Slightly advanced, and all-too-often forgotten, rules for romancing your current customer

After Tuesday’s post in praise of handholding, a few more tips on how, exactly, to make your customer feel like you are their guide through the Experience of working with you:

1. Simplify. Use smaller words. Use fewer words. Use words you hear your customers using.

2. Relate it to your customer’s life. What do you do for a living, sir? Ah, yes. I hear our moustache wax is all the rage in the music department of your university. If you give it a try now, I’ll bet you’ll be the first professor in the art department to get on the bandwagon!

3. Never talk down. Your customer isn’t slow or stupid just because he or she isn’t at your level. Even if you make the sale because they need you right now, they’ll march right home to find out what their alternatives were. No matter how bad the need for your widget next time, they’ll be prepared. They’ll never buy from you again or recommend you to a friend. End of that customer’s lifetime value.

4. Write it out. Some folks will never retain all you say, no matter how friendly and helpful you are (ME!!). I wish every doctor, mechanic, attorney, garden center, plumber… heck, I wish everyone had handouts for their more complicated issues. Just write it like you explain it, and even if it’s as simple as a Word document you make into an online pdf for your website and a one-page printout for in-person customers, your buyers will be so grateful later when they’re trying to remember what you told them about the sump pump repairs you just scheduled them for.

5. Smile. New purchases are stressful. A smile from you goes a long way, and too many people forget that. 

6. Change your pace. Roll along for a couple of minutes, story-style. Then explain a few things in a shorter style with plenty of pauses, visuals if possible, and questions. It helps people pay attention.

7. Involve the customer’s kids. Why? Because the parents will love you forever. Because kids sometimes have more than you know to say about the final purchase. Because most other companies don’t involve them, or worse, act like the kids are a nuisance. Because sometimes they remember a point that the parent forgot, later on. (What? I never have to ask The Kid what someone just said to me because I stopped listening after we got to the price. That never happens to me.)

8. Break it down. Whatever you do or sell, there is a way that you can break it down into steps, or segments.

Use this breakdown either to slow yourself down when explaining what you do: First, this. Any questions? Then, this. Because this. Make sense?

Or to sell to folks who aren’t sure about the whole: You don’t have to buy the whole meal or nothing, sir. Simply buy the burger if that suits you.

Like fries with that?

9. I don’t have to remind you to treat the ladies the same as the men, do I? No, not you. But pass this along, because somehow this basic point is one lots of companies STILL miss.

The advanced version of this point:

I have a mechanic who is so determined to treat me the same as the dudes, that she races through her explanation of valves blah-blah-blah with me, just the same as she does with the men. (One result, according to male friends who also go there, is that nobody fully understands her—we’re all getting a lot further away from the days of fixing our own cars.) Treating everyone with the same respect does not mean assuming everyone took shop class like you did, so back to steps 1–8 for you if you’ve been misunderstanding how to apply this handholding tip.

10. Ask questions. Not “Do you have any questions,” because mostly we don’t know about the thing we should be asking about. So we say No.

Instead, try, “Have you ever run into [common thing everyone calls you about three days after the sale]? Here’s how you’ll handle that…” and similar questions about how they may use your product so you can give tips on how to get the best out of it. Often, buyers only use a quarter of the features of a new purchase because they don’t know about the other 3/4! Be like an in-person FAQs.

BONUS: It’s not as personal as the rest of these handholding tips, but keep in mind that your FAQs page online should contain (gasp!) actual Frequently Asked Questions. I know the temptation is to make FAQs into one more sales page (and it should be that, in part). The relief a customer feels at 3am, when their question about their new but non-functioning whatsis is answered on your FAQs page, builds tremendous good will—and saves you the angry call a few hours later when you open for business.

This sort of handholding is great for helping to make the sale, but it’s even better (and more unexpected) after you’ve made the sale. The time to cement that lifetime customer value is during the process of working with you, or during the honeymoon phase with your product.

Got a tip to share? How do you hold your customer’s hand, and make the process of working with you seem more comfortable?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Hand holding for fun and profit

If you’ve ever bought a new car, or a house, or seen a doctor for something beyond a cold, or signed a book contract, or rolled over your 401(k) when changing jobs, or needed a lawyer, you’ll probably know this feeling:

When I get done with this I’ll be an expert, but then it’ll be too late, because I’m never doing this again.

