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Tag: business success
Customer Service: The Foundation of Business Success
Customer Service is So Out of Your Lane, Why Are You Talking About It?
I am sure you are all thinking right now, why is this guy talking about customer service? Why not write about branding or social media or stories? Stick to what you are good at, right?
So to those questions, I have three answers:
- If you think that social media and branding have absolutely nothing to do with customer service, you are sadly very much mistaken.
- If you think that client relations is not customer service, you are in for a rude awakening.
- I am good at customer service. I am freaking amazing at customer service. It is one of my strengths, and it is very much in my lane.
So, Let’s Talk Customer Service?
I am talking about customer service because without customers (or clients) your business will close. If you aren’t marketing with customers in mind, your business will fail. Not treating your customers like family, the family that you like, then you are going to have a significant issue on your hands. Remember, the marketplace is more crowded than ever. Customers have more choices than ever before, and if you are not treating them like they matter, they will be gone. No matter how large or small your business, you need to be adding value. You need to surprise and delight your customers every single chance you get. From the first time, they contact you on social media, right to the 750th cup of coffee they buy from you. Every experience needs to give them a reason to come back.
The Customer Journey
Is it the first time you are coming in contact with the customer? What stage of the customer journey are thin? What have they heard about your business? From reviews to social media, to experts and peers impressions of your brand. A customer may have heard of your business name 30 times and gotten 15 good stories and 15 negative ones before they even contact you. As a business, you never know. Every single time I see an oversimplified version of the customer journey, I want to scream. Don’t get me wrong; the stages are valid. Their thoughts and experiences at specific stages in the buying process are essential to know so you can deliver the right message, content, and so that you understand the process. My problem is, no customer journey looks like this:
If the customer journey were that simple, all businesses would be able to control the variables, eliminate the guesswork, and get customers from awareness to retention in 5.2 seconds flat. Seriously, these customer journey charts make it look like a walk in the park. But in the real world, the customer journey is littered with land mines, lobbed grenades, and all other sorts of marketing shrapnel. Because realistically the customer journey could look like this.
Why Does It MatterThe second diagram is more representative of the modern-day customer journey. Not as easy to map, not as easy to react to and about 100 opportunities for customer service to impact whether or not they decide to buy. If you look at the journey in the way that is represented in the second diagram, you realize how important it is for everyone in your organization to be on the same page. From customer service to social media, to call centers. If one hand isn’t telling the other one what it is doing, you are destined to have customer service issues that will cost you sales.
If the overall customer experience is not a positive one, they are less likely to begin doing business with you. People like to feel good, make them feel good every step of the way.
Customer Service and Profit
Do you believe that this statement is true? To be profitable, you must compromise on the service you provide.
Many companies operate in this manner, compromise the customer experience to save some money. Not everyone believes that the customer is
always right. Many companies don’t see the value in making sure that the customer is delighted. This is a detrimental flaw in their culture and will lead to their demise. An American Express survey found that 78% of consumers have backed out of a transaction or failed to make an intended purchase because of sub-par customer service. Customers have options; if they are not satisfied with you they will move onShow Your Customers You Care By Adding Value
Companies that value the overall customer experience are those that are successful. The only sure-fire strategy to maintain your market share is to build your policies and procedures with your customers’ interests at heart. Provide value to every customer. It doesn’t matter if they stop on your social media page, enter your store, or visit your website. Everyone should leave feeling like their experience with your company added value to their day. Be proactive, anticipate problems, provide solutions, and meet them where they are. It is your customer’s world, and you are just living in it.
More to the Foundation
Yes, what I have already mentioned represents a strong argument for making customer service the most critical thing in your business, but I have more for you. There are integral parts of this foundation like customer service is representative of the culture in your industry. Issues caused by poor service may be a symptom of more significant problems in your organization. Or the fact that lousy service leads to bad reputations which lead to customers choosing other businesses to meet their needs. Failure to keep the customer service foundation stable will lead to significant issues within the organization.
Bad Service Is What People Remember
Customers will remember and talk about the negative customer service experiences much more than the positive ones. Every negative customer service experience can potentially lose you as many as ten customers. Every negative experience can hurt your reputation, and a lousy reputation can destroy your business. You need to get it right every time to avoid a damaged reputation. Training your employees and hiring people who believe that the customer experience is the most important task at hand will help make this part of your culture. Anticipating issues and proactively solving them as well as educating and informing your customer base can go a long way in preventing negative customer interactions.
