Photo by Adam Crowe

Guest post by Jade Evans

It’s all about the brand. When you buy the premium product, the sleek design – say of the King of branding – Apple, you’re buying the projection of the brand and all the marketing that goes along with it. It’s like when you buy Nike shoes or those designer jeans – built into the price is their perception of you after you have ownership of that new, shiny, designer whatever.

What do you associate with Target? Most could come up with an answer on a dime. Who do you think of when you think of Patagonia? Pepsi?

These associations – I can tell you – they are not the byproduct of the environment of the company, or at least not solely. Companies work hard and put millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into creating that emotional and subtle immediate response when customers think of a brand. Emotional buying means impulse purchases. (Which is something that any heartbroken girl can tell you when all of those new shoes arrive at their door).

To use an example that has already been mentioned, Apple, in the late 1980′s, when things were just kicking off, pushed their marketing budget from $15 million to $100 million – in part (if not mostly) to establish that brand recognition, association and loyalty. That trend continues to this day, and permeates everything that Apple touches.

When you buy soda – do you buy Coke, or do you buy Pepsi? What do you think of someone who buys Coke if you’re a Pepsi drinker? Those kind of visceral, Yankees vs. Red Sox brand recognition and territoriality is what every company strives for, that kind of rabid loyalty of their base of customers. At that point, it isn’t about the products. It’s the fact that your brand made them that matters.

People get tied up in brands and the actions of brands, they are no longer a corporate entity but a friend. For example, when it was revealed that Nike was making their products in sweatshops, there was an uproar. Of course, part of that was because of larger human rights issues, but a great deal of it was also because of the strength of the brand identity and the fact that people came to trust that brand, and identify with it – they felt betrayed. (Much like the ways we see businesses abusing social media – clients get annoyed and feel personally betrayed when companies try to pull the wool over their eyes)

So remember – the next time you buy that designer watch, or slip that new iPhone into your purse – you’re (intentionally or not) going to be joining the echelons of the followers of that brand and will be, one way or another, affected by the mindset that comes along with it.

About the author
Jade Evans is a writer who is fascinated by how companies spend money – from Apple to a Wilton NY bank, from Target, credit union Albany NY, and Patagonia to your local bodega. Talk to her about finances all day and she’ll be fascinated.

Enhancements drive more business. Doing something better, smarter, faster makes current customers happy and attracts new ones. An improvement to your website, a new system in your store, a new customer care infrastructure, easier online buying programs, it all is implemented to help grow your business.

While the intention is commendable, many companies fail to cash in on their improvements because they fail to communicate what’s going on properly. What some business owners don’t understand is that in most cases, people don’t like changes. They require time to learn, adapt and create new habits. In some cases, failing to show them the benefits, but most of all, to explain how things work, turns your efforts into a big hassle that only generates frustration, anger or the sudden desire to go to the competition.

Before you make the change, make sure you announce it. Then setup tutorials, videos,  FAQs or dedicated personnel to help your customers through the change. Pau extra attention to explaining clearly what the benefits are: how does the new system you’ve implemented help them? How does it solve their problems faster, how does it make their lives easier? Make the change about them, not you or your future profts.

No matter how much you prepare for it, no matter if you believe your communication plan for the changes you are about to implement, there will be issues you haven’t considered. Therefore you need to have someone appointed to addressing them.

Renenber! No matter how good, change is still a nuissance for your customers. Communicate your intentions and the newprocess to them and welcome their questions, xoncerns and suggestions. That’s the only way to make sure your efforts pay off and you don’t invest time and money in annoying your customers.

A few days ago, I was walking with my mom on the streets of my home town, Ploiesti. Out of nowhere, it poped in front of my eyes: QUICK! The name of a very particular shop that used to make all my money disappear since I was in 8th grade. They soled notebooks, pens, pencils, anything someone with a passion for writing would definitely be into. They retailed foreign brands that I was addicted to: Schneider, Parker, Staedtler, Rotring with their very suscessful Tikky pencils. I used to save everything I got from my parents and grandparents, along with the money I got from school for being such a good student, and spend it all to enlarge my pen, pencil, marker and notebook collection.

