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Tag: Customer Service

  • Don’t Mess Up These 2 Crucial Customer Service Moments | Entrepreneur

    Don’t Mess Up These 2 Crucial Customer Service Moments | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Everything is not equal in the customer journey; customers don’t remember their time with you in an even-handed, equitable way. Rather, there are moments in their customer journey that are disproportionately likely to define how they remember the customer service you’ve provided them. How you treat customers in these moments will disproportionately lead them to have a negative, neutral or — if you nail these moments — supremely positive impression of their time with you.

    As a customer service consultant and turnaround expert, I prefer that you get every single moment in the customer journey right! But if I have to choose, here are the two specific moments I want you to focus on right now because getting these right will give you an enormous advantage over your less-attentive competitors.

    What the Ritz-Carlton knows (and you need to learn)

    Did you ever notice how, when you stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel (if you haven’t yet, I suggest you head off on a junket!), they have everything supremely polished and choreographed for the moment you arrive at the beginning of your stay? The valet greets you when they take your car, the bell staff already know your name, and everyone you encounter goes out of their way to make you immediately feel welcome.

    Also, when you’re leaving the hotel, they send you off warmly, perhaps even with the GM or hotel manager coming down to thank you and wish you a good journey.

    These two points, the beginning of the customer interaction and the ending, are emphasized at Ritz-Carlton’s and at other customer-focused companies because they’re the two moments in the customer journey that are nearly guaranteed to remain in the memories of your guests more than any others, perhaps for life.

    Related: How to Turn an Upset Customer Into Your Company’s Best Advocate

    Two scientific effects you need to learn

    The primacy effect — The fact that first impressions are lasting impressions is called the primacy effect.

    The recency effect —The fact that final impressions are also disproportionately influential is called “the recency effect.” another well-demonstrated psychological effect. (Together, these are known as “the serial position effect,” which is a scientifically verified, well-proven psychological phenomenon.)

    Thus, these are two critical moments in the customer’s journey to be sure you get right because of how prominently they are likely to figure out how your customers remember their time interacting with your company.

    How to nail step one: the warm welcome

    Use a welcoming tone of voice. Put down anything distracting you, whether from a prior customer or something else you’ve been working on. (The worst impression you can give a customer is that they’re interrupting the work. Truly, they are the reason for your work!)

    Make eye contact in person or what you could call “voice contact” on the phone: displaying a similar focus that can truly be picked up on audio. And smile as you greet the customer, whether in person or on the phone.

    Can customers tell if you’re smiling over a phone line?

    Of course, they can! Smiling unlocks all that beautiful treble in your voice.

    When you smile, it changes your vocal tone in a very easy way to pick up, even within the limited audio range of a phone line. Some veteran call center professionals even use tape or Velcro® to affix a compact mirror at eye level in their workspace to remind them to smile every time they pick up the phone. (I know this is dorky, but it works.)

    Now there is an exception to always smiling. If you’re talking with a guest telling you disappointing news, please don’t smile!

    Related: How to Use the Least Sexy Customer Service Channel to Get Your Cash Registers Ringing

    The exact words you should use when answering every customer call

    Since the telephone is often where the customer makes the first contact with your company — or at least the first contact with a human — let me tell you what I recommend as far as the actual specific words you should use when you pick up the phone.

    The best way to answer a ringing phone is with a greeting that includes all four of the following elements. (This is easier than it sounds, as you’ll see when we get to the examples.)

    1. A greeting
    2. A business identification
    3. A self-identification
    4. An offer of assistance

    Example 1:

    Good morning, (The greeting)

    Business [X]. (The business identification)

    This is [Jerry]. (Identifying yourself.)

    How may I help you? (Your offer of assistance.)

    Example 2:

    Thank you for calling (The greeting.)

    Business [X]. (The business identification.)

    This is [Jerry]. (Identifying yourself.)

    How may I help you? (The offer of assistance.)

    Related: 4 Simple Ways to Communicate Better With Your Customers

    How to bid goodbye to your customer at the end

    The other scientifically proven moment to matter disproportionately is the closing of service, the fond farewell. Ask if anything else is needed, if there’s anything else you can help them with. Offer a personal farewell. “It’s been great working with you, Jim; I will see you back here on Thursday. I’ll call you if anything changes.” Invite them to call on you for assistance in the future if that’s appropriate to the situation.

    Also, try not to rush the caller as they approach the end of their time with you. It’s easy to be so relieved that you have resolved things on this call, or to get distracted by what you have coming up next, that you speed things up unattractively.

    But don’t miss out on an opportunity to turn an ending into another scientifically proven “unfair advantage.” Refrain from rushing off to the next task on your list. Instead, take an extra moment (really! It’s only a difference of 5-10 seconds) to bid each customer a genuine and personalized farewell. Spending that additional minute, or even a handful of seconds, can have a significant payoff for you in terms of how your company is remembered by customers who have interacted with you.

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    Micah Solomon

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  • The Secret Sauce to a Successful Company? Delighting Customers | Entrepreneur

    The Secret Sauce to a Successful Company? Delighting Customers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In today’s competitive business landscape, customer satisfaction is paramount — it’s the difference between a thriving business and one that’s struggling. But what if you could take customer satisfaction a step further? What if you could actually delight your customers? This concept, often termed ‘Delighting Customers’, refers to exceeding customer expectations so that they’re not just satisfied — they’re delighted.

    Understanding the “Delight” factor

    Before we delve further, it’s essential to understand what separates customer delight from customer satisfaction. While the latter refers to meeting customers’ needs and expectations, delighting customers means exceeding these expectations to create memorable, positive experiences that foster loyalty and promote brand advocacy. It’s about going above and beyond to surprise your customers and make them feel special.

    This could involve anything from delivering products or services faster than promised to provide unexpected perks or exceptional customer service. The psychology behind customer delight is simple – when customers are delighted, they feel a deeper emotional connection to the brand, which often leads to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

    Related: 5 Shocking Customer Service Mistakes You’re Making Every Day (And How to Fix Them Right Now)

    Strategies for delighting customers

    Managers looking to instill a culture of customer delight in their organizations should consider a few key strategies. Firstly, they must lead by example and demonstrate their commitment to prioritizing the customer in every decision. This can range from advocating for customer-centric design principles in product development to personally ensuring customer issues are resolved quickly and effectively.

    Secondly, they must empower their teams to go the extra mile for customers. This might mean giving employees the authority to make decisions that benefit the customer or encouraging them to suggest improvements to existing processes. Starbucks, for example, empowers its baristas to remake a drink or offer a complimentary one if a customer is not satisfied, contributing significantly to their high customer loyalty.

    Lastly, they must use customer feedback as an essential tool for improvement. This includes actively seeking out feedback, responding to it and incorporating it into future strategies. Tools like surveys, focus groups and social media listening can provide valuable insights into what delights your customers.

    Measuring customer delight

    Delighting customers should not just be an abstract concept; it should be a measurable goal. There are several metrics managers can use to gauge their success in this area, including customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES). Each provides a different perspective on how effectively an organization is delighting its customers. A high NPS, for instance, indicates that customers are satisfied and likely to recommend your brand to others. However, managers should remember that these metrics only provide part of the picture. They should also pay close attention to customer feedback and anecdotal evidence.

    The challenges in achieving customer delight

    In a customer-centric business world, achieving customer delight is an ambition that many companies strive for. However, the path to delivering delightful experiences is fraught with challenges.

    • Raising Expectations: One of the paradoxes of customer delight is that successful moments of delight can raise customer expectations, making it increasingly difficult to sustain that level of service. If customers come to expect exceptional experiences as the norm, then merely meeting these expectations may no longer result in delight but instead be viewed as standard service.
    • Understanding Customer’s True Needs: Understanding what customers value and desire is critical for achieving customer delight.
    • Scaling Personalization: While personalization is a key factor in delivering delightful experiences, scaling personalized services can be incredibly difficult, particularly for larger organizations with vast customer bases.
    • Balancing Costs and Benefits: Exceeding customer expectations often involves additional costs in terms of resources, time and effort. Not every attempt to delight customers leads to increased loyalty or profitability, making it essential to identify when and where efforts to delight customers are most likely to provide a return on investment.
    • Consistency Across Touchpoints: Achieving this level of consistency requires significant coordination and integration of processes across different parts of the business, which can be challenging.

    Despite these challenges, striving for customer delight is essential in today’s competitive business environment. Understanding and mitigating these obstacles is crucial to a successful customer delight strategy.

    Related: 5 Ways to Build Killer Relationships With Customers

    The role of innovation in customer delight

    Innovation plays a crucial role in achieving customer delight. In today’s fast-paced world, customers expect businesses to adapt and evolve constantly. Innovative products, services and processes can offer value that exceeds expectations and surprises customers, leading to delight.

    Innovation can also manifest in company culture. An innovative, customer-centric culture encourages employees to seek new ways to delight customers, creating a virtuous cycle of delight and loyalty.

    In conclusion

    The paradigm shift in business management is clear: companies prioritizing customer delight increasingly outperform those that don’t. As we’ve explored in this article, customer delight goes beyond mere satisfaction and involves exceeding customer expectations meaningfully. This pursuit of customer delight fundamentally reshapes how we approach management, emphasizing the value of empowered employees, technological innovation and attentive service.

    Delighted customers can become your brand’s ambassadors, driving organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing and repeat business. Therefore, investing in strategies to delight your customers isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s an integral element of successful modern management.

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    Dionne Van Zyl

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  • 5 Customer Service Phone Tips to Keep Your Sales Coming | Entrepreneur

    5 Customer Service Phone Tips to Keep Your Sales Coming | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Talking on the telephone with customers is a pretty unflashy form of customer service interaction. And as a customer service consultant, trainer, and eLearning training designer, I can sense how its importance is getting overlooked more and more.

    Too bad: The telephone’s ability to provide human-on-human interaction with real-time cues continues to make it a powerful brand builder, a way to turn your customer service operation from a cost center to a source of customer engagement, loyalty and revenue.

    In today’s varied, tech-informed customer support landscape, voice-based customer support via the telephone is more important than ever before.

