The following is a reprint of an article that appeared on Research Access by Dana Stanley.  Read and ask yourself how YOU spell SATISFACTION Later this week I’ll be attending the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco.  I’m really looking covering this event for Research Access. Customer satisfaction (or CSAT) measurement is a highly specialized, but vitally important, part of the research world. Yet I think there are many researchers and marketers who aren’t terribly familiar with the ins and outs of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement. Here is a quick ABC guide to what you need to know about CSAT.

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Satmetrix  Satmetrix, known as the Net Promoter Company, is the firm that administers the Net Promoter methodology.

A

ACSIThe ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) is a methodology for measuring customer satisfaction.  It factors in the following variables:  customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaints and customer loyalty.

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TrackingCustomer satisfaction and loyalty are fluid; therefore, most measurement programs involve tracking scores consistently over time.

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IndicatorCustomer satisfaction is a leading indicator of business success; that’s why it’s so important to understand it and take action based on it.

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SCIThe Secure Customer Index is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology developed by D. Randall Brandt.  The SCI combines three elements – overall satisfaction, likelihood to continue using the service, and likelihood to recommend.

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FutureThe purpose of customer satisfaction research is to assess current attitudes toward a company in order to predict purchase behavior in the future.

A

Answering the Ultimate QuestionAnswering the Ultimate Question is a book by Fred Reichheld which outlines the Net Promoter methodology.

C

Calculating Your Net Promoter ScoreThe Net Promoter score is just what the name implies – the net of customers who are “promoters” minus those who are “detractors.”  The core Net Promoter question asks on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely a customer is to recommend the company to a colleague or friend.  The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of customers who give a score of 0 through 6 (“Detractors”) from the percentage who give a score of 9 or 10 (“Promoters”).

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TruthLike all research, customer satisfaction research is a search for truth.  There are different approaches, but the search for truth must continue unabated.

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IndexMost customer satisfaction methodologies yield an index; a single score which is easy for an organization to understand, and, importantly, can be the basis for positive action.

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Out of LuckFirms that ignore customer satisfaction altogether will soon find themselves out of luck.

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Net Promoter Net Promoter is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology, developed by  Satmetrix, Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.  The Net Promoter Score is obtained by asking customers about their likelihood to recommend a company to a friend or colleague. You can use this link to get a discount if you’d like to join me at the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco, February 1-3, 2012. I hope to see you there!

You’ve had a good year. You’re satisfied that you ran a decent sales and marketing strategy, and you’re about to wrap up your fourth quarter. But before you close your books and call it a day, ask yourself: Have you done all you can? It’s not too late to boost your sales, and meet — or even exceed– your sales quota before your year is done.

Boosting sales doesn’t require a monstrous budget. Nor should it be tedious. A little ingenuity, elbow grease, and fun alternatives are all it takes to get in there at the last minute, and turn your sales upside down.

Use these 9 steps to evaluate your sales strategy to quickly and easily shake up your sales slump!

Step 1: Have you contacted your customers lately?

You spent a great deal of time and effort perfecting your product or service so that it meets the demands of your intended audience. But are they aware of it? Have you sent direct messages to your customers, community or fans, offering them your solutions to their problems or needs? Don’t just sit back and wait for them to contact you; by using newsletters, three-dimensional lumpy mailing pieces, postcards, or even letters that contain a clear call to action, you can subtly remind your customers to buy your product or service.

Step 2: Do you have all the customers you need?

Telemarketing has become a dirty word in the world of sales but it doesn’t deserve its bad warp. After all, how would your prospective customers know that you have what they want, if you don’t tell them? Be persistent but courteous. And forget about making the sale right there and then. Instead of thinking of the direct call as an anxiety-promoting activity, think of it as an informative call. Tell your potential customers about your product or service and let them decide if it’s right for them. Even if they pass it up, they might have someone else in mind to whom they can refer you.

Step 3: Have you incentivized your customers to bring you new ones?

When they are happy with your product or service, your customers are your best salespeople. Do not squander their goodwill without maximizing on the potential. Ask them to refer you to their friends and family, and make it worth their while. Tying the sale to the referrer is key; it can be an elaborate set of promotion codes, business cards with a tie-in to your customer, or even as simple as a verbal confirmation such as “Joe told me to get this”. Make sure to reward your customers for the referral and they will be more likely to do it again.

Step 4: Have you targeted high-volume prospects?

There are natural pairings for your product or service out there in the community. Have you identified companies, associations, or large communities that would benefit from your product or service? With a simple gesture such as creating an offer specifically for them, or a more elaborate endeavor such as a webinar or teleseminar, you could get these potential big fish to promote your business for you. You create all the sales and marketing materials and they send them to their customers, exponentially increasing your targeted audience.

Step 5: Have you thought of joint ventures?

