Be Different or be dead

May 30, 2016

7 simple ways to save your customers after a screwup

Source: Unsplash

7 simple ways to save your customers after a screw up.

People would rather have a root canal than have to deal with a customer who has been screwed over.

It’s always amazed me that organizations don’t have a strategy in place to recover from a customer screw-up.

It’s not like screw-ups won’t happen; unfortunately they happen with regularity and for a variety of reasons.

And they are certainly not viewed as a source of opportunity; the intent is to get it over with as soon as possible. Endure the pain and move on without looking back.

We spend literally all of our time trying to prevent screw-ups. New fulfillment systems are implemented, employee training programs are created; anything to deliver service flawlessly and prevent bad stuff happening.

Nothing wrong with this except it denies the reality of screw-ups happening; virtually no time is dedicated to building a recovery capability.

Ironically we EXPECT things to go as promised when we transact with an organization and give them a “C” on their service report card when they do.

Successful recovery has two significant benefits.

▪️Customer loyalty actually increases compared to the OOPS! never having occurred at all!

Customers are impressed with what you did to make things better and tend not to be bent out of shape about the mistake made in the first place. They go WOW! give you an “A”, tell others about their experience; their loyalty deepens.

▪️Effective recovery creates a competitive advantage for the organization because others don’t see the need and continue to pour all of their resources into service breakdown prevention (and continue to get “C’s”).

Focus on these things to turn a screw-up into a competitive opportunity:

1. It is critical to build a service recovery strategy to give recovery activity a strategic context in the organization;

2. Hire people who love chaos and who welcome diving into a mess and sorting it out. They need a high pain tolerance and they need to be amazing problem solvers;

3. Give power and authority to the owner of the screw up (who has the ranting customer in their face) to do whatever it takes to resolve it. Ignore job descriptions;

4. Fix it fast. You have literally 24 hours to recover and reap the rewards of enhanced customer loyalty. After that, you’ve blown it and all you get is misery and a brand rap as they everyone about your crummy service;

5. Surprise them with what they don’t expect. Know the customer you’ve screwed over and personalize the experience for them rather than use a boilerplate solution applied to everyone. If you knew I loved Pinot Noir you could use this knowledge in how you recovered with ME.

6. Take responsibility for the OOPS! whether or not you were directly at fault. Lose your ego. Don’t quote policy. Don’t make it out that it was the customer’s fault (happens all the time). Customers want you to show some empathy then launch into solution mode.

7. Recognize recovery addicts; those individuals who exhibit greatness in mending broken promises and who are natural loyalty builders.

Measure how effective you are at making up with a customer after a fight.

Get their feedback immediately after the scuffle.

Improve as you move on.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.30.16 at 05:28 am by Roy Osing
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May 16, 2016

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Or would you make a weekend out of it?

A dinner conveys a certain amount of value being derived but a weekend is at another level completely.

And of course if you wouldn’t even talk to your product, that’s another story.

The amount of personal time and money you are prepared to invest depends on the value you receive.

How is value described? 

By how your product functions? Does it work as promised? Does it deliver to specifications?

Or is value related to how your product makes you feel when consumed? Are you proud of it?

Does it blow your mind?

Does value derive from function or does it come from feelings?

Which is more important? Which is the better metric of product performance?

Most organizations believe a product is performing well if it consistently does what it’s supposed to do.

Product specifications are delivered 24X7. Dependability is the key success factor.

The issue is that performance doesn’t go far enough today; customers expect products that work as promised. And when they do, they are at best satisfied.

No loyalty is created and the customer will leave for a better mousetrap when it shows up.

On the other hand, when the product amazes, when memories are created and when magic happens, customers buy in at a completely different level.

They turn into maniacal fans who go out of their way to support your organization in every way.

And they spread your word to others.

By all means ensure your product performs consistently, but don’t stop until you wrap it up with an AMAZE layer that delights.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.16.16 at 04:04 am by Roy Osing
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May 9, 2016

5 practical ways to diversify your revenue growth

“It’s not good to have all your eggs in one basket” is a saying that speaks well to the business risk of relying on too few assets for a disproportionate amount of your income.

Too much from too few leaves you vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected economic and competitive events.

Five steps will help you develop valuable diversity.

Target customers where your wallet share is low

These are customers whose spending on your service or product comprises a low percentage of their overall spending in your particular business sector.

Sell current product applications

Focus on applications provided to your most popular customer groups and market them to other customers who don’t currently use your products in the same way. Use existing marketing materials in the sales process to maximize return on investment.

Develop new applications

Develop new applications for your current products based on the wants and desires of your high-value customers. New application success depends on the clarity and ‘intimacy’ of the customer requirements you identify. Emphasize the value derived from your products, not the technology used to deliver it.

Go fast and easy

If you are tempted to pursue new customers for your products, employ the fast and easy approach. Identify those who have good revenue potential and are easy to pitch to and quick to buy. Business risk is increased by going after new customers who pose difficulty and consume too many of your resources as you try to sell to them.

New products

For the longer term, develop new products to satisfy unmet customer demand. This usually involves new technologies that are more difficult to adopt and take longer to assimilate.

But don’t be too diverse.

Provide what your customers care about, and be the sole provider.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.9.16 at 05:08 am by Roy Osing
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May 2, 2016

7 proven ways to make floundering business planning successful

Source: Unsplash

I have been the “victim” of traditional business planning methods for years.

“Strategic Planning 101” sessions are not fun; more often than not they are painful to sit through as participants are dragged through a pedantic process which can be extremely boring.

It is time consuming. Literally hour and hours of effort are consumed by preparation, in-session presentations from subject matter experts and debate over the most critical SWOT’s.

ISSUE #1 - current planning emphasis is on creating “perfect” strategic direction; how to execute it plays a minor, sometimes non-existent, role.

The process masks itself as a precise science in a world of uncertainty, randomness, unpredictability and imprecision. There is an infatuation with applying the tool set of strategic planning with the belief that the more analysis you do, the more perfect your plan becomes.

Paralysis by analysis is often the result and more valuable time is consumed.

Helium-filled goals attracts much of the attention in terms of what is desired in the long term. The conversation includes this language: “market leader”, “world class”, “number 1” and “pre-eminent supplier”.

Direction setting occupies at least 80% of the time in an attempt to get it “perfect”. It is tight on strategy but loose on execution.

HOW the strategy will be executed in the marketplace gets little attention. It assumes that execution naturally follows the declaration of the new strategic direction strategy. REALLY? When has that ever happened?

Rather than seeing evidence of active use, “meticulously ironed” planning documents sit proudly on managers’ shelves gathering dust.

ISSUE #2 - there is no practical tool set to determine how an organization can truly separate itself from their competition.

Traditional strategy building is ineffective in producing a true competitive advantage claim to separate an organization from “the herd”; to stand-out and be different in a remarkable way that their customers care about.

The process doesn’t highlight the need to do so nor does it provide practical tools. Traditional marketing concepts like product and market leadership, first mover advantage and technology innovation are relied on accomplish this purpose but are ineffective in clearly defining how one company is different than another.

My approach to business planning — I call it my strategic game planning process — process addresses these inadequacies of traditional planning.

It has execution as its primary focus and it provides a practical and proven tool to create effective competitive differentiation.

It’s called a strategic game plan because the objective is to SCORE! The football analogy is quite apt; move the ball towards your opponent’s goal anyway in a series of moves you can successfully execute and get it across the goal line.

The process of moving down field doesn’t have to be elegant. Exploit whatever opportunities the defence gives you and just get the ball in the end zone. It really doesn’t matter if you score with a “Hail Mary” pass or a series of 10 running plays.

7 building blocks of the strategic game plan:

1. Answer 3 questions and you have your game plan — declare your growth goals; choose the customers you intend to serve; determine how you intend to win.

2. Get your plan just about right — rebalance your planning efforts; loosen up on strategy and tighten up on execution.

3. Plan on the run — your game plan is never complete. Start executing; learn what works and doesn’t; adjust as you go.

4. Focus. Focus. Focus — choose a handful of critical objectives to achieve that have the potential to deliver 75-80% Of your game plan. Don’t try to “boil the ocean” and go after too much. Your efforts will be diluted and your progress blocked.

5. Cut the Crap — eliminate the projects and activities that cannot be directly related to your game plan. Crap consumes precious bandwidth you need to do new things. Hanging on to irrelevant tasks will put pressure to add resources that you don’t need and can’t afford.

6. Create your ONLY Statement — cut through the clutter of vague competitive claims out there and declare what you and ONLY you provide that is compelling and relevant to the customers you have chosen to serve.

7. Review your progress at least every 3 months. Keep execution alive and in everyone’s face as the new business as usual.

Out with the traditional business planning process; in with the strategic game plan as the business plan model for the new market realities.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.2.16 at 05:24 am by Roy Osing
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