When I rediscovered it, I couldn’t help smiling and being extremely happy it was still in the market. They had changed locations a few times and I thought they had closed down years before. I did not love Quick just beacause of what they sold. I loved the shop’s smell, how the items were displayed, the fact that most of the staff was nice and probably the fact that I had to work hard for every little treasure I got from there. 

I haven’t been so happy at seeing a brand I know in a long time. I had a similar smile when I saw a Booking.com office in Amsterdam, but it wasn’t quite the same joy. I outgrew Quick, but I still remember it fondly, and the next time I need a pen or pencil or notebook in Ploiesti, I will buy it from there, just to show my appreciation.

It then hit me that that’s how we should define brand success. Our clients or customers should smile with pleasure when they see our logo. They should want to drop by, just to say hello, and remember the fun times they had. Or at least they should feel satisfaction when thinking of the products or services they bought from us.

It might be a lot to ask to yield genuine happiness when they see or hear of our brand, but a goal set to only triggering positive feelings in no way means aiming to high!

What do you hope your customers think when  they suddenly see your logo?

Your company has an innovative product, a flashy and attractive website, a bevy of investors on board, and a technical support staff consisting of one intern that you spent five minutes training via email. What’s wrong with this picture?

How Tech Support Affects Your Company’s Image

In many cases, your tech support representatives are your only employees that regularly interact with your customers. When your support reps also happen to be your lowest paid, worst informed and (understandably) most short-tempered employees, can you expect your company to build a positive reputation among your target audience?

Tech support is under-utilized. Far too many companies treat their tech support teams as a last line of defense between angry customers and imminent organizational failure, and consider the idea of sending their tech team leaders to management schools as completely ridiculous . You should have two primary goals for your technical support services, both of which will improve your company’s image when accomplished:

• Solve the problems posed by your customers in a timely, efficient and (this is important) friendly manner. It may sound simple, but it often requires more creativity than simply asking the customer to check his system settings or unplug and reconnect a few cables. Your customers want a fast solution, which might involve providing suggestions to use your product or service in a way that you hadn’t previously thought about.
• Use the information gathered from customer support calls to improve your products or services. In their fits of anger, disappointed customers often reveal the weakest points of what you sell. Fixing the problem permanently will lead to satisfied customers who have no need for a tech support call.

How to Use Available Tech Support Channels Properly

Live Chat – This is a relatively new and increasingly popular technical support method utilized by many sites, including giants like Amazon.com. Unfortunately, many companies feel that simply offering live chat will distract users from the fact that the service itself can be woefully poor. Most of the live chat services I’ve used were staffed by support reps who barely understood my simple questions, let alone were able to sufficiently answer them. Live chat is ideal because it’s fast and it allows the customer to save the conversation for later reference. However, live chat reps that make grammatical and spelling errors can damage the user’s perception of your company’s competency.

Email – This is a standard tech support method that no company should sacrifice, even when offering a plethora of other support channels. Many users who have grown weary of real time support methods such as live chat and phone prefer email, simply to avoid the confrontation they expect when they complain about a product. Email has similar benefits to live chat in that it effectively records the conversation for later reference. The same general rules in regards to grammar, spelling and tone apply to email support as well.

Phone – The preferred tech support channel of most customers, phone support also calls for the highest level of competency on the part of your tech support staff. It can also make for the shortest successful support calls, especially when the problem is technical in nature and requires constant feedback (Try this. That didn’t work? OK, try this but change this first.).

How to Approach Your Customers

The basics are obvious: be nice, be respectful, don’t blame the customer, know what you’re talking about, say you’re sorry even if you’re not, etc. Following these common sense guidelines will, in most cases, lead to satisfied customers who will continue to use your products and services. However, that’s probably where the effects of the customer support inquiry will end.

