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Category: Word of Mouth

One at a Time

I was on a bus full of rowdy kids with a brand new leader sitting in the front seat. In a voice slightly above a whisper, the leader said, “If you can hear my voice, touch your nose with your thumb.”

About five kids nearby put their thumbs on their noses.

Then, with the same voice she said, “If you can hear my voice, put your palm on your cheek.” Another half dozen kids joined the first group.

Then, with a normal voice she said, “If you can hear my voice, clap your hands twice.” About two-thirds of the bus clapped their hands twice. A few seconds later every voice on the bus went quiet and every child was paying attention.

She never once raised her voice. She never yelled, never cajoled, never forced anyone into being quiet. Instead she invited the kids into her world a few kids at a time. As some kids joined, more kids became interested. In no time at all, she had everyone’s rapt attention.

Marketing works the same way.

You can yell and scream and force all the people into listening to your message. They might listen, but they will not hear. As soon as you are done yelling they will go back to what they were doing.

Or you can speak quietly to those closest to you and invite them in. Get them to commit and they will help you get others interested.

The lesson here is easy. First sell to your fans, your VIC’s (very important customers). Speak to your current customers. Invite them in. Make them feel special. They will get other people interested in you.

It is a slower growth, but a far better return.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I’m talking about Word of Mouth. You do not get that just by being good. You have to give your customers something to talk about. First check out this free eBook – Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. There is a wonderful explanation of the four ways to generate word-of-mouth. Then download the free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! to see how you can raise your service to a talk-worthy level.

A Lesson From Steve Jobs

My son is thirteen. He downloads Apple iPod/iPad/iPhone manuals for “light reading”. His favorite thing at the library is the latest edition of Mac World Magazine. His email address is applenerd@_ _ _. This past summer he taught the teachers in his school district how to use their shiny new iPads. We drove him and his brother to Ann Arbor (40 miles away) four days in one week so that they could attend “Apple Camp” at the Apple Store in Briarwood Mall.

Yesterday’s news was tough in our household.

Many bloggers will be reminiscing about Steve Jobs and what he did at Apple. Here are two things we, as retailers, can take away.

First, the whole concept of Apple Camp is brilliant. Invite a group of people to come to your store multiple times over a one week period and do a continuous activity with them. Imagine having a dozen of your best customers stopping by at 4pm every day to do an activity you planned for them. Your cost would be minimal – some supplies, a little bit of marketing, time from a staff member. Your benefits would be HUGE. Every single attendee would become an instant evangelist singing your praises far and wide.

Give your customers something to talk about and they will talk about it. Apple Camp is what solidified my child as a lifelong fan of Apple.

Second, the Genius Bar is absolute genius. Most of your customers are coming to you because of trust. One way you gain that trust is through information. Apple, by creating the Genius Bar, made it clear that not only did they have people with the information, those people were available purely for the job of passing along that information.

Two great aspects of retail that Apple did right and we all can emulate. Thanks, Steve!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you can hold a camp. You are an expert in your field. You know more about your products than your customers do. Figure out a fun way to share that information. If you are a toy store, have toy demonstrations or game nights or puppet shows or dress-up fashion runways. If you are a jewelry store, have a class on gemstones or precious metals. If you are an auto parts store, teach people how to change their wiper blades or even their oil. If you are a clothing store, have an event around Fashion Week in NY. The ideas are endless.

If You’re Gonna Do It, Do It Better Than Everyone Else

Today at Toy House we launched our Birthday Club.

We looked into what our competitors were doing and figured out we could do a whole lot better.

Our biggest competitor offers a small gift certificate of $3.
So we offered $10.
Their gift certificate had a strict time limit.
Ours has (virtually) none.
Their program ends when the kid turns 10.
Ours has no limit. Yes, even adults can sign up!

Then, for fun, we installed a Birthday Bell in the store. When a Birthday Club member comes in, he or she gets to ring the Birthday Bell to let everyone in the store know he or she is celebrating.

Oh sure, we have some ulterior motives in all of this. All such programs do. Here are the benefits we hope to reap.