Closely related to the strategy of reaching out to your community is the idea of reaching out to other businesses for a product or service companion. Have you looked for a product or service that complements yours and can be offered as a part of a bundle? Partnering with brands that already have a distribution channel to your target audience insures that your product or service is distributed, or at the very least, marketed to your potential customers.

Step 6: Have you created a trigger event?

There is nothing that drives sales like a trigger event where your product or service can be put to good use. For example, if you want to sell more flashlights, create a “Thousand Points of Light Day” or a “Safety Day” where people are encouraged to have at least one working flashlight on hand. Invite your local law enforcement officers to demonstrate safety skills at your event. You can even invite your local preschoolers to sample your most colorful models.

Step 7: Have you run a contest yet?

People like to win free stuff. They will go out of their way to win something free, even if they don’t need it. No matter what your product or service is, you can create a contest for people who use it to submit all the creative ways that they have put your product to use. From “naming a new product” to “picking a new color”, you can also involve your customers in your product development. The more vested they are in the selection of new products, the more they are likely to buy the finished version.

Step 8: Are you using social media?

People are flocking to social media by the hordes. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are showing mind-boggling increase in users almost on a daily basis. Are you taking advantage of the potential of this marketing phenomenon? Your customers are getting savvy at finding good deals on the internet. Share with them insider information reserved specifically for the medium, and make it worth their while to look you up.  Engage your existing customer in a conversation about the value and benefits they’re experiencing with your product or service. You may pitch or sell directly on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, but be wary of angering your audience by being too aggressive or obvious. To make best use of social media, think of it as a referral tool that can reach millions in a relatively short amount of time (and at very little cost).

Step 9: Are you thinking creatively enough?

Thinking outside the box is what innovators do. Thinking outside the conventional marketing box is what good salespeople do. They see a need where there isn’t any and create a promotion to address that need. So go ahead, think big. Go on tour, like a rock band! Contact influencers in your industry and ask them to feature you (and your product or service) as part of their business for a day, or a week. This will be the perfect opportunity to answer questions, give advice, and build interest in your product or service. And once you have the sales and marketing information created for the occasion, disseminate it at other venues off the beaten path.

Whether your business is small or big, your selling-cycle short or long, you can apply these sales strategies all year long, not just wait for the doldrums of the year-end last minute countdown. Today’s technology makes every one of these strategies cost-effective and time-sensitive. Some of them require very little effort and planning, others can benefit from a little forethought in organizing and implementing. The good news is that, with a minimal amount of effort, all of the abovementioned strategies can lead to a more creative and meaningful way of conducting your business.

Boosting sales doesn’t have to be a chore, or an unthankful task. If you think of it as a game, a creative undertaking which sparks your imagination and adds fun to the job at hand, you will be surprised by how much you can still surprise yourself.

In a perfect world, everybody will do what we want them to: our kids will brush their teeth the first time we ask them to, do their homework, keep their rooms tidy, and keep their curfews; our parents will listen to our advice; our friends will stop their horrendous habits; our spouses will remember their promises.

In a perfect business world, our customers will do what we want them to do: they will notice our advertisements, will read our direct mail, and will take the calls of our salespeople. In short, they will buy what we sell them.

We all know that perfect worlds don’t exist. In this imperfect one, words are often unheard, misconstrued, or forgotten. They are not tangible; they are by their very nature ephemeral. Messages, however interesting or important, get lost all the time.

So what do you do then to keep your message alive? The problem is that conversations, sales pitches, and sales calls are all words. They disappear as soon as you’ve said them and quickly thereafter, they are forgotten as if they never existed! The solution is to get your words to stay permanently in the minds of your customers. How do you do that? You structure your marketing communication strategy in a way that keeps your message alive in the minds of your customers, employees and everyone else with whom your business interacts. And the way to do that is with a strong but simple mission statement that resonates with your audience, long after their first exposure to it. Successful companies are the ones who have understood this mandate and have created a straightforward message to understand and to build a sales and marketing system around.

How to develop a strong but simple mission statement:

FedEx gets it there overnight. Brown delivers. Domino’s gets you a pizza in 30 minutes or less. Twitter messages are 140 characters. If I said “just do it” you would immediately think of Nike. These are all easy messages to remember and easy messages to build a promise around. Your message or conversation has to THAT easy.

But don’t let the simplicity of this directive fool you. It is the hardest thing to achieve. To boil down the essence of your business into a few words, to convert complicated feelings and complex concepts into a few words is very difficult.

There are essentially three steps to developing a strong mission statement that succinctly tells your customers, employees and all others what you are all about.

Step 1: Brainstorm

Start brainstorming about inner conversations you are having about your business, conversations you are having with your employees, conversations your customers are having with you, in essence, all conversations around the circumstances surrounding your product or service. Harness the power of group brainstorming, they tend to be very productive.

