One of the most serious ways you are selling yourself and your product or services short is by focusing on features and not benefits. What the heck do I mean? Well think about your client and put yourself in their shoes (by the way, if you can’t do this easily, you don’t know them well enough and need to do more research.) As they head to bed at the close of the day, what are the concerns that are keeping them awake?

Know Your Client's Pillow Talk

Let me show you what I mean:
You might sell marketing consulting and plans but that isn’t what they are suffering without. They need more customers in their business. You want to lead with what is front and center for them, not your deliverable but instead the result they realize when they use your product or service.

“I show you how to simply and powerfully attract and capture more ideal clients to add dollars to your bottom line.”

Do you sell home furnishings or carpet? It is unlikely that they are staying up nights worrying about that. Instead they are focused on that upcoming visit from a critical mother-in-law that means they need to make interior decorating changes. Or, they have worn out pieces that preclude them from being comfortable and inviting friends over.

“Tired of hearing your mother-in-law harp about your home decorating? Refresh your look with the perfect pieces for your style that will wow even the most critical mother-in-law.”
“Are you too embarrassed to have friends over? Let us help you find the style that is you, pulling it together and making you look good.”

You may be a coach but instead of zeroing in on the value and results you provide, you get caught in conversations about how many sessions they get, do they get email support, and more. That isn’t relevant to your client’s needs. They want to know what their transformation will be by working with you.

“Imagine clearing up the blocks to better relationships in your life so you can enjoy not just loving relationships with your family but also harmonious relationships in your workplace.  You will look forward to going to work each day and be excited to embrace weekends with your family and friends.”

Know It, Use It

Once you nail down the “pillow talk” of your market, you can much more easily create compelling copy and conversation to drive them to the decision that you are the solution to their pain. As long as you fail to deliver the answer and instead give just the details of delivery, you are going to miss their boat. They won’t see you as an answer but only as an obstacle and they’ll keep searching. Open up your opportunities and your bottom line by pinpointing their pain and brandishing the salve they need most.

Talk to me here in comments with your thoughts and experiences. I reply to every comment and value you as my reader! Oh and find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Be sure you make the invite personal as I want to get to know you.

Recently I got one of those many emails promising me a peek at my credit score. Well it had been over a year and I was curious as it is always a good idea to keep tabs, so I filled out the necessary information. I know, I know, when they asked for my credit card information for a one dollar charge that would be refunded, I knew that this meant my credit card was going to be held on file so they could do auto-payments of their service. None of that was disclosed up front.

Unhappy Customer

I got the credit scores, and it was expected good news. What happened next, not so much.

I got an email from Scoresense (hey I don’t want you going through this) that said I had just 7 days to cancel their service or they’d be debiting by credit card monthly for monies to “watch” my score. Now, I find this entirely unnecessary and had no intention of being dunned, so I read further for that small print about how to cancel. Lo and behold there was an 800 number. The hitch was when you called it, it insisted you give an extension and they hadn’t provided that, slippery business. So I had to go out to their site and fish for another number.

When I called, I got a telemarketer with a script. As I requested my cancellation, explaining I wasn’t interested, his pitch began. I started to steam. I wanted to cancel, NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING. By the third pitch, I was just shy of yelling at him raising my voice to shut him up, I said “don’t pitch me anything, I don’t want it. I know you are on a script, this isn’t on that script, cancel the account and further charges immediately.” He didn’t really know what to do without his script, pretty funny if I’d had my sense of humor. He maintained his sunny disposition (see below, important lesson here) cancelled and continued to ask what more he could offer. NOTHING! I felt a bit like Moses on the Mount and wanted to shout “LET MY CREDIT CARD GO.” It was this experience that triggered this post!

While we’d all like to think it won’t happen to us, service cancellations and product refunds are just a part of business today. The key is not to piss off an unhappy customer further and turn the situation into a neutral or positive instead of the negative that it is. Let’s take a look at three essentials to a satisfying conclusion for you and your unhappy customer:

#1 Don’t Take It Personally
As difficult as this can be when you are a solopreneur or the actual service provider (coach for example) don’t take this personally. Stay out of being defensive and instead be open to hearing their side of it. Explore it gently with them and make it clear your desire is a resolution that will satisfy them. An unhappy customer often isn’t unhappy with you or even your service, you have no idea what else is going on in their life and you just happen to be a handy target.

