Client Retention

Category: Client Retention

Prepare for Lift Off!

Posted on November 5, 2022 by Mark Ford

Last time, I gave you a laundry list of tips and tricks you can use to make your word of mouth program work for you. Hopefully you’ve taken a look and decided which ones are the best fit for your company, products, services and target customers, so you can put them to work in your word of mouth campaign.

We are going to wrap up this series on word of mouth where we give you the specific steps to create a word of mouth campaign.

Now, let’s take a look at those steps:

Seed the market. Find some way to get the product into the hands of key influencers.
Provide a channel for the influencers to talk and get all fired up about your product.
Offers lots of testimonials and other resources.
Form an ongoing group that meets once a year in a resort and once a month by teleconference.
Create fun events to bring users together and invite non-users. Saturn, Harley-Davidson, and Lexus have all been successful with this approach.
Develop clips on your website featuring enthusiastic customers talking with other enthusiastic customers.
Hold seminars and workshops.
Create a club with membership benefits.
Pass out flyers.
Tell friends.
Offer special incentives and discounts for friends who tell their friends.
Put the Internet to work.
Do at least one outrageous thing to generate word of mouth.
Empower employees to go the extra mile.
Encourage networking and brainstorm ideas.
Run special sales.
Encourage referrals with the use of a strong referral program.
Use a script to tell people exactly what to say in their word of mouth communication.

These are all amazing ways you can get the word out about your products and services and start a word of mouth campaign that takes on a life of its own. Before you can release your word of mouth campaign out into the world, you need to go through the checklist to make sure you’ve covered all the essentials.

Here’s your word of mouth campaign checklist:

Are all of your communications sending the same simple message? If it can’t survive word of mouth, it’s not a compelling story.
Is your product positioned as part of a category? ex.”A dandruff shampoo that doesn’t dry out your hair.”
Are your examples outrageous enough to be shared?
Do you enhance your materials with success stories from real people?
Are you using experts effectively and in an objective manner?
Have you created mechanisms so people can follow up on the word of mouth they hear, as well as simple ways of inquiring or ordering?
Have you made the decision process easy for customers?
Have you created events and mechanisms so that once a year your prospects hear about your product, and it is easier to try or buy?

These are all essential elements to keep in mind when taking a second or even third check over your word of mouth campaigns. I hope you’ve found this series on word of mouth to be a great resource and are getting ready to put it into action for your own products and services.

Remember, if you need help with anything in this series, try our FREE test drive to gain access to the best resources, tools and business coaches you can find.

Search & Implement

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Mark Ford

People only remember the extraordinary, strange, wild, surprising and unusual. You need to make sure your ideas and marketing reflect these reactions. This doesn’t mean you have to have a product or service that is completely out of the norm, in fact, this could easily drive customers away. You need to have a product or service that is high quality and easily marketable, then you need to market it as extraordinary and new.

As you research word of mouth, there are some questions you need to ask along the way:

What are the users willing to tell the non-users?

Exactly how do your customers describe your product?
What are the non-users willing to ask the users?
What are the things they need to know, but are unwilling to ask?
What happens when these issues are raised?
Exactly what do your prospects have to know in order to trigger purchase?
Exactly how do your customers answer the objections, concerns, and qualms of your prospects?
How do your customers persuade their friends to use your product?
How do your customers suggest they initially get to know or try your product?
What warnings, safeguards, tips, and suggestions do your customers suggest to your prospects?
Are your sales messages, positioning, and important facts about your product getting through and surviving word of mouth?
What messages do you need to inject into the marketplace in order to turn the tide in your favor and how will you deliver them?

There are two main reasons why word of mouth research is so important:

To get the real impression and feedback from customers
To define word of mouth itself and the concept it creates

There is a simple formula that can help you conduct your word of mouth research. It’s called the “2-2-2” model.

2-2-2- Model

What this breaks down to is:

2 groups of customers
2 focus groups of prospects
2 mixed groups (enthusiasts & skeptics)

In these groups you need to ask the following questions:

What would you tell a friend?
How would you persuade a skeptic?
What questions would you anticipate from a skeptic?
How would you answer their objections?

