Bored Business

Yaro Starak (the previous owner of this blog) is launching his Blog Mastermind Program. I’ve been listening to his program via the IRiver I received from him in the mail a while ago. I have to be honest to say that I have listened to only a few of the audios as I’ve been busy taking other courses which I’m sure I’ll share here as well.

The one thing I noticed with Yaro is that he has a relaxed voice so it makes it easy to learn from him. I even took him to the gym and it actually motivated me to stay a bit longer on the machines (weird, I really hate exercise).  The funny part was I was working my butt off in the gym I was listening to his interview with Darren Rowse from Problogger, and as I’m listening in the audio was probably half way in I realized that it was Brian Clark from Copyblogger he was speaking with.  Talk about throwing me for a loop! I was wondering where Darren’s accent was.

Anyhow, I’ll be follwing Yaro’s launch for his program since I’m taking one audio at a time from it to learn more about correcting my blogs, building traffic, and best of all making more money from them.

Recently Yaro interviewed a Million Dollar Blogger Alborz Fallah, he’s also one of Yaro’s students. Apparently his blog is valued at $5 Million Dollars (he also got some key investors), which does seem a bit hard to believe, but knowing what I paid for this blog it doesn’t all that surprise me. Would be cool to own a blog worth that much!

I figured we could all learn a few things about blogging from these 2 people who are changing the internet business world.  I’ll be cozying up after the kids go to bed to listen in, I’m really looking forward to some good tips to apply to my own blog and hopefully it will help you with yours as well.

–> You can listen to the audio here.

Not everyone throws on their spidey outfit and relishes leaping into the fray of the business sales arena. As a matter of fact a great deal of people sell because it is just part of what they do. If they could get the sales some other way, they’d probably jump at it. In the mean time all of the reluctant sales people out there, have to do they best they can with the few sale skills they have.

For the past few months I’ve been in touch with several reluctant sales people from around the world, and we’ve been sharing tips and techniques that has made selling a little bit easier. None of these contacts are Anthony Robbins clones or Dale Carnegie wannabe’s, BUT the one thing they did have in common was that they are introverts in an extroverts world. They’re tired of the books on sales that assume you love to put yourself out there.

So guess what? I’ve taken this valuable conversation and put them together in a little eBook that I am giving away for the asking. It was a pleasure putting together this information because of the insight it gave me. This is my first offering in the eBook realm. I call the effort, “The Reluctant Salesperson: An Introvert’s Guide to Selling.”

If you see fit to add this eBook to your reading, I’d love it, if you’d drop back here and let me know what you think. One thing about blogging that I find immensely gratifying is the breadth of opinion - all of it with the goal of helping all of us improve how we do business.

…for all the reluctant sales people who may be too shy to drop by my site and pick up a copy, I don’t mind if you get a friend to do it for you.

All the best.

Are you providing customer-focused service?

This guest post today is by Bill Hogg, www.billhogg.ca

Recently I had to go to a local collision repair shop for an estimate for some repair work on my car. I was sent to this particular shop by my insurance company for a quote, but was told I could have the actual repair done at any accredited collision repair shop.

The first thing I noticed was a sign on the back wall that stated “Quality starts with great service”. I was greeted quickly by the receptionist who took some basic information and then asked me to take a seat indicating an estimator would be right with me.

Well, I sat for 5 minutes watching 2 people sitting at desks working away at their computers. One of them took a phone call and the second commented to the receptionist that she would be awhile. At no time did either acknowledge me.

Suddenly the one who took the phone call stood up and indicated that I should follow him outside to my car. I guess he was one of the estimators.

After asking me some questions and taking some pictures, we returned to his desk where he filled out the forms on the computer and after 10 minutes printed out the sheets and handed them to me. The whole time I sat at his desk, he said not 1 word to me.

So what should I think about the quality of this organization? What do we learn from this example?

They did a good job of setting expectations with their sign. The receptionist was friendly and efficient. But then the problems start to show.

Here are some simple things that I think would have gone a long way to improving the customer experience.

1. Telling me that the 2 estimators were currently finishing a claim and giving me an indication of my wait time would have gone a long way.
2. If the estimator spoke to me rather than the receptionist (I was actually closer) it would have made me feel like a valued customer versus just an inconvenience that needed to be dealt with.
3. Introducing themselves when they asked me to come outside to do the estimate.
4. Explaining what the estimator was doing on the computer would have made me feel part of the process instead of an bystander.

As a result of this experience, I will probably take my business elsewhere rather than dealing with this company in spite of the fact they had been specifically referred by the insurance company as a trusted supplier.

The funny thing is, they already had me in their shop and there would have been no cost to displaying some simple customer service behaviours. No one rude or treated me badly, yet, the poor customer service pushed me away.

Too often we get so busy that we forget the simple things. None of things mentioned would have cost either time or money, yet because they were forgotten, they lost a $3,000 repair bill.

Something to think about.

Bill Hogg works with clients to help activate a “customer-focused” culture that helps employees embrace the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience (BCE) — internally and externally.

As well, he is a very passionate and enthusiastic speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

Always go the Extra Mile

Guest post by Bill Hogg of www.billhogg.ca

Recently MarketingProfs sent out a note about going the extra mile. In it they referenced an article (Giving Firms an ‘E’ for Effort: Consumer Responses to High-Effort Firms) by Andrea C. Morales, assistant professor of marketing at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

Their research indicated that customers reward companies that are seen to go the extra mile — even if they don’t personally benefit from that effort. In fact, customers are willing to pay more for a product, frequent one store rather than another, and, in general, have a more positive impression of a company or brand that is perceived to put in more effort.

Andrea’s explanation is that customers recognize that effort is a controllable behaviour, and as a result, feels gratitude toward firms that work hard.

It reminds me of a review an advertising agency got from a client (our customer) where I worked many years ago. In that review the client was very critical of the creative product and lukewarm on the media and production. However, they were very positive about the account service team because, in their words, “we worked so damn hard”.

They acknowledged that they were not always getting the level of service they expected, but were willing to be somewhat forgiving because of the obvious effort their daily account team was expending on their account. They gave us time to address the issues while putting senior management on notice that something had to be done.

According to the researchers, customers can view a company’s outstanding efforts as either general or personal.

• A company’s actions are considered to be general when they benefit the universe of customers, such as creating new products

• However, a company’s actions are considered personal when the action is deemed to benefit a specific customer (such as outstanding customer service), even if they are not the customer receiving the benefit.

We all know that personal wins because of the emotional connection. However, the interesting notion is the halo effect created by doing a good deed for someone else. My sense is that it is driven by the belief that the company (or person) would do the same for us in a similar circumstance.

I think this concept applies to personal behaviour as well as company behaviour. So demonstrate you are making the effort even if you can’t satisfy your customers need. They will recognize your efforts and appreciate and reward you for your attempt.

Cheers!

Bill works with clients to help activate a “customer-focused” culture that helps employees embrace the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience — internally and externally.

As well, he is a very dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop