Time Spent In Apps Up 21% Over Last Year | TechCrunch

Time Spent In Apps Up 21% Over Last Year | TechCrunch




Posted 20 hours ago by Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa)

While there may be an upper limit as to how many apps people interact with over the course of a month, new data from mobile marketing platform Localytics out this morning shows that the time spent actually using apps is increasing. In fact, the average time people spend in their apps is up by 21% year-over-year, with music, health and fitness, and social apps showing the largest increases.

The new study was based on data from Localytics’ customer base, which includes 28,000 applications installed across 1.5 billion devices. For these findings, which cover August 2013 to August 2014, the company says it multiplied the average sessions per user in app by the average session length across all apps, and then broke it down by category.

The data also backs up what we’ve already heard from other sources. For instance, Nielsen recently said consumers were now spending an average of 30+ hours per month, and had an average of 26.8 apps installed on their mobile devices, as of Q4 2013. And comScore in August reported that the majority of our digital media consumption is now taking place in apps, accounting for 52% of the time U.S. consumers now spend with digital media.

Localytics reports today that users are opening up an app on average 11.5 times per month, up from 9.4 a year ago, while app session lengths remain constant at 5.7 minutes.

Music apps have seen the greatest time spent in app increases, up 79% over a year ago, while health and fitness apps (51% increase) and social networking apps (49% increase) followed. The study says these shifts have a number of contributing factors. For example, the move away from iTunes to music apps like SoundCloud and iHeartRadio has changed consumer behavior, while mobile device hardware improvements have made them better health devices, prompting the increase in that category.

Meanwhile, social networking apps continue to see what the firm dubs “snacking” behavior, meaning it exhibits the highest number of app launches but the lowest session length.

Localytics’ goal in releasing this data is to remind app publishers and marketers that time spent in apps – the session length and number of app launches, that is – are metrics that also matter. After all, there was a bit of a hubbub earlier this year after comScore found that users simply weren’t downloading that many apps – the average smartphone user downloads 3 apps per month, it had said.

The bigger picture here is that while most users may not feel the need to constantly download and try new applications, they do spent a lot of time in those they already have installed.

Here’s why the end is near for restaurant POS terminals

Here’s why the end is near for restaurant POS terminals | Pizza Marketplace:



'via Blog this'

June 17, 2014 | by Noah Glass

I recently had the pleasure of attending and participating in the 33rd Annual Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, where I heard fresh perspectives from restaurants, retailers, investors, analysts and service providers like me. I had the good fortune of joining top experts in a panel titled, “When, Not If: Technology Milestones for the Restaurant Industry.” The brilliant Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Nicole Miller Regan served as moderator, and Damian Mogavero, Founder andCEO of Avero, and Austen Mulinder, President and CEO of Ziosk, were my fellow panelists.

My favorite moment was when Results Thru Strategy’s Fred LeFranc asked me if I could envision a day in which mobile ordering eliminated the need entirely for POS terminals at restaurants. I thought back to a college finance course and the smart instructor who often asked us to “examine extreme examples.” After a moment of contemplation, I replied, “Yes.”

It turns out the elimination of POS might not be an extreme example after all. During the conference, Julie Krueger, Google Retail Industry Director, spoke about “Retail’s New Realities.” Julie cautioned those in the room that consumers are embracing new technologies much faster than retailers and restaurateurs. In fact, she reported, 50 percent of consumers have said they would prefer a self-service experience to a full-service experience. Krueger’s warning as well as my own experience led to my affirmative response about POS systems. Consumers are demanding self-service options, which can offer a much better experience – much faster, more accurate, and ultimately more personal than ordering from a cashier who has to re-enter a spoken order into a POS system.

A perfect example is the Five Guys app, built upon the Olo platform, which turns every customer’s smartphone or tablet into a personal POS terminal. Instead of the standard five or six POS terminals in the front of the house, Five Guys now has over 1 million customers walking around with a personalized Five Guys POS terminal in their pocket. A Five Guys customer can stand in the back of the line in the restaurant, order from the Five Guys app, and watch the order print out on the burger prep line in a matter of milliseconds (try this at your local Five Guys). The prepaid order zooms across one of the fastest APIs on the Internet, which securely pushes it down to the store’s back-of-house prep line.

Today, this process relies upon connectivity with the POS system, but that need not be the case in the future. A restaurant could store all of its menu and pricing details in the cloud and eliminate the front-of-house POS terminal entirely. In fact, what digital ordering providers like Olo store in the cloud is exactly the product availability, pricing and ordering rule-set that would enable this POS-terminal-free future.

Will POS systems go extinct tomorrow? No, they will not. But when digital ordering pioneers like Papa John’s are seeing that digital orders will come to represent 50 percent of their orders this year, we’re approaching a major industry milestone that hints at a self-service-dominated future. A recent xAd and Telmetrics study reveals that 60 percent of smartphone owners have chosen a restaurant solely with their smartphone on the go. And when comparing the impact of the smartphone in the automotive, entertainment, restaurant, and telecom industries, the study found that conversion rates are highest in the restaurant industry. The same study two years ago revealed that the top activities for consumers were around things like browsing the menu and calling the restaurant. Now more consumers are using their phones as a form of payment, and they expect ordering capabilities, too.

The self-service, digital ordering opportunity transcends counter-service. Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the National Restaurant Association's Research and Knowledge Group, shared that off-premise is the fastest-growing channel for all restaurants, with 75 percent of restaurant industry traffic now happening outside the restaurant’s four walls. Even casual dining chains can use the location-aware superpowers of smartphone technology to better gauge when to start making an off-premise order and when the customer has arrived to collect it (more information is available in our white paper, “Mobile Presence Technology,” intended primarily for QSR brands, but relevant for all restaurants). 

Krueger spoke of the retailer’s dream of an “endless aisle.” In the very near-term, off-premise sales through mobile ordering will help to realize the restaurateur’s dream of the endless dining room – whether there’s a POS terminal in that dining room or not.

Small Company? 4 Ways to Use Size to Your Advantage | Inc.com

Small Company? 4 Ways to Use Size to Your Advantage | Inc.com:



'via Blog this'



Case studies from small firms in America's heartland provide the key to winning against large competitors.

How can small companies compete and win against behemoths? According to Paul Oyer, co-author of the newly published book "Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Small Business Owners," a small size isn't necessarily a handicap.

As research, Oyer and co-authors Michael Mazzeo and Scott Schaefer visited successful small companies in America's heartland and interviewed the people who ran them.  What they discovered is that successful small firms use their size to their advantage.

"It's usually assumed that big firms have the competitive advantage because they have economies of scale, can purchase at a discount, cut favorable lease deals, and so forth, Oyer explains. "The key to winning against them is differentiating yourself."

During a recent conversation, Oyer provided four ways to do this:

1. Provide better service.

OK, you already knew this one, but it's a major factor.  Large companies are all about making big numbers.  Individual customers often get the sense (correctly) that their individual needs aren't all that important in the large firm's scheme of things.

Smaller companies can reverse that equation because they're closer to the customers.  For example, a local coffee shop might compete against Starbucks by learning what individual customers typically order or by carrying locally-grown food items.

2. Specialize in high-end products.

Large companies typically go after broad markets because that's where economies of scale are most useful.  Smaller companies, however, have more freedom to offer customers unusual (and more costly) items.

In big cities, this strategy manifests itself in the boutiques that cater to the wealthy.  In small town America, however, it's more likely to take the form of a small firm that carries, for example, high-end appliances that would never be found at Walmart.

3. Appeal to a local demographic.

Large companies think in terms of serving entire countries or (if the country is large like the U.S.) an entire region.  Smaller firms, however, can position themselves as something genuinely local.

Oyer cited the example of Mugshots, a small chain deployed in Mississippi and Alabama, but what came to my mind were the family-owned Brazilian BBQ restaurants near where I live, which seem to have no problem competing against the big chain franchises.

4. Leverage your personal presence.

I don't like using the word "leverage" but in this case I think it's the mot juste.   Large firms expend a lot of time and effort trying to align the personal goals of management and employees with overarching corporate goals.

By contrast, small business owners automatically have incentives that are perfectly aligned with the company's goals. As such, the entrepreneur can provide better on-site management at a lower cost.

For example, a small jewelry store doesn't need an expensive monitoring system to prevent employee theft, because the owner is typically in the store all the time.

More posts on beating the competition:

• 7 Easy Ways to Outshine the Competition
• How to Torpedo a Competitor
• Turn a Competitor Into an Also-Ran. Here's the 4-Step Plan

5 Things To Keep In Mind Before Creating Your Business Logo – Speak Out Small Business

5 Things To Keep In Mind Before Creating Your Business Logo – Speak Out Small Business:



'via Blog this'

Do you have a logo or a brand for your little business? Making a huge logo and brand is a compelling approach to bail your business emerge in the personalities of your clients. Brand distinguishment, or brand mindfulness, is enter in winning business online and in building a solid fan base. It helps clients recall your business all the more effectively and helps them spread news about it speedier through verbal. In the event that you haven't put a ton of exertion into making a solid brand for your business, here are a couple of tips that can help you begin.

Finding A Designer

At the point when making a visual representation of your business, its best to discover somebody with experience and learning in graphic design. The most ideal approach to discover anybody in an administration industry is through personal recommendation. If someone you a designer that had an accomplishment on this kind of field, communicate wih them for they might easily help you. For those beginning starting with no outside help, the web makes it simple to skim the arrangement of specialists whom you can associate and work with from anyplace on the planet. Hunting down individuals on legitimate outline sites might additionally help in searching for the ideal individual.

Where Should It Be Used?

The size and arrangement of the logo will direct how it is utilized crosswise over diverse media. This fundamentally implies how it will "fit" on all your distinctive sorts of security such as letterheads, site, stock, shop facade, flags, print adverts and work vehicles to name simply a few. Tell your designer the principle employments of your logo and they will verify it works in distinctive sizes. Taste changes from person to person, yet considering broadly phenomenal logo outlines will push you off in the right heading. When you know where you'll utilize it, get to work and make something creative.

Hides A Great Story

Each logo recounts a story, yet an incredible logo recounts a great story. Without words, without story, without directions, a logo can pass on significance. Utilize your logo to inventively express your company's one of a kind mission, history, dreams, or any consolidation thereof. This may be attained through the utilization of a particular shade, shape, or any images, unmistakable or overall. Make your clients wonder why picked your logo to speak to your brand.

Less Is More

Your logo needs to be basic, however being direct to the point doesn't mean absence of intricacy regarding insignificant. Begin and remove all the components that confuse and clutter. Kellogg's ran with a dated typeface that was reminiscent of being old fashioned and exemplary. They didn't have to include more than that. The logo might be underpinned by the item, however the straightforwardness of the logo represents itself with no issue.

Quality For Payment

Making a logo outline regularly sets back the ol' finances a bit unmanageable. It can run in cost from $50 to $500 for a really standard online bundle, or stretch into the thousands in the event that you choose to utilize a creative logo. It then descends to particular inclination, and plan. There's no right or wrong reply. In the same way that you might select any supplier I prescribe conversing with the designer, looking at their work and looking for testimonials before committing to payment.

The Content Trifecta - 'Net Features - Website Magazine

The Content Trifecta - 'Net Features - Website Magazine:



'via Blog this'

By Tim Ash

Content marketing is all the rage, and has been for some time. From blog posts and e-newsletters to basic Web copy and lead-magnets like whitepapers and buying guides, marketers across all verticals have made content their top priority.

With online research playing an increasingly important role in many purchases, the burden has fallen to marketers to create and publish content that is easy for buyers to find, that gets shared and that ultimately leads to more conversions.

Here’s how you can start winning the content race with a strategy focused on achieving the powerful trinity of findability, shareability and convertability.

Findability

Content and SEO are intertwined. But many marketers fall into the trap of thinking that more content is always better, or that cramming a bunch of keywords into their content is going to make it easier to find on search engines. In truth, the most effective strategy for making your content search-friendly includes a combination of the following:

BE HIGH QUALITY

– Your content should be designed for a specific audience and address a topic of interest to them. More than that, it should take a unique approach to the topic and you should be able to map the topic to an exact stage in your target audience’s journey to purchase. Know exactly who you are talking to with your content and write it with the goal of moving the reader one step closer to purchase.

USE RELEVANT KEYWORDS

– Do you know what words and phrases your prospects use at each stage of the customer journey? Take a look at your content inventory and make sure those words and phrases are intelligently used throughout each asset. Your content should “answer” a searcher’s query and meet their expectations once they begin reading it.

PRODUCE MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS

– Once a person clicks through to your content, how long do they stay there? The time they spend is an engagement metric used by search engines to assess the value of your content relative to the search term used.

STAY FRESH

– Are you constantly generating new quality content? Search engines love fresh content, and a blog that gets updated frequently with quality content will get indexed frequently too. Just as important, posting fresh material will also help build loyalty and authority.

Speaking of authority, your content efforts will be amplified when you establish Google Authorship by linking your Google+ profile with all the content you produce. Google Author Rank determines the quality of content based on the credibility or reputation of its author. The higher the credibility of the author, the higher the placement in search results.

---

5 Tools for Integrated Social Sharing

Make sharing easier with these tools available at wsm.co/sharingtools

---

Shareability

It’s impossible to talk about findability without also talking about shareability. Your content needs to be so interesting, unique, insightful or funny enough that people are literally compelled to link to it or share it. Having your content shared increases your trust and authority, and is one of the factors that contribute to better search rankings.

What makes content share-worthy? According to a study done by the NY Times called “The Psychology of Sharing,” key factors that influence sharing include:

• People need to trust you and the accuracy of the content
• in order to want to share your content.
• Content that is simple is more likely to get shared.
• Things that are funny, convey urgency, or connect people to a cause are all particularly share-worthy.

    The study revealed some interesting motivations that people have for sharing:

• To bring valuable or entertaining content to others
• To define themselves to others (by sharing things that reinforce an image they’d like to present)
• To connect with people who share their interests
• To get feedback and interact with others
• To get the word out about causes or brands

When you produce content, think about how you can tap into this insight to motivate sharing. Introduce a new or contrarian viewpoint to a hot issue, simplify something that is complex, provide solutions to common problems or shine light on a new tool or resource. Also give it an enticing title and weed out extraneous marketing fluff.

Lastly, don’t forget to make it easy for people to share your content by including share buttons for all of the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) and the option to email the page to a friend.

Convertability

Content that doesn’t lead to conversion isn’t marketing. Your content can go viral and achieve top search rankings, but if it doesn’t appeal to the right audience and lead them toward conversion, it has virtually no value to your organization.

Generating content that is optimized for conversion starts with knowing who your audience is. If you haven’t done so already, build buyer personas that detail the concerns, needs and interests customers have at every stage of the buying cycle. Know how to appeal to them, what they need, what they are searching for and what influences them. Once you understand your customers, their pain points and their decision process you can start identifying what types of content would help move people closer to conversion. 

Early on in the buying cycle, people may be more interested in a buying guide or comparison chart,
whereas people who are considering a purchase might be more intrigued by relevant case studies, product guides or tutorials. Know how to address a customer’s questions and concerns at each step along the sales funnel, and customize your content specifically to address those needs. Then, add a relevant call-to-action that gently encourages movement toward your conversion goal.

Content is central to a successful inbound marketing strategy. It’s what will generate awareness, create interest, help buyers make a decision and spur them to action. But great content that can’t be found and read is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
And equally pointless is content that doesn’t help move readers into or down the sales funnel. Challenge yourself to achieve the content trifecta by generating content that is search friendly, share-worthy and optimized for conversion.

---

The Best Way to Make Customers Love Your Brand | Inc.com

The Best Way to Make Customers Love Your Brand | Inc.com:



'via Blog this'

Want engaged, dedicated customers who'll be ambassadors for your brand? Put them at the center of their own stories. That advice comes from Gaston Legorburu, and Darren (Daz) McColl, executives at the digital advertising agency SapientNitro. They've coined the term "Storyscaping" to describe this process, and recently published a book explaining how to do it.