The best way to conduct these groups is by teleconference. This ensures you’ll get a good variety of demographics for your customers and potential customers. It also allows people to feel safe and more able to express their true feelings. These teleconferences should not be conducted by you, but an independent party to avoid adding pressure to the situation.

We’re going to transition a bit and talk about how to construct a word-of-mouth campaign. First, we’ll talk a look at the essential ingredients you need to put together a campaign. These ingredients are:

A superior product
A way of reaching key influencers in your marketplace
A cadre of experts willing to bat for you
A large number of enthusiastic consumers
A way of reaching the right prospects
One or more compelling stories that people will want to tell to illustrate your product’s superiority
A way to substantiate, prove, or back up your claims and how the product will work in the real world
A way for people to have direct, low-risk experience, a demo, sample, or free trial
A way of reducing overall risk, an ironclad guarantee

Once you have those ingredients ready to use, you should consider the situations in which your company can benefit from a strong word of mouth program. Some of these situations are:

When there are credibility problems
When there are breakthroughs
When there are marginal improvements
Where the product has to be tried in large numbers or over time
Where there is high risk in trying the product
With older or mature products that have a new story that people tend to ignore
With unfair competitive practices such as spreading rumors, or telling lies about your product
When there are governmental or other restrictions on what you may say or claim directly

While most of the word of mouth tactics are positive for your word of mouth program, there are a few products to avoid using in this program. They are:

Products where a seminar would not provide meaningful added value
Products that can’t be tried and where there is no consensus among experts
Products that are clearly inferior, without having a compensating superiority for similar products
Products that are so personal or emotion that rational discussion is irrelevant to the decision
Products where the decision value is so small (low price/low volume) the medium will not be cost-effective.

This wraps up this post on word of mouth research and how that research can be used when putting together your word of mouth campaign. If you need help with the research and a plan to use the results of that research, try our FREE test drive to get all the help you need with our top notch resources and tools.

Science of the Memes

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Mark Ford

Today I’d like to discuss the science of memes and how spreading ideas around and through society is ingrained in humans.

Memes

This refers to types of ideas that spread the fastest through society, why they spread fast and how that affects consumerism. You can use this same information to create a lasting positive impression about your company, products and services. People are more likely to try a new product or services when they feel protected and reassured by the masses.

It’s been determined that spreading ideas is essential to the survival of a society. There are 5 main situations where this occurs. They are:

Crisis
Mission
Problem
Danger
Opportunity

Think of evangelism. This is prime example of people not only spreading the word, but convincing people to jump on board and start to spread the word themselves. To do this effectively, you need to incorporate a few key things that always catch people’s eye:

News
Unique Results
The Unusual
Helping Others
Secrets

Next, we’re going to switch gears a little and talk about viral marketing. While, traditional marketing can be used to your advantage, the reality is viral and online marketing is the king of the castle. You can spread the word online like the plague, if you know what to do. Here are some simple steps to do this:

Find an interesting idea
Make it easy for people to experience or trial
Spread the idea while people who are in close contact with others
Take advantage of existing communication methods
Develop the way of trying your product in such a way that it automatically draws more try-ers

Some great places to use viral marketing are:

Geocities
Amazon
Roger Wilco
YouTube
Facebook Messenger
Instagram Messenger
TikTok
Gmail
“Tell A Friend” Buttons
E-Greeting Cards

There are six things everyone should be doing to benefit from word of mouth on the internet:

Put WOM components on your website.
Assign people to monitor your viral marketing.
Place testimonials in different places on your website to walk a customer through the purchasing cycle.
Set up an email marketing campaign.
Stay up to date on what products and services the experts in your industry are recommending.
Use your website to demonstrate the great ways people are using or finding success with your products and services.

This wraps up the lesson on traditional and viral marketing. If you need help putting together any of the plans or successes in this lesson, try our FREE test drive to get all the help you need to put these plans into action.

Decoding WOM Messages

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Mark Ford

Today’s lesson will talk about how Word of Mouth messages (WOM) are delivered and how you can influence those messages.

There are essentially 3 methods of word of mouth:

Expert to Expert
Expert to Peer
Peer to Peer

When experts are talking about your products or service you will usually receive an amazing rush of sales and new customers, so obviously this is one of the best things that can happen. You can also help to facilitate this by offering free products to experts for them to review.

