Marketing Tips for Better Customer Engagement and Results [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

July 12, 2012

Marketing Tips

In business it is critical to interact and communicate with customers to get the sense of what customers want and if your business is meeting their needs.  The more frequent, valuable, and genuine your interactions and communications are, the more trust you will build with your potential and existing client base.

Some simple marketing, business tips produced in an infographic by Mindspress, highlight the small things you can do to build better rapport with clients.  By making small adjustments and improvements in activities, you can achieve greater exposure in the environment and communities, and better results with customers.

• Communications – gather customer contact information such as email to give you an avenue to engage and offer to the customer frequently.
• Asking for feedback – the ability for customers to provide a feedback and reviews will create buzz around your products and services.  It also helps in creating traffic and in spreading the word through multiple sources and Google searches.
• Community involvement – according to this article, giving back to the community, such as volunteering, sponsoring, and donating creates greater exposure for your business.  It helps improve morale for those who feel good with their involvement in communities.  Customers will take note!
• Revised Marketing & Business Planning – it is extremely important to review your marketing and operational activities, to measure and to analyze the results of anything you are doing.  The global, domestic and local markets and business conditions change frequently … so should your marketing activities, marketing plan and business plan.  Stay on top!
• Continuous Learning Environment – you need to keep a pulse of customer feedback and to incorporate the constructive messaging back from the customer.  When the customer is telling your something after their purchase, they are informing you (as an added benefit to you) that they invested in you, and in order to keep them you need to improve the experience, product or service.  Listen well and incorporate changes based on feedback.

Source: Mindspress.com

More on Marketing:

• Digital Marketing – Conversion Opportunities for Business
• Product Mix – Designing Products and Services for the Consumer
• Content Marketing – Targeting Local Markets [infographic]
• Color and Design – Factors Influencing Commerce [infographic]

More business blogs of interest:

• Business Plan – The Next Steps

• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In
• Online Retail – Strategies That Lead to Better Sales

• Franchise Opportunities – Industry Outlook 2012 and Beyond [infographic]

• Retail Industry Heating up for Summer and Back to School

• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]

• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Lessons Learned … From Your Own Employees

Strategy Plan One

March 26, 2012 

 

Employees Have the Ground, Intelligence Wise

Your business has been successful and booming for a long period of time, and you as the leader / entrepreneur, have been busy in your management duties.

You may be far removed from the ground level operations, not having to grind it out on the floor or crank out code, or deal directly with customers.  However, you are not that removed from your employees who have the greatest wealth of knowledge of the operational level.

Much can be learned from employees who know what is and isn’t working at the operational level, who know what the customer’s actions, thoughts and feedback are, and what other employees are saying behind the management lines.

Engaging and Interacting Frequently with Employees

As a manager, leader, and entrepreneur, engage and interact well and frequently with your employees.  Make it well known that you are openly interested daily about what is taking place on the floor.  It should be a part of your daily routine, either through inspecting your place of retail or office space.  The employees will feel more at ease when the management team is readily and physically available for open discussions.

Grab Intelligence from Employees

Setting the stage with frequent engagement and interactions will assist in your employees openly providing you with a wealth of information to improve operations and/or improve client and customer relationships.  These professionals in your organization may provide valuable recommendations and will look to you as the leader to implement some solutions from issues they encounter.

Make employees feel valued that they can share information and that you, as a tuned-in entrepreneur, are listening and willing to embrace recommendations for approval.

Encourage Continuous Improvements From Employees

To stay on the cutting edge and at the top of your industry, you will need your employees to think and act innovatively.  The best practices and solutions do originate from team actions, and so would innovative practices.

Empower your employees to develop ground-breaking practices that would set the units, team, and business far ahead of the competitors.  Create an environment that is rewarding and promotes recognition for achievements.  Depending on your budgets, you can develop incentive programs for high achievers and for employees that bring innovative solutions to the table.  You may be surprised at the untapped intelligence from all of your professional staff.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

Reach Success – Obtain Feedback for Continuous Improvement

Strategy Plan One

February 24, 2012 

Continuous Improvement through Feedback

If you want to enjoy success year after year as an entrepreneur you need to pay attention to your customers and your operations.  Feedback mechanisms are the best way to gauge objective feedback from clients and from your staff.

Feedback from surveying will shape how you can improve operations to build and retain customers and revenue.  Continuous improvement is a must in this competitive world.

Feedback Mechanisms

Whether customers are satisfied or not with your service or product, ensure you have feedback mechanisms such as surveying as part of your service operation.  You need to analyze a cross-section of feedback from all customers.  Even the happy customers will make note of things that can make the experience, product or service better.  Remember that you should not think your business is at 100% optimization in your product or service delivery.  Don`t fall into the trap of thinking everything is perfect and you never have to change.  Business environments and industries constantly change, and with that, you need to stay competitive with continuous improvements.  Take that valuable information from your customers and revise your operations, customer experience, product or service accordingly.  Ensure that you provide a message around your survey process that they are helping shape better products and services.

Continuous Improvement

Encourage a continuous improvement environment in your business, and empower your staff to take the lead and charge of recommended improvements.  As a leader, engage with your staff and units and survey them for their valued feedback.  Employee buy-in can occur if you make them a part of the valued process, and allow them to take ownership of the piece of action.  It helps as a leader to recognize unit and project leaders for their efforts.  If the improvement recommendations result in significant operational or profitability improvements, compensation incentives may be appropriate.  A whole organization that is engaged in a continuous improvement process will definitely build a continuous competitive firm.

Ensure you pay ultimate attention to your customer base and to your internal members of your business for feedback to make your business better and more competitive.

 

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One