Strategy

5 Keys to a Rock Solid Guarantee

March 27, 2007

Guarantee2 If you’ve been following our very insightful conversation about whether or not you should offer a guarantee to your clients/customers, you might have decided it’s for you.

If so — here are 5 keys to a rock solid guarantee:

Only promise what you can deliver.  In the comments section David Reich tells the story of a client who wanted him to promise a Business Week cover. He wisely and ethically refused. 

Be straightforward. A guarantee that requires 3 paragraphs of disclaimers is going to be viewed accurately.  You don’t really intend to ever honor it.

No legalese. Use plain old English. 

Prep your staff. Make it very clear how you’d like your team to respond if a customer invokes the guarantee.  Give them the tools, the procedure and the permission to honor your promise.

No questions, no hesitation, no excuses.   Just do as you promised.  Apologize.  And ask for another chance.

No one pleases their clients 100% of the time.   Why not give your customers a way to express their discontent (better to tell you than 20 of their friends) and give you a chance to make it right?

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Should you offer a guarantee?

March 25, 2007

Guarantee2 You probably already do, implicitedly. 

After all, if a customer is very unhappy with your service or product aren’t you going to do something — fix it, replace it, return it, repeat it, refund it– to make them happy?

Offering a guarantee is just merchandising and marketing your unspoken policy.  But, the difference between letting it just be assumed and using it as a marketing advantage can be notable.  Here are some of the advantages:

  • It reassures the first time buyer that they have a safety net
  • It sets the bar for your employees
  • It gives you a platform to have a "here’s what we expect" conversation with your sub-contractors
  • It clearly communicates your confidence in your product/service
  • It allows you to define the terms of how you satisfy an unhappy client up front

You’re going to make it right anyway — so why not use it as a point of difference?

What experiences have you had with a guarantee — either as the customer or the company?  Do you have a nightmare to share?  Has it ever saved a customer relationship for you?

Flickr photo courtesy of mrshawn.

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How do you fuel anticipation?

March 21, 2007

Heinz Anticipation.  (For the 30+ crowd, you should be singing by now.)

What a powerful and often over-looked marketing tool.  How could it enhance our customer’s experience?  Think about these buying situations:

  • A couple books a cruise 9 months in advance. 
  • A client gets fired up during the discovery process but must now wait 3-6 weeks for a logo design.
  • A bike enthusiast puts in his order for the new Harley which will be off the line in 15 months.

Let’s face it, we want them to be counting the days.  To be watching the clock.  To be talking about the pending delivery to their peers and colleagues.  We want them to be hungry for the pay off, right?

Here’s my question to you — how do you keep a client’s enthusiasm bubbling while you are back at the shop, toiling away?  This is a question we still wrestle with at MMG.  We’re not as good at this as I’d like us to be.

Looking for a great example of someone who does do it well?  It won’t shock you to discover that Disney is always working on improving in this arena.  Most people book their Disney vacation at least 6+ months in advance.  They have an extensive Vacation Planning Kit, which includes a DVD that I guarantee you gets watched many times before the actual journey begins. By adults and kids alike.  But they decided that wasn’t enough anticipation buzz.

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So, they’ve just launched their new Customized Maps which allow you to create your family’s personal journey through each of the theme parks.  After you’ve spent time deciding which attractions, shows and restaurants you want to visit — they will send you 5 full color 14" x 20" maps that are made to your specifications.

Wow.

Add up the time spent choosing the locations, marking each map and then the time studying the maps once they arrive.  That’s building anticipation!

Fair enough, we’re not Disney.  But it is a very potent reminder that even though we have a client’s money — we still need to search for ways to keep them at the edge of their seat. 

How do you keep your clients psyched up while they wait?

Flickr photo courtesy of Mike ~heart~ Tiffy.

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Are we playing the wrong role in our stories?

March 20, 2007

Hero2 Think back to the days when you played pretend.  Given a choice between safety pinning the towel around your neck or being the damsel/dane in distress about to be rescued, who did you pick?

I don’t know about you, but I was all about being the "Toweled Crusader!"  (I never wore the rubber gloves, I must admit!) It was much cooler being the smart, strong, resourceful one.  Wasn’t it?

