How Can A Server Crash Become a Feature Of Your Service?

If you’re running a big promotion, one of the worst things that can happen is that it goes too well, and you get swamped with enquiries. Customers hate missing out because your phone lines are too busy, your store is too crowded, or your Web site crashes because too many people are trying to use it.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened last November with the Click Frenzy promotion, which involved a number of Australian retailers getting together for a one-day online sale. It was promoted very heavily, and – not surprisingly – the servers crashed on the day, leaving lots of customers fuming.

But what if you could turn that possibility into an opportunity? That’s exactly what the Catch of the Day Web site has done. They have been promoting a big online sale today, and their advertising has even been suggesting their servers might crash:

catchapalooza

This is an excellent example of setting your customer’s expectations of their experience. Of course, nobody wants the servers to crash, but Catch of the Day has helped prepare customers for that possibility.

Expert Gold Radio: Taming The E-Mail Tiger

Expert Gold Radio brings you monthly ideas, information, interviews and insights into leveraging your leadership – through better communication, on-line learning and Internet marketing.

Listen to the episode here:

Download the MP3 file here

Out of Office: Building Your Personal Brand

In this conversation, Chris Pudney and I describe some practical things you can do to build your personal brand – whether you’re an employee or a business owner.

Get the book “Out of Office” here.

Seven Steps for Writing Effective E-Mail – with Steuart Snooks

E-mail and productivity specialist Steuart Snooks talks about the importance of thinking carefully when writing your e-mail, and shows how writing better e-mail can reduce your incoming e-mail overload as well.

Visit Steuart’s Web site here.

Out of Office: Brand You

Brand YouWhether we’re employees or business owners, it’s more important than ever before for us to create our personal brand.

Listen to the episode here:

Download the MP3 file here

Buy the book here (available at a reduced price for a limited time).

Additional resources:

The Keynote: A Humorous Interlude

starfishLet me tell you a true story …

I was walking along the beach one day, feeling lucky. My life was good. I had all my ducks lined up in a row. Whatever I had believed, I had conceived and achieved. And when the going had been tough, I’d got going.

As I walked, I saw a starfish lying in the sand. I picked it up and asked him, “What are you doing?” He replied, “I’m building a cathedral.” But he clearly wasn’t. So I threw him into the ocean.

Suddenly I felt a force in my back, and I was thrown face first into the sand. I turned to see a group of monkeys aiming a large hose of jet-cold water at me.

“What did you do that for?” I yelled. They stopped, and looked at each other, puzzled. “Err, there’s no ‘I’ in team,” one said haltingly, and then added, “Although, now that I think of it, there are two in ‘schizophrenia’.”

“Ummm … We were just shifting your paradigm”, said another.

“No, no”, said a third. “We moved your cheese.”

I just stared at them, until eventually one of them muttered, “Nobody ever asked us that before”, and they skulked away.

I turned away in disgust and looked out to the ocean. Suddenly, to my horror, I saw a battleship heading towards the beach, and – what’s more – right into the path of my starfish.

I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled across the water, “Turn 10 degrees to port – now!” In reply, their loudhailer boomed back at me, “No, YOU turn 10 degrees to starboard – now!”

They were in trouble – BIG trouble. But I had a positive attitude, which was contagious – and I hoped it was worth catching by the men on that ship. I called back again, “I’m warning you – turn 10 degrees to port – NOW!” But the reply came back, even louder, “And I’m warning YOU – turn 10 degrees to starboard!”

What could I do? They were heading straight for shore. “Stop! Danger!” I yelled. But the reply came back, “I stop for nobody. I’m a battleship.”

Quickly, I thought outside the nine dots and yelled back, “I’m a lighthouse”. Unfortunately, it was daytime, and they could see I obviously wasn’t. So they ignored my warnings and headed straight for the shore.

I knew I had to lead, follow or get out of the way. I got out of the way. Unfortunately, the starfish wasn’t so lucky.

I tell you this story not to sadden you – because the sun is always shining even when you can’t see it – but to inspire you.

Nor to apologise – because love means never having to say you’re sorry – but to theorise.

And not to point a finger at the commander of that battleship – because whenever I do, there are two fingers pointing back at me (there used to be three, but I lost one in a freak accident when I lost concentration while sharpening an axe for six hours) – but to point YOU in a new direction.

You see, that was in the past, and the past is just a memory. All we have is the gift of now – that’s why we call it the “present” (Ummm … and the gift of tomorrow, I suppose – that’s why we call it, err, the future. But that’s another story).

I felt bad at the time, but it WAS in my past. Looking back now, I realise it didn’t make a difference to me. But it did to that starfish.