#2 Handle It With Grace and a Smile
If you follow step one this will be a lot easier. Be gracious, be open keep a smile (not a grin) on your face. It is likely this is uncomfortable for your customer and they may be expecting resistance and unpleasantness. Show them that isn’t the case and be accommodating regardless of your policies. Policies can and should be bent and even broken occasionally to salvage your customer’s goodwill. Goodwill comes before policy.

#3 Listen and Hear What Your Customer (Client) is Saying
In fact if you shut up and listen, that can often be what they want most. Give them a chance to vent over whatever it is. Remember this isn’t about you, it is all about them. By listening well and even parroting back with phrases like “so what you are saying is . . . ” or “as I understand you . . .” this shows them you are being empathetic, not sympathetic and truly hear their concerns.

#4 Skip Any Pitch
The dumbest thing you can do in the case of an unhappy customer is attempt to pitch them into another service even if it is a lesser value or cost than what they bought.  I’ve had it done any number of times by large corporations with a host of telemarketers stranded with scripts and unprepared for that unhappy customer.  It singularly will piss off your customer and further serve to alienate them and ensure they spread the word of their dissatisfaction.

Thumbs Down

#5 Create a Prompt Resolution
Speed is often of the essence with a dissatisfied customer. Offer a refund or cancellation post haste. Don’t make it difficult, don’t require them to jump through a lot of hoops. Deliver what they want to the degree you can quickly and with goodwill.  Believe it or not, this can even lead to them wanting to do business in the future, rare but it can happen.

When you use the steps here you will deliver resolution faster, with grace, and are infinitely more likely to salvage the customer relationship. You may not get the unhappy customer back but you won’t run the risk of them spreading their dissatisfaction. It is widely known that for every one satisfied customer, they will tell one more. For every dissatisfied customer, they will tell ten more. Are you willing to risk that in an age where ten goes viral to become a hundred? I’m not.

Love to hear your stories of unhappy customers (clients) and how you handle it. And always connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. You matter to me!

I went to get my car washed last week and noticed a clipboard at the register with a stack of half sheets of 8.5×11 paper. It asked me simply to write down my name and email address so Sunshine Car Wash could email me discount coupons for free in March. This was a no-brainer decision. I didn’t need any prompting or to be asked. In fact the cashier had stepped away but the clipboard was right there front and center with a pen so I filled it out. And then it dawned on me, this was so simple yet so effective. I had to share it.

Now, I know what you are thinking. You don’t own a car wash and you could never apply this to your business. Yes, you can and I’m going to show you how!

First, if you do have a retail shop or storefront or a restaurant, you can totally apply this technique exactly as the car wash did only you are going to dress it up a bit. You are going to trade in half sheets of xeroxed paper for colorful card stock 5×8, so it’s easy to read, with your request on it. You can keep them neatly stacked with pens strategically located. You definitely want to keep them at the check out, and also if you have tables or other types of places where customers might sit down (think furniture retailer or restaurant), or where they’ll linger looking at merchandise. The beauty of a clipboard is you can easily attach a stack of over sized cards to it and hang it conveniently with pen attached to encourage information sharing in the moment. You may also want to include a receptacle of some sort that keeps completed forms protected and private.  A decorative box with a slit in the top could be included (though many people are more than willing to share their name and email when they see others doing the very same thing.)

Second if you are in a service based business, perhaps you are an interior designer, a financial adviser, a coach, or an attorney, this can be done with style and ease. You simply want to have over sized cards printed up with your request for their name and email in exchange for the right to send them VIP savings opportunities, a complimentary consultation, or other offer.You can keep this in a lounge area if you have clients who come to your office and usually have to wait a couple of minutes or more to see you.  If you are in the habit of going out to them, bring the clipboard and pull it out of your bag and leave it on the counter (if it is an odd size and colorful, often it will be more eye catching and draw curiosity) as you pull out whatever tools you use to take notes or otherwise work with your client. You can always invite them to complete it.

This is important because they are giving you permission to email them beyond strict business correspondence and invoices. Personally there is nothing that irritates me more than a business owner who gets my card at a networking event, or we meet for coffee and the next thing you know, I’m inundated with their email marketing that I didn’t invite or give permission to send.

The key here is that you are gaining permission to email them without asking them to subscribe to anything or climb on your “list.” And that is exactly what they are doing, albeit a selected list because they specifically want specials you’ll offer. This is better than anyone else you might collect because this level of interest indicates a predisposed buyer, instead of a random prospect.

