Whether he meant to or not jolly old St. Nick created one of the most recognizable and beloved brands in the western world; one that children have adored and parents embraced for centuries.  Santa Claus has endured wars, depressions, scrutiny (is he real or not??), imposters who tried to tarnish his image (ala The Grinch), and even opposition from certain religious groups.

So how the heck did he do it? How did Santa Claus build such a phenomenon, despite the obstacles and challenges the world threw at him? And what lessons can businesses owners learn from him for building our own brands?

I’ve identified some key things that Santa does to solidify his brand, create raving fans, build trust and grow his Christmas Empire! Here they are, along with the lessons we can learn from his success:

Marketing Lessons from Santa

1.  Santa is painstakingly reliable. Most of us awoke every Christmas morning, year after year, to find a plate sprinkled with cookie crumbs, an empty milk glass, and a bounty of presents; all bearing witness to Santa’s  late night visit. Despite snow storms and freezing temperatures, or dad losing his job, moving to a new house, or fighting with our brothers too much, Santa never let us down. Santa is the epitome of reliability.

Business Lesson:  How reliable is your business? Are you letting customers down?  Like expectant children on Christmas mornings, our customers have high expectations and it’s our job to deliver – or risk losing them.  Make it a habit to ask customers if they’ve ever felt let down by your company, what areas you can improve upon, and what products or services they’d like you to offer.  Being painstakingly reliable builds trust and people buy from companies they trust!

2.  Santa surprises and delights us!  Who doesn’t think of Santa and smile? Why is that? It’s because he always surprises and delights us! Whether it’s flashing a jovial smile and belting out a jolly “Ho Ho Ho”, delivering that Barbie doll we’d been obsessing over for months, or making a surprise appearance with a bag full of goodies at a holiday party, happiness and smiles follow Santa wherever he goes.  

Business Lesson:  Can you say the same about your brand? Does your business leave a lasting smile and happy thoughts? Do you surprise and delight? If not, study your competition and your industry, talk to people, and find out where others let customers down. Then do something that no one else in your industry does.  Find that  “something extra”  to add to your product or service mix.  Customers love the unexpected, so what can you do to leave a lasting impression?

3.  Santa encourages us to write.  Everyone knows Santa loves getting our letters – and even reads every single one of them! And what does he ask of us?  Nothing but a list all the presents we want him to deliver on Christmas morning!

Business Lesson:  Imagine if our customers felt comfortable enough to send us a list of their wants, needs,  and desires. Don’t you think that would help us understand  and serve them better? What can you do to encourage your customers to stay in touch with you?  Since we don’t have our own North Pole address, I’d recommend things like suggestion boxes (on, or offline!), surveys, and, service follow up calls.

4.  Santa rewards good behavior.  ”Have you been naughty or nice?”  Your answer could mean the difference between that diamond necklace you’ve been eyeing or a big ole lump of coal!  

Business Lesson: Businesses can build their brands by rewarding “good” behavior too! Did a customer buy more than usual? Reward them with a discount or an extra freebie. Did a customer refer you or leave a raving Yelp review? Send a special present or gift certificate to say “thank you.” Rewarding good behavior not only shows the customer your appreciation, it encourages them to do it again!

5.  Santa has elves and  8 reindeer- Santa wouldn’t be Santa without his team. Do you think he’d be able to read all of our letters, be painstakingly reliable, or jolly and delightful if he didn’t have a team to help him with all his Christmas responsibilities?  Of course not, so then why do you expect to be able to take care of all of your business responsibilities by yourself?

Business Lesson:  If you don’t have the time to provide the level of service you want, surprise and delight customers – or market and build your business then it’s time to get your own team of elves and reindeer! No one ever built an empire alone…not even Santa.  Want to be insanely popular like Santa?  Then it may be time  to hire some help!

6.  Santa is one-of-a-kind!  Santa has an image like no one else:  long gray beard, velvety red suit, and shiny black boots. Santa has a catch phrase, “Ho, Ho, Ho”.  Santa knows his target market are children. Santa also knows these three things set him apart from the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and moms and dad -  and he used that to build the Santa brand to be the unmistakable symbol it is today!

