How MSP's Can Take Advantage of B2B Marketing Automation - Part 1

The use of marketing automation technologies by B2B companies is growing rapidly, and the growth is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.  Marketing service providers who serve B2B companies need to be aware of this trend because it changes the way B2B companies approach marketing and the kinds of marketing services they will require - and be willing to pay for.  To fully realize the benefits of marketing automation, B2B companies will need to define marketing and sales processes more precisely, and they will need to implement new marketing techniques. Marketing service providers who can help B2B companies make these changes stand to win new clients and boost revenues.


The best way to identify the kinds of marketing services that are likely to see increased demand is to identify the tasks that B2B companies must perform in order to take full advantage of marketing automation systems. There are eight major tasks that are essential to implementing and successfully using marketing automation technologies. Most of these tasks provide the foundation for new marketing techniques that many B2B companies have not previously used. Therefore, many B2B firms – especially small and mid-size companies – will need assistance to perform some or all of these tasks, and that’s what creates the opportunity for savvy marketing service providers. I’ll describe two of these major tasks in this post, and I’ll cover the others in my next few posts.

Creating an Ideal Customer Profile – This task is right out of Marketing 101, and it should be a core component of every company’s marketing process, whether or not marketing automation is involved. An ideal customer profile is simply a description of the kinds of companies that make the best customers and, by extension, the most attractive prospects. The ideal customer is usually described in terms of “firmographics” such as industry classification, company size, and geographic location. The ideal customer profile is used to shape lead generation programs, and it is one major component of the lead scoring system that will be set up as part of the marketing automation implementation.

Obviously, a marketing service provider cannot decide what a client’s ideal customer profile should be. The role of the MSP is to lead the client through a process that is designed to ensure that all the right questions are asked and that all the appropriate factors are considered.

Developing Buyer Personas – Most B2B buying decisions are made (or significantly influenced) by a group of people rather than by one individual. This is true even in relatively small companies. Research firm MarketingSherpa says that in companies having between 100 and 500 employees, the average number of people involved in buying decisions is 6.8. This buying group is usually composed of individuals who have different points of view regarding a proposed purchase. For example, a “user buyer” will usually have different priorities than a “technical buyer” or an “economic buyer.” To market to these buyers effectively, a company must develop marketing content that addresses the specific needs of each type of buyer in the buying group. The basis for developing such content is buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a biographical sketch of a typical buyer. It is more than a job title. Buyer personas are written in narrative form, and they are written as if the archetypical buyer is a real human being. A company needs to create a persona for each type of buyer who significantly influences the purchase decision. Marketing automation systems enable companies to create and execute marketing programs that are customized for each type of buyer, but the starting point for leveraging this functionality is the creation of buyer personas.

To develop a complete buyer persona, marketers must answer several questions about each type of buyer. Here are some examples:

•What are the buyer’s major business objectives and job responsibilities?
•What strategies and tactics does the buyer use to achieve his objectives and fulfill his responsibilities?
•What measures are used to evaluate the buyer’s job performance?
•What issues and problems keep the buyer awake a night?
•How old is the typical buyer? [Age range is OK]
•Is the buyer typically male or female?
•What is the typical buyer’s educational background?
•What sources does the buyer turn to for information?
•How would the buyer describe the issues he or she is facing?

As with the ideal customer profile, an MSP cannot build buyer personas “for” a client, but the MSP can lead the client through the process of developing buyer personas that will drive relevant and effective marketing.

In my next post, I’ll cover two more tasks relating to marketing automation that MSP’s can help B2B marketers perform.

Give Your Customers What They Want: The Importance of Product Development, Front-Ends and Back-Ends

Whether you're launching a new business or you're established, product development should be an active part of your strategic business plan.

However, many companies - large and small - oftentimes neglect product development due to internalized myths such as:

·We don't need extra products
·We don't have the time to develop extra products
·We don't have the money to develop extra products

First, let me say if your products are relevant and useful, I believe you can never have too many products. One thing you need to constantly do is "ask" your list (i.e. subscribers/customers/clients) what they want. You can do this in many ways, such as simple and brief surveys or questioners. You can also take the 'idea' of a product and test offer it to your list.