    This is because:

    • With the rise of digital communication and self-service, telephone conversations between customers and brands have become rarer — and thus more precious. When a customer only interacts with you on the phone once or twice in their entire journey with your company (rather than every day or even multiple times a day), every call represents a chance to make a real and lasting connection. This single interaction can create a halo of personal connection and care that can positively color all those other electronic, often non-peopled interactions that are so typical today.
    • Customers are typically in greater need (even distress) when they reach out to a business on the phone today. They’re more likely to be at their wit’s end, dealing with a thorny problem that self-service tools have failed to answer. In this situation, they’re likely to feel gratitude for every ounce of phone skills we can command.
    • A telephone conversation offers a chance to shine in a cue-rich environment. A telephone conversation offers multiple clues as to what is going on emotionally on both sides of the conversation, including tone and volume of voice, speed of speech, length of pauses, and more. This allows you to adjust your approach in real-time in response, which can improve your ability to solve problems with empathy and aplomb and ultimately deepen your customer connections.

    This, in turn, can help you shine as a brand and as an organization and help you make strides toward building up to an iconic level of customer service.

    To start on the right telephonic foot (so to speak!), a business should consider its answers to the following five questions, which I focus on in my customer service training and consulting when working on improving telephone procedures and nailing down best practices.

    Related: 5 Life-Changing Customer Service Secrets You Can Learn From Five-Star Hotels

    1. Who should be answering our telephones?

    Unfortunately, it is commonplace for companies to consider reception and phone support entry-level jobs — positions that an employee is supposed to graduate from as quickly as possible. But isn’t it safer to put entry-level employees in positions hidden from customers rather than front and center, where they become the company’s voice?

    In my experience, the right employee to become your company’s voice is not looking to graduate quickly from that position but instead willing to devote themselves to making the most of it.

    And be sure you don’t count out those of an advanced age! In my experience, a grandparent, parent or someone else with extensive and varied life experience is often the person who can provide a calming, empathetic, personable phone experience better than anyone.

    Related: 5 Phone Answering Mistakes That Drive Away Customers

    2. How quickly should we be picking up?

    You need to aim to pick up by, or just after, the third ring. By the fourth ring, callers start to feel uncomfortable, doubting whether you’ll ever pick up, and they begin to assume that if you finally do, you’ll be too distracted, overwhelmed or flustered to be much help. If you commit to the 3-ring rule, you’ll be joining some iconic companies, such as Nordstrom and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company who have taken the 3-ring limit to heart. (In fact, it’s standard of the Forbes Travel Guide rating system; you get points taken off if you delay beyond that third ring.)

    Related: The Best Customer Service Companies Spend These 8 Minutes A Day Becoming Better Than the Rest of Us

    3. What should we say when we answer?

    The absolute most important things to convey here to the caller are 1. That they’ve reached the right place 2. Your name.

    But if you really want to get this right, consider taking a page out of the customer service training I offer. If you’ve worked with me ever before, you know I preach that you include at least four elements in your answer, any time you pick up an external line. e.g.,

    1. A greeting: “Thank you for calling,”||

    2. The name of your business: “Business X”

    3. Your name: “This is [Julie] or [Julie Smith]

    4. An offer to help: “How may I help you?”

    4. What should we sound like when we pick up?

    Fabulous, of course! Achieving this will depend on multiple elements working in concert, including the following two key secrets to getting off with a great start:

    • Make sure you’re smiling. When you smile, it changes your vocal tone in a very easy way to pick up, even within the limited audio range of a phone line. Some veteran phone professionals even use tape or Velcro to stick a compact mirror at eye level in their workspace to remind them to smile every time they pick up the phone. Yes, I know this is dorky, but it works. (A quick caution about sounding cheery and smiley at the wrong time: Once you’ve given your initial greeting on the phone, it becomes time to start emulating the mood and pacing of your customer. This will sometimes call for something other than a cheery tone of voice.
    • Make sure that you sound focused on the caller from the first second that the customer hears your voice. Customers can sense even the briefest moment of disengagement at the beginning of a call. Pause any prior activity before answering the phone to be sure your mind is entirely focused on the call — and that you sound that way.

    Related: 5 Ways You’re Wasting Your Customer’s Time on the Phone

    5. How should we conclude each call?

    Ending your call on a good note — providing a “fond farewell” — is as important (or nearly as important) as getting the opening of your call right. This is because of the proximity effect, the psychological finding that the last part of an interaction lingers in someone’s memory.

    As the call is winding down, ask if anything else is needed. If the caller answers “no,” conclude the interaction with a personal farewell that includes their name and perhaps another personal detail like, “It’s been great working with you, Margaret. I’ll see you back here on Thursday, and I’ll call you if anything changes.” Also, if it’s appropriate to the situation, invite them to call on you for assistance in the future.

    Related: 5 Simple Ways to Get Prospects to Stay on the Phone With You

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    Micah Solomon

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  • 3 Methods to Unlock the Mindset You Need for More Success | Entrepreneur

    3 Methods to Unlock the Mindset You Need for More Success | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recently, I sat down with a fellow entrepreneur to talk about his business. I asked what experiences I could share that would help him. He answered almost immediately: “I am struggling with getting my team to focus less on themselves and more on our customers and their needs.”

    Specifically, he shared that many of his team’s meetings have nothing to do with the customer but instead are centered around the company, its people or policies. For example, deciding whether to create a nap room or provide pet maternity leave. Because he is in a creative field and we live in feel-good Portland, Oregon, my guess is that he has a bit of a headwind trying to guide his team to think less about employee perks and more about serving their customers.

    I do have experience to share about fostering a customer-centric mindset.

    I am a year and a half into building my third company. Over time, the companies my team and I build have evolved to become more and more customer-centric — and are experiencing greater and greater success largely because of that. This third company has the highest customer satisfaction ratings we have ever received.

    We produced these results using three methods that promote a customer-centric mindset. The combination of the three essentially hard-codes the customer as the priority.

    Related: 3 Ways to Build a Customer-Centric Company Culture

    1. Create customer-oriented core values

    When I looked at my friend’s five core values, none even remotely involved the customer. They all focused on the types of people working there and their behavior mindsets mainly toward each other.

    Two of our four core values are around customer service (“We Care” and “We Inspire 5-Star Reviews”). Customers see these show up in different ways, which helps us stand out compared to other companies. At team meetings, we often recognize examples of these two values, and all team members are rated on how they represent these values during their annual performance review.

    It is a leader’s responsibility to ensure that the customer’s viewpoint is part of your core values discussion.

    When we started the company, we held off-site meetings so the team could brainstorm our core values. While it is common practice during this exercise to identify what the best team members have in common and pick those as core values, it is also critical to consider the top three deliverables that customers value most and that make the company stand out from competitors. Then, identify specific, action-oriented core values that can deliver at the level required to achieve the vision and growth you outlined.

    Though reworking core values can be very difficult, a values redux where as many as half of them focus on the customer or the types of characteristics that serve your customer best is key to enhancing company performance. Because core values function as your company’s DNA, this hardwires customer-oriented behaviors.

    2. Walk in the customer’s shoes

    What processes or experiences would help team members understand your customer’s unique journey and therefore improve it? New team members have a fresh perspective that can provide value to your company. It’s up to you to leverage that.

    We require new team members to blind-shop competitors — just like a new customer would. They complete a questionnaire about each competitor. During their orientation, I ask them to compare what they saw and experienced at our store versus competitors’ stores.

    This not only enables them to experience being a customer of our product but also empowers them to use what they learned to help sell to our customers, having literally walked in their shoes.

    Related: How to Become a More Customer-Centric Business in 5 Steps

    3. Tie compensation to customer satisfaction

    Another powerful way to inspire customer-centricity is to encourage it through compensation. There are many different compensation structures to achieve this.

    In our company, front-line team members are compensated in a number of ways. About 20% of their ongoing monetary compensation comes from a bonus pool tied to customer satisfaction. Their bonus percentage is calculated from the number of five-star reviews received and the percentage of promoters from our customer service survey.

    Additionally, these satisfaction measures, combined with their annual review core values ratings, are utilized to determine their annual company profit-sharing allocation. There is no substitute for the power of this direct connection to happy customers. The happier our customers are, the more money front-line team members make.

    Balance the seesaw

    When you created your company, did you do it solely to make employees happy? Probably not. More likely, you saw a need or problem and wanted to solve it to improve your customers’ lives.

    That said, a great work environment and strong company culture are important, too. After all, superior customer satisfaction can’t be delivered unless your employees are happy — the two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

    The connection between employee happiness and customer satisfaction is like a seesaw, requiring a delicate balance that each business leader must achieve on their own terms. As you calibrate where the weight will sit, remember that without happy customers, the company won’t survive very long.

    A customer-centric perspective is key to long-term success, which enables the opportunity for ongoing employee satisfaction. When you empower employees to connect those two concepts through core values, walking in the customer’s shoes and compensation tied to customer satisfaction, you’ve implemented a trifecta of winning strategies that should hard-code your company to find its ideal equilibrium and thrive for decades.

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    Barry Raber

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  • 10 Steps to Building a True Customer Service Culture | Entrepreneur

    10 Steps to Building a True Customer Service Culture | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    What is customer service culture? It’s how your company looks at, treats, and engages with employees — or how it intends to do so. While ultimate results depend on individual customer-facing employee behaviors and the type of support delivered by back-office employees and technology, the source of these comes from the broader ethos that exists and either supports or sabotages excellent customer service performance and employee engagement.

    In my work as a customer service consultant and transformation expert, I balance the time and resources I expend on more nuts-and-bolts efforts, such as customer service training and eLearning production, with the broader issues of creating the right supporting customer service culture. It’s truly that kind of important. Here are ten ways to drill down on what matters here and kickstart your cultural results.

    Related: The Best Customer Service Companies Spend These 8 Minutes A Day Becoming Better Than the Rest of Us

    1. Create a meaningful statement of purpose

    This can be just a sentence long. Ideally, it encapsulates your company’s values and goals, particularly in how you strive to support your customers.

    Think of the Mayo Clinic’s “The needs of the patients come first” or the type embraced by five-star and other luxury hotels, such as Four Seasons Hotel’s “We strive to treat guests as we’d like to be treated ourselves” or Fairmont Hotel’s “We turn moments into memories.” This should be something your staff can easily remember and embody in their day-to-day work, not a jargon-laden, pompous multi-page work destined to language in somebody’s drawer, never to be seen again.

    2. Develop a philosophical framework

    This can be slightly longer but brief, containing 9-12 principles. Socialize these throughout your company by any means at your command. I’d suggest condoning that into a smaller format on a laminated accordion-folded business-size card for easy employee reference.

    These principles should guide your staff in their customer interactions and remind them of what’s most important during their day-to-day work. (Sound silly? The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has taken this approach since 1983. Their accordion-folded business card — “the credo card” — is carried by every employee onsite and on the phones.)