Expert opinion can also bring about new ideas that help to fuel new products, services and operating systems within your company. If you take the time to change or develop the opinions of even a small group of experts, you will have the opportunity to help your market explode.

This word of mouth delivery system may take a few years to fully develop, but you can speed this up into only a few weeks:

First impressions from an expert
Organized trial of your products or services
Pooling peer experiences

It’s important to know exactly who is advocating for your products and service. Take the time to find out who they are – and reward them. While, you may already have a customer service system for filing complaints, do you have one for compiling praise? Most likely not. If you take the time to show these people appreciation, they will help take your products and services to the top.

Some of the ways you can show them appreciation are:

Invite them to a customer appreciation dinner
Offer to video tape their testimonials
Ask to interview them for feedback to improve with
Offer them a premier customer membership
Ask them to join a referral incentive program

There are lots of things you can offer your biggest fans to help spread the word about your products and services.

Conventional media has been around forever and while it can still be effective, it’s lost a little of its luster over the last few years. There are a few reasons for this:

Expensive and doesn’t necessarily return results
Boring, lacking something fresh and new
Too short of a time slot to offer enough information

While these are all true, there are ways you can make conventional media work for you. For the information to be effective it needs to be presented in the right sequence, come from the right sources, be relevant to the target customer, be credible and be delivered at the right time in the medium.

We’re going to switch gears a little and talk about the two phases of the product adoption cycle. Traditional media is great for taking you through the information stage where you can offer the information you need to your potential customers, but it’s not so great for measuring the results of those efforts.

Without these results you can’t fine tune your marketing and therefore can easily miss the boat and lose potential customers and waste a whole lot of money. Once a consumer has the information they need, they’ll go through a verification process as they analyze whether or not the purchase was a good one. They generally get their information through:

Direct experience with the product
Interaction with peers using the same product
Experts’ experience
Scientific journals and other resources
Independent reviews and opinions

You can accelerate this process by:

Providing your own demos and free trials
Offer them indirect experience through the experience of others
Offer a good, true story that can be passed around

Once you have the ability and can work through these concepts, you will be able to target your customers much better. If you need help with any of this along the way, try our FREE test drive to gain access to our experienced business coaches.

WOM Meets Customers Head-On

Posted on October 1, 2022October 1, 2022 by Mark Ford

Today we’ll cover the idea of shortening your customer’s decision-making process with positive “Word of Mouth” (WOM). There are essentially 5 stages in the decision-making process:

Give the product a chance and transitions from a “no” to a “maybe”.
Check out the options and investigate the different products available.
Observe the product to check for potential benefits, features and operations to see if there is a fit with their needs.
Become a customer and purchase their first item. They will be discriminate with their first product as they form their opinion of you.
Purchase again and starts spreading positive word of mouth as an advocate of your products.

So, let’s take a closer look at each one of these.

From “No” to “Maybe”

This stage is really important because if your potential customers don’t even take a second look at your products and services, then you have no chance of sealing a deal. This is why you need to offer credible information and well thought out pricing, guarantees and incentives.

Investigating Your Products

At this stage they are taking a closer look at your product line to see if there is actually anything that could benefit their life. This is where you need to make sure your hard information is right out there in front for the customers to see and compare.

Trial Period

Customers often feel more at ease and ready to purchase when there is some sort of a trial in place. They usually want to try vicariously through someone else, so they don’t feel any risk involved. A good way to offer this is through demo videos, product demonstrations or a tour of your facilities. This stage may invoke a reaction of “I tried it and liked it. You should check it out.”

Make a Purchase

At this stage, they have taken the risk of purchasing one of your products or services and are now evaluating how easy, convenient, cost effective and satisfying your product or service is. At this stage a common reaction would be, “It was really easy to use and learn from. It’s really great, you should get it!”

Advocates for Your Products

At this last stage of decision making the customer is immensely pleased with your product and often keeps using it and/or comes back for more products and services. They are likely telling everyone they know how much they like it, that they use it every day and have already (or will be) back to your establishment for more.

