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Covid-19 and our changing habits

30 April 2020 Stuart Nimmo Covid-19, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Marketing No Comments

Insights from those nearest and dearest to you, often ring home with a certain resonance. The daily chat with my Mum, she was telling me about one of her friends who called her today. They were chatting about the local small shops at the top of the road. Pam (friend) said her son reported the Butcher was saying he hopes to keep some of the business he’s recently gained. My mum went on to tells the mixed stories about the previous service she had from the said butcher.

Of course, customers gained through this experience of lockdown and resorting to local businesses need the experience to exceed their expectations continually. Ask any hardnosed salesperson they will take about under-promising and over-delivering to maintain an edge with a customer.

Of course, knowing your customers is the key here. Building the relationship is absolutely key, however gaining the information can be the challenge. Developing your offering is important to gaining knowledge of your customers. I’ve met many a serious salesperson who kept a card index with key bullet point notes about when and where of their key customers. Knowledge is power, especially about tailoring the sales offer.

So how do we implement tools to help us gain more knowledge about customers.

The classic one for customer knowledge acquisition is the loyalty card, Championed by Tesco’s with Club Card, and the likes of Nectar and to the contemporary likes of Screwfix and their use of customer profiles. They build the knowledge bank on each customer and offer offers and experiences relevant to them. One of the crux behind these are regular communications, whilst yes electronic tools work within this portfolio, use of selective physical mailers as the mix and change of communication methods keeps the response levels fresh.

However, you engage and build a relationship with a customer it’s worth remembering you don’t have a one-track relationship with your friends. Using a mix of methods will provide you with a rich source of nuggets of conversation pieces, which show you care and value them.

A bit about the author…Stuart is Operations Director for HAD-PRINT, passionate about customer service and meaningful marketing, dabbles with various marketing tools and ideas, and likes to integrate them into a meaningful progression for us and our customers.

Challenge brings change…

14 March 2020 Stuart Nimmo Marketing, Physical marketing, Power of Print No Comments

The outbreak of Coronavirus certainly has got a lot of people thinking, if not concerned. However, resilience is created through necessity and is born through a desire to succeed.

Understandably a lot of small businesses are seriously concerned about the impact of the lack of customers, whether this is b2b or b2c based. With a substantial amount of transactions requiring either a proper face to face engagement or a customer journey which needs real personal engagement, alternative thinking is needed. If you ask any designer or creative where and how they get their ideas, usual influences of X Y or Z pop into the conversation. In other words, nothing is new but just evolved from existing sources.

A face to face engagement creates a meaningful value exchange through several routes, “being there” where both parties read the verbal communication, including tone and timbre of the voice, but also the non-verbal communication of body language. (For specialists which study this, it’s a wealth of signals.) The tone of communication also reflects the attitude which the individuals show towards each other, which allows for a hook for future connections. All this is seriously curtailed with limited face to face contact.

Any seasoned marketing professional will be the first to remind single-channel minded individuals the marketing tools used on the journey can drive the touchpoints to achieve results which meet the end goal.

Using proven methods which evoke kinaesthetic engagement provides a powerful alternative to the lack of face to face engagement. The power of touch is next most engaging method after face to face communication. Using the senses of touch, coupled with the physical interaction of using hands to interact with an item creates a moment of connection to drive further actions.

The world of print has overcome many communication challenges. Conclusively print materials when used with effective messages, the right design structure of the printed piece, constantly achieve higher levels of engagement compared to just digital communication.

The Coronavirus update from the Royal Mail (13/03/20) “From experience with other coronaviruses, we know that these types of viruses don’t survive long on objects, such as letters or parcels” https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus

So delivery of professional mail shot communications still has the opportunity of engaging your audience, whether at home or business place. So where you face to face opportunities might be diminished, carefully executed and delivered can provide a lot more leverage to assist your business message.

Remember when crafting your mailshot;

The creativity of the communication gets you remembered
Being engaging, physically with the item, along with a tone of voice
Be timely, create wider opportunities to engage
Create opportunities to engage face to face when safe to do so
Use professional print providers as they can ensure compliance for Royal Mail standards, and help you achieve the “best bang for your buck” through clever print and business-grade postage options.

Customers: Perpetual continuity

6 March 2020 Stuart Nimmo Customer Engagement, Customer Loyalty, Customer Retention No Comments

After many conversations with some of our marketing friends, almost every time their first port of call is the question around existing customers. Something which many businesses can easily miss a focus on keeping existing customers engaged. So much attention is focussed on new business, that once a customer has been gained, they almost go by the wayside.

Customer retention or loyalty as it’s called by some is a progressive art form. However, the crux behind it is communication, remember communication is two ways. The art of listening will always provide insights, that sometimes you don’t want to hear, however, the deliverer of feedback might be looking for the right signals to open up.

The culture of your business or organisation is so critical to building the persona which enables growth and retention. This culture and personality are at the heart of your brand, it’s worth remembering that a brand just isn’t your logo, visuals, font and straplines. A brand is so much more than this, personality and how you engage, through voice, actions and tone. This is linked to non-verbal communication and even starts to touch on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which is the science of your actions and how they influence your audience.

So where do you start? We are all at a point where we will need to build, further engage, reinforce our message and sell ourselves in the best light. Here are our top tools which help communications on your customer journey

Ensure that you use small tools such as review cards, which have an open language which allows constructive feedback. A simple card which can be inserted in with an order of products, or with the bill if you’re a restaurant. These also come in useful when you have low days, looking back and reflecting on what you have achieved.
Ensure you use multiple channels to communicate with, remember Visual Auditory kinaesthetic learning styles which people take on things in different ways. So a good mix of digital, physical and face to face marketing. Linking these tools is essential to provide the best longevity and take up.
Have a communications plan, be regular, utilise social media, do physical items which add value. Using a varied mix of communications will reap rewards as customers will remember the one, some or all of your communications.

Where can we help you? If you don’t have a plan, we can point you in the right direction of skilled practitioners who can help you formulate a plan. If you need to find ways of understanding how you engage, we can advise you on some good reading on understanding people. If you need specialised support with NLP, we can recommend a few people. If you need to enhance your brand position, again we know the right people to unpack your brand messages. As a print and graphic solution provider, we can help you develop physical resources to engage and develop a relationship, at whatever level you need.

If you are reading this during the Covid-19 lockdown, now is a great opportunity to start planning for the future. Yes, failing to plan is planning to fail. So why not start your planning, we’ll happily do Facetime, Google Hangouts / Google Meet, conference calls whatever you want to help you formulate your plan.