Sales & Marketing – Page 61 – Management Library

April 20, 2010January 26, 2022

Yes, YOU CAN Get Speaking Gigs!

TAKE NOTE: YOU can be recognized as an expert in your industry, both online and offline, by offering your services as a public speaker.

People all over the world are doing it, and SO CAN YOU.

It’s an extremely effective way to rise above the ‘noise’ and connect with others in a unique way. They will remember you, and they WILL tell their friends about you.

How to get speaking gigs

Here are a few basics before you launch a campaign to get yourself booked as a speaker by conference organizers.

Determine your key message – make it fun and memorable with stories.
Establish your profile on a website, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Publish TESTIMONIALS! They are sooooo POWERFUL!

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, offers a GREAT article that guides us through “12 Ways to Charm Conference Organizers”. She says, “Getting an invitation to speak at an industry trade show or event is a great way to elevate your profile in your industry, confirm that you know your stuff, share your knowledge, make great contacts, and (of course) indulge your inner ham.”

A few of the 12 ways include:

Contact organizers how they ask to be contacted
Have some social cred
Write a great session proposal
Include a video, too

According to Ms. Handley, “Winning a speaking gig is a lot like nurturing a long-term business lead. It takes time and patience. So keep in touch with conference organizers, attend their events and meet them, and continue to offer yourself as a resource.”

For more information, see Ann Handley’s full article,

How to Get a Speaking Gig: 12 Ways to Charm Conference Organizers

For more social media “Marketing” tips and tactics, search these phrases:

How to get speaking gigs
Public speaking jobs
Conference organizers

Happy “Marketing” hunting!

What else would you say? How have you won a speaking gig?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

. . ________ . .With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman assists clients in establishing and enhancing their online brand, attracting their target market, engaging in meaningful social media conversations, and converting online traffic into revenues. Email Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

April 15, 2010July 16, 2022

“Marketing” CASE STUDY – Social Media Rebranding

How one smart business doubled sales through a comprehensive rebranding effort using social media consulting

In this economy, business managers are finding that what worked before no longer works. Declining sales are often the first harsh blow that draws attention to a serious underlying a problem – one that they may not have even known existed. It can be quite painful, affecting employees and their jobs, even threatening the entire business.

When the old tried and true methods (“I’m sending more circulars, making more telemarketing calls, beefing up my newsletter”, etc) just aren’t solving the problem, it’s time to try new “Marketing” tactics. Social media consulting is proving to offer real solutions that attract key target customers and turn that traffic into real revenue!

Take the case of Lakota Trailers, a manufacturer of aluminum horse trailers.

The Problems:

Research from social media consulting revealed Lakota’s Problems:

• They lacked a long-term strategy

• They didn’t have a coherent brand position

• They hadn’t targeted a customer segment

The Solutions:

The insights gained from the research enabled Lakota to roll out its solutions, which included:

• A hybrid business development strategy

• A robust redesigned website

• A dynamite Google adword campaign

The Results:

• The site experienced a ten-fold increase in visits

• Lakota DOUBLED SALES in an industry that is trending downward in a poor economy!!

The entire story is quite inspiring. For more detailed information, see the full Brand Identity Marketing article.

For more social media “Marketing” tips and tactics, search these phrases:

• Rebranding a company

• Branding case studies

Happy “Marketing” hunting!

What case studies have you found that trumpet the success of social media branding campaigns?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

April 14, 2010March 8, 2023

My Top 5 Customer Service Metrics

Let’s be clear: if you’re not measuring any part of your service delivery, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve, grow or even save your business during these scrutinizing, tight economic times.

The challenge with specifying key indicators is that not all businesses will use the top customer service metrics. For example, a retail or fulfillment organization will have decidedly different key performance indicators than a software-as-a-service company.

For the purposes of this discussion, I have highlighted relatively general and important customer service metrics and incorporated a few varying perspectives for different use cases.

Service Level

For call centers, support, and service desks, the first call resolution is the Holy Grail. For a shipping operation, product delivery, and project implementation, on-time performance is the measuring stick. In a high-transaction business, the first interaction with a customer experience will be a key determinant of whether customer satisfaction will return with the first contact resolution rate of the customer support team. Don’t underestimate the importance of timeliness and thoroughness.

