After reading my review of First, Break all the Rules, Glenn commented that I should take note of the book’s list of customer expectations. That suggestion yielded a handful of gems for working with and developing customer advocates.

Advocates are customers who are aggressively loyal. They will not only withstand temptations to defect, they will actively sing your praises.

How do you build these super Return Customers? By sequentially achieving four key levels of customer service.

#1 Accuracy

At the lowest level, customers expect accuracy.

You expect to get what you ordered without errors or missed shipments. You want your credit card bill to correctly list all your purchases and payments.

Your customers must get what they paid for and are expecting. Deliver on what you promise. Accuracy is an assumed standard in doing business. When present, accuracy is taken for granted. Its absence swiftly leads to customer dissatisfaction.

#2 Availability

Any company that makes itself more accessible will obviously increase the number of customers who are willing to give it a try.

You can leverage the power of convenience to reach more potential customers. When the barriers to entry are lower, you’ve got a better shot of earning first-time customers.

Availability is important but should not stand by itself or be relied on as a single benefit to the customer. Since availability is easy to mimic, your rivals can reduce this “competitive advantage to a commodity.”

#3 Partnership

[Customers] want you to listen to them, to be responsive to them, to make them feel they are on the same side of the fence as you.

Partnerships can be built only when you:

• Identify customer needs.
• Understand and can identify customer behavior.
• Solicit and act upon customer feedback.

#4 Advice

Customers feel the closest bond to organizations that have helped them learn.

Think of the free seminars, telecasts, tutorials, workshops, and classes you see advertised everyday. Remember your alma mater where you earned that degree?

These are all instances where you have learned or can learn something. As a result, you are much more likely to reciprocate the favor. You’ve probably donated to an alumni-sponsored scholarship or even bought that paint you learned to use at a Home Depot workshop.

Building Blocks

Each of these levels builds on the others and will eventually lead to some very happy and loyal customers. Make sure you’re meeting the basics and then work on developing those partnerships and advice relationships with customers. Cultivating quality customer relationships will drive repeat business and allow your company to continue its growth.

My last post, Win Customers with the Power of Convenience, was part of Problogger Darren’s Group Writing Project. There were several posts which caught my eye and have application to the business and marketing principles we talk about here at Return Customer.

Innovation

Innovation Zen outlines 7 Ways to Unlock Innovation. I’ve talked about innovation before and really like Daniel’s point “Go beyond product innovation.” Gaining profitability and efficiency comes from more than just cool new products.

Decisions

Patrik’s How to Make a Good Decision reminds us to “make sure that the cost of failure doesn’t outweight the rewards for success.” Since you’re going to make mistakes, make sure you know what you’re getting yourself (and your business) into.

Stand Out

The Language of Differentiation by Kevin Price combines some very fascinating examples of both ancient wisdom and modern marketing principles to teach us how to stand out in the crowded marketplace.

Editing

As an author, proofreading is vital to a successful article. Better at English shares a few simple steps to catch those pesky grammatical errors your spell checker thinks are fine.

Management

Katy’s Manage your Manager lists several types of managers and how you can tell if you work for (or are) an ineffective leader. Pay attention to the characteristics and don’t fall into one of those ruts.

Finance

Free Money Finance wrote How to Get Rich in Three Easy Steps. While this is talking about personal finance, your business should pay attention to “spend less than you earn.” You’ll never make it long term if you can’t turn a profit. Tighten up your expenses!

Need to know the mechanics of How to calculate your return on investment? Well, Fat Pitch Financial has got the step-by-step for you.

Customers

FiveCentNickel.com’s Solving Customer Service Problems gives some very good advice on how you, as a customer, can get results. Now think as a company. Wouldn’t it be so much easier for both you and your customer to solve the problem on the first try? (Hint: the answer is yes and it can be done.)

Trizle’s How to Grow Business Revenue Every Year hinges on customer retention. It is much easier to grow your revenue if you can keep your existing customers and just add a few more to the mix.

Only a small number of customers will come to your store, office, or website. You’ll never see the vast majority of people.

Why?

Because you’re waiting for them to come to you. I’ll guess that most of your customers are busy people. This means that they don’t have time to visit your store even when they need what you’re selling.

The solution? Go to the customer.

Let’s look at two examples.

Busy Professionals

As I drove by a hospital the other day, I saw a truck from Mobile Instrument. This company specializes in on-site surgical equipment repair.

You’ll be hard pressed to find people busier than those in the medical profession. Mobile Instrument realized this back in 1978 when they started going to the customer to provide on-site repair.

