Dear Jeffrey, I am a huge fan. I recently had a WOW experience that completely coincides with your philosophy on customer loyalty versus satisfaction. Today, I received the following email from Amazon:
Hello, We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental on Amazon Video On Demand: The Hunger Games. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount: $3.99. While Amazon Video On Demand transactions are typically not refundable, we are happy to make an exception in this case. This refund should be processed within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear on your next billing statement for the same credit card used to purchase this item.
This is amazing to me for a few reasons. Yes, I did notice that my movie was buffering more than usual and, yes, it was annoying. However, it was nothing more than a minor frustration. I didn’t complain. I didn’t complete a survey or give any feedback about this experience. Truthfully, until I received this email, I hadn’t given it a second thought.
When I got this email, it stopped me in my tracks. THEY NOTICED. They noticed that this particular experience was below their normal standards. But what’s more important, THEY NOTICED WITHOUT ME TELLING THEM.
Good companies would refund my money if I complained. Of course they would, that is expected. I never have had a company refund my money without being prompted. Never. And this, this was a surprise.
Would I have used them again even if they did not refund my money? Yes, often. So what’s the difference? I wouldn’t have REFERRED them. I received this email today at 2:18pm. Since then, I have told all my coworkers I came in contact with, posted this on my Facebook wall, and now am writing you.
Amazon lost four dollars today, but they gained a customer for life! It was so impressive, I had to share. Make it a great day, Candace
Brilliant, eh? Proactive, memorable service.
Amazon is monitoring the quality of their streaming bandwidth and can identify quality issues. Then, they DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. No waste of time and money “survey,” no phony empty apology, just a good, old fashioned admission of guilt, and a proactive refund for poor performance.
My bet is Amazon has given thousands of these, and the same customer response has happened with every one of them. What a strategy! Let’s make sure the customer experience was great, or let’s give them a refund.
Simple. Powerful. Profitable. Give up $4.00 to earn thousands. I wonder who thought that one up? Certainly not their advertising agency.
Look at the elements of business and sales as a result of Amazon’s action, and customer reaction: a huge wow, several social postings, more social proof, an amazing testimonial, customer loyalty, and pass along value that cannot be measured on any ROI scale. Amazon’s actions breed return on proactive, memorable service – the WOW factor, social response, and customer word of mouth. It’s WAY beyond ‘priceless’ – in the long term, it’s worth a fortune.
HERE’S YOUR LESSON: You can invest in some marketing program to reach new people – or you can invest in giving your existing customers the best service possible, and let THEM find new people for you.
PREDICTION: I’ll bet the investment in existing customer experience is one-tenth the cost of any marketing program. In fact, I doubt this type of outreach is even on a marketing team’s mindset. They’re still in the Stone Age measuring ‘ROI.’
Amazon has lead the Internet all the way with vision and tenacity. Quality and value. Ease of doing business, buy with one click. Suggestive buying and published reviews. Not just price, delivery.
And now add to that list: proactive WOW interaction. They dominate because they differentiate. They dominate because they innovate. They don’t study the market – they create it (like Apple). Most marketing studies are a CYA act of companies afraid to make mistakes, let alone be bold.
Take this lesson to heart – and take it to your customers. If you come up with something creatively compelling, you can also take it to the bank!
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
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About the Author
Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations worldwide (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non-profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He guides companies through growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations, creates the big ideas and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change. To read Hank’s complete biography, click here.
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Projects represent change and change requires communication. In order for communication to be successful, it must be received, understood, and acted upon. Achieving these factors can require a substantially different approach when communicating with different groups and individuals. Consequently, effective communication is frequently difficult and time consuming. Thus, a clearly defined communications plan is needed to maximize the probability of each communication’s success while minimizing the overall effort expended.
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I was recently at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, giving a seminar sponsored by Sales & Marketing Executives International. I had an informal logistics meeting with some of the association members before the event when Jamie, the young woman who directed me to my preparation room, talked to me about her career. I asked her what she was seeking to become.
Her response startled me. She said, “I’m still trying to find my voice.”
I was taken aback because I expected some alternate career choice, or something along the lines of ‘make a lot of money,’ or ‘get a job in event planning.’ But no, she was seeking something much higher.
Jamie was seeking to gain control of her self and her power first, and find her career path second. We talked about ‘voice’ for a while, and I began to type to capture the thoughts. What came out of the brief conversation will benefit you and your career, and help you understand who you are and who you seek to become.
Jamie was looking for her voice to come from something she believed in that would make her voice stronger, more resonant, more powerful, and more believable.
How do you speak?
Not the just words, the voice that you project. Your voice is a statement and picture of your character, your poise, and your persona. It’s a statement of belief, confidence, and personal power.
