthen the retail customer experience.
I'd love to hear what you find most interesting in the links below.
Integrating Offline/Online Retail Experience
What makes for an outstanding online retail experience? There's finding a site that engages you from multiple perspectives, starting with content [see Zappos' Online Retail Experience: Powered By Customers]. But, what about the eCommerce angle? What are eCommerce best practices that truly create a memorable retail experience?
I researched the matter and came across several articles which offer sound eCommerce best practices advice that I share with you here.
What struck me as I read and explored the artices and best practice online retailers was how the good ones don't make me think! [For the authority on that check out Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug.]
Rather, they make the ecommerce process intuitively easy [think how easy it is to shop with Amazon or Zappos] because so much customer-focused thought and consideration has gone into the site design, the content, the flow and the process. These online retailers are fanatical about eliminating friction; they constantly test and improve. I encourage you to go experience them before you read anything and then afterwards!
Once in the know, you'll become aware that their online retail experiences include best ecommerce practices such as:
Breadcrumb navigation so you don't get lost in the site [see Breadcrumb Navigation Examined: Best Practices & Examples].
They pay attention to shopping cart usability [see eCommerce & Shopping Cart Usability: 21 Best Practices].
Considerable attention to product photos [see Improve Your E-Commerce Design With Brilliant Product Photos].
And the many practical tips detailed in these articles - e.g,. include your phone number in your site header, include trust marks and guarantees, eliminate roadblocks and figure out how best to stay in touch with visitors and customers...:
Two more resources for you to consider as you peruse e-Commerce best practices:
If you're involved in e-Commerce, what do you consider must-do best practices?
When you go online to shop, which are your favorite online retail examples? What about your least favorite?
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During BRITE '12, Columbia Business School Professor Bernd Schmitt introduced "Happy Customers Everywhere", his latest book. He provocatively asked whether happiness is a function of simply removing pain points from the customer experience, or is there more?
Intuitively, ensuring that customers are happy makes sense to me. Amazon makes me happy; I return to it for more. Zappos knows that Happy Employees Deliver; their happiness is contagious. Schmitt's focus on customer happiness clicked immediately. I wanted to hear more!
Thanks to BRITE's Matt Quint, and in anticipation of One Happy Book Launch: An Evening with Author Prof. Bernd Schmitt on 5/2/12 (co-sponsored by the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York), I caught up with Schmitt to learn more about Happy Customers Everywhere.
C.B.: Schmitt, what is the big deal with customer happiness? How does it benefit businesses?
Customer happiness is more than customer satisfaction or loyalty. It is the emotional bond between a customer and a business, and thus a much more powerful relationship.
It greatly benefits businesses and their brands. Happy customers go out of their way to find a product. They will not compromise; they want a particular brand and only that brand. And they recommend the brand to others, via word of mouth, or nowadays actively in social media.
C.B.: If money alone isn't enough to guarantee happiness, how do you convince companies intensely focused on financial results that they would be better served [and more profitable] if they focused on customer happiness?
In my book I feature John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market. He has made happiness the focus of his business. He says, sure, financial results matter, but shareholder value alone is not te primary focus.
In a customer-centric business, the focus is customer happiness, and then profits come automatically. I fully agree and in my book I feature other visionary leaders with this orientation.
C.B.: Schmitt, you refer to 3 methods for making customers happy. What are they and how do they differ? Is one more appropriate than another for business?
They are: pleasure, meaning and engagement. They are based on the scientific literature and research on positive psychology.
Pleasure is about positive emotions -- pleasing customers so to speak and getting them to savor the experience. the W hotel is a good example; there is always something there to experience with the senses.
Meaning is about values -- environmental values, family values, freedom, simplicity. I feature the Prius car, the Britta water filter, and uniqlo in that chapter.
Engagement, finally, is about doing new, creative things for customers to keep them engaged. The Coca Cola Open Happiness campaign is a good example.
All methods are equally valid but some work better for some categories and brands than others.
C.B.: How difficult was it finding examples to support the book's premise? What are some of those companies?
Easy. Lots of companies are focused on happiness now, and I gave several examples already.
But what does not work is just giving a company or brand the label "HAPPY" and not delivering. I have numerous examples of that as well.
C.B.: How else can a focus on happy customers benefit businesses [and society]?
Happiness is not just a customer or marketing issue in business; happiness is also important for employees in companies and for governments who want to make citizens happy.
In the chapter on employee happiness, I give advice on how to motivate employees, provide the right work environments, and get them to work well together -- so that they are happy.
Citizen happiness is not just an income or "possessions-of-goods" issue. It's important to live in countries and cities that stimulate and provide experiences. Plus, as I show, having time for yourself or spending time with others is more important than money.
C.B.: Thank you, Schmitt!
What are your thoughts about happiness and the customer experience? How do you see applying it to your business?
From the BRITE '12 Conference, you'll enjoy this video of Schmitt discussing Happy Customers Everywhere. [Note: to view the video directly on YouTube, click on Happy Customers Everywhere Trailer.]
To purchase Schmitt's book, click on Happy Customers Everywhere: How Your Business Can Profit from the Insights of Positive Psychology [links directly to Amazon].
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While working on this article, I came come across the following 'happy' references:
[You may also enjoy Two Small Business Marketing Ideas From Uniqlo.]
Have you flown JetBlue yet? I had my first experience with the airline last week traveling to and from Orlando. I haven't stopped thinking - and talking - about my reinvented airline customer experience since then.
Continental used to be how I measured superior airline customer experience. I regularly witnessed staff collaborating to speed up boarding or deal with unavoidable weather delays. I appreciated how all overhead bins had been redesigned to accommodate business traveler rolling suitcases. I loved the clever advertisements that called attention to flyer needs.
