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Two Days to Take Your Customer Service to Shareworthy Levels

I’ve written about Wizard of Ads partner – the incomparable Professor Tim Miles.

He wrote the e-book on Shareworthy Customer Service. He also wrote a book called Good Company. He’s tall. He’s smart. He makes up (really cool) words. And he knows more about how to improve your Customer Service than most people walking this planet.

In fact, he is teaching it to businesses all around this planet right now and they are posting growth numbers that would make you blush.

I’ve done my own writing about Customer Service. Most of you have already downloaded my free e-book Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! Some of you have seen the live presentation. Many of you have found new ways to raise the bar in your business because of it.

Tim likes what I’m doing to raise the bar.  I like what Tim’s doing to take the bar galactic.  So we are combining forces and taking what we know to Wizard Academy!

Announcing a new class!

January 29-30, 2013
Austin, Texas

Two full days of instruction from two likable guys who have been transforming businesses through better customer service for years.  (Click the link above to read a full course description.)
Two full days of a true Wizard Academy experience (which in its own right is more than worth the price of admission.)
Two full days of learning what, why, where, who and how to make your customers’ experience so memorable they write books about you and your company (and you don’t have to give either of us the credit!)

Go sign up.  The investment is deep.  The return is deeper.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  If you’re one of the first people to sign up for the class, you get FREE LODGING on campus at Wizard Academy.  That is soooo worth it! Soooooooo worth it!! Soooooooooooo worth it!!!

Who’s Pulling You Up?

There is a wall between you and your goals. You need to get over that wall.

Your peers can help you by pushing you and propping you up. But they can only get you to the point where you can reach the top of the wall. (And if your wall is really tall, they might not even get you that close.)

From there you are on your own. To reach your goal you have to do the rest by yourself.

Unless you have someone on top of the wall ready to pull you up. Someone who has been there and done that. Someone who has already conquered the wall. Someone who already knows what you need to learn.

Have you identified that person (or persons) yet?

Anyone can set goals. Anyone can get their peers to cheer them on and support them in their quest, to push from the bottom. But without a hand from above, most of those people get stuck.

Who’s pulling you up?

Here are some of the people pulling me up…

Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads – I have read his books, attended his classes and followed his teachings. Much of my best work is because of what he has taught me about advertising and business in general. The starting point is the Monday Morning Memo and his books The Wizard of Ads Trilogy. (these are not affiliated links – just the best darn business books I have ever read)

George Whalin – George taught me so much about managing a business, about hiring & training employees, and about dreaming big. He has been a wonderful resource for all things retail.

Philip H. Conley – My grandfather and the founder of Toy House, Inc. His mantra is simple, “Plan for Success.” It has worked for him and I am making it work for me. I meet with him regularly for advice and always get exactly what I need. He did it first, he did it well, and what he did still works today. I couldn’t ask for a better mentor.

There are others, too. Many more than I can mention in one post. I am always on the hunt for the people above me that might be willing to lend a hand.

You need both; your peers and supporters pushing from the bottom, and those who can help you from above. Find them and you’ll scale every wall between you and your goals.

-Phil

Sleep is the Great Eraser of the Mind

Note: Most of the stuff in this post I learned from Roy H. Williams. Please forgive me for stealing.

Okay, you’ve made one point, spoke to the heart, made it relevant, and didn’t look or sound like an ad. Yet, the needle isn’t moving. No one is remembering your message, let alone acting upon it. Why not?

Sleep.

Three Levels of Memory
Everything that happens throughout your day is put into electrical or Working Memory (think RAM like a computer). At the end of the day all of your Working Memory that wasn’t relevant or impactful is erased by sleep, including stuff only slightly relevant or impactful.

Declarative and Procedural Memory are chemical memories. These are stored in your brain (think hard drive). They come from repetition. Declarative is the memory of things you can recall if asked (your cousin’s phone number). Procedural is memory that comes without thinking (slamming your brake when a deer crosses the road)

Frequency is Key
With repetition, electrical Working Memory is converted to chemical Declarative memory, and as repetition continues, from Declarative to Procedural.

The amateur practices enough to get it right (declarative). The professional practices until he cannot do it wrong (procedural).

Hitting the Nail on the Head
Another way to think about it is the hammer and nail. If you hit a nail one time, it will make an impression in the wood. But then the big claw called sleep rips that nail out, leaving just a hole. If you put that nail in the same hole, however, and hit it again, the hole gets deeper. Keep putting the nail into the same hole and hit it over and over and eventually sleep will not be able to rip that nail out.