It still is today.

I’ve talked a lot (and will keep doing so) about the power of storytelling.  One of the ways that many of us tell our stories is through case studies and testimonials.  Most often, because we want to demonstrate our capabilities, we assume the leading role.  Client X was struggling with Y, but we swooped in with Insight Z and their sales tripled.

Sound familiar?  Basic story construction, right?  We have a hero, a problem/villain, a victim and a glorious solution. 

Uh oh.  If we’re the hero, guess who we’re casting in the role of victim?  Yup. Our client.

Remember that the goal of the case study or testimonial is to get prospects to identify with the clients in the story.  "Wow, if they can solve that problem, they can probably tackle mine too," is what we want them to think.

While the prospect might identify with the challenge and be heartened by the solution, do they really want to see themselves in the victim role?

If we gave them the same choice we had as kids, would they opt for hero or victim?

What if we twisted our tale in those case studies or testimonials, so that our clients were the heroes?  We shift to being the glorious solution.  (Not a bad role to play) But we give the credit, spotlight and heroine’s role to the client.  They are smart enough to see the problem and devise a solution.  And, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after.

Perhaps it’s time to re-write the stories.

* This post was inspired by a chapter in Harry Beckwith’s You, Inc.  I am telling you — you’ve got to read it!

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Drew sucks!

March 16, 2007

Actually…

DrewSucks.com
DrewSucks.net
DrewReallySucks.com
DrewIsAJerk.com
DrewDoesn’tKnowSquat.com
ThatDrewisACompleteMoron.com

Any marketing strategy that J&J employs must be smart for all of us, eh?

Picture_3 Apparently the folks at Johnson & Johnson thought it would be wise to adopt the best offense is a good defense mentality when it came to their product Splenda.  They’ve spent countless hours and dollars securing every possible anti-Splenda domain name they could think of.

Seriously…this is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.  This isn’t smart marketing. This is paranoia.

Surely we’ve all learned that in today’s citizen-driven communications, if people want to create a forum to say good or bad things about a company or product — they will. No matter how many domain names you own.

A hat tip and thanks to Roberta over at Copywriting Maven for calling this to my attention.

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In lead generation — knowing your target matters

March 15, 2007

We’ve talked about it before — people don’t like to do business with strangers.

And they don’t like to be called "hey you!" or by the wrong name.  Which means knowing who they are and what actually matters to them –should matter to us.

RainToday.com‘s new research report’s (What’s Working In Lead Generation) 2nd insight is all about the customer.  And how well we know them.

Picture_4  

No big surprises here.  The more you know about your prospect, the more successful you will be.  So why do you keep sending out the "dear neighbor" or worse — "dear customer" communications?

Marketing isn’t rocket science. But it does require some sweat equity and effort.  You need to qualify your lists.  Is that some heavy lifting?  Sure.  But the chart above shows you that you’ll enjoy a 40% increase in lead generation if you actually know the name of the decision maker. Isn’t that margin of success worth the extra effort?

Note:  The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next several days with you.  In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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It isn’t easy being green

March 14, 2007

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Does your company turn your competitors green with envy?  If not — why not?   

And what are you going to do about it?  How could you become more enviable?

flickr photo courtesy of hey joe…

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Sampler platter marketing?

March 10, 2007

Sampler Last night, I ate at a restaurant called Buddakan.  It’s offers modern Asian cuisine and since I was part of a large group (15) they served everything family style.  But their version of family style was lots and lots of small sampler sized items.  Everyone got to try a little of everything, but no one felt "stuck" eating just one thing.

Which got me thinking.  First about my agency brothren and sisters:

How good are we, as agencies, at offering clients that option?  Do you offer a "sampler platter" of marketing tactics or must a new client sign on for the whole kit n’ kaboodle?  Can a prospect take you on a test drive?

For the non-agency readers: 

How about you?  Does anyone in your industry offer a bite of this and a bite of that so the customer can determine the best option?  If no one is doing it, is it worth trying?

I wonder if this strategy isn’t a reasonable one for a business whose price of entry scares off otherwise viable prospects.  What do you think?

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