  • More traffic in store. You have to come in to sign up and you have to come in to redeem the gift certificate and ring the bell.

  • More information. You have to give us your mailing address and there is a place to opt-in to our email list, too.

  • More fun and excitement. Ringing the bell in the store adds to the in-store experience for everyone.

  • More memories. Will you remember a $3 gift? Heck, some of our Facebook friends said it wasn’t enough to even get them in that other store. A $10 gift certificate means you can get something of value. Add it in with other money they received and the gift becomes even more special.

  • More sales. Yes, we expect to reap some incremental sales from this. The kid with birthday cash can go anywhere. The kid with birthday cash and a Toy House gift certificate is coming to see us.

  • More exposure. Word of mouth? You bet! Plenty to talk about. The size of the gift certificate. The Birthday Bell. The fact that adults can join (and the added benefit of reminding people that we carry toys for all ages.)

We could have copied the other store. But that isn’t us. We’re bigger than that. We’re better than that. You are too!

Is your competitor doing something positive that you aren’t? See how you can do it better than them, and blow them out of the water.

Phil
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you would like details of how we’re running this program, how we’re marketing it, or anything else regarding it, send me an email.

Just For Baby Stores (and Anyone Interested in Marketing)

Last week I gave a couple presentations at the All Baby & Child (ABC) Spring Educational Conference in Fort Worth, TX.

Once again, Pricing for Profit was one of the biggest hits of the show. Many vendors were asking, “Who’s Phil?” as retailer after retailer showed them better ways to price their goods for more profit because,“Phil said…” (Love that people talk about it that way! That never grows old for me:-)

The other presentation was Baby Store Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. Unlike most retailers who rely on repeat customers, there aren’t a lot of repeat visits in the baby world. Stores that sell cribs and dressers have to constantly seek out new clientele.

Similar to Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, the Baby Store presentation covers eight affordable ways specific to baby stores that they can market themselves without spending a ton or giving away the profits.

And the Stork has arrived!

Everything in the presentation is now available in a newly published eBook. Download it for free. Share it with your friends. More importantly, use it as a guide to get more traffic in your store. (The smart ones among you will easily adapt it to your specific product mix.)

-Phil

Turning Nouns into Verbs

My friend, Rick Wilson DMD, is writing a novel.

The story features a wonderful brewery in England called Gack & Bacon Brewery, established in the 16th century, now fighting off its conglomerate rival, Slore’s. (Their motto? “It’s beer.”)

Gack & Bacon has an in-house pub called the Pig & Trebuchet. In a recent post (he’s sharing tidbits online with some of his friends), Rick shared with us a little of the magic of the Pig & Trebuchet – The Bad Table.

Every restaurant has one, that table by the kitchen or bathroom (or both) that has the built-in annoyances. No one wants to sit at the Bad Table. But the P&T leadership turned that negative into a positive by making the table special for all who sit there. Special menu, special visitors, special activities. Always some little surprise and delight.

And people come in asking to sit at the Bad Table. My favorite line from this part of the story reads…

…”I’ve been Bad Tabled,” was even local slang for being surprised by something excellent and unexpected…


How do you take a negative noun and turn it into a positive verb? The key is in the phrase surprised by something excellent and unexpected.

What are you doing to turn around a negative associated with your business with something excellent and unexpected?

  • If parking is an issue, do you offer a valet service?

  • If price is the driver of all purchases, do you have a lower priced item (from which you can upsell)?

  • If location is an issue do you have billboards or wall signs directing people where to go?

  • If convenience is an issue, do you go out of your way to make the experience memorable?

At this morning’s meeting my staff and I decided we are going to turn Toy House into a verb. To be Toy Housed is to be pleasantly surprised and delighted in such a way that you have to smile. We’ll accomplish that by first doing four things:

  1. Play More

  2. Listen More

  3. Ask More

  4. Know More

I’ll let you know when Merriam-Webster puts it in their dictionary.

-Phil

Oops, My Fault

No, this is not a post about admitting your mistakes as a way of better customer service. I already covered that here.

This is about a mistake I made in marketing my marketing class.

