020 The Invisible Touch – Pulverizing Your Competition With A Roll Of Paper

Fallacies of Marketing

Points of Contacts – where do you "touch" your customers? Online? Bricks and Mortar Store? Email? Direct Mail? At the Cash Register? While they stand in line or when they enter your store?

Harry Beckwith uses a bookstore as his example and since I spend every Tuesday morning in my local Borders (for my DPS Time – Dreaming, Planning, Scheming Time), I'll use it too.

He points out several places where the bookstore come in contact with their customers and here's my list:

Outside signage, parking (lots of it nearby? free? hard to get there?), what appears in the windows as we get close, the temperature, the cleanliness (floors, tables, chairs, restrooms – ahhhh, the restrooms are so often overlooked by most establishments), the entrance, the greeting (or lack of it) upon entering, the line to pay (is it long? is the person behind the counter friendly, helpful, suggesting other things to buy), the cafe (Borders has Seattle's Best, and I buy something every time I'm in the store), the information desk, passing employees as we walk around, and SO many more.

Take Stock Of Your Points Of Contact

Could you have come up with such a list? Can you come up with that list for YOUR work?

Here's a couple to focus on (that I talk over with the manager of my local Borders):

1. They USED to be excellent at keeping their checkout line short. My theory is this: we can shop for HOURS, but if we have to stand in a checkout line more than about 3 minutes, our tempers get short. OR… we can be in an office building or hotel for much of the day and not care how long the elevator takes to get from floor to floor once we are IN the elevator, but if we have to wait more than 30 seconds our tempers get short. Find places like this for YOUR business… no sense getting your customers angry at you if and when you can prevent the problem.

2. Borders has recently instituted GREETERS at the front door who hand out coupons and specials on 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of paper. The employees HATE it. They feel it's demeaning. They chatter about how using a person for this takes away someone who could be refilling the shelves, answering questions at the information counter or checking people out when they are ready to buy.

But consider this (an example I use NOT from Borders but from another company): What if you wanted to be in the public relations department of a large, popular company. You work hard, you took the right classes, you know what you're doing, but one day your boss goes to you and asks you to put on a new mascot costume and parade around like a fool to "entertain" the customers. Do you think of this the way the Borders employees think of this greeter position, hate it, and feel it's demeaning to you and all you've worked for?

OR…

…do you think of it the way Dave Raymond thought about it when the Philadelphia Phillies came up with the idea for the Philly Phanatic, one of the most recognizable and successful mascots in all of sports? Oh, sure… it's easy NOW to say you'd jump around and entertain the crowd (and get paid more than $100,000 a year to do it), but back when the Phanatic was created, only the San Diego Chicken was a success and this "phanatic-thing" looked like a crazy creature.

As I wrote in 014 – The Fallacy of the Ordinary Job, the JOB isn't ordinary, but the person doing it (and his/her mindset) might be.

How Do YOU Wrap Up A Sale

One of the points of contact that Minneapolis toy store Creative KidStuff looked at was how it was packaging what its customers purchased. As Toys-R-Us was closing stores, Creative KidStuff was growing. Could it really have crushed its competition with a roll of wrapping paper?

How did they make their customers FEEL as they left the store?

Look at those at the cash registers at most stores… limited eye contact, more time tapping keys or scanning bar codes than making contact with the person with the money. Do they ask them "what else can I get you" or do they ask "is that all?"

It's not just what customers FIND in your establishment, it's how they FEEL, how the EXPERIENCE affected them. Way too many businesses forget that vital part: people want to feel GOOD with their experience: they go back when they do.

It's now time – take stock of your points of contact – improve them, innovate some, and be sure your customers leave FEELING good.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Fallacies of Marketing

020 The Invisible Touch – Pulverizing Your Competition With A Roll Of Paper