Provide a customer support experience that’s so positive and so beneficial to the customer that he or she will be compelled to talk about it with friends and post about it online (blogs, social media sites, forums related to the types of things you sell, etc). In most cases, this will involve a monetary benefit for the customer, usually at the detriment of your own bottom line. Offer free return shipping, even if the customer ordered the wrong thing (Zappos, an online shoe retailer, has seen enormous success largely because of this single policy). Issue a full refund past the warranty period. You’ll generate such a positive buzz around your company that the initial financial burdens will be more than mitigated in just a few months.

How to Use an FAQ Effectively

An effective FAQ can intercept customer complaints and resolve problems before a tech support inquiry is even made. Follow these tips to write a good one:

• Don’t think of a clever name for it. Angry customers aren’t in the mood to spend time determining whether that cutely-titled link on your navigation bar will have the answers they’re looking for.
• Only include questions that you frequently receive. Technical details are better left to product manuals, though this can partially depend on the nature of what you’re selling.
• Keep it updated.
• Make it easy to navigate and scannable. If you do feel the need to post a lengthy FAQ, users should be able to find the answers they’re looking for without resorting to ctrl-F.

How to Bolster Your Tech Support with Social Media

Although social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can be used to beef up your tech support operations, they don’t replace phone and email. However, you can use social media to keep more customers happy and eliminate some would-be customer support inquiries. Search around on social media sites and see who’s talking about your company. Don’t like what you see? Interact directly: tell the angry customer to call your company, and promise a resolution to their problem. Don’t get defensive, and don’t use it as an opportunity for a cheap sales pitch.

With nearly 600 million users on Facebook and 200 million on Twitter, people are guaranteed to see how you respond, and it won’t take them long to make a judgment about how you handled the situation. Mobile Internet devices are constantly reducing the time it takes for word of mouth to travel.

How Not to Implement Tech Support

• Don’t give your support staff less power than is necessary to do their jobs. If you don’t trust your tech support reps enough to allow them to authorize a return, for example, you either need to find more competent, trustworthy reps or rethink your customer service model entirely.
• Don’t ignore your support reps. If they report receiving calls about the same problems every day, fix the problems even if your reps seem to be handling them easily.
• Don’t take complaints personally. When a customer complains, it means that something is definitely wrong – maybe with your product or maybe with the way your customer is using it. Tactfully correcting the situation in either case is what separates good tech support from the mediocre tech support seen at many companies.

About the author

Kevin Lenton works with companies to build and maintain their online relationships with clients, as well as prepare content geared at high conversion rates. In his spare time he enjoys playing the harmonica – an activity he’s been involved in since the age of 12.

When trying to sell a product or service, the hardest part is to convince your potential customers they need it, want it or can actually use it to make their life better. A lot of effort goes into marketing and PR, engaging people, outlining the benefits, making sure what you’re selling pops up exactly when and where they would be happy to see it.

Let’s say this part of the process went really great and the customer is convinced. They would then go to your website, fill out the order form… and you might think there is no way in hell to lose that paying customer right now!

Then again you would be wrong. All it takes is a Pay now button that does not work!

Sure, there might be some potential buyers so taken with your product or service, that they would go through the trouble of sending you an email, waiting for you to fix your stupid tech problem and then spend some more time on the same form before getting what they wanted. The truth is most of your customers will put the email writing time to good use and buy from the first competitor offering something similar.

End of story! You’ve just lost a customer for the lamest reason ever

Today, a very cold and icy day, I met my friend Loredana Pascal at a down town cafe I usually like a lot. Mostly because of the menu, not their service. I was so happy to finally see her as work, life and other minor details meddled in our plans and it had been a while. I got there first and as I was pretty much frozen, so my first thought way hot chocolate!