For instance, if you're thinking about offering a copywriting coaching service, start out by measuring internal sentiment. Create a simplified version of this product which has the "essence", like an eBook called, "50 Hot Copywriting Tips". Price it attractively, and promote it to your file. If your file responds well to the eBook, they'll likely respond well to a more comprehensive version of the eBook, whether it involves multi-media components (such as workbook, DVD, CDs) or a personal coaching element. So your eBook would be your "front-end" product (low price point), your kit would be your "mid priced" product, and your personal coaching would be your "back-end" product.

This leads me to my next point - pricing levels. Many companies make the mistake of either having many front-ends products, and no back-end, or visa versa. Here's my belief: Front-ends are relatively easy to create and involve little cost. So there's the myth-buster of "not having time" or "not having money". If it's an eBook, there's little overhead, outside of the gathering of information (editorial time), production and graphics design. And you're saving money by fulfilling it digitally to customers.

However, the product line shouldn't end there. Your customers are going to look for more comprehensive information. And that level of detail will mean a higher price - which they'll be willing to pay for. So if you're not offering them a mid or back-end product - you're actually doing a disservice to your list. They will go to your competitors to buy that information. So why not make sure you have a well-rounded product list with varied price points?

Here's a sample of pricing levels:
1. First level - free newsletter

2. Second level - paid reports, paid newsletters ($1 - $99). Front-End

3. Third level - Bundled products, kits, membership sites ($100 - $499). Mid-Priced

4. Fourth level - Conferences and events ($500 - 999). Back-End

5. Fifth level - Premium service, upscale events ($1000 - $2,999). Back-End

6. Sixth level - Lifetime value clubs, VIP products ($3,000+). Ultra Back-End. This is ideal for your true multi-buyer, loyal, advocate customers ... the Golden Goose!

Now, keep in mind, the aforementioned may not be your business model. You may sell a service or retail item, as opposed to contextual-based infoproducts. But it still gives you an idea about pricing structure and product variety.

Also, if you read last week's issue, you'll know that content is king. So recycle it. Repurpose it. And repackage it. You can take articles, blog posts, webinars, bonus materials, conference transcripts, etc. There's many sources of content that can be re-used for creating product.

What About Going Outside Your List?

If you have a product and not sure how viable it is on the global platform, you can do a few things to test product viability...

1. Use PPC ads to see if there's general market interest. That is, use a "quick and dirty", watered down version of your "real" product. For example, a free or paid (i.e. under $10) eBook. Create up to 5 ads on Google Ad Words. Run them for about 2-3 weeks. Each ad should be different in tone and pitch. Because you don't want poor copy to influence your results. Based on ad clicks and conversions (i.e. leads or sales), you'll have a good idea if there's general interest in your product/idea.

2. Go to eBook market places like ClickBank.com and see what's hot, what's in demand. You can search topics to see what's the most popular.

3. Do your research in related blogs, chat rooms, forums. See what people are talking about within your niche or product genre.

4. Do keyword research. Using Google's free external keyword search tool, check and see what the actual keyword search volume is on your relevant, targeted keywords related to your audience and product.

My suggestion is start out with the 3-2-1 approach. That is, 3 front-end products, 2 mid-priced products, and 1 back-end product. From there, you will define and refine your product development based mostly on demand.

If you're in need of assistance in product development or testing your product's viability, you can contact me at wendy@precisionmarketingmedia.com .

Know Your Audience Better

Our July 16th Brown Bag Lunch session on One-to-One Marketing talked about how useful certain tools like MCIF and CRM are. It also talked about the power of Claritas P$ycle data to better segment and understand who your target audience is, what they do, what media they use, and where they live.

Click here to learn more about our FREE Brown Bag sessions.

More importantly, we talked about how you can still have a robust one-to-one culture even without the tools in-house. That caused me to think, about how you can still have the power of P$ycle-style data on a more conservative budget. It is possible!

Though not as robust as P$ycle data and not as efficient to complete multiple segments, if you can identify a key strategic segment or two, you can collect your own lifestyle information through research. The key is to create a brief survey that touches on your target's hobbies, entertainment preferences, preferred media and financial goals.

Click Here For a Sample Survey.

You have several choices to collect this data. Since this does not, necessarily, have to be a blind survey, you can expect a better than average response rate from a phone survey. Of course, an email (like the above sample) would be faster and cheaper. You can also conduct branch intercepts or have a focus group to dig deeper into each question.

With this data, you can better create lifestyle or life stage marketing, or create a mirror modeling strategy to acquire more customers that resemble your best customer. You can be more strategic in your media buys and more targeted in your grassroots efforts. You'll also have relevant data on a strategic segment to have more intelligent one-to-one conversations about products and services that match their immediate financial goals.

