Are You Giving Platinum Service To Your Customers?

Why The Platinum Rule Matters Beyond Your Customers

We all know the golden rule, “Treat others the way you’d like to be treated.” Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about another rule. I call it the Platinum Rule. The Platinum Rule is about treating others the way they want to be treated, not the way you think they want to be treated. For a high volume business this may be hard to achieve, but may well be worth it. Look at Zappos, the successful  online shoe company. They have a reputation for “Platinum-Like” customer service.

For the professional service-based business, the Platinum Rule is definitely achievable and an all-around win for everyone. Think about it. Your customers are happy because they are being treated how they want to be treated. And, happy customers tend to refer more customers your way. More customers = more sales and revenue.

I think the best way to find out how your customers like to be treated is to ask them. I am a big fan of SurveyMonkey.com. I think you can also apply the Platinum Rule to your vendors, employees, and partners. After all, isn’t the Platinum Rule really about being considerate of others? Isn’t it about understanding what their needs and wants are and empowering them to succeed by meeting those needs and wants?  When you empower those around you, it makes for a positive and uplifting environment. Who doesn’t want to be in a happy workplace?

What are your thoughts on the Golden Rule versus the Platinum Rule? Are you already using the Platinum Rule? Please leave your comments below.

Does Your Target Audience Know Your Brand?

Here is a short exercise I often share with my clients about brands:

1. Quickly. Think of a car. What image comes to mind?

2. Quickly. Think of an airline. What company comes to mind?

3. Quickly. Think of a Realtor. Who comes to mind?

Whatever answer came to mind is the company that owns your mindshare. The brands that own the largest real estate (mindshare) in your head are the ones that have been most successful in infiltrating your subconscious mind. Now I am no brain research expert, but there have been thousands of studies done that explain how people make purchasing decisions. Advertising agencies and marketing firms spend approximately 6.8 billion dollars annually on market research.  They use the information to analyze buying behaviors. Have you ever had a musical tune stuck in your head from a commercial?  That’s branding. Have you ever bought something just based on the logo?  That’s branding. Have you bought brand name shoes, accessories or clothes because they were popular? That’s branding.

Perception Realities and Truths

It’s important to understand how your target audience perceives your brand because their perception is their reality and one’s reality is what they believe to be true. Whether their reality is right or wrong, good or bad is irrelevant because you can’t control what your customers will believe to be true or false. In other words, you cannot control what or how your customers think. However, you can influence their thoughts or perceptions of you, your products, services, and your company. It is from their perceptions and thoughts that they will base their reality and formulate what they believe to be true or false about your brand and your business.

Is Your Perception your Reality?

To make the point of perception clear, here is an example.  Ever heard of a guy name Ralph Lauren? He is known for his famous Polo clothing brand. What most people don’t know is that his real name was Ralph Lifshitz. Well, when Ralph was a young man, he had aspirations of becoming a gazillionaire. Understanding the psychology of perceptions and realities, he knew that he’d have a hard time convincing the world to buy anything with the word Lifshitz on it. So, he legally changed his name to Lauren. Well, Lifshitz’s dreams came true. As of 2010, Forbes estimates his wealth at 4.6 billion, which would make him the 173rd richest person in the world. Did changing his name attribute to his overwhelming business success? I think not.  It takes a lot more than a name change to grow a successful business, but I think it certainly helped him along the way.  One thing is blatantly clear about Ralph Lauren. He understood the power of perceptions.  He built an empire from images and ads of affluent lifestyles. Even though his target audience did not represent the super affluent that were portrayed in his Polo ads, they nevertheless perceived a strong a connection with them. Now, I am not here to promote manipulative advertising or disingenuous marketing. We all know that most ads are designed to exploit human insecurities. The point I am making is that if you are crystal clear on the message you are sending to your target audience, then you have a much better chance of building a successful business. Ralph Lauren was clear about his brand. He wasn’t selling clothes in his ads. He was selling a lifestyle that people aspired to live.  In other words, he was really good at influencing the perceptions of his target audience.

What Motivates Your Target Audience To Buy?

A few years ago, when I started using Twitter, I kept getting the #Follow Friday hashtag on Twitter as the person who is sweet, inspiring, and nice. Well, that was fine, but the problem with that was that no one was thinking of me as the person they looked to for business advice.  As the owner of an online business training company, that was not good. I then realized that I hadn’t really been paying attention to how I was being perceived on Twitter. I just assumed that everyone who was following me on Twitter knew I had an online business training company because it said so on my bio. What that experience taught me was that I needed to change the type of content I was posting on Twitter. I then began to post less of the inspirational and uplifting quotes I loved to share and more useful small business and entrepreneurial related information. Within six weeks, I began to see  much different commentaries for the #Follow Friday hash tag under my name @BrendaHorton. The comments were more in alignment with my online business training company. I knew that my changes were effective when a Hewlett Packard representative contacted me on behalf of their small business division to discuss a product they were launching for the small business community.

