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How Real-Life Local David Turned Tables on Large Chain Goliath

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By Nimish Thakkar

New York could easily be one of the most competitive marketplaces for restaurants. From small operations to large franchises, the food industry is clamoring for a share of the pie in what appears to be a “war for consumer appetites.” A large food franchise recently established its presence near our office. When the chain made a splash in the local media many business pundits were under the impression that a local Italian restaurant could soon be working on its exit strategy.

Their predictions were on the mark for a few months but were subsequently falsified. Since the past few months, lines at the local restaurant have been much longer than the franchise and their phone order pipeline appears to be expanding exponentially.

I have always been a netpreneur and the restaurant business is as alien to me as space exploration but when one keeps the knowledge radar tuned to the “sponge dimension,” surprising strategy lessons can be uncovered from the least expected sources. As an entrepreneur, I was naturally curious to understand how this real-life David overpowered a much larger and formidable Goliath.

My research provided some insights that are equally applicable to any business operation (online or offline):

Relationships are still the best marketing investment

When I visited the larger franchise, I was greeted by college students who were only too eager to ring the register as opposed to understanding my preferences or winning my long-term repeat business. At the restaurant, the scenario was just the opposite. The staff was keen on accommodating my needs and providing me with the best service and the most memorable experience possible.

On my second visit, the owner instantly recognized me and followed-up on a conversation from our previous meeting. What happened next surprised me even further. After the order, I gave him my credit card. Unfortunately, their credit card terminal was not working that evening. I offered to drive to the local ATM and pay cash but the owner graciously smiled and asked me not to bother. “You can come and pay me tomorrow. It is raining outside,” he said. I thanked him and returned the following day.

I shared the story with friends on my social network and won him some word-of-mouth publicity. Almost every customer that walks into that restaurant has something positive to say. Passionate customer orientation has enabled this mom-and-pop operation to transform customers into “walking PR machines,” a task that even the largest ad budget cannot replicate.

Lesson #1: Build a customer-centric business, focus on providing value, and go as far as you possibly can to build long-term relationships.

Showcase clear “differentiators”

During my first MBA class, one of my favorite marketing professors taught me a great mantra: “To be successful, be different.” I still implement his advice in all my personal and professional branding campaigns. It works.

Are you the best at delivering widgets within a 24-hour timeframe? Do your widgets offer something your competitors don’t? Are you at the cutting-edge of technology in a way your competition does not touch? Don’t keep this knowledge to yourself. Let your customers know how you stand out from the competition.

Reverting to the protagonist case study, the local restaurant had posters all over the place explaining how their food choices were different. They identified how their ingredients were healthier and sans any form of harmful chemical additives or preservatives. As a client, I would have never known this fact had it not been brought to my attention. Perhaps the franchise doesn’t use these ingredients either but their marketing literature doesn’t promote this information.

Lesson #2: Clients may not often be able to differentiate you from the competition. Instead of allowing them to draw negative conclusions, make the task easier by clearly demonstrating how your business is “different.”

Focus on generating positive reviews

“As millions of customers check online reviews before purchasing from any business, having a strong group of fervent customer advocates can go a long way toward building your business reputation and revenues,” says Vijay Kakkar, Small Business Owner and CEO of SaiTravel.com, a company that specializes in providing discounted travel fares.

The converse can be true as well. Dissatisfied clients can wreak havoc by writing vengeful reviews, posting bad experiences, and tarnishing your business image on social media.

Lesson #3: Turning your customers into “viral advocates” can do wonders for a small business.

Many local businesses host events, develop special contests, and leverage a myriad of viral marketing strategies to push their business success to the next level. A local non-profit organization hosts an annual charity event. In addition to the routine paraphernalia associated with these events, they have a sweepstakes contest where the first winner could claim an enviable portfolio of prizes. From blogs to social media, the prize descriptions invariably go viral.

Small businesses thrive on personal relationships and creativity. Transforming customers into passionate fans is the key to surviving in a hyper-competitive economic landscape.

Author’s Bio: Nimish Thakkar is the CEO of DontSpendMore.com, a site that helps consumers save hundreds of dollars every month. He is also the owner of ResumeCorner.com and SaiCareers.com.