Busy Individuals

How many times have you had to rearrange your schedule to get your car’s oil changed? My friend Steve Barnes saw opportunity there and started his own mobile oil change business. He comes to your house or office and will change your oil while you go about your normal activities. You’re freed from the hassle of taking your car to the shop.

Convenience

These two examples highlight businesses that focus on convenience as a primary value statement. They made the purchase convenient by going straight to the customer. This convenience is tangible and easily understood. You can try that method or pursue other options.

How can you make your product or service more convenient to buy?

• Identify barriers or obstacles that stand between your customer’s wallet and your business. This should be done from the customers’ perspective. You’re probably too biased to clearly identify all these barriers by yourself.
• Eliminate unnecessary steps in the purchase process. For example, just because your computer system needs some data doesn’t mean your customer should have to jump through those hoops.
• Reduce the customer effort needed to buy. Can the customer purchase from her office? Over the web? Can you deliver? How long will this whole process take?
• Explain your product so everyone can understand. Tailor your marketing copy to your audience. If you’re using industry jargon you may just confuse and lose potential customers.
• Give customers alternatives that all lead to a completed sale.
• Sell a product that is so compelling that the reward of purchasing greatly outweighs any effort exerted by the customer.

On-Site Pain Relief

You can follow the path of Mobile Instrument or my friend Steve and go directly to the customer. If this is your plan, you need to focus your marketing efforts on the pain and inconvenience your potential customers are currently feeling. Tell them how your service eliminates those problems. Help customers imagine a better life because of your service and how painless it is to get started.

Quality

Make sure your product and service lives up to the hype. Convenience can’t always overcome shoddy workmanship.

More Customers

If you want more customers, you need to make the buying process as simple as possible. Convenience helps prospective buyers take that first leap of faith and try your product or service. Deliver a quality experience and they’ll keep coming back for more because you’ve made it so easy to do just that.

Buy First, Break All the Rules from Amazon

After a recent promotion to the ranks of management, I had a chance to read the classic business book First, Break All the Rules. It was an eye-opening education into best management practices.

The book is the result of years of surveys and interviews with managers across the world. The authors then distilled the vast amounts of data down to key principles that really distinguish a quality manager.

Employees = Profits

No matter the business, the only way to generate enduring profits is to begin by building the kind of work environment that attracts, focuses and keeps talented employees.

As you are well aware, acquiring and training new people is very costly. It is therefore in your financial best interest to hire the right people, with the right talents, and then keep them happy over the long term.

Good Manager = Increased Productivity

The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his supervisor.

A manager’s role is vital to the success of the company because they directly affect employee satisfaction. As the book highlights, “employees leave managers, not companies.”

Some Rules to Break

The book discusses the conventional wisdom that is broken by the most successful managers. Great managers:

• Treat each employee differently. They are, after all, each individuals.
• Hire talent and not experience. Forget the long resume of positions and projects. If the employee doesn’t have the talent for the job, past experience doesn’t really matter.
• Don’t try to fix weaknesses. Focus on strengths and manage around weaknesses.
• Focus on results and not the “process.” Don’t get hung up on official process or procedures.
• Don’t promote the best performers out of their role and throw them into management. Not everyone that is really good at what they do will make a good manager of their peers. Don’t make management the only career path. Recognize and honor your senior and talented role players.

Evaluation Questions

According to the authors’ research, if your employees can answer these 12 questions positively, you’re doing a great job:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

Copyright (c) 1993 - 1998 The Gallup Organization, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.

The companies where employees can positively answer these questions have lower turnover rates, higher customer satisfaction, and more productive businesses.

Recommended

First, Break All the Rules should be mandatory reading for all managers in your company. Pick up a copy today.

Read more First, Break All the Rules reviews on Amazon.com

Buy First, Break All the Rules on Amazon.com »

Have you read First, Break All the Rules? Tell us what you thought of the book in the comments below.

Previously, I talked about Silk yogurt’s cost-saving measure of reduced packaging. While this is a great initiative, the wording on their packaging left me a little confused.

Environmental Benefits

As you may remember, Silk’s label touts:

Losing our lid saves over 100,000 pounds of plastic annually which is equivalent to planting 68 acres of trees every year!

Every loving spoonful of Silk Cultured Soy is powered by the wind!

I’m all for reducing the number of plastic people will throw away. But how does plastic directly correlate to trees? Silk’s claim seems impressive but both sides of the equation don’t seem to match.

Due to this confusion, I contacted Silk via their website. After quoting their package label, I wrote:

How does saving plastic correlate to trees if plastic comes from petroleum and not trees?

I like your impressive numbers but both sides of the sentence don’t seem to match the other.

Can you clarify this for me?
Thanks.

I’m yet to receive a response to my email.