Customer Retention

For SaaS businesses, Utilization is the best indicator of a customer’s dedication to your service. Use this metric to understand who is at risk at contract renewal time. Monitoring Repeat Business is going to help non-SaaS businesses understand how sticky their product or service is for their customer effort score base. You should know which customers are using or buying different parts of your business to see the net promoter score. These customers who buy throughout your offerings are perhaps your most important to track customer satisfaction to focus on for your retention strategies with the exceptional customer service you provide.

Response time

You’d be surprised how many customer satisfaction surveys come back with comments such as “your service is great, you got back to me right away….” “I was surprised with how quickly you responded to my inquiry and it made all the difference even if I didn’t get the answer I was hoping for…” In today’s world of electronic relationship management, response time to the customer service team is one of the only ways we can communicate our sense of urgency and concern for our customers with our product or service. What is your Response goal – within X hours? Set one and achieve it. You should know what your competition is doing and beat their goal.

Want to really blow away a customer and cement your relationship? Pick up the phone and give them a personal call.

Time with the Customer

Are your customer-facing employees incentivized to keep calls short or to move too quickly from customer to customer? If so, you are sending the wrong message and subsequently affecting the quality of the customer interaction. There is a definite happy medium between the overly chatty service provider and the thorough and efficient provider like the customer service representative or customer service teams. Set your benchmarks for call duration and general time with the customer in relation to the ultimate goal of first call resolution, NOT the other way around.

In other words, a completely satisfied customer with great customer service agents not requiring a follow-up call or visit is much preferred over a quick, unresolved interaction.

Churn

Cancellations and returns are the equivalents of customer churn. If you don’t know how much business you are losing, you won’t be able to understand how much new business you will require to stay out of the red. As important as knowing how much, is understanding WHY you are losing customers. Take it to the next level and use follow-up surveys, phone calls, and personalized ‘how can we get you back’ emails. This survey information is real business insight for understanding your lost business.

By all means, this is not a comprehensive list of key performance indicators. To expand further we would need to focus on a particular business model to provide a more granular perspective. Start measuring and start making changes. Continue to evolve your key customer support metrics as your business evolves. Keep this process circular for continuous improvement.

Post these key performance indicators in your facility or on your intranet and regularly communicate them to your employee base to give everyone in your Company sensitivity to how you are performing for your most important asset: your Customers.

As always your comments are encouraged and appreciated. What are your key metrics?

April 14, 2010July 16, 2022

Tools of the Trade 1: Don’t Fritter Away Your Press Release Real Estate

Young press personnel writing on a notepad

What can we learn from the announcement that Twitter will begin accepting advertising (besides the fact that this giant of social media finally thinks making money is a good idea)? We can surmise that Tweeting — or microblogging — is going to be around for a long time. However the 144 characters that all Twitterers are required to enter also can teach us something about writing quick, zinger press release headlines, headlines that you might event Tweet to raise more awareness about your news and to help drive search.

Writing for the ‘Net is increasingly changing the way people write, think and communicate online and “in the real world.” A recent New York Times article (“Texts Without Context: The Internet Mashes Up Everything We Know about Culture”) looked at the new spate of books now out exploring this impact, the good, bad and the regrettable. The takeaway in PR land is that writing press release headlines that are memorable, catchy, or play off some current news item or pop culture trend is now more important than ever given the Google Words Universe we live in.

Of course it’s hard to make a new hire release, a relocation announcement or other prosaic matters sing and dance like those mega-talented actors/kids on the new season of Glee. But news release headlines are sometimes the only thing a news editor, TV assignment desk person or radio producer will look at, given the hundreds that pass in front of them every day.

Make that headline pop. Read the headlines in newspapers and magazines and go for that style. Journalists, producers and others working in media will appreciate your ability to speak their language. Besides everyone appreciates a good play on words, the unexpected bon mot or even a fine Tweet that can be Tweeted again and again.

April 13, 2010July 16, 2022

Hot New Twitter Advertising Platform – Promoted Tweets

A new Twitter advertising tool launches today after much strategic planning and customer analysis

What does it mean for marketers?

According to Chris Bruzzo, vice president of brand, content and online at Starbucks, “When people are searching on Starbucks, what we really want to show them is that something is happening at Starbucks right now, and Promoted Tweets will give us a chance to do that.”

Often, Tweets get lost in a sea of similar keywords and searches yield non-specific results.

“Marketing” Promoted Tweets allows companies to enter the stream of real-time dialog. When a Twitter user searches for a word, a single ad shows up on top in small type.

