by
Ron on
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
When we talk with local businesses about Social Media, the most frequent objection to becoming more socially engaged is time. Many local merchants believe that the time required to attend to Facebook and Twitter is better used for tasks more directly related to running the business. Rather than argue the importance of Social Media, we’d like to pass along a post on Mashable that introduces some tools that make it easier than ever for a small business to manage its Social Media presence and derive maximum value from this powerful marketing medium.
via Kevin Moore (Creative Commons)
Some of these tools are geared toward agencies or at least larger companies, but there are two that we have used successfully at
Zavee:
HootSuite and
TweetDeck. Both applications live on the desktop although both have mobile versions. TweetDeck is free and HootSuite has a free version that should be fine for most businesses. Both apps let the user manage multiple streams (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) simultaneously, including posting the same content to several streams. Both apps make it easy to schedule posts, so an hour or two on the weekend can result in a week’s worth of posts.
It’s also easy to redirect content, so a link, image or other content that is found on Twitter can be shared out on Facebook (and vice versa). This can be especially valuable for Zavee merchants, because Zavee shoppers now can share merchant-related content on Social Media even more easily than before. So merchants that sees a good review or recommendation can increase its reach by putting that content in their own Social Media stream. Merchants also can push news announcements published on Zavee to their Facebook and Twitter streams. That gets their own content noticed by even more potential customers.
Social Media can’t be fully automated, any more than any other marketing tool. But these two apps (and others mentioned in the Mashable post) can make the time devoted to Social Media time well spent.
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Tags: Facebook, HootSuite, merchants, Reviews, Small Business, Social Media, Social media marketing, TweetDeck, Twitter, Word of mouth
by
Ron on
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Here’s an idea: let’s make December “National Shop Locally Month”. Big brands get lots of media attention with their Black Fridays and their door busters, on top of the biggest ad budgets of the year. Maybe a wristband and a car magnet aren’t much, but local businesses always have had to make do with less.
On second thought, there are better ways to raise awareness of the importance of local commerce and persuade consumers to spend more at local businesses this season. Shift Your Shopping is an umbrella site that provides a great deal of information about the impact of local business on the nation’s economy. Spend some time on the site and you can’t help but be impressed by local business as an economic driver. In addition, there are several organizations that support small business in the community. Take a look at their sites and consider making them part of your own community.
Black Friday (via lululemon athletica, creative commons)
Consumers want to save money, but
studies show that most consumers don’t make purchase decisions solely on price. They want personalized service, a relevant product selection and a merchant whose integrity is beyond question.
Those are your strengths as a local merchant, so make sure your customers know about them. Don’t overlook the power of social media to engage consumers about the importance of local businesses in general and value that yours adds in particular.
Best wishes from Zavee for a prosperous holiday season.
0 comments
Tags: American Independent Business Alliance, customer engagement, Local Living Economies, merchants, Shift Your Shopping, Small Business
by
Ron on
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Kevin Stirtz of Amazing Service Guy has an outstanding post in The Social Customer called, “10 Ways to Turn Online Reviews into More Loyal Customers”. Kevin’s advice is not just smart, it’s easy for any merchant to adopt. Things like, respond to every review; when you’re wrong, apologize; stay positive and consistent. Simple points, but they get at what makes a review platform like Zavee so powerful for local merchants.
I have only a few thoughts to add to Kevin’s. First, I absolutely agree with responding to every review, at least with a thank you. Depending on the platform, merchants can respond publicly (on the platform), privately (via direct message or email), or both. For example, I’ve seen public responses to reviews on TripAdvisor but not on Yelp. I’ve received private responses to reviews on Yelp. Zavee supports both public and private responses. Having access to both domains gives merchants a lot of flexibility but requires thought about how to use them. For example, a general statement of apology probably should always be public, but a promise of specific compensation might best be communicated privately.