Excellent Service Strengthens Your Brand
Hey, look who is back in his lane! How you treat your customers is directly related to your brand. Poor service and a customer may choose another brand over you. Conversely, if you are well known for delivering a fantastic customer experience throughout a customer’s journey that may be what causes people to choose you over your competition. When everything else is equal, customers and clients are much more likely to choose a business that delivers a great experience.
How You Do One Thing, Is How You Do Everything
Sloppy? Poor communication? When somebody sees the way you do something, they assume you do everything in that manner. Therefore, allowing for poor customer service in your business tells customers that you may not have the highest standards. It leads them to assume that maybe your products aren’t the best, or perhaps the food you serve in the cafe is not prepared under the proper conditions. Sure, one negative situation, maybe a crisis averted, but that same crisis will arise again if you do not address the root of the issue.
Customer Service Issues Can Signal A Larger Problem in the Organization
Many times customer service issues arise as a symptom of other problems in an organization. I still believe that people are inherently good, and when given the tools necessary, and under proper conditions, they want to make other people happy. Poor service many times is a sign of inadequate training and poor communication in a business. Other times it is a result of employees not being empowered to make decisions. Or a management team that is reluctant to participate in the daily operations of a business.
Make Informed Decisions By Talking To Your Team
If things have been going great, and then suddenly you see a rise in complaints look at the changes in your organization. What roles are different? Were associates not trained on specific procedures? Are there open lines of communication? Or are people unaware of policy changes? Engage your staff and ask for input. Listen to what they have to say. Many times employees will tell you what they perceive to be the problem, and they may be 100% right. Even if your employees don’t see the issue in the same way, they will appreciate being consulted. No matter what, don’t just ignore the problems.
When Service is Great Things Are Just Better
When you treat your customers like family, they will return the favor. You will be less likely to have angry customer issues, complaints about the operations of your business, and fewer lawsuits. Because when you treat your customers right, you are opening the lines of communication and allowing for the flow of ideas. Your clients and customers are much more likely to approach you to discuss issues rather than resorting to other alternatives. Treat your customers poorly, and you can almost be sure that you’ll run into problems at one point or another. They don’t have a connection with you, they don’t know your story, and they don’t care if you succeed or fail.
Delighted Customers Leads to Advocacy, and Social Proof Money Can’t Buy
When you provide a delightful customer experience, from start to finish, Across all avenues for every customer, client, and audience members. You will begin to see people pinballing through the customer journey into the advocacy phase. With some people arrive at the advocacy stage quicker than others. It may take more time to earn the trust of other customers. But continue to deliver the same positive experience, and they will reach the advocacy phase as well.
What is magical about the advocacy phase is your clients and customers are doing some of the marketing for you. In our blog and webinar on social proof, we highlighted the power of a brand advocate. Someone who writes reviews or recommends your business to peers is proof that you are practicing what you preach and delivering value to your clients. It is a big win for your business so keep up the excellent work. And don’t forget, to keep the trend of positive proof going by using the great reviews and testimonials in your marketing.
Keeping Customers Is Cheaper than Attracting New OnesRemember those profits you were protecting by settling for mediocre service; you can say goodbye to those right about now! Another reason customer service needs to be the foundation of your business is that keeping a customer is cheaper than attracting a new one. Once a customer purchases with you, they are more likely to continue to use your services if you continue to meet their needs. Keep in mind that those needs include being treated with respect and continuing to see value in the relationship.
Attracting new clients requires a business to attract leads. Engage those leads and provide them more value than the competition. Hopefully, a high percentage of those leads are converted to replace the customers you lost due to poor customer service experiences. And if the cause of the negative experiences is unresolved, you will continue to lose customers you acquire. Keep your clients when you delight them with a fantastic customer experience. Then build your business when you receive new clients not just maintain the status quo.
Customer-Centric Businesses FTW
When your business is customer-centric, it will make sure that the experience every customer has is a positive one. Your people will go above and beyond to deliver the service that your clients expect. You will anticipate and resolve potential problems making the lives of your customers better. And you will see growth as you retain clients, move customers into the advocacy phase and continue to add value. The only path to business success is having a customer-centric business, and doing all that you can to make every decision with the customer experience in mind.