Business Lesson: Take a look at your business, what can you do to make your business stand out from the crowd? Do you have a unique image? A symbolic uniform? A bright red sleigh pulled by 8 tiny reindeer (Ok, a fleet of bright red trucks will do!)?  A quirky catch phrase? Find your uniqueness and do something big to stand apart from the competition!

Summary:

The bottom line is this: Santa “gets” marketing – he built one of the most recognizable brands that ever existed by doing these 6 things.  Sure, we may never be as popular as Santa but by following his example, we can certainly create our own little world of magic!  Happy holidays! Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.

As the song goes, it’s not easy being green. Well, it’s not easy being the Technical Support guy either. While the rest of us in the Marketing and Customer Service departments tend to get a lot of the fun sides of talking to our customers, that isn’t always the case with Tech Support.

So imagine our glee when Josh, our main Techie Guy, got a present in the mail!

Josh Havener is part of our technical support team. He is the first wave of support for anyone who calls in with any questions or technical issues with our software.

Typically, the calls that Josh receives aren’t full of long thoughtful conversation as generally people who get Josh are looking for some immediate help to get them working again.

So when Josh received a package in the mail on Friday from a happy customer, he was ridiculously excited.

Josh:
Sue Van Fossen (from http://www.granolasnacks.com) originally contacted us because she was having some issues with her plan file not adding things up properly. Thankfully I was able to quickly determine and fix the issue. She was so ecstatic and really grateful. She mentioned sending me something as a thanks, but since I rarely get things like that, I wasn’t really counting on it happening.

After a few days had passed, I received a package in the mail. I say this with a bit of wonder because I never get mail at the office. Curious about what was in the package, I tore into it like a 5 year old on Christmas. Lo and behold, it was a bag of Sue’s Gourmet Rocky Road Granola! This is the first gift that I’ve gotten from an appreciative customer, so I had to share the wealth with some of the people here in the office! It was unanimous, this granola was a hit!

Thanks Sue! Thank you for letting me play a small role in getting your business plan done, and thank you for the delicious granola snacks!

There’s a certain element of sunshine and laughter in the way Sue Van Fossen speaks. It comes through on the phone and you find yourself smiling almost immediately. And to be honest, it’s the exact feeling you get when you taste her Granola Snacks.

I spoke with Sue and her team on a Friday. They had just confirmed getting their snacks into a local winery, The Terra Cotta Vineyards, so they were celebrating a win. Champagne was flowing while we chatted a bit about the background of her company to go along with our review of her delicious snacks.

“I made my first sale to friends and family in 2008. I made $700 in the first month!”  Sue’s friends knew she had a gift. And as friends and family do, they encouraged her to turn what she was doing for free into a business. And if all that encouragement didn’t get her motivated, that first sale of her granola snacks sure did.

Sue quickly realized that working out of her own kitchen wasn’t going to work. Overrun with orders, she needed a better commercial kitchen and more help to keep it going.

Randy Baker brought an extra pair of hands and strong marketing to the business. He saw that they were “maxed out” production wise. They couldn’t make enough granola snacks to keep up with the demand of them.  Randy knew they needed to expand to keep up, but they couldn’t keep funding the expansion with credit cards.

In the middle of this, they realized they wanted to relocate and in their research, realized Columbus, Ohio had stimulus money still available to small businesses. But to access it, they knew they needed a plan. So Randy started a new search, this time for business planning software.

“I love the software for this reason,” Sue breaks in. “The software helped me get a broad view of everything we needed to present as a company.  A real high view of everything. And I realized I could get a high level view of what we were doing and then change it to see everything on a more granular level. What Business Plan Pro did was help me get down on paper what we were doing and which directions we were going that we never stopped to think about before. We had to stop and think about the why and where of our business. Then we could look and see the whole plan which helped us move forward.”