    3. Show explicit and frequent support for employee empowerment

    Do this while emphasizing the importance of judgment calls and praising employees for exercising initiative. This helps to foster a sense of trust and autonomy among staff, which ultimately leads to better customer service for customers — in part because of the creativity it engenders in employees and in part because problems (and opportunities!) can be responded to in real-time by the first employee encountering them, no need for a customer to suffer through “I need to talk to my manager before I can help you that way.”

    Related: Recommendations for Quality Customer Service

    4. Hire personalities

    Focus on personality traits during employee selection rather than solely valuing skills and prior experience, as employees may have varying aptitudes for service. This is important because not everyone is cut out for customer service, and it’s more important to have empathetic, kind and willing employees to connect with customers genuinely.

    Related: Stellar Customer Service Starts with the Hiring Process

    5. Involve senior leadership

    Involve the CEO or senior leadership in onboarding new hires to emphasize the importance of service from the start. This helps to demonstrate the importance that your business places on great service, which permeates across your organization. When employees see that their CEO or other senior-level leadership prioritizes service excellence, it can help to instill a sense of ownership and value among employees.

    6. Conduct a daily, short “customer service refresh” ritual

    I recommend keeping it to 8 minutes or less! In this ritual, discuss a single principle of customer service excellence and recognize the great service provided by employees. This is another excellent way to reinforce values and create a positive feedback loop for employees. By discussing customer service best practices in a daily huddle or similar team meeting, you can help to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

    Related: The Best Customer Service Companies Spend These 8 Minutes A Day Becoming Better Than the Rest of Us

    7. Lead by example

    Manage from the floor to lend support to your service culture as well as to provide an opportunity for “instant correction.” Leading by example is critical when it comes to customer service. You can’t expect employees to prioritize service if they don’t see you doing it yourself. By getting out of your office and interacting with customers, you can demonstrate the importance of service to your employees and show them what it looks like in practice. Just as important, seeing, in real time, how your frontlines practice customer service can make all the difference, as it allows you the chance to correct missteps before they fester and ultimately become the norm.

    8. Provide in-depth customer service training

    This ensures that all employees have the tools to deliver the best service. Be sure this includes “situational empathy” training and the all-important training in service recovery (working with upset customers) that will allow success in even the thorniest situations. My company offers training that includes all the above, with an exclusive focus on customer service and the culture in which it resides.

    9. Foster an ethos of lateral service

    This ethos is where everyone pitches in, including senior staff, to get things done. When employees see that senior staff is willing to roll up their sleeves and help out as needed, it can help to foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration. (Think of Disney: how anyone, even a suit-wearing executive, will pause their walk through the park to address the litter they encounter.). In addition, during busy periods or difficult service scenarios, it can be beneficial for everyone to pitch in and lend a hand — both due to the effort expended and the morale boost it can lead to.

    10. Encourage innovation from all employees

    Nothing can be more frustrating for a well-meaning customer-facing employee than to have to solve the same issue repeatedly or to work with cumbersome tools when that employee has an idea for how to improve.

    By implementing these customer service culture catalysts, you can create a foundation for superior customer service and employee engagement to help your company succeed. These tactics require dedication and attention over the long term — creating a culture of service excellence is an ongoing commitment that requires continuous refinement and improvement. But the payoff can be significant: happier customers, engaged employees, and a better bottom line.

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    Micah Solomon

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  • Why Customer Service is the Easiest Path to Business Success | Entrepreneur

    Why Customer Service is the Easiest Path to Business Success | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I spend all my working days as a customer service consultant and transformation expert, helping companies large and small improve and transform the level of customer service they provide.

    But a fair question is: In cold hard business terms, why is delivering exceptional customer service so valuable? And is it worth the investment (in time and attention) when you have other business challenges and opportunities calling out for attention?

    Related: This Overlooked Leadership Trait Makes All the Difference in Your Ability to Captivate an Audience

    Beware of the deadly commoditization zone

    Well, not to go all Eeyore on you, but your company or brand offering is highly unlikely to be entirely unique. Most companies hover much closer to the deadly commodity zone than anyone at those companies realizes. Odds are, and sorry to say, this probably includes you.

    What is the commoditization zone? It’s one of the scariest places for a company to find itself. It’s when your business is viewed as more or less interchangeable with the competition. It’s when your current customers are happy to jump ship to one of your competitors for a myriad of minor reasons:

    • A slightly lower price
    • A marginally faster website
    • A shinier app
    • A slightly more convenient location

    Or, sometimes, for no discernible reason at all!

    Related: 10 Ways Competition Can Improve Your Business

    Escape the deadly commoditization zone!

    Happily, there is a way you can keep your brand from becoming a commodity — replaceable, interchangeable — in the eyes of the marketplace. That solution is exceptional customer service.

    Build such a reputation for customer service excellence and such a strong connection with every customer you touch that your service becomes a point of distinction, a survival lifeline and, ultimately, a powerful engine for growth.

    And you’ll never have to worry about being viewed as a commodity again.

    The long-term, lasting payoffs from exceptional customer service

    An excellent customer experience will create multiple positive results for your business and, most centrally, the creation of passionately loyal customers. Passionately loyal customers are less price sensitive, more likely to be interested in any new products, services or brand extensions you may roll out in the future and more understanding when things go sideways. This is true. I promise! Once you’ve done so much, so well for your customers, you achieve a state where the little mistakes — and even the occasional massive blunder — are looked upon in a better, more forgiving light.

    A loyal customer is your best form of marketing

    There is nothing more powerful in growing a business than the ambassadorship of customers who are so engaged, so activated, that they take on the mission of spreading the good word about your company: crusaders for your brand, who share their passion for your company with their online connections and real-life contacts as well.

    Related: 3 Essentials for Building a Loyal Customer Base

    The customer service excellence advantage is nearly knockoff-proof

    Unlike other business attributes — low cost, faster speed, location — exceptional customer service is almost entirely knockoff-proof. Why? It takes time and focus to become legendary in customer service and the customer experience. And if you get there, trust me: the odds of your competition emulating this are very low.

    There’s one more benefit you’ll experience immediately as you dig into the work we’ll do together. Even before you achieve the state of customer activation, loyalty, and ambassadorship that I’ve just promised, the benefits of your new approach will make themselves known to you personally. You’ll find yourself shoring up relationships within your company and discover that your work becomes more pleasant and rewarding.

    How to get on the road to delivering an iconic level of customer service

    Getting on the road to delivering exceptional, iconic, loyalty-building customer service starts with a single step: Make the decision. Decide to put the customer in the center.

    Once you decide to put the customer at the center of how you look at every:

    • business decision
    • customer interaction (including what you may consider “trivial” things, like your choice of words and phrasing to use with them)
    • every hiring decision (are you hiring employees leaning toward empathy? Or are you only hiring based on existing skills and experience?)
    • every staffing/coverage decision, and so forth, you’re well on your way.

    Add to that:

    • proper customer service training, whether delivered in person or via eLearning (this needs to start from onboarding and continue through the entire life of an employee at your company)
    • creation and dissemination of customer service standards (best practices), and
    • a program and plan to sustain your new momentum — and you’re going to move mountains.

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    Micah Solomon

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  • Tips and Tricks for Captivating an Audience | Entrepreneur

    Tips and Tricks for Captivating an Audience | Entrepreneur

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    You will find, in leadership and in life, that people feel more connected to you and your vision when you ask them to “kick the tires.”

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    Entrepreneur Staff

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  • Why Spending the Most Really Does Win the Most Customers | Entrepreneur

    Why Spending the Most Really Does Win the Most Customers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    “Whoever can spend the most, wins.” This is an adage in marketing that happens to be 100% true. If your business is prepared to meet the ever-increasing customer acquisition cost in today’s hyper-competitive digital and traditional media landscape, you are well on your way to dominating the market.

    However, this does not mean that you can simply throw money around willy-nilly and hope to get the results you want. Being willing to spend big to win big is great, but it’s only half of the battle. You also need to be strategic about how you spend your money to win over the competition.

    Related: Why the Best Days of Digital Media Are Ahead of Us — and Other Trends for 2023

    Companies with deep pockets that can spend more to acquire a customer will get more customers. If this sounds like you, keep reading to learn the most effective ways to put “whoever can spend the most, wins” into practice.

    1. Invest in the right digital media channels

    Spending on digital advertising is expected to exceed $600 billion in 2023. Your business needs to be heavily invested in this space if you want to maximize your market share.

    Of course, where you spend your advertising budget is an important consideration. Google Ads provides multiple robust pay-per-click campaign options (e.g., text and display ads). With Google Local Services Ads, businesses in select industries can dominate local search results for professional services. You will likely need to invest in social media ads on one or more platforms, too.

    All of these channels are highly competitive and, therefore, expensive. However, once you determine how customers find your business (i.e., via organic and paid search, social, etc.), you can start spending on digital ads that will maximize your visibility and drive customers to you over the competition.

    2. Don’t ignore traditional media

    Investing in traditional advertising (such as television, billboards, etc.) is still well worth your time and money if it means reaching your target customers on a massive scale. Mass media is a tried-and-true strategy for bombarding the market with your message. Not everyone will convert, but spending the money to make your name inescapable will drive far more customers than a limited investment in traditional channels.

    We see this with legal advertising. The law firms you see all the time on TV, on bus benches, on billboards, etc., are counting on the millions of dollars they spend to drive multi-million-dollar cases.

    It might seem strange to invest in traditional media when digital has taken over the space previously occupied by television and other strategies. However, considering that you are likely thinking of a local law firm’s slogan or phone number, there is no disputing the effectiveness of a major investment in TV and other traditional advertising venues.

    3. Invest in your employees

    Relationships are a cornerstone of marketing. While much of the discussion centers on engaging customers digitally, you should never underestimate the importance of hiring customer-facing employees, training them to be the “face” of your business, and empowering them to bring you new customers.

    Related: 4 Ways to Provide Excellent Customer Service

    This goes beyond fully staffing your office to handle phone calls and emails. Depending on your industry, it might mean hosting community events, wining and dining business prospects, and more.

    Customers are the lifeblood of your business. You don’t want to cheap out when it comes to hiring customer success managers, event planners, and other employees who can take your business to the next level.

    4. Define your brand

    Inconsistency is one of the greatest dangers when making a massive investment in marketing. Although you can distribute your message across seemingly endless advertising channels, your return on investment (not to mention your market dominance) will suffer if the message is unfocused and inconsistent.

    Before making a big splash and getting more customers than your competitors, you need to nail down your brand identity and key messaging. The brands people love have a clear identity and a consistent message. They also know their customers and tailor their marketing and advertising to maximize sales.