Kevin doesn’t make the point explicitly, but underlying his comments is the notion that reviews can be shared socially. An inappropriate response can easily make the social rounds and do more damage than the review that the merchant was responding to. A gracious and informative response can be shared as well, but with the opposite effect. In other words, responses to reviews are marketing communications, and should be crafted as carefully as a news release or an ad.
shout! (via Sandra Nahdi - Creative Commons)
Kevin rightly advises against writing fake positive reviews, calling them a distraction from the real work of improving the business. I agree that they are a distraction but I think another reason to avoid them is that they jeopardize the credibility of the review platform as a whole. Think of it as
“Gresham’s Law” applied to content.
However, merchants frequently tell us they are more concerned about fake negative reviews, e.g., from a competitor or extremely dissatisfied customer. Merchants can never completely prevent malicious reviews but there are two things they can do to limit their impact: First, merchants should be extra vigilant about not rising to the bait and engaging in an online shouting match with the reviewer. Kevin makes this point about all negative reviews but it the more negative the review, the more important the merchant’s self-restraint. Second, merchants should trust their customers. They are pretty good about spotting outlier reviews, recognizing them for what they are and discounting their impact accordingly.
A more annoying problem for merchants is reviews that are stale. Restaurants that have changed chefs, hotels that have repainted their rooms, and stores that have changed suppliers have all been victimized by dated reviews. No one knows why anyone would wait months to describe a shopping, dining or travel experience they probably barely remember, but it is a common occurrence. Our attempt to limit the impact of both dated and false reviews is to permit shoppers to post a review only after making a purchase and within 30 days of that purchase.
The Zavee takeaway:
- Respond to every review, if only to say “Thank you” or “I’m sorry”.
- Treat every review as a marketing opportunity, to both new and existing customers.
- Treat every response a marketing communication, one that may be shared well beyond merchant and customer.
0 comments
Tags: Amazing Service Guy, Communications, customer engagement, Kevin Stirtz, Loyalty, Marketing, Reviews, Small Business, The Social Customer, Tripadvisor, Yelp
by
Ron on
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
Every year some online concept seems to catch on with users, commentators and venture capitalists alike. This year’s hot concept is the “deal of the day” pioneered by Groupon. The daily deal is a deeply discounted product promotion available for one day only. Groupon features the deal on its web site and blasts emails to users who have opted in. It can provide substantial exposure to a marketer or product, although it doesn’t necessarily pay for itself. Is Groupon (or one of its many imitators) right for your business and its products? As usual, it depends.
The marketing psychology behind Groupon’s deals is simple: an ultra-low price to stimulate interest plus very brief availability to stimulate action. You’ve seen the same thing on direct response infomercials on late night TV. But those infomercials work. And so, at least to some extent, do Groupon’s deals.
The New York Times business blog “You’re The Boss” recently analyzed the math behind a typical Groupon deal. Separately, a team at Rice University studied how satisfied merchants were with their Groupon experience, and how likely they would be to use a Groupon deal again.
via Sofianos Rezk (Creative Commons)
In the Times article the bottom line was whether it cost more to acquire net new customers via the Groupon promotion or through conventional channels. That like a perfectly reasonable metric, although perhaps not the only relevant one. In the Times’ example the hypothetical business spent about the same to acquire net new customers through the promotion as through other channels, which made the promotion a wash, but the author pointed out that even small changes to the many variables could alter the result significantly.
That’s important because the Times example described more than a dozen different variables, from the the percentage of coupons redeemed to the percentage of redeeming customers who were not previously customers of the merchant. Depending on these variables a Groupon program could be anything between a home run and a disaster.