MarketMatch has already made the investment into the Claritas ConsumerPoint system so that you can tap into the valuable data and also benefit from the expertise of our strategic team driving the process.

Of course, MarketMatch can be your resource for all of this. To learn more, email us at egagliano@marketmatch.com, or call 866-501-2233, ext 106.

Find Out The Secrets For Buying Online Ads For Less

Any online marketer will tell you, the key to successful Internet marketing is having a balanced marketing mix, that is, having a variety of tactics that fit your budget and business objectives ... from no cost SEO and SEM ... to paid advertising with banner ads, PPC, blogs, newsletter sponsorships, email marketing and more.

If you're a newbie to online media buying then do I have great news for you!

Discover the best ways to get the most bang for your buck when buying online advertising. Check out my new .pdf eBook -- Muscle Media: The Complete Guide to Buying Online Ads for Less. It’s jam packed with 25-pages of proven, powerful, money saving ideas to buy online media and boost ad performance.

It also contains "must know" insider tips and tricks including:

-Creating a high-peforming (low cost!) media plan
-Proven techniques for developing powerful online ads
-Best online ad networks (based on my personal, unbiased, hands on experience!)
-Suggested media allocations
-Reporting tips
-Media ‘cheat sheet’ with must ask questions for your next media buy
-Business negotiations 101
-Free web tools
-And much more!

Special Limited Time Offer

With every eBook purchase you’ll also receive as a complimentary gift, my comprehensive media performance ‘direct response tracking’ template to help you monitor and track your online campaigns.

Visit http://www.precisionmarketingmedia.com/products.html now for details.

Building Revenues with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has been a viable way to help build ancillary revenues by having someone else market your products. It's generally cost effective and could involve little work.

You can go about this through affiliate networks, such as Commission Junction or LinkShare, or simply start an Affiliate program on your website and track sales and commissions with affiliate software, such as DirectTrack. Software costs could range any where from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars ... depending on how robust you'd like your features.

But before you start, make sure you know the critical elements to help grow your Affiliate program:

1) Promotion. This is where you're promoting your program on targeted locations as well as recruiting affiliates to market your program. You'll want to make sure you list your program on all the top affiliate directories, networks, forums, associations, bulletin boards, websites, listings and blogs. You'll also want to leverage free classified sites such as Craig's List as well as social media sites like LinkedIn. And of course, don't forget to create a powerful news release on the program's launch.

2) Site Awareness. It will be hard to promote your program to a site that doesn't have a decent web traffic rank or web traffic (visits). If your site has poor traffic, a professional Affiliate marketer will look at it as a lost opportunity. It will only make his job harder. So make sure to deploy SEO/SEM tactics to improve your site's presence before you start your Affiliate program.

3) Online Store. Make sure you know which are your best selling and most universally appealing products. Those are the ones you'd want to have in your affiliate program. You should also have varied price points. You don't want to pick prices too low, as after the affiliate split, there won't be anything left. And you don't want to pick prices too high, as since most of these leads are cold, it will be a harder sell. A good range is $69 - $300.

4) Affiliate Rewards. Decide if you're going to pay out per lead (CPL) or per sale. Decide if you're going to have a flat commission rate OR a tiered system. Do your competitive research and see what other, similar affiliate programs are paying out. Some of the best performing programs on the Web are offering 25% of the product price.

5) Analytics. Make sure you have a robust reporting system. You'll want the ability to track underperformers and super affiliates, and reward OR incent accordingly. You'll also want to know which creatives are performing the best and worst, and of course, how many sales and leads are coming in as well as how long the lead is staying on the file and their life time value (sales).

6) Keeping In Touch. Top affiliate programs often have a newsletter or ongoing communication to keep their affiliates engaged...up to date on latest products being offered, special sales incentives, updates to program terms, and other newsworthy notes.

Affiliate marketing can help with most all of your online marketing objectives ... lead gen, sales conversions, web traffic, branding and buzz. Not having one could be detrimental to your business.

If you need assistance with setting up your affiliate marketing plan, you can contact me at support@precisionmarketingmedia.com.

Spend less, grow more.

