The Donald Cooper Corporation Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 8 - August 2004
Greetings !
We post all articles from past newsletters on our website in the Free Articles section. For your convenience, these articles are available by category.
You could be the winner of one of our outstanding Video Seminars that could transform your business: Hidden somewhere in this Newsletter is the name of one of our subscribers (not including the "Greetings" note above). If they find their own name and contact us before Sept. 15th, they'll receive one of our outstanding Video Seminars...for FREE. Happy searching!!
1. Treasure the complainers...for they speak for many others!
(time to read this article is about 30 seconds)
For a printable version of this article, click here.
I read recently that 96% of people don't complain when they have a bad service experience. But they do tell about 10 other people...and many of them quietly "take a walk" and never do business with that company again.
There is a tendency, if only four people complain about something, to think that the problem isn't all that serious. But what this means is that for every four complaints you get there are about 96 others who kept their mouth shut, walked away and then blabbed about you to 10 other people.
So, instead of thinking of complainers as bothersome troublemakers, choose to see them as courageous spokespeople for that huge silent majority who you cannot afford to lose.
How will this revelation change how you respond to both the complainer and the complaint?
2. Between March 21 & April 12, 2005 I'll be speaking in the Far East:
(time to read this section is about 10 seconds)
We have so many clients and prospects in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong who have been after me to get to their part of the world that we've blocked off March 21 to April 12th next year to do just that.
If you have contacts or Far East associates who could be interested in booking me to deliver my compelling bottom-line message on rethinking and reinventing their business to increase market share and profitability in the face of ever-stronger competition and ever-faster change, we'll be delighted to have your referrals or recommendations.
Just send an email with the subject line "Far East Tour" to the wonderful Sharen lady at sharen@donaldcooper.com. "Thanks"!!
3. What creative, amazing and inexpensive things could you do to promote and grow your business?
(time to read this article is about 2 minutes)
For a printable version of this article, click here.
My friend Eric Hellman writes from Vancouver with a great example of a business getting out and telling its story. While walking along Vancouver's bustling Robson Street, Eric spotted one of those new Segway scooter-like personal transportation machines dressed up like a chariot with an ING Bank banner.
The driver of the ING chariot was putting money in parking meters for motorists while telling them about the advantages of banking with ING. His promotional leaflet stated, "Free parking is good. But earning higher interest on your savings is even better! Park your savings in an ING Direct Investment Savings Account and get a $13 bonus."
This is brilliant marketing! Robson Street is a hot, trendy street; the Segway powered scooter is a hot new market-forward product and parking meters are an annoyance that gobble up our money. By designing this promotion as they did ING positioned itself as a hip bank that saves you money. And my guess is that they got a ton of free media coverage.
This very cleaver marketing reminded me of another promotion using parking meters that made a real estate agent in London Ontario famous. This agent went around downtown London putting quarters into expired parking meters while leaving a little note on the windshields to say that he had done so to prevent them from getting a $20 parking ticket. His note went on to say, "If you think that's great service, you should see what I can do for you if you're buying or selling a home!" Then he gave his name and contact info.
Now here's the really neat part. Putting money in someone else's parking meter is illegal, so he was arrested and charged for his act of public service. Of course the media picked up on this big time. He was interviewed on TV and radio and written up in the London Free Press...all of which made him an instant celebrity. He looked like a hero, he got about $100,000 of free publicity, paid a small fine...and his business skyrocketed.
As fashion retailers in the early 90's we had to deal with the cross-border shopping craze that sent half of Toronto to shop in Buffalo every weekend. One Saturday in June two of our customers said to me, "With your service, selection and great prices, the only reason we'd go to Buffalo is for the chicken wings!" It took me about five seconds to figure out that if we had great chicken wings, there'd be no reason to go to Buffalo at all.
So, we ordered a huge quantity of absolutely fabulous, already prepared chicken wigs; we bought a couple of barbeques to heat them up; rented a colorful marquee tent to increase visibility; painted a wide white line across the driveway in front of our store and painted USA on one side of it and CANADA on the other to create our own "border". When customers drove up to our store they were crossing the "border" from the USA into Canada for great deals on clothing ...and "better than Buffalo" chicken wings. We rented a chicken costume and a Mountie outfit for two of our staff to wear, all of which added to the fun.
I wrote and recorded a radio commercial that told people that we were now officially better than Buffalo and, in fact, we invited everyone from Buffalo to come on over to Toronto to see for themselves. We were interviewed by dozens of radio and TV stations, including national networks. We were written up in all the papers, got a full page write-up in Marketing Magazine and a marketing excellence award from Retail Council of Canada.
Our customers loved it, it energized our staff and we sold about 50,000 chicken wings in one month, raising over $10,000 for The Children's Wish Foundation. The media helped make us "famous" and business boomed!
So, what's holding you back? What creative, or even bizarre ideas could you come up with to promote and grow your business, get some media attention and become "famous"?
4. Is your business experiencing "Death by email"?
(time to read this article is about 90 seconds)
For a printable version of this article, click here.
