Social media is the buzz these days for businesses both large and small.  As a medium it allows, for an investment of time, companies to engage with customers and potential clients.  Whole departments are being built and new companies are being founded to help guide messaging into the social media realm.  The focus is on listening to the customers, engage with them, and then convert them into a sale, a referral, or a fan.  There are lots of ways to build plans to do all of this.  Yet, in all of those methods none of them, so far, has addressed the customer experience.  What do they expect the experience of the customer to be?

I am going to grant you that they expect the customer to make a purchase, become a client, or even become a fan.  Those are actions that these marketing departments and social media consultants are seeking their audience to make.  Those might be the end result of the experience but they are not the entire customer experience.  The customer experience is much more than that… you have to visualize what that will be.

Does Your Team Have This Goal?

If you have ever played sports then you know that you have to visualize what the game will be like.  How each play of the game will unfold for you from the first whistle to the last. How each catch you will make will lead to success.  How you will rise to the occasion during a key moment.  How you will be the one that brings glory to the team.  Top athletes do this for every competition.  They can see themselves and the experience they expect for each moment of the game.  Businesses – more importantly you – should do this when it comes to social media.

The sad fact is that most do not, so this is an exceptional opportunity for you to fill the void and build a successful social media campaign.

A recent experience with Best Buy that Amber Nashlund had demonstrates that large companies have not thought through the customer experience on social media.  While the Best Buy twitter presence was able to answer Amber’s questions, Amber still left with an experience that felt disconnected and managed from afar.  End result: Amber purchased her product from someplace else.

Erika, of RedHeadWriting, discusses one of the major drawbacks that Twitter can bring to the customer experience in one of her latest rants.  The result: a hollow and empty experience which can lead Erika to miss an opportunity out of frustration.

So how can your business fill the void?

• Remember that you are engaging with people. Even if it is over the web, there is someone else on the other side of the engagement.  You would not have a sales representative or customer service representative just shout nonsense at you customers in person.  That would be insane, not to mention annoying.  You need to build any social media plan around the fact that it is people talking to people.
• Before you even make contact, envision what the conversation will be like. If you have the imagination – role-play what the conversation will be like.  This will help anticipate questions and listen.  As opposed to trying to offer solutions right out of the box when you start your conversation.
• You must measure the customer experience as part of your metrics. Once you visualize how you expect each social media engagement to go with your customers, you need to add that in how you measure the success of your social media plan.  Measuring clicks, conversions, etc. is important, as is the experience your customers will have.
• Journal your own customer experiences you have had. Incorporate it in your social media plan.  Improve upon the ones you liked and avoid like the plague those that sucked.

All things being equal customers refer, purchase, and follow people they like.  That is because the customer experience is one most important factor in that equation.  If the experience sucks, customers will flee.  Embrace social media but do not forget the experience you want your audience to have.  That is what Domino’s Pizza in Chicago has done and it has been a success!

What are you doing for your customer’s experience?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

There are tons of how-to’s out there when it comes to Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Foursquare, etc.  Most of them written by much more knowledgeable people than I can possibly be on such a quickly shifting medium.  I am in need of step-by-step instructions just like the next person when it comes to setting up the accounts and posting items online.  (I – dread to even consider the notion – am slowly turning into my parents when it comes to new technologies.)  With all these written instructions there is not much about how to connect with your customers.

Besides the draw of free advertising (read Shelly Kramer’s (of V3im) article on why Social Media Is NOT Free to kill that notion) that social media brings to businesses both large and small, it is the ability to connect with customers outside the point of sale that is leading to the embracement of the medium.  If you have been reading my posts (Mom you don’t count) then you know that having a plan for any business action is a must.  So it is the same when it comes to how you are going to connect with your customers online.  Here are three steps you can use to connect:

Adopt A Personality That Fits

It Is All In The Software Code

It is important that you understand I am not talking about being a “sock puppet” when it comes to creating an account.  What I am talking about is adopting a personality that fits with your company’s culture and its representation to its customers.  As an example look at Pfizer, Inc. (PFE), they have a reputation of being professional, well dressed, dark suited, and extremely polite.  If they have an online personality through twitter or Facebook, they would not be giving “shout outs” and posting “Hey Dude!”  That would not be consistent with the public’s perception of them as a company.  They are expected to be consistent.  Whereas on the converse side of things, seeing tweets or status updates from Starbucks I would expect to find information about coffee and their locations in a barista’s tone of voice. Which would be completely different from the straight laced Pfizer.

