I’m always on the lookout for interesting ways to recognize customers and provide better service. At EvanCarmichael.com we have a number of initiatives including sending brownies on a weekly basis to a customer who deserves it.

We look for offbeat reasons to recognize them. We’ve sent congratulatory brownies when our customer launched a new book. We sent come back soon brownies when our customer went on a two week vacation. We’ve even sent pick me up brownies when our customer lost air conditioning at her office and was forced to work at a local Starbucks.

The more offbeat the reason, the more likely they are going to remember you and tell people about you. You’ve made their day and earned a customer for life! Plus it’s a lot of fun!

So when I came across this idea, I just had to share it.

It’s from Aweber, the email service that I use. One of their customers actually took the time to thank them for the great customer service they provided. The customer, Bayside Resort Hotel, created the images below for Aweber technical support staff member Paul Jacobsen.

Not only is it a creative and unique way to thank someone, it’s great to see that people are recognizing their suppliers as well as their customers.

Enjoy! I hope you use this as a challenge to up your customer service game!

Original blog post.

I’m often asked by entrepreneurs “How can I use Twitter for my business? It seems like such a waste of time!”

It’s easy to talk in generalities but I thought the best way to show you would be to give you three actual examples from how I’ve used Twitter in my business from the past week.

1) Generate Sales

I’ve set up alerts through Google News Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) so that whenever someone talks about my business, I get an update. It’s easy to set up and it allows you to see what people are saying about it. Even if there are no results yet, as soon as someone does post something, you’ll know and you can respond.

Blogger Marc de Groot recently posted about my Entrepreneur Heroes Trading Cards (http://www.evancarmichael.com/Heroes/) so I thanked him for his post via Twitter.

He was shocked to receive a personal reply, let his Twitter list know about it, and then ordered from my website. A little recognition can go a long way!

2) Make A Customer Feel Better

We make a point of following the customers who give us their Twitter information and are always on the hunt for ways to help them. Sometimes it’s business related and sometimes it’s not. Ringo, my Marketing Manager, has set up a Twitter account @EvansAuthors just to follow our customers.

Here’s an example of how we do it. A customer recently mentioned on her Twitter account that she was sick so we decided to send her some brownies and a get well soon card.

She then sent out a message on her Twitter account to thank us.

3) Go Above And Beyond For A Customer

Like the last case, another one of our customers mentioned that her sister was going in for a cancer surgery and asked her Twitter followers to pray for her. This one was particularly tough because of how serious the situation was and our customer was also based in New Zealand which made it difficult to send her treats from our usual suppliers.

And what do you send? Brownies just didn’t seem right so we found a New Zealand based gift basket company and they had a get well soon care pack that we bought and sent to her to give to her sister.

The result? Another happy Tweet to her followers and she posted a picture as well!

The underlying theme here is connecting with your customers and potential customers on a personal level. We’ve had the best results from Twitter not by spamming promotional content to them but by listening to what they are saying and finding a way to get involved.

It can be business related which can lead to direct orders or it can be more personal and you can use Twitter as a way to connect in a meaningful way with your customers.

How have you used Twitter recently to grow your business?

I’ve love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Photo Credit: HASH

This week I received a Valentine’s Day card… from Google!

I love the idea of sending out cards on offbeat holidays. Sometimes companies will take less celebrated occasions like Valentine’s or St. Patrick’s Day and I’ve also seen companies create their own holidays or recognize customers for special occasions (ie 1 year anniversary as a client).

It can be a great way to make your company stand out and not get lost in the usual bombardment of holiday season cards and gifts. At Christmas time you might be one of 50 cards to come in… but at Valentine’s day you should have very little competition.

In this case Google sent out the card to AdSense publishers – I’m not sure how many publishers were invited or what the qualifying criteria was but it certainly made my day!

Inside the card Google also offered their AdSense publishers a $100 coupon to use their Google AdWords service. I’ve blacked out the coupon code information so no one can steal my Valentine’s present!

Have you sent or received any cards or gifts on offbeat holidays to recognize your customers? I’d love to hear from you – please comment below!

(Photo Credit: djwerdna) One of the most important initiatives that I’ve been championing within my business is customer service. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my trip to Seattle and the outstanding service that I received at a little shop called Piroshky Bakery (Let Your Customer Service Be Your Marketing Department).

Most businesses live off the 80-20 rule where 80% of their revenue come from 20% of their customers. If you can keep your customers happy and provide them with service that makes them say “wow” you’re going to keep them as paying clients for life.

I also believe that your customer service department can be your marketing department. If you’re like most entrepreneurs then you are the customer service department, marketing department as well as being the president, vice president of sales, and janitor!

“If you want to generate more referrals then you need to give people a reason to talk about you… the key is to deliver outstanding customer service.”

If you’re wearing all of these hats the question comes down to how do you best spend your time on all the various tasks that need to get done?Referral marketing has long been one of the most profitable ways to generate money for a business. Think about it – referred customers complain less, ask fewer questions, are more qualified, buy more, and are generally happier than people you find you and want to price out your services to compare you to your competition.

If you want to generate more referrals then you need to give people a reason to talk about you and while having a great product helps, the key is to deliver outstanding customer service.

People these days don’t expect good customer service so if you can provide it you’ll really stand out and get people talking – just like I did about the Piroshky Bakery.

Providing outstanding customer service not only leads to more profitable clients, it’s a lot more fun than cold calling for new business!

Referrals, Referrals, Referrals

To help give you ideas on how to improve your customer service I’ve created a new section in this blog that I’ll keep up to date as I discover new techniques.

