Lucy Loves Business

Well, what a surprise… customers like good service! and they aren’t always bothered about price

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Now, you may be thinking that, in these price conscious times, that having the best (lowest) price is all it takes to get customers. But, in many instances, this is just not true.

Being a self-confessed travel-nut, I like to keep up with what the travel industry are thinking, and today’s Travel Mole posted survey results that supported a lot of what I believe is important in ANY business.

Here’s an excerpt of the findings:

The survey polled consumers about why they remain loyal to a travel company, and found that top of the list was ‘past good experiences’ (65%), followed by ‘good reputation’ (53%) and ‘offers best prices’ (51%).

Oh look — pricing is less important than good experiences and service. That’s pretty vital to remember in business, whatever you are selling.

Competing on price can be a slippery slope to your own business disaster if the margins are just not there, and so you need to use other weapons at your disposal. Ramping up your customer service and attention to detail, and protecting your reputation, become key. And the good news is that this doesn’t have to cost you anything!

Make sure everything that you and your staff are doing is the best job possible, go the extra mile for your customers, and make it a better experience for them to buy from you than from a (cheaper) competitor. This will work for some, if not all, of your customers.

Another example of cheap prices not equalling best results explains why Waitrose is doing well in the face of stiff competiton from the budget supermarkets. OK, so anyone who knows me now is laughing as I am a VERY loyal Waitrose customer (well, it’s just so lovely to shop there!), but I am prime example. I could shop at Lidl (OK, cue more laughter again from anyone who knows me), but I actually enjoy shopping at Waitrose, and will pay a little bit more for the quality, service and experience. And I’m not the only one who thinks this — as Waitrose and John Lewis just topped a poll of 14,000 shoppers surveys by Which? magazine for:  convenience, pleasant store environment, helpful staff and quality products.

The important lessons here are that you need to give your customers a reason to keep buying from you, even if you can’t compete on price. And make sure you communicate this in your marketing. If you personally inspect or oversee what you sell, and have 15 years of expeience, say that. If you have a 17-point checklist that your goods have to pass before you sell them, explain it. If you always include a free review or consultation with your service — say what this is in advance, and describe the benefits. Then your prospects know why to buy from you, and your customers are reminded.

You have to be better than your competition — but you don’t have to be cheaper.

Let me finish with another excerpt from the Travel Mole story on survey results. And remember — this applies to EVERY type of business and their customers:

“Word-of-mouth recommendations figure highly in a holidaymakers’ decision-making process, so it’s essential that travel companies assess where the gaps are in their customer care strategies and invest in the technology and best practices to deliver exceptional customer experiences that will help future customer retention and acquisition.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself — except I will — be good to your customers, they are the most important asset in your business!

Are you special? Can you explain your uniqueness?

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I was reminded again at the weekend (I am being Masterminded by Jonathan Jay) how important is it to be unique in business. We were talking about USPs, and why a business owner must know what their USP is before they can market their business with success.

USP stands for Unique Selling Point, or Unique Sales Proposition. I was reminded how hard it is to define these — to really make them totally unique.

It is quite easy to come up with a USP only to realise under scrutiny that it’s not, in fact, unique and could easily be applied to other businesses. So it was good to have the Mastermind group of business owners challenging each other to be unique.

Now, a USP is not to be confused with a strap line (a ‘one liner’ you have to describe your company or what you do), as a strap line is rarely unique.

Think about these examples of strap lines, and you can easily see why they are not USPs:

• Nike said ‘Just Do it’; I could say that — it’s great marketing advice!
• Coca-Cola said ‘It’s the Real Thing’; plenty of things that businesses sell are ‘real’…
• McDonalds said ‘I’m Lovin’ It’; which, while debatable(!), could also easily be used by anyone selling anything!

So a USP is not a strap line. For example, the strap line for my business is ‘No-nonsense business marketing and web sites that work‘, which while clearly cannot be used by any company, it could be used by any business that provides marketing consultancy and designs web sites.

So what is unique about my business… well, I am still working on the exact wording for this for my Mastermind homework … but it will involve the unique experience, skills and customer testimonials that our business has.

Here’s an example for illustration:

Say you have a holiday business in Cornwall. You could say:

‘We provide the most relaxing low-cost breaks in Cornwall’

…but then this isn’t necessarily unique, as other holiday businesses in Cornwall could say this. But if you say (for example):

‘A stay with us has been described by guests as “the most relaxing holiday we’ve have ever had”, and “a treat worth 10 times the cost”. We have combined our experiences as an interior designer and alternative therapist to design the perfect holiday accommodation for couples and families in Cornwall with our own exclusive spa treatments on hand.’

OK, so it’s a bit more wordy, but I already said it wasn’t a strap line!

There are many details in this example description that make it unique — it reflects the personal experience of the business owners (unique), it has specific reviews from customers (unique to the situation), and it mentions exclusive treatments that are available only at this location (unique). This is a unique selling proposition.