But running the numbers is not the only way to decide whether a deal of the day makes sense. The Rice University study led by Professor Utpal M. Dholakia (full pdf available here) reported a wide range of views from merchants concerning their satisfaction with the Groupon promotion and the likelihood of their using Groupon again. The three key predictors of repeating a Groupon promotion were
- Effectiveness in reaching new customers
- Percentage of Groupon users buying more than its value during the visit
- Employee satisfaction with the Groupon promotion
In other words, the promotion would be considered less than successful if it promoted trial but did not produce net new repeat business; did not result in substantial on-premises upsell of Groupon users; and did not satisfactorily account for reductions in commissions and tips. Merchants reported that unless these factors were present they would not be inclined to repeat a Groupon promotion even if their promotion had been profitable:
There is widespread recognition among many business owners that social promotion users are not the relational customers that they had hoped for or the ones that are necessary for their business’ long-term success. Instead, there is disillusionment with the extreme price sensitive nature and transactional orientation of these consumers among many study respondents.
Is Groupon too much of a good thing? The suggestion in the Rice study that Groupon shoppers are qualitatively different from ordinary shoppers would be troubling if true. This would suggest that consumers who are highly motivated by the brief availability of an extreme price reduction are not willing or able to see beyond the deal and are not particularly open to learning about the merchant or her (non-discounted) products.
Are there any benefits to a tool that brings traffic but maybe not genuine trial? It depends on the business. A retailer that does better when the store is full (e.g., because of a social element to the brand) may be able to leverage the traffic Groupon can bring. A restaurant that cannot adequately service a Groupon-driven wave of first-time customers (who may not be the best tippers) is likely to have an unsatisfactory experience regardless of the numbers. The key is to understand the process, understand the numbers and have realistic expectations.
The Zavee takeaway:
- Groupon isn’t as much about promoting trial of your product as it is generating buzz about your brand.
- For the right business, Groupon can result in incremental sales to one-time customers and an acceptable level of new customers, all without upsetting and under-compensating your staff. But it doesn’t seem to happen very often.
- Brands aren’t built with magic bullets. Surprise and delight your customers, reward their continued loyalty, and make it easy for them to share their experiences.
2 comments
Tags: Daily Deals, Deals, Discounts, Groupon, Living Social, Loyalty, New York Times, Research, Rice University, Small Business, Social Promotions, Social Shopping, venture capital
by
Ron on
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
You may not know it, but the co-founders of Zavee have a background as practicing lawyers. That fact is usually enough to keep us from blogging about legal topics on Zavee Thinking, but one of the end-of-term Supreme Court decisions issued yesterday is both interesting and important to small businesses: a patent case called Bilski v. Kappos.
Thomas Jefferson
The Court doesn’t handle patent cases very often, both because the legal issues rarely become Supreme-worthy and because the underlying facts are often very technical. Bilski is an exception on both counts, as the issue is extremely important and the facts aren’t very difficult.
Bilski filed for what is called a “business method” patent, in this case a procedure for instructing buyers and sellers how to hedge against the risk of price fluctuations in the energy sector. The patent application was originally denied because the Appeals Court held that a “process” was patent-eligible only if it either was tied to a particular machine or apparatus or physically transformed a particular article into a different state or thing (think of a process for cutting a diamond or desalinating seawater). This is called the “machine or transformation” test and it played a central role in the Bilsky decision.
No one can patent natural phenomena, laws of nature or (and this is critical) abstract ideas. In fact, the Supreme Court held that the Bilski patent was properly denied not because it failed the “machine or transformation” test – the Court rejected that as a litmus test for process patents – but because it was an abstract idea. The problem for business people is that the Court explicitly refused to define what kinds of business methods could both fail the “machine or transformation” test and pass the “abstract ideas” test – and thus be patent-eligible.
Why is this a big deal? The purpose of patent law (which was pioneered by Thomas Jefferson) is to encourage innovation by granting inventors who disclose their invention a monopoly over the subject of the patent. Some inventors don’t like that bargain: the formula for Coca-Cola has never been patented because its owners think disclosure is too risky – they worry that flavor chemists could reverse-engineer the formula and come up with something that tastes like almost like Coke but doesn’t violate the patent.