    You don’t have to be a multinational corporation to dominate your market. However, you have to understand your unique offering and consistently communicate to customers why they should buy from you over anyone else.

    Related: Define Your Brand Identity in 3 Steps

    5. Follow the money

    As the saying goes, “Fortune favors the bold.” The businesses with the money and the mindset to shoot for the moon and take the biggest piece of the pie are the ones that typically find the greatest success.

    However, your dollars must be tempered with sense. You must carefully identify your target audience by age, demographic, income, buying habits and other key characteristics. In addition, you need to understand what your competitors offer and how you can stand out. Finally, you must drill down on the geographic area you want to target.

    Related: 5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Embrace Rapid Digital Change to Get Closer to Their Customers

    With all these components in place, you can develop an intelligent strategy for maximizing the business you gain from a substantial marketing and advertising spend. Both digital platforms and third-party vendors should provide detailed reporting on how your money is being spent, the results of each campaign, and your return on investment.

    You won’t achieve dramatic growth if you are overly concerned about being cost-effective. However, a strategic approach that relies on data and tracking only ensures that you spend money wisely. This reduces the customer acquisition cost and results in higher profits.

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    Sean Allen

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  • How 8 Minutes A Day Will Change Your Customer Service | Entrepreneur

    How 8 Minutes A Day Will Change Your Customer Service | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    It’s hard to picture how a mere eight minutes a day (every day) could spell the difference between where your customer service is today and where it needs to be to work as a true competitive advantage for your business — to transform you into an icon of exceptional customer service, able to command customer loyalty and passion and, often, a price premium as well.

    Plugging the eight-minute gap between where your customer service level is today and where you want it to be is one of several ultra-brief repeating behaviors that I offer to my consulting clients as truly transformational. I’m what’s known as a customer service transformation consultant — I work with companies to bring them ever closer to the pinnacle of customer service excellence, helping clients in varied industries become “the Zappos of car dealerships” or “the Four Seasons of banking.”

    1. The Ritz-Carlton-inspired eight-minute customer service refresh

    If you want to be thought of as the “The Ritz-Carlton of Industry X” because of your great customer service, consider this: since 1983, the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company has held what they call a “lineup” every day (and at the start of every shift if there is more than one) without fail. I use the same technique but call it a “customer service refresh.” The reason to keep it at eight minutes is that when you start edging your way toward 10 minutes, or — shudder — fifteen, you’re well on your way to becoming just another meeting. (Note: depending on your company culture, a daily refresh may be impractical. If this is the case, do it weekly.)

    At the customer service refresh, you don’t talk about quarterly numbers, and you don’t talk about KPIs. You don’t talk about anything along those lines. Instead, you work on conveying and learning and being inspired by one of your company’s core customer service principles or behavioral guidelines.

    For example, at Monday’s customer service refresh, you might be discussing the “default to yes” principle: that as an organization and as individuals, you always strive to find a way to say “yes” to a customer — and that if you can’t say yes, to never flat-out say “no” without offering one to two reasonable alternatives. Ideally, employees will even share examples of applying the “default of yes” approach to real-life customer situations.

    On Tuesday, you will highlight another principle, maybe your approach to customer service recovery, which means helping and ultimately turning around the feelings of a customer. And so forth. Think of how much learning and reinforcement your entire company will have experienced in even one week, let alone one year!

    Related: 5 Life-Changing Customer Service Secrets You Can Learn From Five-Star Hotels

    2. The 10-5-3 sequence to make sure no customer is ignored

    A nearly universal desire among customers is for recognition: the feeling that they are being seen rather than disregarded or ignored. One quick and easy-to-implement way to make sure the latter never happens, at least when they’re on-premises, is the 10-5-3 sequence:

    • At 10 feet: Look up from what you are doing and acknowledge the guest with direct eye contact and a nod.

    • At 5 feet: Smile, with your lips and eyes.

    • At 3 feet: Verbally greet the guest and offer a time-of-day greeting (“Good morning”).

    The only exception is that at three feet if you notice your customer engaged with their cell phone, a fellow shopper, or a kid (or parent), it’s important to just walk on by; do not disturb this customer!

    Related: A Great Customer Experience Begins With Great Employee Engagement and Management. Here’s Why.

    3. The 3-ring rule

    Answer incoming phone calls before they get to a fourth ring, any time it’s humanly possible. Why? Because by the fourth ring, callers start to feel uneasy, doubting whether you’ll ever pick up, and beginning to assume that, if you finally do, you’ll be too distracted or to be much help. In consideration of this, many of the highest-touch brands, such as Nordstrom and all major luxury hotels, have taken the 3-ring rule to heart.

    It’s standard of the Forbes Travel Guide rating system; a hotel striving to attain four-star or five-star status will get points are taken off that may ultimately deny them their desired star rating if they lag too often beyond that third ring!) So now, to demonstrate to customers that you also belong in this top echelon of service, it’s best to abide by the three-ring limit when possible.

    4. Instant behavioral correction

    To build and maintain an excellent customer service-focused company, it’s essential to correct missteps by employees right away — for two reasons. First and most obviously, you want to improve customer service performance immediately rather than letting destructive behaviors fester. Second, if you wait a while — say, until a performance review rolls around — the employee will never remember the incident the same way you do, and they’re going to bristle at rather than learn from your correction at such a late date.

    For best results, you should be doing a lot of “managing by walking about” so you can simultaneously model good customer service behaviors and witness inevitable missteps as well: language blunders, excessive informality (and excessive formality, for that matter), and so on — tiny-seeming things that make a world of difference when you add them all up. Wait until customers are out of earshot and say, “Do you have a minute?” If you do this both frequently and with grace, nobody will get their stomach tied in knots when they hear these words.

    Beyond a doubt, many aspects of the customer service transformation work I do take time. You’re not going to revamp your hiring process, rewrite your collateral or design your behavioral best practices in just a few minutes a day. But it’s impressive how these brief but repeating steps above can help you move up the ladder from tolerable customer service to excellent, even legendary, customer service.

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    Micah Solomon

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  • Meet #6 on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat: Sunbliss Cafe | Entrepreneur

    Meet #6 on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat: Sunbliss Cafe | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Around 15 miles from Disneyland, Sunbliss Café in Anaheim, California echoes the cheery spirit of the theme park. After garnering social media buzz with its bright blue lattes and Instagrammable interior, Sunbliss has become a popular destination for coffee, tea, and healthy eats like smoothie bowls and avocado toast. Recently, Sunbliss was awarded the #6 spot on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat, a list of the best restaurants across the U.S., with the help of votes from Yelp users.

    Owner Tani Ahmed did not always see herself running her own restaurant, much less an award-winning one. While working on the corporate side of a large beverage company, she met various restaurateurs and franchise owners who inspired her to start her own café. Since Tani had no restaurant experience, the main way she learned to open a restaurant was doing research on YouTube.

    “I had contemplated it for a few years, and I feel like I have entrepreneurial blood. It’s in me, and it’s something special that you have to have,” Tani said. “It’s like jumping off a cliff and building a parachute on the way down.”

    When creating a menu for Sunbliss, Tani wanted to bring a unique spin to all of the drinks. Instead of a classic mocha or latte, customers can find untraditional flavors like the “Cloudy Coconut” cold brew topped with sweet blue foam. This variety is appreciated by customers like Yelp reviewer Alyssa Mae L.

    “I’m a hundred percent into trying new things,” Alyssa Mae said. “I really love when coffee shops don’t just have the generic latte, cappuccino, macchiato, so I find myself gravitating towards places that have unique flavors.”

    Sunbliss prides itself on offering the freshest products possible, such as sauces and syrups made in-house from locally sourced ingredients. However, a challenge to using these high-quality items is having to charge a heftier price to compensate for their cost.

    Tani said it comes down to good marketing to sell the product to customers who are skeptical of Sunbliss’s prices, especially compared to a typical coffee shop or café. For Sunbliss, this means using social media marketing as an opportunity to educate customers on the health benefits of its menu items.

    “We do educational-based marketing. What’s funny is that people don’t really see how important it is [to] spend more on your health,” Tani said. “They’ll hesitate to buy a juice for $9.50, but they won’t hesitate to buy a $20 drink like a cocktail. For $9.50, you’re adding good nutrients and good bacteria to your body.”

    While Alyssa Mae loved the drink she ordered at Sunbliss, the welcoming customer service made her experience memorable and inspired her to leave a 5-star review. Initially, Alyssa Mae was overwhelmed by Sunbliss’s extensive menu, but the staff helped by giving her suggestions of what to order.

    “They really gave me patience when navigating [the menu],” Alyssa Mae said. “It was early in the morning, and I know they were getting into the groove of a morning shift, so it was nice to receive that sort of patience and get some guiding points on what’s good.”

    To ensure customers like Alyssa Mae have a memorable experience at the café, Tani emphasizes the importance of building a strong culture among her staff, which comes across to customers. This starts at the hiring process, where Tani ensures team members have not only the necessary skills but also the same values as Sunbliss.

    To keep customers coming back, Tani established customer service guidelines all staff members need to follow, such as asking every customer what their name is. After being open for only a couple of years, she’s proud of the strong relationships her staff has built with customers.

    “We see the same people every single day. Our employees are the reason we have that following,” Tani said. “We’re all human. We experience bad days. Anytime we come in with some sad news or just that bad day hovering over us, it feels like when you start your shift, everything turns around because there’s always someone that you recognize or know that comes in and has that self-lifting energy that rubs off on you.”

    Other businesses can learn from Sunbliss’s journey to Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat, including the following tips:

    • Bring creativity to your products. Don’t shy from bringing a personal, unique touch to your business’s offerings, as Tani did with Sunbliss’s colorful coffee drinks.
    • Use social media as a powerful marketing tool. Outside of customer interactions, social media is a great way to connect with customers and educate them on your product offerings.
    • Foster a collaborative team. A strong team spirit will come across in customer interactions. Consider creating customer service guidelines based on your core values for staff to follow.
    • Make the customer experience memorable. Get to know customers on a personal level by asking them how their days are going and what their names are. Remembering your repeat customers can help turn them into regulars.

    Listen to the episode below to hear directly from Tani and Alyssa Mae, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Thursday.

    Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Soundcloud.

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    Emily Washcovick

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  • What Leaders Must Do to Create a Great Customer Experience | Entrepreneur

    What Leaders Must Do to Create a Great Customer Experience | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    A great customer experience (CX) begins with an engaged, empowered, and inspired employee. Without them, it’s impossible to ensure that customers are experiencing your brand as you intended. When employees are engaged, they are far more likely to ensure customers are satisfied with your products or services — because they’re able to deliver great things. And consistent customer engagement is the gateway to maintaining your customer relationships throughout their lifetime.