Where does your voice come from?
How do you ‘find’ it?
And once you do, how do you master it?
BE AWARE: Your voice has nothing to do with your selling skills or your product knowledge. Your voice is way beyond that.
GOOD NEWS: You don’t have to look far. Most of your voice is right at the tip of your tongue. The rest of it is mental and emotional.
ANSWER: It STARTS with your inner voice. It’s the language you speak to yourself BEFORE you say a word.
Your voice becomes yours, and authentically yours, when you…
do what you believe in.
do what you’re passionate about.
work in your chosen field.
find your calling.
discover something you feel you were made or born to do.
do something you love.
EASY WAY TO START THE DISCOVERY: Write down the hobby or sport you love best, or the sporting event you go to because you love to see your team play and cheer them on.
My friend, Hall of Fame baseball player Dave Winfield, said it as simply and as completely as I have ever heard it, “I loved baseball and baseball loved me back.”
Here are the elements of voice:
You have decided to pursue your chosen path.
You have belief in who you are.
You have belief in what you do.
You have a desire to succeed.
You’re personally prepared – attitude, enthusiasm, friendliness, and ideas.
You maintain self-confidence that comes from your heart, not from your head.
Your enthusiasm is real.
Your sincerity is evident.
You’re eager to master every aspect of what you do.
Your passion is contagious.
Your moxie engages others.
Your desire to improve is never ending.
You love what you do.
NOTE WELL: Your voice is not about how to make sales faster – your voice is how to make sales forever. For your voice to appear, you must possess ALL of these elements. Most people have a ‘weak’ voice because they don’t love what they do, or lack sincerity, or they don’t fully believe in themselves, their company, or their product.
SUCCESS ACTION: Go back to this list and rate yourself on a 1-10 basis. Ten being the best, your highest possible score is 130. My bet is you’re 90 or below.
SUCCESS ACTION: Record your spoken voice ONCE A WEEK, and listen to it actively – which means take notes. By listening to yourself – arguably one of the toughest things on the planet to do – you will gain a true picture of where you are right now. Your jumping off point.
And for those of you living in the dark ages still trying to ‘find the pain’ in your sales presentation, just record and listen to yourself – THAT’S the pain. The real pain of selling is listening to your voice trying to make a sale – it’s also funny as hell.
You’ll know your voice when you hear it.
It will speak to you before you ever say a word.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/JeffreyGitomer.jpg218156StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2012-09-24 06:34:062016-08-07 21:25:50Your sales voice. What is it saying to you? What is it saying to others?
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What’s your proactive marketing approach to loyalty?
/in Marketing & Sales/by Jeffrey GitomerDear Jeffrey, I am a huge fan. I recently had a WOW experience that completely coincides with your philosophy on customer loyalty versus satisfaction. Today, I received the following email from Amazon:
This is amazing to me for a few reasons. Yes, I did notice that my movie was buffering more than usual and, yes, it was annoying. However, it was nothing more than a minor frustration. I didn’t complain. I didn’t complete a survey or give any feedback about this experience. Truthfully, until I received this email, I hadn’t given it a second thought.
When I got this email, it stopped me in my tracks. THEY NOTICED. They noticed that this particular experience was below their normal standards. But what’s more important, THEY NOTICED WITHOUT ME TELLING THEM.
Good companies would refund my money if I complained. Of course they would, that is expected. I never have had a company refund my money without being prompted. Never. And this, this was a surprise.
Would I have used them again even if they did not refund my money? Yes, often. So what’s the difference? I wouldn’t have REFERRED them. I received this email today at 2:18pm. Since then, I have told all my coworkers I came in contact with, posted this on my Facebook wall, and now am writing you.
Amazon lost four dollars today, but they gained a customer for life! It was so impressive, I had to share. Make it a great day, Candace
Brilliant, eh? Proactive, memorable service.
Amazon is monitoring the quality of their streaming bandwidth and can identify quality issues. Then, they DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. No waste of time and money “survey,” no phony empty apology, just a good, old fashioned admission of guilt, and a proactive refund for poor performance.
My bet is Amazon has given thousands of these, and the same customer response has happened with every one of them. What a strategy! Let’s make sure the customer experience was great, or let’s give them a refund.
Simple. Powerful. Profitable. Give up $4.00 to earn thousands. I wonder who thought that one up? Certainly not their advertising agency.
Look at the elements of business and sales as a result of Amazon’s action, and customer reaction: a huge wow, several social postings, more social proof, an amazing testimonial, customer loyalty, and pass along value that cannot be measured on any ROI scale. Amazon’s actions breed return on proactive, memorable service – the WOW factor, social response, and customer word of mouth. It’s WAY beyond ‘priceless’ – in the long term, it’s worth a fortune.