Branding Workbook: 9 Brand Components
Creating Your Brand Is Not Easy
Are you in the process of brand building? It is overwhelming, isn’t it? There are so many things that you want to say. So many services that you offer and they are all to solve problems that are loosely related. Or you are offering an alternative to the status quo. It doesn’t matter it feels like it is going to be impossible to get all of this into 10-15 words that speak clearly about your brand! It is not impossible, many have done it and you can as well. We created the “9 Components of Brand: Branding Workbook” to help you get organized and break you “brand” into pieces that you can manage and help you work up to the big picture.
For more information on Brand, click here
What Exactly Is Brand
Remember that a BRAND is not your logo. It is not your identity and your BRAND is not something that can be sold. Brand is moments, memories, sights, sounds, tastes and smells. It is a gut feeling that a person has about your business. A BRAND is emotional because humans are emotional and they make decisions based on feelings. Therefore, your brand is not what you say it is… it is what your audience feels it is. You have to make your audience feel something. What are you going to make them feel?
For more information on Brand Storytelling, click here
Getting the Most Out of the Branding Workbook
In order to get the most out of the Branding Workbook, you should set aside time to work on each of the activities, time that you can focus on just the topic at hand. Be completely honest with your answers. Make sure that you are realistic with your strengths and weaknesses so that you aren’t building your brand on false pretenses. As you proceed through each component in the workbook, take a look back at the previous components and see if they align with one another. If they don’t think about why that is the case and how you may reconcile those differences as you continue to develop your brand and brand story.
Most importantly, be open and honest with yourself about why you decided to do what you do and why it matters to your audience. Your “why” is the foundation for all the other components, if you aren’t honest with this then your brand will forever fail to be authentic. Branding is an iterative process, you won’t complete this workbook and have the perfect brand statement immediately, but you will get there. What you will have is a better understanding of all the components you should take into consideration when working on branding your business.
What Are the 9 Components?
- You
- Your Competition
- Your Differentiators
- The Audience
- Your Business Personality
- Your Story
- How you React In Crisis Situations
- Your Vision (Goals, Plans and How You Communicate them)
- Perceived Authenticity
You Are the Number One Component
The first component of your brand is you. It is your business, after all, so it makes sense that you are the number one component of your brand. Component one is where you are going to look at your passions, your values, the things you want your business to be known for, and most importantly, you examine your “why.” Take your time with this section; honestly think about your answers to the questions.
Don’t stretch the truth; don’t overstate the facts, and think about how your answers will be received by the audience. You are building all the other components of Brand off of this foundation, make sure it is stable. If you nail this component, you are well on your way to creating a viable brand. Your chances of being seen as authentic by an audience are not good if you lie, stretch the truth or “fudge it.” Be honest, real, and emotional in your answers.
The Next Component Involves Examining Your Competition
Presumably, you are entering the marketplace with a product or service that was not available before, or you have an improvement to an already existing item. To know this, you examined the marketplace and what other vendors and businesses had available. What were the voids in the market before your product? How does your product fill those voids? How does your product/service change the lives of users? This is a basic before and after arc in a brand or product story, and the only way to tell it is to examine your competition. Honestly and objectively look at how you compare. They will naturally do some things better than you, and you will do other things better than they do.
Component Number 3 is Defining The Differentiators
You have determined what you do well, you have looked at and compared what others in the market do well, and you know how you, your business, and your products compare, So now, what are some of the critical aspects of your business that makes you different. At the core level, not superficial things but a differentiator that will make someone choose you over your competition.
Differentiators should be marketable things AND something that your customers/clients will value? Remember you can’t be everything to everybody, so if your differentiators narrow your audience down a bit but open the opportunity to have more engaged followers who share your values and believe in your business, then that trade-off is undoubtedly worth it.
Without Component 4 Your Brand Does Not Exist
Your audience holds a great deal of power in this process and it is imperative that you examine the likes, dislikes, habits, and expectations of your ideal clients and make sure that your brand is offering them what they are looking for. Your audience is your potential customer base and they are the reason you are in business. Without your audience, you have no customers. No customers mean no business. Oh, and if you don’t have an audience then you don’t have a brand, remember your brand is based on the emotional response to your business. So take the time here to do some research and develop a few personas that accurately represent your customer.