Hot chocolate, the right choice! Only I love white hot chocolate and not all cafes or coffee shops have it. The cafe in question has it most of the times, one of the reasons for me choosing them So I ordered it! By the time Loredana arrived, a couple of minutes later, I had drunk half of it. She wanted the same thing and ordered it. The waitress told her, not before giving me a look that said “You’re a total freak for drinking that!”, how the traditional hot chocolate is much better!  Loredana still went for the white one…

So, in less then a minute and one sentence the waitress implied that we had bad taste and their cafe sold bad hot drinks to their customers! Awesome technique to win us over and make us spend more money! As Loredana explained in her earlier post in Romanian, we all love getting recommendations from those who know more about the menu then we do. We also love it when they recommend against something that’s really not tasty on a given day and point out something much better. But this is far from saying what a customer explicitly picked is basically the worst choice ever. Especially when the second customer goes for the same thing…

The line between saying those you’re attending have bad tastes and making a nice recommendation is not that fine. It’s actually quite easy to spot! If you don’t, it’s bad for business! And no, intentions don’t matter! Remember the saying about the road to hell?

Also, it’s only fair to notice two marketing and PR girls are a tough crowd!

How about you? Have you been in a similar situation where you felt the waiter or waitress was offending you instead of making a useful recommendation?

Guest post by Terra L. Fletcher

If you say you’re great, you’re bragging. If someone else says you’re great, it’s fact.

Testimonials have the power to overcome objections, reduce bias, and persuade prospects to buy. Business people should get in the habit of writing testimonials whenever they have a highly positive business experience. It fosters strong relationships, trust, and positions you as a reliable reference.

What is a testimonial? A testimonial should be a verbal or written before-and-after picture. It should clearly paint in the mind of readers or listeners why they might want to do business with the company you acclaim.

Testimonial Content

What problem did you have and how did this business resolve it (or what need did they fill)?  What did they do that their competition doesn’t?  If you can answer those questions in a succinct statement, the company will be greatly benefitted by your remarks.

Keep your testimonial short and to the point.  Focus on facts; be specific about what makes this company special and different.  Use numbers whenever possible and close with how happy you are.

Why should you write a testimonial for someone you’ve done business with?

• The more feedback you give a company, the better they can tailor their services for you.
• When you provide a testimonial, that business will strive to keep you as a happy customer.
  • Some companies give gifts or discounts to clients that refer friends or colleagues.
• If you have a business and your testimonial is used, it gets your name out there!
  • Online testimonials can even link directly to your website!
• Your mother would be proud to hear you say something nice

How do you get testimonials for your business?

Use the EAR method. Earn. Ask. Reward. Many businesses are afraid to ask for a testimonial. As a marketing consultant, I often recommend this: Create a simple form that includes space for your client’s name, the date, and their signature. Ask them to write a brief note explaining why they enjoyed doing business with you. Note how you will use their comments, in print and online marketing efforts, for example.

Train yourself and your employees to present the form whenever someone makes a highly positive remark. Simply thank them and ask them to write down what they just said. At the conclusion of a successful project, ask for your client’s business again and suggest that they pass along your name to others. Be sure your customers know that the experience of working with them was one you’d like to repeat, and that you’d like more customers just like them!

Always send a personal thank you for referrals and when possible, a small gift.

Have any businesses gone out of their way to serve you lately?  Please leave a comment.

About the author

Terra L. Fletcher, owner of Fletcher Freelance, is a business writer and marketing consultant. In the last three years she has had over 40 clients. Fletcher Freelance works with a variety of business persons in a variety of industries. You will find samples, testimonials, and a complete bio on the website, fletcherfreelance.com. Terra is a member of the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce, Shawano Area Writers, Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Association, and Helium. She also teaches community education classes on Facebook and Internet Marketing. Her speaking engagements include:“Presenting a Professional Image,” “Increase Sales through Customer Loyalty and Relationship Building,” and “Internet Marketing for Your Business.” Terra has taught large groups and small – at businesses, Chambers of Commerce, and professional organizations/associations.

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

There is no better way to start the week then reading last week’s best business, marketing and PR pieces! So let’s kick this week off with a few reading recommendations!

Guest blogger Lena West explores The Unfortunate Burden of Poor Social Media Examples on LipSticking, discussing how bad examples seem to weigh a lot more than the overwhelmingly numerous good examples of businesses using social media.

