PersuasiveConcepts.com» Social Media

5 Things You Need To Know BEFORE Designing Your Social Media Strategy

David Johnson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:18:43 +0000

#1 Social Media Is A Force Multiplier

Stop looking at social media as an add-on, in order for social marketing to be truly effective you must first work to integrate it into your daily processes. Instead of seeing social media as a separate identity, one that needs a separate strategy before it can be implemented fully, you need to see it for what it is, a force multiplier.

In military terms a force multiplier refers to an attribute or a combination of attributes which make a given force more effective than that same force would be without it, that’s social media exactly!

So, instead of thinking in terms of new goals, in which a social media strategy would be used to reach, think in terms of how you can use social media, alongside your other marketing efforts, to reach your current business goals.

#2 Never Let Tactics Dictate Strategy

Too many times we look at Facebook as the strategy, when in fact, because it’s a tool, much like the phone and email, it’s a tactic. As such, remember that it’s NEVER okay to let a tactic dictate how you develop your strategy, instead, your strategy will dictate which tactics you use.

The Difference Between Strategy and Tactic

Tactics are the day-to-day activities that are repeatable and clear-cut, they are comprised of the basic components that define the actually strategy.

Strategy is the big picture, it’s the overall plan, comprised of tactics, that gives direction towards meeting goals and objectives.

#3 Think Laterally

The “lateral” that I am referring to is the conversation that is happening between people. With traditional advertising you have only one direction that communication can flow: out from the dealership.

With social media you are able to influence the conversation, the lateral communication that is happening between people in different social channels. So, when designing your strategy always think in terms of how you can get people to talk in a positive manner about your dealership.

#4 Connect With Social Objects

Too many times, as marketers, we think about how we can create a social object, that is a purpose, cause, or past time that people want to socialize about and around. Instead, take a look at social objects that people are already congregating around and find a way to connect it with your dealership.

While that is easier said than done, you do this by becoming part of the community, a contributor that adds to the overall enjoyment of the social object. If you live in a collage town, maybe it’s the local football team, live in a family friendly city, maybe it’s education, it could even be a local charity or fishing, the ideas really are limitless. What can your dealership connect around?

#5 Don’t Go At It Alone

While developing a strategy for the dealership, don’t go in thinking that you don’t need any help. A proper social media strategy will affect each and every department in the dealership and as such, each department should have input into how the strategy is structured. I refer to this group of people at the Strategic Response Team or the SRT.

The SRT is comprised of at least one person from each department in the dealership, even detail and office staff. The reasons are plenty, but I feel the most important reason is creativity. The creativity of the group will always be better than the creativity of the individual.

Have you created your strategy yet? Wait, don’t tell me you’ve gone into battle without a plan for success, you do know that’s suicide right? Tell me I’m wrong in the comment section below and that you do indeed have a strategy…

With All Things Being Equal…

David Johnson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:20:03 +0000

It’s time to change the way you do business. Okay, okay, it’s past time but the way you do business has to change. Everything you do, starting now, has to do two things:

Everything must promote trust, likability, and relationships.
Your product or service has to at least be as good as everybody else’s.

Sounds pretty easy huh? Because it is. Let’s talk about the first one and while what I’m about to say has been around a long time I first read it in Endless Referrals by Bob Burg:

All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer others to, those people they like, know and trust.

So how do you get people (your customers) to like and trust you? By letting them get to know you, that’s how. How do you let them get to know you? You must first think of them as friends, not just as customers. This is where social media comes in, it gives you a way to become part of your customers social graph or at the very least, a conversation within it.

As I wrote before in the Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success Part 1: In a recent study conducted by the Journal Of Consumer Research it was found that consumers don’t buy into the idea that they are in “relationships” with sales people, at least not the same kind of relationship they share with family and friends. The study goes on to say that buyers slip into the normal script of trying to behave as if the sellers interactions are real relationships just to be polite, when in fact, it can have a negative effect if the seller tries too hard to build a real relationship, during the sale.

