Multichannel Magic

The idea of a magic formula that solves problems is as old as mankind. Even though we know it doesn’t exist, hope remains that someone will discover the combination that resolves all issues with a sip or swipe. This hope has created opportunities for snake oil salesmen hawking everything from tonics to social media. Desperate people seeking help for ills and failing businesses reach for anything that might possibly solve their problems.

The first rule of a good con is to start with the truth because it increases people’s willingness to go to the next step. The snake oil salesmen of yesteryear started with the truth that Chinese water snake oil actually worked at reducing inflammation. The oil was rich in Omega-3 acids which effectively treat arthritis. When word of the oil started to spread in America, people tried to create their own version using rattlesnakes. This is when the problems began.

Chinese water snakes are Omega-3 rich with approximately three times the amount in rattlesnakes. This automatically made the homegrown version less effective. And then, there is that pesky problem of having to actually capture rattlesnakes to create the oil. It was much easier to substitute other oils that were easier to obtain. If the promotion was dramatic enough, who would notice that it didn’t actually do anything?

Social media is the snake oil of marketing today. It started with two truths – word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising and electronic communication simplifies the communication process. In its purest form, people talking with close friends, social media is very effective. Companies that provide service worth telling others have benefited from the new channel. When word spread about a new venue for connecting with customers, those pesky problems started to appear.

Instead of creating experiences that people would want to talk about, marketers tried to generate content that inspired conversation. The homegrown version of word of mouth is like the rattlesnake oil. Even though it is much less effective, social media gurus started declaring the death of traditional marketing. Before long they were dictating the right and wrong way to communicate with customers and prospects. It created an environment where marketers were hesitant to test the new channel in fear that they would antagonize the people speaking the loudest.

Traditional marketing is always dying because evolution is mandatory for success. While some things stopped working, others things that worked hundreds of years ago still work today. People like to be entertained, respected, and appreciated. They don’t like to feel like they have been conned. The one size fits all magic solution leaves a trail of unhappy customers.

There is a magic formula for sales and service but it isn’t easy to find. Every company has to find its unique combination that serves customers, employees, and shareholders. The ones that invest the resources needed to find that formula and alter it when needed over time build a foundation for long term success. Start creating the magic formula for your business by:

• Knowing what your customers want. How do they shop your products and services? What is their preferred communication tool? When are they most likely to respond to offers?
• Delivering on the promise. People are most satisfied when they receive what they expect (presuming the expectations are good.) Manage expectations well and consistently deliver.
• Use data well. Actionable data is available to improve the buying and service experience. Find the data that makes a difference for your customers and use it to keep them happily coming back.
• Find your company’s unique combination. There is a mix of marketing and service that works perfectly for every company. Find the one that fits your corporate culture and build from there.
• Ignore the pundits. Everybody has an opinion. Social platforms make sharing them easy. If your customers are happy and your business is growing, what do they know that you don’t?
• Strive for continuous improvement. Markets change. Test different strategies, channels, and platforms to see what works best for your company. You may find a new source of customers.

Email Debra at dellis@wilsonellisconsulting.com. for guidance in finding your company’s magic formula.

Hiring and training quality team members is challenging for even the best managers. Spending a little time in an interview setting doesn’t provide much insight to how people will react to others. Very few people walk into an interview with a bad attitude. Even if they hate the company, the need for a job turns the most outspoken critic into a raving fan.

The best employees are the ones who genuinely care about customers and like the company’s products and services. Top notch training is no substitute for true feelings. The way team members feel about the people and company they serve is communicated in every interaction. The trick is finding the right people in a sea of applicants.

Ballard Designs experienced some of the company’s peak growth when the economy was down and unemployment was high. This was a buyers’ market of sorts for companies seeking employees. The responses to every job listing were so huge that it could be overwhelming. Overall, our hiring of frontline team members was very successful. We picked from the cream of recent graduates. Most were glad to have a job that offered an opportunity to learn and grow with the company. Our success didn’t prepare us for the nightmare to come.

It takes time to groom people for management. When a company is in high growth mode, new positions are created. I’m a huge proponent of hiring from within but managerial positions have to be filled with outsiders if no one in the organization is ready. Part of our growth included extending customer service hours. This created the need for an assistant customer service manager. Most of the people in our service department had less than two years in the work force. They weren’t ready for management.

