Golf Tournament

So I have decided to explore the possibility of having an HD Fowler (Irrigation Dept.) golf tournament.

Right now this is just in the idea stages, but I have thought this might be a great way to start creating a story about HD Fowler and how we treat our customers.  It also might not be that expensive.  I don’t think it would be for some extravagent prize, but some giveaways would be in order.  I would like to also make this an exclusive tournament.  Invitation only.  Reward the customers that do business with us and invite a few key people that don’t do much business with us.  In return, if they do more business with us, we might invite them back.  If they just go for the ride, we don’t invite them the next year.  I would love to hear from them being upset that they didn’t get invited back.  What a great way to say, we reward customers that do business with us.

Our vendors can sponsor each of the holes to help offset some of the cost and we also might give the golf course a credit on there account for the use of the course.

In the schwag bag would be HD Fowler golf towels, HD Fowler golf ball and ball markers.

Just a start…

“Free” Landscape Maintenance

I had to travel to Redmond today to work in our branch there because we were short handed and they needed coverage.  While driving the drive I did before I got the transfer to the Bend branch, I came up with an idea that could possibly help our customers out.

I kind of mixed the commission sales structure of a Real Estate Agent and the tasks of a Landscape Maintenance contractor.  The contractor would offer upgrades to landscapes that would potentially make the house more sell-able.  After the house has been upgraded, the contractor would also maintain the property until the house is sold, or a certain time frame.  All of these services would be offered at no upfront costs to the property owner.  The contractor would only get paid when the house sells. The contractor could could charge up to 1% of the homes value.

This could potentially be a huge profit maker, but at the same time if the house doesn’t sell, they could be out some serious cash.  In today’s market, people selling their house would probably love to get their house spiffed up at no upfront cost.  The homeowner/property owner would love to pay for the burden of a distressed property being lifted from their shoulders.

Lot’s of capital and money would be needed to get this going.  Could be pretty profitable if you found some takers!

Redmond Awards Bid

So just recently the City of Redmond awarded a bid to a contractor that wasn’t the lowest bidder.  This is unheard of in municipality bidding.  The City awarded the contract to redo 6th street in down town Redmond.  6th street use to the main thorough fare through Redmond for years until just recently when the bypass was put in.  Since the bypass was built and the economic plunge, downtown businesses on 6th street have been hurting bad.

Taylor NW was awarded the contract to reconstruct 6th street.  Taylor NW wasn’t the lowest bid and they weren’t even the second lowest bid.  Taylor was actually $400,000 dollars higher than the lowest bid and $200,000 higher than the second lowest.  So why did they get the contract?

Prior to bidding the contract, they were heavily involved with working with the merchants and finding out how they can help minimize the impact of the project.  They thought outside the box.  Taylor NW included in there bid a timely completion of the project, ideas of how the project could be better and cleaning the storefronts of the businesses downtown.

Robinson Construction is the low bidder who did not receive the contract.  They filed a letter with the City Council saying that they didn’t review references.  I don’t think references were necessary.  Fact of the matter is, no one else took it upon themselves to sell their company.  They came up with some numbers on a spreadsheet and said here is our number, let’s take another 10% off the top and that will be our bid.  Taylor NW spent some serious time finding out what the customer really wanted and offered services to the city that no one else was.

It is kind of funny how when I read the article I was pretty much jumping up and down.  I loved the fact that a company during this economic time gets a bid when they are $400,000 high.  The other person reading the article (taxpayer) is pissed.

My next challenge is trying to figure out what services can we offer our contractors that no one else does.

Rejection

Well, I as just rejected from a position at work.  Kind of hard to get upset about it considering I was competing against someone that has been in the field for as long as I have been alive.  The best part about it though, I think I gave him a run for his money.

The best part about it now is that I don’t expect him to be around very long.  So I am looking forward to this being a great training situation, as I don’t expect to see him hanging around very long.  I suspect that he will be taking a Branch Managers position in the Valley in about 6 months.  He is extremely over qualified for the new position.