Legorburu, SapientNitro's global chief creative officer, says they decided to write the book the moment the agency's "very stuffy lawyers" called to suggest cease-and-desist letters in order to control how the term was being used in the marketplace. "We looked at each other and said that's the opposite of what we should be doing," he recalls.

The power of story is something every company can use to make an impact, he says. "Stories are how we humans make sense of the world. You connect a series of events to your relationship to a place, a person, or even an object. Everything has a story, and that's we sort things out." As our world becomes more complex, with most of us moving back and forth between the physical and virtual worlds, and stimulus of all kinds coming at us in unprecedented ways, that need to organize our lives into stories becomes that much stronger, he adds.

What's the most effective way to harness that power? Here are the insights he and McColl want to share--legal advice be damned!

Find your purpose.

This will likely be related to your mission statement. (You do have one, right?) "It should be powerful and meaningful," says McColl, who is SapientNitro's global chief strategy officer. "Every kind of company has such a purpose, especially if it connects with consumers. Your core purpose is your belief about doing something better. How does your product or service make the world a better place and customers' lives better?"

Once you figure that out, he adds, "Be incredibly authentic in how you deliver the message about your product and how you engage with customers."

Learn your customer.

Take a look at your target, ideal customer and learn everything you can about them. "We look at them in a couple of dimensions," Legorburu says. "What do they desire? What do they need? How do they feel about things? We recognize that needs and emotional desires are not separate. We really look into their behavior patterns, how they do things. We start finding opportunities to have brands connect emotionally."

Create a world.

Ideally, when your customer interacts with your company, he or she is entering a world to explore where everything is interconnected. Technology makes this possible in ways it never used to be.

For instance, McColl recounts how ESPN upped customer engagement for the X Games by creating the Hype Meter, a smartphone and tablet app that allows the live audience at the events and those watching on the couch at home to all signal their appreciation at once by shaking a phone, tapping on a tablet, or sending a tweet, to make all of them feel like part of one big audience. The more people signal their appreciation, the higher the Hype Meter goes and everyone can see it all at once. Fans can also review video directly from within the Hype Meter app, so they can relive the moments that caused the most cheering.

"Think about how they can create their own stories," he says. "And make sure there's never an end--finish with a comma, not a full stop."

Create customer experiences that inspire stories.

Imagine you have an independent movie theater, Legorburu says. You only have one screen. How do you compete with the multiplexes at the mall? "Let's say you have couches," he says. "And you allow people to pre-order both their tickets and their snacks. And you keep the theater really clean. People will say, 'I just went to this movie theater and you wouldn't believe it! I didn't have to stand on line, I didn't have to wait for Beavis and Butthead to make me popcorn, and when I went inside there were these comfortable couches and everything was spotless. I'm never going back to a traditional theater again!'"

Build-A-Bear is a good example of a company that built its products around a story-worthy experience for customers, he adds. "Think of the selfishness of the selfie," he says. "Customers do things in their own interest. Brands should not think of themselves as the hero in their story, they should play some supporting role such as coach. That is a pretty simple premise. But it's difficult for most leaders in companies to shift their perspective to say, 'I'm creating an environment for my customers to live in along with us,' as opposed to 'If we build it, they will come.'"

Encourage customers to share their experiences.

Thanks to social media, if you make a single customer really happy--or really unhappy--large numbers of people are likely to hear about it. Don't neglect to capitalize on that trend. An event, even for a relatively small number of customers, can be a very worthwhile investment if those customers share images and comments about the experience to their social networks.

"Think about creating not a splash, but ripples," Legorburu says. "Look for ways to create social capital. Maybe you put a free photo booth at your event, but the photos are all uploaded to Facebook."

5 Ways to Boost Your Summer Retail Sales This Year

5 Ways to Boost Your Summer Retail Sales This Year:



'via Blog this'

With summer about to go into full swing, have you thought about how you’ll boost business for your retail store this season?

Boost Summer Retail Sales

Get Outdoors

If your store is in an outdoor mall, on a city street or other location with an actual outdoor entrance, foot traffic is likely to increase as more people take advantage of the nice weather to stroll outside.

