Yesterday I watched a business owner in action who loves her customers. She was telling a potential new client about her doggie daycare. As they stood in the lobby by the window which looks into the daycare, Heather pointed out different dogs. “That’s Shelby. She’s so tired today. She came in and just stood against the wall. The black one over there with the tuxedo front is Jasper. He’s such a squirrel. The one with the three legs is Josephine. She got hit by a car and was taken to the Humane Association. The vet couldn’t save her leg and had to amputate it. She was here for daycare while she was being fostered by one of our employees. While she was here, one of our clients fell in love with her and adopted her. The client named her Josephine to fit in with her brother Napoleon.”
“They all look like they are having so much fun,” Sue, the potential client responded.
“Oh, they do,” Heather replied. “Due to the heat, today we had several clients bring in their dogs and hand us the leash. ‘My dog is just crazy!’ all of them said. Here they can run and play in air-conditioned comfort.”
“Right now my dog is home in the kitchen,” Sue added. “I think he would love being here.”
The conversation turned to training, and Heather mentioned a teaser course in agility that was starting Monday night. “I’ve always wanted to train my dog in agility,” Sue said, excitedly.
“You’d love this,” Heather explained. “We take everything very slowly so that it’s easy for both you and your dog. We had a golden retriever who didn’t want to walk up the ramp. He wouldn’t respond to any kind of treat, not even raw meat. We finally got him to walk up by placing his ball at the top.”
“Sign me up,” Sue confirmed. “I’ll fill out the form for the doggie daycare and get back to you with that, too.”
After Sue left, Heather walked over to me and my dog. “Dusty, how are you today?” she asked while stroking Dusty under the chin. “Did you get your dental work done? Were you a good girl?”
Watching Heather’s interaction with people clients and doggie customers reminded me of a conversation that she and I had had last week. “Chad and I were kayaking up north last weekend. He told the others with us that I would run into some dog that I knew. When we got to the spot where we were planning to put our kayaks into the water, a dog ran up to me. It was Harley. Chad claims that I run into customers everywhere we go.”
She recognizes them and knows their names instantly.
I’ve given you a few examples of Heather‘s knowledge of her customers. Astoundingly, fifty or more dogs were in daycare yesterday, and Heather knew all their names and histories. She knows their owners, too.
When a business person knows her customers, she speaks volumes to prospective clients. Rather than saying, “I know my customers,” Heather illustrates that she does by recognizing and telling stories about them. She remembers their backgrounds and histories. She knows them because they are individuals and important to her. She communicates that to others without making an effort to do so.
We all like to do business with those who remember us. After all, the most important words to each of us are our names. When our names are remembered, we are impressed. Add something else about us, and we become loyal customers. This is not from neediness or shallowness but from wanting to do business with those who have our best interests in mind. We want to do business where everybody knows our names.
How many of your customers’ names do you know?
Friday, July 22, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
A Good Effort
This week I attended one of my rituals of the summer, standing in line to buy peaches off the truck direct from the Georgia peach growers. The location was a restaurant parking lot. Since the restaurant where the truck had been stopping had closed, this year the truck parked for the first time at a different location. I arrived at the starting time, noon, and joined a line of over one hundred people. By the time I left, the line was as long as when I had arrived.
After standing in line for fifteen minutes, I a girl walked up to me and handed me a two-sided, full color 4 1/4 x 5 ½ piece about the restaurant. “What is this?” the lady in front of me asked.
“This is information about our restaurant,” the girl replied. “You might as well stop by for lunch before you leave.”
The lady turned to me and the person beside me. “Well, this is surprising. What a good idea!”
She was right. The piece that the girl handed out was a good idea and a good effort. Management at the restaurant was taking advantage of the over two hundred people in the parking lot to give them information about the restaurant. That was good.
While I applaud that effort, management could have gone from good to better to best with some thought. That would have yielded more profitable results.
If management had thought the situation through from the customer’s point of view, a pertinent question would have been asked. A good one would have been “What do customers standing in line want?” That would have revealed an important point: those in line for peaches were on a mission. They were focused on getting their peaches and taking them somewhere cool. They were very unlikely to sit down for a meal at that time.
However, the day was warm, and the sun reflecting off the blacktop made standing in line at noon even hotter. All of us were hot and thirsty. Looking at the situation from the customer’s point of view would have revealed how those in line would be feeling. Asking “What do customers standing in line need?” would have uncovered an opportunity. That would have lead to a better effort which would have been to sell water to those in line along with handing out the piece. That would have made a good impression on those standing in line and brought in more revenue for the restaurant that day. Water may have even saved the lady who collapsed from the heat and was taken away in an ambulance.
Thinking the situation through from the customer’s point of view could have lead management to the best effort. Considering that people in line wanted to get their peaches and leave would have brought the realization that they would not stop at the restaurant that day. That leads to the question, “How do you bring them back?”
One way to do that would have been to distribute a coupon or introductory special inviting people back another time during the next couple of weeks. Setting an end date on the coupon would use urgency and encourage them to return soon. That would spur more people to come back to the restaurant before they forgot about it.
The combination of tailoring the piece with an offer that had urgency, having water available to purchase, and distributing information about the restaurant would have been a best effort. That would have been reached through thought. Good efforts require action. Best efforts require thought.
Are you thinking through your marketing so that you achieve the best effort?
After standing in line for fifteen minutes, I a girl walked up to me and handed me a two-sided, full color 4 1/4 x 5 ½ piece about the restaurant. “What is this?” the lady in front of me asked.
“This is information about our restaurant,” the girl replied. “You might as well stop by for lunch before you leave.”