With business method patents the risk is the opposite: that despite disclosure businesses could inadvertently infringe on a patent just by conducting their business. Although the patent described in this famous Onion article would never be upheld, Congress was nervous enough about business method patents that in 1999 it enacted a specific defense against certain infringement claims relating to business methods. Even with this defense, however, businesses will have to choose between investing in resources to effectively monitor both new patents and their own business to prevent infringement or take the risk of possible litigation. Either choice is risky and potentially very expensive.
The fundamental question about business method patents is whether they help or hinder innovation. Another way to ask the question is whether the absence of patent protection would deter inventors from incurring the cost and risk of invention. In science and technology, the benefits of patents are clear: no one would invest in drug discovery if the results of their efforts immediately had to be shared – for free – with drug companies that hadn’t put any time or money into the research. On the other hand, methods of doing business have been competing in the marketplace for centuries without patent protection.
Using a similar analysis, four of the nine Justices concluded that business methods should not be patent-eligible, but they were outvoted (all nine agreed that the Bilski patent was too abstract to be eligible). The Court’s opinion has received critical reviews, since it was so narrowly decided that it leaves the important questions unanswered. Yet it seems inevitable that the Court will have to grapple with the issue of business method patents before too long. The lines are blurring between technology that is clearly patent-eligible and abstractions that clearly are not – a factor, perhaps, in the Court’s non-decision – and the risk to both businesses and inventors is great.
The Zavee takeaway:
- Whether methods of doing business are patentable is an important question, one the Supreme Court should have answered yesterday.
- If you are developing a novel way to do business, think twice before investing in a patent. Bilski didn’t kill the business method patent but it didn’t offer a strong endorsement, either.
- It’s not impossible that someday you will be on the receiving end of an infringement claim. If it happens, find the best patent lawyer you can and don’t give up hope – you may be able to beat the claim or even the patent itself.
0 comments
Tags: algorithm, business method patent, Coca-Cola, energy trading, formula, hedging, infringement, law, lawyer, patent law, patents, Small Business, Supreme Court, Thomas Jefferson, trade secret
by
Ron on
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Two recent articles – an opinion piece in AdWeek and a post on a small business marketing blog – got me thinking about taglines. More later about the Zavee tagline (Simple. Local. Social.), but first some thoughts about taglines from a strategic perspective.
Taglines act as a shorthand for communication about a business and its products (or a product). There is only so much a tagline can do without smart strategic thinking and powerful creative execution around it. And, of course, it has to be true to the product and the brand. BMW‘s “Ultimate driving machine” tagline has retained its power for 35 years not just because it promises exactly the experience that its buyers want, but because the company and its products deliver.
35 years and counting
I think of taglines as existing on a spectrum between purely product-oriented messages and purely brand-oriented messages. Messages about your product involve what it does and the benefits it provides. Think of Miller Lite‘s “Tastes great, less filling.” Messages about your brand involve what your company is and what it stands for. IBM’s “Building a smarter planet” is mostly if not entirely about the brand; if you weren’t familiar with the company you couldn’t tell what IBM actually does. Snapple‘s tagline, “Made from the best stuff on Earth”, combines a message about the product with a message about Snapple’s corporate values. Creating a tagline that is right for your company should involve a careful and candid analysis of how both kinds of messages fit into your overall consumer value proposition.
Two things to bear in mind when thinking about taglines are positioning within your space and differentiation vs. similarly positioned competitors. Positioning is about the different high-level choices that you make about how you want consumers see your business. The matrix of choices is different in every category and every business in the category occupies a unique point on this matrix – even when there are only limited functional differences among different companies’ products. In fact, the fewer the differences between competing products, the more important positioning can become. Car insurance is a prime example. At one end of the spectrum there are value-positioned companies like Geico with product-focused taglines (“15 minutes can save you 15% or more …”) and at the other there are premium-positioned companies like Allstate whose messages evoke more of a brand than a product promise (“Are you in good hands?”).