What Emotion Directly Proceeds the Purchase
You felt overwhelmed, so you bought a planner to help you keep organized. You felt old, so you bought a bright red sports car. You felt betrayed by corporate America, so you get your coffee at the local coffee house. An emotion directly proceeded these decisions to purchase and emotions are powerful motivators. Marketers know this and that’s why they capitalize on them to sell products, yes even the local coffee house does, and it’s not betrayal it is a smart business strategy. So what emotion are your customers feeling right before they come in to make a purchase with you? Pinpoint that, and your business changes. Emotions are universal, sell the emotion everybody will get it.
Your Business Personality
Businesses have personalities just like the people who run them. After all, you would not expect Oprah and Gary Vaynerchuk to run a business the same way. Oprah’s company has a different character, then Gary V’s who curses all the time provides blunt, real advice, and he most certainly will not be wearing a gown to a gala anytime soon. The idea here is if you are representing the company, the personality of the company should match your personality.
If you are the chief behind the scenes guy, then the personality should match your chief front of house officer. Neither is right or wrong, but it may feel incongruous and impact the perceived authenticity if the eccentric scientist at the head of your company was forced to waddle out on stage for company presentations in a tuxedo he only wore for those occasions, and shoes he always fell in. Let the man wear his Birkenstocks and lab coat for goodness sake.
Your Brand In A Crisis
We don’t like to think about things like a crisis, but you are better off preparing for a disaster that will never happen then assuming it will never happen and having to scramble to make difficult decisions in unfriendly conditions. Have plans in place, communicate plans clearly, and if the worst happens, you activate those plans. The essential thing to keep in mind here is how you will respond to the crisis without undermining your values. In a crisis, you must make decisions based on your company values do not abandon them for the business as you are merely prolonging the demise. A business shaken by a crisis can recover, a business that leaves its values to save face is doomed to fail.
Component Number 7: Your Vision
The goals and plans for the company and how those are communicated to employees (if one of your goals is to grow).
A vision statement is a form of internal branding that reflects the values of the company and plan for where the company wants to be in the future. Every member of your business should be able to identify with the vision statement .it should make them all feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Think big and stretch the concept of your business with your vision statement. Your own little business may surprise you and show what it is really capable of.
Bringing It All Together With Your Story
Component 8 is where we start to pull it all together. You are looking to engage your followers with an authentic story that answers important questions like the following:
- What do you do?
- Why do you do it?
- What problems do you solve?
- Who is your ideal customer?
- Who else do you serve?
- How are you different from your competitors?
- What does the company believe in?
- Why should the audience care?
Man, that is a mouthful… and I even forgot something, you need to be able to boil your story down to 10-12 words at times! As you begin the process of building out your story you may feel a need to go back to a previous component and revise it because it does not quite ring true to you. That is okay, it is why we call it a workbook. You are working to develop your brand and you should do everything possible to make sure it feels right for you. If it doesn’t feel right for you it won’t feel right for others. Go back tweak it, make it feel good. Be honest, and be real. Include your struggles and don’t forget your journey.
Once you have your brand story you can use it to create your key messages, brand talking points, and other marketing materials, Brand story first so that your brand identity is reflective of the values and story.
What is Number 9?
That last component of a brand is an essential one, and that is authenticity. You have not arrived at your finalized brand, brand story, and visual components to support it until you can say, “yes, I feel good about all of that and I have no problems defending that statement for as long as this company is in existence.”Ask yourself if you are being real. If you can answer a truthful yes to all these questions you might be ready to go.
- Does your brand story sound like something a human would say?
- I can not identify a single place I embellished the story, used hyperbole, or misrepresented my experiences.
- I made sure the emotions portrayed are real and will connect with others.
- I talk about the struggles and hard times for myself and the company.
- I let my passion show?
- I highlight the unique qualities of the company in a way that will appeal to our audience.
You know your business better than anyone else. You know what is true and what is a lie and so will your audience. Branding is a long term strategy when it is layered together with storytelling, and engaging your followers regularly on social media it helps you build an audience that likes, knows, and trusts you. An audience that will call you first when they need your services, or know somebody who does. Don’t rush it. Sit with it for a couple days, allow it simmer in your brain and if it feels good in a couple days then try it out on somebody. Edit based on the input you recieve, let it sit, repeat.
