The Dawn Of A New Challenge

I swear I turn around and Time completely disappears.  Here we are, on April Fool’s Day, and Time is hiding around the corner laughing up its sleeve at me.  Because while I was busy playing hide ‘n seek with it, Time led me to the doorstep of another Customer Love challenge.

If you’ve breezed through the ThinkBlot blog in the past, you know that I have quite a sweet spot for LaVonne Ellis and all of the other Customer Love peeps.  The amount of awesomeness that happens over the course of 28 days is nothing short of amazing.

My Writer’s Battle Plan was birthed during the November challenge, and I rolled out a consulting offer in February.  Currently I’m sitting in a corner with twitching fingers cackling my scary laugh (I’ve been practicing) and thinking about what I can do for you this month.  (Hint: It will be, to quote Rachael aka @caffeinatedelf, “epic sh!t”.)

But in the meantime my pretties (cue the cackle!), I have something sweet for you to scoop up and amuse yourself with.

I’m calling it a “Kill or Be Killed” strategy session.  I devised this cunning plan because the writing game is pretty cutthroat.  You gotta watch your back.  So I’m offering some bona fide protection here.

And don’t forget to check out all the wonderful things happening this month in Customer Love land.  No doubt there’s going to be a killing of… goodness (geez- what’d ya think I was going to say?).

(photo credit the yes man)



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If You Don't Know What To Do With Your Customers, Start Here

Have you ever noticed how much angst there is around our customer relationships?  We wonder if they like us. We wonder if we are satisfying their needs. We wonder if they are going to come back and visit us again.   We hope they never break up with us. 

Whether we like it or not, we have established relationships with our customers, and with those relationships come expectations.  Expectations we hope we meet, but reallistically, sometimes we won't.  As long as we are committed to the relationship, we can make a fairly safe assumption that our customers will stick by us through thick and thin.  And those that don't probably aren't our Right People.

The Month of Love

February is an exciting time.  Visions of Valentine's Day dance in our heads, but it is also another official Customer Love challenge month.  If you haven't heard about Customer Love before, the basic premise is that for 27 days, you do nothing but love your customers.  How you choose to do that is entirely up to you. 

On Day 28 of the challenge, you launch a product- if may be an entirely new product you've been working on, or something you already have that you've taken the spit and polish to and made into something brand new. In any case, you offer something of value to your customers, and it becomes a fantastic win-win proposition.  Your customers feel loved and special, and you sell stuff.  It's good kharma.

The Secret Sauce

Just talking about the challenge makes me all warm and fuzzy.  I launched my first product, the Writer's Battle Plan, as part of the Customer Love Challenge in November.  It was an amazing ride, and one I can't gush about enough.  Our fearless leader, LaVonne Ellis, and the wonderful group of participants I met made it an experience I won't ever forget.  In fact, it fundamentally rewired my brain.  (I talk about this in an interview with LaVonne coming up on Day 12 of this month's challenge.)

But the underlying principle of the Customer Love challenge is the idea of reciprocity.  If I create an overwhelmingly positive experience for you, you will, in turn, do something positive for me when I ask you.  Now those last 4 words- those are the kicker.

Don't Be Afraid To Ask

In order to create a "customer experience", there is an inherent assumption that there is a product or service being sold.  You, as the customer, are buying something from me, the seller.  Ideally, what I am selling you is valuable and actionable for you. But to get there, I have to ASK you to do something and I can't be shy about it. Otherwise, well, this feels like a different type of relationship and neither one of us is very comfortable because we have no idea what the expectations are supposed to be.

So I ask you take action, and hopefully you are getting something out of the deal that makes you happy.  And when you are happy, that makes me happy.   That's the way positive reciprocity in customer satisfaction works.  And Customer Love is a shining example of it.

So I'd invite you to take a stroll over to the Customer Love site if you haven't already and check it out.  Join the #customerlove chat on Twitter and meet a bunch of incredibly cool people doing flat out amazing things this month.  Even if you aren't inclined participate, watching the month unfold is an eye opening eperience in creating a unique customer experience.

Don't forget that because I am a Customer Love participant, I will be launching a new product on February 28th.   And if you sign-up to be a Blot Insider as part of my Advance Notification email list (see the right side bar if you are viewing this on my site), you will not only find out what that is before anyone else, but you'll also get a special deal.

Go ahead. Be mushy- get out there and spread the love!

(photo credit schipulites)

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Customer Loyalty Is Conditional

You will hear me talk a lot about the Customer Relationship here at ThinkBlot.   That's because in my opinion, attracting your Right People and then building a long-term relationship with them is mission critcial to the success of any business.

But that isn't nearly as simple or easy or you may think because of one simple truth.

Like it or not, your relationship with your customer is Conditional.