Most of us are over run with email today and hesitate before giving out our information and literally cringe when we are asked to be on another list. This takes the fear out and provides a monetary incentive in the form of an extra percent off, free services, or the like. And the clipboard method is passive, you don’t have to ask for anything, just keep the opportunity front and center at all times.

Honestly I’m one of those who is almost entirely immune to a request for my most precious information, my name and email. This caught me off guard and was a value I wanted, I jumped in. When you are the value that your customers and clients want, they’ll jump in too.

Tell me here about the offer you’d make on your CLIPBOARD!

Guest Post by Dr. Rachna Jain

Content syndication is the process of sharing your content across the internet, so that you are creating greater reach and influence along the web. Content syndication is a multiplicative process; where you share your content on a series of different sites, and those sites may republish to other sites, and so on. So, from one piece of content, you can get hundreds or maybe even thousands of shares. Contrast this to most business owners, who write for their blog or newsletter and then never do anything more with this content.

Done correctly, content syndication can add value to your business in 5 distinct ways:

1) You get more uses from each item of content. Whether you generate content yourself, or pay to have it created for you, every additional use reduces your costs. If you write an article and use it once, it might be at a cost of $50, let’s say. But write an article and use it 10 times, and your cost per use drops to $5.

2) It creates leverage for you. If you wanted to build your client database to 1000 people without using content syndication, it would take much longer and be more difficult than if you wanted to build it to 1000 people using content syndication. Content syndication essentially multiplies you; which means your content is out across the web, working for you 24-7-365.

3) It can boost your site visitors. The ultimate goal of content syndication is to give value such that people want to visit your site to learn more. With more site visitors, your website value increases, and you have more opportunities to promote your products and services.

4) It can generate new opportunities for you. I, and my clients, have been contacted for interviews with major media publications who found us by content we’d placed online.

5) It can extend your thought leadership. As the internet becomes increasingly crowded, people will be looking for leaders they can trust and follow. When these people are exposed to your content, consistently, they will be ready to follow your lead.

So, have I convinced you that content syndication is something you need to be doing? If so, and you want some help getting started, please join Dr. Rachna Jain and Denise Wakeman for a 5 week training to help you learn the basics of content syndication. Learn more FromPlatformtoProfit.com

About the Author: Dr. Rachna Jain is the founder of Profitable Popularity. Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at Profitable Popularity.

You know the power of third party credibility. It’s the word-of-mouth marketing that keeps talking about your incredible value and brings you new customers on a regular basis. The engine that runs that marketing machine is testimonials. You can call it referrals or even goodwill, the reality is it is clients talking about how great your service or product is to other prospective clients. Now, it’s awesome when you’ve got this engine humming along, but the reality is you most often need to kick start the process. Better yet, when you put into place a regular process for getting testimonials, you’ll have a continual pipeline of fresh rave reviews.

Testimonial Power

3 Simple Ways to Request Great Testimonials
Getting testimonials can feel kind of uncomfortable. You did an outstanding job and your customer has commented but you’ve got to capture their comments in written form and get their permission to use that. There are three simple ways to make that happen:

1. When you use a letter of agreement, simply include a clause that states that they’ll be requested to provide a letter of recommendation regarding your services upon satisfactory (better yet, exemplary) performance.
2. When you hear them compliment your service or product, mention to them how much you appreciate that and would love to get their review in written format.
3. Be prepared with an outside resource to collect your testimonials as part of every project’s or contract’s follow up. It can be a lot easier to have a third party do this for you, often customers will share far more with a third party than they might with you.

4 Step Formula to Getting Great Testimonials
The real key to outrageous testimonials is a four step formula:

1. What problem did your client face when they hired you?
2. What specific solution did you provide (product or service included)?
3. What was their experience in working with you?
4. What would they say to someone else considering hiring you?

When you aren’t specific with your customer, you’ll get a very generic testimonial like “Joe was great to work with, I recommend him.” There is no real impact in that statement as it doesn’t cover the challenge they faced when they met Joe, what Joe’s specific solution was, what their experience working with Joe was, and why they would recommend Joe. The more specific the better, if they can include metrics like “our sales increased 50% in just 90 days after working with Susan” so much the better.