Download Your Copy of the 9 Components of Brand: Your Branding Workbook TodayThis workbook is created as a tool to help you focus on your brand and what items should be taken into consideration when brand building. We believe in the power of stories, We recommend you develop your story first and then focus on the brand.
Brand Storytelling Matters: Tips for A Powerful Story
Brand Storytelling Creates Connections
Stories create connections, which an essential part of doing business today. Businesses can no longer remain faceless entities and be successful. In order to survive a business needs to find a way to connect with its audience, in order to thrive they need to pull on heartstrings and engage at a much deeper level than ever before. If a business isn’t making an emotional connection between its brand and its audience then they risk failure.
This is where your brand story comes in. It gives your business a human touch. Your brand story should weave together facts and feelings. It should include your why. Why you do what you do and why you believe it matters. It should also tell your audience why they should care about what you do.
Selling the Universal Emotion Not the Product
I remember when I first started doing marketing work a mentor saying to me, you aren’t selling a mattress you are selling a good night’s sleep. I was very confused as he dropped this piece of wisdom on my head and walked away because I wasn’t selling mattresses I was selling books. But the more I did social media and marketing the more I understood you are not selling products you are selling the emotional connections and the universal feelings. Nobody knows how your mattress feels, but everyone knows the amazing feeling of waking up feeling revived after a good nights sleep.
Be Heard in the Crowded Marketplace
Great brand storytelling allows you to be heard in a crowded marketplace. Now more than ever there are more people making things, and offering services. The marketplace is overcrowded. Some products and services are even great. So what makes you different? Why do I choose you and not your competition? How do you stand out? Your brand story is how you stand out.
Brand Storytelling is Powerful
When crafting your brand story think about what you want your business to be known for. When everything else is said and done what do you want people to say when they think about your business? What is the single most important message you want to deliver? Once you have that message in mind figure out a way to wrap that message into a story that your audience will connect with and you are now on the road to having a brand story that will connect.
Your story is the most powerful and flexible tool in your toolbelt. It should act as a compass that guides your business in all that you do.
Aspects of a Powerful Brand Story
So what are some things necessary to have a powerful brand story? That’s the thing with storytelling, it is not an exact science and there is not an exact formula. But we all know a good story when we hear a good story. So in my effort to figure out some things needed for a good story, I watched a lot of Ted Talks and searched around the internet for great sites on storytelling like echostories.com. I discovered great nuggets of wisdom, things that many of us already believe to be true. Unfortunately, I did not discover the silver bullet… the surefire way to have a story that connects with your audience. So since I can’t give you that yet here are a few tips.
Get Emotional
Inject emotion into your presentation with stories. The objective of a story is to make your audience feel something. Happy, Sad, distraught, hopeful. It doesn’t matter what emotion the story brings about per se as the emotion creates a connection. Tell the story of how your product saved a life, the story of how your business gave you a purpose, that great story about how you helped a mother connect with an estranged child. Take this commercial for example…
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Did You Feel Something?
No matter how you feel on the issue, I guarantee that ad for Verizon (btw) made you feel something. It injected emotion into its advertisement and that emotion made for a powerful commercial and made you feel some kind of way. Verizon is saying in this commercial that part of its brand story is the power of communication to bring people together. That love can always call back using Verizon phone service. The beauty of this for Verizon, is they didn’t even have to spell out the connection. By simply having the Verizon logo at the end of that spot creates the connection the emotions you felt there are tied to Verizon, and you want to go connect or reconnect with somebody using a Verizon phone! Yes, it just as easily could have been Sprint or Metro PCS but it wasn’t.
Make A Connection with Your Audience
The other thing that made the Verizon advertisement so powerful is the connection that they made with the audience. The story they are telling is aimed at those celebrating Pride in the month of June. It was created in partnership with PFLAG, a National organization that unities families and allies with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. They knew their audience. They knew that many people who identify as LGBTQ have struggled with coming out in their lives. This struggle is universal in the community so they were able to connect with the audience by being aware of, and sensitive to this universal truth. As a business, be aware of your audience and your followers. Is your brand story or aspect of a brand story something that they will connect with? If it is not, should it be part of your story?