So go away and think about what really is different in your business, and make sure you communicate that in your marketing. Put it on your web site, talk about it with prospects, don’t ever forget it.

Your USP is the answer to the question: ‘Why should I buy from you and not a competitor?’ You can’t answer that question with anything a competitor could say if you want a fighting chance.

Why blog for your business?

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So why am I blogging, and should you blog for your business? And if you are blogging, is it helping?!

Blogging is something that can be a very effective part of your marketing. It’s not always sensible to blog in the ‘traditional’ sense of a diary though (‘blog’ is short for ‘web log’), as if you’re not doing anything interesting day-to-day then you might not get value from it! Not sure everyone wants to know that you made 154 widgets today, and that it was 3 more than yesterday, etc.

But if you think laterally about what you do, and use your blog as a way to communicate your expertise and personality, it can work really well. People like to buy from people, remember, so your blog is your way of speaking directly to lots of prospects.

Read More…

When new business is staring you in the face… and you look the other way!

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Lots of businesses are turning away customers every day… and they probably don’t even realise it.

I’ve made a few calls over the last few days to travel companies (not all my own holiday research, I have to point out!), and it was incredible the number of the companies that didn’t even take my contact details. I could have walked away from them forever.

Here’s the range of responses I got:

1. Only asking for my name, and not giving out any reference or incentive to call back. It’s not hard to ask someone for their email, address or phone number — or to at least ask if they are an existing customer (so you could look up this info).  This particular call was regarding what could be a big booking commission-wise I am sure, but the agent doesn’t know how to contact me so I could easily never come back!
2. Another travel company recognised me by my phone number when I called up (someone’s on the ball with the CRM system there), which I thought was great — although they did have a mish-mash of addresses and contact details for me, as I was getting newsletters to my old address and new address, so I helped them fix up their database for them (that’s right — I’m a prospective customer and I don’t mind admitting it AND helping to fix up the mailing list!).
3. One airline didn’t really want to help me at all, and just pointed me at their website as it “would be much cheaper” — shame on you! I had already looked at the web site and I wanted a real person to help me as it was an urgent enquiry!! I went back to the web but not to their site…
4. Another travel company was helpful and took all my contact details, told me what they were going to do and emailed me with information. It’s not hard to find out who your customers and potential customers are as most people are happy to receive an email confirming any product or service they are offered.

So what is the business moral of this story?

Well, if someone is calling your company, it means you’ve already got them so far down your ‘funnel’ — they have already identified you as someone who can help with their problem or question, and you should be in the running to sell them your product or service. So what ever you do — find out who the caller is, and keep in touch with them!

If a caller is asking for more information, a price or a quote, get it to them on email, in the post, and not just over the phone… follow up with another email, or call to see if your quote compares with others they may have, or if there are other questions or reasons that they have not yet bought from you.  At the very least, get permission to keep them on a newsletter or offers update mailing list, as even if they don’t buy now, they may in the future. Each enquiry should go straight into your CRM, and if you can, have an stream of auto messages set up and regular newsletters.

So will the ‘no contact details’ company get my business?… I can’t say for sure yet (as to give them some credit they were very helpful on the phone), as the funny thing is: the very next day, a contender for that holiday sent me their latest offers and newsletter in the post, and it might have just drawn me away in their direction…

Sound advice on what NOT to do in business — some good New Year resolutions for 2009

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I was reading the UK Business Forum ‘Round-up of 2008′ email today (part of the very useful www.businesszone.co.uk), and this article was the one that caught my eye.

Now I love a to-do list as much as the next person (OK so I probably love them more), but I really loved the idea of ‘What to include on your not to do list‘. The article was written by Robert Craven, who is MD of The Directors Centre.

Here’s what I nodded my head at:

• Don’t answer calls from people you don’t know or don’t recognise (why voicemail was invented if you ask me). Of course having a PA or virtual PA is better, but otherwise just listen to your voicemail messages in one go and call back the important ones! (Note to anyone trying to sell me something — I do call back, but ONLY if I am interested).
• Don’t work with (or employ) energy-sappers — or, as I like to call them, ‘whingers’ My philosophy is always: if you don’t like what you’re doing, then go and do something else…

Here’s what I read and thought ‘must do that‘:

• Only check emails at set times — will be hard for me (especially with the ‘crack’berry, but I know it makes sense)
• Do not turn up to meetings on time (turn up early) — makes total sense and, I know, I need to work on my time-keeping (and directions!).
• Don’t build the business around yourself — this is a recent realisation of mine that I am running a ‘job’ business and not a ‘business’ business. My business involves me selling my time (like a job), and I am looking at how I can make this a ‘business’ where I don’t always have to be involved… watch this space!