That Friday, as Granola Snacks was celebrating, the three of them, Sue, Randy and Kate Olkonnen, their production manager (aka the Boss) all gathered there, happy and enthusiastic about the business and the possibilities that were coming. It seemed that taking the time to put their plan down and make sure it was the right one was a strategy that was really working.

I didn’t want to take them from their celebration for too much longer,  so I asked what it was that Business Plan Pro had helped with specifically.

It was Sue that answered.

“It helped us see how great of a company we really are! We could see everything we accomplished in a year. It was so exciting! As I was writing it all out on paper, I’d show it to Randy and say, ‘We look so great!’”

There was that sunshine again.

“I was going through a divorce and feeling that I couldn’t keep up. I told my neighbor that I wanted to quit. She said, ‘No! You can’t! Tell me what your next step is? You have to take your next step!’. When I think now that I can’t do this, I remind myself that I can just take one more step. I can take one.”

Walk on, because you can’t go back now, Sue. We’re depending on that sunshine and those delicious treats.

**Update**
We received the following email from Sue last week.

Chelle!
We were approved to apply for the money from the city of Columbus!
We will know 100% in 30 days but pretty much it’s a done deal.

The approval was based solely on our business plan!! Thank you and please thank Josh. We are huge fans of Palo Alto!!

-Sue

Company:  Granola Snacks
Founded: 2008
Website: http://granolasnacks.com
Owned by:  Sue Van Fossen
Description: Granola Snacks is a company comprised of individuals who love to eat, listen to music, and are huge OSU Buckeye fans. We think having a business should be a ton of fun and that’s pretty much our first vocational rule. We are simply what our name says we are.  We believe Granola Snacks should come in delicious crunchewy chunks that are broken by hand and tasted a lot before they are bagged.

While you would like to think that all your customers will enjoy their experiences with your products and services, the truth is that is not reality.

All companies are faced at times with customers who lo and behold will make things difficult for a customer service rep, a manager or even the big boss. The question then becomes, how do you deal with this individual?

Be all Ears, Not all Mouth

The first line of defense is typically the customer service person, be it a phone rep or the administrative assistant/secretary.

Their job quickly becomes that of a fireman, putting the brush fire out before it engulfs an entire department. In doing such a job, there are several key factors that come into play, including:

• Be all ears, not all mouth – The worst thing a customer service rep or other individual handling the angry customer can do is be confrontational right off the bat. Take a few moments to listen to the complaint and see how best to handle it;
• Be composed – It is easy to get caught up in the emotion of things when someone is doing all the talking, interrupting you when you try and talk or even yelling at you. While it is hard, keep your composure. If the issue turns personal, then get assistance from a supervisor;
• Remove the word ‘no’ from your vocabulary – One thing that will escalate the confrontation is if you say no once or several times. Remember, the customer is looking for a solution, not lip service. If you tell them you can’t assist them, you don’t have an answer or you have no idea what is going on, you’re likely to draw more of their rage;
• Provide a follow up message – In the event you do not have an answer for the upset customer, inform them of how you will be able to help them and how soon they can expect that assistance. You may very well have a legitimate reason for not knowing the answer to their question or questions, but don’t leave them hanging, tell them an approximate time and manner of how you will get them that answer.

Reality Isn’t Always the Case

While it sounds good to be calm, cool and collective when dealing with an irate customer, we all know that is oftentimes not the reality of the situation.

Remember, you are a representative of your company, so keep that in mind in the event you feel a bit of a temper explosion coming on. Not only would you be portraying a bad image of yourself, but your company’s reputation for having fiery employees is not something you or your boss wants.

The reality of the situation is that nine times out of 10 the customer is not personally upset with you, just the company you represent. That being said, do not take the complaint personally, but rather due to the fact you represent a certain company, product and service.

Lastly, remember the old adage that “the customer is always right” that was drilled into your head from day one?

While many bosses still swear by that motto, the reality of the situation is that customers are NOT always right. They too sometimes make a mistake on a receipt, a communication they had with one of your co-workers and so on.

Treat each situation individually and make your best judgment as to why this particular customer is so upset with your company.