So here are some of my goals:

• Pick his brain about leadership
• Drive sales up for the irrigation department
• Train me for the position, so when he leaves, I will take it over
• And as always, no sheepwalking!!!

Wish me luck!

Customer Service

So what does it mean to be a good customer service rep?

I have found that over my time of working for HD Fowler that a customer service is someone that takes ownership in what they are doing. Ownership to ensure that the customer is taken care of no matter what the measures that are needed to be taken.

I have had some instances where I have shipped the wrong thing or the warehouse guy pulled the wrong thing. I don’t let it sit and fester, or blow it off. I make sure that the customer is well taken care of and that I follow up on getting the customer what is suppose to be right. I have even made phone calls to customers that were going to be irate with me! Knowing full well that I am about to get my ass chewed, I still make the call. I want the customer to know that I understand that he is upset and I will do everything in my power to see that it gets fixed. After it is fixed I call ensure the problem has not been rectified (because it won’t be), but to ask if there is anything else I can do.

The problem will not go away for awhile and I know that. It takes a long time for that bad taste to get out of their mouth. All I can do is give them superior service and offer them a reason to continue to shop with us.

When you mess up with someones livelihood, it can cause a strain in the relationship of you and the customer, but it is how you handle the situation.

You need to own it and make it yours.

Here is an excerpt from a blog that I just searched regarding customer service in Recession times.

Organizations looking to make the most of what customer service can offer in a poor economy must first lay a foundation before bolting on additional software, according to the report. Petouhoff recommends a five-step process, in which software evaluation is the final leg:

1. Reject the old paradigms that treat a contact center as nothing more than a cost center.
2. Demand ownership of the customer experience.
3. Listen to your customers as you create your strategy.
4. Conduct a gap analysis of your customer service offering and then implement best practices to address those gaps.
5. Evaluate software with customer experience as the top goal for a business case

Why do we do what we do?

So why do we do what we do?

Is it because we are bored? Is it because we are lazy? Is it because it is easy? Is it because it is fun? Is it because it is new?

I have been recently trying to figure out why I am doing the things I do. I have started to realize that the decisions I make are because of family. Family is the most important thing to me, so all of my decisions typically revolve around the family.

But then again, not all decisions are made on that influence. “How much time is it going to take me?” I have lately been making decisions on being lazy.

I need to start making proactive decisions instead of reactive decisions.

So it is time to get back to doing what I was doing before I typed this. Reading, because I want to better myself. I want to learn, grow and become an asset to myself. I want to become a leader and that is why I am reading Tribes.

Permission Marketing

I have been reading excerpts from Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing.  It is interesting to think about how society has been using Interuption Marketing (TV Ads, Newspaper Ads, etc) for so long with little success.  I started to think that my Newsletter might be using Interruption Marketing, but the more I think about, i think I might be asking them for permission.  My newsletters are informational and offer many training classes, for free.  So I guess by offer them something for free with no strings attached, we are actually asking the customer permission to invite them to HD Fowler Events, and asking them if we can send them more info.  We have started seeing customers that we never had dialogue with in the past.  Even with the minimal communication, we are still asking them permission.  We are asking for a chance to bid a project.  Maybe after bidding the project, the experience will have been good, and they want a second experience.

Seth talks about how Permission Marketing is much like a relationship, dating your customer.  Take a look at what he says:

Every marketer must offer the prospective customer an
incentive for volunteering. In the vernacular of dating,
that means you have to offer something that makes it
interesting enough to go out on a first date. A first date,
after all, represents a big investment in time, money and
ego. So there better be reason enough to volunteer.

Without a selfish reason to continue dating, your new
potential customer (and your new potential date) will
refuse you a second chance. If you don’t provide a
benefit to the consumer for paying attention, your offer
will suffer the same fate as every other ad campaign that’s
vying for their attention. It will be ignored.

To read more, feel free to check out his website and get 4 free chapters!