If users don’t respond to these Promoted Tweets by re-tweeting, favoriting, or replying, however, they will be pulled from the search results. This is a concept called “resonance”, a metric by which twitter will gauge the effectiveness of its ads. A few of the nine aspects of resonance include:

number of people who saw the post
number of people who replied to it or passed it on to their followers, and
number of people who clicked on links

Initially, Twitter advertising will be charged by the thousands of people who saw the ads, a model that will evolve with experience. The Promoted Tweet is one of three streams of revenue Twitter will have available. For more information, see the AdAge article, “Twitter Has a Business Model: Promoted Tweets”

For more social media “Marketing” tips and tactics, search these phrases:

Online advertising trends
Advertising techniques
Twitter search

Happy “Marketing” hunting!

What online ad platforms work best for you?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman assists clients in establishing and enhancing their online brand, attracting their target market, engaging in meaningful social media conversations, and converting online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

April 12, 2010March 13, 2023

Customer Service Basics

The first question you should ask yourself…How do you measure customer satisfaction?

If you are measuring by the # of complaints you are or are not receiving, you are in trouble. Not everybody bothers to take the time to tell you about his/her horrible experience. If you are asking your customers if they are satisfied, you are telling them that their satisfaction matters.

There are many different ways to ask: post-purchase and post-support surveys, enclosures in the monthly invoice, follow-up phone calls, and quarterly or annual surveys. The right method depends on your business and your customer base in customer service skills. Try different ways. Just do it.

4 Tenets For Your Customer Service Mission

A few basic rules about customer service:

Honesty is the Best Policy. Integrity

Be honest and own up to your mistakes. Communicate what you plan to do to change or prevent the same mistake from happening again. Don’t be fooled into believing that a regular ‘mea culpa’ will get you off the hook. At some point, the plan to fix the problem must take effect because customer service is important always!

Break Glass in Case of Fire. Response Time

The best tact is to quickly get on the phone with the customer to explain your company’s mistake and accept their customer feedback. Don’t rely on email for this communication if it can be done quickly one on one. If you are communicating to a large customer base then email is certainly the fastest and most effective way to quickly notify your customers that you are aware of the problem. Frequent updates if there is a protracted issue and a brief overview of how you will prevent it from happening in the future will give your customers confidence that you are aware of the customer impact as the customer service manager with the customer support team.

Keeping it Real. Set a Realistic Expectations

Customers who have been promised something that isn’t delivered as promised are far more frustrated and disappointed than if they are notified at the outset they won’t have it sooner than later. In other words, under-promise and over-deliver is the best policy. This may take some arm wrestling with other departments who want to take a feature or product to market before it is ready. Set the expectations correctly internally as to what the fallout may be so everyone understands the impact on customer satisfaction and ultimately customer retention with the excellent service you provide.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Everyone in your company should love your customers. Without them, you have no company. This doesn’t mean you won’t have difficult customers who will push the limits and try everyone’s patience. But if you don’t have a company philosophy to respect and appreciate your customers for great customer service, the opposite tone will infect customer interactions from all departments specifically with the customer service professionals or the customer service managers. All departments, customer-facing or not, should care about customer satisfaction and good customer service.

From Gandhi, “We must become the change we want to see in the world.”

Use these 4 tenets as the foundation for your excellent customer service mission. What do you do to ensure your customers are treated as your most important asset with your exceptional service? When will you say why customer service important?

April 9, 2010January 26, 2022

Ultimate “Marketing” Tactics – How to Turn Online Traffic into Money – #4 of 4

How to Turn Online Traffic into Money – #4 of 4

First, have you covered the basics to create a “sticky” site? If not, read up on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is critical to attract your target traffic. Then, be sure that you have an eye-catching reason for the visitor to read your site within TWO seconds of landing there. Offer engaging and informative content. If you don’t understand what interests your target audience, back up and figure that out. Make your site intuitive – easy to navigate. Emphasize security. And integrate user-friendly interfaces for e-commerce sites.

Website Traffic Conversion

Now that you have traffic, consider using Twitter as a tool for engaging them. TJ McCue, Founder of Sales Rescue Team, offers case studies on web traffic conversion using Twitter. Companies such as Etsy, JetBlue, NakedPizza, Pepsi, and Levi’s are role models for smaller businesses by using Microblogging to actually close sales.

Twitter Case Studies

Many of these companies use coupons to drive customers directly to their website. A few examples:

Boloco, (burrito restaurant) almost tripled their business over print coupons.
Albion’s Oven (bakery) Twitters about what is FRESH. (Yum!)
Timm Ferriss uses Twitter in his educational nonprofit work.
Dell finds that their coupons are regularly re-tweeted. They attribute $3 million in sales to their Twitter posts.