When you do that, you lessen the chances of a small brush fire getting out of control.

Recently a good friend and fellow small business owner decided enough was enough and fired a pretty big client. It wasn’t an easy decision; she had been working with them for years and the money was good. But the client drained her. She was constantly stressed and knew she was spending way too much time trying to please this unappeasable client. The client treated her poorly, had unrealistic expectations, was a horrible communicator, didn’t follow her advice, was overly-demanding for what he was paying her, and always made her feel as if she wasn’t doing enough – despite the fact that she put in 4 times the number of hours on the account that she did on any other.

Choosing to fire a client is never an easy decision. As small business owners, oftentimes we feel compelled to work with whoever will pay us, because for most of us getting a new client is not an easy feat. But I want you to study your PITA (Pain in the A**) client(s) and get real about how much you really need them. More often than not, when you start doing the math you’ll realize you’re better off without them.

Here are my 7 Signs that it’s time to tell a Client to Take a hike.

1. They treat you like crap – They speak to you like you’re a 4 year old. They constantly compare you to others (usually in reference to cost). They second guess you and basically make you feel like you should quit your day job and become a Walmart Greeter.
2. They don’t value you. You bring a ton of value to their business, and yet they constantly beat you up about price, constantly challenge you to prove your worth, or demand more and more of your time.
3. They act like they own you –They usually aren’t paying you enough and yet they feel like they own you. They call you at all hours of the day and night, including holidays and weekends and expect you to be there instantly. When you aren’t they make you feel bad
4. They are never happy – You bend over backwards trying to make them happy. You feel like it must be you so you work harder, longer, and smarter – and yet they still aren’t happy.
5. Your profit margin is shrinking –On the surface you might think you need this client because they pay you a lot, but start tracking your hours worked vs. revenue. If you break it down you might realize you would be making better money as a Walmart Greeter.
6. Your customer service is suffering – You spend so much time trying to make this one client happy that you barely have time for your other clients – the ones who DO value you. What would it cost you to lose one of those other clients? (Look at their profit margins, NOT their total revenue).
7. You’re beating yourself up- This client is starting to make you doubt yourself. You wonder if you aren’t doing enough or doing it right. You realize this client makes you feel bad about yourself and your product or service.

Of course some of this is about setting expectations right up front about what you will and will not provide. But sometimes we get into things quite by accident; let one late night phone call slide, respond to one holiday emergency out of the kindness of your heart and before you know it becomes an expectation. Take a look at these 7 signs, and if even a few resonate, it’s time to cut your losses and move on!

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.

By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.

Image via Wikipedia

Many business owners ask me for advice about how to market their businesses. Before I can answer that question, I need to know what the business owner’s key marketing messages are and who their customer is. Frequently, I get a perplexed look when I ask for the marketing messages.

Long before you start choosing how you want to market your small business, you have to decide what it is you want to say. What is your marketing message? It’s not uncommon to have different messages for different markets, but it’s critical to focus on something from the start and be consistent. Here are some guidelines that will serve you well:

• Be concise. Don’t include everything there is to know about your business in your marketing materials.  What makes you different from everyone else in the market? Your unique value proposition should be an important part of your marketing message. Otherwise you are just “more of the same.” Stand out from the crowd and give people a reason to do business with you instead of a competitor.
• Be consistent. Don’t confuse people with too many things, and don’t change your message frequently. A consistent message is easier to remember. It takes a while for your message to cut through the clutter and be heard. So if you want your message to resonate, you must repeat the same message time and time again.
• Focus on the customer. Always create marketing messages that feature the customer, rather than your product or service. It is what’s commonly known as the WIIFM—what’s in it for me. For example, let’s say you are a car salesperson and the car you’re trying to sell is equipped with state-of-the-art anti-lock brakes that can stop you from having an accident. Instead of telling your customer the technical safety features of the brake system, share a story. Story-telling is a great sales tool.  So appeal to your customer’s concern for safety. You could explain how your customer’s family won’t be at risk if there is a big snowstorm because of this car’s state-of-the-art anti-lock brakes. See the difference?  As the business owner and primary sales representative, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shows. Listen and learn what their wants are and then you align your message accordingly.
• Deliver on your promises. Never guarantee something in your marketing materials unless you are absolutely positive you can deliver on that promise every single time. Establishing expectations with your market and then not living up to them will tarnish your reputation quickly. News of bad service travels fast.