All that is gone since United and Continental have become one. Snacks require a credit card, as does basic inflight entertainment. Representatives seem unhappy. Even the clever ads have ever so subtlely changed and now proclaim superiority and might, rather than celebrate how to enable the airline's customers to do more.
On JetBlue, I checked a bag for free. That immediately got my attention.
Encouraging bags to be checked directly affects the boarding process. Not only were the JetBlue overhead bins not crammed with bags that should have been checked, but even though I boarded at the end of the process, I had no trouble finding overhead space above my seat! Furthermore, boarding was quick and pleasant.
JetBlue offers more legroom. Inflight entertainment is free, unless one wants a premium movie.
Adding to the JetBlue airline customer experience: an interesting selection of free snacks, some of which I had never tried before, served from baskets!
I was offered a full can of seltzer rather than just a glass. I asked for lemon - assuming the answer would be "no fruit" and was offered a packet of True Lemon, a product I had never experienced before!
When I asked for coffee, it was served with a lid...
By the ways, drinks were served from a tray rather than from a utilitarian cart.
On the first flight of my JetBlue roundtrip, the captain came out of the cockpit to greet us [see image above]. I don't remember that ever having happened before.
Although pillows and blankets on planes are now mostly a convenience of the past, had I wanted a set, I could have purchased one to keep.
Finally, I tweeted about my free Jetblue checked bag and was immediately acknowledged.
I fly primarily for business now. Although I love to fly and have great memories associated with airplanes and airlines, I regret how 'unglamorous' and utilitarian the airline customer experience has become. For the most part, it has become an unpleasant necessity.
Imagine being as pleasantly surprised as I was last week by JetBlue! Hard to believe, no? Not only was I not nickel and dimed, but I actually relaxed...
Now, imagine doing something similar for your customers. How might you add a human touch? What about a dose of innovation? How might you bundle aspects of your customer experience?
Although about Surfaces 2011, the insights captured in this Floor Covering Weekly article, published in the February 21/28, 2011 issue remain relevant to this day, particularly if you are serious about connecting with customers!
Let me know if you agree.
Surfaces 2011: Connecting With Customers
By Christine B. Whittemore
Have you considered what goes into ‘connecting with customers’? It’s a question that characterized my Surfaces 2011 experience. Yes, my three education sessions focused on connecting with customers. However, every session I attended reinforced that theme. Here are highlights from Surfaces to share with you relating to ‘connecting with customers’.
- Before selling anything to anyone, build trust, establish credibility and create meaning for customers. In other words, develop relationships, banish the hard sell and focus instead on active listening to determine what matters to them.
- The more passionate you are about customers, the better you will differentiate yourself from your competition. Be a relentless customer advocate. Listen, follow up and don’t assume it’s all about price!
- Follow up after every transaction. Multiple touch points with customers create meaningful relationships; they signal that you care. Be sure to survey customers, obtain feedback, address issues in real-time and learn from every interaction.
- Be unforgettable! In your follow up, in your retail experience/store, your focus on customers, your online experience, your emails and communications.
Marty Gould from Focalize illustrated the value of making meaning for customers with a radio spot he created based on web content extracted from participants’ websites. The result: a bland, boring, meaningless, generic gobbledygook sales pitch that tried to be all things to all customers. Better to think specifically about those customers whom you can help, and create messages and content that credibly connect with them. Be real, be human; explain how and why you care. [If you haven’t already, you might enjoy David Meerman Scott’s Gobbledygook Manifesto.]
Jim Dion reminded the audience how futile it is to beat the Big Boxes on price. Better to focus on what they can’t do: customer focus, deep product knowledge and relentless attention to details. How you execute those details beats everything. Your store is about the people within the store and how passionate all of those people are about the business and building customer relationships.
According to Matt Selbie from Opiniator, of all the reasons businesses drive customers away, 55% are service related issues. In other words, by not addressing fixable issues, businesses force customers to defect. Even though 95% of companies collect customer feedback, only 30% make decisions based on that customer input and the majority never let customers know that action has been taken as a result of the feedback. Address those service issues and you’ll connect with customers! By the way, customer retention affects profitability as it does loyalty and referrals.
Imagine, as Mark Lauzon from Advanced Fabrication Solutions described, that the person you’ve hired to paint your interior trim calls, visits and touches the job up every few months after the job is completed without your prompting him. He does so not to sell, but rather to ensure customer satisfaction. Talk about being unforgettable. That is what you are striving for when connecting with customers. Other advice: banish the hard sell, particularly on the phone. Build trust. Don’t ever forget the personal, human element. Look people in the eye. Pay attention to what’s happening in your community [it will affect demand]. Consider creating an advisory council to connect with customers and inspire brand ambassadors.
As many of you know, I have been immersed socially and digitally since 2006. Although the various tools of social media can be used to communicate traditional one-way messages, where they shine is by enabling you to connect with customers. The tools allow you to be human, approachable, trustworthy, passionate in your areas of interest and also unforgettable.
With a caveat. You must focus on what matters to customers, rather than on you [e.g., you may have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but can you install my carpet?]. You need to truly ‘walk in her shoes’ and be sensitive that your sales pitches aren’t spamming customers or that you aren’t intruding on personal conversations. How well do you understand what customers are searching for? Can you provide them with meaning, information, solutions? Can you make your experience seamless for customers so your physical store or showroom communicates the same messages that your social and digital presences do? Can you truly connect with them? Will you?
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Comments, reactions? What have you implemented to connect with customers since Surfaces?
Yes, I skipped last week's issue of Retail Experience in the News. It just seemed like there was too much going on with Easter and Passover Holidays...
In any case, we are back with the 4/13/12 issue of retail experience in the news links and resources.
I hope you enjoy!
Retail Experience Ideas
Retail Experience and the Consumer
Integrating Offline/Online Retail Experience