However, multiple businesses within a category may position themselves similarly. When this happens, businesses may try to differentiate themselves on the strength of their creative, and the tagline can be part of that. Charles Schwab‘s “Talk to Chuck” campaign is a novel approach to communicating a client-focused positioning. A more strategic approach, however, is to try to find something differentiating in either the brand or the product that had not previously been taken advantage of. A well-known example in the very crowded breakfast cereal category is Wheaties, which used its heritage with athletes to differentiate itself as “The breakfast of champions.”
Small businesses are frequently advised to focus on product benefits when creating a tagline. Is this good advice or is it too limiting? I think all businesses should use the same process: analyze your product and your brand to determine what is credible, compelling and differentiating; understand your positioning choices; and be aware of what your competitors’ messaging is. Consider Avis. Back in the 1960s, Avis was an upstart compared to industry leader Hertz. It couldn’t compete on the basis of its rental fleet, prices, or number of rental locations. Instead, Avis embraced its positioning as a challenger in a way that also communicated a key brand attribute: commitment to customer service. The Avis tagline was an instant classic: “We try harder.”
What about our tagline? Once, when we were asking ourselves what we wanted Zavee to be, someone put three words on the whiteboard: Simple. Local. Social. Ease of use, focus on local communities, and social networking are key features of our platform and we wanted to make sure that everyone at Zavee kept them top of mind. Making those three words our tagline was almost automatic. Why didn’t we focus on brand messages? In one sense, we did: our commitment to helping local communities become stronger is our most important brand attribute. But in another sense, we don’t think open social networks like Zavee really can (or should try to) create a brand other than organically through its members. I don’t see much brand communication from either Facebook or Twitter and I think they have the right approach.
The Zavee takeaway:
- A tagline is only a tagline. It isn’t your entire marketing campaign.
- Understand what sets your product and your brand apart. Understand the same things about your competitors.
- Positioning involves making difficult choices but it’s the only way to truly differentiate yourself. Focus on the differentiators when you are looking for your tagline. It’s in there somewhere.
0 comments
Tags: AdWeek, Allstate, Avis, BMW, Charles Schwab, Facebook, Geico, Hertz, IBM, Miller Lite, Simple. Local. Social., Small Business, Snapple, tagline, Twitter, Wheaties
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Ron on
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Have you checked in yet?
Foursquare @SXSW
Location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla make use of the GPS capabilities of smartphones to let users communicate in real time not just what they are doing, as with Twitter, but where they are. They are growing rapidly, and for businesses they are well worth checking out.
Both networks are about two years old but have entered the mainstream only recently. Users of Foursquare “check in” at different locations to tell their friends where they are and what they are doing. Foursquare also has an element of game play that lets users collect “badges” for certain activities, such as earning a “barista” badge for checking into five Starbucks. Foursquare has a large user base that skews young and lives in cities, and has attracted a certain amount of backlash (note: strong language at link), although it has its defenders. Gowalla doesn’t depend quite as much on its game mechanics, but supports media files, such as photos, and claims to be looking for a broader (and perhaps older) demographic.
Businesses seem to have less of a “wait and see” attitude toward location-based social networks than they did toward Facebook and Twitter. It may be that, having been through this before with other Social Media outlets they simply need less persuading when it comes to location-based networks. It may also be that the business case for location-based networks is more obvious than with, say, Twitter. Another possibility is that the networks themselves have become business-friendly faster. Foursquare already has the ability to serve merchant offers based on location, although it is still refining its analytics dashboard. In any event, marketers are not sitting on the sidelines. Recently, Pepsico announced a “geo-based loyalty program” in partnership with Foursquare that will reward consumers who check in via iPhone at businesses that serve Pepsi products. The History Channel also is using Foursquare to promote its show, “America, The Story of Us.”