Who would’ve thunk it? So, while I do want you to be friendly during the whole selling process, don’t try to be too chummy, your customers are there to conduct business after all and you should be to. What I do want you to do though is give each and every one of your customers the best buying experience they’ve ever had. I want you to think customer enchantment. If you want people to talk about you, in a positive way, then you must go above and beyond what they expect. Then, just because you’re already going above and beyond kick it up a notch and go above and beyond what they ever thought possible!

Think of a way that you can connect with your customers on Facebook, here is a way for automotive salespeople to do just that. You could also do giveaways on Facebook and invite your customers to join in by telling them, in person, about all the things you’re doing online. Remember, don’t add them to your personal accounts without asking first, that’s a little creepy.

You could also do larger promotions that include the community as a whole, such as a city wide scavenger hunt to win a car, or a contest to promote a local charity or little league team. The ideas really are endless and once your customers are plugged in, spend time getting to know them, engage them, ask questions and give, give, give!

Be At least As Good

That’s strange isn’t it? If you go back to what I said earlier: All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer others to, those people they like, know and trust. The first part being what’s important, All things being equal.

If your product or service is below par then no matter how much somebody likes you, you won’t be getting any referrals from them, much less repeat business. This is important to remember in the auto industry, when you sell the same product as the guy down the street. What differentiates you? Why would somebody refer your dealership when the guy down the street sells the same thing you do. Take another look: All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer others to, those people they like, know and trust.

Ah Ha! With all things being equal you should put as much emphasis on getting people to like, know and trust you. Why haven’t you embraced relationship marketing yet? Why aren’t you engaging your customers on social networks? Why, why, why?

What are you doing to ensure that your customers like, know and trust you? Remember: our economy is customer-driven and because they prefer to do business with people you must work to be a person and not a cold, hard, unloving, uncaring business. So I ask you again, what are you doing to ensure that your customers like, know and trust you?

Automotive Social Media Manager – A Job Description

David Johnson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:05:37 +0000

Job Specification The Automotive Social Media Manager will implement the dealership’s Social Media Strategy, develop brand awareness, generate inbound traffic, create ongoing training for employees, manage the dealers reputation online, and encourage social media adoption. This role coordinates with the internal Marketing and PR teams to support their respective missions, ensuring consistency in voice and cultivating a social media referral network.

This position stewards any content that’s thought-leadership and social media industry related and oversees the blog, webinars, podcasts, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, client profiles – anything that helps contribute valuable, educational content to our community and customers around the social media space.

Responsibilities Implement the social media strategy by coordinating with both management and non-management employees to ensure its effectiveness and encouraging adoption of relevant social media techniques into the dealership culture.

Work with all outward facing employees to ensure that they are using social media as outlined in the written strategy and to offer training when needed.
Manage presence in social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and other similar community sites, posting on relevant blogs, and seeding content into social applications as needed.
Become an advocate of the Company in social media spaces, engaging in dialogues and answering questions where appropriate.
Manage a Blogger outreach program and build an active brand ambassador network to spread the word about the Company.
Monitor effective benchmarks for measuring the impact of social media programs, and analyze, review, and report on effectiveness of campaigns in an effort to maximize results.
Manage the dealerships online presence through the creation of a social mention listening station and feedback loop.
Monitor trends in social media tools, trends and applications.
Local Market Thought Leadership: Serves as a thought leader for local market insights within the automotive field.
Content Planning: Prepares and provides information on locally relevant storylines and content for the Conversation Calendar.
Social Media Champion: Champions social media as an integral channel for execution for all in-market campaigns.
Content Managing: Updates and Manages the day-to-day conversations, engagement and escalation process for the brand’s Facebook page and other social media channels.

Content Execution: Ensures execution of “always on” and campaign specific information provided by the Global team and relevant content for local campaigns

Reporting: Provides quantitative and qualitative measurement, pre and post campaign execution.
Crisis Preparedness: Ability to identify and address any issues/crisis that may potentially occur within the social media realm.