We talked a minute ago about the different types of purchasers. Now we are going to take a closer look at their characteristics, so you can figure out which tactics are best to use at the right stage of the decision-making process.

The Innovator

Wants to stand out from the crowd
Know what’s hot and trendy
Likes “strange,” “different,” and “innovative” new products
Wants to be the first to try and will talk about it animatedly

Early Adopter

Driven by excellence
More concerned with possibilities than realities
Always looking to be a leader
Always looking for a new vision

Middle Majority

Wants to be perceived as competent
Concerned about practicality and easy comparisons
Needs an easy way out if not satisfied
Wants products that meet the industry standard

Late Majority

Generally skeptical and wants to know the risks upfront
Needs to shop around for the best deal
Needs a support system
Wants what everyone else has

Laggard

Needs it to be completely safe and traditional
Needs reassurance that nothing will go wrong
Won’t try new things unless it’s the last resort
Will search for loopholes and problems
Wants to use it in the standard industry way

Each type of consumer wants something just a little different depending on their personality type. The key to successful word of mouth is to target and cater to each type of consumer. If you need help identifying the types of consumers you are currently helping and how to attract the types you are lacking, try our FREE test drive for the resources and tools you need to get the job done.

Next time we’ll talk about how word of mouth messages are delivered and what you can do to help facilitate it.

Word of Mouth Tactics – Part 2

Posted on September 3, 2022 by Mark Ford

In the last post we started our series on “word of mouth” and talked about how to make your customers purchasing experience a short and easy one. We’re going to continue with that theme a bit today and help show how you can mold “word of mouth” to your advantage.

The reality is everyone needs an advisor to guide them to make a decision. We rely on the expertise of others to make the right decisions based on how it’s explained to us. When you take the time to understand exactly what and how word of mouth works, you’ll see all the great advantages it has to offer you. Remember this path when working to understand “word of mouth:”

Accelerate the decision-making process for increased profits.
You can accelerate product making decisions by making the process easier.
Instead of low-ball advertising and the used car salesman approach, try delivering on your “word of mouth” promises.

Traditional advertising draws about one response for every thousand ads and most of those are to ask for more information before the customer even considers purchasing. When you get information from a friend, you are more likely to take their word for it and act. On average, customers purchase two out of every five recommendations their friends make. That’s a HUGE difference.

So, what exactly is “word of mouth?” Well, we know how powerful it can be, but to define it: Word of mouth is a communication that happens between a customer and a potential customer. There is usually a relationship of some kind between these two people with an established level of trust.

Now, compare this to advertising where you are providing a message to a potential customer where they have not established a relationship with you or a level of trust. Who are they more likely to take advice from? The answer is clear!

We talked above about the benefits of “word of mouth” now let’s take a look at some reasons why it works:

The information is custom tailored to the potential customer because of the friendly relationship of the referrer.
It’s more personal, relevant and believable.
It’s customer driven.
It’s self-generating and can take on a life of its own, especially with the information age of the internet.
It becomes part of the product’s description.
The source of word of mouth can be important and more effective when coming from an expert.
Word of mouth saves you time and money.

To fully utilize word of mouth you need to understand:

Where is your word of mouth coming from?
What products are being affected by word of mouth?
How is your word of mouth traveling?
What ways can you help your best clients promote your business?
How can you help your best clients introduce your business to their friends and family?

Once you work through these things you can work out a plan on how to trigger more word of mouth. This wraps up this lesson on word of mouth. If you need help understanding word of mouth and how it can impact your business, try our FREE test drive to access our wealth of resources and tools.

Next time we’re going to dive into the nine levels of word of mouth. These levels help you understand which word of mouth is positive and which is not.

Word of Mouth Tactics – Part 1

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Mark Ford

Today we’ll start a new series talking all about Word of Mouth and how it can make or break your business in an extremely short amount of time. In this first lesson let’s define “word of mouth.”

Word of mouth is easily the most powerful form of marketing and is absolutely free. People talk about ads they see, experiences they have, and the products they purchase. If you treat people right and spread the word about your new products/services in a positive way, you’ll attract the right customers and clients who will sustain your business for a long time.

Now, as positive as word of mouth can be for your business, the other side of the coin is how negative it can be as well. Bad news seems invariably to travel faster than good news, and if you have a less than high-quality product or weak customer service system, then your customers will tell everyone they know to not buy your products and services.