Shortcut to a Great Testimonial
To shortcut your testimonial process consider using automated testimonial software. Better yet, go with the human touch and explore providers who can do this for you. Often you can use your marketing specialist, provide them with a bit of background and the formula here and have them make appointments for 10 minute conversations with key clients, eliciting rave reviews.

It works best if you collect your testimonials either right before the close of a project or contract, or shortly following. Get your testimonial process into place so you don’t find yourself going back months later when memory can miss some specific details of your outrageous service. My favorite resource for collecting testimonials is my colleague and marketing expert Tricia Molloy. She not only has the formula down, but gets incredible description and sound bites from my clients that I use on my website, in marketing copy, and even in powerpoint and on sales pages. Check her out and explore your other options for testimonials to take your business to the top.

Comments welcome always and love to hear your testimonial tidbits. Connect with me on facebook, linkedin, and twitter, of course!

I know sometimes my alliterative tendencies go to far, but I couldn’t resist this title. I couldn’t resist because I actually dated a guy a couple of years ago who repeatedly referred to himself as a meathead. Really? This was mismarketing to me. Mismarketing is exactly what it sounds like, you are missing the mark of your marketing and may not even be aware of it.

You see, the lesson here is you have to be very aware of what moniker you apply to yourself in front of clients and customers. This is a lot like dating and what continually occurred to me (and still does) is why did I want to date a “meathead.” I didn’t and broke it off. Were there other reasons, of course, but it was all too easy to lump them under the headline of “meathead.” He made it easy for me to accept his marketing and not accept him.

#1 Honor Yourself and Your Clients Will Honor You
When you call yourself by some self deprecating title, it isn’t going to serve your business well. By the same token, don’t go all egotistical either and name yourself the King or Queen of something unless you truly are! (This is kind of like being #1 at anything, there are always 500 more of you claiming the same status.)

It isn’t just about what you call yourself, but how you show up. That is your behavior that makes a real difference. I’ve interviewed service providers (is that a title you wear?) who focused on running down their competition and telling me how the other guy did it all wrong. Even if he did, this didn’t build the provider being interviewed up.

# Honor Your Competitors and Focus on What You Do Best
This is particularly relevant when we go through elections every four years and witness the smear campaigns the candidates degrade themselves into. It doesn’t make them look better, just petty and without enough qualifications to focus on to win without mud slinging. Stop focusing on your competition and instead keep the focus tightly on YOU and what you do best. Leave the decision up to your market, mudslinging muddies you as well.

I have to tell you I got a wry grin when I read an email from a contractor’s business manager recently. The contractor was expected on a site to quote and his manager emailed me the morning of with “he’ll be on time and he’ll behave.” Hilarious!

He always ran on time that was never an issue, but he was often so full of himself that it was hard to get him to focus on the task at hand. The reason I put up with it, is he is incredibly fast and top notch quality at his work. It is still trying and all too tempting to find another with less attitude.

#3 Honor Your Clients and Keep Your Ego Out of the Way
There is nothing more “meathead” like than going all Big-Man-On-Campus with your clients. They hired you because they considered you qualified for the job or project at hand. You already have their initial vote of confidence. Avoid negative marketing at all costs.

Put your head down, focus on the doing the work to the best of your ability and let them make the rave reviews. When you run around touting your talent, beating your chest like George of the Jungle, you are inevitably going to run into that tree of humility!

Love to hear your experiences always, comment and share on facebook, linkedin, twitter.

In this day and age of multimedia channels, social networks, email inundation and smart phones, it can be darned near impossible to stay in front of your customer. They are as overwhelmed as you are. So how can you ensure that you stay top of mind and claim the “mindshare” that will make a difference?

I’ve always thought of it as being a “GoTo Guru” but learned the term “mindshare” from a colleague and with permission I co-opted it!  You see to succeed today, you really do have to be top of mind for your customers even when they aren’t ready to buy from you. (They will be and you need to be first on their list to call, better yet, you’ll be calling them.)

There are five simple ways you can ensure “mindshare” with your customers:

1) Keep in Touch with Gratitude~ I know it sounds basic yet it is very rarely acted on. When I began in business almost twenty years ago I sent a hand written thank you note (not an email and not a Send-Out-Card) to each and every client I met with. It didn’t matter if it was my first visit or my fifteenth, you got a note. I had clients commenting on my notes. MINDSHARE.