Call it what you want: one-to-one marketing, segmentation, target marketing…

Regardless the terminology, with shrinking budgets and more savvy consumers, you need to focus your marketing efforts. The goal here is to: filter everyone “into” a group versus out of groups, to maximize response & activity and to get the highest ROI for the greatest impact.

MCIF, CRM and Claritas system can all definitely help here, but are certainly not the only answer.

You’ll want to base your segmentation, ultimately, on: your bank or credit union’s financial goals, your existing customer-base, any regional factors and what your competition is doing.

Certainly you want to be strategic in your planning, but don’t suffer from “Analysis Paralysis,” while you’re planning your attack (or picking up the phone to have us help you), here are some segments to consider approaching:

• Checking/debit card without online banking
• More than 5 POS activities with no loan
• 5 or more CDs with no investment services
• 2 or more installment loans with no LOC
• Installment loans maturing within 24 mos.
• Equity LOCs booked 5+ years ago
• Equity LOCs with more than $5K available
• Checking, Savings and no Money Market
• Checking, CD and no Money Market
• Homeowner with no HELOC
• HHs close to balance thresholds
• HHs with open LOC space
• Homeowner with no HELOC
• Grandparents/Parents/College grads (select any life-stage that generates specific financial needs)
• Small business without retail

Consider how you will approach these folks. What do they look like? What ultimately is motivating them to need your services? How aggressive should you be? Once they are in your front door, how will you identify them? What will you say? Will you have to offer them a special, or simply demonstrate how you can help them?

The bottom line is that smart, strategic, targeted marketing demands a larger investment of your time, but can save your budget and ultimately show better results.

Take care,
Eric

Are you an expert? You must be a failure

Recently I was introduced to Jonah Lehrer at the Theatre Communications Group annual conference in Chicago where Mr. Lehrer was a keynote speaker. His speech inspired an earlier blog post, and convinced me that I should probably read his book How We Decide. I am just about a quarter of the way through it, and I must admit that I am finding it a bit dense, although completely fascinating. Instead of reading right before going to sleep, I am waking up a little early to read because my brain needs to be fresh to process some of his ideas.

In the second chapter of the book, entitled "Predictions of Dopamine," Lehrer examines two subjects--TD Gammon (a computer specifically designed to play backgammon competitively) and Bill Robertie (a man who is a world-class expert in chess, poker and backgammon). In his examination of these two subjects, I learned two amazing lessons:

1. If you want to be an expert, you need to fail a lot! Lehrer quotes physicist Niels Bohr who defined an expert as "a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." Demonstrating this principle was TD Gammon. TD Gammon was leaps and bounds better than earlier computers at playing backgammon primarily because it was programmed to learn from its mistakes. When TD Gammon was ready to compete, its inventors wanted it to go up against a world class champion so that it could learn, so they recruited Bill Robertie. In describing his first matches with TD Gammon, Bill said "The first time I competed against TD Gammon, I was incredibly impressed. It represented a big improvement over any other computer program I'd ever encountered. But I knew I was still a better player." The next year, when Bill returned to play TD Gammon after a year's worth of almost a million errors in played matches, it was a different story. TD Gammon had become an expert by studying its own mistakes.

2. It isn't good enough to make errors, you must systematically study them. In determining how Bill Robertie could become a world-class expert in three games, it became clear that his success was linked to his systematic study of his failures. Lehrer quotes Robertie who states "It's not the quantity of practice, it's the quality. The most effective way to get better is to focus on your mistakes." In Lehrer's study of Robertie, he noticed that after Robertie plays a game, he painstakingly reviews what happened, and every decision is critiqued and analyzed. Even when he wins, he insists on searching for errors. In my professional life, I have been accused of being a perfectionist more than once, and direct reports have questioned whether I am ever happy with a result as I constantly analyze decisions, even on the cusp of a great victory. From a management perspective, I can see how that could be construed as having an insatiable appetite for perfection, but I guess I view learning in much the same way as Robertie does. Celebrating success is important, but in situations where you need to learn, and learn quickly, you need to focus on the mistakes even in victories.

Lehrer concludes that "mistakes aren't things to be discouraged. On the contrary, they should be cultivated and carefully investigated." I believe as managers we are responsible for creating environments where admitting mistakes is encouraged, so that as a team, we can all learn from them. In an age where people only want to talk about "best practices," we should also be discussing "worst practices." As it seems to me that you can only get to the "best" by surviving and learning from the "worst."

