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Satisfying customers is the name of the game in business, right?

And, as so many corporate posters proclaim, “If you don’t satisfy your customers, someone else will!”

But sometimes, satisfying customers is the worst thing you can do if you want to build add-on sales and repeat business.

What did I just say?

I’m the President of Customersatisfaction.com and I said satisfying customers may not be a good idea. Am I out of my mind?

Possibly, but I’m still right, at least according to industrial psychologist Frederick Herzberg, who famously pointed out: “A satisfied need is NOT a motivator!”

Let me give you an example.

You’ve heard the expression that you should never do your shopping for groceries on an empty stomach because you’ll end up buying nearly everything in the store, right? Your need, your hunger is motivating you to buy, right now.

But if your belly is full, you’ll be less impulsive and more thoughtful about your purchases.

Here’s an illustration that’s closer to home.

I conduct seminars, and a major part of my business is doing them publicly, and then having participants feel motivated to invite me to their organizations to do them there.

If attendees in my public sessions actually leave believing that they heard everything, or that the outline I supplied is definitive and exhausting, why bring me to their sites?

They’ll only be motivated if they believe that they didn’t capture everything; that I have so much to offer that the only way it will be translated into action at their firms is through my direct efforts.

So, should I impart the idea that they’ve received all of my wisdom? No way, if I want add-on business, or to develop an after-market for my products and services.

This is known as the Scheherazade Principle. You remember her. She is the fictional character that saves her life by telling the sultan stories that never conclude, that always have to be continued.

Well, I could say a lot more about this principle, and oh so many others, and if you’d like to hear about these ideas, I’ll be happy to share them with you on a consulting basis.

Just give me a holler!

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As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations during the last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answer the questions I pose.

For example, if I ask people, “What is your unique differentiation in the marketplace?” or “What does your organization really excel at?” They will almost always reply, “It has to be our client service.” Almost no one will admit to being “lousy” in client service, any more than they will talk about living in an average town with average kids. Instead I see the “Lake Woebegone Syndrome.” In Lake Woebegone it seems all the women are pretty, all the men are handsome, and all the kids are well above average.

If while getting to know someone’s agency or company, I ask the question, “If I hauled you into a court of law and accused you of being a ‘world class’ client service provider, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Many times, unfortunately, their answer is, “Probably not.”

Therefore, if so many people think client service and satisfaction is so critical to the success of the vision and the execution of the strategic plan, why is it not usually monitored with the same intensity as the financials? After all, financials are a lagging indicator (telling what happened after the fact) while client satisfaction may be a leading indicator (it can be predicting what may happen in the future).

Many organizations go through all sorts of trial and error and purchase various software programs to keep their finger on the pulse of dollars and cents because they want to know where they are and minimize opportunity for loss. For years it has been known that “what gets measured gets done.”

If that is the case, why is it that many organizations choose to almost ignore measuring client satisfaction? By doing so, they run the risk of losing established clients to the competition.

Client Service as Overarching Philosophy
In 1960, Professor Theodore Leavitt wrote the groundbreaking article, “Marketing Myopia,” in the Harvard Business Review. To paraphrase, he basically concluded that the purpose of all business is to attract and maintain customers while generating adequate profitability today and improved profitability in the future. That balancing act still holds true today. How many organizations do you know that are masters at bringing business in the front door only to lose it out the back door just as quickly? We have also dealt with organizations that service their existing business so well that the owners and principals “never get around to developing new business.”

Those organizations and agencies that see customer or client service as simply a department to be managed rather than a point of strategic differentiation may be looking at the business through the lens of short-term focus. So many people that we talk with have never calculated the lifetime value of a typical insured and even those that have usually aren’t communicating that number to their staff at every level of the organization on a regular basis. Knowing that number can provide a framework to make decisions for the long haul and maintain the client relationship rather than looking at it from a “transactional” basis.

To calculate the lifetime value, take the number of years that a client/insured usually stays with the agency multiplied by the estimated net profit per line of business (auto, P&C, E&O, DB, etc). The total dollars can give you some idea of what is at risk in the future if you under serve your client base.