How Internet Business Changes with Video Chat

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Jason Phillips

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What Offline Businesses Know

Small businesses have always been built on customer relationships. Strong relationships with your customers mean stronger stability for your business. Mom and pop stores on main street have lived off this truism for years and they continue to do so because so called brick and mortar businesses deal with customers in person every day. In many ways, customers are their business.

The Limits of Internet, Email, and Text

What internet businesses have forgotten, however, is that dealing with customers is their business too. That means that whatever Internet business you are in, dealing with customers is what you are all about.

Internet businesses, for all of their convenience and stocking capability, have always had been at a disadvantage from local brick and mortar businesses due to the lack of credible customer relationships. When a customer shops at a local business, they have the advantage of asking for a sales associate from behind the counter when they have a question or concern and a real person will show up and help them out. In addition, the customer and sales associate can build a solid relationship with each other over time. This means that if the customer is familiar with Jane because she was kind and helpful last week, he can come in the next week with his concern and ask for Jane again with a good reason to believe he will receive the same quality of service.

This kind of long term personal relationship model breaks down over the impersonal Internet.

Email and text chat have been the mainstay of customer support for most online businesses, but customers can’t connect to a user name the way they can connect to a face. For all the customer knows, a different representative could be using the same name each time and the customer would never know.

There is something about face to face communication that builds a connection between people that email and text can never do. While brick and mortar may have had the monopoly on this face to face personal touch to customer service in the past, video chat is quickly evening the playing field.

How Internet Business Changes with Video Chat

Have you ever noticed how a little baby will stare at your face for minutes on end while you hold them? This early staring at people’s faces is a developmental stage that is vital to all humans. This trains us to distinguish the thousands of different facial expressions and subtle emotions that are communicated through face to face communication. Text chat and email certainly can’t come close to this level of communication. And while voice communication provides the addition of voice inflection, it still comes nowhere close to the depth of communication achieved by face to face communication.

This is why video chat is vital to your online company’s customer service strategy.

The text based, impersonal and anonymous nature of the internet is changing under us with the advent of video chat. The internet is about to become a much warmer place because of the depth of communication now available between people.

The bottom line is that video chat is a great thing for your online business because it begins closing the gap between brick and mortar customer service and online customer service.

Make no mistake; this is going to be a challenge for some of us to get used to. After years of sitting, and maybe even hiding behind email and text, we are going to have to get back to the basics of good old person to person communication. We need to relearn good eye contact, good clear speaking and the elimination of all those “ums” and “ahs”.

Author’s Bio:
Jason Phillips shared this post. Jason is a freelance writer who enjoys the challenges of creativity and attention to detail. His articles on webcam chat are really appreciated by his readers. Jason always tries to provide unique and interesting content in his articles.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Words Matter

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Rosemary O’Neill

The Words Matter

The words you use every day surrounding your customers do matter.

Are you “driving eyeballs to a squeeze page?” Or how about “shutting down a trouble ticket?”

Used over and over again, these images start to permeate our corporate culture. And how do you think the “traffic” feels about being a tiny cell on your spreadsheet? Yes, they can tell.

Even the kitchen lunchtime conversation can have a long-term impact. Are you constantly hearing “war stories” about crazy or stupid customers? If you’re hearing that on a regular basis, it’s time for some vacation and re-thinking. Was that customer stupid to give you her credit card number?

Inject Positive Energy

The best way to address this issue is to start injecting different words and mental images into your daily conversations with colleagues.

Think of how beautiful Guy Kawasaki’s word “enchantment” sounds (and his book is full of good ideas). Instead of “trouble tickets,” what if you had “rescue missions?” What if you hung up photographs of your customers’ faces in your hallway?

Today, as you go about your business, try to capture the negative, destructive words and think of alternatives that uplift, inspire, and energize.