Requirements

Strong project management or organizational skills.
In-depth knowledge and understanding of social media platforms and their respective participants (Facebook, Digg, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr etc.) and how they can be deployed in different scenarios.
Knowledge of the blogging ecosystem.
Ability to effectively communicate information and ideas in written and verbal format, and build and maintain relationships.
Team player, with the confidence to take the lead and guide other departments when necessary.
Good technical understanding and can pick up new tools quickly.
Have a good knowledge of principles of SEO.
Public relations, Marketing, Sales, Community Management experience, a plus.

Personal Qualities

A consummate team player who brings a passionate, positive, high-energy approach and is able to deliver results.
A high degree of personal ownership and the quest for continually finding new solutions.
Able to effectively work on multiple projects both with and without a team.
The successful candidate should possess enough hands-on experience developing and implementing digital communication strategies.
A strong can-do attitude and a “don’t tell me no” level of curiosity is essential.
Excellent English proficiency both spoken and written is essential.

David’s Top 5: 5 Things An Auto Dealer Can Do Now To Succeed In Social Media Today

David Johnson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:33:57 +0000

#1 Ask Your Customers To Leave Reviews

It should be a non-negotiable that every customer, both in service and sales, should be asked to leave a positive review on your Google Places page. Then, follow that up with an email that includes a link. Another idea would be to use the Google Places app on the iPhone or iPad to get your customers to leave a review before they leave the dealership. You can even incentivize it by telling your customers you will give them a free oil change for their next visit.

#2 Connect With Your Customers On Facebook

In his book Endless Referrals, Bob Burg states, “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, people they know, like, and trust.”

If that’s true, and I believe that it is, then we must continually strive to ensure that our customers, both in service and in sales, knows, likes and trust us. How do you do that though? I’ll tell you this, it usually doesn’t happen during the sale, it’s what you do after that makes all the difference. That’s where Facebook comes in handy and the fact that over half of all the people in the US are a member. What that means is that over half of your customers will have one as well, and what that really means is that you have a way to become part of your customers online social graph. Bellow you will learn a simple, yet powerful way to connect with your customers on Facebook and at the same time, through the Law of Reciprocation, earn a testimonial and a recommendation.

First, have somebody take a picture of you, next to your customer, with both of you in front of their new ride. Ask your customer if it’s okay if you tag them in it on Facebook. You’re playing the odds here and the odds are pretty good that they have a Facebook page and the odds are even better that they will say yes to tagging them. For those of you that aren’t familiar with tagging, what that means is you are putting a label on the picture you’re uploading to Facebook, it will then link to your customers profile page and place the picture on their wall (their profile page).
If you can, connect with your customer while they are in the store, that way you can ensure that you have found their profile and not somebody else with the same name.
Tag them in the picture.
Go to the picture sitting on their wall and say something along the lines of, “It was really great working with you. I really enjoyed the time we spent together buying your new Mustang, you are the reason why I enjoy what I do. Thank you for being one of my favorites!” Because of the Law Of Reciprocation, which states that we, as human beings, feel an obligation to repay an action with a like action, your customer will return the favor and say something like, “It was great working with you as well! We’ve never had such a positive buying experience in our entire lives!”
Now take a look at what you have. There is a picture of you, your customer and their new car sitting on their Facebook wall for all of their friends to see. On top of their friends asking them questions about it they see the kind words that the said about you. Think about how powerful that is and the fact that one peer testimonial is worth two hundred traditional media impressions… that’s one awesome testimonial!
Don’t stop there. Go back to their page, thank them and say something along the lines of, “As you know it’s important to me that my customers feel comfortable enough with the way I treated them to send referrals my way. Let me ask you, do you feel comfortable enough, should the need ever arise, to refer somebody you know to come see me?” Of course their going to say yes and now you have both a testimonial and a recommendation AND all of their Facebook connections can see it! That’s powerful stuff and 80% of the time it works just like that.

