A case for bad profits!

I spent a week in October not able to access my computer. So, the next best thing was to access my email through my cell phone. I went into the phone browser and did the $20 or so a day for access for the first two days and then realized I’d be in the hospital longer than I had originally thought and did $5 a month for access. It thought that was it and started accessing the Web.

I just got my phone bill and it is $180 more than my regular bill. I looked at the details of the phone and the extra charges are because I went over my minutes. I was perplexed as I don’t spend a lot of time on my phone and definitely not 450 minutes worth. When I took a closer look, I see that my regular minutes are deducted by the amount of time I spent online. After I hit the max, I was charged $.45 for every minute over. (For all you who use your cell phone a lot you probably already knew that this would happen. On the other hand, I was blown away by the charges because I thought that the $5 a month covered it all.)

Call me crazy, but this seems like a prime example of bad profits. First, I have to pay to access the Web. Then, I get my minutes deducted because I’m using the Internet via my phone. Finally, I get charged $.45 for every minute over the limit. So in essence, I’m being hit three times (on top of my regular phone bill) for accessing the Internet. I’m pretty sure this isn’t done only by my cell phone provider, but I don’t care. It’s wrong! Could you imagine driving into a gas station and being charged just pull up to the tank, and then getting charged to fill up the tank as well as time spent at the pump? It’s ridiculous and gas stations wouldn’t do it because it’s bad profits!

To top it off, you would think that if someone went from $50 a month to more than $220 in a month that there would be a fraud alert or something of the sort to notify me. Nope. I got zilch except for a big fat bill.

I’m debating if I should cancel my phone service on the way home tonight.

Grrrrrrr. Enough venting for one day.

What are you thankful for?

This year has been a ton of fun.  I took a bunch of classes, travelled a bit and learned a lot. There was some crying but mostly laughing and smiling.  I’ve been very fortunate to live the life I have with very little drama.  So, in this week of Thanksgiving, I’m giving you my list of things I’m thankful for – in no particular order.

 

-  I’m thankful my uncle touched my life in ways he’ll never know and I’m thankful that he didn’t suffer long.

 

- I’m thankful for my new nephew and niece that have already brought a ton of smiles to my life at the little ages of 8 weeks and 5 weeks. And of course for my bigger nieces whom I adore and who constantly keep me laughing.

 

- I’m thankful to have been able to see what the world looks like from the Eiffel Tower on a clear night with a full moon (and that I didn’t get sick at the second level when I started getting dizzy from being scared of heights).

 

- I’m thankful that I had a good surgeon who made my back as good as new.

 

- I’m thankful that after more than a year and a half, I still love my job, the awesome people I work with and the fun company I work for.

 

- I am thankful that I am constantly pushed to learn more and be a better person by the people with which I surround myself.

 

- I’m thankful that Max is the coolest dog in the world! No really, he is.

 

- I’m thankful that a good friend is having a very long awaited kidney transplant in two weeks and that her beautiful little tweenies will be able to have a healthy mom very soon.

 

- I’m thankful that 99% of my friends and family are healthy.

 

- I’m thankful that customer reference professionals are finally getting the recognition they need and deserve.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

10 important questions to ask your customers – once you have their attention

Now that you have your customer’s attention, what do you ask them? After years of talking to customers, interviewing them and getting a feel for them for media opportunities, press releases, case studies as well as sales and analyst requests, I have boiled down the most important list of questions to ten. Sure, you’ll probably want to ask other questions based on the opportunity that you think they’re good for, but these 10 are critical to the success of your program. I generally ask these questions during a 30 minute phone interview with them to gather information for a press release and/or case study. With the exception of the first question, they are in no particular order.

 

1-       Do you still have time to talk? (Set the tone of the call at the very beginning and let the customer know that you value his/her time. It’s possible they got pulled into a meeting scheduled 5 minutes later or that they need to finish a last minute project for their boss.)

2-       On a scale of 0-10 (10 being the best), how likely are you to recommend <enter your product or company here>? (A quick way to find out how happy and loyal a customer is. Anything below an 8.5 and I’d think twice about putting them in front of the media.  See my previous post about this)

3-       Are you willing and able to speak to the media/analysts/references either publicly or anonymously? (This sets the stage for what you will be able to do with the customer. It’s very possible that the customer will have to ask their PR team, but it gets them thinking outside of the press release and/or case study box.)

4-       If given a media opportunity, what do you feel comfortable/not comfortable speaking about? (You want the customer to talk about what they are passionate about and don’t want to put them in an awkward position by having a reporter ask them a question you don’t want to know the answer to. This also helps you select the most appropriate customer for each opportunity)

5-       Is there a PR person that I should work with to help move the process along? (There’s nothing worse than spending time interviewing, writing and getting approvals on a press release or case study to find out that there’s a PR policy against it. This can also help reduce the amount of time your customer contact has to spend chasing down approvals.)

6-       How did you hear about <enter your product or company here>? (This is a great and fast way to figure out which Marketing programs or partners are working for your company)

7-       If you saw your CEO in the elevator, what would you tell him/her about <enter your product or company here>? (This would be the customer elevator pitch (literally) and gives you an idea of the top things that the customer sees as important or valuable with your product/company.)

8-       May I use your company logo on our Website? (This is a separate question from using them as a public reference because some companies branding is their logo and not necessarily their name. For example, professional sports teams generally won’t let anyone use their logo unless you sign a contract and pay a nice wad of cash to use it. The logos are their branding.)

9-       What publications/blogs/Websites do you read? (This will help you watch what your customers are reading and will give you a list of publications to target for pitching and advertising.)

10-    Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you want to tell me? (This is a great opportunity for your customer to tell you how great support is or how awful the Website is. In the case of negative information, take it as positive criticism. I’ve had use this time to tell me how wonderful their Sales person is and of course, I then send that information to the Sales person and :cc their boss!)

 

By going through this list of questions, you get a feel for what your customers are willing and able to do as well as what influences them.  You have their attention so make sure to ask the questions that you want an answer to.

 

Know thy prospect?

The idea of my dad finding me a date scares me to death. My dad is 70 and from the old country…Ireland. What he would view as a compatible spouse for me is completely different than what I would. Either way, bless his heart, he’s thinking of his daughter’s future. He recently told me that he had a guy in mind.

I started asking my dad some basic questions about Mr. X and although I wasn’t totally turned off, I wasn’t super excited. Apparently this guy is really nice, drives a nice car, likes to garden and cook and goes to Church. My dad met him at a gardening club that they both belong to and the guy is going to join a Church group my dad also belongs to. Not so sure I want to be dating anyone that’s spending that much time with my dad (cough cough). When I asked about his age my dad said, “He’s younger than me”. “Me” as in my dad. Um, I’m 35 and not really into guys double my age! My mom piped in and said she thinks he’s either in his 40’s or 50’s. Getting better.

We discuss this a bit more and I asked how they know he’s single. Well, you would have thought that the Pope was standing beside Mother Teresa and my parents had to decide which one they wanted to have dinner with. They looked confused, thought for a minute and then said they had no idea if he was single or not. They didn’t even know if he is married.

Besides telling you too much about me, there actually is a point to this little story. You have to know who your customers are. They could be a Fortune 10 company with a gazillion dollars in revenue, using every single product you have and meet all the requirements of your “perfect” customer but are they happy with your products? Do you feel comfortable putting them in front of prospects? Is there something you don’t know that you should?

Just as my dad left out a key component to playing match maker, it’s critical that you know your customers and your prospects. A customer might be a good fit for a particular opportunity, but not for all prospects.

When asked by Sales to find a customer to be a reference, I always ask a few key questions…

1- does the vertical matter?

2- are there specific products that the prospect is looking at?

3- are there specific functionalities that the prospect is interested in?

4- is there a certain deployment type the prospect is looking at?

5- what’s the deadline?

What to take from this? Know what your prospect is looking for because you always want to find the most appropriate customer for each opportunity. There’s no one great customer for all opportunities.

Did you vote today?