Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Customer Testimonials, Turn Current Customers into Reference Accounts

By the Sloan Brothers, Head Coaches, StartupNation

If you were looking for a dentist to correct some dental problems that have been bothering you, what would influence you more as a consumer: A slick ad in the Sunday paper, or a conversation with a neighbor who reports that last week he had the most amazing experience at the dentist’s office - they treated him like royalty, the procedure happened on time and was painless, they were sensitive to his concerns, they offered him flexible payment terms, and they gave him a free toothbrush on the way out?

Or, if you had to make a decision about a lunch spot for tomorrow, what would influence you most? A coupon that arrives in the mail for a deal on pizza, or the people at work who come back from lunch raving about the new pizzeria that just opened around the corner that was so good, they can’t wait to take you there tomorrow?

You get the picture - that’s the power of customer testimonials and the reason to use reference accounts, existing customers who’ve had a very positive experience with you and whose testimony can influence the decisions of prospective customers. These references accounts can be a powerful tool of persuasion. Customer testimonials are reliable, honest, and unbiased.

Customer testimonials speak louder than other marketing language
Elizabeth Topp, a home-based life coach in Los Angeles says, “As a life coach supporting people in their personal growth and transformation, my product is challenging to promote through advertising verbiage. So when I have clients who are happier, more empowered and moving toward their goals, they become my greatest marketing asset.” As Elizabeth’s clients start noticing their own improvement, she’s quick to capture that in the form of customer testimonials. “When I create marketing literature, it’s the testimonials of my clients that provide the best information about my business.”

This is true in her promotional materials, but also in her everyday dialogue with prospects. “When I talk to new potential customers, I usually use names of previous customers to create an air of credibility for my business,” Elizabeth says, “even though most of the time the person considering my services never actually dials up the references at all.” Just the fact that she’s able to drop the name builds confidence on the part of her prospect.

Make the most of customer testimonials

• Get testimonials in writing: Ask your current customers for a written testimonial you can share with other potential customers
• Make it free: Consider offering your product or service for free to get your first customers who can act as reference accounts
• Use a “Case Study”: Present prospects with a “case study” showing how you satisfied a particular customer. Walk through it step by step.
• Give out phone numbers: Letting prospects dial up your existing customers enables them to get information straight from your customers and to explore special concerns and interests that weren’t covered in the written testimonial.

Even once you’re rolling in revenue and you can support a big advertising budget, you may find that the most powerful and effective strategy remains customer testimonials.

Our Bottom Line
Next time a customer says to you, “Wow, I can’t thank you enough.” Tell them, “Actually, yes you can.” They can thank you enough by putting their gratitude in writing. Get customer testimonials from existing clients so you can acquire new ones. Reference accounts speak volumes, so let them speak for you.

Copyright ©2006 StartupNation, LLC

About StartupNation© and the Sloan Brothers
Founded by Jeff and Rich Sloan, StartupNation (www.startupnation.com) is a vibrant community which provides free advice and resources for entrepreneurs who want to start a business. Through www.startupnation.com, entrepreneurs access articles, podcasts and seminars as well as connect with mentors and peers through StartupNation’s online network. Hosts of StartupNation Radio, the Sloan brothers are successful inventors, experienced entrepreneurs and authors of “StartupNation: Open for Business” (Doubleday). They’ve been featured in numerous, international publications and frequently appear on national television. For more information, visit www.startupnation.com

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The Secret to What Keeps Customers Coming Back

By John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing

An often-discussed topic in the world of small business marketing is the idea of getting your customers to come back for more and to keep coming back for more. The most profitable businesses in the world are built this way. I have a simple approach to this challenge and it may change the way you look at customer loyalty.

Earning your second sale with a client has as much to do with the way you generated the lead, presented your value proposition and converted the prospect to a client as it does with some technique your employ after the sale.

Customer loyalty is a natural by-product of targeting the right client, with right need and setting and exceeding their expectations. The rest is just details.

What happens when the phone actually rings?

So you’ve managed to make the phone ring. It’s an ideal prospect on the other end; now what? It’s amazing how few small business owners consider this question.

There’s no question that certain people are more naturally suited to the role of lead conversion than others, but we’re not talking about certain people, we’re talking about you and your business. What I want to introduce in this article is a system that will allow almost anyone to succeed, even with average lead-conversion skills.

A lead conversion system relies on three distinct components:

Discovery - In discovery, the central goal is to discover if a prospect actually fits your ideal target market. If you’ve done a good job in your marketing up to this point, you will usually attract qualified prospects. Your lead conversion system should help you quickly make this assessment on an individual basis and continue to deliver the expectations you have set with initial lead generation activity.