It is not unlike your personal relationships.  When you are fulfilling all of their needs and wants, you will find that they are always there when you need them.  There is a familiarity between you because you are making them feel special, important, and valuable and they, in turn, are giving you their attention and their business.  It's mutually beneficial and it feels great.

That's what we all want in our relationships right?

Once we have that relationship established, there's an expectation that we will get that kind of attention all the time.  Plus, it’s a hassle to have to find someone new, so we have a tendency to stay in those relationships with little thought about what else may be out there.

But the moment we start feeling taken for granted, doubts enter our minds.  That small crack is all it takes for someone else to slip into the room and grab our attention.

If you ignore your customers, they will feel like you’ve left them no other alternative.  You see, it’s not that they didn’t like you, or that at some time you were in sync together, but right now, the only thing that matters to them is that they don't feel that you are best fit for them anymore.

So they leave.

When things swing out of balance, and we lose focus on the relationships that got us to where we are, we both lose.

One of the easiest ways to keep our existing customers happy is to show them as often as we can that we are there for them and that we are listening. 

If we are providing the value that they have come to expect from us, they won't ever feel the need to have to look elsewhere.

Don’t take your customers for granted.  Build feedback mechanisms into your business that measure your customers' satisfaction regularly and take action to keep them happy. 

Then watch your relationships grow and flourish.

What are some of your favorite ways to show your customers you care?



(photo credit Alaskan Dude)

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Introducing The Tuesday Tip And Some Twitter Fun

I spend an obscene amount of time scouring the internet reading blog posts, devouring the latest news, and just generally entertaining myself.  And in my online travels, I encounter things all the time that make me think "hey- that's a really good idea!". 

Moving into 2011, I thought that I'd post 3x/week covering topics that fall under my three core value umbrellas:

• Creating A Unique Customer Experience
• Building Long-Term Customer Relationships
• Engaging Customers by Providing Value in Every Interaction

But I realized that at the rate tools and technology are evolving, there are always going to be new things to think about wrapping into our businesses that help us grow in our abilities to serve our customers. 

So with that in mind, I'm introducing the Tuesday Tip which is simply that: a short post on something I've uncovered that is helping me shape my business, and so may help you too.

Twittering My Life Away

It's no secret that Twitter is my social media drug of choice.  I'm ramping up on Facebook and LinkedIn, but give me ten minutes of free time and you'll find me on Twitter.  (I even posted some Twitterific tips awhile back.) So I thought it appropriate to kick off my first Tuesday tip with some some Twitter fun; namely two hashtags that you should keep an eye on:

#customerlove:  Every Tuesday at 5pm CST, @LaVonneEllis leads a rousing discussion around Customer Love.  The chat started as a way to support Customer Love participants (click here for more info on the Customer Love Challenge).  But it has morphed into an amazing network of people who all share a single passion: delighting and loving their customers beyond reason. 

#custserv: If you touch customers in any way, shape, or form, this is one hashtag you want to pay close attention to.  I've connected with a whole mess of thought leaders who share an interest in customer service, but come to it from a variety of roles and industries.  It's thought provoking and keeps you on your toes with the latest and greatest news and trends.  And even better, there is a hosted chat for this group as well every Tuesday at 8pm CST.

I'm looking forward to sharing more tips with you in the coming weeks, and if there is something that you think should be featured, don't hesitate to drop a comment below!

(photo credit laffy4k)

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Being Thankful: Time For The Warm Fuzzies

Have you ever noticed how enjoyable the week heading into Thanksgiving is?  People are (generally) in good moods, and have either taken the week off work or are looking forward to the long holiday weekend.  They know from experience the chaos that is December, but are still optimistic that this year they'll get all their holiday plans right.

It's a peaceful time of year.  I've noticed that as we move from thinking about ourselves to thinking about others (must be all the pre-holiday present planning) everyone has the warm fuzzies for each other.  We're happy.  We're content.  We are thankful.  In this mindset, we are happiest when we are giving. 

I've been fairly active this month in the Customer Love challenge, and even from the small little pieces where I've been participating I've been blown away.  I've met a ton of new people who are doing amazingly fantastic things.  They are friendly and smart, and always willing to lend a hand or an ear to help.  I just met them, but yet I feel in a way like I've known them forever.  All of this came from being willing to risk stepping outside my comfort zone, and opening my mind and my heart to others.  If nothing else, what I've gained from this challenge was the special gift of friendship and for that I am grateful.

As I look forward and contemplate my own holiday plans, I am making note of all of other people and things I am thankful for.  So in gratitude and from the bottom of my heart I want to also say to you, dear reader, that I am thankful for YOU.  Thank you for your time.  Thank you for your attention. I hope that you will stop by and visit again so we can continue to get to know each other better. 

(photo by Lauri Vain)