Don’t take shortcuts, this is an important step, and anything and everything might be important. Let it all hang out!

Step 2: Make a collage

In this step, you will move the message from thoughts and words to objects. Take all the words you’ve collected when brainstorming and bring them together on a blank canvas (or white board). Supplement them with quotes relevant to your business. Cut out pictures or sayings that are pertinent. The idea is to get all your thoughts and feelings, and as many as you can get from your team and your customers and to put them physically in the same place (emphasis on physically), visually representing all abstract concepts.

Leave the board alone for a while and come back to it whenever you remember or find something new. This is the stewing process; let it take its time.

Step 3: Translate the collage into an abridged message

Now that you have everything you need visually available to you in the same place, the real work starts. You can start by eliminating duplicates. Next, narrow down your choices by matching questions to answers. Use features that your product or service offers as solutions. Be sure to note any physical objects that pop out – something that your customer can see, smell, touch, and relate to.

Be sure to follow the following guidelines:

• Keep it simple: The human mind best grasps concepts in a maximum of 7 parts (7 digits, 7 words, etc.) Your verbal message must adhere to this. Your visual message must similarly be easy to grasp and free of clutter. A basic web page with a clean design is the most engaging and pleasing to the eye. Good examples are Mint.com, Nimble, and 99Designs.
• Use straight talk: Don’t confuse your customers in a misguided attempt to show off. Your goal is to communicate and engage them in a conversation about your product or service, don’t turn them off by using technical jargon or demonstrating to them about how smart you are. Mint.com is again a good example at this; they make the scary and highly technical world of finance easy and fun, turning it almost into a game.
• Go 3-D: When FedEx delivers your package the next day, the FedEx message is physically attached to an important object – your package. You can create the same effect by using meaningful three-dimensional marketing. Make your message memorable, even outrageous. The book Outrageous Marketing has hundreds of creative examples of how you can differentiate your message from your competition (sending season ticket order forms in a box with a dressed up rubber chicken is particularly inspired).
• Do the unexpected: Use blogs, social media, and events to remain in contact with your customers. But try the unexpected too. Instead of emailing back, occasionally write a personal handwritten note to show your customers that they are important to you. Partner-up with a complementary brand, support a charity your customers care about – be in places that will surprise them and engage their interest.

Don’t get frustrated with your customers because they are not listening; take the responsibility and make sure that they hear you. When you deliver a strong and simple mission statement, they will respond to your message in ways that will surprise you.

If you are like most companies out there selling engineered products and equipments, you probably have already made the smart choice of starting your own website. That’s great, but is it enough? A static catalog that offers just a little information about your industrial or manufacturing products or services is like an untapped resource. It’s like a 2-D movie playing in a 3-D theatre, in other words, a wasted opportunity. The question is why are you squandering this marketing goldmine when a few budget-friendly changes are all that is needed? Isn’t getting (and keeping) customers the most important process for your company?

Your customers want to use your website. Why aren’t they? Lack of want, or need, are not the reasons. You may have inadvertently formatted your website to be more of a corporate presence, better suited to target investors rather than buyers. Most companies think that they don’t have the time to invest in optimizing their website, or think that their product is too technical to be fully marketable on the internet. But ignoring this readily available (read cheap) asset is a mistake you can no longer afford to make.

Consider implementing these four simple steps and you will be well on your way to harnessing the potential of the internet, the most versatile marketing medium available today.

Step 1: Review your marketing goals and set up your parameters

What is the function of your website? The answer is simple: to attract potential customers and keep your existing customers interested in your products and services. Before you make over your website, you need to decide up front on a few key marketing issues, such as:

• How many visitors do you want to attract? How many of those visitors do you want to convert into leads and ultimately customers? These projections are necessary to set up your marketing goals, and therefore, your budget.
• How is your website doing now? What is your traffic like? Who are your current visitors? If you don’t have this info, you’ll need to set up Google Analytics on your website so you can get a baseline for what it is currently doing. This in turn will help you make appropriate decisions to the needed improvements to your existing data.
• What kind of web platform do you need? Consider an open-sourced and customizable web software like WordPress. It’s free and very popular with bloggers. If you don’t want to deal with the technicalities in-house, there are literally thousands of WordPress designers who can create any kind of site you desire. Best of all, it’s easily optimized for search engines.