The same will be for your business.  Make sure you have a personality that fits with how you work with your customers at the point of sale.  The customer no matter where their interaction with your business may occur expects consistency.

Be Genuine – Be Real

There are a few stereotypes when it comes to social media.  The first, everyone is spouting nonsense about his or her cats. (Guilty! Except it is my dog @KooikerExpress.)  The second, people only use it to shout out their products and it ends up just being noise/spam.  There is truth to both of these items. Let’s break it down into why your business will be different and how to get past the clutter.

The first stereotype about people blabbering on about their pets or whatever… get over yourself.  Everyone likes to talk about himself or herself.  Even you.  Heck! I love to

A Genuine Interaction

talk about me.  The reason you and your business are entering into this foray is that you want to talk about what you are doing, your product and services, and how you help clients/customers.  You are talking about yourself. The difference is: knowing when you are being boorish.  Which you do!  That means that you are willing to listen to your customers, potential clients, and whoever enters your online presence talk about themselves.  There is a reason we come with two eyes and two ears and one mouth.  If you take the time to listen you will learn so much more about your customer, their habits, and their needs and how you can meet them.

That leads into how you can avoid the second stereotype of being seen as shouting on a soapbox in Hyde Park, aka spam.  By listening and engaging with your audience you will be seen as providing value and build a bond of trust.  You will be able to break through the noise.  This means that you need avoid the temptation of scheduling tweets and only talking about your business.  This means that you have to be real and genuine in your communication.

That can be uncomfortable for some businesses.  Being genuine and real allows for you to acknowledge the bad that comes across your stream.  It means knowing that not everyone is going to care about what you offer.  It means that you must convey a real person behind each tweet and/or status update.  It means you are going to have fun!  (Which translates into a bit of a headache for the legal department but heck that is what they make the big bucks for right?)

If there is one lesson that can be learned here is from Jeffery Gitomer that, “People buy from people.” Social media is a medium of connecting people.  Authenticity will rule the day.

Be Willing To Invest In The Marathon

A Twitter Toast

Engaging in social media is not a fly-by-night process.  Nor is it a shooting star moment of the internet.  Facebook is the fastest growing platform for generations Y & Z, Twitter has maintained its growth, and Google is trying to muscle into the action with Google Buzz.  The technology sector of the global economy is investing in social media.  It is going to be here for quite some time.

It will take time to build relationships and trust in the various online social networks.  Which means that you and your business must have patience.  That does not mean you do not measure results and it does not mean that you are passive in engagement with your audience.  It does translate into being a pursuant of quality in the participation.

When it comes to your business this is a marathon, not a sprint.  Which means you have to plan for the investment of time to see a return.  Otherwise you will fall into one of the two stereotypes mentioned above.

What are your thoughts?  What did I miss?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

If you have been sitting on the fence or simply putting your toes in the water when it comes to social media, I am here to tell you that it is time to jump in.  The water is warm – heck it is actually hot! You should dive right in!  You need to for your business to survive.  Why?  That is where your customers and influencers of customers are.

Now… that being said… you need to understand the realities behind social media and control your expectations.  Here are 9 realities you must know before you begin your dive into social media:

9.  You Can’t Build Without Reading The Instructions

Directions Help

Unless you are my engineering friend who tends to through those pesky instructions out and always ends up with pieces left over, the rest of us have to read them.  The same goes for social media.  Learning where to be and how to interact is important or you run the risk of being frustrated.

Amber Naslund, who writes the Altitude Branding Blog, has done a lot of the hard work and rounded up a Best Of Social Media Learning post.  I recommend this as a must read before you even begin.  You will have better results and a better return on your investment of time.

8.  You must have a plan

Using social media for marketing your business and building a strong relationship with your customers requires that you have a plan.  Your largest investment in setting up the accounts and participating is your time.  As the old adage goes, “Time equals money.”  Just like if you were to buy advertising in a newspaper or on television, you are going to have a plan when it comes to engaging with people on social media.   This article written by Lon S. Cohen on Mashable.com, discusses seven items any enterprise should consider, makes it clear that you should have a plan.