Expert Gold Radio: Personal Branding

Expert Gold Radio brings you monthly ideas, information, interviews and insights into leveraging your leadership – through better communication, on-line learning and Internet marketing.

Listen to the episode here:

Download the MP3 file here

Personal Branding – with Michael Neaylon

Join brand expert Michael Neaylon as we talk about the importance of building a strong personal brand – one that’s aligned with your values and dovetails with your organisation’s brand as well.

Visit Michael’s Web site here or read his blog here.

Out of Office Trends for 2013

The Internet has given us so much more flexibility in the way we organise our work and home life, and my co-author Chris Pudney and I discuss this in our book Out of Office. We recently talked about some things that are changing in this world, and came up with 8 predictions for 2013.

Get the book “Out of Office” here.

Build Great Experiences Into Your Products

koko-blackIt’s no longer good enough to sell just products or services. In simple terms, products can be outsourced to China and services can be outsourced to India. What can’t be outsourced are experiences.

Kevin Kelly, in his e-book Better Than Free, suggests eight factors that allow you to compete in a market where customers expect everything free. These eight factors apply whatever your price, so let’s look at how you can incorporate them into your products.

Immediacy

Some people value speed of delivery, and are willing to pay for that experience. So look for ways to tailor your products and services for immediacy. This is, of course, easier when you’re delivering electronic products; but it can sometimes apply to other products and services as well. For example, if you’re selling (physical) books, let the customer download a PDF version immediately, so they don’t have to wait for the book to arrive by mail.

Personalisation

Many businesses allow you to create personalised versions of their products and services. Personalisation is not just about expanding your range to cater for a wider range of tastes; it’s about creating unique products for each customer.

Interpretation

Don’t assume your customers will know how to make the most of their purchase. You have far greater experience with it than they do, so improve their experience by explaining how they can use it.

Imagine yourself as a customer buying your product, and ask yourself what they would need to know to use it. Then build that into your product offering.

Authenticity

Although some people like the perceived value of a fake Gucci handbag or a fake brand-name watch, others value the experience of knowing it’s authentic. If your customers value authenticity and you provide the “authentic” version, emphasise this feature.

The fake/real comparison is one obvious way to show authenticity; but you can also demonstrate it by being “the original”, “the first” or “the source”.

Accessibility

Some customers value the freedom of being able to access your products and services from anywhere, rather than being restricted by location or technology.

Consider when and where your customers will want access to your product. For example, if you sell a DVD about how to chair difficult meetings, that’s useful for the initial training, but not so useful just before the customer’s next difficult meeting. So you can also create a smart phone app with short video tutorials for handling the most difficult meeting situations, so customers can refer to it just before they walk into that meeting.

Embodiment

The same product, packaged in a slightly different way, can create a totally different customer experience.

The board game Pictionary is, in effect, a paper-and-pencil version of the centuries-old acting game of charades, but the board game comes packaged in a nice box, with a board, cards and dice. That makes it a different experience – and a profitable product.

Mattel recently released a new version, Pictionary Man, which replaces the cards with a computer and adds a model of a man, which reintroduces the idea of acting to the game:

Fans of Lego can now buy Creationary, which is essentially Pictionary with Lego blocks.

None of these variations change the essential object of the game, but they change the experience of playing it, so they have value to the customer. Die-hard board game fans (such as my family!) own all the variations, and will happily buy new versions when they become available.

You can do the same with your products. Look for different ways to package up the same essential service, to change the experience and appeal to different groups of customers.

Patronage

If you provide high-quality products and services, your customers want to support you, and will do so if you let them.

When English rock band Radiohead released its album In Rainbows in October 2007, they offered it as a download for whatever price the customer was willing to pay. Most people (about two-thirds) paid full retail price. Later, when it was released through regular retail outlets, it hit the Number One position in the UK Album Chart in its very first week.

You might be able to apply the same principle to your products or services, either offering them free or at a customer-determined price. If you have a loyal customer base, many of them will pay a reasonable price (or even more) because they like you, like your business or like a cause you’re supporting.

Findability

When there are too many choices, customers will pay for advisers to help them filter out what’s irrelevant.

If your products and services aren’t as extensive as your competitors’, this might be a benefit, not a drawback. Customers don’t want all the available options; they would rather have a few specifically relevant to them.

Think You Know the Best Way To Grow Your Business? Think Again

A “SWOT analysis” – where you consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – is a common tool for planning and assessing your business. Most people look at these four areas in that order, but there’s a more effective way of working through this process, and it’s a powerful way to identify new potential products and services.

Broadly, a SWOT analysis looks at the present (Strengths and Weaknesses) and the future (Opportunities and Threats). This is important, because it allows you to build on what you have while also planning for what is to come. But instead of looking at these in the order S-W-O-T, it can be more useful to go through the process in the order S-T-W-O.

