Shopping for a Fireplace Insert: Cold Customer Service

While shopping for a fireplace insert we visited a store that we had noticed because they advertised a lot on the radio and in the paper. It was a family run store so naturally I expected warm and friendly service.

Instead they greatly disappointed me.

We weren’t tire kicking. We had already decided that we would buy a fireplace gas insert. We had a beautiful fireplace and enjoyed sitting in front of a roaring fire. But we preferred the convenience of gas instead of logs.

We were willing to spend between $2500 - $3500. All we needed to decide is where would we buy and which model.

So how was our shopping experience at this particular store?

In short – horrible.

First, we were kept waiting about 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. One sales rep even pushed by us (without apologizing) without offering to help.

The sales person who eventually talked to us - yapped and yapped.

I showed my displeasure with her approach and tried to ask her some questions. This is how she responded.

She defended - "No one told me about the special"
She made excuses, "I know my product - but I forgot that information"
She lied "everyone does it this way" when we had learned differently the previous day from a major competitor.
She interrupted me a few times while I was asking a question.

And the big trust stealer was - they wanted full payment before the work is completed. Their competitor only required a 50%`deposit.

I finally muttered "Never mind - we are leaving."

That sales person didn’t know what she did wrong. And that business owner didn’t know what they were doing wrong. They’ll probably blame somebody or something for their lack of business.

Curious that we next stopped at a Dollar store and spent $4. The cashier (who I assumed was the owner) was pleasant to both of us - even though I impatiently hovered while my wife bought. He spoke and looked friendly at each of us in turn and asked us both to come back.

I wanted to ask him if he had any fireplace inserts.

We eventually found a store where we bought our fireplace insert.

All the expensive radio and newspaper ads in the world will be defeated by poor customer service. Where should you invest your time and money first?

George Torok
Marketing Speaker

Pigs or Prudes - Who are your customers?

Are They Pigs?


This is not about passing judgement. This is about having a clear picture of your best customers. Who are they? What do they look like? What are their values? What makes them laugh? What annoys them?

How can you package your product to fit their values?

For example:





If they are pigs you might rave about the latest fart app. You might have it on your phone. You might review the top ten.



Consider that one of the biggest selling iPhone apps is a fart app. For $0.99 you can make your iPhone make a fart noise. Disgusting to some but shear joy to pigs. If your customers are pigs, they will love the fart app. It's selling over 10,000 downloads a day.

I guess that I'm a prude because I would not want that on my smart phone - and I would never have thought of that as a product.

Read more here:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/23/iphone-fart-app-pulls-in-nearly-10000-a-day/

Go ahead - pull my finger.


George Torok

Marketing Expert & Speaker

Bell Mobility - a new adventure

I bought a new Blackberry from Bell Mobility.

Two day’s later I receive a message from the store manager that they had accidently charged my credit card twice for the purchase.

He said that I needed to contact my credit card company and ask them to “dispute” the charge.

I experienced mixed thoughts. Why did they screw up? Glad that they noticed their mistake. Glad that they notified me. Why did they expect me to fix it? It was their mistake. Why didn’t they fix it?

Naturally I called him back.

During the short and apparently inconvenient conversation these statements from the store manager stuck with me.

“I don’t have time to talk about this now.”

“Finance emailed me and instructed me to call you to tell you to “dispute the charge with your credit card company.”

“One other customer also asked me why we don’t credit the extra charge and I don’t know.”

“I’m surprised that finance asked me to call you about the double charge. The company I worked with before simply waited for customers to notice the extra charge on their statement and expect the customer to dispute the over charge.”

Naturally, I responded to that last statement with, “Who did you work for before?”

His answer, “Rogers.”

I thanked him for notifying me of their error. I also pointed out that because it was their error I expected them to fix it by crediting my account. He claimed that he was unable to do that and repeated the instructions from “Finance” to dispute the charge. I pointed out that this would require time and effort from me to fix their mistake.

He was clearly out of his depth, ability and level of corporate trust.

I wondered, “How will this store manager ever learn about responsibility to customer service?”

He conveyed the message that he was doing me a favour by calling me and telling me what to do.

I called MasterCard and explained my strange request. The woman readily complied. I asked her if this was normal. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the seller to credit me for their mistake?” She agreed that “disputing” the charge required much more paperwork “but because this was Bell they would do it this way.”

Hmmm, I just signed a three year contract with Bell. I hope that I don’t regret it.


George Torok

Year End and New Year Marketing

The Past Year

This is the time to review your past year of marketing.

