What Do Santa Claus and Vacations Have In Common?

When my husband and I were planning our wedding we considered going on a cruise for our honeymoon. We also really wanted to buy a house so we saved our money and used it for a down payment on our first home. I don't regret that decision but 12 years later we still haven't gone on a cruise. We did talk about going on a cruise on our 10 year anniversary, but we had a two-year-old at the time so that wasn't happening.
A few months ago my two sisters in law went on a 14 day cruise to Hawaii.  When they returned saw all their pictures and heard the stories of their trip of a lifetime.
That was enough for my husband. Within a week's time we were booked on a cruise.

So what does this have to do with your business? It is important to relate to you the feeling I had once I knew that cruise was booked. Even though it is five months away I think about it every day and get excited about spending a whole week on a cruise ship with my husband. There are days in business when everything seems to go just right, clients are thrilled, and somehow you manage to catch up on your to do list. Then, there are those other days. You know the ones I'm talking about. It is extremely important during those days that you know you have a vacation scheduled.

What is it about a vacation? Is it the actual time we spend doing the activities we look forward to? Or is it the anticipation of the vacation? I submit to you that planning vacations is a lot like the anticipation that builds up before the holiday season.  The excitement, the shopping,  are all part of the experience of the holiday season. Christmas is only a 24 hour period. But look at all we do in anticipation of that one day! It's an experience in itself.
I think we all know that it is important to take vacations to rest and get a break from hard work. But I think knowing that a vacation is planned is just as important to the business owner during those days when things just aren't going right. Somehow you can get through a tough week knowing that you're about to get a break. Without that knowledge it is easy to get burned out.
Even if you don't make plans to go anywhere, once in a while schedule yourself a working vacation. One whole week when you concentrate on getting caught up, doing some research, and maybe a little planning and marketing. Don't set any appointments for that week, and set a vacation reminder on your email. Uninterrupted work time is extremely productive and reduces your stress level immensely.
So go ahead and Photoshop pictures of your bare feet on some Caribbean beach and post them on Facebook that whole week. No one will know the difference and you will come back just as refreshed as if you had been there for real.
Merry Christmas!

Joanne Randall

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Marketing Mojo Radio

Boil Your Frog and Other Marketing Strategies

You may have heard this one before. There is a story about a pan of water on a stove top and inside sits a frog. The water starts out at room temperature. Someone enters the kitchen and slowly begins to increase the temperature of the water, but just 1° at a time over several hours. The frog notices nothing due to the length of time it takes for the water to heat up.  The water gets hotter and hotter until it reaches 211°. Still the frog sits there. But what happens when one more degree is added? It changes everything! Ribbit!

What temperature are you operating your business at? Room temperature? 211°?

Do you even have a pan on the stove?

What is the one thing that you could do to raise the temperature of your business? It could be personal development. It could be writing a real marketing plan. It could be hiring an employee. If you are not sure what that one thing is, take a look around at some other business owners who are very successful and find out what they are doing to raise the bar for themselves.

Personal development always leads to business development. You cannot have business development without it. I always recommend a business coach to my clients. It increases their accountability and their chances of success. They will always see improvements in their personal life as well.

Writing a real marketing plan is one of the most effective ways to increase the laser focus of your business activities. Our company offers a marketing map which is a marketing plan that offers flexibility and control to the business owner and identifies many of the items that fall into a traditional marketing plan, without ending up on a shelf.

If you find yourself completely bogged down with work all the time, it may be time to consider hiring in employee. Talk about risk! Do it right and hire a payroll company like Paychex to facilitate the payroll process. Then train the person correctly and give them work. Now you have time to increase your sales to pay for that person. Being in employer is a huge responsibility and will instantly step up your game professionally.

Sometimes, like the frog, we do not know how close we are to reaching that one degree that makes all the difference. What can you do to bring your business to the next level? Call us at Leap Year Marketing to do some coaching and goal setting. THAT will get you boiling, I guarantee it!

Joanne Randall

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Marketing Mojo Radio

Do You Know What Good Customer Service Feels Like?

Why do we bother to create a positive customer service experience?

All buying habits are psychological in nature. Sure, people need or want to buy something because of the product, but where they buy and if they return are based on their customer service experience during and after the transaction. We want to be able to control the loyalty of our customers. So how does that happen?

Excellent customer service LEADS TO Customer Satisfaction, which ultimately drives loyalty, sales, and the bottom line.