Keep it Revelant

And while we’re on the topic, what does wind power have to do with saving plastic lids? Nothing except they are both Earth friendly. Did that last sentence really belong on the prominent foil wrapper along with claims about plastic lids? Probably not.

When crafting copy on packaging, keep it relevant. Pick your main point and stick to it with supporting facts. This will keep your customer focused on the big principle you’re hoping to drive home while avoiding tangents or other distractions.

You only need to recover if you have a crisis. After my car accident, I reviewed in my head all the little choices that led up to me being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Prepared for Recovery

I had car insurance to help ease the financial burden of accident recovery. Nevertheless, that didn’t prevent the accident from happening.

If you’ve prepared properly, you may not have much to worry about.

Prevention

On my ride home from work that fateful day, I was observant of those cars around me. By nature, I am a very defensive driver. However, my assailant came out of nowhere and struck my vehicle.

Perhaps you kept your eyes open and were able to detect a problem early on. In such a case, you may have preempted any crisis and thus the need for recovery.

It is also possible that you scouted out your enemies and were able to neutralize their attacks before they adversely affected your business. Congratulations.

Alas, there will be times that despite your best efforts, something goes bad. A hurricane strikes. A competitor attacks. Someone runs a stop sign.

When your business has been attacked by a rival or even Mother Nature, you’ll probably ask: What do we do now?

Assess the Situation

“What just happened?” — These should be the first words out of your mouth after an “incident” occurs. Before you can start a recovery, you must accurately assess the current situation. For example, let’s say you are attacked on the business front:

• Who attacked you?
• Was this a one-time event or is the threat still present?
• What damage has been done?
• How bad is the bleeding? Are you still operational, do you still have customers, are you still making sales, etc?

Gather your Resources

Inform your people of the situation and gather together people that can work on the problem right now. This may require them delaying other projects if necessary. Make sure you have enough people to address the problem. How many is this? Check your plan…

Execute on the Plan

If you are prepared, you should have some strategy or even step-by-step guide to address the crisis. When your world is spinning, you probably aren’t thinking clearly enough to come up with excellent plans from scratch. Go to your prepared plan and adjust it to your current situation.

Get Creative

Since you can’t foresee all possible scenarios, you’ll need to be creative in solving problems. This may mean bending the rules, changing business processes, or pulling in extra help. Judging the magnitude of the attack to your company will help you determine just how creative you need to be.

Monitor Progress

Once your plan is being executed, you need to keep a pulse on the status. This will allow you be nimble and adjust quickly to changes.

Learn Something

Once business is back to normal (or close) you need to review the crisis events. What went wrong and how can you prevent it in the future?

Move On

Get back to work. Modify your preparations and plans to better handle crises in the future. Ideally you’ll refine your company such that you avoid most disasters altogether. For those that slip by, your well-oiled machine should be able to mitigate the effects of a crisis and continue on its merry way.

This is the final part of this four part series. You can review previous parts here:

• Part 1: Be Prepared
• Part 2: Be Observant
• Part 3: Identify your Enemy

Every time I shop at Target the cashier asks me: “do you want to save 10% by getting a Target card today?” This question usually comes as I sign my name on the electronic credit card reader after using my existing credit card and is delivered in a monotone, this-is-an-after-thought voice.

Have I ever signed up? No.

I assume that Target management has dictated that each cashier speak those magic words with every transaction. That mandate probably came with no other training or incentives to entice the employees to get people to sign up for a Target card.

Be Relevant

Trying to get me to sign up for a card after I’ve completed my transaction isn’t very effective. How about you tell me that before you start scanning my items?

Timing is critical when trying to get a prospect to buy. If you’re even a little bit late, the opportunity will be lost.

Tailor the Message

Every time I hear the Target employee, it is the same message. What if they said, did you know you could save $25.76 on your purchase today? Wow! really? Percentages are great, but that means people have to do math in their heads. If the customer has just racked up a large purchase, do the math for them and tell them how much they could save. Tell them it is the equivalant of getting their new hair dryer for free.

Personalize your message to the customer and what they are currently buying and you’ll get a better response rate.

Adapt

We walked into Petco the other day and were greeted by a woman with some cats up for adoption. With one glance at my pregnant wife, my active little son, and I, she said: “I’m not going to ask if you’d like a cat because it looks like you’ve got your hands full.”

She could have delivered the same sales pitch she’d been giving all day but she knew it wasn’t in our’s nor the cat’s best interest. Instead, she adapted to our situation. She shelved her normal speech and asked for a donation instead. Very clever.

Be nimble and flexible in your sales pitch. If you always stick to your script, you’ll surely alienate some people and lose others you may very well have converted to paying customers.