What worked well and why? Can you do that again?

How can you connect with your market one last time this year to remind them of the good times?


The New Year

Plan your calendar of promotions for this new year.

What ideas from the past year will you use again?

What missed opportunities will you pursue this year?

Write your marketing plan now because time will fly again.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

Power Marketing

Power Marketing Tip 41: Pulling the Emotional Triggers

The Christmas season drives a spending frenzy, especially in North America. Many if not most retailers depend on the Christmas shopping spree to make their year profitable.

What can marketers learn from this buying madness?

The buying is driven by emotions not logic. Most buyers will apply some logic to parts of the shopping process, but without the emotional triggers, Christmas shopping would be a bust.

This buying fever is viral. Marketers don’t need to convince people to spend money. They simply need to offer choices for how to spend money. That’s a much easier marketing task. Instead of shouting “spend your money” retailers simply need to sing “if you’re going to spend it, you might as well spend it here”.

The predominant mindset of the public is “you have to buy because it’s Christmas”.

The deal killing logic of affordability is often easily sidestepped with the use of credit cards and other “buy now – pay later” plans.

The holidays are a time of many emotional highs and lows. Although love is one of the emotions that fuel the spending and gift-giving, take note of other emotions that contribute strongly to the mix. That might include guilt, pride, greed and fear.

Those emotions are neither good nor bad. They are simply part of what makes us emotional beings. We usually find it easier to see those traits in others.

As marketers, I suggest that you observe the actions of both sellers and buyers. Take note of the approaches that seem to be more successful. Isolate and identify the dominating emotional triggers.

Then analyze your own market. What are the emotional triggers that tend to drive or prevent your prospects from buying from you?

What can you do to enhance or mitigate those triggers?

Think about these questions while you enjoy and witness the Christmas season.


George Torok
Marketing Speaker

Power Marketing Tips

Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" when you register here

Marketing in Turbulent Times

May you live in interesting times.

Is that ancient expression a curse or a blessing? I think it depends on how you define “interesting” and more importantly how you adapt to it.

If you define interesting to mean unpredictable, challenging and threatening then clearly we are living in interesting times. Business these days is more like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft than canoeing in a duck pond.

It’s too easy to be mesmerized by the danger of capsizing. If you focus on the rocks, that’s where you will go. The secret is to look for and steer to the high water and paddle like a fiend.


Survival is not the goal
If you set your sights on surviving you could slip and sink. If you set your target as thriving then you might flourish.


How do you thrive in these turbulent waters?
Marketing is the result of all the messages that you and your staff send. In fact your staff sends more powerful marketing messages than all the advertising you ever do. Therefore marketing becomes the end result of almost every business decision you make.


Think long term
Don’t make knee-jerk decisions especially about business strategy. Gather as much relevant information as you can. Seek the advice of people you respect. Be clear on your purpose. Examine both the short term and long term effects of major decisions. Once you decide, act quickly and confidently. Your staff will be looking to you for leadership and hope. Be open to course corrections when and as needed while clearly focused on the objectives and purpose.


Prepare for disaster
The fire department prepares for disaster – they don’t focus on it or obsess about it. They think, plan, acquire the best tools and rehearse their response so they can move swiftly when and if needed. Where are you exposed and how can you protect yourself? When you are shooting the rapids it is foolish to save money by not buying life vests.


Review expenditures
Don’t make across-the-board cuts. That’s a political response and just dumb. Instead categorize expenditures and investments into four categories.
Items that are needed because of the turbulent times to keep you above water or deal with disaster. Plus items that generate a good return. These are new or increased expenditures.
Items that are mission critical and need to be maintained as is.
Items that provide variable return. Peg the expenditure level to the conditions and vary as conditions change. Treat it like an exchange rate.
Items of questionable value. Eliminate them or phase them out.


Review training
Review does not mean reduce or eliminate. Training can be more important during turbulent times. This is when your skills and those of your staff should be at their best. You don’t want to be losing sales because of poor customer service or quality control. Categorize your training needs into three categories.

Key individuals that will steer you through the turbulent times. Provide individualized coaching or training to them. Invest strongly in your best assets.

Departments that need to stay sharp and ahead of your competition. Provide group training, tele-seminars or your own attention to improving skills sets.

Staff that need to be motivated and reminded of purpose and the little things that make the difference. Buy them each a copy of a book that best conveys that message. Ask each person to report at weekly meetings on an assigned chapter in that book. Make everyone feel important.