For the full story, see “Closing the Sale with Twitter”.

For more social media “Marketing” tips and tactics, search these phrases:

Web Traffic Conversion
Twitter case study
Website Traffic Conversion

Happy “Marketing” hunting!

Do you have case examples of B2B sites converting traffic into sales??

——————

For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman assists clients in establishing and enhancing their online brand, attracting their target market, engaging in meaningful social media conversations, and converting online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

April 9, 2010January 26, 2022

Crossing Over to The Dark Side:Why Journalists Get into PR – and What Clients Get Out of It

With 15 years in public relations, occasionally it helps to stop and ask, “Why did I get into this profession?” Before answering that, a bit of pre-PR background. I was on the other side of the desk in the world of journalism before making a career change. Specifically, pop culture — music, comedy, the occasional film review, feature or Hollywood junket, and quite a few business stories about various aspects of Show Business. Working for the alternative weekly City Pages and then the Twin Cities Reader (no longer published), I also freelanced for the daily papers, and contributed to Billboard. I floated a few Random Notes for Rolling Stone, penned pieces for Right On! (lots of Prince stories!!), and reported freelance articles for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Utne Reader and others.

After 10 years, I had my mid-life crisis early and felt that what I once loved doing was no longer fun, or worth doing (even though I had just been offered a sweet position at the Austin-American Statesman in Texas). I needed new challenges and going to work in public relations provided them. I worked at an agency that specialized in custom publishing, marketing communications and public policy and became the utility player in each group. It was great training for what I do now.

While there are critical differences between journalism and public relations, what joins them intellectually is understanding what constitutes a good story and communicating it effectively. You may (or may not) be surprised that many former journalists go to work in PR (and it is truer today than at any time, given the demise of the publishing business model, mostly because of the internet). Editor and Publisher, a trade publication for the publishing world, once surveyed how many PR people were former journalists. The percentages were surprisingly high if I recall, someplace between 68-72%).

Journalists-turned-publicists generally have a leg up on those who simply came out of college with a communications degree in PR or related areas. And their clients benefit from their experience and skill sets, especially their ability to ferret out what the story really is. They’re trained to be good listeners and know how to corroborate the details that make up a good story. They also still heavily follow the news cycle. The best ones have super-charged BS detectors. And they usually know what reporters are going to ask.

Many retain strong relationships with their “ink-stained” colleagues, which never hurts when pitching a client’s story. That’s one “valued-added” advantage, especially if working at just the local level. Still, there are some journalists who would never become PR people because they see it as a stain on what they do and who they are professionally. They are not straying from their beat no matter how beat-up the fourth estate gets. That’s to be admired and respected.

But so are the people who “cross to the dark side” (a standing expression/joke in the PR and journalism businesses). These people bring a wealth of knowledge, solid contacts who return their calls, and genuine insight into communicating the stories you read in your favorite newspaper or magazine, or a report or interview you might have seen or heard on TV or radio. And that, as one legendary diehard broadcaster used to remind us, is the rest of the story.

April 7, 2010July 16, 2022

What is Customer Service?

Welcome to the new Customer Service discussion:

Servicing a customer is a part of every purchase and interaction with internal and external contacts. It can last a few seconds up to hours. So if we all do it and experience it everyday in almost everything we do, why isn’t good customer service the norm?

We all have stories about when we were treated exceptionally well or extremely poorly. We tend to share these extraordinary stories with others. We all know that word of mouth marketing can be the absolute best advantage, or the worst drawback for a company.

Warren Buffett said it best:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. “

We are going to explore how to create a customer service experience that is extraordinary for your customers and the norm for your business. My goal is to guide you to look at these issues in a new way and to encourage you to get creative about how to make every interaction a memorable service to the customer.

Some Upcoming Topics for Discussion:

Customer Service vs Customer Experience
Customer Service Strategies as a Differentiator
Creating a Customer Centric Culture
Attributes of a Leader in Customer Service

I fully expect this list to evolve based on our exchange of ideas and comments as we explore this overall topic together. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and learning from you and your experiences. Together we can challenge the norm for service delivery and raise the bar in all our customer interactions.

Share your own experiences as a customer. What experience have you had that you consider to be exceptional and why? Which companies are the leaders in outstanding customer service and why?

April 6, 2010July 17, 2022

Welcome to the Customer Service blog!

I’m Barb Lyon and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of customer service, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

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