#3 Create Introduction Videos

Instead of just a picture and a quick bio about you and/or your staff on your website, consider video creation instead. It’s a great way for people to see the real you. Don’t be afraid to make if fun and exciting, talk about your likes and dislikes, how long you’ve been at the dealership and why you chose to work there over all the other dealerships in town. Also, a link to these videos should be in the signature line of all outbound emails, you will be surprised how often they will be clicked on and they could be the reason why you are chosen over a competitor.

#4 Create A Social Media Policy

As the saying goes, an elephant never forgets, neither does the internet. Everything said, everything posted, every video created and image uploaded is there for the world to see. People are forming opinions about your dealership without ever having to be a customer, of course this could be good or bad, it just depends on the opinions being formed.

It’s becoming increasingly more important to monitor your employees and how they interact on the internet. In a transparent world it’s easy to connect what a person says to where they work, that can be a problem if one of your employees lacks integrity, and is posting defamatory, pornographic, proprietary or libelous material about the dealership, employees, customers or even the competitors. In fact, they don’t even have to mention anything that relates to the car business, but through association can have an impact on the public opinion about your dealership.

After careful research I put together the following policy to get you started creating your own social media policy. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and the following policy should only be used as guide and is not a stand-in for legal advice. I encourage you to take a look at it and draft your own policy.

Social media can be a powerful supplement to any marketing campaign, but it can be a double edge sword, use it wisely and make sure that you know what your employees are saying, it could be the different between positive word of mouth and negative word of mouth. As we all know, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire and before you know it , it can engulf the whole dealership. Be vigilant.

Download The Policy Here

#5 Listen To What Is Being Said About You Online

Reputation management is the process of tracking a dealerships actions and the opinions of others about those actions. Why is that important though, what do does it matter what others are saying?

In a recent study it was found that 1 peer recommendation, that is 1 person saying something about your dealership, is worth 200 traditional media impressions. That’s 200 TV spots, 200 print ads, 200 radio commercials or a combination thereof. Think about that for a moment and how powerful one recommendation can be. In another study done by Nielson, they found that of all the thousands and thousands of ads we are bombarded with on a typical day, we only trust about 14% of them. The reason is simple, the ads that we are seeing, whether they are on a billboard or in a magazine are self serving, that is they are created by the company themselves and as such we find it hard to believe the claims made therein. But if a review is seen about your dealership we automatically apply more weight to it because it was created by an impartial third party.

In fact, another study suggests that 70% of people trust the recommendations of people they don’t know and 90% of those they do know. That’s why it’s so very important that you know what people are saying about you, so that you can influence more of the positive, while at the same time fixing the negative. While there are a few free alternatives, here are a few paid listening services that I recommend you look in to:

While there are others, these three give you a wide spectrum of features, and pricing, for you to choose from. From there, make sure that you have a plan in place to react to what is being said about you online, both positive and negative.

Learn To Love Your Negative Reviews

David Johnson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:43:13 +0000

Yeah I said it. And you should! Negative reviews are those little pieces of gold that lets you know when you are doing something wrong. If you’re like most businesses you loath bad reviews, but without them, how do you ever plan on growing past the mistakes you’ve made?

Good reviews are great! I’m not saying that you should strive for negative reviews, I’m just asking you to see them differently thank you see them now. In a moment I’m going to give you some stats that will blow your mind, keep reading.

Think about it, would you rather have a customer that had a bad experience, who never told you why, but just stopped frequenting your business or one that had a bad experience and told you why? I know your first inclination would be to say “I wish they just told me and not the whole world on my Google Places page David!”

Trust me I get it, but a bad review can be a good thing for a number of different reasons but one that I want to talk about here, for just a little bit, is that it shows you’re human. Being human means that you make mistakes and by making mistakes you have the ability to showoff your customer service skills.