This article by Cindy King, gives you seven ways to plan your social media so you can avoid the time wasting trap.

7.  You Need To Be Where Your Customers Are

Well it seems that you cannot escape a truism when it comes to business: Location, Location, and Location.  Just like it matters where you put your store, it matters where you choose to allocate your resources when it comes to social media.  If you are in the waste disposal industry should you be on Twitter? Well, it depends on the message

Should You Be Here?

that you are communicating, but most likely not.

This article by Redhead Writing asks the question “Should You Be On Twitter?” She has got some important questions that you must answer before you even get started.

6.  You Need A Blog

First, a blog that is tied directly into your main website is a great way to feed the search engines and helps your SEO.  (Any SEO marketing company will tell you this.)  Second, a blog helps build your authority in your particular marketplace and the products/services you sell.  You know them better than anyone so why not write about them?

If you are a small business, there is a ton of data that demonstrates how blogs help your business.  Such as:

Small businesses have a larger reach on twitter through blogs

Active business blogs increase organic search (free) by 7 times over non-blogging businesses

Businesses that blog experience a 126% increase in leads

The above articles are from HubSpot.  Before you begin blogging, you should ask yourself if you are ready to blog.  When you determine that you are, make a plan and write.  Do not worry about topics as once you start writing you will find that there are a ton of topics you write about when it comes to your business.  This article by Denise Wakeman gives you thirteen ideas for getting topics and sparking your creativity.  She also has a post that shows you how easy it is to set up a blog in ten easy steps.

5.  You Need To Measure Your Activity

Activity Is Up, But What About Profits?

Like any marketing plan you want to measure the results of your activity.  There are number of tools you can use and most of them are free.  You need to make sure you are measuring the right metrics.  Are they conversions?  Are they site hits?  Are they comments to your blog?  The list can be endless and you can end up measuring the wrong ones.  The good news is that this article by Tom Webster Social Media Monitoring 201, helps you sort out the right metrics.

4.  You Need To Incorporate Video

Most of social media is written.  Tweets, blogs, and posts to Facebook are typically written.  Yet one of the most powerful mediums that can engage a very wide audience is video.  It does not require much capital and can help your product, business, and/or brand explode into an untold number of potential clients.

Coke and Lego have embraced the power of video as they continue to engage with their customers.  This article by Peter Wylie, gives you five ways to make a video a social experience.

3.  You Will Have Costs

Social media is currently seen as a free means to advertise.  It is not free at all.  You are going to invest time.  Whether it is your time or an employee’s time, you are going to invest it.  That time equals money.  While you are not paying to place information online, you are paying.  Once you understand this, then you will be in a better position to engage with your customers.  This article by Shelly Kramer, demonstrates how a company, like Starbucks, understood this principle and increased sales.

2.  You Need To Participate

Advertising is about perfection.  Delivering the perfectly crafted message to the perfect audience at the perfect time.  The medium interrupts, speaks out, and provokes a response by the audience.  Yet, it does not engage the audience.  This article by Molly Cantrell-Kraig discusses how social media is not advertising, but instead a forum to participate in a discussion between the brand and its customers.  By participation this means that there needs to be a person behind the tweets, posts, and blogs.   This means that your company has to be open to both the accolades and the complaints.  This means that you are not going to have total control but you will learn and build up a huge balance in your relationship account.

1.  You Will Not Immediately Make Millions

Participating and engaging in social media is not a get rich quick scheme.  It is a means to build respect, authority, and a strong relationship with your customers.  Social media allows you to showcase your talents.  Social media allows you to find customers that really want to buy your services.  Social media in the end is a community that you are part of and if you are a value to… you will make an impressive return on your investment.  Like anything else it is going to take time.  Just to measure your expectations against reality you should read how Amber Naslund made $100k with Twitter.  Then you should read the 25 realities behind social media by Tom Nixon.

Are you ready to jump in?  The water is hot enough!  Your business will thank you and your customers will become loyal fans that will rave about you.  Weigh your expectations against reality and engage your customers in the social media realm!