At First This Then That
Change is a fundamental portion of a story including your brand story. At first, this was the truth, that is why our founder created (brand name) and now this is the truth. Apple is famous for using this in its story and in presentations. This is computing now, but with this brand new Mac we have challenged the status quo and this is what computing will look like! And those of you who are like me and want things to be easier, newer, better, and not the status quo eat it up. This then that creates suspense and excitement, both emotions and emotions create connections. And if you watch a lot of Apple product reveals you notice that they draw out the suspense to the point where your body is physically reacting to it. Ah the beauty of storytelling… when listening to a good story your body reacts like it is there and it releases hormones and endorphins. You are literally feeling the emotions and it does not matter that it is a new computer that has nothing to do with it, the feeling is what matters.
Don’t Forget Your Why
A key aspect of your brand story is your why. Why is it that you do what you do and why should your audience care? You need to wrap these into that emotional story to create the connection between the product/service, the emotions, and your overall brand. The why is not to make a profit, as Simon Sinek says that is just a result. The why is… why do you get out of the bed in the morning? What is it about your business or work that gets you excited? Why is your business special? That is what will connect with people and make your brand story special. I can’t tell you what your why is… you need to dig deep for that. Just remember that your story is the most amazing thing about you and your business so don’t be afraid to say what you believe. Highlight your values. And create a brand story that is awesome and will connect with your audience and beyond.[
Simon Sinek Start With The Why
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I hope these tips help as you begin to work on your story and make brand storytelling a hard skill in your business. If you need help with any of this check out some of our other resources or contact Jonathan at jhoward@jrhgraphics.com.
May we also recommend taking a look at this blog post.
Your Brand Is Not This… Discover the Key to Branding
Brand is Not
… your colors, it is not your logo. The business does not control it. These things are all part of your identity, and while they may speak to your brand, they are not your brand. Your audience defines your brand. It is an emotional response to your business that includes sights, sounds, tastes, and past experiences.
In the following video, Jonathan Howard, the owner of JRH Graphics, discusses how a company can impact its brand, how every single interaction with a sales associate, or operator, or online service bot can influence the customer’s perception of your company. He also reminds people that it is incredibly important to believe in your brand. Make sure that everything you put out to your audience is representative of the values you think are essential. Be unabashedly true to your beliefs; don’t water them down to appeal to the masses. A company that aims to please all people ends up pleasing nobody.
Differentiators
The idea behind differentiators is also discussed in this video. A brand is what makes someone choose you over another company. So what is it that makes you different? Why would somebody decide to use you instead of another company? Branding is the art of differentiation, and if you don’t stand out, you aren’t going to win. For more on differentiation and how to win with your unique values, check out this blog post.
What is the Key?
The key is to find out what makes you different and find an audience that values those differences. Once you have discovered that audience, begin engaging them and providing solutions to the problems that they are facing. Keep your audience in mind whenever you are launching a program, product, or service offering.JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGWW5CcXd1UDlhTkUlMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvdyUzRCUyMmFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXIlM0IlMjBhdXRvcGxheSUzQiUyMGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYSUzQiUyMGd5cm9zY29wZSUzQiUyMHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZSUyMiUyMGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbiUzRSUzQyUyRmlmcmFtZSUzRQ==
Your Weird: 3 Steps to Help You Win With A Unique Brand
If You Are Not Weird You FailDid you know that 50% of businesses started do not make it to celebrate the fifth year in business? One of the largest contributing factors of failure for these businesses is an inability to differentiate from the pack.
Many businesses feel that in order to be successful you need to be everything to everybody. However, the exact opposite is true. To see success in today’s business environment you need to tell people why you are different and align yourself with those that appreciate those differences. Or as I like to say, “what is your weird?” If you embrace your weird and showcase your weird, you will be able to win with your weird. It is really just remembering a few of the basics or branding and marketing.
Believe me, I am weird I should know
Embracing Your Weird
The first step of differentiation is figuring out what makes you different than all the other companies out in the marketplace and embracing those differences. Did you create this business to fill a void? Do you serve a specific section of the marketplace? The answers to questions like this are all essential parts of your company story and can be a differentiator. A differentiator can be anything that you think is important to your company, that other companies in your realm do not offer or deliver. A differentiator is what will make someone choose you over another company, it is what makes you stand out. I call this part of the process, “embracing your weird!”
Some Ways Businesses are Weird
Below is a list of some differentiators, do one or more of them apply to your business? This list is not complete, a differentiator is whatever you honestly believe you do differently that impacts your customers or clients.