At the risk of oversimplifying the psychology behind marketing and brands, I hope you found my explanations relevant and useful to your small business. Do you know how your target audience perceives you? Is your company the first name that pops into the mind of your target audience when they are thinking of buying what they need in your industry?  How can you improve upon your brand?  What are your thoughts on brands, perceptions, and realities?  Please leave your comments below. I’d love to hear from you. If this is your first time stopping by, be sure to subscribe to my blog.  I write a blog post about once a week on business tips and strategies.

CARE About Them

I used to work in the real estate industry and for many years the Brokers held the keys to the kingdom, meaning that only THEY had access to the listings. Today, the power lies in the hands of the customer with access to mountains of information on the internet.  Yes, the business world is continuing to change at lightening speed. With information being indexed, categorized, organized, systematized, ranked, tweeted, posted, podcast, videoed, etc., it is the customer who now sits on the almighty throne with access to all this data. Not a day goes by that I don’t receive a comment from a small business owner trying to understand how to make sense of all this.

It starts with VALUES

Zappos, the online shoe company understands this very clearly.  They VALUE the art of caring. Their customer service department lies within their marketing department. In other words, what most companies would spend on marketing and advertising, Zappos spends on taking care of their customers. It’s one of the reasons why they were able to scale so quickly and position themselves to be sold to Amazon for over a billion dollars.  One of their customer service phone calls lasted six hours. Yes, it’s built into their business model. Paying an employee to chat with a customer is a lot cheaper than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on manipulative advertising. You know the deceptive formula. Pay famous celeb or athlete millions of dollars to promote, use, and wear, product and YOU (customer) will begin to feel, look, think, and act like that famous celeb or athlete too.  Zappos is way ahead of the curve, an early-adopter. They know that customers are tired of the non-stop bombardment of ads. That’s why TiVo is so popular. Actually, Zappos is just displaying good old-fashion customer service built into a profitable business model. Let the customer try as many shoes as she wants and send the ones she does not like back to Zappos.  Good old-fashion customer service — seems to be working for them.

Best Buy gets it too. They too VALUE the art of caring.  That is why you see a Best Buy greeter at the entrance of every Best Buy store.  They know we want to be acknowledged when we enter their domain. Their employees are trained to validate our egos every step of the way as we ask the endless train of questions on the latest geek gadget of the month.  They even take back our broken electronics when bought from a different store location without a receipt. Why? Because they know how fast geeky guys and gals communicate online and tell all their geeky friends. True story. Happened to me a few months ago.  It was the most positive retail experience I have ever had in my entire life.  In today’s business environment, happy customers tell their friends online. Unhappy customers tell the world online. Take CARE of your customers.

What about YOU? What are you doing to take CARE of your customers? Do you VALUE the art of caring? I think we all have room for improvement. I know I certainly do. Any thoughts? Please post your comments below.

UCLA Graduation 2010 History Department

Do You Have An Aptitude For Business?

I attended my nephew’s graduation ceremony from UCLA this past weekend and the businessman who gave the commencement address carried my memory back to when I was graduating from college.  He gave me much to ponder about my own personal journey towards becoming an entrepreneur. You see, my nephew has graduated with a Liberal Arts degree in History and the commencement speaker holds a degree from History too.  The point he was making is that just because you get a degree in a non-business school does not necessarily mean you won’t end up working for yourself someday. Nor will you keep the same job for long in today’s rapidly changing business environment.  I obviously did not know that I had an aptitude for business, networking, sales and marketing, customer service, self-motivation, strategy, and leadership the day I graduated from the College of Communications at the University of Texas in Austin.  I guess I should have known had I been paying closer attention to what interested me and what activities I was drawn to. The signs were there all along:

• Spear-headed the occasional summer sno-cone stand in my neighborhood (self-motivation and sales & marketing.)
• Thrived in sports competition since grade school (strategic.)
• Captain of the Varsity volleyball team in high school (leadership.)
• Could not wait to get my first real-paying job as soon as I was old enough to start working, which was the local grocery store (self-motivation.)
• Fired from the local grocery store in high school because I was spending too much time talking to the customers (networking.)
• Always had a dream of doing something on my own even though I had no idea what that would be (entrepreneurship.)
• Ignored people (teachers, bosses, aunts, uncles, neighbors, etc.) in positions of power whom I perceived to be incompetent (self-confidence.)
• Received numerous awards for outstanding customer service as a flight attendant for major airline company. (This was my first job right out of college.)

