Make It Easy

The topic for this week is: Make it Easy. I’ll start with some questions.

How easy is it for someone to do business with you?

How easy is it for someone to get an answer to a question?

How easy is it for someone to find you online?

How easy is it for someone to call you?

How easy is it for someone to pay you for goods and services that you offer?

How easy is it for someone to pay you a compliment?  Either in person, or online?

I could continue asking similar questions and I’m sure you could come up with a few more that are just as important for you and your business.

Here’s the take-away I want you to have: Make It Easy.

No matter what the question, do what ever possible to make it easy for people.

Advertising can bring people to you.  What happens next is up to you.  The WHOLE BUYING EXPERIENCE is part of your marketing.

I understand that there might be some pretty complicated things that need to go on behind the scenes that will Make It Easy for your customers, but sometimes it really doesn’t need to be complicated at all.

Recently I was talking to a business owner who wants to let people know that despite the fact he has a couple dozen employees and managers that work for him, the real person that can solve their ultimate problems is him.

So we created a way to Make It Easy for anyone to reach him.  A special phone number that accepts phone calls and texts that rings directly to his personal cell phone.  When you call, you talk to the owner, not his manager, not an answering service on the other side of the planet.  You get the guy in charge, the one who can make everything Easy.

Some companies empower their front line employees to take care of everything.  Instead of having to “ask a manager” or “go up the food chain” to resolve something, the actual person you or I talk with takes care of it, then and there.

A couple more stories to illustrate how this Make It Easy process works.  For years my wife and I have had cable TV, Internet and sometimes phone service from one of the two big national companies and every year we saw our bills climb just because they could raise the prices.  One year my wife spent 3 hours on the phone with customer service and was able to knock our bill down a little but it went back up a year later even though we dropped some of their services.

This summer I was convinced to cut the cord and go with internet only because I finally figured out all the other pieces to the puzzle to watch what we wanted via internet streaming and over the air local channels.

Our current internet provider wasn’t going to budge on price, so I tried to buy from their main competitor.  I attempted to do it online and over the phone.  Even using the online chat feature was a nightmare.  I nearly gave up until my friend told me exactly who to talk to in person at a local store front location.

I walked in and asked for her by name and she knew who I was because my friend had contacted her earlier that day.  Within 15 minutes on a Monday afternoon we had everything set up for them to come out 3 days later to install and start internet service.  Plus the price was lower than what I was paying the other company, and lower than I was able to find online with this company.  This woman was an expert in the Make It Easy department.

The other Make It Easy story is a follow up on what I shared recently when I upgraded our homes heating and cooling system.  We were eligible for a rebate from our electric company with the new system and I started to fill out the paperwork online, but never completed it.  In the meantime, a check for $300 arrived from the electric company.  Turns out the heating/cooling company took care of that paperwork for me, and I forgot that they were taking care of that for us.   They really won in my book in the Make It Easy department.

My work as a marketing coach and consultant and advertising sales person with WOWO radio and Federated Media Digital includes doing what ever I can to Make It Easy for my advertising partners.  Last week I updated a couple items on a clients website, not because they paid me to do it, I was just doing it for them to Make It Easy.

Go back over that list I started with and review the questions about how easy is it for people to do business with you and then add a few that are particular to your business, and take action.  If you want my help in reviewing those questions and coming up with answers, let’s talk.

You can email me, text me, message me, call me, find me online on social media by simply looking for ScLoHo, that’s me.  That’s my commitment to Make It Easy for you!