Thursday, June 17, 2010

Why Good Service is Good Marketing

I was turned onto this article from Jim Brown (thanks Jim!). It is in Multi Channel Merchant Magazine. Very interesting information about tying Customer Service to Marketing!

Orlando, FL—Marketers who see no need to concern themselves with operational or customer service issues, take heed: Good marketing cannot compensate for a bad customer experience. Or as Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting put it during her Wednesday session at the National Conference on Operations and Fulfillment, “Customers remember the experience more than the marketing that leads to the experience.”

Which is why the marketing and operations teams need to, at the very least, communicate on a regular basis. Case in point: When Ellis was the COO of furniture cataloger Ballard Designs, the company order several hundred Star-Struck Santa decorations for the Christmas season.

Several months prior to December, Better Homes & Gardens magazine decided to feature the product in its December issue. The marketing team didn’t bother passing this information to the ops team, so when the magazine hit the stands, and instead of receiving several hundred orders Ballard Designs received some 2,000, it was unable to meet demand.

The marketing staff also needs to realize that in this era of social media, the order-takers, service reps, packers, and other back-end staff, all of whom are critical to ensuring a positive customer experience, are also critical to ensuring positive word-of-mouth.

Originally, Ellis said, the goal of the marketing department was to get the order. Now the goal is to get the order and get others in the marketplace to talk about the order positively.

“They’re looking at the product. They’re looking at the service. That’s what gets people talking,” Ellis said. “The marketing department is just like the operations department: You’re both packaging things. Marketing is packaging ideas. Operations is packaging products.”

To prove just how effective good service was as a marketing tool, Ellis shared some statistics from one of her clients. For its top customer segments, the company enjoyed a 10.7% response rate, a $73.47 average order value (AOV), and a $663.43 average lifetime value (LTV). Of those customers who’d had multiple problems with their orders that were not resolved satisfactorily, response, AOV, and LTV were, not surprisingly, significantly lower.

Among these top customers who had had no service issues, the response rate was 9.4%, the AOV was $72.38, and the LTV was $534.16. But of those who’d had issues that were resolved, the response rate was 12.9%, the AOV $82.54, and the LTV $1,125.02—all appreciably higher than the averages for even customers who had not had a problem with the company in the first place.

The point: By taking care of problems quickly and to the customers’ satisfaction, the company had proven itself trustworthy to those customers while making them happy. “And it’s really hard to get people to change [companies] when they’re happy,” Ellis said.

Monday, June 14, 2010

New Arena For HMC

We are extremely excited to announce a new business venture at Hasseman Marketing that will now allow us to do video events live! What does this mean exactly? It means that Hasseman Marketing will now be able to provide video services for live corporate events, band competitions, dance competitions, recitals, etc. and we can do so LIVE!

We are very excited about this new opportunity to serve our current clients, and attract new business opportunities as well. There will be more details to come on this exciting project. Please contact us if you have any quesitons about this new venture!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Small Business Optimism Increases

As 2010 nears its midpoint, a new survey shows small business owners are becoming more optimistic about their future prospects. According to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey, respondents reported improving sales and economic conditions at the start of the second quarter. “As consumer and business spending appeared to pick up pace, this bolstered small business owners' optimism around their current situation,” said Scott Anderson, Wells Fargo senior economist.

In April, the survey’s Small Business Index optimism score rose by five points compared to January, yielding a 10-point improvement compared to July of 2009. A separate measure, called the Present Situation Index, also improved in April, jumping seven points. The Present Situation Index is based on six variables, including capital allocation spending and credit availability. “In our latest survey, we see more small business owners describing their cash flows and current financial situation as good and higher percentages seeing an increase in revenues over the last 12 months,” Anderson said.

While most index factors improved consistently throughout the first quarter, the survey shows job hiring still lagged behind. According to survey data, 53% of business owners have recently maintained current staffing levels, only hiring as many employees as needed. Additionally, 67% of business owners say they have not increased weekly employee hours, with nearly 20% saying they continue to decrease hours. Business owners cited several reasons for not hiring more workers. Most notably, 65% of respondents said they had concerns about the potential cost of health care.

“Small businesses are critical to the health and strength of our economy, as they employ about half of the private sector workforce and create more than 60% of net new jobs annually in the U.S.,” said Doug Case, small business segment manager at Wells Fargo. “This has been a challenging period for small businesses. They are looking for assurance of an economic rebound before staffing for growth.”

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Great Special on Writing Instruments!

If you are looking for a great writing instrument to promote your business, then look no further than this great flyer!



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