We knew that advertising the position would yield hundreds of resumes. In an effort to reduce the time spent filtering resumes and scheduling interviews, I suggested that we have an open call. I can’t truthfully say that was one of my best suggestions, but I wouldn’t trade the learning experience for anything.

The advertisement was very specific about the job and background requirements. Anyone who arrived without the right credentials was turned away. Over three hundred people came to apply. Almost a hundred had the right resume. Having the right resume is very different from having the right credentials. A good resume doctor can create an illusion that misleads unsuspecting managers.

Eastern Airlines had closed the previous year. The airline had a massive hub in Atlanta. The former employees had been jobless for months. Many of the applicants for the assistant manager’s position came from Eastern. You could feel the desperation for a job, any job, in the air.

Someone with the ability to handle irate travelers would be a good candidate for our position. I was initially excited about the applicants. That excitement turned to dismay when I found that not one of the people applying for a customer service management position had customer service or management experience. They were about equally split between pilots and baggage handlers. When everything was over, we did not have one viable candidate for the position.

The search continued and we ultimately made a great hire. We found someone who cared about the customers, company, and employees. Lessons were learned along the way. Here are some of my takeaways:

• Screen on paper before the interview. Facing a stack of resumes is easier than dealing with a line of job seekers. The upside of the open call is that it helped us identify the key questions to ask when screening the applicants. There were two questions that helped clarify credentials: “What did you do for Company XYZ SPECIFICALLY?” and “How do we get in touch with your immediate supervisor?” The answer to the first question often changed after the second one was asked.
• Speed interview the first round. Bringing someone in for an interview is time consuming. Talk with him or her on the telephone before scheduling a face-to-face meeting. Asking key questions (like the ones in the first takeaway) will help screen applicants. Your objective is to find a good match that fits your corporate culture. Hiring mistakes are very expensive.
• Check more than references. The people listed as references will not tell you the whole truth. Everything they say will be slanted in favor of the applicant. When possible, discreetly ask others about the applicant. You don’t have to mention the application. Questions like, “Do you like working with Jane Doe?” can provide unexpected insight.
• Consider hiring the person for a project. Spending time with people in a work environment allows you to how well they fit in the organization. If the time is project based, there is less paperwork and fewer ramifications if they don’t work out.
• Make an extended probationary position mandatory. People can easily put their best faces on for thirty, sixty, and even ninety days. Six months is much harder. If your company is a good place to work, people will accept the longer probationary time. (Note: Make sure that all of your policies are consistent with legal standards in your state. Labor laws vary.)

For guidance on building a good business foundation, email Debra at dellis@wilsonellisconsulting.com.

Improving customer loyalty is the best way to increase revenue at minimal expense. Loyal customers demonstrate their commitment to your company by purchasing regularly and promoting your brand freely. Some companies try to buy loyalty with member rewards and discounts. The programs encourage short term loyalty but don’t create the solid connections established over time by consistently delivering quality customer care.

The best customer care begins at ground level with the employees that serve them. How can people who don’t believe in their company’s products and services convince others without a vested interest to believe? If the products and services aren’t good enough for the employees, why should anyone else buy them?

American car companies provide a good example of employees failing the company loyalty test. When the Ford and GM assembly plants were actively building cars in Atlanta, their employee parking lots were filled with foreign cars. It always bothered me when I passed their facilities on my way to visit clients. One day my curiosity got the best of me. I decided to do a little analysis and found that GM employees were slightly more loyal than Ford with 23% driving GM models to Ford’s 21%. Within the next two years, both plants closed.

The news of the closings was covered by every television station in Atlanta. When the employees were interviewed, they blamed the economy, competition, and management. They didn’t notice that they were the first break in the chain. If they had taken pride in the products they were producing and shown that pride by driving the vehicles, there may have been a different outcome. It would have set an example for their neighbors and provided additional insight into the functionality of the product. Research and development could have included everyone in the organization instead of a single department.