    Here are a few tips leaders can use to better manage their teams, boost employee engagement and provide great experiences for their customers.

    Related: Happy Employees Create Happy Customers

    1. Create a customer-centric culture

    A customer-centric culture helps employees feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, leading to higher customer satisfaction. A customer-centric culture focuses on the needs and wants of customers. It involves ensuring that your employees are involved in decisions impacting the company’s processes, procedures and interactions with customers. Ensuring that you have this type of environment can help you better understand how to improve your customer service strategy for long-term success.

    2. Avoid tunnel vision

    There is no one else who can see the whole picture except for you. You know your business inside and out, and you’ve got a clear vision of what it needs to be successful.

    It doesn’t mean, however, that you should go it alone.

    In fact, when it comes to customer experience, you need all hands on deck —including your employees’ hands!

    When you rely too much on your perspective as the owner or manager of a business, you’re at risk for tunnel vision — seeing things only from your perspective and not considering other perspectives or options. That’s bad for the customer experience because you miss many opportunities to improve it.

    When employees are engaged with their jobs and invested in the company’s success, they have valuable insight into how customers interact with products or services in real life and how they can improve those interactions. They also have access to information about what customers want that you may not even know exists! When they share this knowledge with you and collaborate, you’ll get better results than ever before.

    3. Measure and reward the right things

    A great customer experience begins with great employee engagement and management.

    That’s why my team and I measure and reward the right things — not just sales but also customer satisfaction.

    We do this by having all our employees work together in a small, open office environment so they can ask questions and help each other out. We don’t have managers or supervisors — everyone is on the same level, so there are no barriers to information sharing.

    It’s not just about keeping up with the latest technology; it’s about ensuring everyone in the company understands how their actions affect customers’ experiences.

    Related: 7 Excellent Reasons to Focus on Employee Engagement

    4. Avoid silos

    The best way to ensure a great customer experience is to avoid silos.

    Silos are when departments or people don’t communicate with one another, so you might be missing out on important information. If your team is siloed, they’ll have trouble communicating with customers. Without communication, there’s no teamwork; without teamwork, there’s no CX.

    To avoid silos in your company and keep your employees engaged with one another and their work, ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. You can create an employee engagement strategy that includes regular meetings where employees can discuss new ideas for improving your customer experience. You could also try using gamification techniques like badges or points as rewards for completing certain tasks within your company’s larger goals.

    5. Empower your frontline employees

    The front line of your business is the first step in your customer experience. That’s why it’s so important to empower your frontline employees to create a great customer experience.

    They’re the ones who greet them, serve them and make sure they have what they need to be happy. They’re often the only people you meet when you walk into a store or restaurant. And even though they may not be able to influence every interaction with a customer, they can certainly make an impact on some of them.

    If you want to make sure that your customers are getting the best possible experience, you need to make sure your employees are empowered and encouraged to do their best work. This doesn’t mean that you should constantly micromanage them — it just means that you should give them room to be creative and develop their skills as they get to know your company better.

    Related: Customer Experience Will Determine the Success of Your Company

    6. Be open to collaboration and innovation

    The best CX is built on a foundation of employee engagement, so it’s important to give your employees the freedom to collaborate and innovate.

    When employees feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, they’ll go above and beyond for their customers. And when they do, you’ll see the results in happier customers, higher sales and more loyal clients.

    With everyone in your company striving toward the same goal, you can create a better customer experience. If a business lacks a culture of employee engagement and great management, it is almost inevitable that its customers won’t get the high level of service and support they deserve. Customers will likely never know about internal issues but will be presented with a disappointing experience that may cost a company future business opportunities.

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    Chris Kille

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  • If You Aren’t Hitting These Metrics, You’re Losing Customers | Entrepreneur

    If You Aren’t Hitting These Metrics, You’re Losing Customers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The word “engagement” has generated quite a buzz over the past several years. It seems everyone is worried about their customers’ level of engagement and what it takes to keep those levels high, but what exactly is it and how do you best measure it?

    Put simply, customer engagement is the relationship you create that fosters brand loyalty and it happens by delivering connected, aligned experiences to your customers instead of one-off transactions. It is also usually a strong indicator of how happy your customers are with your product or services and ultimately how likely they are to stick with you. Disengaged customers on the other hand are likely not going to stick around for the long haul. As such, you must be able to keep a pulse on customer engagement across a number of factors quickly and easily.

    So what metrics can you put into place to accurately assess engagement? Based on my nearly 25-year career in B2B software sales and marketing, these are the five most important factors metrics and why they matter most.

    Related: 6 Marketing Metrics Every Business Should Track

    First-week engagement

    A customer’s engagement with your company and brand is rarely going to be higher than at the beginning of their tenure with you. Your product or service benefits are fresh in the customer’s mind, and it’s up to you to make the most of that enthusiasm the best that you can. This is especially true if your product or service offering is lesser known; larger brands with established reputations enjoy the benefit of legacy marketing efforts that make customers less likely to abandon them when frustrated. If you’re not a well-known brand, that first week is even more important.

    Something that can help with first-week engagement is literally showing your customers their onboarding process — guiding, tracking and displaying the progress they’re making to get them up and running. If they can visualize where they are in their own journey, they’re more likely to stay engaged and thus, more likely to stick with you.

    While there may be bumps in the road during onboarding, the key is to be ready to help with reliable customer support when they reach out. Things like chatbots, onboarding “how-to” videos and FAQs can be helpful here, but nothing is going to replace one-to-one interaction with a dedicated onboarding specialist or support team member. Show your customer they’re valuable right off the bat by providing dedicated support.

    Net Promoter Score (NPS)

    Are your customers happy enough to recommend you to their friends? If your customers aren’t likely to recommend you, you have a big problem. That’s why measuring NPS is critical.

    When your customers are surveyed, they’re almost certainly being asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how likely they are to recommend your company/product — and the hope is that your most engaged, happiest customers will help spread the word about you. Those who score 0 to 6 are called “detractors,” 7-8 are called “passives” and 9-10 are engaged, happy customers — your “promoters.”

    Your NPS = promoter percentage – detractor percentage. Generally speaking, a great way to track your brand health (and predict revenue) is from NPS.

    Related: Redefining Customer Engagement in a World Where Data Privacy Reigns

    Customer satisfaction (CSAT)

    One step simpler than the NPS is a CSAT score, which is often measured in a quick 1 to 5 star or emoji rating, and it’s something all companies can benefit from. These fast check-ins are easy for customers to execute quickly (they’re literally just one question) and help brands measure engagement. It might help to think of NPS as tracking customer loyalty, while CSAT tracks customer satisfaction — and both are important.

    Smaller businesses and startups must measure CSAT as they keep a pulse on how well their new-to-market solutions are working, while bigger brands need the metrics when rolling out upgrades to their platforms.

    User activity metrics

    One of the most important metrics you can keep tabs on is user activity metrics — daily and monthly active users (DAUs and MAUs) — because they show you how engaging your product is and how often customers are using different aspects of your product. If customers don’t use your product or its key features that drive value, it isn’t “sticky,” and that’s a bad sign. The last thing you want is a surge of sign-ons followed by your product sitting idly unused; your customers won’t be your customers for long.

    These metrics are important for all companies, from tiny startups to tech behemoths. Small to medium-sized companies can benefit from this metric by acknowledging marketing strategy milestones, and MAUs are important for large companies to maximize their market share for ever-important bottom-line profitability. But it doesn’t stop there — DAUs and MAUs don’t just indicate market share. MAUs are your benchmarks, DAUs are your indicators, and if you see a big difference between the two, something could be going wrong.

    Related: Customer Experience Is Gaining Traction. But Are We Measuring It The Right Way?

    “Stickiness”

    We mentioned above that DAUs and MAUs can show how “sticky” your offering is — but what does this mean? This very important metric shows how engaged and happy your customers are with your product/service based on how often they come back to it. It’s an easy and effective way to see how likely they are to “stick” with you and all you need is a simple formula: DAU/ MAU = Stickiness.

    You may see businesses use churn rate as an alternative measure for stickiness, but once a customer is gone, they’re gone; using DAU and MAU allows for a more proactive approach in combating issues while your customers are still your customers.

    Engagement isn’t just an industry buzzword that you can ignore. If you care about retaining your customers, you care about engagement and you should care about measuring it. With the right metrics and tools, you can be sure your customers will stick with you for the long haul.

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    Chip House

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  • 5 Tips to Bring Back Your Lost Customers | Entrepreneur

    5 Tips to Bring Back Your Lost Customers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Have you ever had a customer return to your store after being upset? If so, congratulations, you win! However, if not, you are like most other entrepreneurs who struggle to get lost clients back.

    Getting lost customers back is never an easy thing to do. You could try as much as possible, sending out repeated and persistent emails and calling them on the phone, but they may not respond. And then you just have to wait until they call you. But wait! That’s not the only way. There are more ways to get your old customers back right now. Keep reading to find out how!

    Related: The Why & How of Retaining Old Customers

    1. Ask why they left

    You lost a customer. Now what?

    You can’t win them back if you don’t know why they left in the first place. You need to ask them why they left, so you can understand what went wrong and how to fix it.

    Ask your customers why they left, and listen carefully to their answers. Don’t interrupt or argue with them — just let them talk until they’re done explaining their side. And then, when they’re done talking, ask questions about what else could have made their experience better at your business.

    If you don’t know why customers are leaving, how will you ever be able to fix the problem?

    2. Offer a “We Miss You” promotion

    Offering a “We Miss You” promotion can help you win back lost customers.

    A “We Miss You” promotion is an offer that customers will only see if they return to your store after leaving. The offer can be a discount, a freebie or something else that would bring them back to your store.

    This is one of the most effective ways to get lost customers back because it gives them the incentive to return and shows them that you care about them.

    The best part about this type of promotion is that it doesn’t cost much money or time to implement, but it can greatly impact your bottom line.

    For example, if you have a clothing store, you could offer them a discount on their next purchase if they come back within the next month. If you have a restaurant, you could give them free dessert on their next visit.

    3. Don’t wait too long — it won’t be easy.

    You are wrong if you think that waiting a few days or even weeks to reach out to lost customers will help them remember who you are and why they should come back.

    The longer customers go without receiving your messages and offers, the harder it will be for them to remember why they liked your business in the first place. If you take too long, customers may have forgotten about your brand altogether!

