Are You ‘Plugged In’ To Your Customers?

Apparently we’re spending almost half of our waking hours ‘plugged in’ to our  TVs, radios, telephones and the internet! A new report from Ofcom highlights that on average, people in the UK spend 45% of their time ‘tuned in’!

On reflection, I don’t think that those figures are that surprising (hey, I’m on holiday, and I’m still ‘at it’!), but some of the key issues to consider might be:

• What media are your customers (and prospective customers) paying most attention to?
• How can you ‘stand out’ in these incredibly crowded markets? 
• How are you ‘maximising’ your own time and efforts when your doing this stuff?

In other words, are you ‘plugged in’ to what your customers are ‘plugging in’ to? The really customer focused businesses understand and maximise this.

Finally, it’s also worth pointing out that, even with all this ‘modern technology’,  sometimes the ‘old fashioned’ ways of communicating are still a great way of making contact with people and differentiating yourself!

If you want any tips on how, have a look at this article I wrote for Management Issues called ‘Don’t write off those old fashioned ways’.

That’s iProgress!

How much would an iPod have cost in 1976? According to a little snippet I read in the great Wired magazine it would have been $1 Billion! That’s because of the cost of transistors back then! It would also be the size of a building, so not too handy when you’re out jogging!

So what? Well, I think it’s a fantastic illustration of the impact of progress on our lives and of course on business and the way we do it. Massively reduced costs, technological advances, ever increasing ease of use and a need for total flexibility are all things we face – they pose both opportunities and threats.

Are you embracing ‘progress’ to your advantage?

Your 3D Thoughts For 16th August – No Complaints Please!

Here’s this week’s 3D Thoughts in 3 minutes! Enjoy:

Click below on the links:

Institute Of Customer Service report           ABTA customer complaints      Previous 3D Thoughts

Hear how Asda handled this complaint:

Think Social ‘We’dia, Not Social ‘Me’dia!

What’s the best way for businesses to maximise social media? Sorry, I can’t give you the magic answer for that, but can perhaps share an idea. I think the best business users of social media focus on the ‘we’, not the ‘me’ in media!

 It’s not about what you had for breakfast, how brilliant your business is, and why people should only buy from you, it’s about ‘adding value’ and contributing!  Here are 10 things they do well.

They:

1. Share ideas

2. ‘Engage’ with others

3. Add value and don’t ‘push’ their products and services

4. Link people together 

5. Collaborate with others, and help others collaborate

6. Create communities of like-minded people

7. Contribute to those communities

8. Create ‘dialogue’, not ‘diatribes’!

9. Generate conversations with others

10. Seek opinions and ideas

Any more for any more? Would love to hear your ideas!

Shaking Up The Burger World!

Imaging queueing for hours for a burger because they are that good? Well that’s what’s happening in New York! Shake Shack is a great chain of burger restaurants in the US who are completely 3D!

They are without doubt Dramatically and Demonstrably Different in everything that they do! But, that’s not been done by chance. It’s clearly a very proactive approach that they’ve taken, and it seems to be working with huge queues outside their Madison Park store! 

If you get chance, have a look at this video of CEO Randy Garutti explaining their approach. There are some great lessons for any business, whether you’re in burgers or not!

Randy Garutti (Shake Shack) at Gel 2010 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

I particularly like their approach to questioning every ‘rule’ by asking ‘whoever wrote that rule?’ and then working out how they could break it! They took a proactive approach to ‘breaking all those rules’ and seem to have hit the spot! Here’s just one of them: rather than the  ’no dog’s allowed’ sign that you see in most places – they have the ‘pooch-ini’, a treat specifically for dogs made out of frozen custard, peanut butter and a dog biscuit! Guess where the burger lovers with dogs go?

It’s a great example of someone entering a market and using all the ‘norms’ and ‘rules’ to creating a business that’s ‘dramatically different’ by breaking them!   What ‘rules’ should you break?

Looking forward to my next trip to New York!

Winning Customers Via Social Media? It’s Small Businesses Who Get It!

A new report by Regus suggests that it’s small businesses who are getting the best out of social media when it comes to customer acquisition. According to the report, nearly half of the world’s small businesses have acquired a customer through social networks. That compares to only 28% for larger organisations.

It was a worldwide study, and the figure for the UK small businesses was 33% compared to 52% inIndia!

It’s clear that many businesses ‘get it’, but it’s also true that many obviously don’t! Clearly, there’s no ‘one thing’ to ‘get’, but if you are one of those who hasn’t yet, perhaps you need to start looking!

Amazingly and totally coincidentally, as I was writing this blog post an email popped in my inbox from Smarta which featured a video by Doug Richards talking all about this. Even more coincidentally (and a bit spookily!) he explained that he’s running a 2 day workshop all about it…..on my own doorstep, here in Sheffield! 

Made In Sheffield looks great! Think I might be booking to help me ‘get more of it’!

3D Thoughts In 3 Minutes – August 9th!

Here’s this week’s 3D Thoughts, and the relevant links are below. If you’re new to these and want to listen to previous ‘episodes’, simply click here.

So, here goes… remember, you don’t have to download anything, simply ‘click and listen’… oh yes, and DO something!

Global Customer Service Report            Stanford University e Corner

Customers Just Won’t Stand For It!

Here’s more news of increasing customer expectations! According to a report from Barclaycard, the longest time UK’s shoppers are prepared to queue is two minutes, down from five minutes only six years ago!

I know for a fact that I am also among the two thirds of us who have, according to the report, walked away from buying something because we weren’t prepared to wait.

It’s a great example of ever increasing customer expectations – people just won’t stand for it anymore, literally! I believe it goes further than that: it’s not just queing, it’s waiting for the phone to be answered, it’s waiting for people to get back to us, it’s the time it takes for a webpage to download – we want things quicker, we want them NOW!

In my presentations and training, I often suggest people ‘stand in their own queues’ to find out what it’s like to be a customer of theirs. By that I mean, ring up your own business, go into reception, email an enquiry, visit your own website, request some information and find out what it’s like to ‘stand in your own queues’.

So, why not do that yourself? How do you measure up? Would YOU stand for it?

Criticism? Get The X Factor!

Next time you get a bit of criticism, then just remember this great quote from Malcolm X:

“If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success”

Now Listen Here!

We’re all incredibly busy and there’s loads going out there! Here’s an opportunity to take just a couple of minutes out to ‘think’ at the beginning of each week. Every Monday morning I’m going to upload a short ‘audio’ (maximum 3 minutes) that gives you help in developing your ‘3D’ approach to finding, attracting and keeping customers! That means being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ in this ever more competitive world.

Each short audio contains simple, practical and ‘value adding’ things for you to Discover, Delve into, Discuss, Download, Develop and Do!!!!! All aimed at helping you improve your sales and marketing, your customer care, your competitiveness and your business performance.

You don’t need to ‘Download’ it, simply click on the icon below, listen, and then Do something as a result of what you’ve heard!

It would be ‘Dumb’ to miss out!

Enjoy your listening…….. and let me know what you think!

Links:

Fast Company Magazine   Sparkles Events

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