Friday, July 2  

Publicity, reciprocity and service

Give and you will receive
I'm a star!
Give yourself plenty of time

Hello.

Mel and I played some clients (Ross and Karen) yesterday in Night Golf and then went out for dinner later. They're a lovely couple and we get on well. We played 9 holes for $1 a hole and, although I don't want to blame anyone (!), it was Mel's fault we lost!

Today, Ross called to let me know he was speaking with a person in his industry who wanted a web site. Ross said he mentioned my name and told the guy he would get me to ring. So I'll follow that up on Monday.

On the way back to the office I called into a client's factory to pick up some products of theirs for a product shoot. The client handed over $190 worth of product and said "When you've finished give them to your daughter, I'm sure she would love them!"

2 things happened in the same day that continue to prove one of the great laws of the land. The law of reciprocity.

When you do nice things for people without any obligation, they feel like they have to reciprocate in some way.

Your motivation is everything

It's probably important here to say that we aren't nice to our clients just so we get more work or free stuff! We do it because we are trying to add value to their experience with us and because they are just plain nice people and we're happy to help.

I think if you faked it, it would be pretty obvious.

On with the shoe....I'm famous

I'm famous! It's about damn time I made the pages of one of Australia's leading celebrity magazines! After all, I'm gorgeous, controversial, talented.....did I mention gorgeous???

If you in Australia, do the following:

* Rush out and buy Who magazine
* Turn to page 51 & 52 - it's a 2 page spread article titled "Tycoon in a T-Shirt."
* Don't worry about reading about my client or looking at the pictures, this is about me, me, me!
* 2nd column, 6th sentence down - read those next 3 sentences!!
* Am I famous or what???!

Okay, maybe not.

One of the clients we manage is featured in Who magazine and I get a very small (okay, microscopic) mention in the article as the guy who manages him and I get quoted saying

"...(Herald's approach) is no fluff. He's got a very conversational style. People love him because he's so approachable."

Just a small mention (and the business name wasn't mentioned). But being a decent sized feature plenty of people have read it and it's generated 4 calls to me for this guy to speak (he is a business success who now does a lot of public speaking).

Amazing what a little bit of positive publicity can do.

Come on, lie to me. It's what I want.

Speaking of media, I subscribed to one of the media databases we use yesterday. It costs quite a few bucks to be a subscriber ($500) and for that I become the proud owner of a password that gets me access to the online database.

When I subscribed again (online) the system spat me out an email saying I would have my password emailed to me within 24 hours (but if I had ordered after 4pm it would be the next day - I ordered at 9.30am).

That's fine. No biggie for me. They manually process the credit cards to be sure they are paid and then shoot out the passwords. Fine.

But it wasn't fine.

I was waiting on the password so I could get access and assumed it would be sent first thing in the morning after it didn't arrive by the time I went home yesterday. Again, no biggie.

By midday today it hadn't turned up.

So I rang this place and the person on the phone said:

"I haven't processed the cards yet. I'll do it now and email the password. You'll have it within 1/2 hour."

And it didn't arrive. About an 1 1/2 hours later it showed.

That's pretty poor for one very good reason.

That business doesn't have the systems in place to consistently do what it promises.

If the systems you have in place will provide the result within 24 hours 100% of the time, tell your customer whatever it is you do will be completed within 48 hours. Give yourself plenty of time to get the job done and allow for any little problems that may crop up.

That way you'll exceed 100% of your customer's expectations.
They'll think your smart, effective, efficient and trustworthy.

And if someone rings up and has a whinge when you don't do what you've promised, then fix it immediately (i.e. drop everything you are doing). And provide a little something special - maybe a box of chocolates with a "Thanks for helping my business get better" note.

Okie Dokie. That's it for tonight. I'm off to the movies to see Troy.

3 things to take away here I hope:

# 1 Be nice to your clients - they'll return the favour
# 2 Get yourself a media strategy - it's free, easy and can provide huge results
# 3 Ensure your systems are in place to deliver consistent results - then give yourself plenty of get the job done, so that you a) cover for any mishaps, and b) exceed their expectations every single time.

Have a good night and a good weekend. And stop spending so much time in front of your computer screen and go for a walk, to a movie or to the pub!

Cheers

Brendon