So, whenever you see a bad review, make sure that you go through the steps I outline in the video here, I call it The Closed Feedback Loop. The Closed Feedback Loop is a way for turning a negative review into something positive and by fixing the problems in a public manner you will go a long way to convincing your ticked off customer that it was a one time thing and that you will do everything in your power to fix it. A negative review that is followed up with publicly and to the satisfaction of the unsatisfied party is even more powerful than a positive review. Don’t take my word for it, here are a few stats for you to take a look at.

85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay anywhere between 5-25% over the standard price to ensure a superior customer experience.Think about that a moment, In 2010 Americans spent $157 Billion on buying automobiles. That means they would have paid almost $40 Billion more for superior customer service. Ask yourself this, are the experiences my customers having at my dealership superior? I’m not talking about run of the mill, what’s expected customer service, but exception customer service.
92% of consumers said they would be willing to go back to a company after a
negative experience if they:·· Received a follow up apology/correction from a supervisor/head office (63%)
·· Were offered a discount (52%)
·· Or were offered proof of enhanced customer service (49%)

Wow! 92% And you were just thinking about ignoring that negative review weren’t you? Time and time again I see where a customer has left a bad review and nowhere do I see an attempt to contact that person. Don’t say that you just called them, it’s important that you try to contact them on the actual service they used to leave the bad review as well.
Oh and your customers expect a response when they leave a bad review, at least 58% of them said that they would like a response back.·· 42% expect a response within a day
·· 39% within a week
·· 7% within an hour
·· 2% within a minute

If you are curious as to where I got these percentages check out this report conducted by RightNow.

Open your eyes, the bottom line is that customer service is important, very important, but as consumers we understand that businesses make mistakes, we just want them to correct it.

What kind of processes do you have in place to ensure that your negative reviews are being handled appropriately? Let me know in the comment section below.

Are You Letting Them Tell Their Story?

David Johnson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:17:09 +0000

By “them” I mean your employees. Their story is who they are, what they’re about and why they work for you. Their story will help your dealership be more human. Being human will get you more business, earn your more referrals and create untold amounts of customer loyalty.

Why is humanity important you ask? Why is oxygen important? Both are imperative, the former becoming even more so the more we move towards a customer-driven economy. People want to do business with people. They want to do business with people they like, know and trust… with people, with humans. Are you human?

By becoming more human you give your customers a reason to like you, a way to know you and allow for the creation of trust.

Here’s an idea for showcasing your humanity: allow your employees to tell their story. What I mean by that is let them create videos and share with the world who they are, why they work for you and what kind of place the dealership is. This gives the people who obtain service at your dealership insight to who the woman that changes their oil is, who the guy is that fixed their starter is and why they love working at your dealership.

Don’t stop there though, every employee should be given a change to tell their story. How many kids they have, how long they’ve lived in the community, where they went to school and why your dealership. The idea behind this is that you don’t want them just to do business with ABC Motors, but with Becky and Mark, Ryan and Samantha.

Remember, the difference between traditional advertising and social media is that traditional advertising is all about the marketing of the business, where social media is all about the marketing of the PEOPLE of the business. In other words, it’s time to market your humanity. Why? Because people want to do business with other people, not with a faceless machine.

How do you show your humanity? Let me know in the comment section below.

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Implementing A Social Culture in 2012

David Johnson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:00:23 +0000

In 2011 we got a glimpse of what social marketing can really do for your dealership, but success was few and far between. Those that got it right are alien to those that didn’t. What was different? What makes one dealership a social success while others are left questioning the validity of new media altogether? The answer is social culture.

I worked with dozens and dozens of dealerships in 2011, some got it right, others not so much. The single biggest differentiating factor is the underlying culture of the dealership. I’ll say this right now, the typical dealership culture is NOT conducive to social success. What does that mean? It means that the way the vast majority of dealerships are currently being ran won’t see any success in social media, that is if they don’t change their ways!

If management isn’t willing to institute a social culture into the dealership, then no amount of tactics, training , money spent or strategy implemented will give them the kind of success that is truly possible through social marketing. How does a dealership go about implementing a social culture, great question!