In the process of researching a client's internal processes recently I discovered that most of their managers regularly receive over 200 business emails a day...and it's grinding everything to a halt!
One very large business in the USA has now banned emails completely and claims that it has increased management productivity by over 30%. I personally think that this is "throwing the baby out with the bath water" because, for some kinds of communication, nothing beats email.
Much of today's problems with email in business are really symptoms of more fundamental problems in the organization. There are essentially five uses for email. Only one of them is "good" and the other four are "evil" and need to be dealt with.
Good use #1: The instant and effective communication of important information or an important question.
Evil use #1: A safe way to hide from your real job by looking busy while actually avoiding the real tasks required to move the business forward. This is often a symptom of the wrong people in the wrong job, poor training or a lack of urgency, discipline, commitment or accountability...or all of the above. In either case, fix the real problem!
Evil use #2: Covering your behind by documenting everything and copying everyone. This is usually symptomatic of a business culture where people feel threatened or insecure. If this sounds like your business, I suggest investing $80 in my excellent Video Seminar and 40 page step-by-step Implementation Guide on "Creating a Winning Culture in Your Business!". To order this product, visit our online store at www.donaldcooper.com.
Evil use #3: Using email to avoid direct face-to-face or telephone contact when dealing with potentially unpleasant situations. This is almost never the best way to handle difficult situations and is often a sign of personal or corporate cowardice. Using email in this way more often than not escalates the problem as both sides become bolder and more and more antagonistic in their email "bunker". Meet face to face or on the telephone, deal with the problem and stop sniping!
Evil use #4: Showing off! Many people use email as a PR tool to show everyone in the organization how great they are and how ready they are for a promotion. This is usually a symptom of an overly aggressive political "player" who will resort to anything to further their career, a lonely person desperately looking for attention and approval or, an organization where legitimate recognition is hard to come by. Figure out what the real problem is and deal with it!
Adopt three simple rules about email in your business.
Rule #1: Use email only when it's the best method of communication. For example, if the telephone was just invented this year, people would say, "Look, finally something to replace email. This telephone thing is terrific!"
Rule #2: Copy only those people who need to be copied and not everyone who you think might be impressed or vaguely interested.
Rule #3: Stop emailing rumors, stupid jokes and cartoons of men with hairy backs! You're running a business so act like a business. If you wouldn't copy Mother Theresa on the stuff you send around, give it a rest. I know that Mother Theresa is dead, but you get the point.
5. Bits & Pieces:
(time to read this section is about 45 seconds)
1) Signs of things to come? Starting September 1st, IKEA in the UK says they will charge customers paying by credit card a 70p (that's $1.70 Cdn) processing fee whether the purchase is a $6.00 pack of candles or a $7000 kitchen. If they get away with this one, watch for it at a store near you!
2) "Owning customers for life...and beyond!" I have an excellent Keynote Presentation titled, "Owning Customers For Life!" but Costco has gone one up on me. Costco, USA has just announced that starting immediately they will be selling caskets and, in keeping with their low price policy, these caskets will sell for only $350. Thank God for Costco. Now we can all afford to die!
3) And now a word from your friendly ATM! The world's leading maker of banking machines tells us that ATMs will soon greet us by name, remind us of a spouse's upcoming birthday or advise us that our home insurance is up for renewal.
All I want is an ATM that, before I withdraw my money, flashes me a signal that the guy behind me in line has a gun and three convictions for armed robbery.
4) And now from the "Who's winning and who's losing" department...Japanese computer maker NEC has just created a super computer that has the number crunching capability of 20 USA made super computers.
5) "Class, the word for today is MARKETING": A one liter bottle of Evian water on the desk in my room at the Hotel Intercontinental in New Orleans a few weeks ago was $4.25 US. That's about $17.00 US per gallon...for water! When gasoline hit $2.00 (US) a gallon last month everyone went nuts. Try putting Evian water in your car and see how far you get.
$17.00 US (that's $22.00 Cdn) for water...now that's marketing!!!
6. Are you planning a Conference for Fall 04 or Spring 05?
(time to read this section is about 30 seconds)
If you, your company, or your industry Association are planning a Conference over the next few months and it needs to be a really great one, we'd love to chat with you about how one (or two) of my Keynote Presentations or Seminars can inform, focus, challenge and inspire your attendees to create clarity of purpose, compelling customer value and long-term profitability.
If I've spoken to your group in the past few years, enquire about our new presentations...
1. "The 90 Minute MBA...10 things you absolutely must know about your business, your customers & your life!"
2. "How to sell more, manage smarter, make more money...and have a life!"
3. "The 8 essential steps to finding & keeping the best staff!"
To quote the editor of Profit Magazine...
"A compelling bottom-line business message...brilliantly delivered!"
(Profit Magazine asked me to Keynote their National Business Conference 3 years in a row.)
