Customer Service - What's That?

True stories of poor customer service abound.

Email to customer from supplier of IT services: "We would like you to consider paying a fixed support fee of £150 per month instead of buying our services on an ad hoc basis."

Customer's reply to IT services supplier, sent one hour later: "Our records show that on average we pay less than £150 per month for your services so please explain the benefit of going to a fixed support fee."

IT services supplier's swift response to customer, sent minutes later: "We consider your response to be unreasonable. We offered you a fantastic deal and you turned it down, so our offer is now for a fee of £300 each month."

Yes, this really happened, in the course of an afternoon last week. No, the IT supplier is not a large, faceless corporation that can afford to upset people now and again. Both the customer and the supplier are small, owner-managed businesses. Needless to say, the customer is now considering sourcing an alternative support provider.

It's amazing how, even in a recession, businesses fail to understand the value of their customers or how to use communication technology effectively. In the situation I related above it's clear that the supplier wrote and sent their final message in haste and in anger.

Let this be a reminder to all of us - always pause before pressing the send button and consider how the customer will react. Because if you upset them you'll probably lose them, and if you lose too many you won't have a business at all.

A good tip to remember: use every engagement with a customer as a marketing opportunity.

Communicate to Succeed

Great communicators are more likely to be successful. That applies to individuals and businesses alike.

This post is prompted by an incident the other day. I won’t bore you with the details; it’s enough to say that someone used the wrong method of communication and, unsurprisingly, the message didn’t get through and the customer was upset.

We live in the communication age and we’re surrounded by an array of communication systems. I’m writing this post on a laptop in my car and even here my communication options include email, Twitter, mobile phone, and text. Not to mention good old face-to-face contact.

Despite our wealth of communication tools, or perhaps because of it, people often choose the wrong tool for the job.

So here are some tips, based on my experience, for using your communication tool box effectively.

1. Telephone – use this for urgent messages and when you need confirmation that it's been received and understood. It’s also one of the fastest ways to get your message across because it allows dialogue.
2. Email – great for sending messages that are not particularly time-sensitive, and it allows for lots of content where required. Ideal when you need to communicate with a large group in multiple locations.
3. Text - invaluable for short, clear messages that you can be reasonably confident of being picked up on quickly; either one-to-one or one-to-many.
4. Twitter - very similar to text messaging but online. But also very different from text messaging because tweets can be read by anyone if they're not direct messages or protected.
5. Face-to-face - use this when your need to deal with complex issues or negotiation. It allows for comprehensive communication including body language and opportunities for questions and answers.

This short guide doesn't cover all communication methods or situations, but if nothing else I hope it makes you think about the tools you use and how appropriate they are to different situations.

Timeliness and complexity are two fundamental issues when choosing how to communicate. It might seem obvious but experience tells me that it's not.

Next time you need to get a message to someone, particularly a customer, make sure you're doing it in the most effective way.

Business Continuity Planning

How would your business cope with a six-hour powercut?

That's what we enjoyed yesterday. It was a relatively minor inconvenience when compared to the flooding in Cumbria and Scotland but it's reminded me of the importantance of business continuity planning.

BCP, or disaster recovery, is one of those subjects small businesses are consistently being badgered about and, in my experience, consistently ignore. Planning for problems is a good idea but it takes time, can cost money, and there's an element of "if something happens we'll manage".

Small businesses have enough to do at the moment just to survive, without worrying about what to do if the sky falls in on their heads.

But there are some basic steps you can take which don't take much time or cost much money, but will be invaluable when the unexpected happens. And don't think that disaster recovery is only about fire or flood, which are admittedly unlikely. It's also about losing one of your key staff unexpectedly, having a major customer go under or suffering a major IT failure. Most businesses face major challenges from time to time.

A simple and effective business continuity plan that I've seen one business implement comprised a small printed card which listed the phone numbers of key staff and other contacts such as the people who managed the website.  It also summarised the issues to consider in the event of an emergency of some sort.

These cards were reviewed every few months and updated if details had changed. They were kept in pockets, briefcases and glove compartments in cars. In the event of an issue staff could quickly get in touch with one another and with key suppliers. A message could quickly be posted on their website letting customers know there was problem and giving alternative contact details.