The lady turned to me and the person beside me. “Well, this is surprising. What a good idea!”
She was right. The piece that the girl handed out was a good idea and a good effort. Management at the restaurant was taking advantage of the over two hundred people in the parking lot to give them information about the restaurant. That was good.
While I applaud that effort, management could have gone from good to better to best with some thought. That would have yielded more profitable results.
If management had thought the situation through from the customer’s point of view, a pertinent question would have been asked. A good one would have been “What do customers standing in line want?” That would have revealed an important point: those in line for peaches were on a mission. They were focused on getting their peaches and taking them somewhere cool. They were very unlikely to sit down for a meal at that time.
However, the day was warm, and the sun reflecting off the blacktop made standing in line at noon even hotter. All of us were hot and thirsty. Looking at the situation from the customer’s point of view would have revealed how those in line would be feeling. Asking “What do customers standing in line need?” would have uncovered an opportunity. That would have lead to a better effort which would have been to sell water to those in line along with handing out the piece. That would have made a good impression on those standing in line and brought in more revenue for the restaurant that day. Water may have even saved the lady who collapsed from the heat and was taken away in an ambulance.
Thinking the situation through from the customer’s point of view could have lead management to the best effort. Considering that people in line wanted to get their peaches and leave would have brought the realization that they would not stop at the restaurant that day. That leads to the question, “How do you bring them back?”
One way to do that would have been to distribute a coupon or introductory special inviting people back another time during the next couple of weeks. Setting an end date on the coupon would use urgency and encourage them to return soon. That would spur more people to come back to the restaurant before they forgot about it.
The combination of tailoring the piece with an offer that had urgency, having water available to purchase, and distributing information about the restaurant would have been a best effort. That would have been reached through thought. Good efforts require action. Best efforts require thought.
Are you thinking through your marketing so that you achieve the best effort?
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Meaningless Message
A Toyota dealership in my area recently moved into a new facility off the new bypass. As the facility was being constructed, the dealership ran TV ads promoting that the new location was opening soon. The message of one of these ads was “We built it for you.”
The first time that I heard this ad, I responded out loud, “No, you didn’t. You built for yourself.”
I considered writing an Insight about the message. However, I did not, hoping that this was an ad that had been put together quickly and would not continue.
Was I ever wrong!
Evidently, this was the start of their major campaign about the move. I heard the commercial a couple of times, and then it was not on the air for a few weeks. When the new facility opened, however, the commercial aired multiple times a day. During the opening campaign all the business’s TV and newspaper ads used this theme. “We didn’t build it for us. We built it for you. The new facility is everything that you‘ve been looking for.”
Not only was the business continuing the “We built it for you” theme, it had emphasized the theme by adding that “We didn’t build it for us.”
Okay, who buys that? Do you buy it? Do you think any business builds a new facility for its customers first? I don’t. I think that a business builds a facility because management thinks the bottom line will benefit with the new building. In this instance, management wanted to tap into the new bypass, which has an enormous amount of traffic.
What does a customer get from the new facility? I have no idea. I guess “everything that I’ve been looking for.” Well, I have never looked for anything in a car dealership facility. If you asked me what I would want in a car dealership facility, I could not tell you one thing off the top of my head. As most customers, if I thought about it for a while, I probably still couldn’t tell you what I would want in a car dealership facility.
Have you ever bought a vehicle because of the dealership’s facility?
I haven’t. I bet no one has.
The ads did not give me any clues as to what the new facility offered me, either. There were no specifics of what’s in it for me as a customer of the new facility. Backing up this statement with facts would have been more effective. Telling me what the facility offered “that I’ve been looking for” would have been informative and interesting. That would have put meaning into the message.
Advertising messages are effective only if they have meaning to the customer. Otherwise, they are a waste of time and money.
What do your advertising messages mean to your customer?
The first time that I heard this ad, I responded out loud, “No, you didn’t. You built for yourself.”
I considered writing an Insight about the message. However, I did not, hoping that this was an ad that had been put together quickly and would not continue.
Was I ever wrong!
Evidently, this was the start of their major campaign about the move. I heard the commercial a couple of times, and then it was not on the air for a few weeks. When the new facility opened, however, the commercial aired multiple times a day. During the opening campaign all the business’s TV and newspaper ads used this theme. “We didn’t build it for us. We built it for you. The new facility is everything that you‘ve been looking for.”
Not only was the business continuing the “We built it for you” theme, it had emphasized the theme by adding that “We didn’t build it for us.”
Okay, who buys that? Do you buy it? Do you think any business builds a new facility for its customers first? I don’t. I think that a business builds a facility because management thinks the bottom line will benefit with the new building. In this instance, management wanted to tap into the new bypass, which has an enormous amount of traffic.
What does a customer get from the new facility? I have no idea. I guess “everything that I’ve been looking for.” Well, I have never looked for anything in a car dealership facility. If you asked me what I would want in a car dealership facility, I could not tell you one thing off the top of my head. As most customers, if I thought about it for a while, I probably still couldn’t tell you what I would want in a car dealership facility.
Have you ever bought a vehicle because of the dealership’s facility?
I haven’t. I bet no one has.
The ads did not give me any clues as to what the new facility offered me, either. There were no specifics of what’s in it for me as a customer of the new facility. Backing up this statement with facts would have been more effective. Telling me what the facility offered “that I’ve been looking for” would have been informative and interesting. That would have put meaning into the message.
Advertising messages are effective only if they have meaning to the customer. Otherwise, they are a waste of time and money.
What do your advertising messages mean to your customer?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)