Robert ends his ‘not to do list’ with the very excellent reminder to don’t take it all too seriously (not something I am accused of often!) and to remember why you are doing this in the first place…

Don’t know about you, but I’m doing business ‘cos it’s a fun way to pay the bills.

Getting your ‘business head’ on (and why you need to keep it on!)

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This morning I visited my friend Nicola, who’s just started running her own business (she’s my hairdresser), and it was great to hear that she’s already got her ‘business head’ on, and is busy working out how she’s going to start differentiating and improving her salon.

She’s taken over an existing business, and this of course can have its upsides and downsides — the upsides being that she is making money from day one (quite useful!), but the downside being that there isn’t a blank page to start from to do everything your way from the outset.

But here’s some things that we talked about that made me confident that the salon is only going to get better and more profitable:

• Work with what you’ve got — some things will be working in your business, so don’t think you have to change everything!
• Do things one at a time — yes, your ‘to do’ list might well be long, but prioritise and do one thing at a time so you don’t get stressed! That said, do each thing as quickly and effectively as you can so you can move through the list and get things happening.
• Don’t be afraid to try something different — so what if all the other businesses in your town or marketplace don’t do things that way… GOOD! If you have conviction in what you’re doing, then it’s good to try something new.
• Understand what your customers want — having experience of the business you are in here helps of course, but if you’re new to your business and want to know what your customers want — just ask them!
• Little things can add up to a big change (and customer loyalty) — like a nice coffee machine or just anything that shows attention to detail, and demonstrates good customer service (here I advocate the ‘best friend’ approach — i.e. treat your customers like you would your best friends).
• Get a good ’system’ in place (as soon as you can) — and by this I mean actual systems (like IT ones e.g. accounting, invoicing, orders, appointments, calendar, CRM, etc. that just make day-to-day stuff a lot easier), and also ways of doing things — filing, where and how to work, and people who can help you, etc.
• Planning ahead — don’t just be thinking about next week or next month… think about how what you’re doing now will ‘look like’ in 6 months time, 1 years time, and 5 years time. It’s sometimes not possible to already have worked out your ‘exact’ exit strategy, but at least realise that you need one!
• Getting on with it! — sometimes the hardest thing of all, but it’s certainly the one that makes the most difference!

These are all important things to remember when looking at your business. And not just when it’s new. Whenever you can, take a step back (or step out) of your business, as it will allow you to see what changes you can make that will improve it’s performance.

What’s inside my head and how it can help your business

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Yesterday, I got back from the first 2-day ‘Small Business Marketing Workshop’ run by the very smart Jonathan Jay in his new business venture Success Track

The purpose of the 2-day workshop was for Jonathan to share his own experience in what does and doesn’t work in terms of marketing a business. Jonathan also offered a ‘marketing clinic’, where attendees could (perhaps crushingly honestly in some cases!) receive a critique of their current marketing materials and approach (note to anyone who attended here — you will of course get the irony of Jonathan describing this in his own words as “a clinic”!).

Not only did every business owner leave (I have no doubt) with ideas, and a plan for their marketing that will literally catapult their business forward, but I know that it’s all good stuff THAT ACTUALLY WORKS!

I’ve ‘worked’ in Marketing for a long time now (let’s just say it’s more than 10 years, so I don’t feel too old!), and more and more I’ve learnt about what does and doesn’t work, and I have to say Jonathon is spot on. Not that I always realised this, however, as most credit for me ‘getting my head around’ direct response marketing and a personality-led, benefits driven ‘tell more’ approach was Paul Gorman.  Paul is a source of pure inspiration for me, and one of the smartest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and being coached by.

Paul is technically ‘retired’ now, but he has graciously put ALL his marketing ideas, articles and materials on his Leave Them in the Dust website, which you really should visit right now if you’ve not done so before. I am sure I will be referencing it more than once!

So what is it about Paul’s and Jonathan’s approach that means I want them to fill up my head with knowledge? Well, for one they have the answers based on experience and actual results, not theory (might sound obvious, but it’s not always the case). Time and time again I’ve sat in one of Paul’s seminars, for example, and witnessed first-hand people who have transformed their businesses after he switched the lightbulb on in their head.

Now, just to make sure this isn’t the longest first blog post in history I’ll talk about some of Paul’s, and Jonathan’s, and other people’s, ideas and approaches in separate posts. Which reminds me, I should also mention that the event this weekend also had a guest speaker — Ed Rivis — who is someone else who I love to learn from too. Ed’s area of expertise is web marketing, and I am a kindred spirit with Ed when it come to getting geeky about web stats and landing pages and split testing, etc!

I’m not ever going to pretend I know it all (afterall, I will be the first to admit I’m not sitting on a £million company right now), but I sure do know some people who know a lot, I’ve worked with some very successful business people, and I do have a bit of a clue having run my own business for a few years

I’m planning to share what I know, what I’ve learned, and what I think are great business ideas on this blog, and hopefully make it a useful resource for other small business owners.