I'm writing this post on a netbook PC which forms part of my business continuity strategy.  It's a backup for my aging laptop should it fail. Other elements in my plan include a plug-in hard-drive and increased use of cloud computing - storing documents online.

My business continuity plan is not a strategy that's been formed through hours of planning. It's a loose collection of ideas and hardware that I'm confident will work for me.

Whatever approach you take to business continuity planning, I recommend you avoid making the mistake of doing nothing.

If your business is flooded and your stock ruined your options are probably limited. But if you lose power in your premises you may still be able to do business, if you've planned ahead.

Successful Marketing - Make it Really Easy To Get Through

Is it easy for customers to respond to your marketing material?

Marketing is about a call to action. You deliver a message that requires response. Order this widget now! Take advantage of this special offer today! Don't delay!

You must make it simple for the customer to act on the message. If you're selling a product then you want them to place an order immediately. If you're promoting an event or a concept you want them to inquire further.

Every obstacle you put in their way, however insignificant, will cut the response rate. It's a basic principle of sales - the longer it takes for the customer to commit, the more likely they'll walk away. There are precious few products which are so important that the customer will make every effort to secure them.

Telephone numbers are a great way to get a quick reaction. 0800 numbers are ideal as the caller knows it will cost them nothing but time. But people are becoming wary of other non-geographic numbers such as 0845, because the true cost of calling is often unclear.

However, you need to make sure that the caller gets more than an automated message telling them your office is closed, or a menu system they can't immediately comprehend.

If your marketing material is online, such as a website or email, you have more choice over instant response paths. Some people prefer to use the phone so keep that option open where possible. Embedded links are another great way of making access really easy.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen statements saying 'if you want to do this get in touch with us' on a website or email, without the words being used as a link to a contact form. Instead the reader is expected to hunt down contact information from elsewhere on the page, or worse, find it somewhere else altogether. That's a guaranteed way to lose some customers, if not all of them.

When you're putting together your marketing campaign and materials put yourself in the customer's shoes. Think about where they will be when they hear your message and what communication tools they will have available to respond. How easy can you make it for them to get through?

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter and small business supporter.

Talk to a Customer Every Day

People buy from people.

It's one of those sayings that bounces around in sales training workshops, along with 'sell the benefits not the features'. A truth we all know but too often forget.

Like most pearls of wisdom it's not entirely accurate. I buy quite a lot of stuff from Amazon.com and other online retailers but I've never knowingly spoken to an Amazon employee in my life.

On the other hand I go out of my way to speak with my customers on a fairly regular basis. Why? Because I believe in the general principle - people will often choose to buy from someone they know. And you only get to know someone by communicating with them.

It's too easy for businesses, particularly in the B2B space, to take their customers for granted. But take a look at the list of accounts on your sales ledger. How many of them have been inactive for more than a year? Do you know why? How many have gone away because someone else built a better relationship with them?

When I ran a training business, as part of a global software company, I made a point of speaking to a customer daily. Okay, it didn't actually happen every single day, but it was a principle I applied as often as I could.

Can I prove that it generated more business? No I can't. But the people I called kept sending people on courses. They came to a web-based training workshop I ran and bought into online education before it was mainstream. They listened when I offered new education consulting services.

My challenge to everyone who runs a business is this: find ten minutes a day to call a customer and have a chat. How's business? Was the last delivery okay? I heard you've had cutbacks - are you alright?

Be a human, not a salesman. People buy from people.

This article expands on one of the 10 Marketing Tips for Small Business.


Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer.

10 Fuel Saving Tips

The price of oil is going up again.

It's risen by 77% in 2009. This week the International Energy Agency announced that this increase "risks derailing the recovery".

Higher fuel prices aren't good news for the thousands of businesses in the UK who run vehicles, or the millions of commuters who fill up weekly. For employees enduring pay freezes or pay cuts a hefty increase in travel costs is unwelcome. But it's happening right now.