What Has Been Your Personal Journey Towards Entrepreneurship?

I believe there is not one RIGHT path to entrepreneurship.  I meet hundreds of small business owners every year and I am always intrigued and interested to learn how they decided to go work for themselves.  Personally, I can definitely say that I have grown into becoming a business woman over the years. Let me give you an example. Upon graduating from college, I had a yearning desire to travel the world. I wanted to experience other cultures, places, food, and people. So, I became a flight attendant for a few years. While flying the friendly skies, I had my first real business experience with cutting costs. The CEO of the airline decided to cut out the olives in the salads in First and Business Class travel. That seemed like a minor decision. However, that one decision saved the airline $40,000 a year! That was chump change to a very profitable airline, but it nevertheless was an expense that was removed, which meant every expense mattered.  Obviously, one could argue that the CEO should have renegotiated the olive contract with the supplier. Or, he should have found a cheaper olive vendor that wanted to expand market share. The story here is that I learned a lot about business from being a flight attendant. Not because it was the airline’s intention, but because by the time I graduated from college, I started to pay closer attention to everything around me. I was observant. I learned a lot about company culture, branding, customer and employee attitudes, diplomacy, top-down leadership, how upper-management was perceived by the laborers, procedures, etc. I also learned a lot about myself and one thing was clear. I was definitely not the corporate type. How about you? When did you decide to become an entrepreneur? When did you realize that you could no longer work for someone else? What was the turning point for you? Did you always know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? I Would love to hear your story! Please post your comments below.

It's a dialogue not a monologue.

Networking Should Never Be Dull

You’ve heard the saying, “People buy from people they know, like and trust.” Nothing builds trust in a relationship faster than a face-to-face interaction. As powerful as online networking is, there is nothing more magical than connecting with another human being in person.  So, here are 10 TIPS on how to be a dynamic host at your very own networking event:

1. Have a designated greeter at the entrance. It’s just plain good manners to welcome people at your event.

2. Use name tags. If it is an event where most people have only met online or don’t know each other, please offer name tags. Most people are not good with remembering names, especially if they are meeting a lot of people for the first time.

3. Be a connector by introducing people to one another. Many people are not naturally comfortable going up to someone and introducing themselves. It was a big deal for them to actually show up. So, make it easy for people to engage in conversation with one another by introducing them to each other.

4. Keep announcements to a minimum. People came to network. They don’t want to listen to a speech.

5.  Say good-bye to your ego. It’s not about impressing your guests. It’s about making your guests feel welcomed and comfortable.

6. Don’t be a Poser. In other words, don’t pretend to be someone or something you are not. People can detect a lack of authenticity immediately and it is a big turn-off.

7.  Be courteous. Duh! Yes, I feel the need to state the obvious because I am amazed at how people don’t seem to be conscious of their lack of consideration for their guests. Being courteous is really about being considerate. It’s about anticipating the needs of your guests and making sure those needs are being met. Upon arrival for example, be proactive and point out where the restrooms are or any other important information.

8. Don’t talk adnauseam about yourself, your kids, or your pets. Nobody really cares. Unless you are talking to someone who genuinely does, (you will know because they will keep asking questions) don’t do it. Networking is inherently designed to have a dialogue not a monologue. So, ask questions. It’s about sharing in a conversation.

9. Be present. If someone interrupts you (which we all know is rude) while you are talking to someone else, the temptation is to turn your attention to the interruptor. Don’t leave your initial conversation and start another conversation with the interruptor. Just turn to the interruptor and say, “As soon as I am done talking to (say person’s name) I will be available.” Then quickly turn away and give your attention back to the person you were talking to and finish the conversation. This is a hard one and takes practice, because we naturally want to please everyone who wants our attention. It requires being fully present and grounded in the moment so that you are not easily distracted.  When you drop a conversation and divert your attention to another conversation without finishing it, you are in essence saying, “You are not important to me. I don’t care about you.” Is that the impression you want to give to your guests?

10. Follow-up. Be sure  to follow-up with your guests/attendees and ask them to comment on their overall experience, especially if it is going to be an ongoing scheduled event. Feedback is critical to the overall success of your ongoing events.

You’ve heard the other saying, “People may forget what you said or what you did, but they will never forget how YOU made them FEEL.” Everyone wants to feel special, especially your guests. Why do you think Oprah has guests that are CRAZY about her show? She knows how to make them feel special.