Draw in these passersby by taking your business outside, too. More than just window signs, which are easy to ignore, use signage that juts out onto the sidewalk or walkway so it can’t be missed. Tie a few balloons to a sidewalk easel promoting a sale or new summer merchandise. Also consider putting out water bowls for dogs so their owners will stop a moment in front of your establishment to refresh their pets.

Simple ideas like these are all it takes to make your store stand out from the rest.

Sponsor or Participate in Local Events

Find out what events will be going on in your community this summer that are relevant to your customer base. Then figure out how you can participate.

For instance, is there a marathon or walkathon where your sporting goods store could set up a booth to sell fitness gear? Even if the event rules don’t allow you to sell products, you could still market your business by donating water bottles, handing out sports drinks (along with coupons for your store) or becoming a sponsor.

Tap Into Tourists

Does your local area enjoy an influx of tourists in the summer? To capture their dollars, see if you can partner with local businesses that cater to tourists, such as hotels, bed and breakfast inns, restaurants or tour companies.

Ask the business owners if you can cross-promote by putting brochures, sale notices or business cards in their locations (offer to do the same for them, of course). Find out about advertising on their websites.

Does your city or chamber of commerce print maps for tourists? Often, these include local businesses as landmarks, or ads from local businesses. See if your business can be included in the map and/or advertise on it.

Throw a Party

Create excitement by hosting a summer event at your store that includes free giveaways, music, refreshments, face-painting for kids—whatever activities make sense for your store.

Mail and/or email your customers party invitations that can be redeemed for a discount or a free gift with purchase. You can make the event exclusive by focusing on VIPs outside of normal store hours, or open it to the public.

Make it a Group Effort

Market your store with other business owners in your shopping center or on your street by hosting a summer sidewalk sale. (Check zoning regulations or shopping center rules before planning this, of course.)

Everyone sets up tables outside the store with merchandise at extra-deep discounts. You have more stuff inside (at both sale and regular prices) to attract customers into the store. You can add to the fun by getting local restaurants involved to sell “tastes” or snacks outside, too – this energizes shoppers and keeps fussy kids happy.

85% of Small Businesses Get Customers Through Word of Mouth

85% of Small Businesses Get Customers Through Word of Mouth:



'via Blog this'

Verizon, in conjunction with Small Business Trends, conducted a survey of Philadelphia small business owners in May of 2014.  One of the questions was:

How do your customers find out about your business?

The answer was telling – and not because it was a surprise.  It was telling because it is almost exactly in alignment with a survey we conducted online here at Small Business Trends almost a decade ago.

By far the most common way customers learn about a business is from word of mouth, according to the small businesses in the survey.  Eighty-five percent of the small businesses surveyed said customers learn about them through word of mouth.  The chart above shows all the responses.  As you can see, no other type of marketing or advertising even comes close.  Search engines come in a distant second at 59%.  Everything else is far behind.

Back in 2005 in our survey, 83% said that referrals (i.e., word of mouth from existing customers) were the number one way of getting customers.  The results were very consistent.

In one sense it’s striking that the method that is (a) most personal, and (b) costs the least in out-of-pocket expenditures, is the top method of attracting new customers.  After all, you’d expect that by throwing money at the problem via expensive advertising, and through methods that scale to reach many, you’d get greater results.  At least… that’s what you might think.

But in another sense, it’s completely predictable that word of mouth is the number one method of attracting new customers. We small businesses are all about the personalized approach.  With small businesses, it’s not about casting a wide net, but rather about connecting with a select number of customers, enlisting their trust and loyalty, and having that positive impression spill over among their circle of friends and colleagues.

That said, what does it suggest about steps you should be taking to increase and leverage word of mouth?  Here are four items for your To-Do list to increase word of mouth:

1. Check your business in Google and Bing at least once a month.

Even if search engines weren’t the #2 way customers have of learning about a small business, keep in mind that word of mouth spreads online as well as offline today.  Your customers are online today.  Even if you run a local brick-and-mortar business, chances are they check you out online.  In other words, word-of-mouth today goes well beyond Mary Smith talking during exercise classes to a friend about your new restaurant.

