ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

tigerente,
Your response is cool. You are dealing with it by relying on word of mouth. New clients trust you based on feedback from existing clients. That is a great way to gain trust.

I was asking because I heard something the other night that was so profound (to me anyway):
"Promise small. Deliver big."

LOL. "That said (and as much as this might have shocked my mom), not everybody loves me."

Interesting.

Then, when a business makes a claim about the product or service they offer there is an expectation that it will do what says. But the claim needs to have a level of believability to it. The trust building has already started. Retailers and restaurants have understood this, which is why they invest in designing a look that helps convey this - even before you make a purchase you have a feel for the quality based on the look.

Now, this may not be true for everyone but in general it is.

I agree.

I think an instant messaging feature would be a cool tool to add to this site!

I guess, I was trying to get us to think about what we are saying in our marketing and advertising to clients, customers and consumers. Some of my clients try to put everything including the kitchen sink into their marketing, but it would be more effective if they honed in on one message and said it well.

Speak to people not at them.

That was a good post, a very good one.

You are right, the pretenders do de-value our work. I can't tell you how many times I have been under bid only for the client to call me upset that they didn't get what was promised and they lost their money.

I want to help them but I can't do it at a cut rate. I am running lean as it is. Marketing does not require a PHD or advanced degree but experience and skill are required. Just because people run small businesses doesn't mean they should think small. If you go with the cheapest bid understand what you are getting.

Thanks for the compliment, AppleGraphics. I wouldn't expect all enterprises to be able to follow the specific example I gave. It probably won't work at all unless your revenue model was built on repeat business. It works better when there is employee profit sharing. It works best when your customer base is already familiar with the general product or service you're offering.

For example, your business might get a small print order (250 business cards, 100 announcements, something like that) from a first time customer. If the customer is happy with the result, great -- you'll probably get repeat business and maybe some good referrals. (In my business, that's where all the profit is -- repeat purchases and referrals.)

If the customer is unhappy with the print job (even if the reason is ridiculous or it was his error/miscommunication that caused the problem), it might be better to rerun the job at your cost -- or simply take it back, refund the money, and provide a $10 gift card toward having the work done at another shop. The reason is because if he leaves dissatisfied, there's no potential for future business from him anyway, and he'll spread a negative message which makes it harder for you to get new customers. However, if you can send him away better off than he was when he came in initially, he will be less likely to "badmouth" you, and he may even say good things or give you another try down the road. (Plus, the resolution process will let you recognize if this is a "chronically difficult" customer, and if so, you can save yourself a lot of future grief.)

Obviously, there is a financial "sting" when you eat the cost -- and when employees feel that sting (they realize it's costing them money), they get much better at communicating with customers on the front end of transactions -- to ensure that they're not giving away their profits on the back end. That's why I said it works better in profit sharing environments.

In my experience as a print customer, problems occur when shop employees take a "one size fits all" approach to dealing with clientele, when in fact, your clientele can be quite extreme -- from people who give you black and white masters expecting color copies, to people who may know more about commercial printing than you do. That's why I said my example works best when the customer base is familiar with your product or service. I am fully aware that you have it much tougher than I do in that regard!

Best wishes.