By Karen Post, on February 14, 2012

In the spirit of love and affection as many celebrate Valentine’s Day, the day of awesome relationships, frisky friendships, risky affairs and just plain gushy lust, I thought it would be appropriate to mention the everyday occurrence of unavailable brands. You know the kind, the not so healthy, lots of issues, not worth the time and certainly not worth the loyalty—when company brands get so chilly, so unconnected and just straight up are not available to their paying customers who truly want to love them.

The sad fact is there are many brands who behave like this and then wonder why their customers cheat and defect to a younger or more loving competitor.

Here are the red flags to know when it may be time to start dating- I mean shopping around:

• You’ve got a problem and there is no phone number on their website.
• Or it takes way too long and way too much work to find it.
• Or a “contact us” form with no reply or at best a form reply that says: “we are very busy, we’ll try to get to you some day”.
• Or you call them and after 20 minutes in the phone tree jungle, you speak with a customer service rep by the name of Carol, who you can’t understand, and you know darn well no Carols’ live in that country.

It’s unfortunate there are not horse-mounted brand police that would issue costly citations when companies play like this. But then again, unhappy customers now have a voice with social media, word of mouth and on high traffic blogs, just ask Dell, Bank of America and Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Tonight at tennis I asked my buds who they thought were some of the worst offenders, the not available brands, here’s what I heard. Tazo Tea, the Starbuck’s company, Sam’s club, the Walmart Company, Skype and the Microsoft Company. I’m sure you’ve got your list too. It is a shame that these big brands would be so clueless to the basic concept that open communication is essential to keep a relationship red hot.

Smart brands who value relationships with their customers make it easy for them to talk and they listen.

A big kiss and hug to Apple, American Express and Southwest airlines.

How easy is it for your brand to be loved?

To learn about more brand bumps and how the got back on the saddle, view: Brand Turnaround.

By Karen Post, on December 28, 2010

My good friend Jim Blasingale, fellow entrepreneur and host of The Small Business Advocate Radio show,  invited me back to his show this morning, Monday, at 7:00 AM Eastern time.

If you missed it, click below to listen to the two-part interview discussing:
1) Reinvention of you or your business for the new year
2) How small business branding is changing

Also check out Jim’s site. On the air since 1997 and the Internet since 1998, it’s packed with insight and multi-media content from some of the top business experts from around the country. Jim’s show is the world’s only weekday radio program dedicated to small businesses.

What will you do in this new decade to be more honest and authentic? Rebrand your business? Listen to the 1st half of the discussion.

Click below to hear the 2nd half of the discussion on the impact of business branding in the 21st century.

By Karen Post, on August 23, 2010

In this guest blog post, Jill Griffin, the loyalty maker answers frequently asked questions about customer win-back. Plus, 7 ways to keep them loyal.

What is customer win-back?
Win-back is a process for recoverying lost customers.

Most firms consider the lost customer a lost cause but research shows that lost customers represent a rich source of revenue for any firm.

What is the difference between a win back and a save?
You win back a customer who has stopped buying your product or service completely. You save a customer from defection who is still buying from you but is showing signs of possible defection. We devote a complete chapter to save strategies in our book, Customer WinBack.

When a customer is lost, what are the criteria for determining whether that customer should be regained, and if she should be regained, how do I determine her priority in relation to other lost customers?
Two key concepts – second lifetime value (SLTV) and reason for defection are important to answering your question. First , a word about SLTV. The term originated with Dr. Bernd Stauss, a professor at Catholic University in Germany and Christian Friege, marketing director at Doubleday Direct, and means the value of the relationship once the customer is regained. Generally speaking, you’ll want to give customers with higher SLTV more win back priority in regard to investment than those with lower SLTV. However, SLTV is not the only criteria for setting win-back priorities. You will also want to pay attention to reason for defection. There are a number of reasons why customers leave and you want to target lost customer who are less likely to leave you again. We look at 5 different reasons for defection in our book, Customer WinBack and explore best strategies for each.

