Experience | Home Wealth Project

Simplify This: User Experience Experts Are in Demand

Sep 27th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

It’s about time. If we’re going to be online and be in business online, then I want it to be as easy as possible. I don’t want to log in to some digital tool and get lost before I get to the second screen. And I especially don’t want to have to overthink in order to understand how to use the tool.

I’m at a crossroads and my guess is you may be at the same spot. I’m loving the technology—and the advances and the potential—but I am drawn to simplicity, as in “easy” (or at least “easier”) to use tools that solve my complicated marketing problems. (Most of the tools I use are for marketing purposes, such as content management systems like blogs and website frameworks, social network interfaces, email list building platforms, etc.).

In fact, I have changed my email list-building platform three times so far and every time it was because of the user experience. Two platforms looked great but weren’t intuitive (enough for me) to use—and I got lost in a maze of links and buttons. The third platform was easier to use, but ugly to look at—and I lost my marketing inspiration in that visually challenged back office.

But the tides are changing.

Are You a User Experience (UX) Expert?

OnwardSearch.com recently released a Guide to UX Careers. At left is an infographic highlighting the growing demand for User Experience Experts. While it breaks down the jobs and positions in this industry, it also exposes a possible opportunity for specialized small business owners and consultants.

There are more websites today, as well as a demand for more sophisticated components on our websites, such as landing pages and shopping carts. We demand these components look and function a certain way, while also being easy to implement. And this demand creates an opportunity, suggesting that it may be a good idea for freelancers and professionals in the emerging UX field to polish their skills so that they can take advantage of this shift.

But maybe you are on the other end.

Do You Need a User Experience (UX) Expert?

When the shoe is on the other foot and we find ourselves in front of the counter (as the customer) instead of behind it, then we are looking to have an excellent user experience. Likewise, our clients want the same thing from us. Brian Wallace, owner of NowSourcing.com and the designer of the infographic above, gave me three pieces of quick advice for small business owners who are looking to hire a User Experience Expert. He says:

GET CLEAR. “Make sure you clearly scope your project. Define what you want to accomplish as well as the projected goals you hope to achieve.”
BRING THE ENTHUSIASM. “Be prepared to sell the sizzle of your project. The best designers are attracted to the best projects, so be able to demonstrate why this would appeal to their skills.”
PERSONALITY MATTERS. “It’s not just about their technical skills. Make sure you find someone you can work with, collaboratively, throughout the duration of the project.”

When he’s looking to add new team members to NowSourcing, Brian says he looks for a person with “outstanding creative insight.” And that’s what the user experience is about. At least that’s what we want it to be about—happy customers, easier use and a better look and feel. Now, that’s outstanding.

From Small Business Trends

Simplify This: User Experience Experts Are in Demand

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

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Begin With the Customer Experience in Mind

Aug 11th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Marketing Tips

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Begin With the Customer Experience in Mind

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

When most businesses create a new product or service offering they initially develop the attributes of the product or service. Makes sense, you don’t have anything to sell unless you create something people want to buy.

Marketing Hourglass

But, the very next thing they do, once they think they have a winner of their hands, is go to work on the promotion of the new offering – the sales letter, landing page, brochure.

Again, another important marketing consideration, but I would like to suggest what is ultimately a much stronger path to take.

Begin with the end in mind.

In other words, the very first thing you should do when thinking about bringing a product or service to market is to think about what you want the customer to be thinking and feeling about your product or service180 days or so after they made the purchase and work backwards toward the point where they become interested in making a purchase.

The processes, touches and follow-ups you build by taking this “customer experience” approach can help ensure that you have a winner, promote a winner, and perhaps more importantly thrill your customer.

In the rush to create and promote our goods it’s this final, crucial point that often goes without thought or is made up after repeat sales and referrals lag.

Think of it this way – the sale is not complete until the customer is so happy they confidently make referrals.

