The CFO says, “We need to donate some money to a charity to lower our total tax rate.”

The VP of Marketing then chimes in with, “What charity would give us the most publicity for our donation?”

“I don’t know,” the CEO says, “but make sure that the burden on the cost comes from our customers and not out of the bottom line.”

“We need to make sure that we reduce the cost of our product in line with the portion that we are donating to charity, the cost to change the labeling, and any marketing that is associated with this campaign,” the COO reminds the stuffy old codgers around the table.

“Agreed,” the CFO retorts, “make sure the total donation doesn’t exceed $500,000 or it will kill our run rate savings for this fiscal year and has no additional tax benefit.”

The VP of marketing ponders aloud, “What charity are we supporting?”

“I don’t care,” the CEO says, “just make sure that it is one that makes me look good. Git ‘er done. Meeting adjourned, because I need to make my next tee time and the corporate jet (which costs more in a month to run then we are donating) is waiting.”

Is This How a Business Helps Their Community?

In my experience, most corporations donate to causes in order to reduce their tax exposure, gain reduced cost publicity, and make their CEO look like he supports the less fortunate. The donations either come from a tiny fraction of the sales or through the consumer buying a certain product during a limited time period. The worst are the campaigns where the consumer has to collect and mail box tops, UPCs, or lids in order for the company to make a donation to a cause. That puts the burden of responsibility on the customer and not the company that wants to look like it is trying to do well in the first place.

Most Corporate Giving Doesn’t Engage Your Customers

Campaigns like the one above do nothing to get your customer interested in a cause, motivate them to select your product, or make them feel like they are making a difference in the world. What truly motivates your customers is your ability to make them feel really good about buying your product. Your customers want to know that every purchase they make from you might change someone’s life.

The Tom’s Shoes Example

An example of this concept in action is Tom’s Shoes. The idea that Tom’s uses is simple; for every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair to a child in need. Doesn’t buying a product with the knowledge that someone in need gets one of the products make you feel better? Doesn’t it make you want to talk about and write blog posts about this idea?

What is Your Motivation?

When companies are donating to causes, are they doing it just to look good or are they doing it because they can, and it is the right thing to do? Companies that are passionate about helping people with every product they sell are doing the right thing. Companies that are trying to reduce their tax rate or get cheap publicity by limiting how much help they provide are not doing the right thing.

Yeah, but I don’t Sell Shoes

You don’t have to sell shoes to make a difference in the world. There are other ways that you can help the world with your product or service. For example:

1. A restaurant can feed two people at a homeless shelter for every meal sold.
2. Barbers and stylists can donate a haircut to someone that is unemployed for every haircut they sell.
3. A publisher can plant a tree for every book sold.
4. Chair manufacturers can donate a new desk to a school for every chair they sell.
5. Football teams can buy pads for at risk students for every season pass sold.
6. A bike manufacturer can give a bike to a needy child for every bike sold.

There are Many Ways to Help

There are an endless number of ways that businesses can help people and engage their customers in the process of helping. Don’t be like the business that does it for their benefit. Be the business that does it to help people, engage your customers in the process, and be a good thriving business. Are your customers going to have to pay more for your product? Hell yes! But they will pay for it because it is the right thing to do and not just a marketing and tax gimmick.

What ways can the companies you buy from truly help people with your purchase?

Is This How a Business Helps Their Community? is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. That is Not How This Business Works
2. You Will Fail if You Are Not Passionate About Your Business
3. Why Your Business is Like Most Chinese Restaurants

“Hello. This is Cindi from XYZ Corporation. I am calling to let you know that a major mistake on our part needs to be corrected by you, our customer. I know that you pay us quite a large sum of money to provide a service, but we just wanted to let you know how much we don’t care about you and want to make your life as difficult as possible.”

I am exaggerating the conversation a little, but on my end of the phone that is what the conversation felt like. Where in the customer service manual does it tell you to call your customer and tell them that they need to drop everything they are doing to fix a problem that you created?

Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz posted a blog post talking about a similar situation she encountered on the plane ride to Las Vegas. In both Naomi’s and my situations we encountered the same mistake that large companies make when trying to streamline a customer facing process; big companies love to make it more difficult for a customer to give them money. In Namoi’s case, the airline could have been out $10. In my case, the company I am dealing with is leaving about $80,000 of receivables in limbo. Multiply Naomi’s example by ten thousand customers or my by two or three, and we are talking real money.

In case you are wondering, yes, this does affect you. Big company or solo entrepreneur, anytime you are offering a product or service online, you have to consider the method that you will bill your customer. Do you only accept PayPal? What about checks? What if the person only has cash? The method of payment you choose might scare away some potential customers unless you can offer them all.