SwiftPage/Drip Marketing

So I have written a couple of newsletters for the company and I am starting to see some positives from doing it.  We are more welcomed by customers that don’t do much business with us.  It seems weird that a newsletter has opened their eyes to us more.  We aren’t offering them anything new, but maybe it is something that they weren’t familar with.  They didn’t want to get burned.

I personally am pretty disappointed with the results however.  We offer classes and offer a way to register, but the customers are not following the directions, or their not seeing it, or they open the link, but don’t act on the instructions.  Who knows?  I need something to track what my customers are doing on my newsletters.

I am currently using Feedblitz for my blogs, but I wanted something that I could update and paste.  I didn’t neccessarily want to send them to a blog, but maybe that is what I am going to to have to do.

I recently received a newsletter from Weathermatic, one of our vendors.  They use a software called Swiftpage.  I immediately dove into it and checked it out.  The biggest thing I like the most about it was the Drip Marketing Features.  The requires you to have other lead tracking software like ACT, which I don’t have and don’t want to purchase on my own.  Drip marketing would allow me to set up marketing campaigns and let it go.  No more trying to remember who I sent this to, who recieved it, who do I need to follow up with, etc.  What a pain.  These programs do it all for me.  I really like what it has to offer, except the ability to create my own template!  Swiftpage offers many templates, but the ability to edit them is lacking severly.  I hate it.  I called up Weathermatic in Texas and talked to the marketing manager Haley.  She mentioned the only reason they are using Swiftpage is because they use ACT.  Haley also mentioned the issues with not being able to customize her newsletter either.  They all pretty much suck because it looks like a highschooler put it together.

Maybe a customized blog would do the trick that I need.  Who knows.  I need to come up with something, because I want to see if my newsletters are gaining their full potential and see if they are being forwarded on to the competition.  That’s what I really want to see the most.

Why don’t they take advantage of us?

It has been one of my biggest pet peeves that customers don’t take advantage of us.  What is keeping them from not asking us for help, having us do project take-offs, have us do job tracking?  I just dont get it?

Our customers never use us to the full extent of what they probably could use us for.  I have always told us that they need to use us as an extension of their company.  A person that isn’t on the payroll, and you dont have to pay taxes for us.

We offer services that can greatly increase the contrators efficiency.  Product research can take hours on end.  Let the guys that have all the resources and options to look that stuff up.  Fax us a list of materials and we will do a materials take-off and fax it back to you.  Don’t ask for a price for this and that.  Spend less time doing the busy work.  What I want you to be able to do is tell us when and where you want the material shipped.  Heck we will even shrink wrap the different pallets with different color shrink wrap so you don’t have to go digging for on particular item.  You will know that the Angle Meter Stops are in the Blue shrink wrapped pallet for water, and the sewer fittings are in the Green pallet.  Should be pretty simple.

Let us come pick up the rest of your left over material.  Sure, you might have to pay a pick up fee, but you dont have to take a guy off the job and risk him getting in a wreck with the company truck and now he has to miss work, because he was injured.  Leave that liability to us.

So what can you get from us that is virtually free??

• Estimator
• Fax/Copy Machine
• Someone to do product research
• Delivery/Pick-up Driver
• Customer Internet
• Flat Bed Truck
• As-built services
• Product Locator
• Liaison to the Credit Department
• New Product Knowledge

Maybe we don’t offer enough.  But one thing is for sure, whether you by 1 million dollars worth of material or 10 dollars worth, you still get the same great service.

To Blog or not to Blog

So I just sent out a e-newsletter today to all of my customers.  I have been thinking though that maybe the customers would like to have a blog to go to.  The only thing that is holding me back is, what if they don’t care?  Would I be wasting my time?  Who knows….

Another concern I would have is, would I have anything that would be worthwhile to blog about.  Don’t know.  Maybe I should set up intra-company blog first.  Blog with my colleagues and see what they think.  Share and brainstorm ideas with them.  Don’t know, we’ll have to test it out and see.  Bad thing is, I can’t talk trash about my co-workers.