For example, if a typical insured stays with your agency 15 years and has 3 different policies with you each generating $200/year in profit, each new insured is worth approximately $9000 going forward (15yrs x $200/policy x 3 policies = $9000) if they are treated so well that they won’t even consider moving to someone else. Now ask yourself, how cavalierly would you treat a check written to your agency for $9000? Would you do the equivalent of going into your back yard, digging a hole, burying it there and walking away from it forever? In essence that is what happens when clients are taken for granted. The cause can either be by default ie. not paying attention, understaffing by design, allowing a lack of systemic follow-up and follow-through, or it can be attributed to a management team with so strong a focus on short-term results that they become almost greedy.
Does your organization have a client service strategy?
If you examine your strategic plan, it’s necessary to differentiate the agency strategy and plan from the client service strategy. They are not identical. Organizations need to implement a “Client Bill of Rights.”

Leaders in organizations need to ask themselves if they are willing to pay the price for excellent client service vs. good client service. Excellence costs, but it also pays off. Being even a little better than the competitor pays huge dividends. Yet many organizations are not willing to pay that price. Instead they are content with processes, technology and staff who are “good enough.”

As mentioned before, “what gets measured, gets done.” Client expectation measurements are important as are ways to monitor them. It is necessary for organizations to take the time to discover why a client has signed on with you and not the competition. It’s also necessary to determine what they really want to have happen as part of the client experience. It is then up to you to make sure you are delivering what your client wants. Failure to do so most likely will result in the loss of that client to your competitor.

Once you determine what it is your client really desires, make sure you match those expectations in terms of pricing and service. Make sure you are not trying to sell a champagne policy to someone with a beer budget and vice versa. It’s necessary to have processes in place to support excellent client service from beginning to end. That is, do you have the right amount of staffing resources to meet their needs? Make it as easy as possible for them to conduct business with you.

While having the proper talent is vital to ensuring excellence in client service, it is also known that 94% of failings are the result of process/system failures and not people failures.

My car recently broke down. While it was being towed to the dealer, the towing company damaged another part of the car. The dealer was willing to go ahead and fix the damage, but the towing company wanted the damage they caused handled by their insurance carrier. They had a local agent connected to an insurance company in Arizona. The problem was that the local agent did not have the necessary claim number or phone number for the agent handling the claim in Arizona. Therefore, the dealer, who was willing and able to fix the car, didn’t have the information they needed to work with the towing company. As a result, repairs that could have been completed in 48 hours took four to six weeks.

The problem was that no one owned the entire client experience, each company only owned a piece of it. Anytime there is an opportunity for a hand-off where something can go wrong, organizations often rely on the client, who has no knowledge of the situation, to be able to handle the details. It is vital for organizations to own the entire client experience.

Of course, no matter what the situation is, things don’t always go smoothly. Problems arise, that’s why organizations should make sure they have a process in place for “service recovery.” That is, if something goes wrong suddenly, they should be able to recover with minimal damage.

Finally, organizations should make sure their policies protect the right people. Often, they have policies in place that protect themselves against the 1% of clients who abuse the system. This makes the other 99% of their clients who play by the rules pay the price. Many organizations, unfortunately, don’t look at what they are doing through the eyes of the customers. Rather, they only are looking to protect themselves.

Excellent customer service demands a price. Are you willing to pay it?

Doug Brown is the CEO and Chairman of Paradigm Associates LLC, a strategic and executive leadership development firm based in Cranford, NJ. He combines an innovative thinking style with his conversational questioning ability to help organizations recognize and breakthrough their existing paradigms. This naturally leads them to solve stubborn problems and work through difficult situations. A Certified Facilitator for the Total Quality Institute (TQI), Brown understands the distinction between simply conducting “training sessions” and facilitating meetings with potentially complex subject matter.

Visit http://www.ParadigmAssociates.US or call (908) 276-4547.

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The value of an affiliate is nil in a customer’s mind - ok, so you’ve shown them where they can get a few products related to that niche, but there needs to be some sense in their mind that you have offered a genuine reason for choosing those particular affiliate partners. Are the chosen partners simply making you the most handsome commission? How do you turn a lifeless “I make money off you” affiliate link into an appreciated “These are the only products you want” recommendation?