Recently I was sitting on a funding panel with a representative from a large influential funder, whose organization was supporting projects that could either be great successes or massive failures. It was considered by the funder a "success" to have either outcome, as long as a detailed analysis of each project was made available to the public to learn from. I thought this demonstrated very forward thinking on the funder's behalf, but the funder admitted to me that the public analysis requirement was a significant deterrent to applicants, as they were afraid that public failure would make them less desirable for funding from other sources.

As a field, failure should be celebrated, as long as we are relentless in our analysis of each failure and learn from each incident. Shame should be reserved for those organizations who are complacent in situations that demand change.

When the circus comes to town

Something a little fun for a Monday...

When the Circus Comes to Town

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday", that's advertising.

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town,
that's promotion.

If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity.

And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations.

If the elephant walks down neighborhoods with more children than the rest and a higher # of former circus attendees, that's segmentation.

If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths,
explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions
and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

And, if YOU planned the whole thing, that's MARKETING!

Advertising simply does not work as it used to anymore. It is an ever shrinking component of the marketing plan.

The consumer is frankly completely and totally overwhelmed. We have to be relevant, emotional and sustained!

I wish I could take credit for this masterpiece, but I can't. I don't know who wrote it - but the message is no less profound or true.

Today's Marketing Challenge: Is it worth it?

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: Is it worth it?

Today's solution covers a wide variety of marketing challenges: "I think we need a MCIF or CRM, but they won't put it in the budget." "We need more marketing resources, but how do I pay for it?" "My department simply isn't respected at my institution ... marketing is more than 'arts & crafts!'"

The solution? Measure your results (or expected results)!

The simple solution is to demonstrate the value (or anticipated value) of your marketing efforts through ROI.

Think like a marketer and understand that your CEO/COO/CFO/Board/etc. are your target audience. You have to speak your target's language ... numbers!

What's that? You "don't do numbers"? Here's a quick cheat sheet:

ROI = (Incremental Profit - Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment

The bottom line is:

• Define where you are at the start
• Determine the expected or actual outcome of your efforts
• Measure the financial outcome against your investment

What was your return? Can your CEO/Board get a better return by investing the bank's/CU's money in stocks, HR or IT?

ROI is simply the best way to brand marketing as much more than "arts & crafts." It's also the most logical way to justify your dream marketing budget and wish-list resources (like MarketMatch).

We have an in-depth Financial Impact Analysis form that we use to justify our ROI Guarantee. If interested, call me at 937-426-9848 or email egagliano@marketmatch.com.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do I get the most from email marketing?

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do I get the most from email marketing?

With marketing budgets getting tighter and younger demographics demanding an immediate response while constantly on the go, email marketing is quickly becoming one of the most sought after and frustrating marketing tools. Can it segment? How do I know it's effective? I only have email addresses for 10% of my customer-base. Sound familiar?

The solution? Diligence!

Successful email marketing begins with identifying the right email partner, but the true success is in your diligence:

• Select a system that can accommodate a variety of data fields and multiple audience lists. Use your core system, MCIF or imported email fields to segment and create individual audience lists for specific campaigns.
• Focus your message on value-added tips, but link to relevant products on your website. For example, "You can better manage your budget by using debit cards and online banking to track every dollar spent each month." Then link to your checking account or online banking page(s). If you start the hard-core selling on email, your customers will opt-out and you can no longer email to them.
• Diligently track, track, track. Most email responses will come in the first 3 days, but keep tracking for at least 1 week. Track who opens the email and what they clicked through to. Use the list of customers who clicked through to Online Banking, for example, for outbound sales calls to those folks to see if they had any questions when they clicked to your online banking page. You can provide your CSRs/MSRs with very targeted outbound lists of customers who have shown an interest in a product.
• Diligently track, track, track (part 2). Record the topics of each email you send with the percent of opens, percent of click-throughs and percent of opt-outs to gauge what topics are important to your market.
• Push hard to get your staff to diligently ask about email addresses at EVERY transaction - in the teller line, at the drive-thru, in the call center, heck - even in collections. If they talk to a customer, they should ask, "Can I please have an updated email address?"

Email marketing is a powerful, robust, trackable, cost-effective tool and it beats waiting two weeks for a mailing to print and mail.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: Keeping Social Media Fresh

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: How do you keep Social Media fresh and beneficial?

Who's in charge of updating your blogs, Facebook pages, emails, Tweets, Linked In, etc., etc., etc.?