Some of you might argue that you can pound a nail in one stroke. Sure you can. How many of you know exactly where you were when you heard about 9/11? That happened only once, but the impact was big enough to push it directly into declarative memory (plus there was the added frequency of it being talked about for months on end).

Your ads will not be as impactful as a terrorist attack or space shuttle explosion.

The Magic Number
In advertising, the magic number is three. It takes the average person hearing/seeing an ad three times in seven days before it gets stored as Declarative Memory. And they must hear it three times every week until they need the product or service. And when I say “hear” I’m talking about actively engaged in the ad, not the subliminal effect of background noise.

To get that kind of frequency you need to put your message out there as often as possible. Whether you use TV, newspaper, radio, Facebook or Twitter, your success will be tied to the consistent and constant use of the medium every single day. Otherwise, you are just spending your advertising time and money foolishly.

-Phil

Don’t Look Like an Ad

My radio ads were roundly criticized when I first started doing them the way Roy H. Williams taught me. The biggest criticism was, “They don’t even sound like an ad!”

Good.

That was my goal.

Filters In Play
We are bombarded with advertising – over 5,000 advertising impressions a day! Our brains can’t handle all that info. Our brains don’t want all that info. Our brains realize most of it is useless and irrelevant. So our brains filter as much of it out of our lives as they can. If it looks or sounds like an ad, the brain shuts off and says don’t look, don’t listen.

The more your ads look or sound like everyone else’s ads, the less likely you’ll get the attention of your target audience. (Not to mention the less you’ll stand out in the crowd.)

Here is the script of the most successful radio ad we’ve ever run…

I couldn’t believe it. They were taking customers into the men’s bathroom. Yes, my staff was taking men and women, young and old into our men’s bathroom. And the customers were coming out laughing and giggling, oh yeah, and buying, too. I guess when you find a product that cool, you just have to show it off however and wherever you can. The men’s bathroom, gotta love it. Toy House in downtown Jackson. We’re here to make you smile.

I ran that ad in August 2008. I still have customers asking about the men’s bathroom two years later. It doesn’t sound like an ad. There was no music or jingle behind it. Just my voice plain and unvarnished.

It Really Works
It didn’t look or sound like anything else on the radio, so people heard it. And people responded. We have now sold over 2200 of the product hinted at in the ad, mostly because of trips to the men’s bathroom. That ad had legs because we were willing to be different from all the other advertisements on the air, which got us past the filter and into the minds of our customers.

One of the benefits of such an ad is that we also generated a lot of word-of-mouth from it. Everyone was talking about our ad, the local deejays, the newspaper, the local TV, and oh yeah, a whole bunch of customers.

The Wrong Way
But none of that would have happened if it looked and sounded like an ad. I could have written an ad like this…

It fills up your room with a starry night and puts your mind at ease. The greatest new sleep aids, the Twilight Turtle and Twilight Ladybug, are helping parents get their children happily to sleep. If your kids are struggling with bedtime, make sure you get them a Twilight Turtle or Ladybug for their room and watch the transformation. Bedtime becomes fun time when you have the Twilight Turtle or Ladybug in your child’s room. Available at the Toy House.

Sales would be in the dozens, not thousands with an ad like that. And I can guarantee no one would be talking about it.

Your message is good. You just need to deliver it more powerfully. When your ads don’t look or sound like ads, more people will pay attention.

-Phil

PS For more examples of radio ads I have used, click here.

Say Something Interesting

Your message is fine. But how you are delivering it needs some work. No one is getting it for one simple reason – you do not have their attention. Sure, you could yell and scream, but that doesn’t really get you anywhere. We are bombarded with so many advertising messages that it is like trying to fill a teacup with a fire hose. But you can get your message safely into the cup as long as you remember to…

Make your message more interesting than whatever occupies your customer’s brain at that moment.

You can do that by telling a story.

Stories are Interesting
We all love stories. They hook us in and get us to listen. Facts are boring and dull, but stories are interesting and fun. Whether you are doing traditional ads like radio, newsprint or TV, or just coming up with a way to get your message across in networking or social media, turn your message into a story.

Here is a copyrighted (meaning don’t use it verbatim, copy the style, not the ad) example from Roy H. Williams’ book Wizard of Ads (pg 28-29)

Announcer: You are standing in the snow five and one-half miles above sea level, gazing at the horizon hundreds of miles away. Life here is very simple. You live, or you die. No compromises, no whining, no second chances. This is a place constantly ravaged by wind and storm, where every ragged breath is an accomplishment. You stand on the uppermost pinnacle of the earth. This is the mountain they call Everest. Yesterday it was considered unbeatable. But that was yesterday.

Client: As Edmund Hillary surveyed the horizon from the peak of Mount Everest, he monitored the time on a wristwatch that had been specifically designed to withstand the fury of the world’s most angry mountain. Rolex believed Sir Edmund would conquer the mountain, and especially for him they created the Rolex Explorer.

Announcer: In every life, there is a Mount Everest to be conquered. When you have conquered yours, you’ll find your Rolex waiting patiently for you to come pick it up at Justice Jewelers, your official Rolex jeweler, on Highway 65 at Battlefield Road.

Client: I’m Woody Justice, and I’ve got a Rolex for you.


Make Your Customer the Star
Not only does this ad tell a fabulous story, it stars the world’s most important person – “you”.

When you can tell a story and make the listener/reader the star of that story, they will listen and hear your message. They will become engaged with your brand. They will picture themselves doing exactly what you want them to do.

Here is another example of a story that speaks to the heart:

He left Detroit 9am Christmas Eve. Some store somewhere had to have the one toy his sweet little six-year old wanted. Six stores…seven hours later, he stood, travel-weary, across the counter from me. “I suppose you don’t have any Simon games either.” As I handed over the last of our Simon games he smiled and said, “God Bless You!” Believe me, He already has. Merry Christmas from the Toy House in Downtown Jackson. We’re here to make you smile.

This true story was from my first Christmas Eve as an official employee back in 1980. I was 14 years old and will never forget the look on that man’s face. We banked an entire Christmas ad campaign on this story. Results? Best Christmas ever. Yet we never mentioned our hours, our address, or our services. But everyone got the message… Looking for a toy? Save the hassle and try us first.

Figure out how to tell the story of your message and you’ll begin to see that message resonate a whole lot better.

-Phil

The Easy Way to Solve a Tough Problem

Finding solutions to tough problems is not as hard as you think, especially when you understand Business Problem Topology.

Roy H. Williams first taught me the concept of Business Problem Topology through his trilogy of “Wizard of Ads” books.

Then he taught it to me again during a visit to Wizard Academy in May 2005.

And when I applied it to a problem I had, it worked!

Business Problem Topology is when you take a problem you are having and look where a problem with similar characteristics may have already been solved. Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. Therefore, any problem you have is nothing new. Someone once had a problem like it.

I had a problem. Mine was hiring good people. In the toy business we hire a large number of temporary workers for the Christmas season. They need to be trained and ready to go in short order.

For years I struggled with this problem – until I applied Business Problem Topology. My problem? Trying to create a finished product that was strong, useful and beautiful – a work of art – in a small window of time. I needed a process that consistently turned out a beautiful, useful finished product. So I asked myself… What art is consistently strong, useful and beautiful?

Pottery.

So I began exploring how to craft pottery. And there lay the answer. The steps a potter takes to create a work of art to last centuries are the same steps a business owner can take to hire and train a staff that is a work of art. (I already showed you the first step here.)

Now I have a book that shows you how to apply all of the steps of a potter to your hiring and training.

The book is titled, “Hiring & the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art”. You can buy it online at my website. (or at Toy House for you local readers)

It is an easy read. The nine steps I outline are told in a story about a young HR person named Mary hired by a start-up company that is experiencing growing pains. As Mary learns, so will you. And if you apply these same techniques in your business, you’ll see a huge change in the quality and skills of the people you hire and train. I know. I use it every day. It’s my dirty little secret for having awesome customer service. And I’m sharing it with you.

-Phil

I’m Sharing My Biggest Secrets

But not right here… (at least not yet:-)

Thursday, Feb. 25 from 8:30am to 11:30am I am doing a 3-hour workshop with the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce to share the biggest secret behind the incredible success of Toy House and Baby Too.

(Success? Besides growing and remaining profitable while in a shrinking industry and shrinking population, Toy House and Baby Too was recently named one of The 25 Best Independent Stores in America in the book Retail Superstars by George Whalin.)

The class is:

“Accelerated Branding: Taking Your Advertising and Your Business to a New Level”.

All the best stuff I learned from two incredible people; Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads and David Freeman, the best screenwriting master you’ve never heard of.