Do you know what the difference between reach, outreach and reaching out is? Liz Strauss explains it in a great piece, stressing the importance of reaching out and connecting with someone, building a valuable relationship.

Once again proving there are things to be learned and to be successfully applied to your business virtually anywhere, Karen Swim shares 5 Sweet Business Lessons from the Cake Boss.

Have you ever had trouble convincing your clients to try something new, nontraditional and harder to explain? Pia Mara Finkell has experienced such a situation and has come up with Five Ways to get Traditional Clients Onboard with Untraditional Methods which she shares on the Buzz Bin.

Paying attention to what has changed in your customer’s lives is always a great way to determining how to better market your products and services. Drew McLellan explains this simple but smart marketing process in his piece about a deodorant brand’s smart marketing.

For some of you, the fact that asking the right questions is critical might sound a bit like a cliche. Yet businesses sometimes focus on finding answers without first asking the important questions. When it comes to SEO and marketing, Mat McGee of Small Business Search Marketing has pinned down the 7 Questions Small Businesses Should be Asking.

Although it started as a response to a Mashable article on the future of public relations, in Future of public relations and social media – the truth according to Mashable, Stuart Bruce has thoroughly explained what’s currently important in the PR practice of today and what won’t exactly change in the future.

PR and Marketing can sometimes end up by seeming exhausting to any practitioner, regardless of age. It is a fast paced world and keeping up with it can be difficult. Tod Defren described 5 Steps to Dealing with the Relentless Pace of Marketing.

Weekly Roundup on Travel Tweaks

Visit Rio de Janeiro, One of the Top Destinations in South America

Top 5 Romantic Things to Do in Tokyo

Rise in US Travel Demand Leads to Higher Peak-day Surcharges

Top Three Things to Do in Belize

Top 7 Honeymoon Attractions in Macau

My articles on Everything PR

ACP Reinstates PR, Makes Veteran Editor Deborah Thomas its Public Face

Ellam Tam Became PR Newswire’s Services Representative in the Palestinian Territories

Coaching Program for Fashion and Product Designers by Lisa Elia Public Relations

Alterian Appoints Christian Wright Chief Solutions Officer, Managed Services

Leading Under Pressure, New Book on Crisis Management and Leadership

Porter Public Relations Offers Affordable Marketing services to Companies on a Budget

CareerBuilder: One-Third of Employers Use Social Media to Promote Their Organizations

NetLine Corporation Acquires All About Sales, Inc

LATINA Style Magazine Includes Verizon in its List of Best Companies for Latinas to Work For

PR Daily webinar – The basics: How to produce a social media news release

Yellow Pages Launches £5000 Online Video Challenge

Black Swan featuring Natalie Portman, a Different Type of Movie about Dancing [video]

PR News’ PR People Awards Call For Entries

Regardless of the line of business you’re in, you’re bound to run into a few customers who will put your patience and communication skills to test. Some need you to spend more time explaining what you’re doing than actually doing your job, others think they know your profession better than you do, some will take too long to respond when there’s an emergency at hand. But when it comes to public relations and nightmare customers, these are the ones we fear most.

1. The DIY customer

When something’s going on, why bother talking to the PR guy in your company or to the company you pay to handle such issues? Go ahead and make your own statements, release them and then have the people you initially ignored clean your mess. Think of the Cleavland Cavalier owner who decided a post attacking LeBron James was a good reaction to the player’s decision to choose another team.

Attacks, rushed statements, strong words powered by momentary anger, they all damage a company’s image. Once they are out, it is much harder to patch them then it is to take 5 minutes and discuss what you’re about to do beforehand.

2. The walking disaster when it comes to being spontaneous

You might be the greatest PR agency ever, you might have the best strategy in place and a nice plan to handle everything. Once your customer is in a constant spotlight, if he or she can’t handle statements made on the spur of the moment and has the habit of saying the wrong thing, you’re doomed. Think BP here and the “I want my life back” statement. While honest and heartfelt, no one cared Tony Hayward’s life was not as good anymore when others had died and many more were losing their livelihood and were bound to suffer the consequences of the oil spill for many years to come.

