Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center?

We’re going to explore one example closely by looking at how Zane’s Cycles grows - because they know and respect the lifetime value of their customers.

With only one retail location, Zane’s Cycles of Connecticut is one of the three largest bike shops in the United States. They sell $15 million each year in bicycles, and bike supplies, with a relationship grounded in customer trust.

For example, on any given day you might see a $6,000 bike go out the door for a test drive without any one of Zane’s folks asking to collect the customer’s identification or any type of collateral. “Do you want my license?” is often asked by the customer. The response is always, “Nope, just have a good ride.”

Zane’s makes this decision because they want potential customers to know that in this world there’s a store that trusts them, and it’s Zane’s. Made as a decision to embrace customers, this decision also sends a strong message to Zane’s staff. Owner Chris Zane says:

“This is not about protecting ourselves. We’re in the people business, not the thing business. This decision helps our staff understand and act on that key difference.”

It gives customers confidence and a lasting impression that they have found a place where they’ll want to do business.

Each Customer’s Lifetime Value is $12,500

Zane’s won’t risk that. Zane’s Cycles decided to act on its belief that the majority of customers do what’s right. Chris Zane says:

“We calculate the lifetime value of every customer at $12,500. Why start out that customer relationship by questioning their integrity? We choose to believe our customers.”

New Zane’s employees often suggest that they protect the business by taking customers’ keys or wallets when they test drive a bicycle. Chris Zane firmly says “no” to this suggestion. This is when employees and customers realize Zane’s is a service business, not a product business. And it sets the tone for how they interact with people. It frees them to do the right thing.

Trust Is Reciprocated: Zane’s Loses Only Five Bikes a Year

Customers feel trusted by Zane’s and that trust is returned to Zane’s. Of the 4,000 bikes they sell each year, only about 5 are stolen during test drives. For Zane’s it’s just not worth having the whole attitude of the company change because of the attitudes of five dishonest people.

Zane’s believes customers are good. That attitude frees Zane’s to grow. They have achieved an average annual growth rate of 23 percent since opening in 1981. Why not take a page from Zane’s, and take a hard look at your policies?

Change or eliminate any that exist to “protect” you from your customers and ask yourself:

• Do you know the value of your customers? Does everyone in your company?
• Does how you value customers guide decision making?
• Are you investing in customers or managing costs?
• How would you rate your intent and ability to understand the value of customers and invest in them?
• Do your decisions on how you value customers earn you “beloved” status today?

Take a hard look at your policies. What one thing can you change or eliminate that “nickels and dimes” your customers, especially your best customers?

Image: Zane’s Cycles

Are You Overwhelmed with Tasks. Here’s Four Ways To Help with Task Management

According to the enterprise work management survey conducted by AtTask, which looked at the underlying reasons that workers miss deadlines, need to work overtime and/or lose confidence and morale for the companies they work for, nearly three in five workers - approximately 60 percent - are either completely overwhelmed or barely meeting their deadlines.

There’s a few things I do to boost productivity:

• A task management tool, like AtTask or Asana is a MUST to ensure you can manage the many “to do’s” on your to do list.
• Maximizing your calendar is also critical. I ensure that not only do I enter information in my calendar but I review it the week before to ensure I’m on track that week and can plan out the coming week.
• Simple things like disciplining myself to charge all my gadgets is a big productivity booster. Nothing unproductive like having a notebook computer with 20 minutes of charge left!
• Scheduling time for “busy work” is always important. Not only do I use my calendar to keep appointments, but I also use it to make appointments that are just “me time”.

Here’s an AtTaks infographic on “work”

5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them

A slow loading website can hurt your small business by turning away visitors who expect fast load times and smooth online experiences, and harming your reputation. If your site runs slow and you’re running WordPress, there are plenty of things that could be slowing you down. Below are five common reasons for sluggish performance on ...

The post 5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Are You Overwhelmed with Tasks. Here’s Four Ways To Help with Task Management

According to the enterprise work management survey conducted by AtTask, which looked at the underlying reasons that workers miss deadlines, need to work overtime and/or lose confidence and morale for the companies they work for, nearly three in five workers - approximately 60 percent - are either completely overwhelmed or barely meeting their deadlines.

There’s a few things I do to boost productivity:

• A task management tool, like AtTask or Asana is a MUST to ensure you can manage the many “to do’s” on your to do list.
• Maximizing your calendar is also critical. I ensure that not only do I enter information in my calendar but I review it the week before to ensure I’m on track that week and can plan out the coming week.
• Simple things like disciplining myself to charge all my gadgets is a big productivity booster. Nothing unproductive like having a notebook computer with 20 minutes of charge left!
• Scheduling time for “busy work” is always important. Not only do I use my calendar to keep appointments, but I also use it to make appointments that are just “me time”.