I am sure there are other realities about social media.  What have I missed?  How would you explain the realities of social media?  What other resources are out there?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

What are the most successful businesses?  What is that they do that makes them unique?  How are they able to ride out a crisis after another crisis?

The first answer most likely is… they offer great products and services. I’d agree with that.  The second answer is… they compete in a unique market space or after a specific niche.  I’d say that is part of the answer.  The third answer is… they execute their plans to perfection.   Hmmm, okay I’d give you that one as well.  Here is a fourth answer:  These businesses have built up a tremendous amount of wealth in their relationship accounts.

What Is A Relationship Account

How Are Your Deposits?

It is the trust your customers and everyone outside your organization has in you, your brand, and your business. This account is built slowly over time and cannot be rebuilt on a dime.  The relationship account represents your integrity, your outward perceptions, and your value to the community.  A relationship account lets you get the benefit of the doubt in troubled times.

…value is delivered free through service, information, and time.

A relationship account is one of the most valuable tools for any business – heck any individual.  It begins to be built up over time through the consistent offerings of valuable products, services, and information to customers.  What compounds the interest on relationship deposits is the continuing delivery of value to anyone that passes by.  This has traditionally taken place through volunteer activities, participating social gatherings, and being involved in the community.  That value is delivered free through service, information, and time.  Now with the interconnectedness of social media you and your business can provide more value to a larger audience.  This will bring exponential deposits to your relationship account.

How Do You Build Up Your Relationship Account

Your interactions must be sincere.

You make every communication you exchange, whether it be in person or online, about your audience and not yourself.  You provide valuable information and resources that

How Much Is Your Account Worth?

your audience can use immediately.  You listen to your audience, you engage them in a meaningful way, and you thank them for their time.  Your interactions must be sincere.  You will have to be consistent in treating each member of your audience as the individuals they are. You will build a foundation of authority and credibility.

How Do You Use Your Relationship Account

It depends on the situation but it comes down to two types of withdraws from the account:

1. One you choose to make by asking for business/favor
2. One taken by the general community during a time of crisis

The first withdraw you get to choose when to use it.  It can be that you ask your customers or the general audience to follow you, purchase a product/service, or stand-up for you and your business.  If you have built up enough capital in your relationship account your audience will help you cash in.  If you have not, they will walk away and any good will you had tried to build up will quickly vanish.

The second withdraw you have no control over whatsoever.  Your audience and the general public control it during a time of crisis.  If you have worked diligently, sincerely, and openly to build up your relationship account then withdraws will be minimal keeping your reputation in good standing.  Your audience and your customers will rally around you, your brand, and your business.  If you have not spent the time to build up your account, they will be at the barricades with the pitchforks and torches.

Building a relationship account takes and time.  It is a process that is continual and must always be maintained.  Each business plan, marketing plan, and sales plan must take your relationship account in mind.  They must work to build deposits into your account.

Do you know what your relationship account status is?  How do you build up your account?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Rocky Mountain Roots Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine of Denver, Colorado, just had an amazing Grand Opening.  You can read about it here.

This is a congratulations video for them.

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

There are many articles out there that discuss how to discover a business coach. These articles describe where to find a coach and how to determine which ones are right for you. The articles also tell you what you can expect. Yet there are few that tell you want not to expect, until now.

Selecting a business coach is a personal decision that is going to take a financial investment and a time commitment from you and/or your team. Like all investments and commitments there are realistic expectations and not so realistic expectations. Moreover there are just some things a business coach cannot deliver for you. So it is important that you know what not to expect so that you can focus on maximizing your results.

What To Expect And Not To Expect

Here are five things not to expect from a business coach:

Do not expect your coach to know everything. Each business, entrepreneur, and executive faces unique challenges to their business. A coach has to learn first what has gone right in the past and what has gone wrong. With that knowledge a coach can determine what action plan will work best to put you on the path to success. That does not mean the coach will pull perfection out of their hats or peer into their crystal ball divining the future. There will always be unknowns and there are just some areas coaches do not have experience in. No one can know everything, even coaches. In fact if a coach says that they do… run!

Business coaching is an affordable solution that costs less than hiring a consultant and much less than therapy.

