the new relationship marketing.. In a nutshell

I love, love, love to read. I can easily go through 2-3 books per week. I just finished reading Mari Smith’s book on relationship marketing and had to share. If you are a reader and a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur this is a must. Mari’s bubbly personality for people come through on every page. The book is a quick read and kept me entertained throughout with relevant stories, humor and humility. For those unable to find the time here are a couple of highlights of The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web by Mari Smith.

1. If you aren’t already, get connected.
2. Connect on a personal level. Develop your soft skills. This means developing your emotional intelligence. Be empathetic to your customers, be personal (use your customers name, sign your name when making social media posts) and always be genuine.
3. Build an online presence and look for opportunities to double your reach. A great example of this is allowing and encouraging seminar attendees to take photos and post to social media accounts during the seminar. This gives the opportunity to extend your reach using other people.
4. Find your fans and turn them into raving fans. A simple idea Zappos uses is to post a photo of their Fan of the Week on their Facebook page. They encourage participation and growth by asking people to post their own pictures on the Zappos page for a chance to be chosen by Zappos fans as the next Fan of the Week. This kind of personal attention goes a long way. Zappos also stays on top of all social media posts and if a customer has a bad experience they are responding quickly and turning the negative into a quick positive.

One of the tips Back Office Betties uses and loves is setting up a Google alert. This allows us to stay on top of mentions of our company. If a customer of ours isn’t happy, we aren’t happy and will do whatever it takes to fix the problem, learn from our mistakes and respond with humility. I encourage each of you to set up your own Google alert. This alert can email you daily or weekly to advise of any mentions of your company online. Set up social media accounts and use them to respond with humility to your customers.

Until next time…

Emily

Three Easy Ways To Connect With Customers

Business owners how connected are you? What do you really know about your customers? Did you know the average consumer will spend more money on a service or product when they have a connection to the person doing the selling? People expect the service bar to be consistently moving. If it’s not reliable and on the up and up how will you hold on to your customers? Here a five ways you can connect on an emotional level with your customers.

1. Learn and use your customers names. Dale Carnegie knew what he was talking about in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People when he said “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language”. Allow it to flow naturally a couple of times in the conversation. Don’t randomly shove it in where it won’t be sincere. Great example: “Bob, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with you today…”

2. Social Media – okay I know you are soo tired of hearing tweet this and Facebook that but this is the world we live in. Your customers are tweeting, yelping and Facebooking so it’s time you did too. Make sure to read and RESPOND to feedback particularly negative feedback. Social Media is the place to learn from mistakes and even enhance the way you do business by listening to your customers and thanking them for feedback, good, bad and the downright UGLY! If Social Media isn’t your thing or you hate the idea of digging through the internet for posts from your customers there are tons of tech nerds who are willing to do it for you. Meet Tech Nerd Bettie (shameless plug I know!).

3. Listen and share – Reveal something relatable and personal in your conversations with customers. This should not include your deepest darkest secrets but something simple and brief. I mean we don’t want to make this ALL about you right? I’m going to let you in on one of Betties secret tricks. We add interesting details we gain from a customer into our customer notes. For example, John mentioned he needs Back Office Betties to provide Virtual Receptionist services while his wife is having their first baby. I may mention that I recall the joy of being home with my first child and what a great gift John is giving his wife by allowing our Betties to help him out so that he and his wife can focus on the important stuff. When I have my next consultation with John you can bet I’m going to ask how his wife and baby are doing.

Little extras will go a long way with your customers. Service excellence costs you nothing but gives you everything! I can’t wait to hear how these tips have helped you to wow your customers! Post comments below.