The age of technology has proved to be an amazing benefit in the world of word of mouth. With blogs, podcasts, online marketing, forums, social networking and all the other online mediums available, it is easier and easier for consumers to share their experiences. And remember this is all potentially good free advertising for you.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the importance of shortening the customer decision cycle to help customers/clients choose more quickly and easily. There are three great ways to increase sales by shortening the decision cycle:

Increase the overall dollar amount customers spend on each purchase
Increase your number of customers
Increase frequency of purchases

Okay, now let’s take a deeper look at decision speed. Offer simplicity, ease, and a fun purchasing atmosphere – and you’ll help your customers make their decisions quicker and more confidently. When this happens, your customers will buy more frequently, spend more money than usual, refer friends and make the decision to purchase more quickly. This can raise your market share by over 100 times.

The time it takes your customer to decide and purchase far outweighs any other component of marketing. When you focus on customer decision speed it forces you to take a hard look at your company and brand image, positioning, value, customer service, guarantees and product quality.

The next area I want to talk about quickly is how to minimize the friction, or stress, involved with decision making. No matter how easily people find decision-making there is a certain amount of anxiety we all experience when making a purchase, especially from a new source or for a large amount of money. When you help to minimize this emotional response, you will soothe your customers’ anxiety and they will make their decision quicker and more confidently.

There are a few secrets to accelerate the customers decision making progress:

Your benefits, features, claims and promises must be obvious, clear, and concise.
The information you offer must be complete, easy to understand, credible, and balanced.
Use comparisons that show a marked difference.
Your guarantees must be rock solid and more than the customer expects.
Make trial periods easy.
You must have simple evaluations of your products or services.
Testimonials need to be relevant and positive.
Your support, delivery and other operational systems must be perfect.

Your website is only as good as you make it. You can offer more than information; you can offer an experience that guides your customers gently through the decision making process to make it easy for them to buy. Take it a step beyond by offering FAQs, toll-free customer support numbers, software downloads to help with the process and other informative ways to reassure your customers that you are there with them every step of the way and have nothing to hide.

This wraps up the first post in our series on word of mouth. If you need help identifying your target market and the issues they run into that lengthen their purchasing experience, try our FREE test drive and work with one of our coaches to come up with the best way to smooth out your purchasing experience.

Next time, we’ll continue moving forward with “word of mouth,” and talk about what exactly this powerful tool is and what it can do.

Multiply on Your Maximizing Resources – Part 4

Posted on August 22, 2022August 22, 2022 by Mark Ford

The last few posts have talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize.

So far we’ve covered:

Call in the Troops
Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
Lost Sheep Clients
Olympic-Size Sales Staff
Open Water Fishing
Call for Back-Up
Go Big Online
Bartering with the Best
Give Away the Farm

Today we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources. We’ll cover:

Finding Your Pot of Gold
Stay at the Top of Your Game
Wealth from the Inside Out

These areas are all key to keep up the momentum you’ve found in making what you have work harder for you.

Finding Your Pot of Gold

You must always have a goal you’re working toward in order to stay on course. Your goal needs to be something you can attain and utilize your full potential. Don’t be afraid to aim high, just make sure you are clear on what your goal is and exactly what you need to do to get there. You need to continue to hold yourself accountable to your goal and raise the bar as you accomplish the steps to your goal.

Stay at the Top of Your Game

Once you’ve mastered these areas, you need to make sure you are staying competitive and constantly coming up with new ways to use your new tools. Don’t rest on one success when there are more on the horizon. To continue to be successful your business must continue to learn and revolve.

Wealth from the Inside Out

Wealth and riches are defined within yourself, not by your profits or the world beyond. You can use all these strategies in both your business and life to find a greater level of success. When you naturally reflect who you are and what you mean, you will automatically attract the right people to you. This will happen in life and in business.

You are capable of reaching your goals as long as they are well-defined and a solid road is built to them.

Throughout the last seven lessons we’ve talked about how to take a hard look at the resources you currently have right in front of you and maximize them to get the most out of what you already have. Then turning around and multiplying those maximized resources to take them to the next level.

