Impact Marketing: Winning Customers with Quick Wits

Impact Marketing: Winning Customers with Quick Wits

The chart above most accurately represents which of the following:

  1. Avalanche survival rate, based on time in snow prior to rescue
  2. A graphic representation of ‘The Long Tail’
  3. Your expected take home income based on time spent in Las Vegas
  4. The impact of your sales, marketing and customer service efforts over time

Answer Key:

  • If you answered A, you are an optimist. It’s actually not that promising of a survival curve, so don’t get caught in an avalanche.
  • If you answered B, you are technically correct, but only because I couldn’t find a better chart to represent the desired answer (keep reading).
  • If you answered C, you should quit while you’re ahead, as that earning curve is only slightly better than surviving an avalanche over the same time period.
  • If you answered D, you probably already read this article and know that is the ‘correct’ answer. Congratulations!

You Need to Make the Time to Make an Impact

By now, you’ve probably figured out that the chart above represents the impact of your actions as a sales, marketing or customer service professional, over time. The more quickly you are able to respond or act, the exponentially more profound the impact on your prospect or customer. Note: this Impact Curve applies to nearly all life situations, which you may have already learned. This article is meant to illustrate the power of responsive, impact-impact communications and what it can do for your career and your organization.

No Time, No Money

As the membership chair for the local chapter of a global entrepreneurial organization, I regularly hear two objections from business owners: I don’t have enough time or enough money. My response is always, “it takes time to make time and it takes money to make money.” This statement typically resonates with growth-minded entrepreneurs, but it applies just as easily to sales, marketing and customer service professionals. You can’t find new customers if you’re not investing time and money in sales and marketing. You can’t take care of customers if you don’t listen, interact and meet their needs.

Unclog the Channel

How many companies have you chosen because they were the first (or only) one to return your initial call? This has been the case for my plumbing, roofing and moving vendor selection. On one hand, many invest in decent visibility in Yellow Pages (I think they still print those), search engines and mailers, yet they drop the ball when you actually reach out. Similarly, once I’ve chosen a company to provide services, there are times when a simple response would resolve a question, concern or complaint.

The following three examples of brilliant and timely customer service aided in not only retaining me as a customer, but turned me into a marketer (I’m talking about them right now for example!).

Pan Pacific Hotel’s world-class pillow-top service. A few years ago I was teaching a 2-day workshop in Singapore. Pan Pacific Hotel sent me a mid-stay email survey, which I completed, adding a passing comment about the firm mattress, as I had a sore neck (likely from a travel bug). Less than four hours later, I returned to my room to take a nap, only to realize Pan Pacific had read my survey and added a pillow-top to my mattress. They then called when I arrived in my room to ask if the mattress met my needs (yes it did!). That level of responsiveness and action was so remarkable; I still share the story 7 years later. Had they read the survey after I left, they may have sent me a note to let me know they would make sure I have a softer mattress for my next visit. How important is that to me once I’m home and have no plans to return? Impact is exponential when acted upon quickly.

Les Schwab Tire Centers $.79 loyalty program. Those not familiar with Les Schwab’s legendary customer service are not fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest. One of their signature policies was to repair flat tires, even if you weren’t a customer. Due to their reputation, I visited to have them repair a flat, and when they recommended I buy new tires due to wear, I trusted them. I didn’t plan to spend a thousand dollars that day, so I jokingly asked if the tires came with anything like a bag of M&Ms. The well-trained sales rep smiled and handed me my receipt. At pickup, I was surprised and touched to see a bag of M&Ms on my dashboard. They never said a word about it, it’s just the Les Schwab way (note: they do not sell M&Ms at their location, so the rep had to go to a nearby store to purchase them). In this case, a purely analog experience was so timely; the cost of the “gift” was immaterial to my delight.

Utilities get wiser with social. Years ago, Comcast made the press by being one of the first utilities to leverage social media for customer service. Soon after, I tested their capabilities as a customer and was impressed with their ability to trouble-shoot via Twitter. More recently, Verizon provided similarly timely and helpful support via Twitter to address an issue with my phone. The cost of the platform and time to monitor and engage customers is minimal, yet the marketing exposure (via the public interactions) is significant.

On the other side of the fence are the brands that do not feel customer interactions are worth their time, and the lack of response creates tremendous damage to their reputations, which makes sales and marketing have to work twice as hard to make up for lost customers and momentum. Unfortunately, I’ve had too many bad experiences as a customer and have found that threatening legal action is not as compelling a thread as posting negative reviews online. Below are two examples of brands that don’t care about their customers (one more notorious than the other) but both have created real financial damage by ignoring the opportunity to rectify the situation in a timely manner.

Bill’s Tavern in Cannon Beach Oregon. Seven years ago or so, I was on the Oregon Coast with my wife and young son and the owner chastised me and my wife for letting our son run once through the bar. At two years old, he was initially following me to the bathroom and got excited at the concept of being able to loop around the bar on the journey. I was so upset at the accusation of being irresponsible parents that I took to the Internet to share my frustration. No one from Bill’s Tavern ever responded to my reviews, but I found out later that the review was legendary in the small coastal community, due to the nature of the complaint and how it exposed the owner’s demeanor with customers. An apology would have gone a long way, and still would.

United Airlines profit-seeking at the customer’s expense. Many years ago, bad weather resulted in a delayed flight and missed connection in Denver. Due to the severity of the storm, many flights were cancelled and no hotels were available. With a desire to get home as soon as possible, I slept behind the ticket counter to ensure I was first on standby for the next flight home. Unfortunately, I later learned I had to have frequent flyer status and ended up returning home 4 missed flights and 24 hours later. At the time, however nobody with United communicated to me how they determine who gets priority and they were generally unsympathetic. Since it was difficult to sleep on the hard floor, I stayed up and vented in a blog post that also noted I’d been unable to get on earlier flights due to over-booking (which was United’s strategy for maximizing profits and resulted in a banner year for them financially). The next day, my blog post was ranking in the top ten for United Airlines searches. United never noticed or appeared to care, which is unfortunate, as there were many comments on my blog venting at the airline and even accusing employees of rape and other bad behavior. Significant liability and damage, but to an airline that appears to have given up on their customers.

So what does all this mean for you? In case you didn’t take away sufficiently actionable insights from the above anecdotes, here are a few parting tips:

  • Build responsiveness into your culture: focus on providing timely communications throughout the customer journey (from new business to customer service).
  • Ensure quality, not just quantity, in your timely responses. Provide training and incentives to your team to ensure the interactions are positive and productive.
  • Take good notes. Build a dossier on each of your prospects or clients and add any useful insights like birthdays, anniversaries, pet and children names, etc. Use that information to create a closer connection to your customers with timely emails, cards or gifts.
  • Empower the team. Create a process and train your team to problem-solve independently and resolve issues as they see fit (within guidelines). The Four Hour Work Week outlines this concept well, as do any stories about Zappos customer service.

I hope you now have a better understanding of the power of timely response and action and how it can positively impact prospects and customers. Companies that have delighted me have turned me into an evangelist, as noted above. What is your plan to do the same with your customers?

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