Do networks like Foursquare and Gowalla have relevance for small businesses? We think they do. Even basic data on who has visited a business, how frequently, etc. adds to the merchant’s knowledge of the customer base. Serving offers and other content to those customers has obvious benefits, although it still isn’t clear how the merchant can get a full picture of the return on investment from that content (merchants will know how many people used (and, presumably, saw) the offer, but won’t necessarily know how many of those transactions were made by customers who would have purchased anyway). Checking in to a business from a location-based network also can provide extended word of mouth for the merchant. It’s going to take time to figure out how to use these services for business, but that was true with Facebook and Twitter. And, as with Facebook and Twitter, there is a lot of potential and no real downside for businesses that experiment.
At Zavee we are currently exploring the fit with location-based networks, but we fully anticipate using this technology to add value to the Zavee experience for both merchants and shoppers. With both cash back offers by merchants and reviews by shoppers, Zavee provides a great deal of content whose value can only be enhanced by becoming location-aware.
The Zavee takeaway:
- You heard it about Facebook, you heard it about Twitter. Well, location-based social networks aren’t fads either.
- Businesses have wised up and caught up, and are right on the heels of consumers in discovering how to make these services useful, relevant and rewarding.
- If you were sitting on the sidelines while Facebook and Twitter were becoming huge, don’t let it happen again!
0 comments
Tags: Check In, Facebook, Foursquare, Geo-Based Loyalty Program, Gowalla, GPS, History Channel, iPhone, Location-based social networks, Mobile, Pepsico, Small Business, Smartphones, Social Media, Social Networks, Starbucks, Technology, Twitter
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Ron on
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
When I speak with local merchants about Social Media, I find that they have surprisingly similar levels of awareness, interest and understanding: Almost everyone is familiar with Facebook and YouTube, although they don’t always see the business opportunities, and very few seem to have even heard of LinkedIn. In between is Twitter, which many merchants seem to have heard of but not that many seem to be interested in. The comment I’ve gotten from more than one local merchant is, “I don’t have time for everything and I have to draw the line somewhere.”
The Greater Delray Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce has been kind enough to ask me to speak about how businesses can use Twitter – and why they should. My presentation, which is part of a “Tech Talk and Coffee” about Social Media for Business, is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 at 7:30am. Other speakers will cover Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. The session is open to the public as well as to Chamber members and every local business should find it useful, even businesses that haven’t considered adding Social Media to their marketing mix.
By now most people have heard of Twitter. Oprah uses it. So does the White House. It’s a free micro-blogging service that lets users publish short notes (called “tweets”) of up to 140 characters in real time. There are smartphone applications for Twitter, so it is a fully mobile service. Users can “follow” other users and see their tweets in their Twitter stream. Following and being followed is how users build a community on Twitter. Users also can search by keywords or topics to find relevant tweets. Users can reply to tweets, forward (“retweet”) them, and include links to web sites or other media. Engaging in these conversations is a good way to attract followers.
Broadly speaking, there are at least four ways businesses can use Twitter.
Listening Post. Twitter’s most significant benefit to business is its immediacy. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in January 2009 there were posts, including photos, on Twitter within minutes. If you want to know what your customers, competitors, vendors, etc. are thinking right now, Twitter is a great way to find out. Listening on Twitter is also a great source of ideas and information. Using Twitter’s search functions can widen any business’ horizons.
Brand Builder. Tweeting regularly with timely, relevant information creates interest in you and your brand. This works best when most of the tweets are on a subject that relates to your business but does not overtly promote the business itself. For example, if your restaurant wants to be known for its fresh produce, you could tweet about sustainable farming, its local purveyors, and even the weather. You will attract followers on Twitter who might become customers themselves or retweet your posts to others. Media outlets have become big Twitter users and you could find your restaurant covered in the newspaper just by using Twitter adeptly.
Lead Generator. Twitter lets users form, and join, communities. Twitter’s search functions make it easy to identify other users with similar interests or in similar businesses. Mutual following puts a business’ tweets in its followers’ streams and vice versa. You can get leads from Twitter communities built on common interests both by reading relevant tweets and simply by asking for help.
