Steve Yastrow

You are never so unique as …

No matter how great your product is, there’s probably someone who makes a product just as good.  Even if your product is truly better, your customers may not be able to see the difference.  And … if your product is truly better, at this very moment a competitor is trying to copy it.

The same can be said for services.  They are easily copied.  And, of course, the same can be said about marketing messages and promotional offers.  These are the least differentiating (even though they are thought of as key tools of differentiation) and the most easily copied.

If you’ve spent any time reading this blog, my newsletters, or my books you know that I believe a strong relationship is the most powerful way to differentiate yourself in your customers’ minds.  A competitor can copy your products or services, but can’t copy the private relationships you have with customers.

Think what this means about your whole approach to marketing:

Stop trying to differentiate yourself by talking about how unique you, your products or your promotional offers are.

Start trying to differentiate yourself by helping your customers see how unique their personal connection is to you.

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Who cares about your 10th pizza?

Caroline and I have been talking a lot lately about the differences between True Loyalty and transactional loyalty … she had an experience the other day that showcases this difference.

Caroline and her sister/roommate Emily started ordering pizzas from Home Made Pizza Company a few years ago. (Home Made Pizza Company prepares fresh, uncooked pizzas that you can pick up at their store to cook at home.)

Here’s the short version of what happened when Caroline went to pick her recent pizza order:  When she arrived and gave her name, she also presented her completed punch card that showed this, her 10th, pizza should be free.  When she got her pizza she saw it was made with the wrong ingredients. The employees working in the store were not very helpful about re-doing the order, and it took about 40 minutes for the new pizza to be made, without much communication during that time about the status of her order. At the end of the ordeal they started to ring her up on the cash register, and she reminded them about the 10th pizza free. “Oh yeah,” was the response and they gave her the pizza for free.

If Home Made Pizza Company wants to create loyalty, they can’t delegate that loyalty building to a program. Loyalty is not created by programs. It is created by humans.  You can give away the 2nd pizza free, but if your company is not good at basic human interaction with customers, you will not create loyalty.  On the other hand, businesses with the best loyalty don’t build it with programs, they build it with relationships.

I don’t know much about Home Made Pizza Company, but I can see from their website that they have 21 stores and a few more on the way.  At that size, they probably have a corporate office, where the 10th pizza free promotion was created.  True Loyalty is not created in corporate offices.  It is created in one-on-one interactions with customers.  Transactional loyalty is like caffeine; it will give you a short burst of energy, but you’ll pay for it later.  Keep the program, if you want, but not at the expense of creating True Loyalty.

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True Loyalty

I’d like to hear your comments on my latest newsletter, True Loyalty.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m at the 2008 Loyalty Expo in Orlando, where 500 professionals are gathered to discuss the latest ideas in customer loyalty. My keynote speech this morning focused on True Loyalty, where I encouraged the audience to evaluate their loyalty efforts not by the number of transactions these efforts generate, but by how they create customer relationships.  I closed with a story from a recent newsletter, called Turning Customer Loyalty Upside Down, describing how loyalty in a We relationship is a two-way street.

Creating True Loyalty is especially important in tough economic times. Most companies have significant untapped potential in their current customer base.  (See my recent newsletter, The Apple Farmer.)

Is your company focused more on transactional loyalty, or are you heading in the direction of True Loyalty?

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What are your customers loyal to?

I’m preparing my keynote speech for the 2008 Loyalty, Incentive and Reward Expo, this Monday, 11/5, in Orlando.

Among the many issues I’m thinking about, ponder this one:  Are your customers loyal to your promotions, or loyal to their relationship with you?

(Do you think this is a major issue? I do.)

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It’s not all bad

Yes, the economic news is bad.  Yes, many companies are hurting.  Yes, there is panic.

But … I can’t help but notice that many of the companies I’m talking to - clients, prospects and acquaintances - are doing well.

Everyone who manages to succeed in tough times has their own reason for that success. But one of the universal opportunities is to focus on your current customers.  As I discuss in this post on tompeters.com, the untapped potential in most companies’ customer bases dwarfs the external, market-driven challenges those companies face.  Have a look at this recent newsletter, The Apple Farmer, and ask yourself if you are making these same mistakes.