So, a backwards process example for a training course you’re promoting might look something like this:

180 days after purchase – customer receives free course updates and offer to meet with a select group of other course participants in an invitation only peer-to-peer group accountability program.
90 days after purchase – customer receives email offering them 30% off of any other product or service of their choice as a current customer courtesy
60 days after purchase – customer receives coupon offering free evaluation of their progress with the training course and the opportunity to engage a consultant to help them if they are stuck working on their own
30 days after purchase – customer receives coupon for free 60 minute coaching session to help keep them on track
14 days after purchase – customer receives coupon for 30 days of unlimited email support to keep them on track with their purchase
7 days after purchase – customer receives mailing with additional bonus materials as a way of saying thank you for their purchase
Immediately on purchase – on successful shopping cart transaction customer is directed to Web page that hosts a welcome video that sets the expectation for when and how they will receive their purchase. Automated email provides instructions and orients the customer to the contents of their new purchase and how to receive support if they have questions.
Trial – After viewing video series prospect is offered the opportunity to download 2 free chapters from the course and receive free 30 minute coaching session to discuss their specific challenges.
Information gathering – After seminar prospect is offered opportunity to sign up to receive video series of client case studies and ebook featuring content covered in seminar
Awareness – Attends informational online seminar that dives into the problems most business face when trying to do X that your course addresses

Obviously, the components of this approach will vary greatly depending upon the offering and prospective customer, but it’s the thinking here that’s so important.

The process of beginning with the end in mind actually forces improvement on the product or service, creates opportunities to upsell and cross sell and focuses on the long term positive experience for the customer – which creates lead generation by way of referral and word of mouth.

Astute Duct Tape Marketing readers might recognize this as The Marketing Hourglass – a process that suggests the development of logical processes that move prospects to customer and customers to loyal fans by way of 7 phases – know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat and refer.

One final word of advice. Don’t make this a stiff, automated, spammy drip system. Put personality, fun, surprise and value in each and every contact.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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How to Create the Ultimate Customer Experience

Jul 27th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Marketing Tips

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How to Create the Ultimate Customer Experience

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Everyone talks about creating a great customer experience, but few people really deliver one that’s special in any way. Creating an exceptional customer experience is pretty simple really – you only need to do one thing – pay attention.

Click to Download Map Form

Okay, I know you want more than that so I’ll expand on this thought and then break it back down again.

We lose customers and erode what could be a great customer experience when we fail to pay attention to every possible way that our business comes into contact with a customer, or for that matter, a prospect.

Everyone works in the marketing department

No matter what department bumps into a customer in the name of your business that department is performing a marketing and overall customer experience function.

So you see Stan from Accounting is equally capable of creating or ruining a great customer experience as Sandy from Customer Service, but I wonder how often you pay attention to that fact.

There’s plenty of evidence out there to suggest that our perceived experience with a company is often formed by our last contact, not the first impression, put on your Sunday best, marketing contact we’ve had.

Map the touchpoints

One of the most potent tools you can create for your business is something I call a Customer TouchPoint Map. (Click to download sample map form) The idea behind this tool is to use it to chart every way your business comes into, or should come into, contact with a customer and then set out to make sure that each touchpoint is designed to create a better customer experience. (This dovetails nicely with our Marketing Hourglass)

See, we’ve been trained to think that the marketing department is the only place where marketing messages, brand flourishes and little things matter.

One of the most effective marketing things the Natural Running Store did for me as a customer is slip a handwritten note and some samples from strategic partners into the box of running shoes I purchased recently.

What if your invoices had humorous quotes related to how super-excited you were to present them with this representation of the value delivered in every order? What if you delivered products on a bike?

What if you made it a point to follow-up with every customer using a simple tool that made it easy for them to vote on how good of a job you did? What if your CEO wrote hand-written notes of thanks?

What if you sent timely messages with videos educating customers on how to use or get more from their purchase? What if you included more than they expected?

What if you sent them flowers just because? What if your phone hold message wasn’t painful to listen too? What if you wrapped your shipments in works from local artists? What if . . .