Here’s my first tip: Check the out of office messages when you send an email to your clients.

“Instead of giving up and being frustrated that you’re not able to reach your client, see if you can use the out of office message as an opportunity to stand out and connect.”

How many times have you sent an email or a newsletter out only to have an email come back a few seconds later to tell you that your client isn’t in the office? Usually those messages are pretty generic – something like “I’ll be out of the office until Thursday. Please contact Amy at (555) 555-5555 if you have any urgent questions.”

Sound familiar?

Instead of giving up and being frustrated that you’re not able to reach your client, see if you can use the out of office message as an opportunity to stand out and connect.

It works best when they leave more personalized out of office messages.

Here’s an example from Zappos, a company making waves with it’s outstanding customer service:

Wendy’s Very Cool Outstanding Zappos Customer Experience Story

Wendy is a Zappos customer who set her out of office message to:

“Thanks for your e-mail. I am currently hitting the pavement in Denver, walking 60 miles in three days to put an end to breast cancer. I’ll respond to your e-mail when I’m back.”

“I mean seriously. I can’t get over it. I have friends, family and colleagues that didn’t even acknowledge my participation in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, and I get a card from Zappos.com”

Zappos.com had sent her an email and discovered the message. When Wendy returned home she received a simple card from Zappos which read:

Hello Wendy!

While working through emails from our amazing customers, I came across your auto reply. Normally we mark them as auto replies, but yours caught my eye. I just wanted to let you know what an admirable thing you are doing! We at Zappos are proud to have you as a customer, and as part of our family.

Thank you for being a wonderful person.

Ashlee – customer relations rep at Zappos

(With a big “THANK YOU” on the top)

Not only has Zappos won Wendy as a customer for life, Wendy went on to tell all her friends about it and even write a blog post on it where she commented:

“I mean seriously. I can’t get over it. I have friends, family and colleagues that didn’t even acknowledge my participation in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, and I get a card from Zappos.com.

Zappos – you SERIOUSLY rock. I am in marketing/customer service shock. And if any of you have heard my recent complaints about Master Tailor and Urban Active, you know I was starting to lose faith in customer service. I love that I can now gloat about a company that has gone above and beyond. I’ve made one purchase from Zappos.com. One. And this is what I get. Unfreaking believable. Now I don’t have to feel guilty buying shoes, ’cause I’m gonna go hog wild at Zappos.com.”

So the next time you get an out of office message from a client, see if there is a way you can use it to stand out and make yourself memorable. For under $5 you can send a card to a customer and in the process earn their business for life as well as a collection of new referrals!

Talk about return on investment!

Do you have any outstanding customer service experiences or tips to share? Please comment below – I would love to hear from you!

Sharon, Hayden, and I arrived in Vancouver and had a blast shopping in Gastown, relaxing at Granville Island, and taking in the extraordinary views, Grizzly Bears, and Bald Eagles at Grouse Mountain. We then drove to Seattle where we watched the Mariners down the Athletics at Safeco Field. I was excited to visit Seattle because it is home to the world’s first Starbucks store and as we made our way there this morning I was wondering what I would post in my blog this week about our trip so far. That’s when I came across a little shop called the Piroshky Bakery situated next door to the original Starbucks (Pirosky and original Starbucks logos in the picture below).

The Piroshky bakery was started in October 1992 by the Kotelnikov family. The word Piroshky originates from the Russian word “pir” which means feast. It is a hand held meal in the form of a stuffed pie with a variety of fillings. The little shop was packed and the smell of the bakery was delicious – we couldn’t resist trying a Piroshky for ourselves.

Upon entering the store you quickly learn from the pictures on the wall that it’s a family business and that they take pride in what they do. After ordering our two stuffed pies I met Brian who I handed my Visa card to. Unfortunately Brian made the mistake of overcharging my credit card $90 for what should have been a $10 purchase. It was explained to me that they had just received the new credit card processing machine this week and he didn’t know how to issue a refund.

Brian was very empathetic and apologized for the mistake. After dealing with some merchants who wouldn’t take credit cards at all and others who insisted that I have exact change only, I wasn’t too frustrated. Nonetheless, Brian called Vadim in to help fix the issue.

Vadim quickly refunded me the full amount and then to my surprise said that the two pies were on the house because of the two minutes that I had to wait in line for him to come and issue the refund. I found myself thinking back to earlier in the day when we stood in a long lineup at Nordstrom without even an acknowledgment from the cashier when I arrived to pay. The woman behind me remarked “I’ve never waited in line so long for someone to take my money!” Vadim not only exceeded my expectations, he then also threw in another dessert pie on the house!

I knew at that moment that I had a topic for the blog. How many times have we all had to wait in long lines at retail stores only to be rudely met by a cashier who wants to rush you out so they can go on their lunch break? Meeting the folks at the Piroshky bakery was a refreshing change and served as a reminder that providing good customer service can be all the marketing that your company needs. We all think that we probably provide good service but you might be surprised at how some of your customers feel.

There is a reason why there was a lineup outside the Piroshky bakery – they not only have great tasting food but they take care of their customers. When was the last time you wowed your clients with amazing service? Sure the bakery lost out on my $10 but they’ve more than made up for it with the people I’ve told to go visit them.

Instead of spending more money on marketing efforts, consider investing it into your customer service. An over the moon happy customer will be a client for life and bring in more new business for you, at a much cheaper cost, than any slick marketing campaign.

Can you think of any examples of great customer service that made you want to tell people about the company?