Do not expect an expensive investment. Business coaching is an affordable solution that costs less than hiring a consultant and much less than therapy. There are two reasons why this is the case. First, a relationship with a business coach is built around a specific time frame and for a specific problem. Your coach is not going to keep you engaged for an infinite amount of time. So you do not have to worry about your coach “living” with you. Second, your coach is there to provide solutions to the problems you have and not force a cookie-cutter solution or “discover” new problems. Your investment costs in a business coach can be predicted and are not never ending. Data from a recent study conducted by the International Coaching Federation shows that the average coaching engagement is under $5,000 and last approximately under seven months.

A coach that applies the same “insert problem in slot A and get solution from slot B” should be avoided at all costs.

Do not expect an out-of-the-box approach. This does not mean a business coach does not have a method or an underlying fundamental skill set they will use to build your success. A coach that cannot articulate clearly their methodology should not be hired. At the same time a coach that applies the same “insert problem in slot A and get solution from slot B” should be avoided at all costs. Yes, there are common problems in all companies, but that does not mean your experience is the same as your competitors or the shop on the corner. Take for instance the recession. It is having an impact on businesses across the country and the world. Yet, how it effects the software industry is different from how it effects the manufacturing industry. A coach understands this and applies the tools necessary to help you solve your unique problems.

No one can know everything, even coaches. In fact if a coach says that they do… run!

Do not expect your coach do it all for you. You have to execute the agreed upon action plans you and your business coach devise to place you on your path of success. Coaches build the conditioning and instill the fundamental skills in you so that you can rise to the occasion. Like in sports where coaches do not take the field of play, a business coach is not going to run your business, lead your teams, or perform sales for you. That is your role.

A business coach will challenge the conventional wisdom.

Do not expect a “yes-man.” A business coach is there to be an objective observer of your business and to hold you to the highest standards. A business coach will challenge the conventional wisdom. A business coach will ask you the tough questions. All of this is for your benefit, the benefit of your team, and a critical part to reaching your dreams. You can only grow by being challenged. You can only learn how tough you are by be being pushed. You will only learn your blind spots when you are placed in a different situation. It is an essential part of life, just as it is an essential part of any business success.

A business coaching relationship is a rewarding one. Every great captain of industry had a mentor, a teacher, a coach that helped them along their journey. Knowing what to expect and what not to expect makes coaching stronger for both the coach and the coached.

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business.  Without them your business — any business — cannot survive.  Customers validate your business plans, your products, and the value of your services through their purchases.  So it is always baffling to me why some companies perform customer service poorly.  You do not have to be that way as you will deliver ideal customer service.

Here are four secrets you can use to have ideal customer service:

Give Your Customers Smiles

Operate a velvet rope strategy.  You’ve seen them at dance clubs… the rope line.  Most people wait outside while others can simply walk up and get right in.  Depending on your business can you identify who can walk right into your “club”?  Knowing who is right for your products and services is just as important as the location for your business.  You cannot be all things to all people.  If you try to, you and your business becomes nothing for nobody.  So be discerning when identifying your ideal customer and then give them the velvet rope strategy and let them walk right in.

Let them know you care for the effort they have made by celebrating them.

Reward your customers.  Thank them for their business and celebrate the decision your customers have made.  The decision to invest time and money in your products and services is a commitment of finances and emotions for your customers.  Let them know you care for the effort they have made by celebrating them.  A reward can be a frequent customer program where they earn points for purchases, an advisory board where they can participate in the future of products you wish to offer, or doing something for them that is completely unexpected.  These rewards will build customer loyalty and keep them returning.  There is one caveat to this… you have to be sincere in the delivery of the rewards and consistent.  A constant changing of the rules and/or complications in redeeming rewards will build disloyalty.

Your competition, if they are worthy competitors, will be trying to out do you.

Be exceptional in your delivery. Take time to understand how your competition delivers their customer service then make it your mission to do it better all the time.  Never rest on your laurels when it comes to the delivery of ideal customer service.  Your competition, if they are worthy competitors, will be trying to out do you.  Delivering exceptional customer service means that you get to know your customers beyond the point of sale.  You deliver to them items of value that they will appreciate and come at no cost to you or them.  You work with your customers in their best interests.  You do not let policies triumph over common sense.