If it's just one person, you may be missing an opportunity.

The solution? Build momentum!

The underlying strategic goal behind any social media effort is to position the bank or credit union as a financial expert and to ultimately build the relationship with your target in a value-added way.

That said, you can build momentum in your efforts by soliciting the efforts of your entire institution. Schedule specific times for key team members to post messages. "This week our lending VP focuses on mortgage issues, next week our Commercial VP talks about how Reg E will effect transactions at the point of sale. The week after that, our Wealth Management advisor will discuss the ebbs and flows of the market."

Here are some tips:

• Since you'll want to include managers from different business units (preferably even the CEO) and/or staff from different markets, schedule well in advance
• Be clear on exactly who is responsible and exactly what they are responsible for
• Provide recommended topic ideas and talking points. The more you can do for them up-front, the more likely they are to do it
• Be a classy-pest. Send nice reminders prior to their deadline (see if they would like your help)
• Set clear guidelines. Tweets should be short ... Blogs should be no more than XXX words ... Facebook should not be salesy .. etc.

If successful, you will enjoy the collective expertise of your entire institution, your team will begin to understand the value of social media, your customers will get to know more of your team, and you will position your bank or credit union as having a deep understanding of a variety of financial issues.

Take care,

Eric

Today's Marketing Challenge: Projects move too slowly, I have a marketing committee

We talk to financial marketers from all over the country, every day. During our chats, we hear what's bugging you. This week, we'll address some of the more common issues we're hearing.

You're not alone!

Today's Marketing Challenge: Projects take too long because I have a marketing committee.

Whether it's a committee of Board members, senior management or other team members, all committees are started with good intentions. Where many committees go astray is when every member wants final say in every detail of every decision.

The solution? Focus!

The most logical solution to streamline any committee is to define roles. You need planners, checks and balances and finally - a "doer."

The committee should be involved in each of the roles EXCEPT the doer. In short, the committee should:

• Help outline and define the plan or marketing objectives
• Help outline and define the budget
• Confirm that the "doer" is acting in accordance with the stated objectives and staying on budget
• Provide insight into what they experience through customer feedback or personal experience in the branches

A committee should not:

• Be involved in the day-to-day tactics (they are not copy writers, designers or segmentation professionals -- heck in MOST cases, they are not the target audience, so their "personal opinion" on an ad can actually be detrimental)

With clear, well defined roles, a committee can help make your marketing stronger with regional feedback and checks and balances. If your current committee process is "gumming up the machine" however, it needs to be addressed quickly.

Remember: A compromise is an agreement whereby both parties get what neither of them wanted. ~Author Unknown

Take care,

Eric

Turning Problems into Positives

The "Happiest Place on Earth" may be in Florida, but there are no mice there.

To me, the happiest place on Earth is a little condo in Sarasota where my family and my sister-in-law's family get together every year for white sandy beaches, a calm pool, and a week of relaxation.

That is until this year ...

Don't get me wrong, my family still had the time of our lives, but my sister-in-law had a completely different experience ... two days without A/C in the June Florida heat.

Certainly, the blame is not on the condo, they didn't shut off the A/C on purpose. But the way the issue was handled may loose then a faithful, recurring customer. And there are lessons here for your branches. When it comes down to it, the condo's problem was a lack of leadership:

Accountability

No one accepted accountability for the A/C. What was experienced was a lot of finger pointing.

When an issue occurs at your branch, your team needs to own the problem. If the point of contact can't solve the issue, they need to work to find someone internally who can and stay with the issue until it's resolved. Do not say, "you need to talk to Sally and she's off until Tuesday."

Responsibility

What was forgotten is that the responsibility is to the customer not on the customer. Even if your institution is not at fault for the error - the perception is that you are. If the customer is unhappy, your entire team needs to work to make it better.

In the case of our condo, they expected the customer to talk directly to maintenance until the A/C was fixed.

Empowerment

Great leaders empower their team to make decisions. Otherwise, when the leader is not around, nothing gets done! Your team has to be comfortable doing what's right for the customer without the fear of second guessing. The more empowered your team, the faster customer issues will be be resolved and the better overall experience your customer will have.

The bottom line is that we can't control when the A/C will die. But we can demonstrate a sincere desire to solve our customer's problems. To me, customer issues are really customer opportunities. Some of the most memorable and positive experiences I've had with a company is when something goes wrong and the company goes above and beyond to make it right.