For example, a customer needs to claim for a medical fee. It would help if the business concerned can make the entire process of approving the claim as simple as possible. Things like 12 hours or even 24 hours approval certain help. Imagine what would happen if the claim process is 1 month long and the customer is required to provide not only photocopied receipts but also original ones, handed to the company’s office by the customer himself. To make things worse, the company’s offices don’t operate on weekends.

Talk about helpful customer service

Another example, a customer recently lost his wallet to a robber. He called company A to cancel all his cards, and also to ask for an insurance claim (to cover the cost of the card replacement). Company A said yes, it can be done. The customer was relieved and thanked company A for it. Few weeks later, the claim was rejected. Why? Because the customer did not provide the original supporting documents (including the official bank statement which is required to cover the cost of the lost ATM card – worth RM 12). The customer was furious because he still could not get his credit cards back and he, who has been the customer for 5 years, was forced to show so many documents for something worth RM 12. He called the company up, scolded them and cancelled the membership on the spot. The company lost a very loyal customer who used to spread the good words about this company to his friends.

The above 2 examples, I believe, might have been experienced by many of you before. When we’re in trouble, we expect the companies which we’ve paid to help us, to…well…help us. Instead, what we get is processes and unnecessary procedures, which only give us more headaches than help. I must admit that it’s not wrong for these businesses to have processes and procedures, but they need to abstract them from the customers and not troubling them.

Look, if your business is giving me more headache than helping me, then I will just go to another business and you most probably won’t see me AND my friends. End of story.

It's important to network with other people

People always say that it is important to have good contacts during good and bad times. And I believe so. After my recent experience, I’ve realized that having a good list of contacts is a very important asset. A priceless asset.

After the announcement from the bosses, I immediately sent out SMSes and Instant Messenger messages (YM, MSN, etc) to my contacts that I need help and maybe ideas. I’m glad that a lot of them have replied me with kind messages and some offer to keep a lookout for opportunities for me, and some even told me which company is hiring.

And for those who prefer to keep to themselves (some geniuses are like that), maybe it’s time for you to get to know more people and spread your network.

Last but not least, a big thank you to every single one of you who have offered to help out. Whatever the outcome, I’m just glad that most of you have responded to my ‘SOS’ message.

20 years later, the name Dragonball is still very popular in the world of anime and maybe that is why someone came out with an idea – “Why not make a REAL Dragonball movie?!”

Thus, the result is the movie Dragonball :Evolution.

After watching the trailers, my only response – I kept laughing as if this action movie has become a comedy. I can go on and on about why this should not be made into a Dragonball movie….but well, it’s better if you go find it out yourselves. If you’re a Dragonball fan, you’ll either feel disgusted or amused.

Son Goku and Bulma - they do look pretty funny

Anyway, what I intend to say here is that it is never easy to change something which other people have strong feelings on. This movie is one example. There are millions of Dragonball fans worldwide and all of them know what Dragonball is and all the special feelings associated with the franchise – Son Goku is a Japanese! And and Bulma is a Japanese also!! And Master Roshi is supposed to be bald! To change such feelings is never easy and most of the time will backfire.

Another example is KFC. KFC is famous for fried chicken but I recall that few years ago, they tried to be creative and came out with Fish burger. It was a total failure. Same goes for Nandos, the so-called grilled chicken specialist. I’ve tried to grilled fish and my friend tried to grilled beef before……..they sux. Actually, those things are not really THAT bad if they are being sold by other people. The thing here is that, our mindset has been set, and the feelings associated with these businesses have been set – Nandos for SPICY grilled chicken, Kenny Rogers for HEALTHY grilled chicken, Burger King for large burgers, Dragonball for spiky-haired guys that can fly around in the sky and can change hair color at will, etc.

From here, you can see that there are feelings which we associate with certain names….some ever since our childhood days. That is why it’s never easy to change the feelings associated with a famous brand name. It’s pretty risky too because if you can do it very well (like Transformers…which actually didn’t really change THAT much. They’re still robots…not human), then your product/work will be very popular but if you don’t do it well……….it’ll become a laughing stock and expect millions of hardcore fans to boycott you before your product even got launched.

If you are going to change these feelings…..you better be prepared and make sure you have a well-thought plan. 

Why?

Because, to me, those cards were valuable - they showed sincerity because each was written (not typed)…and each required some time and efforts.

Coming back to the NOW, such greeting cards are no longer popular. Kids nowadays prefer to send e-cards or electronic greeting cards. It’s not entirely bad, since they’re saving a lot of trees. But to me, these cards lack sincerity. Well, they can basically copy paste the content to all those e-cards, or they can just send a single e-card to a multiple recipients.

Can this be considered sincere?

For businesses, the traditional greeting cards are still being used, but nearly all of them are been printed and not hand-written. This does improve readability since you will be surprised at how poor some people’s handwriting is. But again, to me, this lacks sincerity since one can easily create tonnes of those cards as long as one has $$. Maybe a good combination is to have customized messages printed on each of the card.