- Deliver exceptional customer service, every single day by exceeding customer expectations
- Make solving customer problems a keystone of your business
- Focus on a very narrow part of the customer base
- Do business differently i.e. always accept returns or charge a flat rate for services
- Offer something up for free or a low price that makes a huge difference
- Focus on your culture and what makes it different i.e. at JRH Graphics we like it if you are a bit weird but love it when you are completely off-the-wall weird
- Focus on social media and make it so good people can’t forget you (think Warby Parker)
- Surprise and delight your customers
- Be Weird. Be So Weird People Notice You. Don’t Be Too Weird that they only remember the weirdness
Don’t Hide Your Weird
Whatever it is that makes you unique is your weird. Don’t shy away from your weirdness or try to hide it because you are afraid that these differences are weaknesses. These differences are the key to making connections with potential customers, they are essential for standing out in a crowded marketplace, and they could be a reason you make it to year six in business when half of your fellow business owners will not.
So you have embraced a few things that are weird and you have integrated them into your company story. You even discuss them as part of the unique culture of your company… now what?
Showcasing Your Weird
The next step is to showcase your weirdness. This is probably the trickiest of the steps when you begin because it is easy to confuse people if you are not sending a consistent message or bouncing around in how you are telling your story. The best way to properly showcase your weird is to tie your differentiators into what you are doing every day and what you are posting every day. And the best way to do this is by planning what you will be doing and posting well in advance. Make sure that what you are doing and posting ties into your goals and brand story.
Tips for Showcasing Your Weird
- Make sure every single person that represents your business inside and outside the company understands and represents the company story and company culture.
- Tell the same story but don’t use the same examples. People will get tired of them and it shows that maybe what you are doing every day does not align with the story you are telling. If it did new examples would be easy to find.
- Make sure that you are showing your brand in a similar and recognizable way across all of your social media profiles for your business. If I stumble upon your social media presence on Twitter and want to find you on Facebook I should be able to tell instantly what profile is yours when I search.
- A key to showcasing your weird is making sure that people know who you are and are engaging with you. In order to accomplish this on social media, you need to be creating engaging content and posting regularly. If you need help deciding on some things to post please check out my 9 Types of Posts Every Business Should Try blog post.
- Make sure that who you are online matches who you are/what your business is in real life.
- Begin looking for and working with other businesses that share your weird. Collaboration is Key afterall!
Sharing the Weird
So number 6 above is kind of a “pro tip” but here is an example of how it would work.
Say you are a career specialist who helps people discover what the next step in their career should be. You believe that having a complete online profile such as LinkedIn with a fresh headshot that captures their true essence and a winning story that showcases accomplishments helps them stand out in the crowded job market. In order to help your clients accomplish this, you begin working with a headshot photographer who is amazing at letting a person’s personality shine through the photo. You later discover a social media specialist who helps your clients craft winning stories to include on LinkedIn. As you continue to work together the three of you are all showcasing your business strengths to multiple clients and your ability to work closely with other businesses in your field becomes another one of your differentiators.
Winning With Your Weird
You have embraced your weird. You are showcasing your weird. So how do you know when you are winning with your weird? Don’t we all wish that there was a clear and concise answer to this! I can’t provide one but I can say that when you start to embrace your weird and showcase your weird and it is connecting with others you will notice some things like more meaningful comments on your social media. More people writing reviews of your business because your business fills a specific need in the marketplace. You will see additional referrals from other businesses you have worked with in the past. More of your ideal clients and customers will be seeking you out. Overall, you should see an increase in your sales and a decrease in the money that you need to put in to close each sale.Signs that A Company is Winning With Their Weird
- They have a powerful and defined identity. They boldly proclaim what they believe and they stand by those beliefs even when tested.
- Winning companies have identified an audience or audiences that will engage with their weird. They are targeting this specific audience where they live, with content that has proven to engage them.
- Winning companies are passionate about what they do and they let it show in everything.
- Honest with what they can and can not deliver for a client. They know their limits and are not afraid of losing some business because a client wants something that is outside of their wheelhouse.
- Backs up claims with tangible actions and results.
- Put their clients/customers interest ahead of revenue.
- Accessible and real. They demonstrate the true meaning of authenticity.
- Understand the value of consistency. Always live up to clear expectations.
