The Wizard Chronicle
How to Attract, Convert, and Delight CustomersBy: Wizard of Ads Partners Editor: Craig Arthur
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Entries from January 6, 2008 - January 12, 2008
How to Handle Difficult Customers
By Wizard of Ads Partner, Mike Dandridge
Some people aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy. These are the volatile handful known as “difficult customers.” Constantly looking for a flaw in your service, they’ll take advantage of your policies by making requests that sometimes border on the absurd. But, they can also teach you how to deliver the service that you promise. You learn more from the difficult customer than you ever learn from your most loyal. Difficult customers tell you where it hurts.
Listen closely. They’ll tell you what’s missing from your business and might even suggest what you can do about it. Their feedback can be the most brutal, and the most honest gauge of your success. For example, if a customer tells you, People come here as a last resort, consider the accuracy of the statement before immediately dismissing it.
If you have an abundance of difficult customers, it isn’t because you’re unlucky. It’s because you’re doing something wrong.
Take Away the Word Sale… What’s Left? Anything?
By Wizard Associate Anna Gerard
The kings of short-term advertising are electrical stores. Actually, rug, jewellery, and bedding stores would also come close. And it’s all based around that four letter word – SALE.
My local market is flooded particularly with electrical retailers all with a “yell to sell” attitude. Some of them have teams coming up with 12 new sales each year, while others just re-hash the old, cross their fingers and hope.
The first problem with a short-term sale approach is that sales are loosing their impact…
Advertising, Strategy One Cause of Advertising Failure
"Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up." - Anonymous
2008 Business Forecast - from high atop Wizard's Tower
America split into 3 camps last year.
Those camps came sharply into focus at Christmas.
1.The Hunker-Down crowd cut back their purchases, uneasy about dwindling dollars and rising debt. Traffic in non-discount retail stores was sluggish as a result.
2.The Full-Speed-Ahead crowd did business as usual. God bless’em. “Damn the torpedoes! I choose not to participate in a recession! The only thing to fear is fear itself!”
3.The I’m-Too-Rich-To-Worry crowd spent somewhat more on Christmas than last year, almost enough to offset the penury of the Hunker Downs. While the total number of transactions was down for December, the average sale was slightly up, due to the largesse of this group.
Here’s what to expect in 2008:
We’re going to see an increasing number of purchases influenced by the head instead of the heart.
Are You Helping Customers Remember?
By Sonya Winterbotham
Even a goldfish would put my memory to shame… So each time I get an SMS from my physio and it’s my 24 hour reminder of tomorrow’s appointment… I could kiss the phone.
A 25 cent text, is my saviour… I just wish I could get everybody else on board – the doctors, the dentist, the mechanic… Hang on a minute… Why aren’t they doing this?
I can’t be the only person who needs my phone to be buzzing with reminders all day… Can I?
Second to word of mouth… a text has got to be the cheapest marketing you can do for your business. And it’s just the beginning of what I call “finger tip marketing”.
Are you using it? Are your competitors?