1 ) TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED

Your customers are coming to you and giving you their business. It is important to treat them as individuals, value them, and show your genuine appreciation. This can be as simple as including everyone involved in your e-mails, or sending them a thank you note.

2 ) DON’T COMMUNICATE

It can be easy to get caught up in what you are doing and let communication fall to the back burner, but if you think about how you would want to be treated, good communication becomes very important. This means many things:

- Give updates on the status of the work you are doing, whether it is a milestone or you run into an issue.

- If your customer prefers e-mail and you prefer the phone. Do your best to accommodate them. Little things like that are perfectly reasonable, try to be flexible.

- Don’t make assumptions about what your customer is thinking (you know what they say about assumptions). Ask for feedback!

- Your customers are individuals, not numbers, get to know them. If you are working with more than one person, include all of them as appropriate in your communications, and don’t belittle someone just because that aren’t your “key” contact.

3 ) DON’T FOLLOW BILLING ETIQUETTE

Be clear about costs up front and stay aware of the budget as you work.

Bill on time. Not unexpectedly or later than planned, your customers have a cash flow, and that must be respected. In the case of some agencies, if you miss the timeline for a bill, their hands are tied and they can’t pay you!

4 ) TALK BIGGER THAN YOU WALK

Never make promises you can’t keep. People have little patience for this and having a reputation for over-promising and under-delivering will follow you. Word of mouth is extremely powerful and unfortunately, the fastest way to get it is to do a bad job!

5 ) FORGET INITIATIVE

Never make your customers prod you to do your job! This means keeping your own schedule in check, and goes back to #2, keep your customer informed of your progress and any issues that may arise.

6 ) BE FLAKEY

If you schedule a meeting or service time, keep to that scheduled time! Don’t be late or unexpectedly early and don’t make a habit of canceling. This will quickly color a customer’s opinion of you and damage their faith in your competency.

7 ) JUST SAY “NO”

If your customers are making reasonable requests, do whatever you can to say yes every time.

Move the deadline up 2 days because the customer had something come up? You padded your timeline from the beginning and this fits your schedule, “Yes.”

8 ) NEVER SAY YOU’RE SORRY

Always own up to mistakes. Be humble and do what you can to make things right.

Earlier we said that word of mouth is powerful. This is your opportunity to take a potentially bad situation and turn it into something good. People appreciate it when you do the right thing, and even if they are a bit unhappy about what happened, they will feel like they can trust you. Trust is invaluable.

9 ) ALWAYS BE THE BOSS

Yes, be the boss and be accountable and ensure quality from your staff, but remember the customer. When your customers foot the bill, treat them with the respect and authority they warrant; you answer to them.

10 ) SHOW YOUR EMPLOYEES YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM

It’s simple, when you treat your employees well, they will pass it on to your customers. Be sure to lead by example and offer training/guidance for your standards of customer service.

Top-Of-Mind-Awareness (TOMA) is a big, abstract concept with entire books written on the subject. For this modest (yet longest ever blog post) we’ll stick to the basics which go something like this…

Certain businesses occupy a special part of our brains for various categories. When you need a new pair of running shoes you may think of Nike first. More often than not a transaction is decided before any advertisement has a chance to sway a customer. This is why TOMA is so important, and should be considered in any outreach campaigns you undertake.

If you prioritize TOMA as a goal for your outreach efforts you need to start thinking about branding and overall message to evangalize and what mix of platforms and advertising vehicles will reach your audience and connect with them most effectively.

Your “Brick & Mortar” Presence & Website - These two go hand-in-hand because nowadays they’re equally important. Achieve TOMA by building brand-charisma in your store, and online. Surprise and delight your visitors while communicating your unique selling points and you’ll be sure to stick in their heads.

Social Media - Having a strong presence here is great for TOMA. Statistics show that timespend on facebook and twitter is a growing percentage of people’s total time spent weekly on the Internet. Think of these social networks as semi-gated communities. You can get in if you don’t live there, but people will give you funny looks. You’ll reap all the rewards if you’re a resident within in them and If you are interesting or entertaining you will draw daily, repeat visitors and spark discussions.

The immediacy, almost daily nature of these platforms means they’re excellent for letting people know about new products, sales, deals or news about your company. Paid advertising on these platforms is also highly targetable, allowing you to reach out to only the groups of people you’ve identified as high-potential prospects.

Print Advertising - Great for targeting niché audiences aligned by common interests. Magazines or periodicals that cater to specific audiences usually offer a large-regional or national reach. Print casts a wide net with a medium amount of targeting. A clever TOMA-oriented message can really boost recognition and recall of your brand among a large audience.

Outdoor Advertising - A no-brainer for local, impulse-buy businesses. Gas, food, lodging and entertainment being advertised on major traffic routs can see an immediate return from a billboard or other type of outdoor ad (TOMA for those crucial 5 minutes can make all the difference). For other types of businesses outdoor can be a useful tool for driving traffic back to a website. This is where a short, memorable URL really comes in handy. Few people will take the time to write down a phone number and even fewer will actually call after they’ve gotten to their destination. However a clever outdoor message and excellent website can convert motorists into customers, while increasing TOMA for all passers-by.

Broadcast TV & Radio - The only platforms where you basically have a captive audience and get the chance to tell a story for 30-60 seconds. Here you have a real chance to convince them that you’re the one they need to buy from. Broadcast is often the most expensive form of advertising so the risk / reward analysis is on a bigger scale. However a properly-placed, well-crafted and executed message can bring about immediate TOMA and generate huge buzz around your business.

A little over a year ago we completely redesigned our website, wrote new content and were really happy with the results. But as time marches forward (on the web it actually sprints) it came to be time to begin anew. We went through an extensive brain storming process (pictured) and every member of the team had a chance to weigh-in on the new restructuring and design.

Some highlights…

• Tight social media integration with a real-time twitter feed and prominent social networking buttons
• Massive portfolio upgrade and restructuring, now featuring 28 clients with most of them having multiple projects associated with them
• Blog overhaul (you’re on it now, how do you like it?)
• Better conversions on our new estimate request form. A visitor filling it out has a much better experience and we get a better data set with each submission. We can get back to you on your project quicker!

We’d love to hear what you think, and if your business is in need of a website facelift let us know!

When asked by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission for help on the new distracted driving campaign, GCI jumped at the opportunity to help warn others about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. The team went to work creating a strong logo, web presence, and informational rack card after diligently researching case studies and reading stories after stories of heart-wrenching tragedies caused by distracted driving. GCI also utilized social media as a communication tool by creating a Facebook page to help notify and engage with the public. The goal for each piece is to inform and save lives.

Check out these links to get more information about the new law:

www.texttalkticket.com

www.facebook.com/texttalkticket

You send invoices, fax covers, memo, notes, requests and all other manner of “non-marketing” related correspondence to – you guessed it – your clients, referral sources, and prospects.

It’s a pretty simple thing to:
• make sure these documents also conform to the image you project in your marketing materials; and
• make them sell a little.

There’s no harm in introducing a new product or service in every communication, regardless of how mundane:
• put your company story on the back of work orders;
• list all of your products and services on fax covers;
• insert a coupon for a special offering in your statements;
• put two business cards in your thank you notes.

Many small businesses make the mistake of assuming that an existing client knows all about everything you offer. No, they probably know about the one thing they buy from you. Continue to subtly educate at all times. It’s this attention to detail that, over time, adds to the collective marketing momentum your business needs.

- Ed

-Jenny

For full info on the Mercedes-Benz case study go here: http://www.brandingasia.com/cases/mercedes-case.htm

-Jenny