Do you have a networking tip to share? Feel free to add any other networking tips on the comments below.  We can all learn from one another.

SXSW Networking Rocks

As I mentioned in my last post, I am a self-described Technophobe-turned-Technolovah. It’s the social media stuff that I really love. My business partner is the real Techie, (not to take anything away from us power-users.) I am just coming off the high from all the incredible people I met at South by Southwest a few weeks ago!  I can’t remember the last time I got so jazzed about attending a business related conference. While the lectures and panels were organized and structured, it was the impromptu networking where I found the most value. It felt like all the top social media thought leaders, passionate technology lovers, and creative business minds came together to play and I was invited to play too.

The Movers and Shakers at SXSW

I got  to meet the ever polite Darren Rowes of ProBlogger, a great resource for blogging tips. I chatted with Lewis Howes, who has an e-book on advanced strategies on LinkedIn at LinkedIn Marketing. I bumped into David Meerman Scott in the blogger’s lounge, author of  The New Rules of Marketing & PR. I also connected with Brian Clark of CopyBlogger at a TweetUp. In addition, I met up with Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival and Erica Douglass of Erica.Biz. There were hundreds of movers and shakers at SXSW and most of them were incredibly accessible and genuinely engaging.

Vandalism Strikes during SXSW

I had the privilege of interviewing all these bright social media experts, which I had planned on posting the videos here on Hware’s blog site. Unfortunately, my FLIP video camera was stolen from our car while parked near Town Lake before I could transfer the interviews to my computer. I am currently working on rescheduling virtual interviews with all of them.

The Conversations at SXSW

I also met Guy Kawasaki  of  AllTop, Brian Solis, author of Engage, Erik Qualman, creator of the overwhelmingly popular YouTube video,  SocialNomics, Gary Vaynerchuck of WineLibraryTv.com and one of my all-time favorites, Jason Fried of  37 Signals, whose book, Rework, I just finished reading. I attended a “Women Who Love Tech” MeetUp in the Consciousness Lounge and hung out with other Geeky Gals. There were also some fascinating technology startups, whose founders were contagiously energetic and refreshing. I loved the vibe they brought to the conference. One startup that really caught my attention was Trenspot.com, a website that tracks trending topics on popular websites. What a wicked marketing tool, I thought. There were also some very cool social networking app companies like FourSquare, which many seemed to be using at SXSW. And, there was NutshellMail, and Foodspotting, which were finalists at the Microsoft Biz Spark Accelerator event.

More Photos of SXSW

I see why SXSW has been described as Burning Man with laptops and toilets. In spite of the misfortune of my FLIP being stolen, I had an incredibly positive experience at SXSW.  Whether it was the parties, MeetUps, TweetUps, hallways, blogger’s lounge, exhibitors show room, or restaurants, there was always someone interesting to meet. At SXSW, you never know when you are going to bump into the CEO of Twitter and strike up a conversation with him (you can read about it on my previous post.) Here are some photos I took from SXSW! I am already looking forward to returning again next year! How bout you? Are you coming? Let’s connect!

I SEE YOU

There’s no doubt that the movie Avatar has captured the imagination of millions. So what does a Hollywood film have to do with business owners? Three words: I SEE YOU. In the movie, Neytiri of Pandora looks straight into Sully’s eyes and says to him, “I see you.” Three simple words, yet such profound meaning. Now think about that for a moment. Imagine taking the time to say that to our customers, our vendors, our employees, our subscribers, and our partners.  My observations and life experiences lead me to believe that people have a desire to be acknowledged and treated with dignity and respect. Once you understand that, then you are in a position to better SERVE the people around you whether it be employees or customers. I realize that sounds so obvious, but I am amazed at how oftentimes, businesses just don’t seem to care. By saying, I see you, Neytiri  acknowledged Sully, she validated him, and she showed him that she cared.

I see you means so much more than its literal connotation. It means:

• I am listening to you, Partners, Affiliates and Vendors
• I understand your needs and wants Mrs. Customer
• How can I empower you, Employees
• How can I help you Fans, Followers, Friends
• How can I support you, Subscribers to my blog
• What can I do to serve you, Database of Prospective Buyers
• How can I thank you, Donors

I See You is about the Platinum Rule

Ultimately, I see you means, I am here for you . I care about you. It’s about understanding the needs and wants of the people around you. I see you is more than the Golden Rule — Treat Others the way YOU want to be treated. I see you is about the Platinum Rule — Treat others the way THEY want to be treated. Now, you might say that giving everyone the customized attention and care of the Platinum Rule is not cost effective or realistic, but what I would encourage you to think about is how you can better understand the people around you that help make your business successful.  It’s a known fact that people do business with people who they know, like, and trust.  What are you doing to see the people around you so that they rave about your products and services and refer more business your way? How are you showing them that you care? If you are having a hard time answering these questions, then it’s time to ask them whether it be your employees or customers. I recommend using survey monkey, an online survey tool. By surveying your team, customers, etc., you will get the feedback you need to guide you in the right direction. Lastly, unfortunately, this lack of caring does not seem to discriminate, whether it be big business or small business. Here is a perfect example of someone who felt like his airline did not “See Him.”

