Guess What? Your Customer Does Matter

So this weeks blog post comes with a recent experience.  I booked a trip on Booking.com and made sure to make every reservation refundable as I knew my trip was subject to change.  Sure enough, I ended up having to change one of my five reservations.

Upon visiting the site I was unable to cancel the reservation.  When I contacted them, the reply was that it was non-refundable, but they would see what they could do.

To make a long story short, after having to follow up several times over a month, and getting no real answer, I finally got the response that is summed up by "It is not our problem."

I have had to run my own customer service, managed customer service teams and know the damage that can be done by a customer that is not taken care of.  I had thousands of dollars in bookings on the site and that was treated with a "sorry for your frustration, good luck."

Here is where companies always seem to make a huge mistake.  Now if they were to get my trip refunded, let's say it costs them the entire $800 for the reservation.

Now, I don't know their fees, but what will it cost them when I never book on their site again, and I make sure everyone I know stays away from their site.

You NEED to take care of your customer.  There are times when you want to strangle the person on the other end of your emails.  Complaints can seem unreasonable, refunds hurt, but nothing can hurt your company more than bad public relations.  The moment you have people walking around talking about what a scam you are, and not to trust your brand, you are losing WAY more money than a few customer issues here and there.

Regardless of being motivated by profit, you need to look at the long term affects on your company.  Are you in this to see a big number this week, or this year?

This may be redundant to a lot of you.  I once heard the number used in the restaurant industry is for every one bad experience, 205 people hear about it.

Imagine that! and this was before social media and the power a voice has now.  All it takes is one person with enough frustration to want to spread the word and it can crush even a large brand.



Above is a tweet promoted by an individual that was not compensated for lost luggage.  He spent $1000 to promote this tweet and it got the attention of the world.  News stations, websites, bloggers, influencers all spoke about him around the world.

Do you think British Airways should have just handled his situation and been done with it?

The power of your customer is larger than it has ever been.  Everyone has a huge voice now and it is your job to make sure they do not use it against your brand, even if you may not feel they are always in the right.

Building a Brand versus Getting Direct Response

Marketing has become extremely easy to track.  Measuring your ROI from your marketing spend, especially online, is available to everyone.  I have seen this cause a shift in the way people market.  Most brands I speak with are looking for their CPA.  How much do they spend, and how many customers or how much revenue does that bring in?

The issue is, the long term goal of brand building is suffering more and more.  Here, I will outline the benefits and tactics of building a brand versus driving direct response.

Brand Building

Building a brand is the backbone of any long term, consumer facing business.  What is the lifestyle around your products?  Why do I want to give your company money? The most important questions consumers ask and the only way to answer is with a strong brand.

If you want to:

• Build long-term customer engagement
• Bring in evangelists
• Create a long-lasting company
• Increase long term revenue
• Engage your customers on an emotional level

Then you need to focus on building a brand identity.

The issues with focusing on building a brand are:

• Lower immediate ROI
• Higher risk (with the results being more long-term, you are generally going to spend more money before seeing results)
• Hard to track response

Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response is marketing done to make the the largest immediate ROI.  It is extremely tempting for companies to focus on these marketing channels because they can see the affect to their bottom line immediately.

If you want:

• To increase revenue in the short-term
• Show immediate growth
• Closely gauge your financials and ROI
• Lower your risk

then direct response is the way to go.

The issues are:

• The long term benefits of direct response are much less
• Customers are generally driven to purchase your product, but are less emotionally engaged, which means less likely to return or share
• Does not create an identity for your brand, which hinders long term customer engagement

Conclusion

When deciding whether to build a brand or get direct response, make sure you understand the value of both.  Most companies can benefit from a mix, but if you are in it to create a long lasting product and company, do not sacrifice building your identity, for your immediate returns.

For any questions or comments, please feel free to email erik@hawkemedia.com

5 Ways to Build your Network

We all know the cliche "It's not what you know, it's who you know," but how do you get to know those people?  Here are my 5 tips to building a great network.

1. Be great at explaining your value
A lot of networking is done through people talking about you and introducing you.  The best way to get this done is to make it really easy for someone else to communicate who you are and what you do.

If you do a good job of concisely explaining your talent or career, then others feel confident speaking about you, and are also able to identify situations where you should be introduced.

People love to connect each other.  Just make it easy for them to do so.

2. DON'T go to networking events
Networking events are generally places for people with no connections to meet other people with no connections.  Mark Cuban does not go to "networking events."

Parties, benefits, dinners etc. are fine, but anything that calls itself a networking event is generally not a good place to build a solid network.

3. Offer something first
Once you initially make a connection with someone, offer them something.  Most good connections are used to hearing what they can do for other people, but offer them something in return.

If you are good at marketing, maybe shoot them a decent idea about marketing their company.  If you are good at building technology, give them something technological that could really help them.

Once someone sees that you have smart things to say, they are going to want more.

4. Keep in touch
Do not be afraid to stay in touch.  Check in through email regularly, follow up about setting that face to face, people don't mind hearing from you.  Be confident that you have something to offer and stay in contact.  Most well connected people are busy, and it is usually helpful if you follow up.  Don't take no response as a sign of a lack of interest, they are probably just swamped.

5. Don't be afraid to ask
Tell the people around you what you need and what you are looking for.  People seem to always be afraid of looking like they are "using" someone or that they shouldn't ask for help.  When was the last time someone asked if you could introduce them to a friend and you were bothered by it?

Always remember, people inherently love to help.  Do not be afraid to tell people around you what help you need.