How do you talk about your customers when they’re not in the room?
Do your words matter to them and to you?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

How I Take the Focus Off Money Part II

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A Guest Post by Scott P. Dailey

dryhead

This is part two of a two-part series on how to get the client focused on the relationship, not the costs they incur working with you. In the first installment, I discussed how we can calm the fearful and financially strained Mom & Pop by offering them guarantees. Promising struggling small business owners that you’ll share the risk is one of the best ways to demonstrate your investment in doing the job right, not just collecting some quick cash. In part two below, I turn our attentions toward specifically how we can discuss money so that money is no longer discussed. Sounds like a riddle, but I assure you it’s not. So let’s get started.

I understand that the guarantee is among the best ways to return the risk the customer takes in hiring you and I love the idea of shouldering the burden of proof. But that is only one reason I make guarantees. The other is that I want to help. I really do and nothing says so louder than making promises that remove financial risks and potential losses from the bargaining table. See, I’m not preoccupied with the money part of the sales progression and it’s made all the difference. Yes, I need money too, but I only want it from people who were happy with the way I earned it. Everything else feels like stealing. I want to be paid because we agree that I nailed the thing. The fees I’m asking are the reward I’ve earned for adding value to your business endeavors. If my earnings aren’t my reward for doing great work, well then again it just ends up feeling like I got away with something.

The relationship is the reward.

When a customer asks me, ‘Scott, what do you think?’ or ‘Scott, which direction should we head?’ I get pumped. I mean I get crazy excited. Now we’re building something before we’ve even begun building the thing you want built. We’re building that relationship baby! Killer! When you put things in my hands, you’re telling me that you want me to prove it now, earn your trust, your confidence and oh yeah, that’s the reward!

Allay their fears.

If your clients are anything like mine, they’re asking for your expertise because they don’t possess it themselves. Ever been frightened by something you did not understand? OK then. That’s how your prospects often feel: scared. They’re afraid you’re going to trick them, cheat them, screw them. My pitches are often attended by prospects concerned about wasting money on me and I’m equally concerned that I won’t form the beginnings of a trusting bond if we keep discussing money. Consequently, when this happens I attack the topic by promising to give them back their money if they’re unhappy with the results I’ve produce. Simple right? It works almost every time too. Worried about spending your money on me? Super! I’ll give it back if you’re not happy with how I earned it. Next topic. And off we go.
Defuse with candor.

When the elephant in the room is money, seize the opportunity to demonstrate with meaning how confident you are that your customer made a smart decision choosing you. Don’t allow the customer to dangle their cost fears in front of you as if your fees are a stumbling block they’re justified in bring up. Assuming your fees are sensible to begin with, they’re not a just cause to kill the deal at all. Take back control of the room by offering an out that relieves them of the very risk they’re making such a contentious talking point. Assume the risk and you can return your collective attention to what really matters, getting that relationship a’ budding. Oh yeah! That’s the stuff!

How do you help your nervous clients work with you to grow the relationship? How do you relax them when they liken you to a drill-wielding dentist hovering over them like an opportunistic vulture?

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This is the second in a two-part series.

Scott P. Dailey is a Web designer, copywriter and network administrator. Recently Scott launched ( http://scottpdailey.com ), his social media blog that makes connections between social networking etiquette and the prevailing human social habits that drive on and offline business engagement patterns. You can connect with Scott via Twitter at @scottpdailey.

Creative Commons License photo credit: dryhead

Thanks, Scott!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

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How I Take the Focus Off Money

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A Guest Post by Scott P. Dailey

photo credit: RambergMediaImages

My portfolio is comprised largely of passionate, cash-hungry small shops, boutiques, niches and nonprofits. I do work with big companies now and again too, but they’re the exception to the rule and thus, I won’t be spending time talking about them in this post. No, this post is for the small consultancy that’s servicing the small, proud brick and mortar.

OK, so here it is: I guarantee my work. If I’m designing your Web site layout for instance, I take a 50% deposit that sits in escrow until you approve the layout and the balance you cough up once you’re 100% satisfied with the finished result. With Web design, my contracts call for me to create at least two unique layouts, put them both under your nose and get your approval of one of the two. I even offer you several complimentary rounds of change before requesting your approval. If you don’t approve, you get your money back. If you want to abandon the project before providing approval, you get your money back. I guarantee you’re going to love your new layout and if you don’t, I give back your money. If I’m writing copy for you, I refund your deposit if you don’t like my copy. And if your unhappy with the content of your first monthly SEO/social media report or feel I have fallen short on a promise, I refund your money – period.