Last night I gave a talk titled “Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget” to a group in Ortonville, MI sponsored by the Ortonville DDA. The talk was marketed to the 90+ member DDA, the local Chamber, and every other business in town.

Ten people showed up.

Afterward the DDA Director came up to me and said, “Phil, you know a lot about marketing. Here is what I did… …What did I do wrong?”

And then the light bulb went off. Surprised that I didn’t get it before. But it was right there in my presentation, and it was something Roy Williams has said to me many times before.

It isn’t so much about who you reach as it is what you say.

Yes, she did a great job of getting the word out about my talk. The problem was, she used the wrong word.

No matter what type of marketing you are doing, the first, last, and most important element of your marketing effort is the MESSAGE.

And the most powerful message is one that speaks to the heart. Emotions. That’s what moves us to action. Raw, powerful emotions. Rarely do we act on pure logic. Rarely do we respond to facts and data. But when you speak to our heart, we can move mountains.

And if I’m going to be doing presentations on this stuff, I need to first teach it to the organizers so that they can use it to draw up the kind of crowds for which this info would be helpful.

So to those ten wonderful people who showed up last night – thank you! And to last night’s organizer, I’m sorry. That was my bad. I promise not to do it again.

-Phil

It Takes a Big Person to Handle a Tough Customer

I was watching Cake Boss with my wife and kids last night (great show on TLC) and Buddy, the Cake Boss, had a really tough customer. How he handled it was a teachable moment for anyone in customer service.

Background: Mother & daughter came in to order a wedding cake. Daughter was totally not into the idea of a big fancy wedding. She never really gave much feedback but said okay to the design he offered.

The day before the wedding she came in to look at the tastefully decorated ivory cake as agreed, called it ugly and asked for something different. While Buddy went to talk to his team she grabbed tubes of colored icing and began squirting them all over the cake, basically ruining it.

Buddy came back and was shocked. He booted her out of the bakery.

The Dilemma: What should he do next? He basically had three options:

  1. Bake her a new cake. His business was swamped and it would mean overtime for his staff, plus the extra cost of the new cake and decorations, but they could do it.

  2. Give her the cake as is and say, “You did it, you get to live with your actions.”

  3. Tell her that he wasn’t going to make a cake for her at all.

What would you do?

The Decision: Buddy called the mom, a good customer of his, and told her he couldn’t do the cake. She began to cry. Buddy then changed his mind and promised he would take care of her. As he hung up he said to his team, “I’m gonna show her that I can be the bigger man in this and make her a cake she’s gonna love.”

The result was a phenomenal cake that made the mom and bridesmaids cry. (Bridezilla refused to even get up from her chair to look at the cake. I give that marriage about 3 months at best.)

The lesson, however, was telling. At the end of the day Buddy decided that doing the right thing (making a new cake to the customer’s satisfaction) was more important than doing the easy thing (not making a cake), or the deserved thing (giving her the cake she “decorated”).

You could justify any of those three actions, but only one of them will get you repeat and referral business. Whether the bride was happy or not, the mom and the bridesmaids will always remember what Buddy did and will tell others about it, too.

That is how you get Word of Mouth from over-the-top customer service.

Word of Mouth, Hidden Talents, and Smiles

I plan every staff meeting the same way, by finishing this statement:

This will be a successful meeting if…

For this morning’s meeting it was:

  1. If the staff has a better understanding of how to truly create Word of Mouth in our customers, and how close we are to offering over-the-top experiences that customers will talk about.

  2. If the staff finds one new way to use a hidden talent of theirs to offer a unique customer experience.

  3. If the staff bonds.

Simple enough.

We started with a quick presentation on Word-of-Mouth (1), the same info I give in my Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget presentation.

After that, we broke into small groups and had everyone share one talent (2, 3) they had that the rest of the group probably didn’t know. Then, with the help of the group they had to brainstorm a way to use that talent in the store (2).

For example, if your talent is cooking, we have children’s cookbooks. Why not take one home, try out a few recipes and bring in something you cooked from the cookbook? Wouldn’t that be pretty cool to have actual dishes from the cookbook to sample before you bought the cookbook?