Claim MINDSHARE Today by sending a hand written note. Yes, you can use a Send Out Card, but it won’t have near the impact.  (Oh and I’m not giving you a hyperlink as I don’t rep SOC! )And email is likely to be buried under the avalanche that is their inbox. Instead visit the ghost town of their postal mail box. Use attractive stationary or a fun card. People love to open fun mail!

Unforgettable Travels to Share

2) Let Them Live Vicariously ~ Let’s face it, some people lead more adventurous lives than others by virtue of the travel  they do. I love travel! Many of my clients don’t get the chance to travel or don’t want to but love to hear about it. So every trip I used to take,  I’d get a collection of postcards. (Today I do Facebook updates, it isn’t as personal and I will likely return to postcards.) I carried stamps and mailing labels with me unless in a foreign country (then I bought them on site.) My first night, I’d hand write short notes to each person. I did cards for as many as fifty people.  When I returned, I’d often see my postcards up on their refrigerator or on their desk as a reminder. MINDSHARE.

Claim MINDSHARE Today by sending old fashioned postcards or creating a cool and clever email postcard with pictures of your trip. See my friend and video guru Lou Bortone for how to make this happen.

3) Sharing Value Content ~ I grew up with a mom who always sent me newspaper clippings and articles. Old fashioned yes, and a powerful way to stay in contact. I do the same thing with clients, even today. While, of course, I send virtual articles. Because I still love to read real magazines and tear out articles,  I still mail them to clients to review, comment, and even save. MINDSHARE.

Claim MINDSHARE Today by sharing articles regularly with your customers both online and in real time by mail.  They are likely to bookmark what you send or save the real deal in a file with your name attached. Be sure to tell them WHY you thought the article would be of interest. Random sharing isn’t relevant.

4) Congratulate on Successes ~ I remember  having a doctor visit a few years ago (keep reading, I’m not going into medical detail!) And in the consultation, this doctor pulled a file on me that had clippings of local press I’d been featured in. I was wowed that he’d gone to that trouble. MINDSHARE.

Claim MINDSHARE Today by setting up Google Alerts on your client’s names and tracking any press they get. Send a note of congratulations either by email, or better yet get a copy and send it with a personal note by snail mail. People love to be recognized, this will garner you points.

5) Learn About Them ~ Nothing is more powerful than remembering children’s names, ages, where they are in school or your client’s favorite sport, team, or hobby. When you get to know the person behind the profession, you claim real MINDSHARE. In this day and age, that is one of the reasons to use social media and social networking. So much information is now at our fingertips without even having to ask. It is about getting to know them as a 360 degree person and allowing them to know as much about you. This fosters their KLT (know, like, and trust) factor. MINDSHARE to the next degree.

Claim MINDSHARE Today by searching your clients online and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and more. If they have a blog, you may want to bookmark it so you can check it out from time to time, or you may decide to subscribe to the RSS. Don’t necessarily friend them on Facebook, but definitely like their fan page if they have one. Before sending a friend request make sure they invite non-family and friends. You can easily follow on Twitter and certainly connect on LinkedIn.

Please comment on what methods YOU USE to garner MINDSHARE with your market. And always you are welcome to connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Do you remember the classic crooner Frank Sinatra? I ask only because in today’s high tech, warp speed world, classics come and go almost as quickly as a new trend or fad. Sinatra had, among his many hits, a song title “I Did It My Way.” And I realized the other day that has been the key not just to my business success but to that of my clients as well. I’ve simply facilitated their ability to find “their” way.

I lost my way recently. I fell into that place of listening to too many other people and trying to please all of them while forgetting that the person I need to please the most is ME!  Now, lest that sound selfish or inappropriate, let me explain and suggest that if you fall into the category of being a People Pleaser too, you read extra closely. This could save you a lot of time, frustration, anxiety, and even money.

You see when I embarked on that path of technology transition, while it occurred to me to get another PC, I’d had a number of creative colleagues and even non-creative friends rave about Apple and how superior it was. Except they didn’t just rave (fanatics rarely d0), they demanded that I make a change. At least that is what it sounded like to me. And, being the People Pleaser that I am, I acquiesced.

I wanted so badly to make all those rabid Apple fans happy that I just assumed (and we all know what happens when you do that “ass u me”) that I’d be happy with the change. So, I failed to do my due diligence. I didn’t check out what the transition would look like, I didn’t explore the nuances of each system and what they would mean to me personally. I just dove in with both feet and promptly hit the bottom. OUCH!