Many times when you have to go through a rare or once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, you’re just trying to catch on to the rush of events swirling around you—in buying a house for instance, real estate agents, papers to sign, house inspections, papers to sign, a thousand steps in getting your mortgage, papers to sign, and so on.

The experts who guide you seem hurried, but in fact, they’re only practiced. (As you will be, once you’ve been through it once.) They may seem rude and dismissive, but it’s usually not malice, just the assumption that everyone knows what they know.

That’s the norm, and when we’ve got to face a big purchase, crisis, or change in our lives, we generally accept that being intimidated, going along in a fog, and only understanding it all later is How It’s Going To Be. I’ve certainly done it many times myself.

Recently I had the “opportunity” (yes, you may put that word in ironic air quotes) to go through such a rare event, involving contacts with many experts at what they do. What struck me was that two out of these many, took the time to walk me through what was going on without my having to stop them a hundred times and ask for clarifications as if we don’t speak the same language. They took the time to listen carefully to my concerns, even though I’m sure half of them were completely irrelevant to the issue at hand. They used my name. They looked me in the eye. Their pace slowed me down, and though it didn’t change the outcome at all, it made me feel differently about it.

So my thought after analyzing what these two people did right—you know the list: be courteous, listen, explain, go slower than you think you need to, say things twice, watch for signs of understanding…—my thought was this. Though most of us don’t do things as heavy as curing cancer or suing negligent manufacturers for a living, we all do something that we are the experts at, and our customers are not.

Otherwise they wouldn’t hire us!

So whether you’re a daycare owner, a furniture maker, a sales rep, or a videographer, take some extra time with your customers today.

Don’t assume that you do something so “simple” that everybody gets it. If we could do it like you can, we’d be doing it. You’re our guide.

See if you can offer a little hand-holding with your product or service.

Watch for how differently it makes your customers feel and act and buy (hey, it’s even better when being good for the customer is good for you as well).

I have a feeling that in addition to being very good professionally, for the sales of those two people who treated me to some extra hand-holding, and in addition to being good for me, it’s also good for them personally. The hand-holder gets to feel a lot better about guiding you though an experience when they’re… actually doing some guiding.

Plus hand-holders get more recommendations from their surprised and deeply satisfied customers.

Hands down. 

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Is there any hope here?

“90% of the money created by users spending time online accrues to search engines.”
—Jakob Nielsen, website usability expert extraordinaire

You might want to read that sentence again. If you’re hoping to make money online, it contains a much-needed dose of reality. Making money online might not be the path to riches that you imagine it is, dear reader. But lets widen the view.

Using the… Web, a user can easily visit 100 sites in a week, viewing only 1–3 pages on most of them. (For example, for one task in which B2B users visited 15 sites, they spent an average of 29 seconds per pageview.) Most sites are visited once-only, because users dredge them up in a search or stumble upon links from other sites or social media postings. Without real customer relationships, content sites have no value and 90% of the money created by users spending time online accrues to search engines.

Now, the scene just got a bit more depressing for your online business, because it’s clear that it’s awfully hard to hold even an interested visitor on your site.

And content sites have no value? Ouch. What does this mean for all the gurus shouting that content is king?

(Heck, what does it mean for your intrepid Experience Designer, slaving away over this fresh MCE-content for your benefit right now?)

It means we missed the critical point of Mr. Nielsen’s valuable research.

The only point, in fact, that can have a measurable impact on your business—one that I have been learning over and over for the past twenty years in business:

Without real customer relationships.

That’s it. Online and off, I can tell you that 50 to 75% of my business is now and has always been (even pre-Web) derived from real customer relationships. I have a relationship with many of my readers today at MCE and I’ve been fortunate to work with many of you on improving your businesses. (Perhaps you’d like to work with me as well? I’d love that.) I have relationships with other authors online and I’m very grateful that they feel free to refer business to me. I have relationships with customers, vendors, and colleagues offline, and as we track the sources of our business that is always what it comes down to. In fact if I may include relationships that happy customers have with others, the number might be closer to 90% relationship-based these days.

This is the new reality for entrepreneurs and small business owners—the same as the old reality.

No matter how world-wide the web, we must create real relationships in order to grow our sales and thrive.

There are no new rules.

Be sure to check out Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox. The excerpt in this post is from his latest article, iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing —which contains a wealth of information that is also not new, but is fascinating when applied to the gotta-have-it tech gadget of the year, Apple’s iPad.