    Related: 4 Steps to Win Back an Unhappy Customer

    4. Create a loyalty program

    One of the best ways to win back lost customers is to create a loyalty program. By rewarding customers who have purchased from you in the past, you can re-engage with them and remind them of the value of your products or services.

    Loyalty programs are also a great way to get referrals from existing customers. When someone who has previously purchased from you refers a new customer, that new customer is likely to be very happy with the service they receive — and may become loyal themselves!

    You can create loyalty programs in many different ways. For example, discounts for repeat customers, multi-purchase discounts for purchasing multiple items at once or even free shipping offers on orders over a certain amount. Whatever type of program works best for your business will depend on what kind of products or services you offer — but don’t underestimate how much power these programs have!

    5. Make it personal

    There’s no way around it: You’ve got to make it personal. You must show your customers that you care about them and that their business matters to you. If you don’t want to lose them forever, you must show them they matter.

    It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just ensure you’re showing up in their inboxes with personalized emails with their names in the subject lines. If they made a purchase recently, include a line about how much you appreciate them as a customer and how much you hope they’ll keep coming back for more great products or services. If they haven’t purchased anything from you in a while, send them an email asking how things are going and if there is anything you can do at your end of things to help them out.

    The bottom line is that people like being shown that someone cares about their thoughts and feelings. It makes them feel valued and important, more invested in the relationship with your company — and ultimately, less likely to leave!

    Related: Use This Powerful Method of Persuasion to Keep Customers Coming Back for More

    A tip that goes without saying: Provide excellent customer service

    Some customers leave because of poor service, and it’s not impossible to win them back. But if you want to ensure you’re doing everything possible to win back lost customers, start by providing excellent customer service.

    “Good” is not good enough. You must go above and beyond with your customer service efforts to win back lost customers. This means showing genuine concern for their experience, addressing any issues they had with the product or experience they received and making sure they feel like they’re being listened to when they speak up about what went wrong — even if it wasn’t your fault!

    If you can’t provide this level of service consistently, then it might be time to evaluate whether or not you’re ready for customers.

    It is always important to fix mistakes with customers, and if you handle them correctly, you can even make the relationship stronger.

    If you want an angry customer to come back, you should apologize and try to fix the problem. Remember: You are a business owner, and they are a customer that loves your business, so it’s in your best interest to keep them happy. After a situation like this, the first step should always be apologizing to the customer.

    Don’t make excuses or expect them to get over it immediately; just say sorry and mean it. You never know; it could turn a bad situation into something good. Hopefully, these tips can help you keep your customers happy and improve your bottom line.

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    Chris Kille

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  • 5 Ways to Use Personalized Marketing Campaigns to Increase Sales and Retention | Entrepreneur

    5 Ways to Use Personalized Marketing Campaigns to Increase Sales and Retention | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Businesses are always looking for effective ways to boost sales and customer retention. Personalized marketing campaigns may provide the solution. Personalized marketing is a powerful tool that helps increase engagement with the right message at the right time. It makes customers feel valued by addressing them personally. Additionally, it allows businesses to create customized experiences. Here are five ways to use personalized marketing campaigns that will help drive more sales and loyalty from your existing customers.

    Personalize emails with customer data

    Personalizing emails with customer data has become a powerful way to increase unboxing rates. Using customer information can help create tailored offers that show customers you understand them and value their business. Use customer data to develop – special prices, discounts, and more – like Unboxing offers pricing customized to each customer’s past purchases. This allows you to share a unique offer with each person, building loyalty and encouraging them to become repeat customers.

    Related: 5 Tips for Better Email Marketing Performance

    Use targeted ads to reach the right audience

    Drawing the right audience to a product or service is essential to success. Leveraging targeted ads can help achieve this goal. These ads can be customized to focus on individual characteristics, such as location, demographics, and interests. This helps narrow down an audience. Businesses should avoid wasting money trying to draw in people who will not be interested in the broadcasted content. Knowing which platforms and devices the target market uses should also help craft better messages. It can also pinpoint what messages are well-suited for each type of device or platform. These practices can help reach more of the right kind of people. In addition, it can potentially save costs associated with ineffective lead acquisition.

    Create content based on user interests

    Creating content tailored to your users’ interests is one of the best ways to keep them engaged and returning for more. Understanding what type of content resonates with your audience is vital — extensive market research can help you decipher their preferences. Once you know what kind of content appeals to your users, focus on creating detailed, informative pieces that are well-written and visually appealing. Invest in video editing software or a quality camera if needed; in doing so, the impactful visuals will help capture the user’s attention while they consume the information you provide. Remember that user-generated content such as polls, surveys, quizzes, and questions can help engage customers effectively — seek out their opinions and reviews to understand their interests better. Keeping up with trends in technology is also essential in creating relevant content.

    Related: 6 Key Tips to Level Up Your Content Marketing Strategy

    Leverage automation to send relevant messages

    Automated messages with relevant content are a great way to maintain relationships and engagement with your customers and followers. Automating this process not only saves businesses or brands time but also allows them to reach out in an effective manner that capitalizes on the customer’s preferences. Many companies are finding success by leveraging automation technology to determine their customer’s interests and purchase habits, allowing the business to deliver more personalized messages for personalized marketing campaigns. Automated messages can reach customers at opportune times, helping turn possible one-time buyers into loyal and returning customers. As a result, businesses of all sizes can benefit from leveraging automation to deliver desirable and beneficial messages to create higher levels of engagement across their customer base!

    Utilize A/B testing to increase engagement with customers

    Businesses must engage with customers to develop a strong presence in their target markets. A/B testing is an invaluable tool companies can use to achieve this goal. This process involves creating two different versions of a website or advertisement, each containing different elements like different visuals or copy, which are then tested for the highest engagement rate from customers. Using A/B testing allows companies to experiment and find the variation that resonates best with their customers and increases customer engagement. Doing so also helps them save time and money, eliminating the need for expensive rework due to mistakes made when creating content without testing. A/B testing ensures that businesses don’t miss out on vital engagement opportunities by providing data they can use to make more informed decisions about how they reach out to their audiences.

    Overall, you can use the strategies above to create a successful customer engagement strategy. By personalizing emails and ads, creating content based on user interests, leveraging automation for relevant messages, and utilizing A/B tests for higher engagement, you can develop an effective approach to gaining customer loyalty. You can also track customer behavior to learn more about how they engage with your brand. This will help you identify what works and continually improve your customer engagement strategy. Optimizing customer relationships should be a top priority for any business that wants to capture leads and grow its customer base. Utilize these tactics today for innovation in customer engagement that will build lasting relationships between your business and consumers.

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    Under30CEO

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  • Reduce Fleet Downtime With These 5 Strategies | Entrepreneur

    Reduce Fleet Downtime With These 5 Strategies | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Fleet downtime is a huge problem for any business that operates automobiles. When a vehicle is down for repairs or maintenance, it can result in lost productivity, missed deadlines, and unhappy customers. It can happen in a planned or unplanned manner. Irrespective of the timing or cause, there are strategies or approaches to effectively managing and decreasing fleet downtime. These include the following:

    Conduct routine and comprehensive inspection

    One vital step toward effectively reducing fleet downtime is conducting routine vehicle inspections.

    You can ensure your vehicles are risk-free and compliant by utilizing manual daily vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) as you take proactive measures to prevent unplanned downtime. However, despite their advantages, they’re time-consuming and prone to errors. Physical forms can get damaged or lost, and it can take hours to get the results to the maintenance team, slowing down the process.

    Related: 5 of the Biggest Productivity Challenges Fleet Managers Face in Fleet Management

    On the other hand, electronic DVIR (eDVIR) enhances efficiency and ensures that drivers provide clarity and accuracy. With this, you can receive inspection results in real-time, eliminating communication holdups between fleet managers and drivers. Any problem encountered is immediately registered in your fleet management software, enabling you to quickly address and sort out the issue.

    Effective communication ensures that even though a vehicle has a problem, the maintenance process can start promptly. This allows the vehicle to get back on the road as soon as possible.

    Additionally, a frequent reason for unscheduled downtime is a part failure. Thus, a crucial step in parts monitoring is to verify that they’re in good condition during routine quality control.

    In some cases, you may encounter a repeated failure of a particular part in several vehicles. Such patterns may go unnoticed and result in unnecessary expenditure if you lack a simple, all-inclusive approach to assessing your fleet’s status.

    Furthermore, routine part maintenance allows you to determine the most suitable vehicle parts. For instance, comparing OEM and aftermarket gaskets can help you decide which option is better for your fleet.

    By monitoring and tracking your parts in person and through your fleet management software, you can ensure they are in excellent condition, thereby preventing downtime and reducing recurring expenditures.

    Utilize fleet management software

    You can utilize fleet management software if your fleet businesses struggle to minimize vehicle downtime and keep smooth operations. This tool can help manage inspections, shop operations, driver activities, and preventive maintenance schedules.

    This software uses data analytics and reporting features to identify patterns in servicing or breakdowns and determine their underlying causes. You can use this information to predict recurring problems and develop effective mitigation strategies. This approach can help eliminate future issues, reducing downtime and allowing more productive and efficient business operations.

    Related: Fleet Tools Will Help You Get More Done In Less Time

    A preventive maintenance schedule lets you stay ahead of routine servicing requirements. Fleet management software can help you set reminders based on specific intervals, such as mileage and usage hours, guaranteeing you never miss a servicing appointment.

    Numerous fleets delegate maintenance duties to a third-party service provider. Conventionally, external repair requests are prepared by hand, resulting in blockages and a restricted understanding of vehicle health patterns. On the one hand, automating outsourced maintenance through fleet management software enables you to handle repair tasks efficiently, monitor maintenance trends, and integrate billing, which all contribute to unnecessary downtimes.

    Improve service management procedure

    Reducing downtime necessitates streamlined and effective management practices. Fleet managers may be surprised to discover that a significant part of the downtime is mainly unrelated to the actual repairs themselves but, rather, the ineffectiveness of the service management procedure.

    To ensure the effectiveness of preventative maintenance, all relevant departments must collaborate to optimize their work schedules and tasks. Internally, efficiently utilizing resources to simplify service procedures eradicates any accumulation of work and reduces errors.

    Conduct regular driver training

    To achieve a profitable fleet, it’s crucial to ensure that the most appropriate drivers are trained to handle your vehicles, reducing breakdowns and unplanned servicing. For one, a well-instructed, well-informed, and self-assured driver is less likely to be involved in a collision.