When team members aren’t interested in their company’s products or services, it shows. It may not be as obvious as an employee parking lot for a car company, but customers and prospects see, feel, and hear it. The tone in the customer care representative’s voice, the look the sales clerk gives, and the thick air in the office that surrounds people when they aren’t enthusiastic about their jobs send customers the message that loyalty isn’t valued.

If you want to create a loyal customer base, start with the people who serve those customers. Treat them well, encourage their feedback, and make it easy for them to use your products and services. There is no training that is as effective as the hands on experience one receives when using a product or service. When your employees are happy customers, their enthusiasm is contagious and spreads to the people who buy. To create an employee loyalty program:

• Provide great employee discounts and first opportunities at super sales. This is especially needed in high end retail due to the gap between product pricing and pay scales. Making items affordable increases the number of employee customers and reduces turnover for people who love your items.
• Reward employees for jobs well down with shopping bucks that can be used to buy products. The recognition for doing good work improves morale and encourages people to do better.
• Ask for feedback from employees using company products. The people who work for your company have a unique view. They can see challenges from both customer and employee perspective.
• Give employees first shopping rights at warehouse or special sales. They’ll appreciate the respect and your sale will start off right.
• If employees don’t shop with your company, ask why. They may know about problems hidden from management. Team members don’t always share what they know.
• Monitor customer loyalty to see the effect. Happy employee customers make the best sales people. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

Recent Google changes have created an environment where email optimization is mandatory for companies with high quantities of Gmail users. Google is working to improve the user experience for search and Gmail. Email marketers have to adapt or die. Continuing to use the standard template favored by many companies that includes a promotional headline and untagged images is not adapting. New designs have to be created that minimize negative effects and capitalize on the benefits.

There are two changes that create the Google effect. The first one is the new Gmail interface that introduces a tabbed inbox. Messages from companies are automatically routed away from the Primary inbox into Promotional or Update tabs. This reduces the effectiveness of email marketing for companies with Gmail users in their database. Failing to plan for this is risky business.

There are plenty of opinion pieces on the web that use global statistics to show that the new inbox will have minimal effect. Those opinions will be accurate for some companies. Others will find a dramatic decrease in response rates because people will not see their emails in a timely fashion. Global statistics are interesting but they mean little for individual marketing strategies. Common sense dictates that removing marketing messages from the primary inbox will reduce the visibility. Reduced visibility lowers open rates and lower open rates mean fewer sales.

What will happen to your company’s email marketing program? It is impossible to know at this time but you need to plan now to minimize any negative effects. When planning, you should know that the second Google change can be leveraged to improve visibility. This needs to be factored into the plan so you can maximize the return from your email strategy.

Enhanced search is the second Google change. The field trial that has been going on for about a year is being rolled out. Search results for Google users are no longer limited to information on the web. Google also searches Gmail, Google Calendar, Google+, and Google Drive to find the answers. The initial rollout includes flights, reservations, package delivery info, plans, and photos. When the field trial becomes fully active, emails relevant to search are expected to be included also.

It’s too early to know how everything will work together but we do know this: Search bots cannot “read” images. Those image heavy emails without alt tag descriptions will be invisible to the bots. Optimizing for search means that the emails have to have text with good keywords so they can be found. There isn’t a down side to this because optimized emails also improve visibility for the people receiving them. Lowe’s combines text and images well in the following example.

This is how it looks without the images view:

Viewing the images changes it to this:

There is a good mix of text and images for humans and bots. Getting the most from your email marketing requires content that speaks to people and is searchable by bots. To leverage the Google effect:

• Create emails that fulfill recipients’ needs. Messages from companies that educate, entertain, and enrich people’s lives will be found and read. Fulfilling a need is the first step to getting a response.
• Write great subject lines. The decision to open emails is made in an instant. Subject lines are like headlines. They need to capture attention and make people want more.
• Use ALT tags well. Creating good ALT tags that communicate to people and bots improves response and searchability. Invest the time to do it well.
• Remember to include keywords. Working keywords into the text increases the likelihood that bots will find and show your emails.
• Test, test, and test. Global recommendations need to be tested to see if they work for your company and customers. Testing helps you find what works best.

For tips on how to optimize your emails, check out 31 Ways to Supercharge Your Email Marketing.