It’s official I’m a switcher — lessons to learn from an Imac

It is no secret that I have been a Mac fan for years. Well for christmas I was finally given my dream — a get out of jail free card from PC hell. My new Imac is so great I should have done this along time ago. The one thing I have always loved about Apple is their ability to take technology and make it MORE valuable to you than anybody else. See creating new technology isn’t the same as it was 10 where if you had the next cool idea people would flock to it. Today with so many products on  the market its about convergence — products are about making your life easier and making thing work together. The philosophy in the tech industry has to be the same with your business which is this. What can you do to make your customers lives easier and more value from using what you sell?The greatest part of my new Imac is the same as my ipod — the technology gives me more time by using my computer.Let me give you my 1st case in point my digital camera. I got a Cannon ELPH for christmas a few years ago and of course I had to get the software for my PC loaded, then the PC had to recognize the device, then I had to open the Cannon program, then hit a button on the camera to let the PC know that it had pictures to upload on it, I then had to hit acquire to get the program to pull them off, after 3 minutes I closed the program because I could never find the pictures I just uploaded and finally go to the my pictures folder under todays date to see the pics in windows preview. I thought thats what you had to do all of those steps to get your pictures until 2 weeks ago. After setting up my Imac which literally took 4 minutes the system asked me if I wanted to see tutorials on Leopard OS I said yes. I was okay until I saw iphoto then I almost had a heart attack. All I needed to do to get photos off my camera was to plug it in to the USB in my Imac and then photos appeared INSTANTLY. No software, buttons to hit , recognizing devices just my photos on my computer. Hell I didn’t even launch Iphoto it did it for me. Now I thought my Ipod was easy but this blew it away. Now my life and learning this new OS is mostly realizing that Apple has made Leopard much simpler than I’m used to which is what we all need. My new Imac saves me a TON of time with the steps I no longer need to take doing routine tasks(more on this in later posts)My lesson for today is this look at the ways that your customer expect their lives to be hard what can you do to make it easier. A great example is this when people need customer service treat them better than you treat new or potential customers. Send them a Thank you letter or a discount certificate when anybody has a problem. Tell them you are GRATEFUL they brought this to your attention so you can make sure it doesn’t happen to future customers. Reinforce that you are truly sorry that they have had this challenge and do what it takes in their eyes to resolve it. Basically be HAPPY when people have challenges because they are giving you the opportunity to make your company stronger and probably more PROFITABLE for future interactions. I’m going to be posting on this next question in detail soon but ask yourself this everyday.WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW THAT WILL ADD MORE VALUE IN YOUR CUSTOMERS LIFE?     

Yet another reason why Steve Jobs and Apple are the best ever

I love the Apple stores I always have. However I was walking through the mall today and I saw one of the greatest ways of show potential customers that we have plenty of staff here to serve you , they are easy to find(even from clear across the mall), and even with a completely packed store potential customers saw there was plenty of staff on hand that are HAPPILY serving their current customers in the Store. So the million dollar question is how did I get all that information will just a GLANCE at the Apple Store on my way to the Food Court at Christiana Mall. I’ll give you a hint it has to do with topic that I wrote about four weeks ago on this blog about Macy’s Department Store and their utter stupidity of how they present their employees. Do a quick read I’ll wait here if you haven’t yet you’ll understand what I’m about to share. So as I was saying before what colors your eyes use to make decisions on what to pay attention too.

Now NOT only did I pay attention but it ALMOST drew me into the store just because all the employees looked like they where having so much fun helping customers I wanted to feel like those customers felt– positive and relaxed (did I mention the store was PACKED– It’s less than 4 weeks till Christmas on a rainy Sunday at the mall ). SO I have 4 questions for you about my experience that I help to see why this was so amazing. First how was I able to see ALL the employees from across the mall? Second How could I tell that they had enough staff help a packed store? Third what the employees attitude was before I entered the store? and Fourth How could I have gotten all that info with just a quick glance? The answer was the color that all the employees where wearing got me to do that in like two seconds flat. I one of those colors that gets you to stop what you are doing and say whats that. With the backdrop of the apple store being clear it easy to see through.

The color is RED yes Stop light RED. We all do what we are taught as consumers or people. The rules that we have been taught when it comes to that color are plentiful. Our mind makes INSTANT associations when we see fire engine RED. It SCREAMS pay attention to me –your life my depend on it. So they used the color to send the same message but for a different reason. Who ever in Apple designs these little strategies is an absolute genius. Your eyes also reflect off of RED when you see it to determine its meaning. in other words you look for whats around it to determine its meaning. That’s how I was able to see the smiles because my eyes pulled off the shirts. It also allowed me to see how many employees where there compared to customers. Now that’s a Message that display ultimate shopping confidence– the one thing we are all looking for this holiday season–a reason to believe and trust in ANY retail business.