If you need help with any of these areas, steps or processes, try our FREE test drive to gain access to our resources, tools and business coaches-All there to help you succeed.

Multiply on Your Maximizing Resources – Part 3

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Mark Ford

Over the last few posts we talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize:

Call in the Troops
Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
Lost Sheep Clients
Olympic-Size Sales Staff
Open Water Fishing
Call for Back-Up

Today we’ll cover the next three:

Go Big Online
Bartering with the Best
Give Away the Farm

Go Big Online

There are businesses that operate solely online – and there are those with only physical addresses, and there are also those that do both. Those that do both are by far more successful than the previous two. When you take the time to establish an online presence you open up your business to the entire world, through a few clicks of the mouse.

To successfully sell products online, you need to:

Offer high-quality products/services that people want.
Build an attractive, effective website that’s user-friendly.
Generate high-quality traffic at a low cost.

With all of these things in place you can find success with online exposure.

Bartering with the Best

If you’ve ever gone to a yard sale and paid the sticker price, then you need to up your bartering game. Everything is negotiable and you need to take the time to barter with your suppliers. You might find yourself saving significantly on the things your business needs to operate smoothly.

Give Away the Farm

Ok, not literally, but you have to be willing to stay in contact with prospective clients and offer them products and services they are going to need. You don’t know what they need until you offer them everything you’ve got, then work with them to put together the perfect package the fit their needs.

When you take the time to put yourself at the front of their minds, they are more likely to work with you going forward. You can do this by offering free newsletters, a free consulting session or other valuable tool.

This wraps up these three areas of multiplying the resources you’ve maximized. If you’re not sure where to start or are feeling a bit overwhelmed, try our FREE test drive to work with one of our amazing business coaches who can help you navigate these peaceful waters.

Next time we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources. We’ll cover:

Finding Your Pot of Gold
Stay at the Top of Your Game
Wealth from the Inside Out

Multiply on Your Maximizing Resources – Part 1

Posted on July 23, 2022July 23, 2022 by Mark Ford

The next series of posts will cover how to take maximizing resources and multiply them for even bigger results.

In this first of the four-part series we’ll cover:

Call in the Troops
Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
Lost Sheep Clients

Call in the Troops

Finding and securing new clients can be exhausting and expensive. Instead work with other companies to help you find new clients. Find solid companies with secure, positive relationships with their customers/clients. Also, ensure that their products/services are not directly competitive with yours.

Contact prospective partner companies and talk with them about helping promote your products/services to their clients. Always offer them a commission on the sales that come from their client lists. Offer to reciprocate.

Make sure to include these key points in your proposal:

Ensure that your products/services don’t compete with theirs.
The partnership will not take away from their current or future sales.
The partnership will increase their profits.
They won’t have to do nor spend anything on the partnership.
You will produce all needed marketing materials.
You will offer an unconditional guarantee on all products/services.

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

If you take the time to put together a solid referral system you’ll draw new customers/clients out of the woodwork through everyone you already know. You can start doing this through first showing all your current clients how much you care about them.

Then show them how your products/services can significantly improve their lives or businesses. If you can do this consistently, they will naturally and comfortably bring new clients right to you.

Lost Sheep Clients

One of the best ways to rejuvenate business is to find your stray clients and offer them something amazing. First you need to understand why they strayed and are no longer purchasing from you. There are generally three reasons why customers/clients leave.

Unrelated causes that have nothing to do with you
A problem with their last purchase
No longer benefit from your products/services

The best way to bring these clients back is to simply contact them. If you don’t make the first move, they’ll never come back. You make an appointment to visit them or call them if it’s not possible to meet in person.

Talk openly with your stray clients. Let them know you noticed they were no longer working with you and that you’d like to talk with them about their experiences with you and how you can improve things to work together again. Take the time to make them feel special and work hard to make sure their experiences with you going forward are the best ever.

This wraps up the first three areas on how to multiply your maximized resources. If you need help working on any of these ideas or processes, try our FREE test drive to work with an experienced business coach.

Next time we’ll talk about the next three areas of multiplying your resources: Olympic-Size Sales Staff, Open Sea Fishing and Call for Back-Up.