Here’s an AtTaks infographic on “work”

Without Inventory You Have No Sales. Here’s 5 Tips To Better Manage Your Inventory.

Knowing what products you have available to sell and other inventory management concerns is one of the MOST important aspects of running a retail business. Without products you can’t make money.

Raad Mobrem CEO of online inventory Lettuce has some tips to help.

1. Every product in your catalog should have a unique identifier known as a SKU number (also known as Stock Keeping Unit). Even for products that are almost identical, but vary in terms of size, color, style, or anything else, they should have their own SKU number. Many systems that work with inventory (either your customers systems or your own) work through SKU numbers and it has become an industry standard. It is a very simple way to look up and account for different products.
2. Have a smart system for creating SKU numbers. For example, don’t assign a pair of large grey jeans a SKU number 423430403. Instead use some sort of systematic approach to naming. For example, a pair of large grey jeans should be called J-1000-G-L. The J stands for Jeans, the 1000 is a safe number convention (in case you add thousands of different kinds of jeans), the G stands for the grey, and the L stands for Large. So if we had the same pair of jeans in black and small, it would be called J-1000-B-S. It will make your life and your wholesale customers lives much easier because it’s easier to look up.
3. Use barcodes that represent UPC numbers (also known as a Universal Product Code). These barcodes allow for other businesses that work with you to easily scan inventory into their systems (if they have a barcode system). When you are dealing with larger customers, they are getting thousands of purchase orders delivered and they are also shipping out thousands of orders every day, thus they need a very fast and simple method for what comes and goes through their distribution center. Barcodes helps solve this challenge effectively. In addition, the UPC number is a true unique identifier because another vendor works with your customer may have a SKU number that is identical to yours. The UPC code originates from one company (GS1) and they maintains a database of all products, so they will never give out the same code to different companies.
4. Doing a quarterly audit of your inventory. Count through your entire warehouse and make sure that your numbers match with the numbers in the system. You have to account for number discrepancies (0.1%-10%) in inventory due to human error and these audits helps your business have a much better understanding of your true inventory count. The worst thing you can do is get an order, accept it based on the numbers in your system, and then not be able to fulfill it because you physically do not have those products in stock. Audits help eliminate these scenarios.
5. Use a cloud based software dedicated to inventory and order management. With a system that helps you keep track of your inventory and your orders, you will have a much easier time managing your business and not doing manual tasks. Many businesses use excel or don’t even use anything at all and just wing it. Excel is great, but it is also very manual and easy to make human error. And not having a system at all is like driving a car with your left hand covering your eyes…an accident waiting to happen. Be smart and use software to manage your business so that you can focus on things that you enjoy, such as new products or growth.

Without Inventory You Have No Sales. Here’s 5 Tips To Better Manage Your Inventory.

Knowing what products you have available to sell and other inventory management concerns is one of the MOST important aspects of running a retail business. Without products you can’t make money.

Raad Mobrem CEO of online inventory Lettuce has some tips to help.

1. Every product in your catalog should have a unique identifier known as a SKU number (also known as Stock Keeping Unit). Even for products that are almost identical, but vary in terms of size, color, style, or anything else, they should have their own SKU number. Many systems that work with inventory (either your customers systems or your own) work through SKU numbers and it has become an industry standard. It is a very simple way to look up and account for different products.
2. Have a smart system for creating SKU numbers. For example, don’t assign a pair of large grey jeans a SKU number 423430403. Instead use some sort of systematic approach to naming. For example, a pair of large grey jeans should be called J-1000-G-L. The J stands for Jeans, the 1000 is a safe number convention (in case you add thousands of different kinds of jeans), the G stands for the grey, and the L stands for Large. So if we had the same pair of jeans in black and small, it would be called J-1000-B-S. It will make your life and your wholesale customers lives much easier because it’s easier to look up.
3. Use barcodes that represent UPC numbers (also known as a Universal Product Code). These barcodes allow for other businesses that work with you to easily scan inventory into their systems (if they have a barcode system). When you are dealing with larger customers, they are getting thousands of purchase orders delivered and they are also shipping out thousands of orders every day, thus they need a very fast and simple method for what comes and goes through their distribution center. Barcodes helps solve this challenge effectively. In addition, the UPC number is a true unique identifier because another vendor works with your customer may have a SKU number that is identical to yours. The UPC code originates from one company (GS1) and they maintains a database of all products, so they will never give out the same code to different companies.
4. Doing a quarterly audit of your inventory. Count through your entire warehouse and make sure that your numbers match with the numbers in the system. You have to account for number discrepancies (0.1%-10%) in inventory due to human error and these audits helps your business have a much better understanding of your true inventory count. The worst thing you can do is get an order, accept it based on the numbers in your system, and then not be able to fulfill it because you physically do not have those products in stock. Audits help eliminate these scenarios.
5. Use a cloud based software dedicated to inventory and order management. With a system that helps you keep track of your inventory and your orders, you will have a much easier time managing your business and not doing manual tasks. Many businesses use excel or don’t even use anything at all and just wing it. Excel is great, but it is also very manual and easy to make human error. And not having a system at all is like driving a car with your left hand covering your eyes…an accident waiting to happen. Be smart and use software to manage your business so that you can focus on things that you enjoy, such as new products or growth.

