What does surprise me however, is when consumers pay for certain products and services strictly out of laziness. While on holiday in Hawaii a couple of years ago, I decided to get out into Maui’s rainforests for a long, satisfying and beautiful hike. After looking through colorful and descriptive marketing material provided by guide services, I decided perform a bit of my own research on where to go, how to get there and what it entailed. Jumping on the web and typing “Maui Hikes” (nothing overly creative) into Google returned to me several options that were primarily the same guide services in the marketing material provided by the hotel and airport. But after 10 minutes online and viewing the sixth or seventh page, I found what I was looking for: the website for Maui’s Parks Department.

Maui’s Parks Department maintains and manages protected areas of the island while giving access to the public and creating revenue. They maintain hiking trails, fight erosion & vandalism and work to beautify the spaces. The responsibility that I was most interested in was the management of access to these parks by the public. A little more research revealed how and where to access the hiking trails, so off I went.

On a little non-descript back road sat a small shack. In the shack sat a lovely young lady to whom I paid $6 to have all the access I wanted to the trails and the park. About ¾ of a mile into the hike I started passing the guided tour groups. Families, kids, and the elderly made up the majority of these groups. They seem to be having a great time. As I pass one particular lady, our conversation went like this:

“Your aren’t in our group,” she states.

“No, I am not,” I reply with a smile.

“So how did you find this trail?”

“I Googled it.”

“And how much did it cost you to get in the park?” she asks.

“6 bucks,” I say with a little bit of humor.

“Wow. That would have saved me $50 per person.”

This just showed me that there are consumers out there that are willing (maybe a little too willing) to pay for someone to do all the footwork for them. You can call it convenience, comfort, luxury or maybe even ignorance, but I call it a profitable way to provide a service that people want and enjoy.

- Adam OLeary, President

Designers’ preferences for different platforms vary from person to person. I am not here to argue that point. That could be an endless task that would have really no clear-cut winner. It’s like arguing whether your sports team is better than another. The people that you will be arguing with are very passionate about their team and will find rebuttals to any point you have that is uncomplimentary about their team. It is a futile argument. No won wins.

I think the above platforms serve a market that has an bona fide need for easy interface into their website content. They typically are small businesses that don’t have the budget to hire a dedicated web designer or a marketing firm to manage it. They add this responsibility to their growing list of tasks, which can be anything under the sun!

I think the most significant issue is that clients obviously do not have a design or web background. If the changes that need to be made are simple text updates, these platforms work very well. However, I have had many experiences where clients attempt to make changes that are beyond their ability which leads to poor layout, improper graphic formats and an overall inferior website.

I colleague of mine works in the same field as I do but at a large advertising firm in Florida. Over lunch one day, we were discussing the nuances of client management when this exact topic came up. His experience was similar to mine but also included the fact that many of his clients with WordPress or Joomla websites were coming back to his agency to have them handle all ongoing design and administration. This was because of the exact same reason I spoke of before. Clients attempt to manage their content but either discover they don’t have the time and knowledge OR their inexperience lead to an awful website. He informed me that over time, these clients’ invoices had a line item of website maintenance more often than not.

So is CMS’ killing good web design? I think so. Although I do see it improving. Clients are realizing they have to leave the work to the experts. You wouldn’t try to fill a cavity yourself would you? So why would you try to design a website with no training?

I understand not broadcasting to the public, the media, your client base or potential clients that you messed up and lost a client. That isn’t something that helps build your brand image, win potential clients or promote your service or products. The most important aspect of losing a client is evaluating what you did wrong.

I have lost clients, most to unforeseen and unpredictable circumstances, but one or two through my own mistakes. One of these was early in my career, but I hope my story can help others to not make the same mistake I have.

The majority of my clients are small businesses, so they rely on me to give them guidance and expertise in the marketing field. Although some are well versed in marketing and may have a grasp on basic concepts, a thorough understanding of the field just isn’t plausible since small business owners have so many different roles and responsibilities. With this particular client, I assumed (and assumptions are enormous mistakes by themselves) they were happy with our marketing communications plan that we had laid out for the fiscal year. This drove me to become lackadaisical in the management of this account. I assumed (again, huge mistake) that the personal interaction that builds rapport and relationships in my business could be substituted with electronic communication and the occasional phone call. While I was happy with the ease in which I could manage this account, there was a competitor in my client’s ear on a regular basis, which helped them provide the client with that guidance that I wasn’t providing.