In three short hours you will learn more about how advertising works (and doesn’t work) than most marketing professionals. And you’ll be able to harness that knowledge to accelerate your business no matter what the economy is doing.

I’m going to show you how to make your advertising work better (without spending a penny more) so that you attract more customers, get them to spend more, make them more loyal, and empower them to bring you even more business.

The cool thing is that there are no gimmicks, no radical changing of the way you currently run your business, no unethical or impractical practices. I’m just going to show you how to unlock the potential that already exists in your business and teach you how to harness that energy so that it works for you.

It will be a hands-on workshop in which you’ll create a simple blueprint that will guide all of your advertising (and business) decisions along with a number of examples how to put your plan into action.

  • It will be fun. (Hey, I play with toys for a living – If I’m doing a workshop, it’s gotta be fun)
  • It will be eye-opening (The downside is that you won’t ever look at advertisements the same after this class.)
  • It will be well worth your time (3 hours? $25? I’m kinda surprised the Chamber is giving away this program so cheaply – I paid many thousands for this same info and charge many hundreds to give it out individually as a consultant.)

Contact Mary at the Chamber (517) 782-8221 to enroll. But be warned. There is pre-class and post-class homework (not to mention in-class work, too). If you’re not willing to do the work, don’t bother calling. We’ll give your seat to someone who wants to grow their business leaps and bounds.

See you Thursday!

-Phil

PS If you’re one of my out-of-town followers, you’re welcome, too. The price is $40 for non-Chamber, non-Midtown, non-Jackson Local First members. That, and a little travel will be some of the best money you spend all year. If it isn’t, I’ll pay you back the $40 fee and take you to the best lunch you’ve ever had right after the class.

Deep Versus Wide

In just about everything you do, you have a choice. Go Deep or go Wide.

In business that could mean a number of things…

  • Stock a few things Deeply or stock a Wide assortment.
  • Try to create Deep relationships with a few special customers or shallow relationships with as Wide a group as possible.
  • Advertise Deeply in one media or spread yourself thinly across a Wide variety of venues.

Obviously, the best choice is to do both. But it is rare that any independent business has the resources to go Deep and Wide at the same time.

So with limited resources which is better? Deep or Wide?

This is the question that came up last Monday at the Jackson Retail Success Academy. One of our panelists was asked about advertising and what he felt was most effective. He said mixing up the media, doing a little in a lot of areas worked best for him. At which point every head turned towards me.

Two weeks earlier I instructed the same group of students to go Deep with their advertising, not to mix it up too much. Pick one media, I told them, and do it to the best of your budget and ability.

Every eye was now staring at me to see what I had to say.

And here’s what I said…

Nothing.

First, I did not want to discount what a fellow local business person whom I respect had just said. Second, I already had my say on the matter. Third, it wasn’t the time or place since we were supposed to be talking Inventory Management at the time. And finally, none of the students in that group had the kind of advertising budget this retailer had.

But the question still begged to be answered. Is mixing up the media a viable option or is it better to focus on one media done right?

Okay, I cheated. I phrased the question with a serious slant. I used the words, “done right”.

You see, the key to successful advertising is not how much you do or where you do it so much as how well you do it. Do you have a powerful message? Do you craft that message to speak directly to the heart of your audience? Do you pound that message over and over and over until the customers are thinking of nothing else other than you?

When I talk about Deep in advertising, I’m talking connection. How deeply do you connect with your audience? How well do you move their who-gives-a-crap meter? If you can do that in more than one media, good for you. Some businesses don’t have the money. Most don’t know how to craft the right message.

Your customers are your business relationships. The deeper the relationship, the more business you’ll do. And that starts with a deep and long lasting connection through your ads. If you’re dabbling in a little radio here, a little TV there, with a little newsprint on the side, how can you make any lasting impressions? How can you stay with it long enough to move the meter?

With all due respect to my fellow retailer, mixed media is rarely the answer. While he runs a successful business, Roy Williams, who taught me about going Deep, has turned other businesses in his category into rock stars (for those who know, pun intended).

Would you like to learn to go Deep? Join me for an hour on Wednesday, May 20th at 7:30am. I’ll be holding court at Jackson Coffee Company upstairs in their conference room doing a presentation that will change the way you advertise for good (or better).

-Phil

What Are They Talking About?

When people talk about your business what are they saying? Do you know? More importantly, are people even talking about your business?

Have you given them something to talk about?

Roy H. Williams, aka Wizard of Ads, mentioned three ways at a recent conference to help you get WOM (word-of-mouth) from your customers.