    Ensuring proper driver behavior can contribute to the reduction of fleet downtimes. Undergoing a brief but comprehensive training period, drivers may identify and eliminate detrimental behaviors that adversely affect the vehicles’ performance, such as forceful or sudden gear shifts, aggressive lane changes, and abrupt turns. Getting rid of such habits promotes road safety and reduces strain on the vehicle.

    In addition, properly trained fleet drivers can accurately report any issues they encounter while driving. This feature helps you take note of repairs or replacements you ought to carry out promptly.

    Select The Right Vehicles

    The choice of vehicles for your fleet can significantly impact the frequency of downtime.

    That said, go for the most suitable vehicles for their intended purpose. Never make the mistake of deciding solely based on what your competitors use. Also, don’t let the flashy features touted by the industry’s leading brands fool you.

    For instance, you need to make your choice based on the carrying capacity you require. Overburdening a vehicle may exacerbate problems, such as wear and tear, and increase the need for repairs. For instance, if you’re running a garbage collection company, you need fleet vehicles that can carry loads of waste materials you expect to deal with.

    Furthermore, it’s advisable to choose newer vehicles equipped with advanced technology. These types of vehicles demand less maintenance and can alert you about emerging problems.

    Conclusion

    Unplanned fleet downtime is a huge stumbling block to maintaining a profitable and efficient business. There are many methods to minimize such occurrences and maximize fleet efficiency. These methods include leasing appropriate vehicles, performing regular inspections, carrying out preventive maintenance, and promoting team member responsibility is essential.

    Additionally, effective communication and collaboration between maintenance, operational, dispatch, and administrative teams are a must to ensure maximum fleet operations at all times. Also, consider investing in fleet management technologies to track your fleet vehicles’ conditions more accurately.

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    Under30CEO

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  • Do You Know Why Your Customers Really Buy From You? | Entrepreneur

    Do You Know Why Your Customers Really Buy From You? | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The following is a simple question for business owners. Why do your customers buy from you?

    I told you the question was simple, but an accurate answer, on the other hand, can be far more complex and perhaps even elusive. To achieve long-term, sustainable success, your understanding of why your customers choose to do business with your company needs to be both correct and substantial.

    Many business owners develop a customer value proposition (CVP) alongside their company mission and vision statements. The brief declaration is supposed to document why a customer would opt to buy your product or service over the competition.

    While developing a CVP is commendable in its customer-centric approach, it often falls short of its intended purpose due to ambiguity, a lack of self-reflection and sometimes even outright insincerity. Dollars to doughnuts, there is not a single CVP out there that reads, “Our customers turn to us because we deliver lackluster service and a marginally good product.”

    Related: Who Is More Important — Your Customers or Your Employees?

    I would also assume that there are many businesses whose CVPs portray an exaggerated sense of the company’s true customer value. CVPs should never be created based on hype or manufactured mantras; instead built from sincere, astute insight.

    Bravado and disingenuousness are not the only ways business owners are misguided in their understanding of customer engagement and loyalty. The following are common misconceptions related to the question of why customers buy from you.

    “We are the cheapest”

    Sure, this value statement might be dressed up as “We deliver the best value,” “We are the low-price leaders,” or some other cost-based differentiator. But when I hear any form of “My customers buy from us because we are the cheapest,” I cringe. Competing on price alone is simply not a good model and is often unsustainable. There is always some other business owner who is willing to run out of cash faster than you are.

    Most customers – both B2B and B2C – understand the balance between cost and value. They walk that tightrope in every purchase they make. Contending that cheapest is the key attribute that keeps them coming back shortchanges both your business and your customers.

    “We have the best employees”

    Forgive me for being a bit skeptical about this assertion as well. Sure, your business may have good employees; but are they really the best? You may provide excellent service, but your competitors probably do as well. Is it truly your employees that keep your customers coming back? With the rare exception of that ultra-charismatic salesperson who charms the socks of buyers, the answer in all likeliness is a resounding no.

    That is not to say that hiring for personality and alignment with company values is unimportant. It most definitely is. But to put the onus of success and customer loyalty squarely on the shoulders of your employees is shortsighted.

    Related: 3 Reasons Why I Gladly Welcome Competition

    “We’ve got the best product on the market”

    While possessing a corner on the market is a great position to be in, it does not account for innovations in the marketplace and often fickle changes in consumer preferences. Evolving customer motivations and expectations, coupled with aging business models, have been the downfall of even some of the most successful industry titans.

    Consider Blockbuster, that for more than 20 years, was the largest and most successful video rental company in the U.S. Then industry innovators like Netflix and Redbox entered the arena with new and improved ways to provide the same service and completely changed the playing field. While the business’s products and services may have been “the best” in their heyday, innovators with more modern and sustainable business models came along and essentially put the video rental titan out of business.

    Suffice it to say even the best products and services on the market have competitors nipping at their heels.

    So why do your customers really keep coming back?

    What you are selling vs. what they are buying

    In considering why your customers continue to purchase from you, it is important to understand the difference between what you are selling and what they are buying. This is such a crucial distinction. As Harvard Business School professor and economist Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

    An accounting firm may see itself as selling tax preparation services, but its customers are seeking peace of mind. Apple offers not just its technology but a modern retail experience. A mechanic sells an engine tune-up, but the customer is purchasing a quieter and safer ride.

    As a customer-conscious business, it is essential to sell the hole, not the drill.

    Related: Do You Actually Understand Why Your Customers Are Buying?

    Understanding customer loyalty

    How do you identify the true reasons why customers buy from you? Get ready for a shocker. You ask them.

    While this may sound flippant, you might be amazed by how many business owners never ask the right questions or truly listen to what their customers have to say. HubSpot recently reported that 42% of businesses do not survey their customers or collect any sort of customer feedback. Those that do elicit feedback often do not ask the right questions. And even fewer business owners take any action based on the responses they receive.

    Performing a customer survey can be a real competitive advantage for you. You can communicate by phone, on your website, in an email campaign or in person. The platform matters less than posing smart questions that evoke insightful answers. How important do they consider price? How would they rate your customer service? Why do they prefer you over the competition? Create a system for recording the answers you receive, which might be as basic as a spreadsheet or as comprehensive as entering responses into your CRM or other sales and marketing tools. Feedback should not be a one-and-done; make it a habit to speak to your customers regularly.

    Then the next time somebody like me enquires about why your customers buy from you, your answer will accurately reflect the true value your business brings to the marketplace.

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    Jason Zickerman

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  • How You Can Actually Use AI To Benefit Your Business | Entrepreneur

    How You Can Actually Use AI To Benefit Your Business | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Everyone is talking about AI right now. No longer just a futuristic concept saved for Hollywood sci-fi movies, artificial intelligence has become a red-hot topic with extensive real-world applications in recent years.

    You might have seen stories about the ChatGPT bot writing song lyrics in the style of your favorite bands or holding realistic conversations, along with AI-generated art platforms like Dall-E making weird and wacky creations. But as new conversations about the future of AI are happening every day, it’s easy to overlook how AI can actually benefit your business on a smaller scale.

    The goal at any company is to continue finding areas where you can remove yourself from mundane tasks to focus on the more important things. Think of it as the progression from the employee, to the contractor, to the AI: greater efficiency, streamlined day-to-day tasks and bigger-picture thinking. What commitment is required of you as a business owner, and where can AI help you?

    What is AI?

    Artificial intelligence, by definition, is “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.” There are varying degrees of sophistication, ranging from the ability to perform basic admin tasks, to making informed conclusions on complex concepts.

    A branch of AI includes machine learning, which refers to specifically programmed computers that can continue to learn with the more data it processes without the assistance of humans. My own company has integrated this in the healthcare space, which has been integral in ensuring the most bespoke service possible to meet individual needs — AI for the purpose of greater human impact.

    Aside from industry-specific applications, most of us are already utilizing some form of AI in our daily lives, from Google searches and predictive text to recommended playlists on our music streaming services. But AI is also increasingly steering the conversation around more advanced applications, like self-driving cars and facial recognition. What many of us don’t realize, however, is that AI is far more accessible in the workplace than you’d think — and not in a creepy apocalyptic movie kind of way.

    Related: What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Here Are Its Benefits, Uses and More

    Customer service and success

    It’s an evergreen fact that customer service always has and will always remain king. The need for a hands-on, human touch cannot be overstated, but AI can be extremely effective in helping to improve the overall customer service experience.

    Primarily, it can help staff handle fewer inquiries and reduce workflow. Many businesses will use a chatbot as the first port of call for any questions, an automated message service that can help with things like shipping updates, order times and product details. It can be integrated into numerous industries and programmed to answer basic queries or personalize user information. These can also even respond in different languages, broadening your customer service offerings on a global scale.

    Regarding customer success — proactively working with customers to ensure their satisfaction and retention of services — AI can also be beneficial. However, rather than replacing a customer service rep, AI can compile key information that helps to make the consumer’s experience more personalized. By offering 360-degree insight, AI can use data to make predictions, identify areas for improvement and even point toward potential expansions or developed services. It’s all to keep the customer happy and satisfied.

    Related: How Can Marketers Use ChatGPT? Here Are the Top 11 Uses.

    Replacing email interactions

    Receiving customer emails en masse — where you’re required to keep track of orders, inquiries, tracking numbers and many other things — can quickly break even the most organized of teams. Not only is it logistically challenging to effectively and quickly manage so many micro-tasks, but responses can also be frustratingly slow for the customer.

    On the other hand, an email bot can automate end-to-end customer service. It might be a case of it responding to pricing queries, updates on order progress, or passing on more complex matters to your team. Some bots can even pick up tone and language to prevent making matters worse with an overly cheery reply. This helps save customer support time on repetitive queries that can be resolved by the automatic retrieval of information.

    Related: What AI Can Do To Engage With Customers

    Outreach and sales

    Have you ever wondered just where your business could be if you weren’t spending so much time on the admin? AI has many applications within the marketing space — a job role primed for creativity but often gets bogged down in emails.

    The key benefit is that AI decision-making and correspondence are based on hard data, such as previous usage, past orders, and surveys, whereby programs can acquire sales insights that a human never could. This can assist with lead generation and lead scoring before determining the appropriate marketing campaign. One survey found that 61% of sales teams exceeded revenue goals when leveraging automation in the sales process.

    Related: Artificial Intelligence May Add More Value to Marketing Than Human Brains

    Blog writing and SEO

    We know by now that there is a science to SEO optimizing web pages and blog posts — and it’s constantly changing. If you want clean, factually accurate and lively copy for your business, AI resources are becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable of doing so.