Once I was informed of my client’s decision to change, I was really personally hurt. I had come to think of them as not just clients, but friends. After further reflection of the situation, I was more hurt that I had dropped the ball more than anything else. I had taken for granted that my client will always be there and they were happy with my level of service. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.

So, after this very powerful and embarrassing learning experience, one of the lessons going forward is personal management of my clients is crucial to a long and fruitful relationship. In addition, I know now that if I am not in my clients’ ear…someone else is.

There are many ways of creating buzz for clients that include promotional pricing, call to actions and Public Relations but the one I want to talk about is the guarantee.

Many companies will provide a guarantee to their customers to create a sense of credibility, use as a promotional tool or just solicit some media attention. However, the fundamental feature of the guarantee has to be its legitimacy. If this guarantee doesn’t convey that you will significantly go out of your way to ensure whatever it is you are guaranteeing, the exercise is worthless and potentially damaging.

An example I like to use involves a local car dealer her in Denver. This dealer is very popular and well known around here and competes mostly on price (as most car dealers do). They promote that they will “beat any deal or they will give you the car”. This offer has no merit. Think about it. If someone comes to the dealer and has a better deal that they must match, there is no way in hell they would say they couldn’t match it! If they can’t match it, they would have to give it to you according to their guarantee. So obviously they would match the deal even if it meant they would lose money on the deal. It would lose more money if they gave you the car.

Now I don’t know if anyone has done any research about whether or not the public here in Denver has a negative brand image of this dealer because of this, but the smart and savvy shoppers (which the American public is becoming more and more of) will see through the smoke screen. This kind of tactic can be very beneficial, but you need to be careful on what you are offering. It could just as easily be harmful.

You are missing opportunities. You are missing creating lasting, fulfilling and profitable relationships.

Creating conflict because of your ego, pride or self glorification only hinders your ability to make genuine connections, have work that is enjoyable and wallow in success.

Concentrate on those things that lead to positive relationships.

Clients ask hard questions that may make you have to admit your shortcomings. Sound advice: do not avoid the hard questions. Be upfront and honest with your clients and they will reward you for it.

If a client has a perception that there is an issue, there is an issue. I had a past posting that addresses perception is reality.

If you avoid the hard questions, you will damage your reputation, credibility and brand. Even if clients do not like the answer, they will at least respect the honesty and honesty goes a long way.

Now, some might argue at the reason for this promotion since they are obviously losing money on each sandwich. But revenue and profit isn’t the point on in this instance: brand recognition and brand equity is. The buzz alone surrounding this promotion is worth the loss they took on selling sandwiches below cost.

Individual Facebook posts were a common occurrence, local media had remote vans covering specific stores and paid TV & radio spots blanketed the Denver market.

The promotion itself accomplishes a few things.

1.      The positive goodwill created by branding this promotion as a “Customer   Appreciation” generates clear brand equity for Jimmy John’s and their business.

2.      Brings consumers that may not have previously visited their stores into their locations.

3.      Helps build recognition in their brand since it is prominent in basically all marketing channels around the area.

The real challenge for Jimmy John’s is whether or not they can capitalize on this positive press coverage, while converting some of these new visitors into repeat and life-long customers as well as engaging the loyalists of their brand that were excited to get a great deal for a product they enjoy.

Successful and well done promotion

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/08/26/taking-a-customer-from-like-to-love-the-ux-of-long-term-relationships/

http://tinyurl.com/5w7s5ge

When a consumer thinks of these two industries they typically don’t have a positive impression. Attorneys have a reputation of being overly expensive and a necessary evil. Remodelers are thought of as swindlers and corner cutters (if that is an actual word). So why is this?

Have these two industries gotten a bad rap because of a scandal? From political agendas? No. They have these reputations because of their colleagues in the profession! Constant television advertising for ambulance-chasing attorneys have eroded any positive reputation there may have been. In the case of remodelers, it seems every time I have someone work on my house, they bad-mouth the previous contractors work. That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me for anyone’s work!

I understand why people badmouth their competition. It makes people feel better about their work and they think it helps them acquire the contract. In fact it does nothing but hurt them. So, stay positive. Concentrate and focus on your strengths and highlight them.