All of the things mentioned above are examples of touches that could enhance your customer experience and get people talking, but it’s the collective focus on the entire map that really pays off.

It’s not really that hard, map it out – pay attention to how your business comes into contact with customers and make every touchpoint, with every department, thoughtful and downright enjoyable.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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Lethal Forex System – Do It Part-Time! or With Zero Experience

Jul 12th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in All Posts

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If you are tired with a hype filled industry full of bloated promisses, weak techniques and was burned-out on lame money-making ideas that never seems to work, you have finally stumbled across a simple step-by-step system to leverage on.
Lethal Forex System – Do It Part-Time! or With Zero Experience

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How to Deliver an Experience

Apr 26th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Marketing Tips

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How to Deliver an Experience

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

For a lot of businesses, taking the order is where marketing ends. For smart marketers, it’s the starting point for the next order and the referral. If you stop your marketing thinking at the transaction, you’ll find it harder and harder to build real marketing momentum.

How you conduct the transaction is marketing, how you deliver or present the product or service is marketing, how you continue to educate and make additional offers is marketing, and how you stay in touch to measure results is marketing.

I’ve done some work with eBay and Etsy sellers and those businesses are great examples of how a company can either struggle or thrive based on how well they see purchases as customers rather than transactions.

The series of photos below represent what I believe is a great example of how to deliver an experience with your product. I’ll add my thoughts to the process of steps that make this a nice case study. This comes from Etsy seller Katie Blair Designs.

Plain padded envelope, but with special hand drawn doodles – this isn't an Amazon package – it's just what I would expect from my hand made purchase

The full contents of the package – wow, very nice looking presentation and look, a business card. Not that innovative, but strangely rare.

And what's this? A free sample of another product – now I want to buy some of those note cards

On the back of the business card Katie has hand written a special offer for my next purchase – I'm feeling pretty good about this and I haven't even opened the actual product

On to the purchase – I bought this for myself, but it's like getting a gift. Note the added branding with the sticker.

The product revealed and note the subtle band of branding on the actual product – how will I ever forget Katie Blair Designs now.

The actual product, found online, is what attracted me, but it was the overall experience that has me referring this business and wanting to buy more because I have a lot of, hmm, brilliant ideas

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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My ‘Marriott’ Experience

Jan 13th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in General

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UPDATE: Before you read this blog (which was posted on Saturday the 8th), I’d like to give an update. I was contacted by John, the Director of Customer Advocacy at the Marriott Hotels. He contacted me when he heard of my complaint. He handled the situation with concern and professionalism. He also made the matter right in the best way I think he could. All companies make mistakes, attempting to make it right says a lot about a company. Thanks John for your follow up.

Just yesterday I wrote about the great experience I had at the Apple Store in Southern California and now one day later I have a great example of how NOT to treat a customer. I’ve been staying at the Marriott Desert Springs Vacation Villas in Palm Desert for the last several days. I brought more than a dozen members of my executive management team here for a 3 day strategic planning meeting during which time we had all our meals on site, some golfed on site and some used the hotel’s spa facilities.

Checkout for the facility is at 10am (10am—how many hotel/villas have a 10am checkout!?). OK, it doesn’t matter—I called more than an hour before checkout time and asked for an 11am checkout. The Marriott recption desk attendant said, “Sure, if you want to pay an additional $50!” Really? $50 more to check out at 11am?!!! I told Melissa at the front desk that I brought more than a dozen people here for the last three days and charging me $50 to check out at 11am didn’t really seem appropriate. She said they charge everyone—period.

Now here is where it gets really interesting. I told her, “I brought 12 people for three nights and put them up in three - 2 bedroom villas and you won’t give me an hour later checkout? If that is the case, I’ll never come back here again. If you’re OK with that, I’m OK with that.” And her answer was… wait for it… wait for it…. ”Yes,” she actually said: ”I’m OK with that.”