In the process of surfacing this last week with the help of a new, young, wildly talented tech (best thing to come out of this mess so far), I had the big wake up call. (Think head slap here!) I needed to do what was right for me and let all those Apple users be damned. Oh, they are still friends, colleagues, people I enjoy and both inspire and am inspired by, but they aren’t me and what works for them, may not and in this case, definitely doesn’t work for me.

I’m ditching the new Macbook Pro and the new Imac and returning to my happy place with a new HP laptop and bright new monitor. Get over it Apple maniacs!  The gap has closed the last few years in operation systems, yes I will have to run antivirus software, I’m cool with that. More importantly, I will get a screen I like, searching that works and I’m used to it (Mac was not friendly on this front and required customization), and a fully functioning Outlook with my daily calendar on the same screen (out of site, out of mind). I will even enjoy my weather icon and calendar widget on my home screen, not a separate screen as Mac insisted (in their clearly less than infinite wisdom.)

So, I’m going to say something here that few have ever said and you may not hear from many others. I like Windows. It works for me. The majority of what I do is email, word, powerpoint, and very limited fooling about with pictures. I don’t photoshop. I may produce a video, but I leave the editing to an expert.  I write books, I don’t illustrate them beyond clipart. I design but have staff who handle CADD (though I learned it before it was even taught in schools, lol.) In other words, as creative as I am, I don’t need an Apple. What I need is a system that I know, like, and trust. I understand the weaknesses in Windows and can live with those.

I’m finally getting brave enough to please myself! I’m going to stop chasing what everyone else thinks I should have and go with what I want. I suggest you do the same thing. Like the not yet classic singer Nikka Costa says “Can’t Please Everybody.”

Tell me here about your latest sacrifice to pleasing everyone else and what you are going to do to take your POWER back!! Oh and remember to follow me online at facebook, twitter, and linkedin.

With my recent extensive and intensive experience with Apple, I am more qualified than usual to share with you three BASICS you must have to create and sustain a happy customer experience.  Face facts, it isn’t enough to sell your product or services, you have to ensure that your sale is satisfying and leaves your customer or client feeling good (even great) about you and your business. Customer service isn’t rocket science and it is the cornerstone of every successful business, yet I am amazed at how easily it can be botched and leave a permanent scar. That scar by the way manifests itself in stories retold countless times of how bad an experience was . . . I have already managed to scare a handful of colleagues about switching to MAC and I’m not even fully there yet.

So, let’s cut to the chase and look at these three MUST HAVES:

1) Get Your Customer’s Name Right, Spelled and Pronounced.

Now I realize that this may sound no-brainer to you, it did to me too. But having purchased both an IMAC and a Macbook Pro (hey when I make a move, I jump in with both feet) only to find that on every screen, inside every program and license, my name was misspelled it became a big hairy deal.

Today, there is little more precious to each of us than our name. It is what every website asks for along with our email and it has to be spelled correctly. Now I’ve had Galt misspelled plenty of times with a change to Gault, it makes me cringe but I deal with it. Apple tortured my first name in every single location and then some with Milissa instead of Melissa. And to add insult to injury, correcting it would entail reloading all software programs where this appears, YIKES.

2) Don’t Promise What You Don’t Deliver

I will do another post soon on setting customer expectations because it is vital to your business success. Right now, I’ll just hit the tip of this enormous iceberg.

In the case of Apple, even their phone message that you get at every call, clearly states “set up your device just the way you like it.”  And when I went to purchase I invested three hours on a Saturday night to ensure they were crystal clear on my expectations based on what they’d promised in their advertising and their scripts that the sales people used. (Can we please skip the Genius monikers, these guys and gals clearly weren’t or I’d have had a much better experience.) And yet, I had a mess on my hands when I went to turn on and use the IMAC (haven’t touched the laptop yet, but it is a copy so betting the same.)

They had ensured me they’d move all files over and it would be set up as I requested. That included files being in the same order as on my PC. NOT! Instead the alleged geniuses (I have a much better name, but am too PC to share it) took every file I had on my PC and put it in a virtual blender at high speed on disorganize. The files on the IMAC bear no resemblance to those on my PC and it is going to take considerable time to sort it out. It is  more likely I’ll have them dumped and reinstalled in an orderly fashion by an outside tech, more monies out of pocket when they’d promised “just the way you like it.”