There's no easy answer to the problem of increasing fuel costs. But here are some fuel saving tips:

1. Drive more slowly - yes, it'll take longer to get there. But drive at 65mph rather than 75mph on the motorway and you'll save 40p per 10 miles, according to the RAC. It'll add up during the week.
2. Gentle foot action - on the accelerator and the brake. Sudden braking or acceleration pushes up consumption and increases wear and tear.
3. Close the windows - it will improve the aerodynamics and improve fuel efficiency. You'll stay warmer as well.
4. Keep air-con off - it's another fuel-gobbler you can live without during the winter.
5. Lighten the load - the heavier your car, the more fuel you use. How much stuff are you paying to transport from home to work and back again, without using it?
6. Get the pressure right - the RAC say that using tyres at the correct pressure could improve your fuel efficiency by 2%. Not a lot, but look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves, as they say.
7. Don't be idle - if you're stationary and the engine's running for more than a minute you're wasting fuel.
8. Avoid the queues - easier said than done for many commuters, but it's a way to cut costs. Is there a way to flex your day so you can travel when others aren't?
9. Regular servicing - keep the engine running at optimum efficiency.
10. Use money-off tokens wisely - the supermarkets often give token to customers, valid for a week or two. Plan your fill-ups to get the best value. Find friends with spare tokens, or share yours.

If you come across any more fuel saving tips please leave a comment or get in touch.

Know Why People Will Buy Your Product

Too often we confuse features with benefits. We sell the features when what people really want are the benefits.

If you're not sure what the difference is between features and benefits, think of Microsoft Word. What do most people use it for? Typing up documents. Simple documents like homework essays, reports, letters, and that sort of thing. It's a word-processing system.

Some features in Word are useful. But of all those buttons and options at the top of the page, how many do you use? Not many, I'd guess.

Word is packed with fancy features. Mail-merge, document review, styles, research options and loads more that I don't even know about. You can bet the new Word 2010, when it comes out, will have heaps more.

But if a good salesperson was trying to sell Word to you, they wouldn't start by listing all the wonderful things it can do. They'd start by understanding why you're looking for a word-processing system.

They would encourage you to do most of the talking, telling them what problems you hoped a word-processor would solve. You might explain, say, that writing 20 letters a day by hand was time-consuming and pained your wrist. You might be frustrated that having started a document on paper, you could not easily change the order of the word to re-phrase sentences.

The good salesperson would then explain how Word could solve those problems for you. They might mention the spell-checker and mail-merge in passing, as extra benefits that might come in useful, but most of Word's capabilities wouldn't get a mention. Their focus would be on showing how the product could solve real problems you face on a regular basis.

Of course, there's more to selling than just providing solutions to problems. There's price, quality, after-sales support, delivery times and more.

But I'm still amazed how often people say: "look, here's a cool widget, buy one!" without addressing the main issue - do I NEED the widget?

When customers are cautious, as they are now, it's more important than ever to understand why people would want your products. Until you've grasped that, selling will be an uphill struggle.

This article expands on one of the 10 Marketing Tips for Small Business.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer.

10 Marketing Tips for Small Business

Take a moment to skim through these 10 thoughts about marketing.

You'll probably forget 9 of them immediately. But one of them will stick with you; it'll strike a chord. You'll say "yes, I've been meaning to do that". Make a point of converting a good idea into action as soon as possible.

Every business wants to do marketing better, but there's always something 'more urgent' that needs attention first. Step outside of that cycle for minute.

Enough! Here are the 10 marketing tips:

1. Keep to budget - it's too easy for marketing expenditure to get out of control.
2. Know why people will buy your product - be clear about why people will come to you; what benefit does your product give them? Read more about the importance of understanding why people would buy your product.
3. Know who your customers are - target your marketing at people who'll buy from you.
4. Make a special offer to someone who's just bought from you - it's an opportunity to strengthen your relationship.
5. Offer a deal to all your existing customers - make them feel special by reminding them that their relationship with you has value.
6. Talk to a customer every day - it only takes a few minutes to telephone and take an interest in what they're doing. Read more about why you should talk to a customer every day.
7. Partner with other businesses - create a reciprocal agreement; you'll promote them to your customers if they'll do the same for you.
8. Issue Press Releases - your local newspaper will love them. Anniversaries, changes in key staff, new products - get creative in making news. The worst they can do is say "no", but I guarantee they'll often say "yes".
9. Use testimonials - a customer recommending your product carries much more weight than you recommending yourself.
10. Don't give up - marketing is about communicating a message. Stop doing it and people will start listening to the message from someone else.