    Consistency can be one of the hardest aspects for blog posts, but AI can help increase your output by drastically decreasing writing and editing time. By entering keywords and a simple brief, AI can form strong copy frameworks for the marketing team to refine, supplement, and polish off, from ads and marketing emails to social media copy and explainers.

    AI is not a means to completely replace jobs (yet), but it can make our roles at work a lot easier. By freeing up more time for creativity, strategy, and long-term thinking, it provides the means for companies to stop looking at emails and start looking ahead.

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    Patrick Frank

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  • How Dogpatch Games Wrote the Rulebook for Tabletop Gaming Customer Service? | Entrepreneur

    How Dogpatch Games Wrote the Rulebook for Tabletop Gaming Customer Service? | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Behind the Review host and Yelp’s Small Business Expert, Emily Washcovick, shares a look at this week’s episode of the podcast.

    Growing up, Shannon spent countless hours playing board games with his family, a core memory he wanted to help others recreate, especially during the pandemic when people were feeling largely disconnected. From that, Dogpatch Games was born—a board game store in San Francisco that, soon after opening, became more than just a place to buy games.

    “One of our key tenets or touchstones that we try to focus on is inclusivity,” Shannon said. “It’s this idea that there is a seat for everybody, and there’s a game for everybody. This game may not be for you, but this game is, and you just haven’t found it yet.”

    Shannon’s approach to entrepreneurship was to start slow, giving the business a chance to grow in the neighborhood. He started with a soft opening, in which the business was only open a few hours of the day. Even with limited hours, curious customers still trickled in, giving Shannon the opportunity to wow them.

    One such customer was Yelp Elite reviewer Jenny X., who saw the store when she moved to the area. Before entering, she thought Dogpatch would be a one-time visit. To her surprise, it ended up being a memorable experience she couldn’t wait to tell her friends about.

    “I definitely entered being really skeptical. I [thought], we’re just gonna pop in and leave. This is not going to be somewhere we’re going to spend a lot of time,” Jenny said. “Just seeing how much passion the owner had for games, I let my guard down a little and [decided] to not be skeptical for a second here and let him try to convince us.”

    To make Dogpatch more than a store, Shannon goes the extra mile to make customers feel comfortable. Similar to Jenny’s experience, he frequently offers to teach customers how to play different board games and asks questions to figure out which games they’ll like best.

    By easing customers into the business, Shannon was later able to introduce a membership model for return customers, which provides a stable stream of revenue for the store. In deciding prices for different membership levels, Shannon prioritized accessibility for all customers.

    “We were trying to find a price that feels fair but recognizing that this is a premium game space,” Shannon said. “We want to have our community members feel like they’re getting enough value for their membership, where they’re getting the premium service, but they’re getting enough of a discount for it and getting invited to these extra things so that they don’t want to give up their membership.”

    As part of the membership model, Dogpatch hosts exclusive events and game nights for members. It also hosts events open to any community members, such as Dungeon & Dragons tournaments and Ladies’ Nights, to help customers meet each other and form new connections.

    Moving forward, Shannon hopes to integrate Dogpatch even more into the community by partnering with local businesses, such as his “Parents’ Night Out” initiative with local restaurant Gilberth’s Latin Fusion, where parents can drop their kids off at Dogpatch and receive a discount on their meal out.

    “The kids are here for two hours playing games. We got them—you go have your date night and then come back and pick them up,” Shannon said. “We’re trying to create a little neighborhood community with other establishments in our neighborhood because we’re all in this together.”

    Other small businesses can learn effective strategies from Dogpatch’s playbook, such as:

    • Considering a soft opening model. A soft opening can be a great way to garner excitement for your business and get the word out organically without a high resource investment.
    • Building a solid pricing model. Creating profiles of your ideal customers can help you decide on a pricing model that’s right for your business and accessible to customers.
    • Integrating your business in the community. Host community events open to all, and partner with other local businesses to help each other grow.
    • Giving customers an experience to talk about. Prioritize customer service and help customers feel comfortable with unfamiliar experiences to keep them (and their friends) coming back.

    Listen to the episode below to hear directly from Shannon and Jenny, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Thursday.

    Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Soundcloud

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    Emily Washcovick

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  • Ednetics Earns High Customer Satisfaction Score

    Ednetics Earns High Customer Satisfaction Score

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    Press Release
    –

    Feb 24, 2023 16:11 EST


    POST FALLS, Idaho, February 24, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Ednetics, a leading technology solutions provider for education, state, and local government communities, announced the results of their customer satisfaction survey aimed at measuring customer experience through the Net Promotor Score Survey. The NPS survey is designed to capture a customer’s “willingness to recommend” while providing industry benchmarks for companies wanting to focus on customer service.

    At 75% NPS®, Ednetics soars above the technology services industry average of 40% NPS® in 2022. This indicates a strong commitment to exceptional customer service, featuring swift problem resolution and a responsive attitude.  

    “This accomplishment was made possible by the dedicated work of the entire Ednetics team and their relentless pursuit of exceeding customer expectations,” said Aaron Torres, Chief Services Officer at Ednetics. “As a company, we use this survey as a tool to help us continually improve customer service and experience.” 

    The Ednetics team takes pride in delivering reliable solutions to customers and striving to deliver the best solutions possible “It’s humbling to know that our customers acknowledge our hard work and efforts,” said Will Stowe, Chief Operations Officer. “We’re grateful for their continuous support and recognition.”

    ###

    Ednetics brings advanced technology services and solutions to education and public sector communities across the western United States. The company focuses on opportunities to improve education and government settings through network, communications, physical security, storage, and facilities architectures. The Ednetics team believes that when people have access to environments supportive of connection, information flow, and learning they can be inspired to do great things. For more information, visit https://www.ednetics.com.

    Source: Ednetics

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  • 3 Marketing Fails That Demonstrate The Importance of Fundamentals

    3 Marketing Fails That Demonstrate The Importance of Fundamentals

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The temptation to find a simple solution to the ever-more-complex initiative of marketing growth is strong. Explore an effective website for just about any technology software you can apply to marketing, and soon enough, you’ll be convinced that this is the solution for your growth challenges.

    Consider the explosion of interest in AI (artificial intelligence) with the recent release of Chat GPT. (Click this Google Trends search, and you’ll see the buzz quantified.)

    ChatGPT is an impressive example of the power of AI (try a few queries and see what it generates). But AI’s influence can be misapplied or under-applied, and the precision of its algorithms can be debated ad nauseam. The same is true for most marketing technology (Martech) solutions I’ve encountered.

    Now, this article is not taking aim at the Martech industry in general or ChatGPT specifically. Martech has helped the industry take massive strides forward, even with the headwinds of the macroeconomy and privacy regulations curtailing data access. But technology, for all of its power, has huge adoption challenges. It is simply not a magic bullet for growth.

    While I’m at it, neither is any single initiative, no matter how often you hear buzzphrases like “customer-centric marketing” and “content is king.”

    Yes, it’s incumbent on good marketers to look for solutions to their challenges, whether they’re measurement, creative or audience-based. And yes, the industry changes so rapidly that it’s a big part of a marketer’s job to stay up to date with trends and releases that can improve performance, efficiency, or both.

    That said, none of this is a substitute for marketing fundamentals.

    Whether your fundamentals version traces back to David Ogilvy or the 5 Ps (people, product, price, placement, and promotion, an evolution of McCarthy’s 4 Ps), they must serve as your bedrock.

    Let’s look at three examples of fundamental marketing fails:

    1. Uber’s Jump Bikes and Scooters

    Another fundamental that’s been drilled into me in my marketing career is that things have to start with a market need for a product. How many products are created to fit a fad or a founder’s vision without an at-scale, long-term need to match?

    The echo chamber of Silicon Valley provided a great example of this in Uber’s “Jump” line of bikes and scooters — a market created out of the shaky idea that people “needed” these vehicles all over the streets of San Francisco to get where they needed to go. In a famously compact, walkable city, and without a mobility component that would have accommodated differently-abled people from whom walking wasn’t an option, the scooter project fell on its face and choked scrap yards in the process.

    Related: 5 Crypto Marketing Fails and How to Avoid Them

    2. Made.com

    This one’s a failure of placement — where the customer finds a product.

    With notable exceptions (Wayfair, Overstock), the furniture industry presents many challenges. Beyond the expensive logistics of shipping large items, buying furniture online requires the user to take a big leap of faith and trust that customer reviews (many of which are proving fake) will provide reasonable assurance that, yes, the product will look and feel good in your home even if you’ve never seen it or touched it in person.

    Beyond that, furniture etailers importing overseas goods often incur huge warehousing costs. Made.com was building a healthy business by turning that model on its head and purchasing goods only after taking orders for them, thereby reducing warehousing risks, until they overreacted to the online purchasing shift wrought by COVID.

    Just as the first vaccines were hitting the public in the spring of 2021, Made.com doubled down on its warehouse space, jacking up operating costs without considering that furniture customers who could return to shopping in person would be more likely to do so than customers in other, less sensory-dependent verticals. This failure to predict customer behavior was also a failure of people, and largely because of it, Made.com collapsed last November.

    Related: Ask These 5 Questions Before You Blame Your Company’s Failures on the Marketing

    3. A shoe company

    Since this company was a former client of my agency, I’m not going to name-shame them. But we had some tussles over promotions, another of the 5 Ps.

    This company had a CPA (cost per acquisition) target of $60 for new customers, but they were only willing to pay $20 per customer referral of new customers. Instead of optimizing referrals and lowering overall CPA, they pumped money into paid marketing campaigns with their $60 CPA target. My agency runs paid campaigns on all channels, but I could see the failure in this logic.

    Related: More Is Not Better: How to Effectively Target Retail Promotions

    While this is only an example, it’s part of a more significant marketing issue. In my experience, people tend to think about promotions as sales or discounts, but they can and should expand their options to include BOGOs, giveaways and rebates. Back in a college marketing class, I learned that rebates are a phantom cost — 80% of them go unclaimed, and as soon as they expire, all those “costs” go back to your bottom line.

    Whether it’s customer referrals, BOGOs, or giveaways of slow-moving clearance products, use promotions to lower your overall acquisition costs — but only if you have a solid plan to maximize customer lifetime value after the first purchase. Otherwise, you risk acquiring customers at a loss with no hope of profit.

    There’s a common thread here: neither Martech, content, mobile, nor any other shiny object would have prevented these. And there’s a lesson as well: marketing and growth leaders charged with keeping their eyes on the big picture must ensure their fundamentals are in order before leaping to take advantage of the next big thing.

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    Bryan Karas

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