Reminder: Just 9 more days left to win an HP iPAQ Glisten SmartPhone.

Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting

A little over two years ago, I organized a charity fundraiser in my community for children in the foster care system. It was a gourmet food and wine tasting event along with a live and silent auction. The goal was to raise over $100,000.00. Anyone who has ever spearheaded a fundraiser, knows how labor-intensive they are even with hundreds of volunteers. One day, I called on a local French restaurant, Le Bilig and asked the chef if  he would be willing to donate a cooking demonstration class that would be auctioned off during the live auction. He graciously agreed and then signed off on all the paper work that committed him to the cause. The terms stated that the donation was valid for one year. Most donation packages have an expiration date.

Goodwill

Fast forward two years and three months later; I get an e-mail from the high bidder of the French cooking demonstration. She told me that she had never “gotten around” to scheduling the cooking class, which was for twelve people and was hoping she could redeem it now. I then offered to contact the restaurant on her behalf. I spoke to the co-owner, Monica (wife of the chef) and explained to her that I realized the donation had long expired and understood if they said no due to the current state of the economy.  She then shared a short story with me about how she herself had once been the winner of a live auction travel package to Mexico and it too had expired. (She had been pregnant and could not fly.) The donors had denied her request to extend it. She said she remembered having ill feelings about the incident and the way it was handled and therefore, did not want the person making the request of her to feel the same. She then agreed to honor the request being made of her on behalf of her chef husband and restaurant.  Now that is what I call over-delivering! It is no wonder that this little family-owned French Bistro is still in business while many restaurants and businesses are closing shop.  Bottom line? Le Bilig Kitchen CARES! Isn’t that what everyone wants from someone they do business with? They want them to care. Period. That small gesture, which was just a ripple, is going to turn into a tidal wave because of all the goodwill she has now created. That’s a lot of goodwill going around during a time when it is very easy to have a scarcity mentality. Another word that comes to mind is ABUNDANCE. I dislike the overuse of a word and abundance seems to be one of those words that is over used a lot lately, but Monica was definitely coming from a place of abundance.

How Do Your Customers Know You Care?

How are you over-delivering with your customers?  Are you coming from a place of abundance or scarcity?  Are you doing things in your business that will make others talk about your business and create buzz in a positive way? What kind of goodwill are you creating for your customers so that they can go out and refer more business your way? I believe there is a time when small business owners should definitely NOT over-deliver, but I will save that for another blog post soon.

By the way, we exceeded our goal of raising $100,000.00 and were able to place over 20 children in permanent family homes on behalf of Sierra Forever Families.

As an online business training and software company, we often get a lot of  small business owners who come to us asking to help them grow their business online.

So I have put together 7 tips on creating an online presence for entrepreneurs:

1. Have a long term perspective about your brand. Word travels fast on the internet so be intentional about your activities online.

2. Do some market research. Find out where your customers are hanging out online and start contributing to the conversation using social media. If the majority of them are on Facebook, then start networking with them on Facebook. The point is to be highly targeted when connecting with your prospective customers online. Otherwise, you can easily waste a lot of time.

3. Put a simple marketing plan together. Putting your intentions to the written word is a powerful exercise that will help you achieve your goals. Be sure to include an action plan. Keep it simple by writing out who is responsible for what by when.

4. Play to your strengths. The point here is to keep it simple by doing what you are good at. Don’t make it so hard on yourself. If you are great at writing, then start a blog. If you are great at speaking, then start vlogging (video blog). Start with one thing that you are good at and then incorporate another thing once you’ve got the first one down.

5. Join industry groups online. There are a gazillion like-minded groups and industry associations on the internet. Check out what your industry is doing online and be sure to connect and network with your colleagues. You never know when a collaboration can turn into something that is mutually benefitting.

6. Track your results. By measuring the outcome of your actions you will see where you need to make improvements to get the results you are looking for. There are a ton of measurement tools on the internet to track your web traffic. Google analytics is a good place to start.

Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Technology is making these techniques less effective and more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls, TiVo makes T.V. advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective. It’s still possible to get a message out via these channels, but it costs more.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.

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