Finally, make sure all of your marketing messages match your actions. This is known as brand integrity. Lots of business brands make the terrible mistake of saying one thing in their marketing and doing something else when it comes to delivering their products or services. If you tell people in your marketing campaigns that customer service is paramount, but you have people in your organization who ignore complaints or don’t act on orders, then you minimize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Always, walk the talk.

Article by Carolyn Higgins
When I’m giving speeches to groups of small business owners or working with them to build their own marketing systems, I tell them everything we do in business is marketing; from how we answer our phones, to our billing, to how we treat future and existing customers. Marketing is about more than attracting new customers to do business with us – it s about keeping, nurturing, and “wowing” the ones we have so they buy from us again and again and rant and rave about our company to everyone they know.

I had some customer experiences lately that I thought I’d share and see what you all think….

I recently moved into a new apartment. It’s one of those large apartment communities with an onsite office and a team of people to assist tenants and run the property. Here’s what my experience has been like in my short stay here so far:

I just want clean jeans!

We have onsite laundry facilities, which is nice. Before I moved in they told me the machines take cards which you can pre-load with cash to save you the trouble of having to scrape and buy quarters! “This is convenient”, I thought.

Well what they didn’t tell me is that you have to actually purchase the card for $5 and you can’t just go to the laundry room and use your ATM card to load this laundry card, no, you can only load it at the office during office hours and you can only use fives or twenties; no ones, no tens, no change. – Oh and the office does not provide change – I walked in with a ten dollar bill my first time and was told I’d have to walk a block to 7-11 (and buy something) to get change.

Frustrated, I thought “the heck with it, I have enough quarters lying around, I’ll just use my quarters to do my laundry today”. So I go back to my apartment, gather up my laundry and a handful of quarters and head to my new laundry room for the first time. Well didn’t I feel like quite the fool, the coin operated machines DON’T TAKE COINS! So they got me – I HAVE to purchase their little card and I HAVE to play by their rules if I want clean clothes. So this is how it’s going to be, huh?

So this “convenience” turned out to be an inconvenient money-making opportunity for the management company… not a great start.

Rip me off – please!

Next, I left my keys in the lock of the front door after walking my dog Capone one day and they were stolen right out of out of the door…( I heard the “perp” take them…ok, too many detective shows! ) In a panic I called the office, which is about 100 yards away from my front door. I told them the story and asked if they could change my locks right away. “Sure”, they said, “just come to the office and give us a check for $95- you have to pay up front.”

Me: “Umm, but someone has the key to my apartment, I don’t want to leave…”

Them: “Well, we can’t change your locks until we have a check – and it has to be a check from the bank account on file; no cash, no money orders and no cashier’s check.”

Me: “Umm… but someone has the key to my apartment…”

Them: “Well you have to pay up front or we can’t change your locks”

So this is what I heard: “Our $95 is more important than your safety and this is your problem, figure it out”.

They wouldn’t change the locks first – or offer to come and get the check, or even have the maintenance guy get the check from me before he did the work. NO, they insisted I leave my apartment, to which a stranger had a key and hand deliver them payment… I’m not sure which part of “a stranger has a key to my apartment” they didn’t understand.

Alternate scenarios

I’m not writing this to complain or vent about less-than-great customer service (OK, maybe I am a little), I’m writing this because these are perfect examples of the little things businesses do – or don’t do – that influence customer experience. These are 2 great examples of where a company could have “wowed” me but instead made me feel like a mere cog in their gigantic cash-wheel.