After you have determined that the lost customer is worth winning back, what’s next?
1. Ask the customer this question: “What can we do to win back your business?”

2. Listen closely to what customers tell you.

3. Meet the customer’s requirements and when you’ve corrected the problems that led to the defection, communicate the changes you have made. Ask again for the customer’s business.

4. Be patient with the customer. Be open. Remember, some wounds heal slowly.

5. Stay in touch with the lost customer.

6. Make it easy for customers to come back to you. Avoid the “I told you so” stance.

7. When the customer does return, earn his or her business every day.

What are the financial rewards related to win back? Is it worth the effort?
A study by Marketing Metrics has found firms have a much better chance of winning business from lost customers than from new prospects. The research found the average firm has a 60 to 70 percent probability of successfully selling again to ‘active’ customers, a 20 to 40 percent probability of successfully selling to lost customers, and only a 5 to 20 percent probability of making a successful sale to prospects. Bottomline, win back can bring big rewards.

Are there benefits to win back beyond the bottom line?
Win back programs can help you…

1. Uncover improvement opportunities. Dialogue with customers who are on the brink of defection or who have already defected can help you pinpoint opportunities to improve product and service delivery, correct miscommunications and identify new product opportunities.

2. Develop an at-risk profile. By analyzing lost customers, you can develop a profit for detecting at-risk customers.

3. Limit negative word of mouth. A lost customer recovery program can help you limit negative word of mouth from unhappy customers who defect and encourage positive word of mouth from the customers who are regained. Conversely, if their concerns are left unaddressed, defecting customers can be a deadly source of informal negative publicity.

Why is now a good time to focus on winning back lost customers?
1. Never before have technological tools for winning back lost customers been more available or affordable. From e-mails to off-line direct mail services ordered online, a host of new tools are emerging to help you reconnect with lost customers.

2. In any market space, there is a limited number of best customers so you need to keep yours close. In All Customers Are Not Created Equal, Garth Hallberg points out that “for most categories (of business), one third of the buyers account for at least two-thirds of the volume. The ‘high-profit segment’ generally delivers six to ten times as much profit as the low-profit segment. Moreover, they are critical, not only because of their profit contribution, but also because of their relatively small number.”

3. Win-back programs can give you a real competitive edge. A combination of strong acquisition, retention and win-back programs can help you bullet proof your firm against competitive attacks. Conversely, if your competitor gets strong win-back programs in place before you do, your chances for recapturing and keeping the best customers are reduced considerably. In many things in life, there is true advantage to being first. Win-back programs are no exception.

Want more on loyalty? Check out Jilll’s books, Customer Winback, Customer Loyalty, Taming the Search-and-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World

By Karen Post, on August 8, 2010

“The number of medals on an officer’s breast varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of his duties from the front line.”
–Charles Edward Montague

Translation: if you want to succeed in battle, you have to get out of your office and know what’s going on at the front line. The customer/front line employee interaction can make or break your business. There are some companies who understand the importance of this brand touchpoint, and others are handing over their customers to the competition.

A few questions for any of the business owners or leadership to get battle ready.
Question 1.
Are you the commander in chief of a business that has humans as customers?

Question 2.
Do you have frontline employees that deal with your customers?

Question 3.
Do you know what is going on, on the front line? That is a HUGE part of your brand and if you don’t know what’s going on out there, you could be in for a rude surprise, and, worse, you probably won’t earn a lot of medals, as Mr. Montague pointed out.

If you answered “yes” to 1 and 2 and “no” to 3, you might find these observations helpful.
Providing great service is something that is so easy to do, yet few companies excel at it. Look at Zappos.com. How many online shoe stores are there out there? I’d bet I’d have to use all the fingers on both hands to count. My personal choice for finding shoes on line has been Zappos.com for at least five years. The overwhelming reason I choose them is because they always make the transaction easy, they exceed my expectations and every time I have had to deal with a customer service representative they have been pleasant and beyond helpful. Tony Hsieh founder of Zappos just released his new book called Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. It’s a great story.