Are you creating real customer relationships online? How has it helped your business to grow?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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A True Story

“We’ve got problems here,” he said on the phone. “Business has been declining badly, even when other people’s business started to pick up around here. I want you to tell me how to get more customers in here. I’d really like your instant read.”

We don’t have pricing for “instant read,” but I agreed on the scope of the project with the man on the phone, and a few days later I made the drive.

When I arrived at the shop, it was an instant turn-off: a jumble of products very, very loosely held together by something that had once been a theme, but now appeared to be “whatever strikes the owner as interesting.” No wonder folks couldn’t figure out what mental drawer they should place his shop in.

The place was also dark, and slightly dirty, with a faint odor… maybe fish?… from the restaurant next door. The biggest issue was the clutter and the incomprehensible “product line,” though. In this instance, the dirt could wait.

“Well?”

He meant it when he said “instant read”; I’d only been in the place for about three minutes and he was already impatient for A Solution.

That was no problem; it had only taken me 30 seconds to come up with the answer. The other 2 minutes and 30 seconds were for finessing how to say it.

“So what do we need to do?”

“The difficulty here is, it’s hard for a customer to figure out what they can buy at your shop. What you’re the best at. When they should come here first, because you’re the guy who’s got ‘it.’ In fact, it’s hard to know, looking around here, just what it is you’ve got.”

He was waiting for more, so I put it into action terms.

“You need to define yourself. Perhaps you had more focus once and you just need to get back to that. My instant read is that your business has declined because people have found other places where they can get ‘anything.’ To want to come to you, they have to want ‘something.’ You need to know what your ‘something’ is, because they’re not going to guess for you.”

“But my customers love it,” he said bluntly.

“You hired me to get you more customers,” I said.

He thanked me for my time, paid for his instant read…

… and I suspect, went right back to doing things the way he’d always done them.

MCE Moral #1: Know what you offer, and don’t wander far without good reasons.

MCE Moral #2: In less than three minutes, a professional can present an excellent “instant read” from a 30-second evaluation. Customers are doing the same thing in the same 30 seconds. If you haven’t got enough customers, you’ve already got their instant read.

MCE Moral #3: Getting advice and taking it are not the same thing.

(Bonus Moral: Don’t smell like fish.)

Have you ever found yourself seduced by But My Customers Love It? How were you able to remind yourself to look beyond today’s customers in order to grow your business?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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The classic Covey advice,* with three business twists

1. Help the Customer Picture the Joy of Owning, Using, Working With, What You Sell

When you write an ad, make a website, take photos of your product, or give a presentation, talk about the place far down the line—where the client is having a grand time because she bought what you offer.

For example, if you’re a detail-oriented type planning a project with VisionPoints, you might like me to lead you step-by-step through how we’ll work on your website audit. I won’t forget that, and I certainly don’t recommend anyone forget to talk to detail oriented types. But first, you’ve got to see what it’s worth to you. So when I write “Do you want your website or blog to get you noticed, attract prospects, and help you make sales?” and “I’m here to help you change the way customers see your business, starting now,” I’m hoping those two phrases will conjure up images of exactly what you need the end result of our work to be.

Detail-oriented types will read on, but the truth is most folks want to know what the results are, not every step in how they get the results.

Shooting a photo for packaging, for your website, or for an ad? Showing a happy owner using your XYZ widget sounds obvious, yet how many shots of a product sitting on a blank background do you see which don’t allow you to imagine yourself in the picture?

Talking about the successful results you’ll have, or others who’ve succeeded who are just like you sounds obvious, but how many presentations have you listened to talking about methodologies, awards that the pitching firm has won, and other under-the-hood stuff that only holds the customer at a distance?

It’s about the customer. And when you begin with the end in mind, it’s not about the customer today. It’s about helping the customer picture her better tomorrows.

2. Assume the Close

This is another old saying that still gets ignored way too often. Don’t talk about “if” we work together. Say “when.” Don’t dip a toe in with “would you like to get started in a week.” Say “we can deliver the finished project on November 24th.”

When you’re in business, it’s not just something to pass the time. You’re there to make sales. It’s okay to assume it’s a done deal, and it doesn’t have to come across as arrogant.

When you go to your grocery store, do you think, “How arrogant! Check-out lanes! Cashiers! Express lanes as if they think I can’t wait to give them my money!”

Nope. You elbow the guy next to you so you can hit that express lane before the line gets any longer.

Assume the close and far more of your clients will elbow each other to get into line to buy from you.