Similarly, when you send an email to a few people (whether you’re inviting them for a dinner, or proposing a business deal, or trying to sell them your products), a “standard” content will always sound and look not-so-nice and thus, inefficient. However, a customized content which is suitable for that particular recipient, will be much more effective.

Let’s face it, everyone prefers (and wants) to deal with people who are sincere. If you are sending me emails which are not unique at all, I seriously would not pay much attention.

Oh, and don’t think you can cheat people by trying to make it as unique as possible. Because some people WILL know if the email is not sincere…and you wouldn’t want them to know that.

That’s why it’s always better to spend some time and efforts to show your sincerity. Remember, in a world where competition is stiff….being sincere will help you a lot.

Then I asked them. Did they actually try that out or prove that theory/belief?

Nope. None of them did.

Honestly speaking, I’m one of those Shell supporters because my bro-in-law told me that Shell can actually last longer. From where he heard that from, I’ve no idea.

Well, that’s the power of word-of-mouth. If someone says you’re good, a lot of people will believe you are especially if it is very difficult or troublesome to prove otherwise. If someone says Shell is good, a lot of people will not be bothered to test it out by driving their car out…pump using Shell’s fuel….and go around to see how far they can go. It’ll be too troublesome and time consuming for us. Also, that is not our job…that’s the job of the folks from Mythbusters.

So if you’re planning to come out with a product, try to make it a good one or at least an OKAY one…but make everyone believes it’s good. Also, make sure it’s not easy to prove that your product is actually not that OKAY. People will be too lazy to prove your product is not OKAY.

Last but not least, never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. It can either be your best ally in marketing…or your worst foe.

If you’re not, sorry to say, those privileges will not be available to you but to your competitor who is the best in your industry.

And that is exactly why there are a lot of businesses out there which want to be the best. There’s even a saying which goes like “if you can’t be the best in that field, choose another field”. Forgot where I’ve seen it though.

The thing is, it does require a lot of efforts and possibly money to get to the top and be the best. As a business, you need a remarkable product with unique features. Something like Apple IPhone or Nintendo WII. They can be considered as the pioneers in their respective industry. That’s why these 2 products are so popular. But how many such products actually managed to make it to the top? Definitely not Microsoft with their big failures such as Microsoft Zune and Microsoft Vista. Oh, by the way, Sony’s PlayStation 3 is a very big risk too because of the amount of money Sony has put into its research. If PS3 fails to sell well, Sony Entertainment might have to be closed down.

Yes, it is THAT risky.

So do you still want to be the best? After all, being average does not mean your business cannot earn. You can still earn. Notice how many clones are there for all the famous products? Those are average products, not the actual stuff. For example, just go to Kajang and find the famous satay. You will end up finding a lot of Satay Kajang without knowing which is the original. But those who know which is the best, they will still go to the best. The average ones will only have customers if the best is fully occupied.

That’s the path of an average business. You can still earn with lower risks, but don’t expect to earn big bucks.

So which do you think is suitable for you and your business? The very risky but rewarding path, or the less risky and average path?

Last but not least…a reminder to you. Always ask yourselves this question “Why would people still buy from me when my product is actually not the best? Is it more affordable than the rest? Or does it has more features?”

For me = TROUBLESOME. Because I have to go through the trouble of finding the contact number, call them up and make an appointment. I know some allow you to walk in but some of them don’t. My question is, if I have never been to your business or I am a first time customer, how would I know how to make an appointment or which number to call? It’s still okay if your business is very well-known or a lot of people know how to make an appointment, or if your business has very accessible contact information. But how many businesses actually have any of those? Not many.

Dentist business is one of the appointment-based businesses

It’s funny how these businesses are still having such appointment-based model and most of them are still unwilling to change. If your business is unwilling to change, then at least make sure your information is more accessible to your potential customers – those first time customers. Otherwise, they will just choose another business which is more convenient to them. And believe me, during such competitive period when there’s a business closing down every few hours or so, you ought to believe your competitors are trying their very best to make their businesses more convenient and trouble-free for the customers.

Unless, those businesses are too proud of themselves that they don’t need those potential customers.

So how can these businesses change? Here are few simple ways which I can think of but do bear in mind that I’m not an expert when it comes to marketing.

• Prepare more name cards or contact cards, and pass them around to spread the word about your appointment-based business.
• Allow walk-ins but gives priority to those who’ve arranged for an appointment.
• If possible, put up a big sign at your store if walk-in is not available for the day. I don’t think the customers want to take the trouble of finding car park, only to realize there’s no available time slot anymore.
• Have a blog or publish your contact information online. Make such information as accessible as possible.
• Give very good service to your existing customers and hopefully they will help spread the word AND the contact information for you (make sure you have enough contact cards to be distributed). Or better still, reward the customers for bringing new customers in!
• Have different time slots for walk-in and appointment-based. This is to ensure that those who are lazy to make an appointment can still choose your business.

I’m not sure whether this list can help or not. But I do feel that a business should try to make it as convenient as possible for the customers. I understand that certain type of businesses HAVE TO be appointment-based but I also believe that it is up to them to make the entire ordeal as trouble-free as possible. Remember the key phrase here is businesses should make life easier for customers, not harder.

