“I am collecting tips and tricks for turning upset customers into happy ones”

I responded with:

“When I find out that a customer is unhappy or unsatisfied with a service my company has performed, I will usually send them a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town. People have a hard time staying mad at you if you are willing to feed them, and it gives you the opportunity to engage them on a more personal level and find out exactly how you can remedy the issue.”

This may seem a bit simple, but people with full bellies don’t stay mad long.

Don’t get me wrong.  No meal, no matter how good it tastes, will solve your problems or correct a mistake.  But a free meal to a NICE restaurant will show your customers that you are not afraid to engage them on a very personal level to ensure they are happy.

This tip was based on my experience as a designer and General Contractor specializing in high-end kitchens, baths, and renovation projects.  This line of work is a VERY PERSONAL business.  These projects involve a huge inconvenience to the home owner.  At any given time during the project the customer may be without water, electricity, heating or cooling, not to mention the dust, debris, and noise.  Often the customer is not able to use their kitchen for some length of time, so a gift certificate to a NICE restaurant provides some peace and solace during an otherwise hectic and stressful time.

I use free food not only to engage my customers when something goes wrong, whether it is my fault or somehting unforeseen, but also to obtain free advice and networking.

Need legal, accounting, or business advice and you don’t want to pay full price for a consulting fee?  I have yet to ever be turned down when I have offered to take one of these professionals out to lunch “to pick their brains.”  This is a “retainer-free” way to not only get good advice, but also a way to get your business in front of other professionals that may recommend your services to their client base.

Thanks again to Mike for including my recommendation.  You can read the other 54 tips here.

Want to do lunch sometime? Connect with me by cliking on one of the icons below or shoot me an email.

Social Media experts, professionals, marketers, managers, gurus, clubs and networks are emerging as fast as the status updates they publish.  But since this “form” connectivity is still so new and still growing, I am a little bit hesitant when I see, hear, or read that someone is a “Social Media Professional.”  I am not saying that there are no Social Media experts or professionals that make a living with these new tools and networking capabilities, but having a Twitter account and a Facebook page and calling yourself a Social Media Professional is comparable to calling a guy with a truck and a few tools a General Contractor.

So my question is…

What makes a Social Media Professional a professional?

Let me clarify one thing.  I am not asking this question of those of us engaged in Social Media in one form or another to connect or promote a small business.  I am also not asking those of you that may may be “in the know” about all things Social that may teach others the “How-To’s” of Social Media.  (That’s a completely different discussion.)

My question is directed at those people that are gainfully employed by an organization or business and tasked with achieving some sort of metrics regarding the use of Social Media.  My question is directed at those of you that direct a team of people or work with others within an organization to promote said organization, team, or business through the use of Social Media.

By what metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your Social Media campaign?

What tools in the Social Media toolbox do you use to reach these pre-defined metrics, and why do you use the tools you have chosen?

Is your Social Media strategy based on public relations, marketing efforts, business development, or some combination of these?

When contemplating business strategies, I often default to my background…Construction and Project Management.  In this line of work I find it of utmost importance to provide an answer to the following question:

What are the clear and definable goals of this project or task?

If I cannot answer this question for my clients and if I cannot develop a system to achieve those goals, then I am stealing my clients’ money.

So as an employed Social Media Professional, does your team operate with clear and definable goals?

The idea for this post came from a tweet I read from a friend of mine:

@gavinbaker (Socia Media Manager for a large restaurant chain) tweeted “…wonders why social media is always synonymous with twitter, when there is a lot more out there”

This got me thinking.  Is Social Media PR, marketing, business development, networking, SEO or something else?  It seems to me that Social Media is some combination of all these and more, but many  so-called “Social Media Professionals” I follow seem to rest on the altar of Twitter and Facebook with little or no deeper strategy of engagement or business development in mind.

The question…”What makes a Social Media Professional a Professional is like asking the question:

“What makes something ART?”

I don’t know, but if I can do it, it ain’t art.

And to quote a recent acquaintance of mine, Zane Hagy – CEO and company Mascot for z11 Communications (@zane_z11comm), “I am no Social Media expert, and neither are people that say they are.  It keeps changing too fast.”

What say you Mr. and Mrs. Social Media Professional?  What makes you a Social Media Professional?

Mark Twain said it best…

“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

I have “removed all doubt plenty” of times.  But each time my stupidity was brought to light, I have learned something….sometimes it pays to be the dumbest person in the room.

I found that when I worked for someone else I was always trying to impress someone else – a supervisor, a boss, and even my co-workers.  In my stupidity, I tried to do this by appearing smart.  I am not saying that appearing smart or actually being smart is a bad thing; I just found out that this technique did not work as well for me when I was working for myself.

Who was I going to impress?

I quickly learned that I did not know everything I needed to know to become successful.  In fact I knew very little about starting a business.  Sure, I had almost 10 years of  experience in my related field; but starting, growing, and maintaining a business was a whole new ballgame.  I was dumb.

With no one to impress and a business to get off the ground, I did what any dumb guy would do….I started asking questions.

I asked questions of anyone that would entertain me.  For each question I had answered, another 10 came to mind.

I joined groups like this one and found myself in a room full of really smart people that knew other really smart people.  As I looked around, I realized that being dumb really paid off.  I was forced to seek out advice due to my stupidity and bolstered some extremely important relationships.