Not only did we come up with some pretty good ideas, the staff got to know each other a little better. And those ideas will lead to a better customer experience and more Word-of-Mouth.

It all started with the goal. Do you have a goal for your next meeting or are you just passing along information? If it is the latter, send them a memo. The best meetings all start with a goal and are built around fun ways to reach that goal.

-Phil

PS The Smiles reference in the title was because at every meeting we share Smile Stories. It is at the core of everything we do, so we reinforce it at every meeting by sharing how we have met our ultimate goal in the past month.

PSS Having trouble coming up with a way to reach your goal? Start with this simple Meeting Planner Worksheet. Still having problems? Send me an email with your goal and I’ll tell you what I would do.

The Sincerity of Taking Risks

The earflaps of his hat were flipped down for the cold. His fingerless gloves seemed appropriate. He was holding a guitar after all.

“Can I play a song for you?”

If he had been on a street corner, my mom would have thought “panhandler” and walked on by. But here he was standing at her front door with a guitar and a satchel full of CD’s.

“Can I play a song for you?

“I’ve produced a CD and I’m selling them door-to-door. I’d like to play a song for you if I can. Your sheriff neighbor liked it and bought a CD.”

In today’s world of instant connections to thousands of people through Facebook, Twitter, and Email he was going door-to-door to make his CD sales for Christmas. Ten dollars per CD, one door at a time.

Was it efficient? Probably not. One song per door, plus walking, plus explanation, plus rejection meant a lot of time invested for a small amount of sales.

Was it risky? Sure. He put his reputation on the line with every strum of the guitar. He had to face the rejections head on. He had to brave the elements, too.

Was it sincere? As sincere as it gets. One man, one guitar, willing to put his reputation and self-esteem on the line for you just to get a $10 sale.

Did it work? Mom only had a $20 bill. She gave one CD to me, one to my uncle.

Sometimes sincerity and risk outweigh efficiency. If he hadn’t taken such a risk, I never would have heard his CD… …and it’s pretty good.

What are you willing to risk?

-Phil

PS The artist in this story is Rob Vischer. Check him out.

Would You Attend This Workshop?

The Jackson Retail Success Academy is now signing up retailers for our 2011 class that starts in January. This 8-week program has been a huge help for new retailers to get the foundation they need to be successful.

Some have asked if we could run this academy in their community so I put together a 2-Day Workshop format.

Would you sign up for this workshop if it was offered in your town?

Retail Success Academy 2-Day Format

Day 1:
8:00am Meet & Greet – goal setting, expectations
8:30am Understanding Your Brand – definition of branding, character diamond workshop

9:30am (break)

10:00am Character Diamonds Revealed
10:45am Traditional Advertising – Creating an ad budget, How Ads Work, Advertising ROI, Ads with Impact

12:00pm (lunch)

1:00pm Marketing on a Shoestring Budget – Word of Mouth, Social Media, Cause Marketing, Networking, Public Relations

2:30pm (break)

3:00pm Understanding Your Financials – Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Ratios & other important numbers
4:00pm Cash Flow Sheet

5:00pm (break for evening)

6:00pm Dinner/Drinks someplace fun in your town

Day 2:
8:00am Resources Breakfast – meet the local Chamber, DDA, Buy Local groups
8:45am Inventory Management – GMROI, Pricing for Profit, Turn Ratios, Open-to-Buy, Cash Flow

10:45am (break)

11:00am Customer Service – The Basics, The Best Practices, The Wow! Service

12:00pm (lunch)

1:00pm Hiring & Training – Identifying the Perfect Employee, interview questions that work, developing a training program

2:15pm (break)

2:30pm Staff Meetings/Training Sessions – hands-on workshop to learn how to plan and run successful meetings & training sessions
4:15pm Final Q&A
4:45pm Evaluations

5:00pm Go be successful!!

Tell me whether you think it would be worth two days to you to attend a business-altering event like this and how much you would expect to pay. (You’ll be surprised when I reveal what it would actually cost.)

-Phil

PS All those links take you to free eBooks I’ve already written on those topics. The eBooks are extremely helpful but not nearly as much fun and motivating as the live presentation.