Monday, March 9, 2015
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Customer Service Management System
Thank you, to all of you who read my Blog and especially to those who send me comments. Your comments keep me going and give me inspiration. As a small business owner myself I am always looking for suggestions to grow my business so please continue to send your advice.
As the markets become more competitive it is becoming more important to keep your existing customers. In fact acquiring a new customer is always a loss position in the short run. That is, it costs more to acquire a new customer than the profit derived from that new customer over the first few transactions. It is only over the lifetime of a customer that we can turn a profit.
The lesson then is, focus 80% of your efforts in keeping and growing existing customers and only 20% of your resources on acquiring new customers. To do this we require a complete Customer Service Management System and a Customer Relationship Management System.
This is, an across the entire business management philosophy that Customer Service is job number One.
The elements of the Customer Service Management System would include the following:
As the markets become more competitive it is becoming more important to keep your existing customers. In fact acquiring a new customer is always a loss position in the short run. That is, it costs more to acquire a new customer than the profit derived from that new customer over the first few transactions. It is only over the lifetime of a customer that we can turn a profit.
The lesson then is, focus 80% of your efforts in keeping and growing existing customers and only 20% of your resources on acquiring new customers. To do this we require a complete Customer Service Management System and a Customer Relationship Management System.
This is, an across the entire business management philosophy that Customer Service is job number One.
The elements of the Customer Service Management System would include the following:
- A Customer Service Philosophy that is made up of : your Vision for Customer Service; A set of Beliefs that should be articulated in a Customer Service Credo; A Motto that can be remembered by all staff; Steps of Service and Standards of Service
- Also a Continuous Improvement management approach to all Processes and micro processes that go to deliver Customer Service
- A Quality program to achieve world class quality for all your services and products
The Customer Relationship Management System will have a process for:
- Sending out Marketing Campaigns;
- Capturing Qualified Leads
- Making valuable Presentations to Prospects
- Closing the Sale
- And Servicing the Customers
We will dig deeper into these elements in future Blogs. In the meantime, please keep your comments coming.
CoachBengo
Thursday, November 22, 2012
CoachBengo Ten Commandments of Small Business Export Marketing
Please visit my Guest Blog on the Free Zone Aruba Webpage where I discuss CoachBengo Ten Commandments of Small Business Export Marketing.
http://www.freezonearuba.com/guest-blogs/guest-blog-10-commandments-export-marketing-by-coach-bengo/
Friday, April 13, 2012
The New Marketing Revolution and How you can use it to Grow your Career & Business
Just recently four seemingly unrelated threads of thought coalesced in my mind and brought to my awareness another important element in the New Marketing Revolution.
First, I was fortunate to to listen to a presentation by Malcolm Gladwell on his book Outliers and was struck by his insistence of the role luck plays in the success of outliers. His explanation is that they were lucky to be in the right place, at the right time with the right support.
Second, I was again very fortunate to attend a famous Soca Star celebrity 'Thanksgiving Service' and was again surprised to learn of the 'lucky break' he explained in arriving at his winning song for this year's competition, when he had to trust in his assistants and family and a prayer on a card.
The third incident occured to me directly. I returned home one night recently to find my drivers permit not in my wallet and a thorough search of the house turned up nothing. Lying down in despair at the thought of the process to replace it, I agreed with my wife to pray for its return. And to be totally honest within five minutes, while still praying, there was a knock at our front door. You may not believe this but I'll continue, there standing at the front door was a total stranger holding my drivers permit in his hand. He had found it on the road next to a vegetable stall I visited that morning and he searched the address and found it, to arrive at my door at that exact moment. What is that?
Finally I came across this article stating that we are living in an 'Era of Flux' and it went on to explain that there is seemingly no way of knowing what direction the world and the world of business will take in the present era. No amount of Startegic Planning would have led you to create the Instagram App and sell it 17months later for US$1Billion. It is just chance or luck as Gladwell would explain.
Well, well, well, as a university lecturer and business coach and trainer how does one explain this? I think it is what Christians call Divine Providence, Scott Peck in the Road Less Travelled calls it Grace, Gladwell calls it luck and Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich calls it Universal Subconscious.
Whatever you choose to call it, I will go for the Divine Providence, success in today's era of flux needs it. To succeed in the New Marketing Revolution one must be constantly aware of signs and signals from around you, say your prayers, look for your lucky breaks, spot the opportunities, harness the support and advice from those around you, trust your family and those that love you and take the risks to flow with the Grace.
First, I was fortunate to to listen to a presentation by Malcolm Gladwell on his book Outliers and was struck by his insistence of the role luck plays in the success of outliers. His explanation is that they were lucky to be in the right place, at the right time with the right support.