You probably remember a time when you experienced good customer service. That is because every customer service experience is just that - an experience. I could give you a textbook definition of customer service, but you would likely forget it and just remember an experience you had and how it made you feel.  The good news is that you can control the experiences your customers have and therefore create a positive one that will likely bring them back. Remember ALL customer experiences are experiences. Even the good, the bad, the ugly, and the neutral. Let's explore a little.

Bad-Bad experiences are really just experiences that are below the expectations the customer had when they walked in, but still may be somewhat acceptable. This happens when only a small portion of the experience goes awry. You may not  lose the customer for good, but for them to return there will need to be another factor to draw them in, possibly location, or more likely price. Really bad experiences will cost you that customer and will damage your reputation. In the world of Social Media, this is disastrous. People have on average 230 friends on Facebook alone and if they post something about you, you're done. 

Ugly- The difference between BAD and UGLY is that in BAD, there is no real attempt by the company to rectify the situation. In an UGLY experience, you will not see this person again unless you are able to rectify the situation and make it right. This however, does not guarantee the return of the customer, it might save your reputation in the sphere of the customer and they may refrain from telling all their friends about their poor experience. An ugly experience, if handled properly, may end up turning into a great experience if the customer is open. You won't know until it is all over. 

Neutral-This is a very dangerous experience because the business will never know if the customer had a good enough experience to make them come back. A neutral experience is what the customer expected or it was satisfactory. This will not win you loyal customers. If you do not create a compelling reason for them to return, there is a good chance that next time they will go somewhere based on another factor, maybe location or price. Neutral experiences are damaging because there is no added value to their experience that will make you stand out over your competition. 

Good-people may or may not share their experiences, but you have created an experience that their subconscious will remember the next time they need or want to buy something you offer. There will need to be a compelling reason for them to not return. Good, positive experiences even allow for small future mistakes.

What memorable customer experiences have you had? How did they affect your future buying decisions.

As mentioned in my podcast, communication is the real driving factor behind customer service and satisfaction. Tune in to hear the rest of the discussion and visit Leap Year Marketing or Marketing Mojo Radio Facebook pages to tell us about your own experiences.

Joanne Randall

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

www.leapyearmarketing.com

724-603-LEAP

Marketing Mojo Radio Podcast

Seasons

Happy New Year!

Do you ever feel like you need a fresh start? I know I do.  I love that feeling of setting goals and shedding bad habits in order to move forward.
Most people feel this way around New Year's Eve. That is always a good time to reflect on successes and opportunities from the past year and learn from them.  This is what I would call an annual season. How long does that good feeling last beyond New Year's Eve however? Ask anyone who has made a New Year's resolution to lose weight. I will admit that the 2 to 3 week period following New Year's eve, I am pretty pumped to work toward new goals.
I have found that in addition to the New Year's eve annual season, there are two other seasons in the year that produce the same effect. One is Spring, when Winter finally dies a slow and painful death and we all get outside and in the dirt. The other is Fall, when we are ready to send the kids back to school for a new year of learning and fun. These are the three seasons of fresh starts.
But what if you could regenerate that New Year's resolution feeling more than three times a year?
I have good news. You can!
New Year's is just an arbitrary day that really in itself has no meaning. We tell ourselves that that date means something. Think about it. January 1st is really no different than April 29th. So if we can create that resolution scenario for January 1st, guess what? We can do it for any day of our life. Every day is January 1st.  How awesome is that?!?
Start by asking yourself,"If today were New Year's Eve, what resolutions would I make?" Then decide on one that is significant and go for it. Renew your resolution as often as you need to to keep moving toward the change you are looking for.

Happy New Year!

p.s. Another great way to keep pumped about achieving your goals is by working with a high quality Business Coach. I use a coach and it has made an incredible difference.  Feel free to contact my Coach, John.  www.truechoicecoaching.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Choice-Coaching/138535236162890. 

Joanne Randall

www.LeapYearMarketing.com

iTunes Marketing Mojo Radio

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Home is where you hang up your phone

Have you ever worked for yourself or in sales of some kind where you don't really have an office? It can be a little unsettling. But I have started to become accustomed to working on my kitchen table, using my laptop and iPad, answering emails in my car on my Blackberry, and generally working in a virtual office. The key is keeping everything in one "capture device" as it is now being called. One place where you keep everything, and write everything down when it occurs to you. You take it with you everywhere, even keeping it on your night stand so you can write down all those things that keep you up at night. Just remember "someday" or "later" don't exist as real blocks of time. But when you write one of those "someday" items on a page in your planner, you suddenly have time allotted to getting it done. And you'll sleep better.