Everybody is Nobody

How much time do you and your staff spend on trying to get everyone to come bowling? After the flier is made, what happens next? Do you speak to everyone who comes into the center? Do you go to businesses in the area and distribute fliers?

If you are trying to go after everybody, you are going after NOBODY and unfortunately that's who usually responds to your offer. With open play being soft this fall, you have to be more precise in your marketing effort and go after specific segments; groups of people who have a greater possibility to buy your product.

Here is an example. Suppose you are trying to build a weekday 9pm open play program. The prime candidates for that product would be the 18 to 34 audience with a core group of 21 to 25. To reach this group, we hope you have a data base of emails of former customers with birthdays. This should be your first line of attack. Second, put the offer up on your web site. Third, send a 4 color postcard to a mailing list of 18 to 34 yr olds; send it 2 or 3 times.

Fourth, listen to various radio stations or cable TV and see where the local bars are advertising; then buy radio or cable on those networks or radio station (call the local "bar who is advertising" and ask them if their advertising is pulling results. then contact the media people and get their input. make them prove who their audience is. Make them show you results from other advertisers and do NOT ever buy a schedule that gives you the whole day (ROS schedule). It is not a targeted campaign and you will be wasting dollars...big time.

You need to find the right person to spread the word, to carry your message, to love your program and willing to tell other people. If you don't discipline your business to target the right "someone", you might end up with no one...and that will be expensive.

Zappos for Bowling

THE ZAPPOS PHILOSOPHY

Finding the right people is difficult. Keeping them is even more challenging.
But, would you pay someone to leave your company?

This is exactly what Zappos.com does. Haven't heard of Zappos? They are an Internet retailer that sells shoes (even bowling shoes). They are known for their customer service. Internally they have a saying: "We are a service company that happens to sell shoes. And apparel. And handbags. And accessories. And eventually anything and everything."

Zappos offers $1,500 to anyone who wants to quit. The firm actually offers to buy their new employees out of their jobs. (Between 2-3% of the people accept the offer.)

You see, Zappos only wants people working there who want to be there. They have an incredibly successful company, and realize that it is not about selling "stuff," but creating an experience that people love. No matter how great their website is, or how great their products are, their people back up the entire customer experience.

According to Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, "...in addition to trying to WOW our customers, we also try to WOW our employees, and the vendors and business partners..." And, they do.

Zappos has created a culture that has employees saying, "I love working here." How do they do it? First, everyone knows the "mantra." Second, Zappos trains well. Third, there are really cool perks that WOW the employees. No, not the usual corporate perks. They have pot-luck lunches, bowling parties, haunted houses at Halloween, holiday decorating, karaoke, picnics, go-carting and much more. The culture is fun. Most important, they have an environment where people can just be themselves.

All of this is a lesson on taking care of your internal customers so you can better serve your outside customers.


ZAPPOS' CORE PHILOSOPHY IS:
1. Deliver WOW through service.
2. Embrace and drive change.
3. Create fun and a little weirdness.
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.
5. Pursue growth and learning.
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.
7. Build a positive team and family spirit.
8. Do more with less.
9. Be passionate and determined.
10.Be humble.

We Have Been Down This Road Before

We have been down this road before. Its early November and we are hoping the weather will turn and our open play business will pick up. So we send out a bevy of emails, direct mail, facebook and twitter communiques and maybe even use some traditional advertising and "hope for the best."

What if it doesn't pick up? What will you do now?

The answer is not simple but rather it involves the word "better". Better is relative. Are you better than your competition, better than you were yesterday or better than you expected?

The real better is to get "better customers, better prospects and find better people who believe in your product" and will buzz 25 other people about your product and how much fun they had at your center.

Customers who see the value of your product; customers who understand that it doesn't have to be cheap to be a good experience (In fact, it doesn't have to be cheap at all) are customers who are better. Simply because they are different. So stop treating all customers the same. Is there a gold level of service and appreciation for your most gold level customers?

Some of your league bowlers are better customers because they come to your center so often, and in their way, appreciate your facility and the fact that you are providing a quality recreation experience for them. The trick is to find those league bowlers that really love your product and cater to them; hug them if you have to! Just treat them differently.

League bowlers are hardly ever spoken to outside of a quick "how you doing?" When was the last time any of them spread the word for you? When was the last time they really invited some other person to bowl with them in another league or in their existing league? And if they did, did you know about it and thank them, reward them or show your appreciation for their effort? Do you know who they are?

There may also be some open play bowlers out there as well that are loyal and happy about your product. Find these people and find them now; treat them differently because they are better. Cater to them. Appreciate them. Love them

And stop worrying about the weather turning.

Ducks Quack - Eagles Soar

My friend and client Willis Johnson of the Tivoli Movie Chain in Downers Grove Illinois preaches customer service. His chain of movie theatres and his bowling center are the epitome of great service. If you get to Chicagoland, be sure to catch a movie in one of his theatres or go bowling at the Tivoli Bowl, a great little center that has a unique selling proposition . It’s called “hometown feel”. It doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. It reflects Willis’ personality. Straight to the point. No BS. What you see is what you get. So when he sent me this article, I just had to share it with you.

No one can make you serve customers well....that's because great service is a choice.
Harvey Mackay tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine.. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment....

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.' My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.' Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice..' Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today..'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts...

