Power Marketing

Look at this latest compilation of marketing mistakes from Carol Roth on her Business Unplugged blog. The request was, "Tell us about the biggest marketing mistake that you've seen." You can imagine that there are many but these marketing mistakes are worth noting - and avoiding.

Here's my contribution.

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Others Got a Better Deal


Clients at the front of the line got a better deal than you. You’ll pay more, Ha, Ha.

An association used this approach to market its convention. Each message repeated the better deal that the early buyers got: for every 50 seats sold, the price will go up $25.
The $25 was not a big deal, nor did it motivate me. But the consistent reminder that others got a better deal was annoying. Annoy your prospects by reminding them about how dumb they are.

Apparently, attendance was down 25%.

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What other mistakes are businesses committing in their marketing?

How are You Showing Up?


The other day, we passed a window screen business. My eyes quickly diverted from the sign to their front door- a rusted door with the screen ripped and hanging off the door and the window was not much better. How you show up is everything. This business did not take time to fix their own screens, so as a customer, how could I trust that I would be cared for?

Thanks to: Charmaine Hammond of Hammond International Inc.


The Biggest Marketing Mistake


When I consult business owners about their marketing, the biggest mistake I find that they make is in not tracking the Return On Investment (ROI) for each marketing campaign.

What ends up happening is that when business slows down, they cut their entire marketing budget as a way to "right the ship". This causes business to slow even further.

Without tracking and knowing the exact ROI on each marketing campaign, they are making what I believe is the first, and often the biggest, marketing mistake.

Thanks to: Jay Estis of Massive Results Marketing.


Make a Lasting 1st Impression


The biggest marketing mistake I see is people who don’t take spelling and grammar seriously. For example, if you’re going to take the time to put your marketing message in an email blast, brochure, advertisement, or PowerPoint presentation – make sure it’s proofed carefully! A glaring spelling error or punctuation placed outside of your quotation marks may be all it takes to turn off a potential client who sees you as less than careful and therefore unprofessional.

Thanks to: Kristy Stevenson of Kristy Stevenson, Writing & Editing.


Examine the rest of the 55 Business Marketing Mistakes

 
George Torok


Marketing Keynote Speaker

Good customer service is your best marketing. Bad customer service is your strongest marketing challenge.

Is customer service getting worse? Or are customers becoming more demanding? I think that it is both. I know that I expect more and I'm experiencing worse customer service.

Review this summary of customer dis-service reports, posts and articles.


Customer Service Sucker Punch: How Can I Help You?


Have you noticed that this phrase does not often mean what the average person might think it means.

It's a deception, a feint, a sucker punch phrase wielded by customer service managers.

A sucker punch is an old boxing term. The fighter in the red trunks lowers his right hand thus leaving an opening. His opponent, the fighter in the blue trunks notices the opening and excitedly moves to take advantage of the opportunity. But Blue fails to notice Red's cocked left hand. Blue ignores caution and springs forward for an expected easy win. But Red catches Blue with his ready left. Red destroys Blue who walked into the sucker punch.
Read the rest of Customer Service Sucker Punch: How Can I Help You?




Apparently You, The Customer, Are The Problem


"I don't know what is going on. I was supposed to leave an hour and a half ago."
That was the first thing that our waitress said when she arrived at our table. We had arrived more than five minutes ago and quickly decided on our usuals. This was one of our regular restaurant chains. We had not been to this location before. We were on the way home after a long drive. We were looking forward to enjoy our usual, quick service and then back onto the highway for the final leg home.
Instead we were seated by a friendly hostess and quickly forgotten - or so it seemed. A stern waitress walked by us at least three times without making eye contact. A stoic waiter (who also had mastered the power of avoiding eye contact) served the group across from us who arrived after us. We were wondering if we should leave. Perhaps we were at the wrong table.
Customer service managers seem to be using this same technique on their customers. Instead of helping customers they sucker punch them.
Read the rest of Apparently You, The Customer, Are The Problem


Customer Dis-service: Have a Nice Day

That's what the cashier said to me at the end of my purchase. "Have a Nice Day."

I said nothing back. Why? Because I felt that her statement was insincere. From what I saw, her well-meaning statement was delivered because the company instructed her to deliver it at the end of every transaction. She really didn't mean it and she didn't understand why she was saying it.