Second, I was again very fortunate to attend a famous Soca Star celebrity 'Thanksgiving Service' and was again surprised to learn of the 'lucky break' he explained in arriving at his winning song for this year's competition, when he had to trust in his assistants and family and a prayer on a card.
The third incident occured to me directly. I returned home one night recently to find my drivers permit not in my wallet and a thorough search of the house turned up nothing. Lying down in despair at the thought of the process to replace it, I agreed with my wife to pray for its return. And to be totally honest within five minutes, while still praying, there was a knock at our front door. You may not believe this but I'll continue, there standing at the front door was a total stranger holding my drivers permit in his hand. He had found it on the road next to a vegetable stall I visited that morning and he searched the address and found it, to arrive at my door at that exact moment. What is that?
Finally I came across this article stating that we are living in an 'Era of Flux' and it went on to explain that there is seemingly no way of knowing what direction the world and the world of business will take in the present era. No amount of Startegic Planning would have led you to create the Instagram App and sell it 17months later for US$1Billion. It is just chance or luck as Gladwell would explain.
Well, well, well, as a university lecturer and business coach and trainer how does one explain this? I think it is what Christians call Divine Providence, Scott Peck in the Road Less Travelled calls it Grace, Gladwell calls it luck and Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich calls it Universal Subconscious.
Whatever you choose to call it, I will go for the Divine Providence, success in today's era of flux needs it. To succeed in the New Marketing Revolution one must be constantly aware of signs and signals from around you, say your prayers, look for your lucky breaks, spot the opportunities, harness the support and advice from those around you, trust your family and those that love you and take the risks to flow with the Grace.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The New Marketing Revolution and How you can use it to Grow your Career
This is the third installment in by collaborative ebook....
Before you begin to market yourselves and your services it is important to correctly identify your career path. To do this you would need to fully understand not only your learned skills but also your God given talents.
Research has shown that people perform best in a career if it is aligned with their talents. I believe a good presentation on this is one by Ken Robinson at TED talks, I provide the link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I.
Talents are usually formed by the age of 10yrs so one good way of knowing your talents is to picture your self at age 10yrs and recollect your traits. Some common talents are Persuasiveness, Caring, Leadership, Artistry of some type, team player, empathy and so many more. The trick is to try and identify your talents and choose a career path that will draw on your talents. Then you build the skills that support this career.
I believe two dominant talents of mine are Persuasion and Story Telling. I use these talents in my career as Trainer, Lecturer and Consultant. And I support or build on these talents by learning skills in Marketing, Strategy, Training, Selling and Customer Service. Together I try and offer a unique value within Training and Lecturing by telling stories and persuading students to make the effort to learn independently. I use this fact in my customer value proposition of being: Enthralling, Inspiring and Instructive.
One must separate earning money and career, very often in the early stages of your career you may have to earn money in a job, not necessarily in your career path while you build your career. One of the advantages of the New Marketing Revolution is that you can continue to build your career online while you may be working offline. Do not worry about the size of market for your career, in the online world the 'Long Tail' concept prevails. In this theory the online world offers a market online however unique the service.
Whatever the career path you choose one common denominator in these times is that you have to offer value through your service, such as I explained above. It is critical that you identify the value that you intend to offer since it will form part of your customer value proposition when you begin to develop your Marketing Strategy.
The New Marketing Revolution also offers you insight into what value you should offer. By visiting Social Media sites such as Facebook you get to understand what people are interested in, what services they seek and what values they are looking for. I for example started off this ebook with the idea of helping persons grow their own business but checks with my associates and readers online convinced me that people are more interested in building a career. So I have adapted my value proposition to helping them do just that.
So take some time and identify your talents and select an appropriate career path. Do not be limited by your education, since all education is useful and can be applied in many careers and this new digital world offers unlimited access to growing your knowledge in any career.
Next Installment we start developing our Marketing Strategy for our career path. In the meantime please comment on these three installments and your comments will be included in the final ebook.
Before you begin to market yourselves and your services it is important to correctly identify your career path. To do this you would need to fully understand not only your learned skills but also your God given talents.
Research has shown that people perform best in a career if it is aligned with their talents. I believe a good presentation on this is one by Ken Robinson at TED talks, I provide the link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I.
Talents are usually formed by the age of 10yrs so one good way of knowing your talents is to picture your self at age 10yrs and recollect your traits. Some common talents are Persuasiveness, Caring, Leadership, Artistry of some type, team player, empathy and so many more. The trick is to try and identify your talents and choose a career path that will draw on your talents. Then you build the skills that support this career.