Like Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

Treat your customers better than you would treat yourself. Take the golden rule and kick it up a notch.  Place your customers at the center of your organization and treat them to the utmost respect that you can think of… and then more.  You are not being subservient to your customers, instead you are treating them like a guest in your house, the most important guest you have ever had.  Acting this way will gain the respect of your customers and their loyalty when difficult times arise.

There is a lot of lousy customer service out there in the world.  More than can be imagined.  Like Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”  A little effort on your part will set you above and beyond the competition.  Soon you will more customers than you can imagine when you deliver ideal customer service!

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Over the weekend I was in attendance at a wedding party in New York City.  Besides the wonderful location and the chance to see friends again, I was struck by something unique: how everyone needs a bit of guidance.  No matter where they are (or where you happen to be in life) everyone needs a little help.

Now this comes off the heels that no one can do everything alone.  That is why employers seek employees and companies build projects around teams.   All the heavy lifting in the world has to be a coordinated effort.  Yet, to get from point A to point B that effort needs guidance.

So what does this have to do with the wedding?  I met with former classmates of mine that I have not seen in twenty years.  They had taken very different paths than mind and had many different experiences.  Here we all are, drinking our adult beverages and congratulating our mutual friend on his nuptials, discussing what we have done, where we are, and where we want to go.  One of my classmates had developed a talent for art, another had become an acupuncturist, and another had gone on to become a concert pianist.  All of these talents and passions where not there when we graduated together twenty years ago.  Each of them had discovered these gifts through a mentor, a teacher, and an enlightened encounter that was life changing.  More importantly each of them had one person put them on that path.  Whether they actively sought this path or not they received guidance.

We all do.  We receive positive and negative guidance either by choice, serendipity, or at times by force.  It is what we do with that guidance that determines if it was a success or not.

I, unlike my peers at the wedding, seek to give guidance through business coaching.  I enjoy watching my clients turn things around, launch a new venture, and grab ahold of their dreams.  My classmates give guidance through their music, art, and relief of suffering.  Through their passion of their professions they influence others.

I look to my peers as my guidance.  They are the reflection that there is no set mold for who you are and what it is that you want to become.  Life is a journey.  Be passionate and live is what I learned from four hours with them.

Who do you turn to when you need guidance?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

A business to survive has to have results. Typically these results are measured by the ultimate measurement: cash. The difficulty for any business in understanding this measurement is if it is a direct relation to activity or something other. Most businesses will have the belief that cash is generated solely by activity. Therefore many sales plans, business plans, and marketing plans are created around activity and not around value.

“People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.” – Albert Einstein

Activity Is Up, But What About Profits?

At first glance any businessperson worth their salt would deride the above paragraph as being nonsense. To generate cash you have to have activity. That activity can be in the form of a sale, signature on a contract, or traffic to a particular website. The businessperson who thinks this is correct. The closing of the sale, the signing of a contract, and the decision to visit a website are all activities. The problem for the businessperson is really distinguishing if these activities are of value to the customer. Typically this is not the case when it comes to many businesses.

Let’s take, for example, the founder of Mint.com. This individual competes against Microsoft Money and Intuit’s Quicken. Both of those software platforms are major movers in the marketplace of personal finance. So what makes a web-based application like Mint.com different? Well for one, mint.com is focused around giving you “the user” quick information about your financial status. It is also designed to give you the information you need to make sound decisions for your financial future.  It is as a program providing value.  The competition to Mint.com are more focused around how long you spend on particular windows or other GUIs in their programs. The competitors to Mint.com are focused on activity and not real value to you to the consumer.

The good news is at least it’s activity driven.  The bad news is there is no value to anyone.

Still not convinced there is a difference? Well, let’s take a look at social media. In another blog post by Amber Naslund, she uses a quote from Albert Einstein. This quote states, “People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.” The same is true when a business embraces social media. The belief of the business is that social media is activity driven platform. They tweet and get followers.  They build a fan page and get fans.  The more active you are the greater results your are going to get. This is a fallacy. Why? Well what is one of the chief complaints when it comes to social media? That people are blabbing on about their nonsensical lives. That right there is activity with no value to the consumer of the information. So if you are a business and you are going to spout out nonsensical information about your business, you are just as guilty as those individuals who comment about what their cats are doing. The good news is at least it’s activity driven.  The bad news is there is no value to anyone.

