Why is it that companies make the sign-up process as easy as possible but always seem to forget that sometimes people want to leave?

You’re Trapped

Once upon a time I had an American Express credit card. I got it for the Delta SkyMiles and when my first year was up, I didn’t want to keep it and pay the annual fee. When I called American Express, they told me that I couldn’t “cancel” my account but that they could convert me to a regular card. What? I want to “cancel,” as in close my account. I wasn’t sure how that translated to “downgrade my account” to a regular card.

No Problem

In contrast, I recently called Sporting News magazine to cancel my subscription. The agent on the phone asked if I wanted that to happen immediately or when my subscription ran out. I choose the latter and he cheerfully obliged and said that was recorded in my account. That was it.

When the call ended, I was quite shocked. He didn’t ask why I wanted to leave and never tried to persuade me to change my mind. Painless. Excellent.

Ease the Transition

Failure to provide an easy escape route for customers is like kicking them on the way out. Will they ever return? Probably not.

What if you were nice to canceling customers? What if you even helped them cancel and move on? The customer is then left with a good experience that makes it that much easier to return to your business.

Take a look at a few other cancellation process examples in action:

• Excellent: Feedburner’s step-by-step guide to canceling (including how they help along the way)
• Good and Bad: Netflix (good) vs. Audible (bad)
• Bad: 1&1 Hosting Cancellation

Don’t burn your bridges with customers because they may need your services again. When that time comes, they will think of you. How they think of you will determine if they come back or head down the street to the competition.

Choose wisely how you want to be remembered.

My dear wife is a working mom: her full-time job is taking care of our two boys. She recently had an adventure at our local grocery store, HEB:

I had to run to the grocery store on an exceptionally busy day. I was trying to keep stress levels down by recognizing that the store would probably be busy, I would probably need to park a little farther away than I like, and I would probably need to wait in a long line, etc.

Once we got there, I started to feel pretty smug. I was maneuvering the extra long cart (yes, the one with the race car attachment so our oldest boy would stay in it) up and down the aisle with speed and agility! We were blowing through our list with amazing rapidity! We even found an efficient cashier who was moving her customers through so we had little time to wait in line. I could see I was going to make it under my budget allotment, and our son was just seconds away from getting his customary balloon (the only way I can get him to put his shoes on to go to the store in the first place!). It was turning out to be a great trip to the store.

Until I went to pay for the groceries. Yes, that’s right. In my haste to get shoes on, jackets on, boys loaded into car seats, remember the diaper bag, remember my grocery list, and find my keys, I had left my wallet on the counter. I had absolutely nothing with which I could pay for my groceries. Ughrrr… The efficient cashier assured me that this sort of thing happens all the time, told me I could go home and get my wallet and come back and pay for my groceries which would be sitting at cash register 12. Okay, minor setback. I could deal with this. It was a little inconvenient but at least they were nice about it!

We snagged a balloon on the way out and I hustled the boys out to the car and into their car seats. After all, we had milk and apple juice concentrate sitting in a cart in the store. Time was of the essence! Again, in my haste, I managed to knock the balloon out of my son’s hand. My little guy was frantically signing “Please, please, please!” as he pointed to the balloon (which was now getting smaller) and said over and over, “Bah, bah, bah!” I felt so badly that I wished for a moment I had my Super-Mom cape with me so I could blast off and rescue it.

Well, the story has a happy ending. I was able to get home, get my wallet, go back for my groceries, and get home again in under 15 minutes, and we even got another balloon.

What do you do when your customer can’t pay for your product? Do you know the circumstances behind this forgetfulness?

The grocery store cashier in this story did three great things:

1. Reassure the customer that this happens all the time. Forgetting to bring your wallet can be a very embarrassing experience. Don’t aggravate the situation. Be calm and understanding.
2. Explain what the customer should do. In the midst of an embarrassing and frustrating situation, the customer may not be able to suggest alternatives. Give the customer an escape route or options they can take.
3. Look out for your company. For the most part people are honest and trustworthy. However, you need to be sure you’re also protecting the interests of your company. If you know a customer and trust them, you can always let them come back and pay later. If not, then hold on to the merchandise and let them return with payment.