HERE’S YOUR LESSON: You can invest in some marketing program to reach new people – or you can invest in giving your existing customers the best service possible, and let THEM find new people for you.
PREDICTION: I’ll bet the investment in existing customer experience is one-tenth the cost of any marketing program. In fact, I doubt this type of outreach is even on a marketing team’s mindset. They’re still in the Stone Age measuring ‘ROI.’
Amazon has lead the Internet all the way with vision and tenacity. Quality and value. Ease of doing business, buy with one click. Suggestive buying and published reviews. Not just price, delivery.
And now add to that list: proactive WOW interaction. They dominate because they differentiate. They dominate because they innovate. They don’t study the market – they create it (like Apple). Most marketing studies are a CYA act of companies afraid to make mistakes, let alone be bold.
Take this lesson to heart – and take it to your customers. If you come up with something creatively compelling, you can also take it to the bank!
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 41 – The Big Picture of Business: When the Next Recession is Coming
/in Strategic Planning, StrategyDriven Podcast/by StrategyDrivenEpisode 41 – The Big Picture of Business: When the Next Recession is Coming explores the marketplace markers that signal a recession’s start and the timing of the next American recession. During our discussion, Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist and author of The Business Tree: Growth Strategies and Tactics for Surviving and Thriving
, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:
Additional Information
In addition to the outstanding insights Hank shares in The Business Tree
and this edition of the StrategyDriven Podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.HankMoore.com. Hank’s book, The Business Tree
, can be purchased by clicking here
.
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Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!
About the Author
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Project Management Best Practice 10 – Communication Plans
/in Business Communications, Premium, Project Management/by StrategyDrivenHi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.
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Your sales voice. What is it saying to you? What is it saying to others?
/in Marketing & Sales/by Jeffrey GitomerI was recently at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, giving a seminar sponsored by Sales & Marketing Executives International. I had an informal logistics meeting with some of the association members before the event when Jamie, the young woman who directed me to my preparation room, talked to me about her career. I asked her what she was seeking to become.
Her response startled me. She said, “I’m still trying to find my voice.”
I was taken aback because I expected some alternate career choice, or something along the lines of ‘make a lot of money,’ or ‘get a job in event planning.’ But no, she was seeking something much higher.
Jamie was seeking to gain control of her self and her power first, and find her career path second. We talked about ‘voice’ for a while, and I began to type to capture the thoughts. What came out of the brief conversation will benefit you and your career, and help you understand who you are and who you seek to become.
Jamie was looking for her voice to come from something she believed in that would make her voice stronger, more resonant, more powerful, and more believable.
How do you speak?
Not the just words, the voice that you project. Your voice is a statement and picture of your character, your poise, and your persona. It’s a statement of belief, confidence, and personal power.
Where does your voice come from?
How do you ‘find’ it?
And once you do, how do you master it?
BE AWARE: Your voice has nothing to do with your selling skills or your product knowledge. Your voice is way beyond that.
GOOD NEWS: You don’t have to look far. Most of your voice is right at the tip of your tongue. The rest of it is mental and emotional.
ANSWER: It STARTS with your inner voice. It’s the language you speak to yourself BEFORE you say a word.
Your voice becomes yours, and authentically yours, when you…
EASY WAY TO START THE DISCOVERY: Write down the hobby or sport you love best, or the sporting event you go to because you love to see your team play and cheer them on.
My friend, Hall of Fame baseball player Dave Winfield, said it as simply and as completely as I have ever heard it, “I loved baseball and baseball loved me back.”
Here are the elements of voice:
NOTE WELL: Your voice is not about how to make sales faster – your voice is how to make sales forever. For your voice to appear, you must possess ALL of these elements. Most people have a ‘weak’ voice because they don’t love what they do, or lack sincerity, or they don’t fully believe in themselves, their company, or their product.
SUCCESS ACTION: Go back to this list and rate yourself on a 1-10 basis. Ten being the best, your highest possible score is 130. My bet is you’re 90 or below.
SUCCESS ACTION: Record your spoken voice ONCE A WEEK, and listen to it actively – which means take notes. By listening to yourself – arguably one of the toughest things on the planet to do – you will gain a true picture of where you are right now. Your jumping off point.
And for those of you living in the dark ages still trying to ‘find the pain’ in your sales presentation, just record and listen to yourself – THAT’S the pain. The real pain of selling is listening to your voice trying to make a sale – it’s also funny as hell.
You’ll know your voice when you hear it.
It will speak to you before you ever say a word.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Leadership Inspirations – Nothing is Free
/in Leadership Inspirations/by StrategyDrivenComtesse Diane (1829 – 1899)