BONUS! To access Donald's short article on "Defining the real "purpose" of your business meetings or conferences" click here
To enquire about availability for speaking at your next event, contact Sharen at sharen@donaldcooper.com or call 1-(416) 252-3704.
| The "Hidden Name" of one of our subscribers, who will receive one of our outstanding Video Seminars absolutely FREE, is Jean Fisher of Thomas Cook Travel in Vancouver, BC. Jean, please email Sharen Skene or call 1-(416) 252-3704 by September 15th to choose your FREE Donald Cooper Video Seminar. |
7. Think of how much you could learn from your front-line people!
(time to read this article is about 1 minute)
When we listen to our front-line people, two wonderful things happen. First, we learn from them and, second, we honor them. When we don't listen to our front-line people, two things also happen. We do not learn...and we dishonor them.
So, here's a gem of a simple questionnaire that we use with our clients that you can give to each of your staff who interact with customers in any way (or a representative sample of them, if you're a very large business). You can make it all pretty with your letterhead and stuff, but this is the guts of the questionnaire.
For a printable version of this article, click here. This is a Word document so that you can add your company logo and customize it for your own needs.
You will then want to tell them where to send their ideas and suggestions.
Give this simple tool a try. You'll be amazed at the results!
8. Get specific about your compelling competitive advantage!
(time to read this article is about 45 seconds)
For a printable version of this article, click here.
During a client interview last week I asked their VP of Marketing the one question that really matters. "What is your compelling competitive advantage? Specifically, if you were trying to convince me to be a customer, what would you tell me that would absolutely compel me to disrupt my life by switching to you?"
His answer was typical...and typically unspecific. He said, "We put the needs of our customers first." That reply is right up there with...
1. "We listen to our customers."
2. "We care."
3. "It's our service that makes us better." ...or,
4. "Nobody does what we do."
If you can't get more specific than that about your compelling competitive advantage, you probably don't have one. So, I said to him two simple words, "For example..." And he gave me three powerful examples of how they would put me first and how that would impact on my life...and I thought, "Now we're getting somewhere!"
Most businesses don't get specific about their compelling competitive advantage, either because they don't have one, which means that they're a commodity, or they do have something compelling to say, but they haven't figured out how to communicate it effectively.
By the way, a "competitive advantage" means something that's important to your customers, that you're doing that your competitors aren't, or aren't doing nearly as well as you are. Many of my clients list for me their competitive advantages and what I know is that all their competitors are doing exactly the same things, about as well. Or, clients list things that they do that no customer actually cares about. For example, Rolex makes a dive watch that's waterproof down to 10,000 feet. As a diver, you're pretty much dead at 200 feet, but your watch is still ticking. Who gives a damn?
So, realistically, does your business have specific and compelling competitive advantages that "grab" your target customers and add to your bottom line? If not, what will you do, in the next week, to start creating them and then, how will you communicate your compelling difference in everything you do? Trust me, you don't have anything more important to do in the next seven days than this!
9. Do your staff have to lie to you 64% of the time?
(time to read this article is about 40 seconds)
For a printable version of this article, click here.
According to a recent survey published in USA Today, only 36% of employees who phone in sick actually are sick. The remaining 64% are lying and hope that you won't notice.
Of the 64% who are NOT sick...
1) 11% just feel "stressed out".
2) 13% feel entitled to some extra time off.
3) 18% take the time for personal needs.
4) 22% use the time to deal with family issues.
What this tells us is that the current "time off work" arrangements in most businesses just isn't working. It puts employees in a position of lying about their absence 64% of the time creating suspicion, guilt, resentment and stress all around.
Realistically, in our busy society with a high percentage of families where both parents are working, one parent has to take the children to the orthodontist and at least one of them should attend certain milestone events in their children's lives. At the other end of the family spectrum, many of us need time off to help aging parents.
There's a real societal need for flexibility in the work place while still achieving both service excellence and operational effectiveness. Some progressive companies are now adopting a simple and creative solution by lumping together vacation days, sick days and personal time into one reasonable "time off pool" for each employee from which they can draw as they see fit, with no need to lie or even explain.
Why not sit down for two hours, with a small Task Force selected from your total team, to see what creative, flexible and workable solutions you can create to this work / life challenge. And, by the way, we'd love to hear from you about what you come up with. We'll pass your ideas on to help others. Just email us with the subject line "Feedback on Time Off Work article" at info@donaldcooper.com.
10. That's all for this month!
"Thanks" for all of your great feedback and suggestions! We especially love to hear of your successes using our insights.
Don't forget to visit the Free Articles section on our website for lots more valuable info on how to sell more, manage smarter and make more money in your business.
Also, let us know what you'd like to hear more about...or less about. And, do send us your stories and examples of great, horrible or just plain bizarre business practices than you find in your travels.
Finally, if you know of others, anywhere in the world, who will find value in this E-Newsletter, we'll appreciate your sending this along to them and inviting them to sign up at www.donaldcooper.com.
Kindest regards,
Donald Cooper, MBA, HoF
Certified Speaking Professional
Member, Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame
If this Newsletter has been forwarded to you from a friend or business colleague and you'd like to continue receiving our free business Newsletter, please click subscribe. If you'd like to remove yourself from our mailing list, please click unsubscribe. We apologize for any inconvenience this message may have caused.
|