Creating a social culture within the dealership boils down to three things:

Change how you conduct business
Change how you talk
Change how you think

I know that change is scary but the word economy is in a fundamental shift, a shift from a business-ran economy to a more customer-driven one. In order to shift along with the changes, you’re going to have to make a change. Business as usual won’t cut it.

“Ultimately social media is not about the tools, technology and whiz-bang things. It’s about culture and culture change.” Scott Monty – Head Of Social Media For Ford

Change: Conducting Business

Business must be more transparent, more human and more social. Your customers want to talk about you, they want to say something about what they experienced at your dealership, it’s up to you to determine if what’s being said is positive or negative.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that everybody is a spokesperson, from employees and customers to the larger community as a whole. You must allow your salespeople, service advisors, F&I managers and everybody else employed at the dealership to have a voice.

Remember: The biggest difference between traditional marketing and social marketing is that traditional marketing is all about the marketing of the business, while social marketing is all about the marketing of the people of the business.

So, change the way you do business. Be open, influence word-of-mouth and allow your employees to have a voice. Let them lead the charge, go out into the community, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, local charity fundraisers or the Chamber of Commerce. Keep in mind that the more people they meet, the more people they impact, and the more people like them the more business you will earn.

Change: The Way You Talk

Your customers want to help, all you have to do is listen to them, they will tell you everything you need to know about attracting and keeping more of them. They expect you to listen, so listen. Talk with them and be social, collaborate with as many customers as possible.

Also, change the way you talk in the dealership. Don’t use any negative descriptive words to describe certain types of customers. Don’t pass blame either, only solutions. Be open with one another, be social and become friends. Do things as a team, build each other up and help however, whenever you can.

I’ve been in dealerships that don’t feel like dealerships. Traditional high pressure, all we want is your money type of dealerships give off a totally different vibe than those that have a customer first approach. You may not be able to put your finger on it but you can tell when the people working at the dealership actually like each other. So, change the way you talk!

Change: The Way You Think

It’s no secret, change is a mindset. In order to implement a culture change within the dealership you must first implement a cognitive culture, that is you must first change your view on how business is done and how the change will affect the way the dealership operates. In other words, the dealership of last century will not be able to conduct business in the same capacity as they did then if change isn’t at the top of their to-do list.

You have to know that the customer comes first. They their experiences matter and how they view the way you conduct business has a big impact on whether or not they talk about you and whether or not that talk is good or bad. I’m not saying that you should change your mission statement because those are just words and aren’t enough, I’m talking about changing the way you think and the way you do business.

Here’s a little exercise, answer these honestly and reflect:

Who do you think we are? (We being the dealership)
Who do we think they are? (They being your customers)
How do we view that relationship?

Think….

I’d love to have a discussion with you about this topic, if you feel up to it, answer the above questions in the comment section below. Come on, don’t be shy!

Don’t Forget The Calls To Action

David Johnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:00:07 +0000

It could be as simple as a question or as complex as a button that changes when you mouse over it, whatever it is, from here on out, calls to action are mandatory. Oh, don’t do it just because I told you so, do it because you want your readers to do more, your followers to act and your potential customers to submit a lead.

Let me ask you a question. Do you want your site visitors to just come and go? Rhetorical question I know but without a call to action that’s exactly what will happen. I know most dealerships don’t think about the call to action that much, that’s your website vendors job after all, but what about your blog posts?

You are blogging aren’t you? (That’s for another post)

Everything you write, from here on out should have a clear and concise call to action. If could be a link to another post that you tell your reader to click on, or even a question on a picture you post on Facebook, whatever it is, ask your readers to do more, don’t let them just consume your content and then walk (click?) away.

Speaking of doing something more: To receive your FREE copy of Social Media And The Auto dealer, as well as the bi-weekly Automotive Social Media Newsletter FREE just fill out the short email form below. Don’t worry I hate spam too and will never share your info!