Some marketers scatter freebies around their newsletters, such as valuable advice, hoping to build positive relationships with potential paying customers, then spring the partner links on them. Others cloak their ugly affiliate hyperlinks in a “.com” sub-domain name that makes people believe the partner site is in fact owned by them. This is an effective, if slightly immoral, option if you have no products of your own to promote, plus it will make your business look more established than it actually is.

There is, however, one method of promotion that capitalises on the income immediacy of affiliate programs and adds value for the customer at the same time - Comparison sites. We’ve all used them, and they are a god send for consumers who want to shop around and find the cheapest place to buy. The beauty of comparison sites such as Pricerunner.com or Kelkoo.com is the visitor identifies that you, as a webmaster, have gone out of your way to find them the best websites - you’ve cut their search time and saved them money. This service will instantly gratify people’s shopping needs in a few clicks, distracting them from the fact you’ve embedded your affiliate link in the comparison results and you’re making money from them. Yes, being obvious about making money from people is a big turn-off in commerce - my advice would be to keep it under your hat. Some will ask “what’s in it for them?” but will soon let it go.

I know what you’re thinking - “when will I ever have the time to create a site to rival Kelkoo?”

The answer; think small.

Don’t forget the golden rule - niche marketing. If your website or newsletter deals with “money making opportunities,” draw up a page that compares five of the best money making opportunities, the best being your opinion of course, and embed your affiliate link into the “visit now” link. It works best when you do a “chart” or ranking because the number “1″ automatically has positive connotations for most people. The number 1 site you can make money is… The cheapest place to get this service is… This site was ranked 1st by our team because…etc.

Visitors would also appreciate a small review or some form of analysis to make the comparison valid. Many affiliates prefer to actually sign up with the affiliate product or service themselves to rate the overall experience - this is not a bad idea when you think about how in-depth your reviews could get if you know the product you’re placing at the top of the rankings is genuinely the best.

If you don’t have an existing website, it shouldn’t matter. Pick anything in the world market and I guarantee you can add value to simply linking to products by comparing them and helping customers narrow down their choices. Having too much choice is the big off-putter for shop surfers. Help them out. The good thing is your “mini site” can be as mini as you want it to be.

Another tip would be to offer what I like to call an “income exit” - sign up with Google’s Adsense service and place a small Google search box on your mini-site. This way, especially if you’ve used Google Adwords, if visitors don’t really find what they’re after on your site, they can re-search in Google straight from your site. All has not been lost, as you make money on searches made from your Adsense search box.

The chances are, however, that your affiliate links will pull in some good income, most likely from your cheapest or “number 1″ labelled product or service. There’s a whole mindset with this which subconsciously places customers in debt to your service. I won’t go into the psychology right now, but if you take the visitor off the search engine and place them in your capable hands, they will feel embodied by your service, not the search engine’s, and will therefore feel they have already found a resolution and direction to their aimless window shopping.

Your options are seemingly infinite - I’ve seen comparison mini-sites for those paid survey websites, spyware programs, computer RAM, autos, games, everything. You just need to find a service or product that there is an abundance of on the web so you can say “come to my site and I’ll show you which one is the best / where the cheapest is.”

Offer your customers some extra services, help them make decisions and build that relationship with them. Perhaps add a newsletter stating you have other services similar to this they would be interested in and you’ll keep them notified in future emails. Big potential! Bottom line; always look to add extra value to the service you initially offer your customers.

Mike Beatham

If you enjoyed this article and want to know how to get started in affiliate marketing the RIGHT WAY, using methods that will stand you above the crowd you should sign up for my free multimedia e-course. Success and profit is the goal, which is why I’ve put together an e-course that brings together the best of the web’s affiliate marketing tips in one easy to follow course. Don’t pay for your affiliate marketing school, get it free at: http://www.futureaffiliate.com

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This article reveal the same techniques that many Internet marketing experts uses every day to make millions of dollars in profits - no kidding! In my own opinion it is the most profitable and powerful concept ever used on the Internet field. So, stay close and read it carefully.

Joint Venturing represent the easiest way to start a new business and make more money online and it is the only 100% risk-free marketing technique. You have nothing to loose.

A good joint venture it can mean a fortunes in a short amount of time, it can mean bringing your product/service to market without spending a cent of your own money, it can mean free media attention, etcetera. All these translate into more sales, more free time and more of everything good!