Help Desk. Twitter is an outstanding platform for providing customer service. Responding in near real time to a tweet that asks for assistance – or jumping in to solve a problem you see on a tweet from a customer even if it isn’t directed to you – not only helps your customer, it helps cement (or improve) your reputation as a business that cares about its customers. One of the earliest business adopters of Twitter was Comcast, a company not known for the quality of its customer service. Comcast now has a full-time staff that monitors Twitter for customer complaints and responds almost immediately. When you ask your customers to follow you on Twitter you are not just gaining access to them, you are providing access to yourself. Since all of your followers will see these interactions the potential benefits of using Twitter to help your customers quickly are huge.
At Zavee we try to use Twitter for all of these functions, and we continue to learn as we go. Here are a few suggestions for getting started with Twitter:
- If you don’t feel comfortable putting your business name out there right away, start with a personal Twitter account.
- Listen first, then start asking questions, make suggestions, and in no time you will be part of the action.
- Pass along stuff, including links and retweets, that’s timely, relevant and interesting, but don’t overdo it. Original material is more useful and will result in more followers.
- Most important of all, be yourself.
0 comments
Tags: Brand Builder, Chamber of Commerce, Facebook, Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, Help Desk, Lead Generator, LinkedIn, Listening Post, Oprah, Small Business, Social Media, Tech Talk and Coffee, Twitter, US Airways Flight 1549, White House, YouTube
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Ron on
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
They aren’t always quick to see it, but local merchants have some built-in advantages over national chains and big-box retailers. There’s no denying that local merchants find it hard to compete on price. But consumers don’t care only about price: they care about service, too, and that’s a real opportunity for local merchants.
A recent survey found that women increasingly are shopping for clothing online. How does that news help local merchants? A whopping 84 percent of those who reported taking their business away from bricks and mortar stores did so because of poor customer service. And customer service is where local merchants have an advantage over larger competitors. Owners and managers of local businesses usually are closer to the customer, and are often the first to hear about issues or concerns. They have the ability to react to customer needs and even break (or change) the rules if circumstance dictate.
Chanel Boutique on Wicklow Street (via chacrebleu)
One thing local merchants can do to exploit their natural advantages is to adopt a “boutique” mentality. One big difference between boutiques and other stores is their focus on providing a unique, personalized experience, not just selling a product. Customers often respond favorably to that experience, not just by paying extra for it once, but by becoming loyal customers and by sharing their experiences with their social circle. The combination of premium pricing, repeat business and word of mouth is exactly what local businesses want to achieve.
The boutique mentality isn’t limited to retail. There are boutique hotels, boutique wineries, even boutique auto mechanics – a really good one services my race car. Most boutiques are small, but they are defined by service, not size. A small retailer that doesn’t provide a unique experience to every customer isn’t a boutique; it’s just small.
Part of the boutique experience is the sense that the relationship with the customer doesn’t end with the sale. Whether it’s as simple as a follow-up phone call or as elaborate as a series of surprise gifts, boutiques understand that continuing to engage after the sale helps create customers who are not just loyal, but vocal.
The best boutiques thrive on data. Knowing and catering to customer preferences is the hallmark of the successful boutique, especially boutique hotels. But hotels aren’t the only boutiques that have access to data about their customers. With tools like Zavee, almost any business can learn who their best customers are, how much they spend and how frequently.
It may take some effort to fit the boutique mentality into a business that doesn’t already have it. It certainly takes commitment to make it work, because it requires a focus on the customer that isn’t second nature for every merchant. And it sometimes requires some investment, especially for businesses that are new to managing customer data. But it may be just what a merchant needs to compete in difficult times.
The Zavee takeaway:
- A business that wants to charge more, generate repeat business and earn referrals from vocally loyal customers should think and act like a boutique.