On the other hand, I witnessed a disgruntled frontline employee who, I am sure, was responsible for driving customers away. A long time ago, in a career path far, far away, I was working for an equine (horses) veterinarian. A fellow assistant had a wildly unpredictable temper. She would be sweet so some clients, and downright rude to others. She would accommodate the ones that she liked and make scheduling, and life, difficult for those whom she did not like. She was kind to some of our patients (horses) and a little rough with those that were not her favorites. It made the working environment toxic and caused the clinic to lose some accounts. To make matters worse, she wasn’t the most competent at her job. Our boss, the owner of the clinic, had no idea that this behavior was occurring. She was not involved in making sure that her face of her brand which was directly touching customers was a happy, helpful, cheerful one. She also never followed up with clients who left to find out why. Don’t let this happen to you.

Six steps to ensure your frontline will help defend your brand and win business battles

1) Empower employees. Give them ability to make some decisions on the fly to accommodate customers. Don’t have them constantly telling customers, “um, let me speak to my manager.”

2) Hire for personality and competence. I will take a pleasant person with a great attitude and a willingness to learn over a cranky genius on my frontline any day.

3) Have people that can wear a great mood game face. We all fall into a funky mood sometimes, or have a lot on our mind from stresses outside work. Find people that can come into work, take a deep breath and put on a happy face. Frontline employees will also encounter what I call a “hammerhead” (aka big jerk) every so often. Teach them how to focus on the problem, not the person, and try to get things resolved to that everyone is happy.

3) Support your employees, don’t throw them under the bus. If a customer is rude and wrong, support your employees. The customer is not always right, and your staff should not have to put up with abuse.

4) Reward them. Their job is an important part of your brand. Compensate fairly for the hard work that they do, providing excellent customer service is a skill.

5) Acknowledge the work verbally. A “thank you” and words of appreciation go a long way.

6) If you can’t get out and witness the customer/employee interaction yourself, have a friend act as a secret shopper and do some reconnaissance. Yep, good old fashioned espionage. If the findings are not good, work on steps 1-5.

By Karen Post, on July 21, 2010

I don’t patronize fast food establishments often, but when my family and I drive on long road-trips we sometime opt for the convenience and speed that quick-serve restaurants (QSR, industry euphemism) drive-throughs offer. On one such trip I pulled into the drive-through lane of a popular, national chain and experienced a notable interaction with the attendant. As I mentioned, I don’t visit QSRs regularly so the fact that during the past 3-4 times over the trailing 6 months or so I have experienced the same dynamic, got me thinking. At the risk of straining this QSR example too much I think this seemingly minor front-line customer experience offers a telling lesson for all of us seeking to optimize our customers’ experiences and to capture value at all levels of our sales and marketing processes.

It was a typical road-trip day — on this occasion our family was headed from Atlanta to the Florida Gulf Coast where I was attending some business meetings and seeing family. As usual my wife, as co-pilot, was dutifully contending with my admittedly high-maintenance requests from the driver’s seat. Our toddler son was chatting away, watching his DVD and generally reminding us who’s boss. We approached the modest drive-through queu, rolled down the window, scanned the menu options and readied our ordering process. Before I could even finish speaking the final consonant on the first item I was ordering the drive-through attendant barked, “$4.78, pull around to the second window!” A bit taken-aback but having experienced this previously, I responded calmly “there’s more please.” This time I hurried along with my wife’s order and as I began to relay my son’s the attendant shouted, “9.42, second window!” I’ll spare you the remainder, but please rest assured that after some pleading I was able to complete our order successfully and once I met the attendant she seemed like a lovely woman in-person once separated from the 19th-century audio equipment most drive-through systems must still use.

For some reason, though, this attendant and numerous others like her in my recent experience are motivated more to rush me through the process rather than understand my needs, listen carefully and even attempt to up-sell me throughout or wow me otherwise.  Friends and colleagues also attest to similar experiences and I am sure there are good reasons underlying this dynamic. QSRs are about fast service, not necessarily abundant customer service; they want to keep the cars moving so would-be customers are not dissuaded from visiting by long lines, minimize weight time and generally accelerate the system through-put. These are all fine objectives but when obtained clumsily, at what cost do they impact the overall customer experience and engagement with the location and brand? Moreover, what are the immediate missed sales opportunities forfeited by this approach?