3. The “Do your thing, I’ll do mine” customer

While in the first case we were dealing with a customer that we knew would take PR in his/her own hands and in case two we talked about spontaneous reactions which are harder to control, our third nightmare customer is even more tricky to deal with. It’s that customer who will consult you on the matters at hand, will let you come up with a solution, strategy, plan, methods etc, will seem to agree on the best course of actions and then surprise you by doing the exact opposite. It’s that customer that you spend months with explaining how to write a proper news release to then take the next big launch and release something that goes against everything you have discussed and it is filled with mistakes so obvious even a rookie would pick up. The even better part is when your name and company are sent together with it

What about you? What do you fear most when it comes to your customers? What other scary types have you run into or heard of?

People have the habit of complaining about products and services online. When the complaints are relevant and an apology is needed, company representatives often post them on the blog where the initial problem was revealed. While some are great and solve the problem while both gaining the support and admiration of the blogger in question, others fail. After looking into a few of these apologies and trying to understand where people most commonly go wrong, I have rediscovered the art of writing effective replies to people’s problems.

But before I start, if you’re wondering why you should apologize in the first place, it’s because news travels fast online, if the problem is significant, there are great chances more people will complain and all that negativity will pop up when potential customers look you up online. You shouldn’t apologize for nonsense and give credibility to shady bloggers and nonexistant issues, but when the problem is real, you need to solve it, apologize for the inconvenience and let people know it has all been taken care of.

Here are a few tips for writing apologies that will help your company and not worsen the situation instead:

1. Recognize the problem and give it due consideration

Some apologies fail because while they say the “I’m sorry”, they fail to focus on the problem and the discomfort experienced by the customer. Instead, they rush through the apology and the unpleasant situation and focus on what the customer should have done, the proper channels to report the problem and how they can solve future problems. This is all wrong because if you’re replying, it’s clear the online piece of posting has reached its goal of making the issue known. Writing an apology that says this is not the right way and you won’t do much about it makes you look bad!

Instead, show sympathy for what they went through and recognize there was a problem on your side. Don’t try to cover it up with procedure mambo-jumbo.

2. Carefully explain what’s being done to solve the problem

Make sure your reply statement focuses on what you’re doing, not what should have happened when the customer noticed the issue. You may say it’s an unusual behavior, but focus on how you’re going to fix it, not how this is not typical for your company. The person in question won’t care, and those reading or following them won’t either. They will sit quietly and wait to see how you handle it and what you plan on doing.

3. If there’s a better way to report issues, express it while showing empathy

Don’t rush into listing 5 ways in which the customer should have reported the problem. Yes, it’s important for them to know they could have solved things faster, but make this part a side note and ask them nicely to follow your procedure in the future, never try to force it on them. They need to see why they should go through the trouble of doing as you ask rather than publish an angry status on Facebook, for example. Focus on the benefits of complaining to you directly and not to the world – quicker replies, professional assistance etc.

4. If you’re offering free stuff, don’t make it look like a bribe

Some freebies might seem like a good idea for a quick getaway. But if it looks like you’re trying to buy them, it will backfire. Make it sound like what it really is: compensation for the trouble they’ve been through, for the time they’ve wasted, etc. It has to be clear that this isn’t just a way to make the problem disappear, you will still deal with it, solve it and make sure it won’t happen again.

And here comes the most important part:

5. Write it like you mean it!

You might follow all my prior suggestions and you might still fail because you can’t make the person you’re addressing feel like you really mean what you say. They need to feel you really are sorry, you realize they are pumping money into your company and that you need them, while they can choose someone else, and that you actually are going to look into the issue and get it all sorted out. The apology needs to sound personal and genuine, not a cold piece of corporate writing that gets posted as a reply to all online complaints.

Have you written or received apologies? What’s your take on the subject and which are the tips and tricks you’ve discovered?