I believe two dominant talents of mine are Persuasion and Story Telling. I use these talents in my career as Trainer, Lecturer and Consultant. And I support or build on these talents by learning skills in Marketing, Strategy, Training, Selling and Customer Service. Together I try and offer a unique value within Training and Lecturing by telling stories and persuading students to make the effort to learn independently. I use this fact in my customer value proposition of being: Enthralling, Inspiring and Instructive.
One must separate earning money and career, very often in the early stages of your career you may have to earn money in a job, not necessarily in your career path while you build your career. One of the advantages of the New Marketing Revolution is that you can continue to build your career online while you may be working offline. Do not worry about the size of market for your career, in the online world the 'Long Tail' concept prevails. In this theory the online world offers a market online however unique the service.
Whatever the career path you choose one common denominator in these times is that you have to offer value through your service, such as I explained above. It is critical that you identify the value that you intend to offer since it will form part of your customer value proposition when you begin to develop your Marketing Strategy.
The New Marketing Revolution also offers you insight into what value you should offer. By visiting Social Media sites such as Facebook you get to understand what people are interested in, what services they seek and what values they are looking for. I for example started off this ebook with the idea of helping persons grow their own business but checks with my associates and readers online convinced me that people are more interested in building a career. So I have adapted my value proposition to helping them do just that.
So take some time and identify your talents and select an appropriate career path. Do not be limited by your education, since all education is useful and can be applied in many careers and this new digital world offers unlimited access to growing your knowledge in any career.
Next Installment we start developing our Marketing Strategy for our career path. In the meantime please comment on these three installments and your comments will be included in the final ebook.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
The New Marketing Revolution
This New Marketing Revolution is complex. At its core it is based on the ability of the previously faceless customer and consumer to talk back, to have a say through the use of new Information, Communication and Social Technology. As a recent Occupy Wall Street poster said....it is the 99% talking back.
But it is more than just two way communication. It is also the ability of companies to better serve and add value, to innovate, to create a constant stream of new products and services in collaboration with this now vocal customer. Not just the business but each employee of the business.
As an employee today or as a small business owner we also have to use the New Marketing Revolution to market our services and our companies’ services. Companies today now need each employee to also market its services. To do this requires that every one of us has to add new marketing skills to our existing skill set.
Recently, I had the good fortune to co-chair a half year Company Sales Planning session and one fact came out quite clearly, that each sales person also has to develop a personal marketing plan to sell themselves. As it turns out, a salesperson without a personal brand name cannot rely on the company’s brand name to get them past the gatekeepers. I have now started to insist that all my MBA students develop a personal marketing plan to sell their services.
This New Marketing Revolution, if used wisely, can also be a source of leverage for small business owners. The new technologies that are driving the revolution also make it possible for small businesses to punch above their weight class. So whether your small business is a dentist office, a lawyers office, a communication production studio or a training and development service, you also have the opportunity to market your services on par with the big guys.
This ebook is intended to be your personal resource on how you can use this New Marketing Revolution to grow your career or small business. I encourage you to follow us on the Blog by clicking the RSS icon or on Facebook and Twitter and to comment with suggestions, successful techniques or questions. As I said in the earlier blog, all comments will form part of the final ebook.
But it is more than just two way communication. It is also the ability of companies to better serve and add value, to innovate, to create a constant stream of new products and services in collaboration with this now vocal customer. Not just the business but each employee of the business.
As an employee today or as a small business owner we also have to use the New Marketing Revolution to market our services and our companies’ services. Companies today now need each employee to also market its services. To do this requires that every one of us has to add new marketing skills to our existing skill set.
Recently, I had the good fortune to co-chair a half year Company Sales Planning session and one fact came out quite clearly, that each sales person also has to develop a personal marketing plan to sell themselves. As it turns out, a salesperson without a personal brand name cannot rely on the company’s brand name to get them past the gatekeepers. I have now started to insist that all my MBA students develop a personal marketing plan to sell their services.
This New Marketing Revolution, if used wisely, can also be a source of leverage for small business owners. The new technologies that are driving the revolution also make it possible for small businesses to punch above their weight class. So whether your small business is a dentist office, a lawyers office, a communication production studio or a training and development service, you also have the opportunity to market your services on par with the big guys.
This ebook is intended to be your personal resource on how you can use this New Marketing Revolution to grow your career or small business. I encourage you to follow us on the Blog by clicking the RSS icon or on Facebook and Twitter and to comment with suggestions, successful techniques or questions. As I said in the earlier blog, all comments will form part of the final ebook.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)