Imagine how delighted I’d have been if upon move-in they handed me a laundry card loaded with $10 and said, “Here is your free laundry card to get you started” (you could even bury the cost in the security deposit, if you must!). Instead of feeling nickel and dimed, inconvenienced, and sorry that I’m living in a place run by a huge faceless, uncaring, inhuman corporation that only cares about the bottom line, I’d have been happy and thankful.

Or what if one of the three women who work in the office had offered to walk the 100 yards to my apartment to pick up my check for the lock change fee so that I didn’t have to worry that I might be walking into an ambush when I came back to my apartment? Imagine how I’d have felt if they put my safety ahead of their lousy $95 and “corporate policy”. Do you think that would have made me a raging fan? I probably would have been writing a very different blog!

A lesson for all business owners

So I challenge you to reflect: what do you do in your business to make your customers feel special? To make them feel taken care of? And, what do you do to make them feel put out and inconvenienced? It may be the little things you never even considered. I advise business owners all the time to think of ways they can ‘wow” their customers every day – it isn’t easy and you need to step outside of your business and look at it with a fresh set of eyes (customer surveys are a great tool to do this). But I guarantee, if you can achieve that your business will thrive!

Starbucks is often touted as a Facebook success story. Well, Starbucks is pretty much a business success story, but that doesn’t mean everyone can, or should, emulate them.

Alex Wheeler, Starbucks’ Director of Digital Strategy, explains their Facebook success as the result of creating a relationship with their customers as fans, through brand stories and daily interaction. I think even Facebook would have a hard time listing someone as “in a relationship” with a multi-million dollar company, but that seems to work for them.

Chances are that you are running a small business, not a national or international brand, and need to take a different tack. Lucy Beer, of Web Training Wheels, puts it really well:

“Here’s what no one in the social media space seems to want to say: Facebook is a difficult place to reach new eyeballs organically if you do not already have good brand awareness. There I said it. If you are trying to use Facebook to reach a new audience, organically (i.e. without paying for Ads), from scratch – you are facing an uphill battle.”

Beer goes on to cite a social media study showing that people become fans of companies they’re already customers of, and the most popular reason is to receive discounts and promotions. Despite social media’s claim to helping build communities, “to be part of a community of like-minded people” was the least likely reason for someone to fan an organization (nonprofits may be the exception). Combined with previous research on social followers, the data suggest that what your fans really want is insider tips on the latest news, specials, and promotions – privileged access.

So, what are you giving your fans that makes them come back?

Sara Prentice Manela
Editor

P.S. Speaking of Facebook – Have you joined our fanpage?

“Your usual?”

I nod and smile, anticipation already setting in for my medium white chocolate annihilator coffee. “Thanks,” I answer.

I hear the chatter of my co-workers around me, feel the warmth of the sunshine and stare at the moving traffic going by. I idly play with the Big Name Coffee Franchise coffee-sleeve in my hand as I wait.

“Having a good day so far?” The barrista’s name is Adam. He knows my name as well as most of my co-workers names. He’s one of those people who can be super cheerful without it being too annoying.

It’s just on 9 am. No real way to determine a good or bad day, but I’m out of the office, on a short walk to get coffee. My co-workers are laughing in their small group, already sipping on their coffee orders. How can that be bad?

“So far.” I smile again, it just feels like the right thing to say. I’d rather not commit to the tone of the day before my coffee.

The barrista, Adam, frowns at me. Not really a frown, more of an exasperated smile and holds out his hand, “Give me that.”

I offer up the coffee sleeve, the brown cardboard transfers from me to him without a word because before coffee I’m usually better at just following directions.

My attention back to my co-workers, I offer a comment to their current running joke, then hear my name again.

I turn, delighted that my coffee is ready and already neatly tucked into the sleeve. I take it, immediately grateful for the caffeine infusion that is almost, literally, within my grasp.

But something is off? The feeling against my hand isn’t the same as it was when I gave the sleeve up.

I turn the cup. The branded Big Name Coffee Franchise name has been covered by a sticker. “Dutch Bros Coffee” now replaces it.

I laugh, delighted.

“Having a good day now?”