My customers are very careful how they spend money on their business. Not so oddly, those deep in the black are even thriftier than those sucking wind. In the red or the black, my customers get sticker shock easily. I know this. So, where I may not always be willing to remove the stunned disbelief from their faces with a crazy discount, I do try to allay their spending remorse by making simple guarantees that protect their investment in me.

I don’t want your money that badly.

If you don’t think I’ve earned it, then I refund it. The relationship is the ultimate prize, not you paying this month’s electric bill.

How do you shift the client’s focus from money to forging a bond with you? How do you prove your customers won’t regret hiring you?

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This is the first in a two-part series.

Scott P. Dailey is a Web designer, copywriter and network administrator. Recently Scott launched ( http://scottpdailey.com ), his social media blog that makes connections between social networking etiquette and the prevailing human social habits that drive on and offline business engagement patterns. You can connect with Scott via Twitter at @scottpdailey.

Creative Commons License photo credit: RambergMediaImages

Thanks, Scott!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

The 10 Point Plan to Build an Internal Community of Brand Loyal Fans

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(Updated in 2020)

Community Starts at Home

During my years in publishing, I was a serial community builder. It seems that every job I took included “rebuild the department, refocus the vision” in the role. I’m fairly certain that those two challenges are what attracted me.

Even as a teenager, explaining the quest, translating the context, and helping folks bring their best to what they’re doing has been my natural response. I’ve always done that. Not that I’ve always done it well. Still the failures and successes of the past have taught me what moves people to trust in a vision and to join in to build something they couldn’t build alone.

So I was the one they hired

  • to rebuild the company and the strategy for growth six months after the company had laid off 40% of the previous employees.
  • to re-establish the department identity when it had grown too quickly and lost its role within the organizational process.
  • to build a cross functional team that could function with professional ease and confidence from a crew of new hires when the start up started growing.
  • to establish a winning brand and a high performance product / marketing team from a single product offer and a squad of contract workers
  • to lead an ad hoc SWAT team of 60 professionals to reconceive and bring to market a product in crisis (in 1/6 the time originally budgeted for development.)

Every one of those jobs was the best job of my life while I was doing it, because we built teams that made outstanding things happen. Who doesn’t want to work with people who are “in with both feet,” working at their best level, and having fun?

The 10-Point Plan to Build an Internal Community of Brand Loyal Fans

Now I’m working with two new clients that very topic close to my heart and my business. Both are asking how they might get their teams to “raise a barn” rather than “build a coliseum.” Both companies want a to build an internal community of brand evangelists the expands from team to team, from department to department that will spread from inside to outside their company’s “walls.”

We’re going to use traditional interviews, a social tool called a “histogram,” and tested, collaborative instructional design to build an internal community of brand loyal fans. Here’s a 10-Point Plan to build an internal community of brand loyal fans. It’s exciting to offer a program and a process that grew out of the of the working model we use every year at SOBCon.

  1. Articulate a clearly defined vision.
  2. Negotiate a leadership commitment to live that vision.
  3. Assess and benchmark the current status.
  4. Identify and enlist a core team of champions to lead the quest.
  5. Build a brand values baseline by gathering the values that drive the brand.
  6. Challenge the brand teams to condense and clarify the brand values baseline by talking them through with stakeholder and bring back less than 7 words.
  7. Align your brand values with your brand value proposition
  8. Engage the brand teams in identifying and collecting cultural stories, signs, and rituals that exemplify the values of the brand values baseline.
  9. Move the process outward training teams in — a leadership team that focuses on departmental quality and performance and communications through persuasion.
  10. Exhibit leadership commitment by investing regular time and resources to ongoing collaborative brand values conversations to build decision models, communication models, and performance / hiring standards that align with the brand values baseline.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about each step in the process. We will explore what each step is; why it’s important; how to put it into action; and how to know whether it’s working in the way you intended. Then we’ll talk about how to connect that internal community to the community of customers, partners, and vendors who help your business grow from outside.

Any questions?

READ the Whole 10-Point Plan Series: On the Successful Series Page.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash