Author: Jay Zaltzman

Customer relationships in depth

We’ve all experienced situations where we try to ask deep probing questions about customers’ relationship with our brand, and they look at us blankly with a response like “what do you mean?  I needed X, Brand Y’s product was good, so I bought it.  End of story.”

It can be good to remember that our customers’ lives don’t necessarily revolve around our brand… but there’s still more to it than the transaction described above!  How can we get a deeper understanding of the customer relationship?  I recently borrowed from an exercise used in life coaching to ask research participants about the values that are most important to them, and then asked about ways in which the brand helps them achieve those values.

Here’s how I presented the exercise:

Different things are important to different people.  Following is a list of needs.  You might say all of them are desirable or important… but if you had to choose just five, which five would you say are the MOST important to you personally?

The list included 15 different values, such as the following:

  • Security: certainty, predictability
  • ­Compensation: money and/or benefits
  • ­Achievement: mastery of a task
  • Variety: diversity of activities, people, and tasks
  • ­Affiliation: connect with people

I followed up with questions about how the company we were researching might help them realize those important values.  After answering the question about which values were important, participants seemed to be in a more thoughtful state of mind and went much deeper with ways the brand helps them achieve the values than they had in prior research.

Find out what’s important to your customers.  Call me at 760-469-9266 or email info at bureauwest.com.

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Customer experience vs. customer recall

I’ve recently been involved in several research studies in which participants provided both in-the-moment input (e.g., using a mobile app) and retrospective input (in a focus group or interview).  Looking at the differences between what people experience and what they remember can be extremely valuable, and is a great example of the peak-end rule in behavioral economics.

The peak-end rule states that people don’t remember all parts of an experience equally.  Rather, their strongest memories are of two parts of the experience: the most intense moment and the end of the experience.  I saw this in my recent research studies: people who had a high point or a great interaction during their experience tended to remember the whole experience as positive and minimized the negatives they experienced.  And the reverse was also true: people who experienced a significant negative tended to forget about the small positives they experienced.

This has important implications for companies.  It may not be enough to just try to ensure everything goes smoothly in a customer interaction: there’s always a chance that not everything will be perfect.  But small negatives can be outweighed by a great interaction.  For example, a long wait online may be forgotten if the cashier is particularly pleasant.

We can find those opportunities to create great memories by comparing what customers experience with what they remember.  Then we examine the positive memories and look for ways to create more memories like them.

Let’s design research to compare your customers’ experiences with their memories.  Call me at 760-469-9266 or email info at bureauwest.com.

 

Sources: Bureau West research; “Choices, Values, and Frames” by Daniel Kahneman  and Amos Tversky, 2000

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming:

5 steps to market your business effectively

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Step 1: Who is the target market?
You might want to say “everyone,” but that’s expensive!  Let’s start narrow and we can expand later.  Who would be your most profitable target?

Step 2: What problem can you solve for your target?
People aren’t really interested in what you have to sell – they’re interested in solving a problem.  What is the problem that the people in your target market have that you can solve?  What specifically bothers them about this problem and makes them want a solution?

Step 3: Create effective messaging
What does the target need to hear to really believe you can solve their problem?

Step 4: Choose your marketing methods (worksheet)
What are the best ways to deliver the message to the target?  Use the worksheet to evaluate which are best for you, and consider the resources you have available.  (Hint: you don’t have to do them all!)

Step 5: Develop your online presence
Once you’ve chosen your marketing methods, you can decide how robust of an online presence you’ll need.  Do you need an informational website or just a Facebook page?  Or a website with a blog?  A shopping cart?  How active do you need (or want or are able) to be on social media?

Then run the marketing, tweak and repeat!

If you want help with any of the above, contact us – info at bureauwest.com.  

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Motivating Employees

employee flowersI’ve been speaking to a lot of small business owners recently and many of them are grappling with the same problem: they want their employees to “step up” and take more responsibility so the owner won’t have to constantly be involved in the day-to-day running of the business and will be able look at bigger-picture issues like growing the company (as well as take some time off every once in a while!).

The problem is, most business owners are experts in their business but not experts when it comes to managing employees.  There’s a lot of trial and error that goes on in figuring out what works.  Here are some approaches that have worked for other small businesses:

Set clear goals
It might be obvious to you, but have you ever stopped to actually write down what you want to achieve and how you want to get there?  (By the way, that’s a big part of what coaching is all about.)  Whether or not you work with a coach, take some time to think about goals and articulate them to your employees.  Remember, they’re not mind-readers and what’s obvious to you, might not be to them!  Having a clear goal gets employees more motivated and more likely to be “on-board” with you.

Offer incentives for desired behaviors
If employees can help achieve your big goals, or reach an important milestone, it may be worthwhile (and motivating) to offer a monetary bonus.  But you may want to encourage other, more everyday behaviors, like taking responsibility for solving a customer’s problem or doing certain things proactively.  In those cases, non-cash incentives could make sense, such as recognition or extra time off or a small gift.  There are great ideas for incentives here: https://blog.bonus.ly/15-creative-employee-reward-ideas/

Take a look at your own management style
While many business owners want employees to “act like an owner,” some find it hard to let go and can’t resist jumping in and doing something because they feel they can do it better or faster.  Of course, you don’t want to stand by while an employee does a bad job, but make sure you utilize their strengths, show them you appreciate them, and help them develop into a person you can trust to do a great job even when you’re on vacation!

If you are dealing with these kinds of questions, you may want to join my Business Growth Mastermind Group.  The group will meet via web conference on Sundays for 8 weeks, starting February 10.  It will help members grow their businesses and especially focus on marketing effectively as well as hiring and developing great employees.

If you or anyone you know might be interested, please click here for more information and the curriculum.  I’m looking forward to it!

 

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman