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We all hear about the importance of great customer service and the potential benefits of implementing a solid CRM (customer relationship management) strategy. We don’t always hear about the specific and unique ways businesses can harness the power of superior customer service to differentiate themselves and leapfrog competitors. Customer service has become an integral aspect of 3rd Street’s success and allows us to create a genuine emotional connection with our clients. Remember, customer service is an investment not an expense. Business owners often focus on return on investment (ROI) instead of viewing the lifetime value of a customer.
A key ingredient to strong relationships is developing emotional connections. At the end of the day it’s not what you say or do, but how you make people feel that matters the most. In order for someone to feel good about a relationship, they must know the other person truly cares about them, both personally and professionally. “3rd Street Marketing has met and then exceeded our hopes and expectations. The staff is easy to work with and very accommodating. Their sincere and enthusiastic effort to understand our needs is evident and greatly appreciated.” - Pam Botis-Shoreline Village
With the Internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent whether they like it or not. An unhappy customer or a disgruntled employee can blog about bad experience with a company, and the story can spread like wildfire by email or with tools like Twitter. The good news is that the reverse is true as well. A great experience with a company can be read by millions of people almost instantaneously, so don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside of the box.
This is why building long term relationships and going above and beyond is imperative to a company’s success. Everything is customer service. Every action you take — the design of your web site, your content, how you answer email — communicates something to your customer. About serving her. About helping her. Be a good listener. Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel.
“3rd Street Marketing isn’t just about cranking out text. They see the bigger picture – how our products fit together, what our customers expect of us, and how our partners compliment our solutions”. -Carrie Kulak-SafeStone Technologies, Inc.
- What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere?
- What can you give customers that is totally unexpected?
Ask yourself these types of questions when reviewing your businesses current CRM strategy. Price and quality can be easily copied – how you create and manage customer relations is much more difficult to imitate.
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Each year over 400 billion dollars is invested in advertising campaigns. Yet, a considerable amount of these ads still fail to properly engage consumers. Well, not for long. An emerging field of study called neuromarketing has fused consumer behavior with neuroscience, allowing marketers to peer inside the consumers’ brain using an array of metrics to measure engagement levels, locate consumer “buy buttons” , evaluate ad memorability or even unlock valuable subconscious information.
Neuromarketing companies are focusing their efforts on our brains activity during subconscious processing. Surveys and focus groups are the traditional means of research; however, neuromarketers are crying foul on these typical strategies because they do not reflect how consumers actually feel or what they really want. It’s the neuromarketers job to tap into these thoughts and offer companies valuable insights into what consumers are truly thinking.Here’s how it works. Volunteers either undergo an fMRI scan or wear a fabric cap that houses an EEG(studies brain electrical frequencies) sensors and an eye-tracking device while they look at a commercial, use a web site, or view a movie trailer. These dual devices enable researchers to connect the volunteers’ brain patterns with exact video images or banner ads or logos. With all this, they are able to measure attention, emotion, and memory; basically connecting stimuli with deep subconscious response.
Although the technology is in its infancy, businesses are starting to allocate larger portions of their research budgets towards neuroscience technology. So who’s jumped on board? Google, CBS, Disney, Frito-Lay, A&E, and political campaigns.
Obviously, there are some ethical concerns that arise with the use of this technology. Brainwashing is one term commonly used to describe the practice. On the other hand, advocates argue that these tests simply provide consumers with better products and services, enhance user experience, and tailor only relevant and valuable advertising to end users. Whether you’re for it, or against it. Nueromarketing is gaining traction in the marketing industry and could possibly revolutionize how marketing research is conducted in the future. Will traditional research methods become a thing of the past? Do our subconscious thoughts posses the key to better marketing? Will neuromarketers enslave our population and control our deepest desires and buying decisions? Only time will tell.
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What’s the ROI of social media? That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question that marketers and businesses alike are grappling to define. Unfortunately, there is no uniform metric to calculate the financial benefits around human interactions and conversations. They’re not quantifiable. That would be like asking what the ROI of a business card is.
We firmly believe that for a Social Media Business strategy to be ‘successful’ requires a philosophy to be adopted before any discussions are had about platforms, ROI’s, interfaces and the like. Education leading to understanding is the biggest obstacle to begin with. Only then can suitable approaches/strategies be decided upon.
Visualize social media as the vehicle, not the destination. Once this concept is understood we can tailor our approaches to identify the value of specific activities we engage in via social platforms. Have costs decreased or sales increased? Have brand perceptions improved? Are we better equipped to respond to issues that affect brand reputation? These are the types of clearly defined strategies and objectives that allow us to define success.
Check out “4 Unique Approaches for Measuring Social Media ROI” to help validate your social media efforts.
Driving Traffic. Driving Results.
E: info@3rdstreet.com
T: 562.435.0333
