Marketing Tip: Go the Extra Mile
Sunday, June 27, 2010
It never ceases to amaze me how a customer's experience is often less than ideal. You hear stories all the time about rude customer service agents or front line employees checking people through the register while simultaneously talking on their cell phones... HELLO!!!
Today's quick marketing tip is about going the extra mile. As a Napolean Hill follower and someone who has benefited tremendously from understanding where to focus my energy, it's always on going the extra mile. The good news is that the concept, as simply as it may be, carry's great value.
I recently had a very good experience with this when visiting a local retailer. I asked someone if they had any more items of a particular kind in the back of the store. After waiting a few minutes, the clerk came back and said 'no'. But she didn't stop there. She said, "let me call another store to see if they have any in stock." After calling the store and discovering that they were out of stock as well, she called a competitor to see if they had the item - which they did.
She was focused on making me happy. And because she went the extra mile, I will be back to her store many times over. The lesson to be learned here is to treat each and every customer with dignity and respect. And, most importantly, to go the extra mile. This pays dividends time and again.
When you are putting together your marketing program, work diligently to ask the question, "how can I go the extra mile?" Collaborate with people on your team, your customer service group, and even your customers. By baking additional value into the marketing and purchase process, you'll build everlasting loyalty among your customers!
Marketing Blog founder and top-selling author Michael Fleischner has been featured on The TODAY Show, ABC World News, and Bloomerg Radio. 
12 comments :
Excellent advice and one that should be utilized in all service professions. What I like to stress to my team is to treat every client as you would want to be treated. We all appreciate it when someone goes the extra mile for something we need - so it shouldn't be so hard to do the same for others.
Very nice. I totally agree on how customer representatives try their best to make their customer happy and satisfied. I have noticed a lot of customer representative sometimes if its outsourced, they tend to think inside the box. I believe that it is because of the limited scope they are allowed to do. Doing extra sometimes for their customers meant disciplinary actions. Like a very old customer complaining to have a defective computer part and since he is very old, we cannot in fact expect him to fix the computer over the phone like we do to the younger ones right? So after our customer did some of the basic troubleshooting with us, I believe that we can have that computer part replaced already regardless if there's warranty or not. Just to make the customer happy and satisfied. But in cases like this, reps should study the case logs first if its customer first experience or if he in habit of asking for replacements. If so, then you need to call your supervisor and let him/her decide on this matter. But sometimes a cust rep who did replace the part, were given warning since it is what is written on their scope and limitation and the call is subject on the QA checklist. Obviously, the call maybe marked failed since the rep did give the replacement even if its without warranty. This maybe given a very high deduction to his QA score sheet.
This is just an example I have experienced before when I was working for cust rep of a very large computer co. in USA
Hey Michael, great post as usual!
I agree, in my humble opinion you only remember a really good or a really bad experience... so why not go the extra mile and make sure that your business is top of mind, in a positive light..
matt (http://marketmpb.blogspot.com)
Excellent marketing tips. It is really helpful for marketing people online. Thanks for sharing.
Well Michael a nice article,more over because its based on your personal experience,but tell me one thing is it always feasible to go to that extra mile, As a marketing management student from India I have been taught to traet your customer as god but many times you need take the call, should each and every customer be treated in this way or should we must understand who are our valued customer nad who are not, if the customer really holds a big value then he should be traeted accordingly but for nay one you cannt give so much of time and energy....at least thats what I feel
Great post!! Excellent information
Hi!
I think it is imperative for businesses to train their personnel to attend to the customers in a 'signature style'. This works better than all forms of communications for customer relationship management.
I really enjoyed reading your post!
I agree with you that services must be marketed well and that customers must be kept satisfied if a company is to succeed. I think a great way for a firm to accomplish this is by practicing internal marketing. Employees who are well taken care of by their firms will carry their satisfaction and loyalty over to the customers they service.
Also, giving employees decision making power and autonomy gives them a sense of pride and ownership in the company that will translate into better serivce for the customer and keep him or her coming back!
No guide is better than this! Its very helpful to us..
Thank you.
Well, I also agree that as sales representatives they should treat their customers very well and go extra mile to do that. They should always make customers happy and satisfied.
You are dead on. Along with treating customers well, the same applies to the people you market to - before you even know who they are - and sales prospects who haven't shown themselves to be a hot lead. When you show you are willing to help people solve problems when there is no money on the table, people come looking for you when there is.
By the way, nobody's perfect and mistakes happen. Good companies capitalize on mistakes by taking advantage of the escalation that occurs naturally. Provide a great recovery and develop a relationship with that VP you've never been able to meet.
I think that It's never late to spend some extra time to prove your work. And these marketing tips are really very useful.Thanks for this blog.
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