Sound familiar? We’ve all heard this from boyfriends and girlfriends and now business and customer starving brands. Please come back, we miss you badly, it’s not the same without you. Yada Yada Yada.

The funny thing is when I was a loyal customer I never heard a peep, I depart and suddenly I get their attention, a little late I’d say.

Companies and brands do this all the time and it makes me crazy. Why not show love for the ones who are loyal and loving you back, before they leave, instead of begging for defectors and offering sweeter deals to new customers instead of giving long time customers a perk for being a customer, that’s so annoying.

Here’s some tips for you sleeping brands.
-Say thank you often.
-Gifts for paying customers are good.
-If you do offer a special for new customers, offer the same level of perk for your current customers.

Today I got three, please come back offers yesterday.

Hello!!!! If you pay attention and give attention while your customers are paying you and provide a good product it will likely cost you a lot less than all this begging stuff, deep discounting stuff.

No matter what your budget is you can launch this priceless campaign and start reaping the rewards right away.

Say thank you to your customers, your employees, your prospects and your vendors. And not just when you like what they dished out.

When they do business with you
When they compliment your company
When they offer suggestions
When they try something new
When they recommend a friend
When they are patient
When they help you serve them better
When they complain
When they make you smile

If you have a budget, say it with a note, a gift, a card, a phone call, a meal or with a personal visit. Emails count but, not as much.

Thank you for reading this blog.

The world of customer service never ceases to amaze me. Especially in these tough times where many are crying the blues about business being soft and how every nano ounce of positive word of mouth is like found gold.

In the last two weeks, two established businesses that should know better provided these less than loyalty building and brand securing experiences.

(First story) I pull up to one of my favorite restaurants. It’s raining like all crazy. The establishment has valet parking. This seems like a solution to get me to my meeting in a dry, fashionable way. On sunny days, the location to drop your car off is not the closest point to the door, but, when the weather’s nice that’s OK. The weather was not nice. A torrential down pour would be a kind understatement. So what does this tip-compensated valet do? Waves me to the far, far away, no umbrella covered drop off point, across the street. I couldn’t believe it. I roll down my window, get soaked with a flood of gigantic rain drops and scream, “It’s raining!!!! Can I not park closer to the door?”

Finally, after a female attendant explains to him how it may be OK to flex the rules today, I got permission to be closer to the door.

Granted, the valet parkers had a system established and this act of keeping the customer dry would require a little extra common sense thinking.

Systems and procedures are great, but when adhering to them delivers a lousy, make-up running, wet tee shirt style, business meeting experience. STOP!

For memorable customer experiences, be flexible and empower staff to adjust to the situation. And make sure outsourced touch points like the valet service is committed to the same level of service as you are.

(Second story) I’m meeting friends at bar for drinks and appetizers. There are four of us and we are one chair short. There is an empty chair about three feet from us at the main bar. My girlfriend Patty grabs the chair, so we can start spending our money, stimulating the economy and enjoying the night out. Then comes a loud bark from the bartender, “You can’t take that chair. It belongs to the bar.”

We were shocked to hear that anti customer-friendly experience, yelling conviction from the restaurant staffer. Since when do you walk into an establishment where sections of the place are competing and not working together to deliver a holistic brand experience? After a brief discussion with the manger, the chair was ours and so was that bad taste in our mouth about this restaurant.

Performance and staff production is great, but when such a competitive mind-set culture delivers an uncomfortable confrontation and divided service experience with your paying customer. STOP!

For loyalty building customer experiences, be flexible and empower staff to adjust to the situation.

Why not a better way to run a sales team?

by Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva®

Last month I made a trip to Tampa to source out suppliers to help me remodel my condo. One of my needs was carpeting. I went to a couple of places, looked at materials, researched pricing, and also considered the salesperson behind the product. I decided on a family-owned business called Castle One Carpets. My salesperson was Joe. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and did not impose any not hard pressure tactics. I returned one month later, on a Saturday, ready to place my order. I entered the store. Joe was not working. I was greeted by another salesperson, who asked if I he could help me. I explained I was in last month, had selected something, and was ready to place my order. He informed me that Joe would need to write the order and he, the owner, never worked on Saturdays so I would need to come back. I asked him if everyone worked on commission. And he said yes.

Wow, what a screwy system. And, a nice way to lose a customer. Even if a company compensates the sales team with a performance commission, they should have a side support process to serve everyone who wants to buy. It wasn’t as if the salesman was even busy with another customer. I was the only customer in the store.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation. I’ve experienced this in furniture stores, car dealerships, and even clothing boutiques. So what can be done to improve this anti-customer service policy?

Three ways to make commission sales program a win/win for the sales person, the customer, and the brand:

1)Empower and educate your staff with training and tools on best customer service practices. Make “we (not me) are here to serve customers” a value of your brand culture.
2)Create shared commission programs when one or more associates are involved.
3)Keep a client information file system that is accessible to all when someone else needs to jump in to help a customer.

Castle One Carpet, I love my new floor treatment, but the come back on Monday when the person who will earn their commission is here, no follow up or thank you for a several thousand-dollar order, sucks.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

by Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva®

Staples hit on something big when they rolled out their easy campaign a couple years ago and then got the bonus points for actually producing the novelty branded “easy” buttons. Besides great message building they achieved, they also contributed up to one million dollars to The Boys and Girls Club form the proceeds of the pop-culture Easy button gadgets.