- Boutiques are customer-focused before, during and after the sale, and rely on data to understand customer preferences.
- The boutique mentality can be applied to businesses in virtually every category; it just takes commitment and creativity.
0 comments
Tags: Auto Mechanics, Big-box retail, Boutique, Boutique mentality, Chain, Customer data, Customer preferences, Customer service, Hotel, Loyalty, Media Post, Retail, Small Business, Survey, Winery, Word of mouth
by
Ron on
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
It doesn’t seem very long ago that Zavee existed solely in our developer’s test environment. But we have been up and running for a while now, working out the inevitable kinks and fixing the kinds of “what were we thinking?” mistakes that customers can spot in a heartbeat.
One of the things that is working well is our merchant search capability. Every Zavee user – merchant, shopper and cause – is precisely geo-located, so Zavee can center a search on a specific shopper and display the merchants within a true radius. This capability lets us do a lot of interesting things. One thing we can do is promote merchants to shoppers based on distance.
Our new “Featured Merchants” capability, which we are introducing this week, highlights specific merchants for a week at a time. However, to keep relevance and interest high, shoppers will see only those Featured Merchants within the radius they specify. In other words, shoppers in Fort Lauderdale will see a different list of Featured Merchants than shoppers in West Palm Beach.
This week’s crop of Featured Merchants provides a wonderful cross-section of the forward-thinking merchants who have joined Zavee:
Minuteman Press in Boca Raton is a full color commercial printing house that can produce a wide variety of printed materials, from brochures and catalogs to corporate letterhead and business cards to signs and banners. Minuteman is one of the few South Florida printers with the expertise to operate the world-renowned Heidelberg line of full-color presses.
Custom Vision Care in West Boca specializes in the most advanced techniques and technologies create a customized visual rehabilitation program for every patient. Above and beyond conventional lenses and treatments, Dr. Marotte and his staff maximize patients’ visual efficiency, visual comfort and safety. Visit Dr. Marrotte for a personal eye exam and visual needs consultation.
Ultra Cleaners Pointe at Wellington Green is the west county location of one of South Florida’s premier dry cleaners. Ultra Cleaners is continually improving its processes, investing in new state-of-the art equipment, and constantly recruiting skilled employees. Not near Wellington? Search on Zavee to locate Ultra’s other convenient locations.
Jimmy’s Bistro is one of the best-kept secrets in Delray’s exciting restaurant scene – but it won’t be a secret for long. The owner, Jimmy, has a resume that would be the envy of any chef in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Jimmy worked in New York for 10 years at world-class restaurants such as Aureole and Le Chantilly. He also is one of the few American chefs in South Florida who worked for a year and a half at some of leading restaurants in Paris, including famed brasserie Zephyr and trendy bistro La Robe et le Palais.
Coral Springs Flowers & Events has supplied flowers and floral arrangements for some of the area’s most elegant events. With an outstanding reputation for the freshest products and the most creative concepts, Corals Springs Flowers & Events should be at the top of the list for everyone who is looking for a high-end floral solution.
Coral Springs-based David Seidner, P.T., D.C. says, “You’re in pain, I can help.” As the only dual-licensed doctor in all of South Florida with professional medical expertise as both a Physical Therapist as well as Chiropractic physician he can assure you that you will receive extraordinary treatment and care supported by the most advanced equipment and technology.
Located in North Lauderdale, A.S.E. Car Care Specialists is a complete auto repair facility. A.S.E. technicians can handle not just the usual tire repairs and oil changes but are fully qualified to perform complete engine rebuilding and electrical rewiring and repair. Wonder where the “A.S.E.” name comes from? Every one of their mechanics is certified by the prestigious National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.
From fires to floods, ServiceMaster Clean by Robinson is Broward County’s disaster recovery specialist. Based in Fort Lauderdale but willing to travel anywhere, ServiceMaster Clean operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to insure timely disaster restoration response to restore your home or get your business back in business!
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