So maybe you are one of those companies that let people pay anyway they like. How do you get your customers to the point they have to pay? Do you hide your prices from your customer behind an icky sales letter? How about requiring your customer to beg for a quote? What other hoops do you have in place to make your customers jump though in order to give you money?

Here are some examples of ways you make it difficult for your customers to do business with you:

1. A Loyalty card that is required for special pricing (Grocery Stores)
2. Having a contact form to request a price quote (Web Designers)
3. Asking your customers for too much information before providing an estimate (Technology Service Companies)
4. Sending your customers information about pricing changes in legalize (Phone and Cable companies)
5. Developing pricing plans that mathematicians can’t figure out (Cell Phone companies)
6. Hiding product information behind sales letters (Marketers)
7. Waiting to inform customers of customization and delivery expenses (Car and Furniture companies)
8. Provide information to browse offerings (Real Estate companies)

I understand that you want to make your internal billing process easier, get leads, and lead people to make rash purchasing decisions. That is OK, but you do not have to do those things at the sake of the sanity of your customers.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Are you someone that is easy to do business with? If not, how can you make it easier for someone to engage you? I know that this is an area I need to work on. What about you?

How to Lose Customers is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. Why IKEA Will Someday Rule the World
2. Is This How a Business Helps Their Community?
3. You Will Fail if You Are Not Passionate About Your Business

A few weeks ago, I went with my girlfriend while she picked out a new couch at a high end furniture store. It was a miserable experience that only keeps getting worse. The experience has been so dreadful, that I am going to rank furniture shopping up there with painting and moving in the top things that I loathe. Let’s break it down and see what we can learn from this situation.

The day my girlfriend purchased the couch, we encountered amazingly horrible customer service. The person that “helped” us (I use that term loosely), was pushy, rude, and did an exceedingly awful job of explaining the options available to us. I left with the opinion that since we were not purchasing a whole house of furniture, the salesperson wanted to go out of her way to make the experience as miserable as possible.

During the process I learned that you could get the couch with any fabric you desired but if you wanted something beyond a neutral cream, it would take 8 weeks since that is a custom order. 8 weeks to get something that we wanted in a day or two. It made me wonder what kind of production process they are using, because it is not a very customer friendly one.

The long delay

Let us fast forward 6 weeks. The couch is supposed to be delivered in 2 weeks. My girlfriend gets a phone call from the “helpful” sales person telling us that the fabric she picked out is back ordered and they won’t have it in stock until maybe sometime in January. My girlfriend can either accept the delay or pick out another fabric and wait an additional 8 weeks for the couch to arrive.

Why IKEA works

This wouldn’t have happened if we went to IKEA. At IKEA, you find what you are looking for, go to the warehouse, put it on a flatbed, and then load it into a truck. You can even check the website before you go to the store to make sure that they have what you want in stock. If they don’t, then you can easily arrange for them to ship it from another store to your house. It is a very effective and customer focused process and is the reason why more IKEA stores are being built while “high end” stores are going bankrupt.

So how does the “high end” store compete with IKEA?

1. Improve the customer experience in the store

The sales staff needed to be trained on how to treat customers with respect. From the moment we were approached by the salesperson to when we left, we felt that we were an annoyance and not someone whose purchase helped make sure the salesperson got paid that week. Your staff needs to realize that without customers, they don’t get paid.

2. Teach your sales staff to focus on building long term relationships with clients

Since my girlfriend just wanted a couch and not a new house full of furniture, we felt that were given a lower level of service. The service we have been given since the purchase has also not encouraged us to make any more purchases from this company. You have to make every sales experience stellar, so that customers feel that you have provided more value then they have paid for in their purchase.

3. Bend over backwards to get the product to them quickly

This will be the key reason that IKEA will put many stores out of business. We live in a fast paced world. If you cannot get the product to your customer in a timely manner, then they will go someplace where they can get the product quickly. In my girlfriend’s situation, they should offer to send her the color they have in stock (which is very neutral) until the fabric she ordered is in and they can have a slipcover made and shipped to her at no additional charge. Wouldn’t that endear her to their store in the future? Companies need to realize that their customers appreciate getting products faster . . . not slower.

4. Improve the customization process

If you offer customized products, then you have to get them to the customer in a timely manner. It shouldn’t take you 8 weeks to have a slipcover made and shipped to the factory. Putting hurdles in front of your customer will cause them to go somewhere else where they can load the color they want onto a flatbed and have it home to enjoy before dinner. If you are going to offer customization, then make it a fast, efficient, and customer focused process.

Right product, right place, right time

If you are not focusing on getting the right product to your customers at the right time, then you will soon not have any customers. The market will move to where the product is available and many of the high end stores will soon find their doors closed and IKEA will rule the world.

Why IKEA Will Someday Rule the World is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. How to Lose Customers
2. That is Not How This Business Works
3. Is This How a Business Helps Their Community?