The strange thing is that the cashier probably thought that I was rude for not responding.
Read the rest of Customer Disservice: Have a Nice Day

The Bank of Montreal has been impressing me with their customer service lately.

I received a phone call from the bank that my line of credit was over drawn. The message requested that I take care of that differennce today.

It was my mistake. I had miscalculated. I was delighted to receive that call for two reasons.

1. BMO did not bounce the cheque that put it over.
2. BMO called to alert me to the problem.

Naturally I returned the call and corrected the overage that afternoon.

BMO did two simple things that I appreciate. Apparently it is possible for the bank to do that.

Contrast that with my experience with the TD Bank. When faced with a similar situation TD bounced my cheque and did not call me. Instead, they mailed me a noticed that arrived a week later. And TD charged me for a bounced cheque from them and the other bank plus an overdraft charge.

When I received the notice I called immediatley. I visited the bank and fixed the overage. I asked the TD Bank to call me when and if this happens again. They informed me that they didn't have time to call everybody... What that really meant is that they had no intention of calling me because I wasn't important to them.

I have been a customer of both the TD and and BMO banks for at least 30 years.

Just imagine that. There is a problem - so you call your customer and let them know. That is so easy to do. Why don't they all do that?

I know. Some of them are too busy to talk to customers.

Kudos to Bank of Montreal.
Lumps of coal to TD Bank.


George Torok
Marketing Expert
Marketing Speaker
Radio Show Host of Business in Motion

Maybe your business would improve if you heard more complaints from your customers.

Re-read that last statement and instead of focusing on “more complaints” focus on “heard more”.

It might not be about needing more complaints. There could easily be enough available. It might be that you need to listen better to the complaints. Those customer complaints could be an amazing free marketing research resource for you – if you listen.

I overheard a mother protest that she was tired of the school calling her about her son. Wow. Why would she not want to receive feedback from the school about her son? Good or bad news – wouldn’t a caring mother want to know how to help her son? The school was calling her because they cared and thought that she did too. Apparently she didn’t want to be bothered with bad news.

Good or bad news – you’d think that a concerned business owner or company president would want to know how to improve the experience for his customers. Listen without judging to customers and they will tell you what you need to know.

Customer complaints mostly come from customers who care about the relationship and want to improve it. Why would any business ignore this valuable constructive feedback?

Customers who don’t care about you or your relationship don’t complain. They quietly leave and buy somewhere else. They will most likely tell their friends about their negative experience.

You might not like to hear what they are saying. It might hurt. You might even take it personally.

The simplest way to reduce the complaints from customers is to tell your customers that you don’t care about them or their opinions. You can to that by making the complaint process onerous. You can dissuade customer complaints by instructing your staff to quote company policy. You can reduce customer complaints by refusing to talk to customers and instructing your staff to screen all calls.

I agree that not all complaints are valid. But you can learn from all complaints. If you are the CEO don’t be surprised if you don’t like the tone of the customer complaint by the time it gets to you. Just imagine the layers of frustration that your customer might have encountered on the uphill climb to reach you.

If you are the CEO and you are shielding yourself from customer complaints – then don’t be surprised when you get fired – by the customer or by your board.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

Is deception normal in your industry?

The menu listed the wines available with dinner. My wife selected a glass of wine while I chose a beer.

The meal was delicious and the service was prompt and friendly.

But, when we received the bill we noticed that the charge for the wine was double what we expected.

Naturally we asked for a correction.

The waiter “explained” (in a haughty tone) that the price shown in the menu was for one deci litre but it was common practice to serve two deci litres.

He suggested that if you only wanted one deci litre you should have asked for that.

We pointed out that that we were not aware of this practice and not given a choice - and that practice seemed deceptive.

He responded, “That is normal” with a dismissive wave and a shrug.

Apparently it was normal to deceive the customer. Instead of remembering the delicious meal, enchanting setting and attentive service we remember being deceived.


George Torok

If you are in a commodity market there might be room to move up-market for new products.

For decades the hotels of the world worked on a rating system of 1 to 5 stars. A 5 star rating meant the best in terms of service, luxury and amenities. That high rating was accompanied by the highest prices.

So if you were developing a new luxury hotel you would be competing in a crowded market even with a five star rating.

What’s the answer? Differentiate your hotel by creating a new category.

The Jumeirah Group differentiated the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai by designing lavish luxury into the property and exquisite service. The look and feel was so superior to any other hotel that it was labeled as a Seven Star Hotel.

