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Showing posts from May, 2018

The 10 Commandments of Superior Customer Service

The following 10 Rules of Superior Customer Service will help your organization to reach the next level. 1.     Live by the Golden Rule – Customers have the Gold. So, in simple words, they make   the rules. 2.     Develop Customer Service from the inside out, through and throughout (the) teamwork. 3.     Deliver the 2 things all customers wants and need – solutions to problems and good   feelings. Cost Effective solutions. Wow feelings, rather than just good. 4.     Use the customer’s definition of quality and service. Your definition, means nothing. 5.     Ask more and better questions. Relevant questions. 6.     Convert complaints and problems into commitment and profit. See them as opportunities  to become better. 7.     Create a holistic superior experience, leveraging all touchpoints. 8.     Teach everyone how to add value. Remember, value is decided by customer, not   by  you. 9.     Do everything more, better than others, faster than others, different than   o

6 Common Misconceptions about the 80/20 Rule

Since I specialize in teaching the 80/20 Principle to Corporates, I find that there are some common misconceptions, that people carry in their head. I thought I would share some personal thoughts on it. Myth # 1  :  80/20 means eliminating all unimportant tasks. Not true. Some tasks are low value but need to be done. For example, washing laundry, paying the bills. Not doing them will create a negative downside. The 80/20 rule is about spending more time on the important tasks, spending less time on the unimportant (by delegating, batching) and eliminating the tasks with almost no value (not doing them will not make a difference. Myth #2 :  It must be precisely 80/20. Not necessarily. As I mentioned in part 1, it just happened that Pareto’s observation was 80-20 (rather than 70-20). So let's say you have 10 tasks on your to-do list. It doesn't mean that there must be precisely 2 tasks (20%) with high value. Maybe you have 3 tasks that contribute to 80% of the value. Maybe 4

What Business Are You In ?

What Business Are You In ?   Marketing determines the answer to that, and marketing just changed. 1.   For more than a century, successful organizations have been built around traditional marketing. Marketing was an expensive investment, but it was worth it. Take an average product for average people and spend enough money promoting it and you were likely to make a significant profit. TV was a miracle worker, the secrets to leveraging the miracle were an efficient factory, consistent products and willingness to spend money to tell people about those products. 2.    The New Marketing has really shaken up traditional marketers. First, excessive clutter and new media alternatives have ended the guaranteed effectiveness of TV. Just when the old rules were changing, new techniques — ranging from Web sites to Google ads to digital Word of Mouth — came along to pick up the slack. To a traditional marketer, an effective New Marketing technique is an even better miracle than TV. Ve

The Trust Gap in Marketing

Have you ever given thought to "Why do you buy the things you do" ? Do stand in front of the mirror and give a thought to how you make choices about your own purchases.  Trust is one of the main drivers of that process . Higher the trust, more likely it is that someone will do business with you or you will do business with someone. This is one important point many business owners fail to recognize, especially in service industry. One of the biggest challenges is  –  how to get someone to try your service for the first time ? You need to offer ways to get them to try it,  without risk . Often, this is perceived as giving away something for free. Yet, it does not address the  issue of trust .  Many companies and their websites offer a  Free Consultation  of their potential customers’ business needs / problems, to try to get a foot in the door. If they simply focus on price, as an incentive to make that first purchase, they are sure to miss something crucial. Price can be

Referral Marketing for Small Businesses

The most influential and powerful way of Referral Marketing for a small company is Word of Mouth (WoM). It also happens to be the most affordable. It gives people 3 great reasons to talk about you as well as make it more easy for the dialog to occur.  When they like your organization and you as person, they will wish to share, with their relatives and friends, the excellent experience with your service.  Conversations about your business bring them good feelings. Sending referrals over makes them feel bright and important. They feel nice if they could assist in solving problems. Give your loyal customers, a motive to talk. It makes them feel intelligent and unique.  They identify with a group. Some products have followers because people love discussing with others, who share mutual interests (sports fans, musicians, motorcycle owners, frequent flyers). Below are 5 key reasons why WoM is still one of the brightest ways for Referral Marketing for Small Business  WoM is certain