First, you could choose to be over-the-top excellent in Design. Your store layout, merchandising, decorating, facade and mood could be so unique and outstanding that people talk about it for days and weeks afterward. Have you ever seen the Ferris Wheel at the Times Square Toys R Us? That’s over-the-top Design. Does your business have a cool and unique characteristic? Do you flaunt it? I saw a program on the Travel Channel of the 20 coolest public bathrooms. It was totally intriguing. My grandfather always had the idea of building a carousel on the front of the store with half the ride inside, half outside. Kids could get on the carousel and enter the store that way. Imagine what kind of WOM that would generate (and yes, I’m still considering it).

Second, you could choose to have over-the-top excellent Performance by your staff. I’m not talking about “excellent customer service”. Everyone says they have that. And, frankly, customers aren’t impressed by people who are just friendly & knowledgeable. They expect that. In fact, the only WOM you get from excellent customer service is when you don’t supply it. And that’s WOM you could do without.

What I’m talking about is a performance so rare that it’s exciting, extraordinary and unique. Customer service that is so over-the-top it becomes an experience. And it has to be an every day, all the time experience. If you’ve ever been to Pike’s Place Fish Market you know what I’m talking about – and what customers are talking about. The throwing of fish, the yelling, laughing, playing, the customer involvement. What can you do every day to make your customer’s experience more memorable?

The third, and most intriguing way Roy described was Generosity. What are you giving your customers to make them talk about you? A jeweler who replaces watch batteries for free, a restaurant who gives out free desserts to dinner guests, a hotel that has free curling irons, cell phone chargers, or web connections. Those are just some examples of generosity. But here’s the clincher. To get WOM from your generosity you have to do it, but not advertise it.

Imagine you go out to eat and see a sumptuous dessert menu on the table. You know you want one, but aren’t sure if you want to fork over the dough for an extra you don’t need. But then your waiter says, “How about a dessert tonight? It’s on me.” How could you resist? And won’t you be talking about that meal to your friends? Pretty soon, you’ll be saying, “Hey, let’s go to so-and-so’s. The last three times I was there the waiter gave us a free dessert.”

For the cost of some flour and sugar, a restaurant that does this could buy a lot of WOM, and a lot of loyalty. (And that flour & sugar could probably already be fixed into the cost of the meal.)

Word of Mouth is the best form of advertising – always has been, always will be. But you have to give someone something to talk about. Start looking at your Design, Performance and Generosity and see if you can find something worth a conversation. Then maximize it to the extreme and watch the talk begin.

-Phil

When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

I just got back from Grand Rapids. As a favor, Jackson Radio Works invited me to join them for the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference to see Roy H. Williams, aka the Wizard of Ads, do a 3-hour presentation on how radio broadcasters can turn around the Michigan economy.

Whenever I see Roy, it rocks my world and gets my juices flowing. He makes his points more clearly and in a more convincing way than any speaker I have had the pleasure to see. Unfortunately, he made so many points in those three hours that I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around all of them.

The one thing I learned is how much I don’t know what I don’t know.

When you are aware of what you don’t know, you get to choose whether or not to learn it. The problem, of course, is when you don’t know what you don’t know. Then you don’t know what to learn. When I see speakers like Roy, I realize I have that problem. I don’t know what I don’t know.

Do you have that problem, too?

So I thought of some simple solutions.

Attend classes and trainings. If you’re a retailer, the Jackson Retail Success Academy is a good start. Also look at your industry to see if there are any conferences with speakers. The American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) hosts a great conference every spring. Maybe your industry has a similar event? At every training, class or seminar you learn something new, something you probably didn’t know you didn’t know.

Attend events with speakers and presentations. Here in Jackson we have events like the Economic Luncheons of the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce and the Midtown Morning Breakfast, among other events that have speakers of interest. Because each speaker brings a different perspective to light, you are almost guaranteed to learn something you didn’t know you didn’t know.

Pick the brains of your peers and contemporaries. Have lunch sessions with these people and choose topics of discussion that you publicize before you meet. Have each member of your lunch bunch pick a topic of discussion. They may bring up a topic completely foreign to you. Ta da! Something you didn’t know you didn’t know.

Actually, it’s quite easy to learn stuff you don’t know you don’t know. You just have to be willing to learn.

Your business decisions are only as strong as the info you have. When you don’t know something, your business suffers. When you don’t know what you don’t know, your business suffers more. What are you wiliing to learn?

-Phil