So how can you as a businessperson make sure that you do not get caught and in the activity trap?

First, make sure that any metrics being measured against the plan are value driven. This is easier said than done. Any plan, whether it is for business, sales, or marketing has to have metrics to measure its progress. Yet, a value driven metric is one that returns an exponential response from the customer. For example, take a look at Domino’s pizza in Chicago. They have a social media plan to communicate deals, promotions, and answer complaints. The metrics behind this plan is to foster a strong relationship between the franchises and their customers. The value behind the activity is a strong communication from Domino’s and a demonstration that they listen to their customers. The results are continued purchases and a strengthened relationship.

Second, avoid the temptation to award only activity. Many plans measure the activity of teams and/or individuals. For sales, it can be the number of calls a salesperson makes on customers. For marketing, it can be the number of impressions and/or responses to “calls to action” from campaigns. Both of these are important, but they are not the end goal of any business. The end goal is profits.  The reward should be given to the salesperson that generates the largest margin of profit for an organization. It should be an award to the marketing team that drives business with the least amount of cost. These are viable propositions for any business. A salesperson who can generate millions of dollars of business with one or two sales calls is more valuable than a salesperson who generates 100,000 dollars worth of business from 100 sales calls. If you measure activity then the second salesperson would be awarded over the more valuable salesperson.  Award the value not the activity.

It is difficult to balance activity and value.  The temptation of many companies is to double down on their activity.  They feel it will generate a ton of results.  The reality is that it generates more activity with more costs.  When companies get caught in this trap value becomes an afterthought.  The result is a lower profit margin and a loss of highly valued customers.

How Do Make Sure You Avoid The Activity Trap?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

In a previous post I wrote about how an inconsistent manager can create discontent amongst their team.  Later, during a discussion about this in my business planning class, I was reminded about an old manager I had.  He used to say that he would be consistent in treating us all as individuals.   At first blush this sounds like a complete rebuke of what I had written earlier.  Yet, it is not.

Teams Are United Through Consistent Standards

My old manager knew that each of us would respond to different forms of praise, coaching, and motivation.  He took his time to get to know us as individuals.  He invested himself in getting a better understanding about his team.  With this knowledge he was able to reward us with praise that was unique to each of us.

Now this might sound simplistic to do, but many managers fail to connect with their teams.  They give praise the way they (the manager) would like to receive it.  In the case of my friend in the earlier article, the manager did not even take the time to get to know the rest of their team.  They were not aware of what their actions were saying.

He took his time to get to know us as individuals.  He invested himself in getting a better understanding about his team.

My old manager would have done this completely differently.  He would have known that my friend wants the spotlight.  Whereas if it was I, well I could care less about the spotlight, just a head nod would do.  My manager would have still acknowledged success in front of the group that was consistent.

So as a manager, what can you do to treat your team consistently like individuals:

• Take the time to get to know your team. This is not a one-time question and answer session.  This is something that is an investment by you the manager.  You need to listen them and learn what they desire, wish for, and how the like receive treatment.

• Be willing to get impressions about your direct reports from their peers and customers.  Believe it or not, people act differently in other environments.  Take the time to learn how others perceive your team.

• Be up front about who you are with your team. Let them know what you wish for and how you receive praise.  This will let your team understand you actions when you reward members.

• Hold a high standard. Never negotiate what your standards are in public or private.  Some call this integrity of the individual.  This is really the spine of the espirit de corps of the team.  Team members can understand varying differences in praise – once they know that you are going to deliver it in a meaningful way – what they cannot understand is inconsistent punishment for standards.  What I mean is if you hold a standard that everyone will be 15 minutes early for a meeting and you always allow one person to slide… you have just negotiated your authority away. You have cracked the spine of the team.

My old manager did the above.  He is successful and is leading strong teams no matter what the storms are in the marketplace.  You can be the same way if you are willing to treat your team consistently as individuals.

How have your managers led?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.