How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours

With $257.2 million in funding and a $4-billion valuation in 2011, Dropbox’s Drew Houston had one of the hottest startups in the game.

How did he get there?

According to Houston:

“There were a couple of important inflection points.”

The first occurred after Dropbox released a demo video that captured Y Combinator’s attention and helped Dropbox secure an invitation to the exclusive startup program. Milestone two occurred when Dropbox released another video on Digg a year later during its private beta launch. In that video, Houston says his team layered “easter eggs… aimed at the Digg audience” into the otherwise mainstream presentation.

The creativity worked. Within 24-hours they “had 75,000 people signup for the wait-list.” They were expecting 15,000, max. Clearly, those creative videos were instrumental in Dropbox’s success.

If you look at the research associated with online video you’ll understand why they decided to do a couple. According to Comscore, people who view a Web video are 64% more likely to purchase than those who don’t. If the video is kick-ass, that number is probably even higher.

Another bit of research (PDF) says that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, and 80% are watching more online video today than they were a year ago. The trend is clear. Yet, amazingly, most websites still have no video. And, the ones that do often have video that’s not up to professional standards.

In “2 Types of Video to Build Your Business,” I share a couple types of Web video that companies, like Dropbox, are using. They are:

• 1) Animated, explainer videos.
• 2) High-concept, creative web commercials.

Depending on your business or product, one might be a better fit than the other.

Most importantly, if you don’t have professional quality video content on your site to help tell your message or product benefit, now is a good time to think about getting some.

Video Photo via Shutterstock

4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success

Trade shows aren’t the least expensive way to market your small business, but they are one of the most powerful if leveraged correctly. Trade shows allow you to reach and speak to people who you might never get the opportunity to do business with otherwise. Planning ahead using a few simple trade show tactics is the key to a successful trade show marketing appearance.

Create A Clear Goal for the Trade Show

Some small businesses make the mistake of assuming that simply appearing at the trade show is enough to spark interest in their products and a desire to do business with the company.

However, every time you attend a trade show you need a clear goal in mind for what you hope to accomplish. Examples of clearly defined goals include:

• To gauge customer response to a new product or service.
• To promote brand recognition.
• To drive traffic to your website.
• To build new leads.
• To educate consumers about new product or services.

Once the goal is clearly defined, you can craft a booth, presentation and literature to achieve this goal.

Create A Powerful Image for Your Booth and Presentation

Never underestimate the “wow” factor at a trade show. You only have about 30 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, so make those first few seconds count. Tools for introducing the “wow” factor into your trade show appearance include:

• A colorful, well-designed booth.
• Knowledgeable booth staff who can easily engage people in conversation.
• Working models of your unique product or service.
• Audio and/or video to capture attention across a busy venue.
• Literature and/or product samples for potential customers to take home and remember you by.

Build ways to garner attention at the event, as well as stick in attendees’ minds afterwards. Part of this is color coordinating your booth artwork with the literature or samples you hand out, so the attendee recognizes your logo and name later on.

Promote Your Appearance at the Trade Show Well Ahead of Time

Radio ads, TV ads, billboards, and social media are all excellent ways to get the word out ahead of the trade show that you’ll be there. But don’t just promote your appearance, give people a good reasons to come to the trade show and make the effort to stop by your booth.

Offer prizes, hold contests, give social media users a booth check-in option, and offer special presentations throughout the event via your social media outposts.

People are more likely to come if there’s a reward involved.

Choose A Heavy Traffic Event Over A Small Niche Trade Show

Some small businesses think that a small niche trade show is better for them to get noticed than a huge, more generalized show, such as a home and garden event or ladies’ show.

However, those larger events get much more traffic, which means more exposure for you than you could generate at a small event with fewer attendants. Even if you attend an event where most people are outside your niche, you never know how meeting, greeting, and networking can pay off in the long run.

If small businesses plan and use smart strategies and trade show tactics to design the booth, produce quality literature and up the ante with audio or video, they can measure up to the big guys and come out on top.

Trade Show Display Photo via Shutterstock