And now, I need to go and hunt for a good dentist in my area who has very accessible contact information…I don’t think I want to go around my area trying to SPOT a phone number so that I can call and make an appointment.

Because it’s our nature to celebrate, discuss and pay attention to the popular things. For example, when you go to the bookstore, do you check the top 10 fiction or top 10 non-fiction books? Or if you are planning to go to the cinema but are unsure which movie to watch, will you check the rating and also the top 10 Box Office list?

The brand new IPod. Will this become very popular too?

The same thing applies to other popular items such as Apple IPod, MacBook, Honda and Toyota cars, McDonald, etc. These are very popular brands and brands which most of us know. Imagine if Apple IPod is not Apple IPod but maybe Orange Nono….a device which nobody knows much about, will you actually take a look at it? I doubt.

Another example. Do you dare to try a new restaurant if there’s no customer in it? What if the new restaurant has A LOT of customers? You will feel like trying too right?

This is actually a very normal human behavior especially for those who are indecisive and need to refer to others in order to make decision for themselves. They will think that because Apple IPod is so popular, it must be something good. Otherwise, why would people pay for such an expensive price for a MP3 player?

To them, popular product = quality product = and buying them will not make them regret.

That’s why there are a lot of companies who are willing to spend a lot of money on branding and to make their products popular. Because once they managed to do that (to make their products very popular), they can be 100% sure that the money will start coming in.

Don’t believe me? Try to look for the top 10 books in Amazon. Do all of them have good ratings or reviews? Nope. And yet, a lot of people are willing to spend money on them. Why? Because they’re popular and they are in the “limelight”. Who cares if they are really good or not? As long as they don’t sux too much, people will still buy….provided they are “popular”.

So the next time you come out with a product, one of the main things which you need to do is to be able to sell it and sell it well. Make it popular. And from there, everything will start to fall in place. People will help you to spread words about your products – free marketing. And indecisive people will refer to the top list which your product is part of…and there is a very high possibility that some of them will buy your product.

So always try to make your products popular in your industry/field. It’s not enough to be the BEST. It also needs to be the MOST POPULAR.

I think that reason alone is enough for you to keep your patience when dealing with them. But rather than just tolerating them, maybe it’s better for us to think and look at things from the customers’ perspective. It’ll also be easier that way since tolerating cannot last forever.

Today a fellow blogger Apple talked about “Customer is always right“. Actually, I’ve seen pretty nasty and unreasonable customers though I have not dealt with them personally before. I must admit that some of them are indeed notoriously unreasonable and don’t make sense at all. But there are times when we ourselves are customers.

For example, a customer who claims the car is having some engine problems might not know the problem actually has something to do with the car brake because he is not the mechanic. He might act smart and keep insisting it is the engine problem, but that is based on his perspective. From our perspective, we should understand that this customer knows nothing about the problem and that is why he comes to us though it might require some efforts to convince him.

Similarly, someone who wants the IT system to look like this might not know it is actually not the best way to do it. He just does not know any other way. What we can do is to provide examples and let the customer know the best way to do it aka our recommendation but if he does not want to change, then we will have to follow what he wants. He’s the one paying the bill after all.

What I want to say here is that one needs to be patience when dealing with customers especially the older customers. I know some of them are very arrogant but they approach you for a reason – they need your help. We ourselves are customers to other businesses. We ourselves have been in those situation and believe me, the idiotic customers of yours? We might look that way to other people too.

However, there are times when some customers are very nasty and rude. They might scold you for their own mistakes. That is when you need to tolerate. But I do understand that everyone has a limit. So if you can’t stand it anymore and this customer is just too rude and unreasonable, feel free to cut him off. It might be too expensive for your business to continue retaining this customer.

I was in 1Utama today and there was an exhibition from Mac City – IPods, IMacs, MacBooks, etc. And gosh, there were so many people there! And they weren’t just browsing. A lot of them were queuing up to pay at the counter.

I thought the economy is bad. Or maybe it’s just me who is feeling the heat? Apple products are not known to be cheap, you know. In fact, all of the Apple products are expensive and in the IT world, they are often considered as luxuries. Yet, so many people are buying those things today.

So if you’re saying that Malaysians are poor and not spending much, think again. To be honest, I think most Malaysians (middle income family and above) still have a very strong purchasing power. You can see this during sales. Promotional items are becoming hot items and are much sought after, even if they’re not cheap. Things like branded clothes, bags, perfumes, IT gadgets and home appliances are still very popular as long as they are slightly cheaper than before.

If you can’t lower down the price of your products, fear not, just add in some freebies like free bags, free memory cards, free this or that. People will still come and get hooked. Just make sure you are giving better values than before and people will buy from you.

So if your products’ sales rate has dropped recently due to recession, then start some promotions or sales. Have it in a popular place and people will buy (unless your products are very bad). Most Malaysians are still not feeling the heat yet, so do it while you still can.

p/s…. or maybe most Malaysians are feeling too stressed up at the moment that they resort to “releasing” those stress by buying items they like, irregardless of the price and usefulness.