So let’s go back to the “experience.” This employee could have acted like she cared and maybe even asked her manager (which I requested). But no, her answer was a “No,” end of discussion.

It wasn’t the $50 that was the big issue for me. After spending thousands to bring my team there – $50 was not a big deal. What really frustrated me was the fact that she didn’t seem to care if we ever came back or not. It was not important to her. The quality of customer service is so different from company to company and even locations within a company. My experience here—was bad. And Melissa should be happy to know that she has motivated me to not come back again. Well done, Melissa.

Oh, if only Apple ran a hotel. That would be an amazing place to stay.

Bookmarkify

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My Marriott Bad Experience

Jan 8th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in General

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Checkout for the facility is at 10am (10am—how many hotel/villas have a 10am checkout!?). OK, it doesn’t matter—I called and asked for an 11am checkout. The Marriott recption desk attendant said, “Sure, if you want to pay an additional $50!” Really? $50 more to check out at 11am?!!! I told Melissa at the front desk that I brought more than a dozen people here for the last three days and charging me $50 to check out at 11am didn’t really seem appropriate. She said they charge everyone—period.

So let’s go back to the “experience.” This employee could have acted like she cared and maybe even asked her manager (which I requested). But no, her answer was a “No,” end of discussion.

The quality of customer service is so different from company to company and even locations within a company. My experience here—was bad. And Melissa should be happy to know that she has motivated me to not come back again. Well done, Melissa.

Oh, if only Apple ran a hotel. That would be an amazing place to stay.

Bookmarkify

View full post on Networking Now

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Guarantee the Customer Experience – Remove Price and Worry from Buying Decisions

Nov 19th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

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Most guarantees put a limit on the time customers have to return a product after its purchase. That enforced timeline creates a transaction-based relationship with customers, as they measure happiness one purchase at a time. Zane’s Cycles in Branford, Connecticut decided to guarantee the happiness of the customer relationship instead. They threw out the clock. The Zane’s guarantee says: “We are going to live up to our promises, no matter what the timing, no matter what the product or service.”

The Power of a Promise – and How it Grows Your Business

Founder Chris Zane knows that each customer who walks through his store’s door brings $12,500, on average, to the business over the lifetime of the relationship. The intention behind this guarantee is to earn a new customer by eliminating any reason for not considering Zane’s Cycles. So Zane’s guarantee includes everything: lifetime free service, a 90-day price guarantee, a lifetime parts warranty. With these promises, Zane’s says to customers: “Why worry about price when our price is guaranteed? We will live up to our promise.”

This promise guides decision-making throughout the lifetime of every Zane’s customer. For example, a customer who wants to return a $500 item is gladly given the refund. It is not worth jeopardizing the future value of that relationship. Zane’s employees embrace that: It’s not $500 at risk; it’s a $12,500 customer.

Does Your Experience Have an Expiration Date?

Companies who understand their customers’ lives grow their businesses, and earn the right to customers telling their story to everyone they know. Zane’s earns the right to their customers’ stories with their decision to guarantee bicycle ownership. In a world where there is so little that customers can count on, this promise delivers “wow” in a world of customer service vanilla.

By eliminating fear and worry from the buying experience, Zane’s ensures customers are less prone to negotiating a bike’s price, because in the long term, they know they’ll be covered by the Zane’s guarantee. Zane’s can maintain its margins because price is never the determining factor in a customer decision. Customers know, “If I buy it and I don’t like it, I can bring it back.” Zane’s customers look forward to the ownership experience—also guaranteed.

What part of your experience can you guarantee? How do you make sure your customers sleep well at night, knowing you’ve got them covered?

Go Try This

Evaluate How you are Delivering Peace of Mind to Customers Today

How would you rate your intent and ability to guarantee happiness for customers?
How would your customers say you are doing?
Do customers rave about their relationship with you?
How do your decisions on policies and procedures compare with this beloved company?
Do your decisions to live up to your promises earn your business “beloved” status today?

Take Action to Earn Raves From Customers (and Employees)