Keep your head up, and navigate well in tough times.  And, count on your “We” customers to be there with you.

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Newsletter: Moments with Presence

Today’s issue of my newsletter is called Moments with Presence.

The basic idea:  Your customers live half a million minutes each year, and remember only a few of them.  Will they remember the moments they share with you?

Please share your comments!

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The Apple Farmer

Here’s a link to the newsletter I sent out today, focusing on the disproportionate focus companies have on acquiring new customers, at the expense of developing relationships with existing customers.

Please have a look, and share your comments!

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Joni’s back … at this very moment

One of my favorite lessons from writing We and studying customer relationships is that the best wisdom for business often comes from everyday life. A few weeks ago I wrote a post describing an inspiration from listening to a Joni Mitchell song when I was in Europe. Today, Joni’s plain wisdom inspired me once again.

Just now, at 33,000 feet on the way from Atlanta to Chicago, I was listening to her song Chelsea Morning and heard one of my favorite passages:

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I knew,
There was milk and toast and honey, and a bowl of oranges, too.
The sun poured in like butterscotch, and stuck to all my senses,
Won’t you stay, we’ll put on the day, and talk in present tenses?

One of the key components of a relationship-building encounter is that you and your customer need to both be fully present, engaged in the present moment. As I wrote in this recent post on tompeters.com, one of the easiest ways to kill a sales conversation is to be focused on the next step in the sales process, ignoring the opportunity to create an encounter RIGHT NOW, in the present moment.

When Joni wakes up into her Chelsea morning, she is fully engaged in the “what’s happening now.” What does she want to do? Talk in present tenses.

That’s profound. Even while you are in a discussion with your customer planning the future, or recapping the past, be sure that you are in the spirit of the present tense.

When you are engaged in dialogue with your customer, think, “Won’t you stay, we’ll put on the day, and talk in present tenses?”

Wow. Thanks again, Joni.

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Posted in Customer Encounters, Wisdom from everyday life | 2 Comments »

Can a customer relationship be perfect?

Is a perfect We relationship attainable with a customer?

It really doesn’t matter. Imagining a perfect We relationship is what matters. That vision will guide you to create the relationship that is the best relationship possible with this customer.

This is a lesson that is not new. Plato, more that 2300 years ago, pointed out that everything in the real world is imperfect, but that we can understand the essence of things by comparing them to an absolute “form” which we have never actually seen. Have you ever seen perfect blue? Witnessed perfect justice? Heard perfect truth? Plato would say that you haven’t, that every thing you see in the world is only a shadow of a perfect form. But, through inherent knowledge of that perfect form we understand the things that we experience in real life. (How we get that knowledge is another story – see Plato’s Theory of Recollection if you are interested)

Similarly, it may be impossible, with a given customer, to create a perfect We relationship. But, by imagining a perfect relationship, as if it were a Platonic form, you have something to aim for. That fact that you will never attain perfection is beside the point. Aim high, and the relationship will be as strong as possible.

Like many things, a relationship is not an on/off switch. A relationship is more like a dimmer switch. Imagine total illumination, and turn up the brightness.

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Fifty First Dates

The movie, 50 First Dates, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, is billed as a romantic comedy. But I see it as a business movie.

In the film, Sandler’s character, Henry, and Barrymore’s character, Lucy, meet one day and have a great time. However, the next day Lucy doesn’t remember Henry, due to a memory problem that erases the previous day’s memories each night. So, their relationship has to start anew each day.

This is just what it’s like to do business with most companies. Aren’t there stores in which you’ve shopped for years, that still greet you with an impersonal, “May I help you?” as if you’re entering for the first time? How many restaurants remember that you don’t like pickles on your burger, from one visit to the next? Why do I need to repeat my customer service problem to successive AT&T operators?

So many things that seem outlandish in real life, such as a person not remembering yesterday, are taken for granted in business. More convinced than ever: The best business practices reflect the basic truths of everyday life.

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