'Tell me, Wally, my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself.. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.
How about us? Smile and the whole world smiles with you.... The ball is in our hands!
A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up... let us do good to all people.
Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar.

Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.

Words To The Wise

Lately I have been falling a bit behind on some books. My Kindle has about 20 books on it (can hold 2,000 I am told!) and I have been reading three or four simultaneously. It makes for interesting multi task actions, but also one where, unlike hard cover books or paper back books,it requires a more focused approach to reading and understanding.

So with that in mind, here are some of my recent and favorite reads that I hope you will like.

1. "How To Sell When Nobody's Buying" by Dave Lakhani
If you have ever had to sell to a group of decision makers or just make some outside sales for your company parties or fund raisers, then this book is for you. It will also give you some very specific ways to up sell, down sell your prospects. Its an easy read on "adapting to newer strategies like social media or video presentations

2. Word of Mouth Advertising - How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz, Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin
The book is a quick read - 4hrs total, give or take, and it's packed full not only of WOM theory and a bit of history, but also with some concrete ideas from real WOM marketers and a checklist or two to boot. I love checklists!

3. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Ram Brafman
The Brafmans do an excellent job showcasing the irrational behavior all around us. Whether you're a doctor, venture capitalist, teacher, or even a college football coach, there are subtle psychological cues driving you to engage in irrational behaviors that can have a significant negative impact on your life. Reading the anecdotes, one might wonder 'how can anyone ever do that?' The book's close inspection of many different situations shows us that we all do it, and in fact, most of us are guilty of irrationality every single day. 'Sway' lifts the mystery behind these subtleties of irrational thinking and allows us to be more critical of ourselves so we can understand really what is driving the decisions we make day in and day out. It will provide an insight into some irrational customers you may face

Read On!

Maybe It's Me

Maybe its me.

I have been immersed for two days in email marketing, blog marketing, twitter and facebook marketing. Been up to my eyeballs in SEO, auto responders, linkages, and cross optimization. It's all great stuff. It's all good information and learning how to do it is absolutely essential for all of us. Or if we choose not to do it, to know what we want so we can hire someone to do it for us. No doubt it is a TACTIC that has become omnipresent.

Tactics are what we all love. We spend oodles of time on checking copy, art work, types of paper, music, scripts, web design, email templates, etc. etc. etc. And we love very minute of it because we can touch it and see it and hear it. Sometimes we even feel it and taste it.

It's the other stuff, before we get to the tactics, that we may be ignoring; its a 2 step process;

1. Approach: are you domineering or bossy or even authoritative. Or are you subservient, non confrontational? Do you get a lot of input from books? Do you test your gut and set up cells for that purpose? Are you ever wrong or do you ever admit it? Is your approach or rather your style a fundamental building block to the business you are in or contemplating? Choose a bad style and all the great tactics in the world go away.

Ever have someone say, "Man, this is a great business if it wasn't for the stupid customers." Now there's someone who will be on life support pretty damn soon!

2. Attitude: some people think this is the most important aspect of the plan because it indicates why you started the business, what you want from it, what kind of people you will hire and how you treat them both as employees and as people. it asks the fundamental question, "why are you doing this at all...besides the money?"

If we dance around these two building blocks and never reach a viable strategy, all the slick tricks, meta tags, embedded codes, auto responders, e-mails, templates and copy points, (with benefits and guarantees), will be merely window dressing if the direction we plotted is just plain wrong.

Translation: Mess up your attitude and approach and even the best tactics will fail, and fail badly.

When was the last time you had a strategy check up?

E Mail From Hell

With the proliferation of email, I find, and I am sure that you do as well, that our email mailboxes are stuffed every morning. In fact, even our spam boxes are filled with hundreds of unwanted emails that have to be cleared out. A bit of a pain, but we put up with it. Billions of emails are now floating out there in cyberspace, ready to hit your PC every micro-second.

So what's a government to do with all the complaints of "unwanted" or "spam" email. Easy, just a question of time before the government does what governments always do; they will tax email distribution or charge a fee for it. Think how that will help to DECREASE the deficit. Not! I guess there will soon be a US Department of Special Emailing Taxation that will be funded by the tax. The tax won't do anything, but it will make the lawyers happy because they will have another issue to litigate. No doubt, it will impact the big guys that send out 100,000 or more emails a day, but it will impact us too. Just a question of time, my friends, just a question of time.

But, and here is what mass email proliferation means for us; the honest email marketer, just trying to personally and economically communicate with people who gave us permission. It jades our customers. It makes them suspicious. It makes our business, the email provider, equally suspicious. Consumers will ask, "is it real or is it spam"? Consumers really don't remember who they gave permission to any more and as a result "open rates" on emails are less than 10%. LESS THAN 10%. (Some reports show email open rates at less than 5%) If you think this number is exaggerated, think about all the emails you deleter every day!

So, if you are counting on your email as a substitute for more traditional forms of advertising, you may be miscounting.

The fact is, a consistently layered approach that adds social networking, direct mail, postcards, letters, as well as radio and or cable TV (by the way because of the recession, media rates have gotten less expensive)to your marketing program is really the only way to go if you want the kinds of results you deserve!

If you want some creative solutions to these issues, give me a jingle at 212 867 2577 or my cell @ 516 359 4874 or comment or email me.

I won't hit the delete key.