Write about what IS in your awesome product, what I should do to MAINTAIN the fencing I’ll buy, and of course, (remember those detail-oriented types?) how we WILL work together.

It’s not magic. But when you begin with the end in mind, you’ll walk right through objections as if they aren’t there. You do work with clients, they do purchase from you, and it’s time to overpromise AND overdeliver for this client—like the express lane. Let’s start now, you’ll say. I wouldn’t want to make you wait to picture yourself enjoying those awesome benefits.

3. Don’t Slobber All Over Your Customer When They’re Getting to Know You

At first this might sound like it contradicts number 1 and 2. If you’re not used to beginning with the end in mind, those techniques might seem a bit slobbery.

Let’s return to the grocery store for a minute. Where are the cash registers?

At the end of your journey. Sure, they’re direct. They assume the close. But they don’t put ‘em outside the store as you’re walking in.

A quick reminder: Like the first time you saw the one you *knew* you had to marry, if you were a smart one, you bit your tongue and said “Hello” first.

You can make sure they’re seeing themselves far in the future, picturing a happy outcome. You can present your company as The Solution to the number one issue your customer is facing. You can talk in the language of one who’s assured of the outcome…

… without asking for the sale in the first breath.

To begin with the end in mind, relax—in your writing, in your presentations, in the service at your store. Be comfortable and confident of the sale, because you’re confident that you can help your customer. Listen for little yesses that move the process forward. Don’t rush.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

*Habit 2, if you’re a fan of Stephen Covey’s writing. “It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint.”

That’s what creating Maximum Customer Experience is all about. Your customer’s happy ending follows your blueprint—if you’ve taken the time to draw up the blueprint.

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George, Jolie, genetics, Grandmother, and going barefoot—together at last!

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my Canadian readers and friends. I am very grateful for each and every one of you. Enjoy your day, and perhaps a little high thinking with your morning coffee, before you’re headed over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house.

But I digress…

I don’t know what it is about George Tannenbaum. The guy does “wistful” like no other writer online today, and here he is supposedly writing an advertising blog. I’d say I wish I had half his talent but honestly, I’m glad he’s got all of it. He’s the bard of Madison Avenue and I’m always stunned by the way he can get me thinking old thinks in new ways.

The other day I was reading his latest piece, What Do We Do, and I started to fire off a cranky comment about the example he’d chosen in his article on serving the customer through advertising, just as you would serve the customer in your shop.

In the piece George weaves thoughts on the new book We Were Merchants, a memoir of the family-run Goudchaux’s department stores in Louisiana, into a lament about the lack of direction in the advertising industry.

He quotes the author, Hans Sternberg, as saying the “abiding philosophy was the customer was everything. Without him or her, there would be no need for a cash register.”

One of my own favorite sayings is “it’s not a business unless you make a sale.” Obviously, I’m in complete agreement with the Sternberg philosophy and with George’s desire to see the ad industry focus on serving the customer.

But my personal experience with Goudchaux’s made me question the choice of this example.

A long time ago, years before my divorce in fact, I made a decision to get married. (Made getting the divorce a lot simpler… but I digress.) In New Orleans. During a hurricane (not that hurricane). Two days before the wedding, as things were getting rather wet, and the streets were becoming littered with branches and debris, I realized that my original plan to be married barefoot and stroll the streets of the city barefoot as we partied after the wedding, was looking a bit foolish, so I’d need to get a pair of shoes, at least for the strolling of the streets. (I still did get married barefoot… but I digress again.)

Off I went to Goudchaux’s/Maison Blanche for a pair of shoes that were fit for a day that would change the rest of my days. (Oy! But I digress…)

From the second I walked in the door, the experience was like nothing else. To this day, I still remember every minute of that shopping trip—and from a woman who notoriously hates shopping, this is really saying something. The attention to the customer was beyond anything I’d ever seen. Discreet, caring, sincere. The stuff that can not be faked. Even now, I smile when I look at those shoes in my closet, remembering the perfection of that experience.

So I read George’s article thoughtfully wondering how his industry has gotten so lost, optimistically holding Goudchaux’s philosophy up as a possible way out of the woods. I smiled, I nodded, I got nostalgic, I was moved.

I started to cheer. Hooray for a laser-focus on the customer above jargon and technologies and artsy-fartsy-ness and industry awards! Then as I wrote my comment, I realized George had done it to me again. I’m rethinking what I think I know, y’know?