I also noticed that really smart people (the ones with all the really great ideas) talk a lot.  That’s what really smart people do.  They talk about ideas, methods, and strategies.  Smart people are “Big Picture” kind of people, and I like that.

BUT…

I am not that.  I am dumb.  All I know is how to get stuff done, and I now realize that is very different than knowing what stuff should be done.

I found that being the dumbest person in the room provides me with a mountain of work.  While the smart people are talking about ideas, I busy myself with making ideas happen.

I once approached one of these smart people and told him I could not get out of my head something he had said at a meeting.  I told him that I was going to start a business based on the idea that he had mentioned, and I wondered if he would be interested in joining me.  He agreed, and eventually we started this business.

At one of our first meetings, I apologized to him for “stealing” his idea and he said to me…

“…ideas are worthless.  It’s the work that goes into them that is valuable.”

From that moment, I realized that being dumb wasn’t so bad after all.

If you’re dumb like me, and trying to figure out how to start whatever it is you are trying to start…surround yourself with really smart people.  The smart people will provide you with all the information you need to take your idea and turn it into something valuable.

“How much does [that] cost?”

I love being asked this question.  This one question alone means that this potential customer has yet to be sold on a person.  If I am being asked this question, then it doesn’t matter if they have received a dozen other prices from other contractors.  What this question tells me is that this customer has not been sold on a PERSON to perform the tasks they are hoping to have performed.

You see, most people do not care as much about price as they do about a person that will care for them and walk them through the process…whatever that process is.

Oh sure, they will say that they are interested in getting the lowest price, but if you offer them  VALUE, then price becomes less important.

Most business owners have a split personality… the professional and the person.

The professional wants to jump at the chance to show the customer why he or she is the most qualified expert in his or her field, explain all the technical aspects of his or her experience, and sell them the highest quality products or services based on the scope of the project.

The person wants to ask about the customer’s family, where the customer works, how the customer heard about your business, and specifically what the customer wants to accomplish by the end of his or her project.

When the professional meets the customers, it’s all about YOU.  When the person meets the customers, it’s all about THEM.

As a business owner, you should strive for engagement with your customers…developing a relationship with them…finding out their needs…getting to know them.  Once you have sold them on you as a person and they know they can trust you, then you will be able to offer a range of prices for their project or services required depending on their specific scope.

I have failed miserably at this in the past.  Example: I was talking with a couple about a remodeling project, and they were looking for a contractor and project manager.  I spent no less than two hours going over my qualifications, past projects, and all the technical aspects of performing a project such as this.  After two hours of pontificating, one of the owner’s (the wife) asked me the following question that stopped my in my tracks:

“Are you excited about doing this project?”

You see, the professional met this owner at the door and the person never had a chance.  These folks were more interested a person that they could trust to walk them through the difficult process of tearing their house apart, than the professional that spoke in terms they weren’t quite familiar with.

Fortunately, the person finally “came out” and met them that evening, but the professional almost lost me that project.

If you can gain their trust as a person then you will have the ability to explain why your product or service costs what is costs.  You show them that your pricing is fair.  You tell them if someone else has a lower price for the same scope of work, it is because that the other “professional” has missed something.

Remember: when that customer walks in your door, they have not been sold on a PERSON yet, even though they say they are shopping for a price.  Once you have sold them on you as a person that cares for them, then the professional can take over and help them define the specifics of what they really want…a rewarding experience with a company that is looking out for them.

You may think that Social Media and Networks do not fit into your overall marketing strategy.  Understand this:

“Smart businesses will embrace this public engagement model as well, particularly in
how they ladder engagement among natural allies such as customers, employees,
retirees and suppliers. Otherwise, businesses will be at a significant tactical and
strategic disadvantage when their critics and competitors create a groundswell
of their own.“

What does this mean? You may not be “doing it”, but your competition will.

How can social media benefit my business?

Consider this example from the Edelman Report:

“Obama issued his first President-elect weekly radio address on YouTube so
that it could be embedded, shared and commented on easily. It worked. Although relatively few people typically
listen to the president’s weekly address on the radio, Obama’s YouTube address was viewed by more than a
million people.”

Is there some aspect of your business that is not reaching your targeted audience?  Maybe you should consider embracing the new tools that are at your fingertips.

Here are few tips that might get you started…

1. Email campaign – Vertical Response Aweber Icontact

2. Develop a Mobile Marketing Campaign -

“Ninety percent of Americans are within three feet
of their cell phones 24 hours a day. People still read more than 90 percent of their text messages, while
pages of e-mails sit unopened in inboxes. Text messaging and the mobile Web offers an opportunity to
reach supporters directly anywhere they are, any time of the day.“

3. Use Analytics to Track EVERYTHING!

4. Ensure that people can find your content.  If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it…

Be cautious, start early, and engage with your audience.  If you don’t, your competition will.

Passion,  drive, research, and hard work are just a few of the ideas covered in this post from Mike Michalowicz (The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur) on how to become an entrepreneur.

From Mike:

“… let’s get one thing straight – YOU ARE BORN WITH IT.   Passion, thirst, risk-taking, innovation, intelligence, and so many other variables that make up a successful entrepreneur, can not be taught.  They are either in your genes or not.  Sorry but that is the brutal, God-honest, truth.”

Only 163! No one said it was easy.