Most alarmingly, this type of sales interaction is not limited to the drive-through lane. Consider your recent sales experiences whether they have been within a retail store, at the local bank branch, at a car dealership or even negotiating a major materials purchase or consulting engagement for your enterprise. Very likely we have all witnessed elements of this behavior in each of these settings and may have acted in a similar manner to the drive-through attendant mentioned above when communicating with our own customers or prospects. Oftentimes, we as salespeople are so focused on making the immediate sale and closing the transaction that we miss the larger opportunity or are blinded to the bigger picture — how our actions during the sales process impact the ongoing health of the customer relationship and are prospects for continued loyalty and sales.

In conclusion, here are some simple reminders in the form of questions we should ask ourselves when serving our own customers or prospects at any stage of the sales cycle or customer relationship:

Answer these 9 questions and not only save the sale, but earn a loyal customer.

1. How have I prepared to communicate with my customer/prospect and serve them with excellence?
2. Have I been listening more than speaking?
3. Do I ask open-ended questions when speaking with customers/prospects that get them talking and might reveal important information about how I can serve them best?
4. Can I clearly articulate the customer’s/prospect’s need?
5. How have I been demonstrating to the customer/prospect that I understand their needs?
6. How do I challenge customers/prospects with relevant but provocative ideas for their businesses?
7. Do I show customers/prospects which of their needs I can best solve while also indicating that I may recognize other issues or needs but would not be best-suited to address them?
8. Will I slow-down a sales process in order to work with the customer/prospect to identify the larger issues (and consequently likely the much larger business opportunity)?
9. Will I walk away from a sale if I believe the customer/prospect will not benefit from the deal?

These are merely a few, simple questions that we should all keep in mind as we prepare to add value to our customers and build lasting relationships — at any level of business — the drive-through, the bank branch or the board room.

This blog post originally appeared at www.emjaya.com.

By Karen Post, on July 16, 2010

(Note from Karen) Oddpodz loyalty expert Jill Griffin was featured in Deliver Magazine. The US Postal Office publishes this great publication which is worth checking out. You can subscribe on line to receive a mailed copy or read it online. It’s free and full of direct mailing and marketing insight. Jill’s latest book Taming the Search and Switch Customer addresses how Google and online search are changing the game of customer loyalty.

The article was written by Pamela Oldham

Loyalty marketing has significantly evolved in the last two decades — and there are pitfalls to not keeping up. Marketing guru Jill Griffin, author of the best-selling Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It, explains how changing your approach to loyalty can help you win more business from the customers you already have.

1. Evolve with Your Customers
Customer needs are changing, constantly evolving, be it business-to-business or business-to-consumer. “Customers can help you stay on top of the ‘value curve’ and help you find ways to deliver exceptional value,” Griffin says. “But you can’t depend on them to spell it out in a focus group. You have to dig for that info.” Find the behaviors of your best customers, understand why customers are walking away from you when they do and put together the pieces of the value puzzle.

2. Keep Up with Loyalty Marketing Trends
Right now, it’s less about redeeming for merchandise and more about access and enhancing experiences — for example, a credit card company giving customers the ability to get great tickets for a major rock concert before they go on sale to the general public. “Bigger retailers are recognizing that customization of experiences is a big deal,” Griffin says. “And the payoff is that customer spending increases significantly over the months following an event.”

3. Identify and Monitor Your Best Customers
Don’t just amass customer data, truly wade through it and make it strategic.Look at spending. But don’t stop there. Also look at future lifetime value and share of wallet. Marry geographic and income data with that to see if that person has a larger wallet and a larger potential to spend long term. “You want to invest in that potential,” Griffin says. “It’s not just who’s spending the most money with you right now.”

For more loyalty tips from Jill, visit her Web site Loyalty Solutions.