If there is something negative online, it’s not a question of burying your head in the sand.  You need to be aware, so you can fix it.

Make no mistake, you can fix many negative impressions, such as customer complaints or negative reviews.  But first you have to know about them — and not be blindsided or ignore them because they’re too painful to confront.

Once you know about them, you can contact the customer, leave unemotional explanations if the information looks incorrect, or seek out more positive reviews to convey a more balanced impression. Read more on when to respond to negative reviews, and about how to handle bad online reviews.

 2. Conduct a regular customer survey to learn what your customers REALLY think.

The Net Promoter system is right on point here.  The Net Promoter scoring system asks on a scale of one to ten, “How likely is it that you’d recommend us to your friends and colleagues?”  The ones who are very positive are called Promoters.  The ones who are negative are called Detractors.  Net them out, and you have a Net Promoter score.

Today, with online survey tools (some of which are integrated with the software that manages your house email list), it’s not hard to discover and keep track of your Net Promoter score.  Increasing your Net Promoter score gives you something for your team to rally around and set improvement goals.  So by all means, start measuring and analyzing.  Discover what is making Detractors out of some, and Promoters out of others.

Not only do you want to eradicate what’s turning people into Detractors, but more importantly you want to understand what your customers value so much that they are wildly enthusiastic about your business.  When you figure out what turns customers into raving fans, then you know what to do to get more of them talking about you, more often.

3.  Communicate and reinforce to employees the value of raving fans.

You might think it’s obvious to your employees that they should be trying to make customers ecstatic.  But I’ve been in business long enough to know that employees take their cue from the top.  If you spend a lot of time focusing on solving negative complaints, you may be inadvertently sending signals that customer service only matters when there’s a complaint.

Instead, you should be sending signals to get ahead of the curve.  Customer service matters BEFORE someone gets upset, when you have the opportunity to turn someone into that raving fan of your company.

Spend some time explaining to employees where most new customers come from and how valuable it is to have existing customers who love your company.  Don’t assume that your employees actually pick up on that.  Show your appreciation publicly when they go “above and beyond” to delight customers.

I used to think it was corny when companies had mission statements that said “we delight our customers.”  I would think, ‘Everyone knows that you should be delighting customers!’

But then I realized that everyone doesn’t necessarily believe that — unless you talk the talk and walk the walk. The reality is, your employees at all levels need to hear the message repeatedly.  They need to believe that YOU believe it.

4. Create easy ways for customers to share word of mouth.

This is where traditional marketing and advertising can support and amplify customer word-of-mouth.

Consciously develop initiatives that get happy customers talking.  Make it easy for them to share their positive impressions.  Also, make it easy for existing customers to refer their friends, family and colleagues.  Some tactics that can help are:

• Specifically ask for referrals.  Many customers are willing to give referrals — but they are busy.  You have to nudge them, without irritating them.  This could be done in a phone call saying, “Glad you’re happy.  Feel free to refer any colleagues to us – we’ll take good care of them.”  Or send a followup letter or email with a thank you and gentle nudge.
• Suggest easy ways to leave testimonials.  Be prepared to suggest quick and relatively painless ways to give testimonials. If you are a B2B service provider, then ask people to recommend you on LinkedIn.  The process is pretty quick and easy there.  Or invite a customer on to a live Google Hangout or Skype call, and video a brief testimonial.  Or ask them to leave a brief star review on your Facebook Page or Google+ Page.
• Provide referral cards.  Have a preprinted card your customer can leave with a friend.  It helps even to leave behind several business cards so they can hand one to a neighbor who may need your landscaping services.
• Offer “refer a friend” links on newsletters.  If you deliver a beautiful email newsletter, make it easy for people to share that and at the same time you may gain a new subscriber who eventually may become a customer.

These and other tactics will increase the likelihood of positive word of mouth being spread by your existing customers.

Remember: while word of mouth is something your customers share, it’s not out of your hands.  What you do and don’t do, has a huge impact on word of mouth.

