content development (&) management

I got a car wash the other day. I view this as a luxury item, and if my vehicle hadn’t been bombarded by a flock of diuretic birds, I wouldn’t have been there.

I was having trouble getting the automated machine to accept my five dollar bill, and the digitized female voice kept telling me to make sure the corners were flat (they were). So I tried the other stall, and a different machine with the same results. My 10 year old daughter suggested that I “just use the $20″ in my wallet. Good idea. I put the $20 in, and got credit for my $8 wash, and a receipt that said something like, “We’re sorry for the inconvenience, call this number, we owe you $12”.

I could tell by the number that it was from someone that lived in the Clarksville area, which is about an hour away from my home in Hendersonville. Steve (the owner) answered the phone and apologized profusely. He told me that the software in his automated machine doesn’t accept the new $5 bills yet, and the machine had apparently run out of smaller bills that day.

He said he would be in town the next day and would call me around noon to give me my money back. I thanked him and hung up. A week and a half had gone by (and I thought “so did my $12”) I hadn’t heard from Steve.

A few days ago he called me and apologized again. He told me he works full time at a company in Clarksville, and the carwash is his ‘small business on the side.’ He has been having some unexpected problems with his machines, and if it was all right with me, he would load up a car wash card (worth far more than the $12) and drop it in the mail. I told him I understood the challenges that many small business owners face, thanked him, and gave him my address. We then talked about gas prices, the economy and what I did for a living (help organizations with their online communications, including writing, SEO, Social Media, Websites and Blogging.)

Steve told me his wife worked for a company that just set up a new website, but when they typed the name of the company into Google, the site wasn’t coming up. I gave him some suggestions, and he asked me to call his wife and give her the same info. Our conversation turned into a proposal and may become a sale.

What could have been a frustrating situation ended up with a positive outcome because I wasn’t a demanding jerk to this guy. He’s a small business owner working in my town so there’s always a potential for business, but even more important than that, he’s a human being.

This is an example of how I develop business relationships.

I want to help people.

Engage with them.

Have conversations that are not sales pitches.

I want people to have a good experience with me, and not dread the thought of calling me if they need something else.

You never know where your next lead will come from. It may arrive through a neighbor, a friend, or a complete stranger… perhaps it will come from a busy, hard working entrepreneur that owes you $12.

Jason Elkins

I recently heard a great piece on This American Life about how, despite the fact that we are all admonished from birth with the phrase, “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover,” sometimes it’s impossible to NOT go with your gut instinct, your first impression, your snap judgments. In fact, there’s some research that states that over the long term, businesses can obtain better ROI by making rapid decisions based on partial information versus slow decisions based on a full understanding of all ramifications… but I digress.

What I’m getting to is impressions. First impressions, ongoing impressions – Jason, among other people, has always said that every interaction with another human being is an opportunity to market yourself. Every one. Running to the grocery store in your PJs to get coffee creamer at 4am? Trust that you left an impression on someone. And of COURSE it’s true that you can never know who your next customer or partner might be – your doctor may be looking for a grant writer for his NP’s next mission trip to the Congo, the quiet fellow in your bible study group may need some marketing help for his bungee jumping business, or your hairdresser might need her classic cars website updated…so, yeah, you want to be the best you that you can be in all of those “potential opportunity” situations.

But while that’s true, I just can’t work that hard. I like my hairdresser, and she knows what I do. But if she wants to hire someone to update her website and she doesn’t think of me, I’m okay with that. I want her to cut my hair well, and I want to be able to relax in her chair. She’s part of my community, and I’m her customer, and I want to feel like that around her.

However… I don’t often meet clients in my office, but when someone DOES engage me on a project, or wants to discuss a current project, I shave and put on a nice shirt to meet them. I feel better about it, and in this line of work, customers appreciate it. They also appreciate prompt follow ups. They appreciate a hand-written note on occasion (I should really do that more often). And I want to convey that they are worth the effort. I want their impression of me to be memorable, and I want them to think of me for their next project. And the next one. And the next one.

This came up because I just received the following email. You probably recognize it, but if you don’t I’m glad I was able to share it with you and I recommend checking them out. For YEARS they have been creating an awesome impression with the smallest amount of effort:

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, August 4, 2009.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh…

We miss you already. We’ll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.

Mimeo.com, whom I’ve written about before, sends an email when they ship items that says “Prepare to be delighted!” I love that.

Impressions. What do you do to make an impression? I’d love your ideas.

Be free,

Jeff