In a few words, Joint Venturing (JV) means that two or more business people/company partnering up to create a win-win situation for all the parties involved.

No doubts, Joint Venturing can be very tricky. But… if you follow these simple rules, you can be on your way to building your empire out of thin air.

As a Netpreneur, you are in one of these four positions if you want to do a Joint Venture:

1) Have your own product(’s) : Joint Venturing with list owners.

In this case, be very carefully because most of the list owners want to do businesses only IF your product is new and have a proven value for their subscribers. The greatest advantage of these lists: have educated people and were created for different categories.

There are thousands of list owners out there. You can use many of these lists to leverage their customer assets and split the profits with the owner.

Tip : never try to do a Joint Venturing with list owners that not match with your product/service! It’s just a waist of time…

2) Have your own customer list(’s) : Joint Venturing with other product/service development owners.

Basically, this type of Joint Venturing has two big advantages:

- you can make more money than your Joint Venturing partner (of course, in the ‘long run’) - you don’t have to develop your own product/service

All you need is to find those products/services which best suits your customers needs. Let me advice you to use a software program, because doing this research manually can take a lot of your time.

3) No product or a customer list: becomes a “Dealer Maker”.

Yeap, this is true! Without any money on your pocket you can start to generate a steady cash flow. Your job here is to discover the right product for the right list of customers. This way you will charge a percent from both sides for years to come. Also if you where very professional with them, they will do business with you again and again!

4) Have the knowledge to make money online: become the “Providence Man”.

Perhaps one of the most neglected Joint Venturing method because it requires a lot of your time for research, but finally you’ll end-up charging 50% of all direct sales, which by the way, it is a fair amount for your work.

Connect to the Internet and search for great products that have very poor advertising. Identify one product or service, look at their web site, sales letter, order forms, web design and many other things you can improve.

Identify everything is wrong, think how you can improve that, what costs you, how much the profit will skyrocket and than, get the Joint Venturing agreement with the product owner (and the 50% for your work!).

The problem with Joint Venturing is to work SMART not HARD!

At this point, you probably wonder if it’s so simple as I told you. Yes, it is that simple! Never forget that simple ideas can generate better solutions for your problems.

Joint Venturing creates tremendous benefits (profits!) for both parties, without any initial investments, because they rely upon two basic marketing rules:

—> Rule #1: People are eager to buy from someone who trust and know!

Please read this carefully and more than once. Do it again and again until you’ll understand that a Joint Venturing it’s not possible without this rule.

People are eager to buy from someone who trust and know!

The most valuable assets you have in your business are the relationships you have built with your customers. Needless to say, all Internet marketing gurus pay their attention and much more to this relationship. They built their online empires because they understand the value of developing and maintaining their own list of satisfied customers.

—> Rule #2: The money is in the LIST! The money is in the backend sale. Don’t you ever forget this!

This alone concept is worth ‘pure gold’. No matter what kind of ebusiness you run, definetely an educated list of customers represent your best asset. Without a list you cannot survive in these days. Why?

Because it is much more easy to sell again and again to your customers rather than using a ‘cold’ list. Not to mention the expenses you needed if you want to acquire new customers.

The key to succeed is to constantly enlarge your list of prospects/ customers and to offer them the right product, at the right time, with the right price. Work the BACKEND sales and then repeat the process!

So, what’s the next? I would say that you have to read again this article, think of your ebusiness potential, and then jump on the Joint Venture 101 - The Quickest Way To Build Your eBusiness, Part 2: http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/advertising/articles/venture-2.html

Find inside a 3-step blueprint to develop a solid joint venture, a new and free source of internet marketing products and/or services, and a pretty good example on how you can triple your profits from one single move!

*****

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Feel free to reprint this article is its entirety in your newsletter/ ezine or website as long as you leave all links in place, do not alterate the content and include our resource box as listed above. If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks!

About The Author

(c) Internet Marketing Profits Center - All Rights Reserved http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com

Valeriu S Popescu is the owner of the Internet Marketing Profits Center, a specialized e-company that helps real Netpreneurs starting a new business online. Find inside the latest cutting-edge strategies about affiliate programs, email marketing, search engine optimization, and more. Visit today: http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/

popvlr@yahoo.com

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