WEBMASTERS – LISTEN–What can you do to make the customers experience Amazing

The other day I was on Amazon.com and I was updating my recommended list. Once I got 5 minutes into that list I realized why it is that I stop working on it every single time. Amazon.com make the layout of the site easy but once you want to do something they make it a lot harder than it needs to be. So I wanted to tell them about the laundry list of things I saw they could do to make the customers experience easier and more productive. Guess what? I look through 3 pages from where I was and I couldn’t find a feedback link. Listen Amazon finding out what your customers think should be more important than selling stuff because when you frustrate customers you lose them PERIOD. So a feedback link (unless I am blind) should be as easy to find and as noticeable as that stupid gold box that I have never opened. Of course I instantly thought of my readers and I thought this is a hugely important topic that isn’t discussed often enough LOSING CUSTOMERS and what you can do about it. So this post is lesson one the customers experience.

So the first thing about their website is that they make it easy if you want to place an order but hard if you want to do anything else it become progressively harder. Let me give you an example I want to put something on my wish list and the next thing I see is a page of recommended items which I appreciate. However They don’t make it easy to do your only two choices — there is no direct link back to what you where doing before your wish list or selecting multiple things on the recommended list without having to go back and forth. At this point I have forgotten what I started and get frustrated and leave. My dumb ass forgets though every time I go back why I left–I was frustrated, lost and couldn’t find help so I start the hopeless crusade again. Hopefully I’ll remember now that they only care if I’m purchasing something.

So what does you customer feel about your businesses experience on line or off line? Have you keep with the times in your store design? Every knows that JeffBezos hasn’t done anything to make that website any better in 5 or 10 years. He probably thinks that since his company makes billions that he is okay but so did AOL when they pulled this junk of being the best.So talk to your customers and ask them (don’t ASSume) everyday about all the parts of their experience. If they give you things that they didn’t like be grateful because they my have just saved you. Sometimes just talking to our customers can save us more than a sale would give us in profit–not all the time sometimes. Become a people watcher step back and look how easy it is for your customers to see prices, get something off a shelf to look at it, or walk without trip over a display. Here’s the rule= just because you think something is completely obvious doesn’t mean that your customers will .

Your goal is to make the process of doing ANY type of business with you as enjoyable as possible. Give you customers an experience that leaves them saying "WOW "and that is one the keys to them coming back again and gain. After all look at Disney World the rides don’t change but why do people return year after year? Simple they want the experience of how they feel when they are there. If Disney could bottle that up and let people take it with them they would be trillioniares. Make your customers viewpoint and their experience be your number one goal and it will be sure to help your profitability

Apple CEO Steve Jobs–showing your most loyal customers how important they are

The new IPOD Touch / IPHONE has been not only a hot release this past week but also hot bed of what to do when you let you most loyal fans down. I love companies that have loyal fans sometimes considered crazy because they show that a company is usually doing something that is so groundbreaking people want to believe in them. There are several but this week there was one of the best saves by a company I have ever seen by Apple. CEO Steve Jobs released great new products on Wednesday but for the first time I can remember one of them was clearly cutting into present marketshare. The Ipod Touch while it is amazing product out of the innovation factory of Apple also cut into the IPHONE market of just 3 months ago. For all those people like myself that wanted an Iphone but weren’t willing to switch to ATT now when can have the features we want without the commitment of the phone contract.

However fans got upset and rightfully so If they would have know about this maybe they wouldn’t have gotten the IPHONE. Now introducing new products the next week that eliminate other products has ALWAYS been the true cost of the ownership of technology. Thousand of companies do this all the time and if you don’t cannibalize your product yourself competition definitely will. However very few if any of the others have a fanbase as rapid as Apple. Now regardless of any of the reasoning of Apple or Steve Jobs that has been flying around the internet there is one very powerful truth that all business owners should heed. When your customers aren’t happy stand in their shoes look at the world from how they see it not how you see it.

The reason i’m posting is that Steve Jobs actually did something about this because he cares about his most loyal and passionate customers. He realizes that once you lose them it is almost impossible to get them back. After reading thousands of emails personally I’d bet that at he remembered how it feel to be completely neglected and used and told that you don’t matter. After all he did build Apple once and then his own board of directors threw him out after everything he had given. He realized more than others the very last people I want to deny is the people that help me rebuild Apple.

You can have a great product that changes the world but if nobody buys it –what good is it?

So when your most dedicated customers or employees have a complaint start listening to how they feel instead of what the complaint is. These people are so much more important than any fiscal document could ever show. These people create market share for you just look at how Starbucks launched a new city when they started.

For all the criticism of Steve Jobs I have seen I must say at least he did something about it where as many others wouldn’t. So for yourself whenever any of your customers are disappointed in something you do start talking to them. Asking them what they feel and why. Many times they will show you points that you probably haven’t considered and that can help you to make better decisions in the future.