See also more tips on how to create word of mouth for your business.  Also, check out the Verizon Small Business Blog which has more insights from this survey and more advice about customer service and word of mouth.

Online Reviews--Even The Bad Ones--Are Good For Brands

Online Reviews--Even The Bad Ones--Are Good For Brands:



'via Blog this'

For all of its ease and convenience, online shopping comes with one major drawback: uncertainty. The inability for a consumer to try on a pair of shoes or sit on a couch can mean the difference between a completed transaction and an abandoned shopping chart.

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Consumer feedback, negative or positive, can only help businesses.
• Reviews make brands seem human, giving them a way to reach out to customers directly, respond to criticism, and build relationships.
• Customers are more likely to follow through on a transaction if they can see other feedback.

That is why online reviews are so important.

The benefits of online reviews to a customer are obvious. Learning from others’ mistakes prevents consumers from making their own and allows them to feel confident in their purchasing decisions. What is less obvious, but no less important, is the extent to which those benefits apply to marketers and their businesses, too.

Many businesses fear the all-too-terrifying negative review, and that’s understandable. But, in truth, consumer feedback, negative or positive, can only help businesses. Encouraging customers to leave reviews helps improve a brand’s reputation for excellent customer support, which results in real benefits, such as increased return on investment (ROI), more conversions, higher click-through rates, and lower levels of shopping cart abandonment.

Here are four ways online reviews can help businesses succeed.

1. Build trust: Selling quality products and services is part of increasing brand loyalty, but customer service is also incredibly important. It can be hard to build a strong reputation for good customer service online, where there is less personal interaction than in stores, but reviews can help. A large majority of customers–72 percent–trust online reviews, which means companies that use them appear more legitimate and credible, as well as more open to customer thoughts and feedback. Plus, reviews make brands seem human, giving them a way to reach out to customers directly, respond to criticism, and build relationships. That, in turn, leads to better customer retention and conversion rates, as well as all-around happier customers.

2. Use criticism to improve operations: No business owner likes to see a customer complaint pop up in a review section, but even bad feedback can help you improve your customer service, product offerings, operations, and so on. Despite the initial sting of a negative review, customer complaints are in some ways more valuable than praise because they give companies an honest appraisal of how they’re doing. When a business knows exactly what it’s doing wrong, straight from the mouth of the consumer, it can course correct, address the feedback, and come out stronger, all while appearing open to suggestion.

Further, research has shown that 68 percent of customers trust online reviews more when they see a mix of negative and positive sentiments. Brands even have the opportunity to turn a complainer into a repeat customer: Research shows that 95 percent of customers return if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently.

3. Prioritize word-of-mouth marketing: Though they seem hard to measure, the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing are very real.A/B split testing shows that businesses that implement review systems can see sales grow by as much as 58 percent. Customers are more likely to follow through on a transaction if they can see other feedback and, thus, know what they’re getting into. That, in turn, drives revenue up and shopping cart abandonment down. Customers are also more likely to view a company as trustworthy–thus encouraging repeat purchases–if it has a large number of customer reviews, so encouraging feedback builds a brand’s profile almost immediately.

4. Improve click-through rates: For companies relying on search to bring in Web site traffic, online reviews can be immensely helpful. Google estimates that companies with review-based ratings experience a 17 percent rise in click-through rates, meaning more people are looking at these companies’ sites and products. That applies to third-party review Web sites, through which Google determines its vendor ratings, but also to social media reviews. In fact, social media is arguably more important than review sites in this area; Sociable Labs found that 75 percent of people have clicked through a retailer’s Web site after seeing commentary on a social media site.

What this all means is it’s time for brands to stop fearing online reviews and start understanding the power of honest customer feedback. Online reviews make customers feel appreciated and heard, and businesses see tangible, noticeable differences in ROI, revenue, customer retention, and click-through rates. If your business hasn’t done so yet, the time is now.

About Jan Vels Jensen

Jan Vels Jensen is the chief marketing officer of Trustpilot, an online reviews community and technology platform. He is responsible for global marketing, growing customer loyalty, and building and managing Trustpilot’s international brand. Follow him on Twitter:@janvjensen.