3) Be Easy to Reach

We’ve all learned to master those annoying multi push button phone systems that the giants like American Express, Verizon, and more use. You just keep hitting zero until the system delivers a human being (or you use a dialtone phone, yeah right!) But what to do when you’ve made a major purchase and each time you call you have to go through a system that doesn’t have a zero option or worse, it cues you behind all other calls giving no preference as a new customer. This is how Apple works if you have to reach the store, and leaving a message for a specific person because you don’t want to repeat your story six million times is fruitless as messages are never relayed despite promises from any Nick, Marcus, Tom, Dick, Harry, or Jessica answering the phone. YIKES, really?????

Every sale I’ve ever made, I give my client my cell phone and easy access for questions, challenges or praise (yes, it does happen!) I bet you do to, and if you don’t you will now. Here’s the trick, if you have a staff working for you, you must train them to get messages to you post haste. A new customer is at that precarious place where they can either teeter into total satisfaction or fall into the abyss of buyer’s remorse and once in the abyss it is very hard to fish them out.  I’m in the abyss. Yes, I can still return the product, but that means I’ve been beat, and I’m no quitter!

There is a lot more I can share on these three and I’m betting you can too, so I’d like to hear your favorite BAD or GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE story, c’mon now, dish it here.

Oh and if you aren’t already following me, find me  on Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter all.

This is slick. Maybe you’ve seen it before, but I hadn’t. Now we are being sent awards of complete irrelevance. I’m a professional speaker on social media, relationship marketing, and strategic business growth. I also speak on life design and success architecture.  While I do coach and consult with business owners on marketing, customer service, and branding, I am not a life coach, never have been, and don’t plan to be. Yet, I’m being allegedly recognized for my “life coaching.” Huh?

REally, last week an email arrived in my inbox with the subject line . . . Melissa Galt, Inc Receives 2011 Best of Atlanta Award. I was dumb founded. I wasn’t aware of having submitted for any award, nor was I aware of anyone else submitting me. I had to open it and found out that for a fee, I could have my very own irrelevant award. This is hilarious on some level. You no longer have to win recognition, instead you can buy your own trophies!

Of course, I’m familiar with the services that call you up after you’ve gotten some nice press and they offer to put it onto a plaque for you, for the Very Special Price of ONLY $197 or something like that. I actually fell for it a time or two until I realized my money was way better invested in reprints of that same press that I then sent out to both existing clients and to prospects.

Yes, your press isn’t as well used when stroking your ego from the wall. It is much better leveraged when you create reprints and use it as strategic marketing material and credibility builders.

This latest scam is closer to the Who’s Who books that they market. I am embarrassed to admit I fell for one of those some ten years ago. They like to impress you with all their fancy numbers and tell you how you can use it to network and usually the charge is anywhere from $500 to $1500, pretty outrageous really but then ego-driven marketing usually is. (Did I just admit that?)

This is personal branding run amok. Buying credibility does exactly the opposite of what you intend, don’t do it. In fact, I’ll let you in on another little secret that I fell for a few years ago. A local association I belonged to honored me with an award. I admit, it seemed out of the blue and I graciously accepted. Shortly thereafter the head of the association (founder) approached me about doing PR for me. This was clever, I felt somewhat beholden for the award and did hire her. Ironically (or perhaps not) despite a poor reference from a colleague.

What was I thinking?

Wow, (insert head slap here), it took me only three months to realize this was a marketing ploy she used and I’d been had. She wasn’t any good at PR, at least not for me nor for the colleague who’d shared the poor reference. Each year, I see this same person sucking in new clients by awarding them, tricky business to say the least. (By the way, this is a local association only, no national affiliation or I might have shared my experience with top management.)

Recognition only builds your credibility when it is real and bonafide and not some ego driven form of personal branding gone awry. Particularly in today’s age of social networking and relationship marketing, there is no need for this form of expensive and ineffective brand boost. Invest your dollars more wisely in forming real connections that count and contributing genuine value to your market as well as your peers. Being a guest blogger on a hot blog in your market, may require effort and focus but the payoff is far greater than anything you could pay your way into.

Be honest, what have you blown money on that stroked your ego instead of built your bottom line. Some of us have to make a few of these mistakes before we have our AHA! moment. Oh and for more on the mistakes I’ve made, lessons I’ve learned so you don’t have to, and in the trenches business growth and social marketing strategies find me online . . . twitter, linkedin, facebook.