Once granted an imagination-capturing label like that – the label sticks.

Leaders will always have followers. It seems that at least a half dozen other new hotels around the world are claiming Seven Star Rating.

Apparently, (I haven’t been there yet) the Burj Al Arab offers check-in desks on every floor and Rolls Royce limousine service. Rooms start at $1,000 a night and run up to $25,000.

With luxury like that I don’t expect to hear about an eight star hotel anytime soon. But maybe I’m not thinking big enough yet.

If you are fighting for scraps in the middle of your market maybe it's time to move up-market and claim your Seven Star rating.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

This Starwood Sheraton Hotel Survey Sucks

Customer surveys are a good idea - but good ideas can be messed up by poor implementation. Here is an example of a customer survey that only served to annoy me as the customer of Sheraton Starwood Hotels.

The first rule of surveys is to be clear on your purpose. For example: are you conducting your customer survey to fix problems, discover opportunities, gather performance stats for marketing - or justify a manager's bonus?

The second rule of surveys is to see it from the customer's point of view.

After my stay at a Sheraton Hotel in Montreal I received the following request by email to complete a customer survey.

When you ask your customers to complete a survey - remember that they are doing it for you. So it would help your cause if you were warm, friendly, respectful and offered a reward for their time and perspective.

When I received the survey request from Sheraton Starwood Hotels - I deleted the first email because it seemed cold, demanding and all about them. And they offered me nothing as a reward for my time and opinion.

Then I received the second email as below. It was no warmer nor convincing to me. But this time I clicked and completed the survey - not because they did a better job of inviting me - but because I wanted to discover if it got any better. It did not. In my opinion, the Starwood Sheraton Hotel customer survey sucks.


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Dear GEORGE TOROK,

We recently sent you an e-mail inviting you to participate in an on-line survey about your stay at at Le Centre Sheraton ending on May 5, 2009. If you have not yet completed the survey, I want to let you know it is not too late to participate. We would like to again take this opportunity to personally thank you for your continued patronage. As you may already know, Sheraton Hotels And Resorts is part of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts family of brands (Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, S t. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Aloft and Element). As a Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Preferred member, you are a highly valued guest and we appreciate your loyalty and feedback enormously.

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Notice the tone of how this first paragraph starts, "We did something and you haven't completed your part." The thank you gets lost after they chastised me for "not yet completing". And then there are several lines about them - they list their hotel brands. Why? Would that convince me to complete their survey?
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We would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to complete a brief survey regarding your most recent stay. This is important to our company, hotels and our brands that use this information worldwide to continuously improve our guest's experience and, most importantly, how to meet and exceed your expectations in the future. TNS has been retained to conduct this survey on behalf of Starwood.

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This paragraph is all about them. Why would I care? They still have placed no value on my time. They simply demand it.
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At your convenience, please take some time to complete the survey. To complete the survey online, simply click on this link:xxxx or copy and paste the link into the address line of your browser. If you have any difficulty accessing the survey, please send an email message to starwood@tns-global.com.

The survey itself will take only about 10 minutes of your time. If you are being prompted for a validation code after clicking on the link, please copy and paste the following into the field:

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Ten minutes of my time - that's all they want. Don't they realize that if I can afford to stay at a Sheraton or Starwood Hotel that I place a high value on my time?
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By providing this information you authorize Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., and its affiliated and subsidiary companies, (the "Starwood Group"): to collect, process and use the data provided for any lawful, Starwood Group business related purpose; to store the data at and transmit the data to various location(s), either directly or through its third party vendor(s), as the Starwood Group deems appropriate, throughout the world, whether within your country of residence, the United States, or elsewhere. To learn about our data collection and usage practices, please see our Privacy Statement:

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The lawyers got to have their say to earn their pay.
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We appreciate your business and thank you for staying at a Starwood hotel. We hope that you will visit other Starwood hotels and resorts in the near future.

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About time that they thanked me. Where's my prize? If they really appreciated me and my business they could demonstrate that with a gift.
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Sincerely,
Denise Coll
President,
North America Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide


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So how do I get my 10 minutes of the president's time? She implied that ten minutes of my time was worth nothing.

It;s been at least a week since I "completed" the Starwood Hotel Survey and I have not received a thank you, acknowledgement or offer of a reward.

The service at the Sheraton was pretty good with a couple exceptions and the Starwood customer service survey sucks.

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George Torok