As a customer, have you ever forgotten the money or been unable to pay for something? How did the business respond?

As a business, how do you deal with situations where the customer forgets the necessary payment?

I attended an Eagle Court of Honor this weekend. This event honors a young man when he achieves the rank of Eagle Scout, Boy Scouting’s highest rank.

I, too, am an Eagle Scout and greatly value the lessons learned in Scouting. Boy Scouts learn and recite the Scout Law, whose principles have direct applicability to your business.

Trustworthy

A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.

Honesty and integrity must be key components of your business. Customers need companies to be dependable. They need your products to be reliable and live up to your pre-sales marketing claims.

Loyal

A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation.

Your company has many stakeholders that deserve your loyalty. Stay true to your agreements and contracts, and in particular with customers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers.

Helpful

A Scout is concerned about other people. He does things willingly for others without pay or reward.

What noble cause is driving your business? It is easier to resonate with customers when you are trying to better their lives in some way. In business, we need to make money. If you join being sincerely helpful with your financial objectives, you’ll have a powerful combination.

Friendly

A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own.

Do you collaborate with your peers? What can you learn from other companies in your industry? The more you open up and share your expertise with others, the more respected you’ll become. Keeping all your knowledge to yourself will ultimately stagnate how much you can grow.

Courteous

A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows good manners make it easier for people to get along together.

Courteous customer service is mandatory. Unfortunately, this is so uncommon today that even showing a few good manners will differentiate you from others.

Kind

A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated.

The golden rule is so easy to say but often hard to live. In business, many of our objectives are often very selfish. We want to grow revenues. We want to look good for the boss. These motivations may sometimes put a dark shadow over our ability to be kind to others. Our customers may appear to be only a means to the end objectives. However, you must still treat them with kindness and respect.

Customers may be only numbers in your spreadsheets, but each one is an individual that has one-on-one interactions with you and your company. Treat them like real people and not numbers.

Obedient

A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country.

Are you following the laws of the land? The still fresh news stories of corporate corruption at places like Enron and WorldCom must not continue.

Cheerful

A Scout looks for the bright side of things. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.

Happy employees lead to happy customers. It is much easier to spend money when you are happy. Happy customers will buy from you and become return customers.

Thrifty

A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for unforeseen needs. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.

Avoid waste in any form. Responsible usage of your resources will reduce costs and increase efficiency. You never know when a surprise will catch your company off guard. Prepare contingencies for disasters. Try to finance your business from its cash flows and not outside debt. The shackles of debt will severely restrict you during hard times.

Brave

A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him.

Your innovative ideas may sound very strange to others. You’ll probably have to take some risks to prove your ideas. People will mock you and others will scorn you. Do you have what it takes to endure this ridicule until your product finally proves its worth?

Clean

A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean.

Many people judge you and your business on first appearances. Keep your store clean. Dress professionally. Guard your vocabulary and speech. Cleanliness will allow customers to immediately feel comfortable doing business with you. Throw in a sprinkling of community service and people will realize you can’t be all bad if you’re a good neighbor and citizen.

Reverent

A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.

Despite the fact that society seems to be removing all references to God from public places, people still hold their respective religions very dear. Respect those beliefs and see how your business can allow employees and customers to worship, or not, as they see fit.

One of the Few

According to official Scout statistics, only approximately 5 percent of Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

Living the principles discussed here will be readily apparent to your employees, customers, and peers. They will trust you, buy from you, and bring their friends to do business with you.

Can your business reach the elite status that will come through living the principles of the Scout Law?

The new calendar year is upon us and the Chinese Zodiac, which starts the new year February 18th, marks the Year of the Pig.

According to the Chinese calendar…

Intellectually curious, honest and tolerant, those born in the Year of the Pig can be relied upon for their loyalty and often make true friends for life.

[The Pig's] main goal in life is in serving others, and no matter how difficult circumstances become the Pig will never waiver or retreat, forging ahead in the sure knowledge that all will be well. source

We can learn some great traits from the Pig. Let’s see how they can benefit our businesses this year.