Let’s look at this for identifying potential new products and services you can offer to existing customers and clients.

1. Strengths

Start with your strengths – in other words, the reasons clients currently choose you, your products and services. This could include things like your price, personal service, unique offerings, trusted relationship with you, and so on.

For example, if you’re a workshop presenter, you might know clients choose you because you have proven results working with their people in the past. As another example, if you’re a financial adviser, your clients might choose you because of your long-term relationship with them.

2. Threats

A typical SWOT analysis now looks at your weaknesses. But to truly understand your weaknesses, you first have to take a glimpse into the future. That’s why the next step should be looking at threats – in other words, things that are potential risks to your current position (despite the strengths of that position).

For example, as a workshop presenter, you might realise that Generation Y is a threat. Why? Because Gen Y employees are starting to move into management positions, and they don’t want to learn in a typical workshop environment. They expect more interaction, more online features, more participative learning, and so on.

For the other example: our financial adviser might identify an economic downturn as a threat. Clients might be demanding more from their advisers, not only in terms of their investments but also in the fees they pay for the advice.

When you look at threats, don’t stop at the first – most obvious – examples. Dig deeper to identify as many possible threats and risks as possible. If they don’t eventuate, that’s good news. But if you miss something, it can take you by surprise!

3. Weaknesses

Now that you know the threats, you can identify the corresponding weaknesses. This is simply a matter of asking why each threat is a threat, and that will point to the weakness.

For example, our workshop presenter’s weakness is that his presentation style – presenting to a group of people sitting in a room – is out of date. It might have worked – and even been the best in the world – in the past, but it’s no longer good enough.

Similarly, our financial adviser might realise she’s not demonstrating enough value to her clients, so they resent paying for her advice.

4. Opportunities

Now that you have identified real weaknesses, they now point the way to potential opportunities.

For example, our workshop presenter can look at ways to change the format and style of his presentations – for example, with webinars before and after the presentation, a Facebook group for participants, a video e-mail course delivered directly to their smartphones, and so on.

Our financial adviser can also identify new products and services, and for her it’s a matter of demonstrating more value. For example, she could run regular webinars for clients, publish a private blog, deliver ongoing education in quarterly seminars, bring in other experts to talk to clients, and so on.

What opportunities did YOU find?

Apply this version of a SWOT analysis to your current offerings, and you’re sure to identify some opportunities for growth and expansion. More importantly, you’ll be creating new products and services that truly serve your clients and customers.

Ask Your Customers What Products To Sell Them

My marketing mentor used to say, “Ask your customers – they are already marketing experts in your industry!”

I saw this in practice recently on the Catch of the Day Web site, where they asked their subscribers to nominate which deal they would like:

This not only allowed Catch of the Day to offer the products that were most likely to sell, but it also generated a lot of buzz around the promotion.

Can you do something similar in your business?

When You Survey Your Market, Ask the Right Question

When doing any marketing, it’s important to understand your audience’s needs. And one of the best ways to understand those needs is to ask them! But it’s not enough to just survey your market and ask any question – you must ask the right question. The best question addresses their needs, based on their knowledge of your topic area.

For example, a novice in this area will be evaluating whether it has any relevance. An expert, on the other hand, is already convinced of its value – they just need to know how to apply it.

The Four Levels of Knowledge

More specifically, when somebody’s evaluating something, they generally go through four stages:

  1. (Why) Is this right for me at all?
  2. (What) If so, what specifically is the best option for me?
  3. (Who) Who is the right person to offer this service?
  4. (How) How do I work with them?

Make sure you match your survey question to their current level.

For example, if you’re a financial planner, your potential clients are asking these four questions:

  1. Do I require financial planning?
  2. If so, exactly what services does a financial planner offer that are right for me?
  3. How do I choose the right financial planner?
  4. How do I work with you?

Ask the Right Question

So, when you’re doing your survey to discover their needs, focus on one of these four stages – the one you think applies to most people in your audience.

In the financial planner example, you might ask one of these questions, depending on where you think they are:

  1. “What is your biggest concern about managing your money?”
  2. “What is your biggest question about financial planning?”
  3. “What is your biggest question about choosing a financial planner?”
  4. “What is your biggest question about working with me?”

If you don’t pitch your question at the right level, you won’t get useful answers – or you might not get any answers at all!

For instance, if your market is full of people who have never thought about managing their money – let alone engaging the services of a financial planner – there’s no point asking them what they would like to know about working with you! Similarly, if you’re presenting a new financial product to your existing clients, they just want to know the facts about the product – they don’t you to ask them about general money management questions.


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