Presentation - Whether across the desk or over the phone, most businesses need to present an offer of a product or service to the eventual buyer. The Duct Tape Marketing tool of choice for this step is something I call an Internal Seminar. The Internal Seminar is a quasi-scripted presentation made as part of your initial client meetings.

Transaction -The final leg of the Lead Conversion System is a planned “first purchase” transaction process. In other words, a thought out and consistently executed way to take the order, deliver the goods or execute an agreement. Put a little flair into this sometimes, awkward step in the client relationship building process and you are well on your way to order number two and three.

What to do when a prospect says yes

Many small business owners spend months chasing a new customer and then once they land them, have no process in place to make sure they serve they wow them and exceed their expectation.

When a client says yes you should be prepared to shift your marketing process to teach them how to get the most from this new relationship or product by putting a new customer kit in their hands. Your new customer kit allows your new client to fully understand what to expect now that they are a client. That’s right your educational marketing approach doesn’t end once you make a sale. Almost every type of business, service or product based, should develop “training” documents that communicate key bits of information.

Your new customer kit can contain pages that explain:

• What to expect from us next
• How to contact us if you have a question
• How to get the most from your new product/service
• What we need from you to get started
• What we agreed upon today
• How we invoice for our work
• A copy of our invoice

Creating a series of documents like the one’s suggested above and having a systematic step that allows you to communicate this information demonstrates a level of professionalism not always displayed by small businesses. Nothing derails a client relationship faster than failing to set and meet initial expectations.

So now you have a customer loyalty generating system based on solid marketing principles that anyone in your firm can operate.

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. www.ducttapemarketing.com His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

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What Happens When The Customer Isn’t Right?

By Glenn Ross, author of Customer Service Experience blog, AllBusiness.com

We have all had difficult customers. It’s bad enough in a business where the customer just quits doing business with you, but it’s even worse when you’re managing an account too important to lose and your opposite number is that person.

How can you train your employees to handle a difficult customer?

Years ago I worked in a jewelry store and had a customer come in who accused our manager of selling her an aquamarine ring that did not have a gold mount.

She complained that the ring had “turned” as she put it, and showed him where the ring mount had discolored. He told me later he noticed that these spots were indicative of a spray pattern and that further, the stone itself had some sort of gunk underneath it. He also verified that the mount was stamped “14kt.” Rings of 14 karat do not “turn” by themselves.

The jeweler we used for repairs was housed in the same mall as my store. My manager borrowed the ring from the customer, walked down to see him and they both agreed that the discoloration was caused by stains from an external source, not from the metal. He quickly cleaned the stone and polished the mount. They both looked brand new.

The manager returned to the store and asked the customer if she washed dishes while wearing the ring. She said she did. That explained the gunk under the stone. He asked her if she wore her jewelry when she sprayed perfume. She replied that she did that as well. He explained that the perfume was causing the discoloration of the mount. She was incredulous because she had been convinced we had sold her a piece of, well; let’s call it “junk.” In fact, the fault, dear Brutus, lay with her. My manager explained that she should remove her jewelry when she was washing dishes (especially important with semi-porous stones like opals) and when applying perfume. While I won’t say she left the store “happy” she was mollified and we did not have to give her a refund or credit.

Here are the lessons I learned:

1. Listen with the intent to understand, not to argue. My manager remained courteous, even friendly, and professional. He came out from behind the counter subconsciously demonstrating that he was not trying to hide. The biggest mistake most inexperienced sales people make is that they try to argue with the customer.

2. Gather the facts, and then take them to someone even more knowledgeable. Our jeweler, who was the most knowledgeable person available, agreed with the manager and probably was the one who suggested perfume as one of the causes.

3. Do the work. My manager had him clean the ring, returning it to its original splendor. Fortunately, this only took less than five minutes. Remember, the complaint was really that the ring was damaged and the customer wanted it fixed.

4. Explain situation and ways to prevent problems from recurring. He returned to the customer with the now cleaned ring and explained politely, but firmly what we believed to be the causes of the problem and suggested how she could avoid it in the future.

I wouldn’t say the customer left “happy”, she was still upset. But I’ll bet that the next day she realized that she had been the source of the problem, and further probably learned an important lesson in removing jewelry before exposing it to dish water and perfume. We never came to the point of her insisting on getting her money back.

We were trained to provide instructions on how to protect jewelry and watches when they were sold to customers. I don’t know if this had been done when the aquamarine had been sold or not. But my boss related his story to the staff who didn’t witness the incident and reminded everyone how important it was. Providing “care and feeding” instructions during a sale can prevent a situation like this from occurring. If, that is, the customer listens and remembers what you tell her.

Glenn Ross writes the “Customer Service Experience” weblog for AllBusiness.com. He is currently the American Cancer Society’s Constituent Relationship Management Director for six states. Visit Glenn’s blog at www.allbusiness.com/blogs/customerserviceexperience

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