1. Continue Learning

Stay “intellectually curious” throughout the coming year. Read good books, magazines, blogs, and publications. Take your kids to the library. Try to learn something new everyday. If you stop learning, the world will pass you by as you become the obsolete dinosaur.

2. Honesty

Irregardless of the circumstances, you must remain honest in all your dealings. At times this may be difficult but making the right choice must always outweigh any perceived short term benefits of cheating the system.

3. Tolerant

How high is your threshold for others’ mistakes? Do you give them the benefit of the doubt or immediately throw down the hammer? Be tolerant of others. You may probably never know the circumstances that have lead to the current mishap. As Stephen Covey has counseled, “seek first to understand…then to be understood.”

4. Loyal

Where should your loyalties lie? Shakespeare wrote: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” In business you should be loyal to your company, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and especially your customers. Imagine if, like the Pig, you become the “friend for life” to your customers. How would that impact their loyalty to your business?

5. Serve Others

By putting the interests of others before yourself, people will be attracted to you and this will naturally lead to better relationships–both professionally and personally.

6. Unwaivering

Stay faithful to your goals and objectives for the new year. Be persistent in working hard to accomplish them. Distractions will arise and obstacles will trip you. However, stay agile in your response and persistent in your progress.

7. Eternally Optimistic

You’ll never be able to accomplish great things if you’re always second guessing yourself. You can get things done but you must visualize the happy ending you’re chasing. Sprinkle your optimism with a dose of reality so that while your goals may be ambitious, they are still achievable.

Happy New Year! May the coming year bring much success and happiness to you and yours.

Successful real estate tycoon Donald Trump shared some of his innovative process in a recent Entrepreneur magazine article:

Sometimes I ask myself, “What else can I include in my thought process to make it more comprehensive? Is there anything I can add that might enhance the project or idea I’ve got spinning around in my head? Many times, I will tell myself that something isn’t quite right yet, because that automatically opens the door for more ideas to enter. I ask myself, “What am I not seeing? What else is possible? Sometimes the answers wind up being innovative ideas. It’s not necessarily some secret process, but it is a process, and it requires concentration.

Closing your mind after your initial idea leaves too many good options still on the table. Keeping an open mind and asking questions has certainly worked for Donald Trump. Question your decision or idea. Will it hold up over time? Is it absolutely as good as it can be?

Don’t close yourself off to good ideas that may be right in front of you. Even after you have made a decision, stay flexible because inspiration may strike and give you a reason to change your decision.

On my last trip to electronics store Fry’s, I had to return some merchandise. While I waited in the customer service line, I saw two employees standing against the wall doing nothing.

Every few minutes one of the employees helping customers would yell “customer service” and the mystery person against the wall would come over, type a few things in the computer, and return to his or her post against the wall.

The only task this wallflower had was to approve a return. While this may be a necessary step in Fry’s process, it isn’t for me as their customer.

I have to wonder why I’m waiting in such a long line when I see employees standing around doing nothing. Can’t one of you go open a new register or help me find something?

If your employees are idle, don’t let customers see them. Better yet, leverage them to increase customer throughput.

Think about why you’ve got idle employees. Maybe you’re overstaffed. Maybe you’ve got a bloated process. How can reducing idle labor save you some money and increase your efficiency?

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.

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

My son has dairy allergies and as such he occasionally enjoys a Silk Soy Yogurt. Lots of yogurt packaging I’ve seen includes a plastic lid that we simply take off and discard to reach the foil wrapper underneath. The Silk yogurt we got this week was missing the plastic lid and the foil wrapper stated:

Have we lost our lid?

Precisely.

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!

Less Packaging = Less Cost

Not only is Silk saving plastic but since they don’t have to buy those lids, they make more money on every yogurt they sell. Even a slight reduction in packaging costs, when multiplied by a large volume, can equal some very nice savings for a company.

Reduced cost equals higher margins and thus increased profitability for your company. These great margins help ease future dips in your revenue and buffer you if other costs increase.