As I relocated back to Florida from Georgia this month, I had a slew of some very easy, enjoyable experiences and a handful of “what the heck were these brand owners thinking?” too. Moving is already such stress bomb, it would seem companies would make the easy factor an experience priority.

Here’s a quick snap shot of some EASY winners and “what a nightmare” losers.

These companies earn my loyalty. They deliver on a need and it was easy to make happen!

PODS, what a great concept, company and team of pros. From discovery/vendor evaluation, pricing, to logistics. Moving with a POD gives your scheduling and packing freedom. It was simple and easy.

US Post Master, address change all on the net. It was simple and easy. Just don’t try to get them on the phone if you are looking for a local office.

State of Florida SunPass, buy the gadget at any Walgreens, activate on line. Never dig for toll change again. It was simple and easy and set up can happen 24/7.

Meetup.com, quickly jump in to a new business ans personal meetup networks. Get all the inside scoop about everyone involved, invites, RSVPs and stay connected, It was simple and easy.

NOT EASY, in fact, difficult, stressful and just thinking about these brands puts me in a bad mood. If I didn’t have to use these companies or it was such a hassle to change, I’d be a big non buyer.

Verizon local telephone service. I have been a customer of Verizon’s for over 20 years. They are the local service provider in Tampa. I tried calling them for three days straight and could not get through. And, to make matters worse, if you hang up, you have to go through their awful phone tree again.

Bellsouth. Moving to another company’s service area should not cause you pain and aggravation.
Someone should tell that to Bellsouth. If your new number is out of their system, forget a free message telling your pals about your new number, it won’t happen. So I elected to pay $13.00 a month for a voice mail only service where I can inform anyone who calls my old number that I have moved. Seems like after being on the line for over 45 minutes one would be able to accomplish this, wrong. My number was accidently disconnected. So here I go again, another 45 minutes to correct the mess up.

Bank of America. It seems like a company this big would be able to have one easy phone number and Web contact list to find what you need. Instead, they have at least 4 silos of service departments. I frequently experience the pass around dance and often get disconnected to find a simple answer. There must have been a big sale sale on the most annoying phones trees, and BOA stocked up.

Have you assessed the EASY factor when someone does business with your company? If not, make this an experience audit priority. Here some key places to take look at. Jump into your customers’, vendors’ and even employees’ shoes.

1. How easy is it to find information on your company?
2. How easy is it to find your contact info? Both on your Web site and through a telephone operator?
3. How easy is it to review your pricing and product and service offerings before they buy?
4. How easy is it to get help after hours or when there is a timely issue?
5. How easy is it to change an order? A shipping address?
6. How easy is it to cancel a service?
7. How easy is it to understand your contract?

In our world of complex, difficult and very confusing everything, make sure your EASY factor is a marketing/branding priority. I think you’ll find more happy customers.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

By Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva®

Verizon spends gazillions on marketing. They are in your face everywhere. TV, print online, direct mail you name it. I’ve been a customer of Verizon’s for nearly 20 years. They used to be GTE. Over all, I’ve been pleased with my relationship until this week. I’m moving back to Tampa and needed to set up my land line phone service. With all their outbound messaging and seductive sales initiatives, why in the world would they not be able to take my call for two busy days to place an order? This is a cardinal sin for any brand. Tell me you’re hot and the best thing since sliced bread, then you can’t manage your call center flow for two solid days!?!?!? And, to make things worse, not only was I on hold for 3-4 hours each day, if I decided to hang up and try again, I would have had to experience this annoying computer, voice activated 5-minute torture just to get started again. Verizon is a technology leader; so, I thought surely their Web site would have some option to get me some help. Wrong. It’s a maze of no help what so ever. Madness! And the assistance email kept locking up. Wednesday, three days later, I got through. Screaming at the operator is not the answer. They likely had no contribution to this disastrous customer service system. Verizon leadership where ever you are, you should be ashamed. And if you know this is a problem and you are working on it, why not a little communication? This would go along way. If you can’t dance, don’t invite me to the party.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

I am moving today, and a curious thing happened when I was trying to hire a moving company. Perhaps from this story of how not to handle incoming sales calls, we can learn some valuable lessons.

I needed to employ the help of a moving company to assist me in my 8th move in eleven years. I have experienced all kinds of moves - from down the street to down the Eastern seaboard.

A friend of mine handed me a card and said that this moving company was unparalleled. She said it would be the easiest move I’d ever made - and I had the experiences to compare! I consulted Yelp.com for further verification and they had received good reviews there, too.

So, here I was, a decided customer with MONEY TO SPEND. I didn’t need the sales song and dance, I had pre-vetted this company and wanted to buy from them.

I called and was told that the sales manager was busy, but that someone would get right back to me. For one day, no one did. I thought, if this is how they treat a potential sale, maybe I don’t want to buy the service. So, I contacted a second recommended company and was accommodated beautifully.

We all get our share of lukewarm prospects, but you never know which incoming cold call has already done their homework and has settled on you as their first choice. So, here are some things that could have helped my first choice get my business.

1. Make sure that you have a smart, friendly organized person handling your incoming calls. Remember - they are an important brand touchpoint!

2. Have a system in place for logging in new contacts, and taking messages.

3. Perhaps have some information that can be emailed, or referred to on the Web site while the potential customer is waiting to have a call returned.

4. Guarantee a call back time - we all get busy, but there should be a reasonable window to return calls.

5. Don’t wait more than 24 hours to return a call.

Those are just some of my ideas. Anyone have any more?