I could write an entire post about each of those points, and perhaps at some point I will. These are all based on my own experience of marketing with various organisations, from a global IT company to a local start-up.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter.

Why Should People Buy From You?

Your business does not offer a unique service. There are loads of other people out there doing what you do. So why should anyone buy from you rather than from them?

Learn some lessons from Swedish success story, Ikea. I was in their new Southampton store the other day and it got me thinking - why do I travel over 20 miles to come here? There are other household furnishing stores much nearer to where I live so why choose Ikea?

Here are some reasons I identified:

• They make access easy - there's a big multi-storey car park with lots of walkways and lifts.
• They offer competitive prices which are clearly advertised.
• They make the buying process as easy as possible.
• It has a contemporary feel so I feel 'good' about being there.
• It's clean and tidy.

What do people think of your business?

Some of my reasons for liking Ikea are embarrassingly subjective. I don't pay any attention to trends in furniture design and my home is inhabited by a mix of cast-offs, Billy bookcases, and hand-me-downs from other people. So I've no idea why their store and products feel contemporary, but to me they do.

Their products are not always the cheapest. But they're clearly priced, easily accessible to view and handle, and they've usually plenty in stock.

Ikea have created an image that's attractive to me. What sort of image does your business have? Even if you're not selling to the general public, you're still selling to people.

Take a moment to think about the businesses that you buy from - what makes them attractive to you? Try to identify what it is they do well. Then compare them with your own business. Make an effort to find out what others think of you.

Once you've done that you'll have some new ideas for how to improve what you do. The service you offer still won't be unique, but that doesn't stop you from creating a business that stands out.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer

Image at the top of this entry courtesy of Ikea.

Why Your Business Needs to Blog

Sick of being told that your business should be on Twitter or Facebook? Or that it should have a blog? It's time to think of blogging in a new light.

Like many you probably think technology toys are all very well, but most of us just want to get on with business. Blogs and the like are so far down the to-do list that they're invisible, and they'll probably stay that way.

Perhaps you've already tried one, made a few entries, then forgotten to update it for months. What's the point? Who really wants to read about the minutia of my business? I'm kidding myself that 'Behind the scenes at PointlessPencils Ltd' is going to hold anyone's attention.

A Business Blog is Not a Diary

Take a different perspective on blogging. Don't see it as a virtual diary of minor triumphs and challenges. You're right - no one but you really cares about that £200 order yesterday.

Think of a blog as a stream of short, sharp articles about your business experience. Each article is independent and has a single theme. They're short, no more than 500 words. Ideally they give the reader an insight through something you've learned - perhaps about customer service, or marketing, or credit control.

The value of these articles is that people will find them through search engines, and as a result, they'll find your business. Ideally they need to be optimised for discovery by search engines (the dreaded SEO).

Over time they will form a new marketing channel. I've discovered businesses via their blogs, and perhaps you have to. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll build content that search engines, and potential customers, can discover.

If you don't have the time or inclination to update a blog at least once a week, why not employ a copywriter to do it for you? A weekly blog entry of 400 words might only cost a few pounds, especially if you put a writer on retainer. How does that fit into your marketing budget?

You're right about one thing - people won't come back to your blog on a regular basis to see how you're doing.

But people will come and some will go on to spend money with you. That's why your business needs to blog.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter.

Customer Service - Setting Expectations is Vital

Setting your customers' expectations correctly is essential to good customer service.

This aspect of customer service is so simple, yet so often overlooked. Imagine a bus company that operated a schedule without telling people when its services would depart or arrive. That's ludicrous, of course - no one would ever set up a bus company without publishing a timetable.

Why is the timetable so important? Because it sets the customers' expectations. They know the no. 31 to Notting Hill Gate will depart at 8.11am, because the timetable tells them it will. Okay, in reality it might be a little late. But it's also a benchmark against which the bus company's performance can be measured.

Exactly the same principle applies to every other aspect of business. My voice-mail does not say "Leave a message because I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Why? Because that message sets an incorrect expectation. I don't always call someone back as soon as I get their message because I don't want to, although it might be perfectly possible for me to do so.

What sort of expectations does your business or organization set for your customers? Are they realistic? Or just words that you hope to be able to deliver against?