Step 2: Start with small changes that have the maximum impact

• Buy keyword rich domains names:  It’s surprising how many manufacturers own and have trademarked their company name but don’t own the domains to the widgets they produce. What product do you manufacture and for what industry? Make a list of all the keywords used in your manufacturing field and check if their equivalent domains are available, then buy as many as your budget allows. You do not have to maintain a multitude of websites; you can simply roll the domains to your main website and have all traffic directed at these keyword-rich domains funneled to yours.
• Speak directly to your target audience: Highly technical information may not be the best way to greet your potential customers. Unlike B2B sites which focus on the company and the product they provide, focus yours on the customer and the problem you are helping them solve. Creating headlines that focus on the people who will be landing on your website, and speaking to them in the simplest language possible, helps ensure that they are engaged and motivated to continue exploring your website.
• Maximize each visit: After all the work you’ve done to get them there, don’t let your visitors leave without capturing their information. A very easy way to do this is to use a lead generation form. Give your visitors information for which they will happily give out their email or contact information, for example highly valued downloads like ebooks, ecourses, or newsletters. Place your lead generation fold above the fold and use catchy phrases like “GET YOUR FREE EBOOK”.

Step 3: Add more substantive content to your website

• Write a blog: Don’t let the name fool you, blog articles and posts are simply advertisements and educational advertising pieces that answer the question “Why should you buy my stuff instead of the other guy’s?” in a more reader friendly form.  Write articles with headlines such as “HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST WIDGET” or “10 TELL-TALE SIGNS THAT IT’S TIME TO REPLACE YOUR WIDGET”. Your blog will help you showcase how you have solved common problems in your industry, and specific attributes about your products or services that illustrate your brand’s competitive advantage over your competition.
• Create an online video: If a picture paints a thousand words, videos speak volumes. This makes them very powerful marketing and educational tools. Create videos that demonstrate your product but from the customer’s perspective; they will help you feature your products while simultaneously addressing common frustrations experienced by your customers so that you can show them exactly how your products solve them.  A portable HD camera such as a Kodak Zi8 has the right quality fit for the web.
• Create online guides: Similar in concept to that of a blog or a video, an online guide is just another way to showcase your technological edge over your competition. Because online guides are keyword-rich documents, they serve the triple purpose of SEO optimization, substantive content, and advertisement, all in one 3,000 word document. Fill your guide with tips, ideas, recommendations, and resources that will make your buyers’ life easier and they will thank you for it.

Step 4: Dress up your website with discrete professional and aesthetic touches

• Get high quality logo and graphics: Your website should feature a clearly visible logo or your company name so that your visitors know exactly where they are within a few seconds. The preferred location is in the upper left hand corner, because people read their computer screens from left to right. Having a high quality logo graphic to complement your company name adds a professional touch to your website, as well as keeping it aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
• Create a favicon: A small graphic touch that pays back hugely in brand recognition is the little it-thing called favicon. It’s that little graphic icon that appears next to the URL when you bookmark a page. The small but effective favicon will set you apart from other sites who are not using them; it will be like your website is wearing a tie – it’s not necessary, but it will show the world that you are serious about your company’s image.
• Add pictures: To give your website the extra oomph as well as maximize space usage, consider using customized backgrounds that display key features or distinctive (read: the sexy) attributes of your product. The idea is not to fill up every spare inch with clutter, but to subtly, contextually, imprint your product and your brand visually on your visitors. If your design format allows, consider running a video of perhaps customer testimonies or interviews.

The idea is to keep it simple, keep it succinct, but keep it interesting. Then step back and watch your website turn into a new customer generating magnet!

A recent article by Dana Stanley looked at an excerpt from an interview with Tiffany McNeil of Del Monte Foods regarding her process for selecting the right MR firm for a given job. Stanley’s article – How Not To Get Market Research Clients – basically presents that excerpt. After reading it, I think there’s something more to be said, not only what not to do, but what firms should do.

Let’s start with Stanley’s article on what you shouldn’t do. McNeil’s advice is this—don’t leave a message, don’t cold email. Not only are people in her position flooded with them, but on a personal level they make McNeil feel guilty for not replying, which isn’t the way any business relationship should start (if one starts at all). She goes on to say that when she’s looking for a new firm, the first thing she does is ask around. Word of mouth is the most powerful tool in the industry, and once she has a few companies on her radar, they’ll reach out to whomever they think can do the job.

But what if you don’t have that word of mouth? How do you go about getting people like McNeil to notice you in the first place? Knowing what the client doesn’t want you to do, what, then, do you do?

Here’s where we can add to Stanley’s article. Earlier in the interview, McNeil talks about some of the things she likes about the firms she’s worked with. What she really likes—and what she says are in short supply—are firms that go the extra mile in follow-up collaboration on a project, not those who pour their energies into getting a contract and peter out after they do. Having someone ‘smart and engaged on the other end of the phone’ make for the best partnerships.

So when McNeil goes on to talk about word of mouth, this is something like what she means. Further, she gives the example of a project where she needed a really smart analytics team. One company she named she’d heard about at a conference, as well as seen on a list published by Greenbook blog. McNeil said her company reached out to them, and here’s why—she knew what they could do.

Here’s the takeaway—companies will hear about who they need to hear about. Keep your firm’s defining specializations in focus. Go to conferences, contests, and client meetings with these things in mind, and deliver, and word will get around.