It’s hard to get excited about dry cleaning. So how can you convince potential customers that your approach to what they see as a commodity service is different?
Morellis Cleaners was a new chain that took dry cleaning to a new level. Forget the images of steamy, stinky roomfuls of strange machinery and employees who looked like they’d been steamed for hours. The company had attractive spaces staffed by knowledgeable employees who took time to educate customers about dry cleaning.
Most organizations worry that they’re going to lose a customer, client, or supporter because of something they do. But my experience has taught me that more losses are caused by what they don’t do.
Sure, lousy customer service will lose a piece of business now and then. But what I call benign neglect is one of the most consistent ways a business or organization can lose people over time. They’ll slip away gradually, barely even noticed.
When out-of-town banks have begun to dominate the local landscape, how do you convince residents that your bank is truly part of the community’s bedrock?
Mutual Savings Bank has been serving Johnson County residents since 1890, choosing to continue its original focus of helping everyday people buy homes and save for the future while other financial institutions merged and diversified. When some of those new banks began to promote themselves as community banks, Mutual needed to find a way to remind residents that they were the real deal.
Whether you’re distributing a regular email blast to customers or mailing a good-old-fashioned printed piece, newsletters (or whatever you choose to call a regular message to your stakeholders) are one of the best ways to stay connected with and on the minds of the people who matter to your business.
I’ve noticed that many companies agonize over one aspect of these publications: when to distribute them. And no, I don’t have a magic answer. Most of the time, exactly when you send it is far less important than the fact that you do send it. There may be a time of the week or month during which your average recipient is more receptive to your messages, so common sense would tell you that’s a good time.
How do you make everyday working people feel confident enough about investing that they’re willing to put more of their hard-earned dollars into your mutual funds?
General American Insurance knew that companies have two reasons to encourage 401(k) plan participation: financially secure employees are happy employees, and larger employee contributions mean managers can park a bigger share of their own earnings in the company’s plan.
One of the most effective ways to convince your prospects of your value is to show them. While demonstrations might sound like a relic from the days when drummers peddled their wares from door to door, the technique is as powerful as ever, for everything from consumer products to business services.
When container ship line APL was trying to convince shippers of the many advantages of double-stack intermodal cars (the ones that look like a truck trailer sitting atop another), executive Don Orris kept hearing concerns about the quality of the ride within the shipping containers. Shippers worried that their delicate merchandise would be jostled and damaged during transit.
How can you supply critical information to your clients and prospects when they’re already overwhelmed with information?
The Olive LLP accounting and consulting firm (now part of BKD LLP) wanted to keep top executives at financial institutions abreast of news and provide information about new services.
You operate a century-old restaurant that everyone loves, but often forgets when faced with all sorts of well-advertised chains. How do you bring people back to the table?
Shapiro’s Delicatessen has been serving corned beef and pastrami sandwiches and other Kosher-style deli fare to Indianapolis residents since Louis Shapiro found his way to the Circle City just after the turn of the last century. The restaurant was still a local favorite (and even managed to impress visiting New Yorkers), but saw its business facing tougher competition.
Much of what I learned in high school was most effective at setting one up for a lifetime of therapy. But there were a few gems here and there that have managed to stay with me throughout the ensuing years. One of those was the difference between facts and opinions. Several of my teachers devoted many class periods to helping their charges grasp what separates the two.
It’s a lesson that seems to be lost on many people, who develop their own opinions about something and then state those opinions as though they were factual knowledge. While the most obvious examples are those modern-day idea marketplaces — talk radio, cable news channels, and online forums — I’ve also seen the trend drift into the ways in which companies promote themselves or their beliefs.
If you’re selling a high-quality product in a category that’s considered to be a commodity, how can you set yourself apart?
Plymate Image Mats provides a higher-quality product with far superior service in a market that’s saturated with – and accustomed to – low-end competitors. Their challenge is twofold: convince prospects that they need more than what they’re already buying, then sell it to them.