If you want to discuss this further please feel free to email me at erik@hawkemedia.com or visit HawkeMedia.com

4 Perils of Hiring Developers

Hiring a developer in house, or outsourced can be one of the most difficult tasks when getting into the tech industry.  As someone that has no tech background, I have made my share of mistakes that have cost me dearly.  Here are 4 big things to look out for when hiring a developer.

Not Skilled Enough

Many developers seem to think they can do everything and anything.  I have rarely heard a developer tell me that they don’t think they can accomplish a task.  Given unlimited time, they may be right, but if you have hopes of seeing your project complete any time soon then this can be a problem.

Make sure when hiring a programmer, that they have done a similar project.  You can even take it a step further and ask for a recommendation from that former client and see if they dealt with any problems.

Not Fast Enough

A CTO for one of my past companies said it best “when managing developers, your job is to have a number that sits above each developers head.  That number is a multiple.  If they say the project will take a certain amount of time, you need to multiply it by the number above their head.”

When working with any developer, understand that their time frame is rarely accurate.  It is hard to know what that multiplier is, but assume there is one and always assume the project will take significantly longer than you have been told and allow for that when planning your time line.

Business Savvy

This is a developer, not usually a businessperson.  Never assume that a developer understands the logic of what you are trying to do.  You need to hammer out every little detail of the project.  Get as basic as mentioning that “Home Button” actually links to your “Home Page.”  Do not leave anything left to assumption, that is where you don’t get what you want and your bill starts to increase.

Transparency

I have heard MANY horror stories about programmers when there wasn’t transparency.  Recently, I had a company approach me who had a developer “working” for 2 months and then quit.  Turns out they had done nothing and now their hopeful launch date was a month out with no development work done.

To avoid this situation, when you hire a developer, take the opportunity to learn a little and ask for them to use project management software and monitor what they are doing along the way.  It may take a little time, but you will save a TON of potential headache later.

www.HawkeMedia.com

7 Tips That Allow You to Run an eCommerce Company from Anywhere and as a Side Job

I get asked a lot if it is really hard to get an ecommerce site off the ground.  With all of the tools out there, as long as you don't have outrageous expectations, getting something going is extremely easy, capital requirements are light, and you definitely don't need to jump in full time.

Here are 7 tips that can really help you enter the ecommerce industry while minimizing your risk.

1. Find a partner

FOCUS, you are just creating an ecommerce site.  You do not need to open a shipping facility, a manufacturer, a design group.  Your focus is your website and marketing it, so find a partner for your product.  Let's say you want to get into the coffee business.  Find a great coffee grower and create a relationship.

Find that partner that does everything else:

• Growing
• Shipping
• Packaging
• Warehousing
• etc.

Offer them incentive to handle your product as well.  Obviously, you will already be purchasing product from them, but also offer to pay a slight premium for shipping, warehousing etc. so that they can make a little extra money off their existing operation.  You can always make a shift later if the costs get too high and it makes sense, but for now, it is a lot more beneficial to eliminate any extra overhead than to maximize your Gross Margin.

This allows you to cut costs such as:

• Staff
• Facilities
• Office Expenses
• and many other items that come with running a fulfillment operation

Your partner can also offer you a lot of knowledge as they most likely have much more experience in your products industry than you do

2. Use existing platforms

The world has become saturated with awesome ecommerce platforms that are ready to go out of the box.  Shopify has been the easiest, out of the box, in my experience.  Find a platform that suits you, and get the thing up and running.  Choose existing templates, add simple addons and plugins, and get going.

You are not starting a technology company!  So stop trying to create new technology.

3. Start Small

You are creating a side business to start, you are in no rush.  Start with a small run of your product and test it.  For example, if it is coffee, try selling 300 bags and see how it goes.  Don't invest 10s of thousands of dollars and hope for the best.

Put your site up and sell a minimum.  You can use scarcity to your advantage.  See how your friends and family react to the product, then tweak it, then try marketing a little bigger, tweak again, nothing happens overnight and use the luxury of the fact you haven't jumped in full force to be calculated and grow organically.

4. Get Terms

You do not need to be putting much cash upfront, and since you haven't raised any, you probably don't have much.  Get net terms and only extend yourself as far as you are confident you can make the money before the money is due.

If it is for your product, get net 30 terms (meaning you pay 30 days after you receive the product) and then only take on as much product as you can sell in those 30 days.  This allows you to make your money, before spending any, and creates a self sustaining business without large capital requirements.

5. Don't quit your day job

This is a side job until the money is pouring in! Don't tell me you "have to give it your all" and "this is your passion."  If you can maintain without the businesses cash-flow, this allows you do make decisions on for the benefit of the growth and prosperity of the business, not your personal bills.

Without you as an addition to overhead, you can run extremely lean, which means your business has a significant higher chance of success.

Also, if your day job pays well, it can provide growth funding for your business.

6. Get Interns

You have created an opportunity.  You have a product, you have a platform, you are ready to go.  If the growth starts to exceed the amount of time you have to put into it, start bringing in interns:

• They will work for cheap (even free)
• They will learn a ton because it is so hands on
• You can create a situation where they can make a career for themselves if they grow well
• You are running so lean, payroll shouldn't be an issue if you have a decent product
• Did I mention you are creating a huge opportunity for them as well?

7. Let it grow organically

This is a great way to decide where to put your money.  Before you go out and market this, and pump money into growth, just let it grow.  Tell your friends about it, see which ones actually buy, get feedback, really learn why your product is selling.

Then the next step is favors and connections.  If you have friends, see if any have a way to help you gain some exposure, don't be afraid to ask for help.

Create a budget for marketing based on revenue, that way your business can self sustain.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to email erik@hawkemedia.com