Seven Practical Ways to Go the Extra Mile
Elevate your offering beyond a commodity level. Going the extra mile is a differentiator which creates loyalty with your customers. Learn how to apply pragmatic steps in your own business.
Extra Mile Thinking
Many businesses look the same to the customer. Customers expect great service and a quality product. In an economy with too many choices, people go out of their way for that differentiating benefit or experience. They do not want their mere need met, but they want their desire met. They want to do business with people and companies that go the extra mile.
7 Extra Mile Ideas
Incorporate these ideas into your customer engagement to show that you go the extra mile and to move beyond a commodity in their mind:
- Have a Method. Who wants to do business with a business that is random? When you show up at an establishment, you want to know if you should sign in or wait in line; be greeted or sit down. Think through the detailed steps of every
touch-point the customer has with you to make it predictable for you and comfortable for them. - Create a Communication Process. When does your customer receive communications from you? Do they only hear from you when you want an order or when the order is finished? Is the number of times you touch the customer frequent enough when they buy something from you? Think it through from their side.
- Give Something Unexpected. Surprise your customer with more than they paid for or even before they paid. Pick tangible, meaningful and relevant gifts or services.
- Connect Your Customers. What do your customers truly care about? Growing their business or bettering their life? Connect them with the other assets of your business – the customers and colleagues you know that can help and benefit from them. Make it special and be known for being a connector of valuable people.
- Show Gratitude. It is the greatest of all virtues, and you won’t get very far in business or life without it. We do not like feeling ingratitude from others. Be creative in how you express it to your customer. Make it substantive and meaningful.
- Be Responsive. We all despise lines and waiting. Compete on speed and how fast you connect with your customer’s questions, or your competitor may do it for you.
- Give Advice. Why does your customer buy what you have to offer? It is not an end in itself but a means. Keep sending advice on ways to help the customer connect what you offer to what they are truly trying to get accomplished. If you are not focused on the latter, then you do not know your business or your customer.
Are You LinkedIn?
Are You LinkedIn?
If you are not LinkedIn, you are left out. The youthful generation of 20-somethings who have bid and sold their companies for billions of dollars understand how to leverage today’s technologies to connect. Technology is not an end in itself, it is a means for social networking. Business is relationships. It is not who you know, but who knows you. Are you known? LinkedIn is the premier online business networking tool to help you play in the new economy.
Why LinkedIn?
There are three reasons to use LinkedIn:
- To be discovered
- To be branded
- To increase influence
Your network is your net worth. If you know less people, you will:
- Have less knowledge
- Have less opportunity
- Be invisible
LinkedIn is a system for managing and measuring your network. The people you know brand you. They are transparent to viewers of your profile. The experience you have and the people you know tell the story of who you are.
The Technology
LinkedIn is a simple tool to use. Take a look at my LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin/in/dondalrymple
Note these items about my profile:
- My experience
- The people I know
- The testimonials I have received
What story does this tell you about me? What story will your profile tell others about you if they never met you? Tell your story in a way that a stranger becomes a friend before you meet. This is your brand.
Connecting
The goal of LinkedIn is to connect with people you will do business with. It is as much of a tool to give as to receive. Here are ways to add value first – a key success principle:
- Write recommendations for your network. Don’t flatter. Be precise.
- Get out of the way. Connect others using LinkedIn as the medium. Simply say, “I have a person in my LinkedIn network that would be of value to you. I will send you their link and would be happy to connect you.”
- Meet a stranger a week. Look for new contacts that could be strategic partners to your business. Learn how to add strategic partners by asking for the Strategic Partner Referrals tool from AscendWorks. Email us at info@ascendworks.com.
Best Practices
- Research various people and their profiles. Note their branding
- Ask for feedback from others to see what they think of you after reading your LinkedIn.
- Use LinkedIn daily to help others connect. Make it the medium.
- Only have people in your network you are confident referring.
- Make LinkedIn part of your workflow. If you do not, it will not serve you.
- Continue weeding and strengthening your list of contacts. Make it select and rich.
Getting Started
The key to using technology effectively is to dive in and use it. It is an iterative process. Your first draft will not be your last. In less than one hour, you should be able to promote yourself in an effective way and build your business network online. Here are the steps:
- Go to www.linkedin.com and sign up for a profile.
- Create your profile. This is essentially your resume. It is not meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to be promotional. Do not write boring stuff here. People will not read it. That is what your resume is for.
- Invite your network. A simple way to do this is to download the Microsoft Outlook toolbar and use the wizard to mass invite your chose contacts.
- Write testimonials for people who join your network that you value. Request one in turn.
- Ensure your LinkedIn site, http://www.linkedin.com/in/{yourname}, points to other parts of your branding breadcrumb trail. If you want to learn to be more strategic about your brand, contact AscendWorks at info@ascendworks.com.
- As you meet new people, add them to your network.
- Prune, grow and manage your network regularly.
Your network is your net worth. Just because you have a networking tool will not mean your business will grow. It must be strategic. As I have said to many clients, technology is a terrible master. Make technology your slave. Learn to strategically integrate this powerful tool into your business workflow to grow your business.
Communicating With Images
Communicating With Style
We live in a visual culture. Our ability to not only deliver knowledge and content of value, but also how we package the information is important for creating attraction to our message.
Using Images in Outlook
If you use Microsoft Outlook as an email client and have set it using Microsoft Word as an email client, then the following are key steps to create an image rich layout for your email. To set Word as the editor, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
- Insert a picture by selecting the Insert>Picture>From File… button
- Next right-click and select Format Picture…
This will allow you to format the layout of the picture.
- From the dialog box that emerges, select the Layout tab.
This choice enables the way the text will align with the image. Selecting “Tight” and to the “Left” will allow the image to remain positioned to the left of any text typed next to it.
This is a quick way to bring illustration to your communications. Use it to emphasize your content in a document or email.
Strategic Email Signatures
BWe communicate with hundreds of emails a week. Each of these are touchpoints for our branding. Your signature can be wasted real estate or strategic in promoting your brand.
Does Your Email Brand You?
First what kind of email do you use for business? Is it a Yahoo! Or AOL Address? What do you risk in your branding by using such an address? What opportunities have you lost? A simple thing like your domain name advertises you. The people you communicate with will investigate that domain name you communicate with.
I use don@ascendworks.com often. The result is that people will come to my web site and see my brand. Then they go to my blog and see my advice. Then they go to my LinkedIn and see my network. Then they ask for information like you are reading. Then there are more next steps based on the breadcrumb trail that has been carefully been laid. This is apparent from the tracking that can be done today:
Web Analytics Software
What Signature to Use?
A powerful signature tool to use that is free is from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a networking software tool. If you want to release the full extent of this tool, simply contact AscendWorks for a coaching session on the tool and how to expand your own business through it.
- After setting up an account in LinkedIn, be sure to fill out the complete profile:
- Next select the Email Signatures tool.
- Ensure the information is correct and filled out. This will populate the signature block of your choice. Also pick the layout from the various selections in the gallery.
- After you have your final selection, Select “Click here for instructions…”
- Follow the instructions for installing the provided html code into your respective email client. Your output should look like the following:
Note the various links which the recipient can now click in a visually appealing signature. Happy Branding!