Forget ROI, What Is Your ROE?

Conversation Is Key

David Johnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:28:41 +0000

Conversation is the informal exchange of thoughts and ideas between two or more people. It’s also the prerequisite for brand ambassadorship. In other words if you want more word-of-mouth then you must first create more conversations between yourself and your customers.

Engagement has become a buzzword and my fear is that due to its omnipresence in posts, videos, lectures, conferences and seminars that the idea behind it has become watered down. We tend to drown out repetition, we don’t need it, we feel as if we’ve heard it before (which we have) and thus the message becomes less important, at least in our minds.

Remember, conversation is key. Content is important but conversation is what that content must achieve. Everything you write should be written to start a conversation, that back and forth exchange of thoughts and ideas.

Take a look at what you’re currently doing, are you starting conversations? Where can you improve? Here’s an idea, stop thinking like a business and start thinking like a human. Be inquisitive, ask questions and get people thinking.

Here’s a question that must be answered, where can you improve, where can you start a conversation that your not currently having them? Lets have a discussion, leave your answer in the comment section below.

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Stop Being A Faceless Machine, Humanize The Way You Do Business

David Johnson — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:09:42 +0000

The faceless machine. We build it, hoping they will come but then realize that we are competing on price with other faceless machines. We’re doing it to ourselves, we move further and further away from high touch, hoping for a quantity of interactions. The sad truth about that is, the consumer your trying to lure in, is looking for quality.

If we, as business owners, spend more time being human, more time interacting as ourselves rather than our business name we begin to show our customers, and the greater community as a whole, that there is more to us than just business.

If there is nothing about you, or your business, that differentiates you from the other faceless machines out there, then all that’s left is to compete on price. It’s a race to the bottom, with the business that can limbo the best, being labeled as the winner.

Customer Loyalty? Not if Your Faceless

Customer loyalty is almost non-existent. Think about it, why would somebody feel loyal to a business with no face? A machine who’s only consideration is to make money, to sell things at a price and turn-over as many customers per day as possible?

It’s time to rethink your business processes and start thinking of ways that you can humanize what you do. Use Facebook and Twitter, Blogs, Videos and Google + to connect with as many different people as possible, both sold customers and people in your local community. Then interact! Create as many different conversations as possible, become human, shed your brick & mortar façade and build relationships.

Also, rethink your touch points, that is, take a look at things from your customers point of view. Take a close look at how their greeted on the phone, on your website, and in person. Take a look at your physical location, does it go above what’s expected, are you high touch or are you just dropping your customers somewhere?

If you’re a faceless machine then customer loyalty will elude you, you will become a hit and run victim that may sell a large number of products but will always spend a huge percentage on advertising because…

Word-Of-Mouth Doesn’t Work For Faceless Machines

Word-of-mouth is the sincerest form of flattery, but if your faceless you don’t think much about it because it doesn’t happen for you. Word-of-mouth, hands down, is the best form of advertising and you should do everything in your power to influence it. First things first though, you need to be human. People don’t go out of their way to become true brand ambassadors just because they got a good price.

Engagement is a precursor for brand advocacy and the only way you can do that is by humanizing the way you do business. Faceless machines don’t interact, faceless machines don’t build “after the sale” relationships and because of that faceless machines don’t influence word-of-mouth. Did you know that while only 14% of your ads are influencing people to do business with you, 75% of people trust the recommendations of people they DON’T know, while 90% trust the recommendations of people the do know! If that isn’t reason enough to stop being faceless, then I’m not sure what else I can tell you.

Stop The Facelessness

Build a human business, interact on a personal level and smile once in a while. Stop being all business and hold a conversation with people. With the onset of social networks, blogs, wiki’s and a host of other web 2.0 properties, it’s easy to create a framework of humanity around your business. It’s in that framework that you will increase both customer loyalty and word-of-mouth. Stop being a faceless machine, humanize, humanize, HUMANIZE!

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