- Collaborate with other brands that share their values, potentially multiplying the customer base they have access to with the collaboration
A Weird Conclusion
Keep in mind that a winning brand has a proven track record and is a trusted member of the marketplace. They embrace the winning characteristics listed above in all that they do and they showcase them throughout their company. A new company cannot be winning until they have proven itself. However, it is important for a new company to make sure that they are embracing their weird and showcasing their weirdness right out of the gate. They should include the key aspects of their weird in their brand story to put them on the fast track to winning with their weird!
Defining a Roadmap for Your Business: Creating a Plan That Works for You
Defining a Roadmap for Your Business
Are you in the process of defining a Roadmap for your business. Are you hoping to create a plan that works for you? First things first… Quick, name a benefit of owning your own business…
- Getting to be your own boss
- Working from home on your schedule
- You pick the projects you want to work on
- Deciding who you want to work with
Are these at the top of your list? They are at the top of mine and many other entrepreneurs. It is why we have decided to go into business for ourselves. The independence is wonderful, we get to decide on the path we take and we can define the values of our company.
Creating A Plan that Works for You
However, when I talk with other business owners or some of my clients that are starting out they are always (many times inadvertently) trying to force their business to fit into the plans of another business. Or trying to follow the roadmap that their friend followed when starting their successful business. Why?
Create a plan that works for you! Decide on what is most important to you, what you want to be known for. Imagine what your ideal day would look like and build a plan that takes these things into account. Map out a plan that accounts for your passions. The plan should highlight your strengths and minimize the impact of your weaknesses. When I am working with clients to begin creating a roadmap for their business I have a series of questions I ask them, like the ones below. They are aimed at helping the client figure out what the right direction is for them as they begin their business endeavor. If you are at this stage or even revisiting your roadmap take a look at some of the questions below and answer them honestly.
Defining The Mission of Your Business
For what do you want to be known?
What types of projects do you wish to work on?
Which aspect of your business inspires you the most?
What is your bread and butter service/item?
How will you bring clients and customers in the door?
Once you get them in the door how do you plan on selling them the bread and butter item/service?
Defining Your Clients
Who is your ideal client?
What makes them your ideal client?
Do you know where your ideal client works?
This ideal client currently purchases goods and services from what business?
Where are you likely to meet your ideal client/customer?
Setting Priorities and Defining Goals
What is your number one priority?
What do you wish to accomplish in 3 months? 6 months? 9 months?
Define your key differentiators… What sets you apart from others in your field?
Define a win in your own words. What does a win look like for you ?
How much time do you think it will take to reach your goals?
Can you dedicate an appropriate amount of time to reaching your goals every week?
What limits do you have on your time?
Do you think you are working on things now that are not helping you reach your goals? Can these be eliminated?
Past Experiences and Lessons Learned
What are some of the experiences you have had in the past that you can draw on to build your success?
What mistakes have you made in the past?
Think about the lessons you have you learned from these mistakes?
What is something you have told to past employees/coworkers that you can use yourself now?
Think back to the interview question…
Talk about a time when you had to overcome diversity in the workplace, what was the situation and what did you learn in the end? Answer this honestly.
What is one of the hardest lessons you have had to learn in business?
Strengths and Weaknesses
Describe your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
The thing that excites you about your business most?
What terrifies you?
The tasks in your business play to your strengths?
Do you have a plan to minimize the impact of your weaknesses?
Obstacles
The obstacles do you foresee?
What plans can you make now to help you overcome these obstacles?
When obstacles present themselves how will you react?
How will you prevent obstacles from throwing you off course?
Can you take these obstacles into account as you build your roadmap?
Building and Activating your Network
Who in your area would you most like to work?
What do they bring to your business?
Who do you already know that could help you build a successful business?
How often do you talk with those already in your network?
How are you planning to expand your network?
What connections do you hope to make?
Name some ideal jobs the people you want to meet will hold?
Are you willing to network with others who do not possess these job titles?
What activities will you engage in to maintain your network?
Are networking events part of your strategy?
After you have reviewed these questions and answered them honestly you will have a better idea of the specific needs you have for your business. Then you can begin to plan what your specific roadmap looks like. If you still need help putting it together, please reach out to us here at JRH Graphics.
If you would like this blog in the form of a worksheet to work on, grab your free copy of it in the store under social media tools.