“Yeah,” I say. “It’s gonna be fantastic.”

My small group moves away, back down the street towards work and phones and emails. We’re all still laughing and have yet another reason to come back tomorrow. Happy, long-time customers not just by convenience … but by choice.

Sometimes, it really is the little things that matter to a customer. First-time customer to long-term customer… service that maintains a high level consistently is noticed and rewarded.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Dutch Bros Coffee customer since 2005

Is email useful as a way of providing customer service? Pete Slease, a Customer Contact Council member advisor, apparently doesn’t think so. On the CCC blog in February, Pete wrote:

Call me the jaded contact center geek, but it seems that the usefulness of email as a service channel has expired.  I recognize some B2B interactions may be an exception to the rule – given more regular customer interactions – but for most service interactions, it’s a poor channel.

After receiving poor email customer service, Pete took to the blog, basically saying that offering email customer service isn’t worth the cost. It’s too time consuming, he wrote. Too hard to manage.

photo from the DailyMail.co.uk

On February 11, the day Pete posted his blog, (a Thursday, when things are typically rather slow around here at Palo Alto Software), our main 800 number received 104 phone calls. Of those calls, 11 came before business hours, 10 after business hours and 9 lasted less than one minute (suggesting they hung up before speaking with an agent). Either those 30 customers (or potential customers) called back another time, left a voicemail, or gave up. Or sent an email when they realized the office was closed. Regardless, they didn’t get the information they were seeking on their first try.

On the same day, our Customer Service mailboxes received 40 emails. Every one of them, regardless of the time it was sent, was answered without any additional effort on the sender’s part. A quick look at the Contact Us page on our website shows that our current adjusted average response time for those mailboxes is 9 minutes. Which means during business hours, that’s how long our customers waited to hear back from us. The customer who sent an email at 2:48 a.m. experienced the longest wait for a reply that day. Our response was timestamped 7:30 a.m., which means he heard back from us in less than five hours.

So the question was: is email a useful way of providing customer service? Based on the numbers, the answer is: How could you think otherwise??

Roughly a third of our communications on a randomly selected day took place via email. Our customers in different time zones were able to send their message on their time, without having to schedule their day (or night) around a phone call. And every single customer who sent an email got a reply.

The real issue isn’t whether email is useful as a customer service channel. That’s a given. It’s how do you maximize its usefulness?

The answer to that question is simple. You don’t just put an email address out there for the public and call it email customer service. You might as well hire a trained monkey. Instead, you put together a good team, prioritize email and build efficiencies into your workflow.

You incorporate a tool like Email Center Pro which is ideal for upping your email customer service game. It provides features that help users respond to emails quickly, consistently, and accurately. It lets customer service managers track response times, employee productivity, and overall traffic. The more efficient you are at responding to email, the more you can handle. Which improves your bottom line AND makes your customers happy.

(It also makes it easy to extract the information you need for your blog. With about three minutes of effort, I was able to see all the email sent and received by our customer service team on February 11.)

Back to Pete. He was the victim of poor customer service, which can (and does) happen sometimes no matter what channel the customer chooses. And interestingly, as he questions email’s usefulness and whether it’s cost effective, he writes:

I’m getting ready to send my third email to get a simple issue resolved.  What if that issue was really complex? Despite any e-mail management system the company has, there is an increasing labor cost for each additional e-mail. Plus, I’m almost ready to call, which adds on the handle time of a frustrated customer.

How useless could email be if, even after two unsuccessful contacts, he’s sticking with it and is only ‘almost ready’ to pick up the phone?

Sounds like he should be making a case for better customer service through email, rather than no email customer service at all.

Jay Snider
Editor, Palo Alto Software

It’s Referrals Week over at the Duct Tape Marketing blog, and this morning features a great article by Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation, on how giving referrals to other businesses can actually help your own:

“Here is the good news: one of your unique differentiators can be your ability to refer your clients to fantastic people who compliment your work. You don’t have to know everything. You just have to know people who do.”

Read the full post at the Duct Tape Marketing blog…