Here are some areas where customer expectations should be set correctly:

• Delivery date for goods and services.
• What will happen next after they've made a complaint.
• How long they might have to wait before someone gets back to them.
• What guarantees they have about the product or service.
• What other services you might be able to offer them.

Customers come back to businesses they know that they can trust. That's why you don't always have to be the cheapest to succeed - you also have to offer great customer service.

Measuring Your Success

It's Friday morning. What have you achieved this week?

On Monday I blogged about the importance of setting targets and goals. Now, at the end of the week, it's time to see how you got on.

Succeeders set goals. Yesterday's headline on the Sports pages of the London Evening Standard was "Wenger: we'll win a trophy this year". The manager of Arsenal football club has set a goal for himself and his team.

How often do top sports men and women say "I'll do my best and see what happens"? Not often. The successful tell you what they're going to achieve. They claim the prize even before they've won it.

Not all of them make it. If Arsenal don't win a trophy will people say to Wenger "You were wrong again"? No, they'll admire his ambition and his determination to go for the biggest prizes that his sport offers.

Your office is probably a million miles away from the glamour of professional sport. But the same principles apply - you choose your own goals. If you aim low enough you'll probably succeed every time, but is that good enough for the long-term? Aim too high and you'll be permanently disheartened.

If you beat your target for the week - that's great. Celebrate with a doughnut or a chocolate biscuit.

If you didn't beat your target - well done for trying. You should still find time to celebrate your efforts.

Was your target a real stretch? Or was it too comfortable? And what sort of target will you set yourself and your team next week?

Start Marketing Through Everything You Do

To successfully build the right image you need to start marketing at every contact point with external organizations.

No, this does not mean having your company logo tattooed on your forehead or greeting everyone with: "Hi, I'm Sue from SmileyPeople Company and we're currently offering awesome discounts on teeth whitening products."
*wide cheesy grin*

To start marketing at every opportunity you just need to make sure you and your team focus on creating and maintaining the image that you want people to have of your business.

Please don't think that "image" is out of fashion. How do you feel about the big banks today? The Governor of the Bank of England has just told that they know they can't be allowed to fail; we know they're being underwritten with tax-payers money; and today we hear they're paying bonuses 50% higher than last year. What is your image of your bank?

We all have a mental picture of an organization, even if we're not conscious of it. The picture can be expressed in a handful of words. What's your word picture of Tesco? Compare it to M&S food halls. Would you use different words to describe them?

Now think of the picture that your customers have of your business, your department or just you. That's harder, because we can't see through their eyes. But there are ways of finding out.

That's why it's vital that you start marketing through everything you do. Every contact, whether it's an invoice, a credit control phone call or a casual enquiry, has the potential to change someone's perception of your business.

Marketing is not directly about selling. It's about building an image that's attractive and which will draw in business. Successful businesses create positive images through everything that they do. Is that what you do?

Setting Sales Targets and Business Goals

It's Monday morning. What are you going to achieve this week?

Have you set yourself or your team some targets or goals?

You might think it's enough that you're still in business on Friday. Simply surviving is a goal in its own right, particularly in the current economic climate. Worthy though it might be, it's not going to help your business to grow.

Don't wait for the economy to pick up before you start planning for growth. Another economic think tank - this time the Ernst & Young Item Club - has given its view on the near future. They're predicting another difficult year in 2010, as tax rises, including VAT returning to 17.5%, kick in. So if you're waiting for the economy to pick up before planning for growth, you'll be waiting a long time.

Start planning how your business will prosper, rather than just survive, in this climate. If your business is still in survival mode it's time to start accepting the current conditions as the norm for the next few years.

Setting targets is a great place to start. Successful sales managers motivate their staff with targets. That's because goals motivate people to try harder, and achieving them becomes a reward in itself.

If, on Friday lunchtime, you're one deal short of your target for the week, you'll make one last push to bring it in by 5pm. But if your goal is simply 'do as many as possible' it's easy to stop at lunch and say "that's enough".

The principle applies to more than just sales managers. Credit controllers can target bringing in a certain amount of money, and every job can be given some sort of target.

So make it your priority, on Monday, to set some goals for the week. And on Friday, look back and see what you've achieved. You'll be surprised at the difference it makes.

Here's the BBC news article about the Item Club report.