Not that I don’t believe in a laser-focus on the customer, above jargon and technologies and artsy-fartsy-ness and industry awards. I do! If you’ve been reading here for even a short while you know that whether you run a customer-facing company or serve those who do, like George does, I believe your laser-focus on customer needs is critical to delivering Maximum Customer Experience.

What I started to write in response to George’s post was this:

Goudchaux’s (under the Sternbergs) was born this way. They’ve left the company, and service has changed significantly. The amazing Customer Experience magic was tied to those particular human beings—even they weren’t able to bake it into the culture. Wondering “Why aren’t we all Sternbergs” is a little like looking at Angelina Jolie and wondering “Why aren’t we all goddesses?”

Is this an impractical, impossible standard—measuring companies (or an industry) against a genetic fluke—and setting them up for failure?

So at last, we come to my point, otherwise known as: Why I didn’t hit “post comment” over at AdAged, and why you’re reading this post today.

There is nothing I love more than talking with you about real-life examples of Maximum Customer Experience. Heck, I’ve taken apart giants like Apple and Target looking for lessons for your business, at least as often as we’ve discussed the little guys. I’m always looking for the little details or the big picture that knocked my socks off, and from which I hope you’ll get great takeaways—things you can do today to grow your business and make more money. Another of my favorite sayings is “I’m obsessed with your success.” If I can tell a story here that I think will help you succeed faster, I’m all over it.

First, I loved George’s premise. Then, I hated George’s example. Then, I wondered what the heck was going on with me, because I always want to reach for the stars and to encourage you to. So now I’ve come to you.

What do you think?

First, are there some ideals that really can’t be achieved in business, because they’re more “genetic” to that company than the principles that they claim guide them?

Second, is it worth aiming for them anyway, even if you aren’t blessed with those business “genetics”? (In non-business terms, if I can’t have Angelina’s pout or her man, should I try for her smile?) Or should we find something to reach for that’s more practical, something we can break down into realistic and achievable action steps?

This barefoot hippie has seen her ideals clash with her realism more than once, ho ho. I welcome your thoughts on how high you SHOULD reach, in order to keep the dreams big and still generate real results.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Sabrina, 1954. At 3:45—the delightful John Williams as Thomas Fairchild and Audrey Hepburn as his daughter, Sabrina. “No, Father. The moon’s reaching for me.” One of my favorite lines in all film. Irrelevant? Not entirely! That’s an ideal we all want to aim for in business.

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They can both destroy your Customer Experience

Have you ever put down the newspaper on the sofa, only to come back a half an hour later and discover someone’s left their magazine and a box of crackers right next to it?

Ever leave your shoes in the dining room after a hard day at work, and discover three other pairs and a pair of socks decided they belonged there, too?

Do you live in a neighborhood where one neighbor mows his lawn Saturday at seven-thirty like clockwork, and by ten a.m. everybody else feels like a lazy bum so they’re out there mowing, even when the grass hasn’t grown an inch?

They’re opposite sides of the same coin. Police call it the broken window theory, suggesting that one broken window in a neighborhood can start the neighborhood on a downhill spiral. Happens at home, in your neighborhood, even at work. The optimist’s version is the flowerbed theory… you get the picture.

Probably, you didn’t get this picture:

The free candy truck. Good thing they didn’t put the company name on it—where would the graffiti fit?

To follow up on last week’s outdoor lesson, I sadly deliver this charmless photo, shot in my apartment complex. My neat, orderly, suburban apartment complex. This, folks, is the truck of the landscapers who were hired to do some work on the courtyard in front of my building.

That is my car in the foreground. Which I moved away from this truck when I discovered it was to be left there overnight, from fear that it might encourage an otherwise law-abiding person, somewhere in the complex, to lose their head and graffiti something near this blight. Like, say, my car. Irrational, I know, to think that an urge to create graffiti could rub off on folks who see this. I felt silly moving the car. But maybe not quite nuts, if you believe in the broken window theory.

Okay, okay, I’ll get to the point. And it’s not what you think.

I’m not going to pick on the landscaping company for having such a nasty truck and such obvious disregard for the image their company is projecting.

There’s no name on the van, people. I don’t think they’re trying to project an image. That might be too highfalutin’ for them. They don’t need no stinkin’ image!

I’m not here to teach you an MCE lesson about what your trucks should look like, nor about keeping things clean forgoodnesssake. We’ll do that on other days.

This isn’t about respecting the rest of the world enough to park in an isolated spot if you are the unfortunate victim of a drive-by graffitiist.

This is about you.

Specifically, who you choose to hire. Because, dear reader, about a week earlier, I saw this truck in front of the main office of my apartment complex. (I mean, free candy. Who forgets that?)

The people who emerge from this van were there to pitch their services. To get hired to take care of the appearances of a very large apartment complex—issues that are too large, apparently, for the six full-time maintenance staff to handle. Big issues of aesthetics… and even though the thought of their taking care of aesthetic issues is alarming, we’re still not quite to my point.

My point.

Don’t hire these people. They may take care of you, their customer, with the lowest bid (I hope there was some half-baked reason for hiring them), but you are not taking care of your customers. To make your customers worry about riff-raff and vandalism while claiming you are making improvements is gross neglect of your customers, and pretty gross neglect of your senses.

No excuses for their occupation or anything else. I don’t want to hear it, because it’s bulls**t. There are plenty of landscapers who can do better, and in fact I’m not sure I’ve seen any who can do worse.

Don’t hire people like this, or you have entirely missed the Maximum Customer Experience boat. You’ve just broken your own window.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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WOW!

Websites—Wow!
Forums—Wow!
Whitepapers—Wow!
Blogs—Wow!
Facebook—Wow!
eBooks—Wow!
Teaching online—Wow!
Email newsletters—Wow!
Twitter—Wow!

Whoa.

You can’t cut through the noise like this.

You’re stretched way too thin. You’re chasing every new wave, and you know what? Waves sweep everything along with them. They’re indiscriminate. And waves crash.

Stop.

Plan your strategy. On purpose. Not on a bandwagon. Then—I know this may ruffle a few feathers—put on the blinders. Stop spinning around for every new wow. If you’ve planned it right, patience and consistency will pay off. They just won’t pay off instantly.

No matter what you’ve heard, new media do not mint new money. So work your plan for the long term. Not for the WOW.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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The Florist Who Sends Flowers

My daughter “graduated” third grade a few weeks ago. They move up to a new building, so there’s a little ceremony. Which she forgot to tell me about. Until that morning. *sigh, such is the life of a 9-year-old*

We chattered excitedly about it on the way to school, and I promised to rearrange my world on no notice to be there. On the way to work, I started thinking about the importance of this milestone. Flowers. I’d have to leave early to get her a little bouquet at my favorite florist. Thanks goodness they’re on the way to the school.

At work, the first person I spotted got to hear the tale of the surprise graduation. “You have to get her flowers. All the other parents will, and she’ll feel singled out if you don’t.” Yes, I know. Already planning that. “Where are you going to go?” The little place, you know the one… I like them a lot. Always go there for roses for her skating exhibitions.

“Listen, you’ve got to go to my florist. She’s great. She’ll do anything for you. You can’t just show up, though. Call in advance. I’ll give you her number. No, here, I’ll call for you. She’ll have them ready, and you won’t have to leave too early to get there.” I want to get a few small bunches for some of the teachers who’ve been really important to her. They’ve been through a lot right along with us. I figured I’d go in and look around like I usually do.

You know when you haven’t had enough caffeine and the other guy’s had too much? This was such a moment. I’m a nice person, so I listened to her story.

Raving Fans: Organic Word-of-Mouth Does the Work for You

“I use them all the time. Anything from a thank-you bouquet [and I thought Knowts were a special touch!] to a housewarming to a funeral. When I was single, I used to send flowers to myself every Friday. Just to tell me I was special. [Note to Self: Buy me flowers.] She was so nice about it, always just putting the last touches on as I walked in after work, always a little chat. I’d send flowers to my husband before we were married, to embarrass him at work. You name it. My husband bought me the biggest bouquet when my first daughter was born.

“When my second daughter was born, she sent me flowers. How do you like that? She’ll get you set up. Let me call her for you.”

So of course, I did. Before that story, it was just another team who puts together a mean bouquet. The Florist Who Sends Flowers? I’m not really into being acknowledged, but hey, that’s somebody who goes the extra mile for her customers. My friend, the raving fan, called and had five bouquets readied for me.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Mamas…

At 12:30 I left to pick up the flowers, an hour before the graduation. Plenty of time for the drive, a chat with the remarkable florist, and I’d still get a nice seat to take photos of my beaming young lady. At 12:45, a half-mile from the florist, a young woman pulled out of a parking lot and made a left turn going south, straight into the front of my northbound car.

And that, as they say, was the end of the fun. My car wasn’t too bad off. Hers appeared to be totalled. I really, really didn’t care, because all I wanted to do was make it to my daughter’s graduation. Rounds of calls, then the long, silent wait for the police to arrive.

When I say long wait, try imagining your little one in tears, thinking you’ve abandoned her. Try imagining paying for therapy years later so she can get over this tragic moment. Then try imagining you are in Delaware, and the day is a cool 98°F. There is no shade where you are stuck, your head is feeling funny, and your summery goin’-to-a-graduation dress is welded on to your body with sweat. This half-hour wait was no ordinary half-hour wait.

The flowers! After about 25 scorching minutes, I remembered that someone besides me might be thinking of me at that moment, and by now, probably tapping her toes. My friend who ordered the flowers might have her reputation besmirched by my not showing up. So I dug out the phone number, and I called the florist. I explained what had happened, and this delightful lady sat on the phone with me, making sure I was okay, and asking if there was anything she could do to help. She stayed on the phone until the police arrived (not to hold my hand, it just worked out that way). She told me not to worry, and said it was so thoughtful of me to remember her when I had bigger things on my mind. She said flowers or not, it would be a lovely day, and maybe I’d make it in time after all.

Yes, the police officer took forever to arrive. She spoke to the other lady first. When she finally talked to me, I told her how if the car was drivable I almost didn’t care, because all I wanted to do was make it to my little girl’s graduation, which by this time was only five minutes off, but fifteen minutes away. She was kind, and cared, and boy, was she fast. I haven’t had an accident since I was a teen, but it seemed to me that once we spoke she moved things along at record speed.

All’s Well That Ends Well, and the Florist Gets New Business

Happy ending, folks. I got to see the important part, the little lady crossing the stage. She saw me, so she knows I was there for her. Therapy (for that) was averted. The photos are awful, because it was standing-room only by the time I got there and I was a very sweaty, very exhausted person by then, who couldn’t hold the camera steady. But there are photos. Happy ending.

Considering how to design the best Experience for your customers? Send flowers. Not literally, though that’s nice, too. No, I mean exceed expectations. Provide delight. Your customers will praise you for years (the baby she sent flowers for is fourteen now), and your business with grow. That’s still not enough. Be human. The florist could have said, “Okay, thanks for the call,” and got back to her work. She didn’t. She listened, she empathized, she gave a bit of unsolicited support to someone who probably did need it (though she’d rather not admit it). She treated me, ironically, just the way I’d treat someone who called me in this situation. She gained a fan from someone who’s never met her, and never given her a dime.

I haven’t had an occasion to buy flowers in the weeks since that day (shame on me, read my note to self above!). I’ve sent three other customers her way, though, by telling this story. And you can bet that when I’m ready to embarrass my future husband at work, it’ll be roses from The Florist Who Sends Flowers.

Exceed expectations. Be human. How can you create a story that fans will tell about you, to spread the word for your company?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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So, My Stats Are a Little Sad After the Move, and They Want Me to Visit Extra Right Now…

I’m obsessing, but I’m not blind, so I notice this small banner from FeedBurner today:

A free vinyl-y sticker could be yours for the low price of a self-addressed stamped envelope.

1. When you use the word “vinyl-y,” I am automatically not interested. Ugh. Please tell me who your target market is. Are there people who say “ooh, vinyl-y,” in any demographic? Not even “vinyl.” Note that well. “Vinyl-y,” as in “even vinyl would be too classy for you suckers.”

2. When you use the word “free,” you may not use it in conjunction with the phrase “for the low price of.” ‘Cuz that’s not free, people.

3. And perhaps most glaring: There’s so little information here, yet I have rarely heard an offer that was less appealing than this. What is it and why would I want such a thing? Are you kidding?

Maybe I should have clicked on the link. I hope they are kidding.

Takeaways: Know who you’re talking to. Talk benefits, not features (I hate to call “vinyl-y” a feature, but let’s face it, it’s not a benefit). Never, never say free if there’s a cost involved.

Don’t be slippery. Or vinyl-y.

How about you? Do you know who you’re talking to, and why they’d want what you offer?

Sounds simple, but it’s one of the hardest questions to answer simply. If you haven’t had a chance to check out my guest post at Just Creative Design, Dudes and Dolls and Design Decisions, you may find some answers there.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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