It only takes one person’s mistake or sabotage to sink your raft.


Review advertising
Too many companies stupidly make major cuts in advertising during turbulent times. My guess is that they did not review their advertising during the good times. Categorize your advertising into three categories.

Advertising that is measureable and has demonstrated a profitable return. Continue to measure as you increase your investment in this profitable avenue. Unfortunately too many companies don’t measure their return on advertising or they don’t design their ads in a way that allows the results to be measureable. So they have nothing in this category. A shame.

Advertising that has gained market recognition and that you believe to be working. You just don’t have a clue how profitable this venue is. Start to build in some measurement indicators. Vary the ads and measure. Then increase or reduce investment appropriately.

Advertising that is merely “me too” ads. You bought an ad because your competitor did. It might be a waste of money but you don’t know. Reduce the expenditure or eliminate it.


Build relationships
In turbulent times nothing is more important that relationships. We will warmly remember those who suffered with us or helped us through the turbulent times. Invest strongly in strengthening the relationship with your best clients. Segment your clients into three categories:
Best clients. Divert more attention to their needs. Instruct your staff accordingly. Jump through hoops for these clients. Offer them additional value and services to help them. Communicate with them more often.

Average clients. Maintain service levels and pricing. Attempt to upgrade them to A clients by introducing additional services.

Pain-in-the-ass clients. Don’t let them bully you into reducing your prices. Instead you might reduce your level of service to them. Offer them the choice of upgrading or leaving. You’ll have less stress in your life.

Important note for you
Relationships are more important that branding – especially during turbulent times. When you have the choice to invest in branding or invest in relationships – choose relationships. It is the far more profitable choice for small and medium sized enterprises. Remember that big business invests in branding because they cannot build relationships. Don’t be fooled by the branding hype.


Online Social Media
Don’t hide. Use the Internet to keep your message and name in front of people. If you haven’t yet created your blog, this is a good time to start. Post regular tips, news and positive messages. Register and maintain your accounts on social networking sites like Linkedin.com, Plaxo.com and Facebook.com. Explore the use of YouTube.com and Flickr.com to publish product news and demonstrations. Barack Obama, the US president used these tools to successfully promote his presidential campaign and he plans to use them to convey his messages to the American people and the world.

May you thrive in interesting times.


© George Torok simplifies marketing for the confused and stressed entrepreneur. He clarifies fundamental marketing principles and offers practical techniques. Get your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” when you register for your free Power Marketing Tips at www.PowerMarketing.ca. George Torok is available for media interviews and speaking engagements. Call 905-335-1997.


Marketing In Turbulent Times

2 Banks, 2 Mistakes, 2 Entirely Different Responses

I visited two banks in the same day with two difference problems and the reception was very different.

Both banks had made major errors with my accounts. But they seemed to approach things differently.

The teller at the Blue bank searched her records on the computer. She asked me a few questions and then stated, “I think I see what happened.” She then asked me to wait a few minutes while she went to speak to a loan’s officer. She apologized.

She returned a few minutes later and said that the loan’s officer asked for me to wait a few more minutes because he wanted to see me.

Sean, the loan’s officer, invited me into his office and explained what had happened and how he would fix it. He apologized. He showed what he did on the screen and gave me a printed confirmation. He handed me his card and suggested that I call him if there were any further questions or problems.

I left the blue bank thinking, Wow. They fixed their mistake quickly. They apologized. And I felt like they were on my side.


Contrast that with the red bank.

Their error was older and not immediately apparent on their computers. So I relayed the details. It was clear to me that the teller did not believe me but at least she spoke to another person about my issue.

The other person – I don’t remember her name or title - met me in the middle of the lobby. She seemed intent on flipping through an outdated paper file. I stated my case. She repeated what appeared in her file. I stated that the file was wrong. Her reply, “I highly doubt it.”

She had just called me a liar.

I ignored her slight and the conversation continued.

“There is an error in your files and I want it corrected.”

“That can’t be done.”

“If the error was made it can be corrected.”

She did not apologize.

But she did offer to give this matter to the branch manager who would not see this file until Tuesday next week. Curious choice of words.

None of that was encouraging. Let’s see what happens on Tuesday.

I left the red bank thinking that I have a battle ahead of me. I hunted for a business card of the branch manager and flipped it over. It said, “Service Excellence”. Let’s see if they mean that.

Do Banks Make Mistakes?
Of course.

How quickly do they admit those mistakes and fix them?

It depends on the bank. So far the score is blue bank one and red bank zero.