Since I’ve been reading Jeremy Epstein’s Never Stop Marketing Blog and a few others, I see “marketing” everywhere – the good, the bad and the ugly. I’ve become obsessed with how people approach it, practice it and trip over it in real life.
For example, I needed to get my wedding band resized. After 5,000 years of marriage, the ring is too small. I had previously stopped by a recommended shop. The owner was abrasive, not interested and quoted a price that guaranteed I would leave. Congratulations. You lost a customer and a potential fan. No, make that, “you gained an influencer who will not only NOT sing your praises, but suggest people stay away.”
I used Google to find other jewelry shops near me that would do repairs. I found one that offered online coupons, and had a lot of detail on what they did and didn’t do - my kind of people. So we stopped by. Two words: personal attention and being remarkable.
The price was quoted up front: re-size and polishing, about 40 percent less than store number one. But the jeweler didn’t just size my finger and adjust the ring to that size. He enlarged the ring in gradations to see what would be the optimum fit for me. He wanted the ring to fit me, not be a certain size.
It took four rounds of tinkering, but I got what I wanted, and so did he: a customer who will come back and also tell others.
While we were waiting for my band to be re-sized, a very friendly sales lady was letting my wife have fun with some of the rings in the case. My wife liked them. The sales lady never pressed my wife to buy anything, just to sample and enjoy. She knew her stock, and answered questions without hesitation. If she didn’t buy today. No matter. The investment in starting a relationship would pay off. And even if it didn’t, the sales person seemed to be having a good time helping us have a good time in her store.
My wife is stubborn at times (a lot of the time), and didn’t want to buy anything at the store, even though I was looking for an anniversary and Christmas gift and she had expressed a LOT of interest in one particular ring. So we left ----for three minutes - until we agreed these were good people to do business with, and we felt very comfortable that we would be treated well.
Yeah, we ordered something.
In the fifteen minutes we spent in that store, we got to know a little about these people. There were stories shared on both sides, a bit of fun and laughter.
Make that your goal online. Take that “in-person” experience to heart, and try to be remarkable in the same way online in your social media efforts.
Often we forget that there are people behind the websites, behind the blogs and tweets. And, unfortunately, so do they. Be human and look for real. Offer things that are remarkable. It's not about quantity.
IJ,
ReplyDeleteWhat were the store names?
-micah