I'm no genius. I don't have an MBA. No PhD in Psychology. I took the long track via education and practice through the back door of design and marketing.
But then, what I propose here doesn't take much to understand. It is basic math and human relations.
Let's assume that every customer that calls or walks through your door represents twenty people. We'll call those people a circle of influence. For every person that walks through that door is an opportunity to reach twenty more. And if you handle that customer with care, if you treat them like partners rather than dollars, then your Return on Investment (ROI) is exponential.
Don't take my word for it. There are countless studies and analytics to back this up. Word-of-mouth marketing has been a huge buzz in the last five years and accounts for brands backing up the trucks to Facebook and Twitter and asking scores of non-celebs to like and follow them.
An Intelliseek (now Nielsen Online) study of 2005 found that consumers were "50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads." That means that your media spend, whether tens or millions of dollars, is a good deal less important to the growth of your business than that single customer standing in front of you.
Most people know this, but few practice it. We've been swimming in a sea of disparity for a few years now that has people pointing their fingers at big business as a devil worth toppling. I'm on their side. Businesses are not human beings. They don't feel anything but the pinch of their stockholders' votes, and the stockholders are constantly asking for more. That compels the inhuman machine to steamroll the universe at any cost, including the lives and livelihoods of the very people they count as customers. That monster is part of what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.
But maybe you're just a mom and pop shop, selling goods to the neighborhood. Or maybe you're a mid-sized company trying to balance growth and attrition, employees and their benefits, overhead and bottom-line expansions. You didn't sign up for this life and it's hardships, but if you don't fight tooth and nail, you'll sink like a stone.
Whoever you are, remember that your greatest asset is that guy standing in front of you. He votes. He has friends and colleagues and acquaintances. He's also on Facebook and Twitter and emails his sister twice a week. How you handle your relationship to the guy in front of you can make or break you. And the avalanche you start can either help or hinder your community. That plays in everyday relationships, both personal and public.
The original reason I bring this up is that my graphic design students are having issues with printers. The printers here reason that they cannot do small runs because the ten dollars they stand to gain is not worth the trouble. What they fail to calculate, the basic math of it, is that each satisfied student will bring in twenty more. That's ten dollars times twenty, or two hundred dollars. And all of those students will come back again and again and send their friends. And they will all potentially become lifetime customers as they move into the workforce and establish themselves as creative director and perhaps some day the CEOs of major corporations all needing the services of a printer.
This is your chance to contribute to building community. And if it's all done right, everyone in the equation is treated equitably so that the common man, the every man, has a voice and a vote.
Get it? Got it? Good.
But then, what I propose here doesn't take much to understand. It is basic math and human relations.
Let's assume that every customer that calls or walks through your door represents twenty people. We'll call those people a circle of influence. For every person that walks through that door is an opportunity to reach twenty more. And if you handle that customer with care, if you treat them like partners rather than dollars, then your Return on Investment (ROI) is exponential.
Don't take my word for it. There are countless studies and analytics to back this up. Word-of-mouth marketing has been a huge buzz in the last five years and accounts for brands backing up the trucks to Facebook and Twitter and asking scores of non-celebs to like and follow them.
An Intelliseek (now Nielsen Online) study of 2005 found that consumers were "50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads." That means that your media spend, whether tens or millions of dollars, is a good deal less important to the growth of your business than that single customer standing in front of you.
Most people know this, but few practice it. We've been swimming in a sea of disparity for a few years now that has people pointing their fingers at big business as a devil worth toppling. I'm on their side. Businesses are not human beings. They don't feel anything but the pinch of their stockholders' votes, and the stockholders are constantly asking for more. That compels the inhuman machine to steamroll the universe at any cost, including the lives and livelihoods of the very people they count as customers. That monster is part of what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.
But maybe you're just a mom and pop shop, selling goods to the neighborhood. Or maybe you're a mid-sized company trying to balance growth and attrition, employees and their benefits, overhead and bottom-line expansions. You didn't sign up for this life and it's hardships, but if you don't fight tooth and nail, you'll sink like a stone.
Whoever you are, remember that your greatest asset is that guy standing in front of you. He votes. He has friends and colleagues and acquaintances. He's also on Facebook and Twitter and emails his sister twice a week. How you handle your relationship to the guy in front of you can make or break you. And the avalanche you start can either help or hinder your community. That plays in everyday relationships, both personal and public.
The original reason I bring this up is that my graphic design students are having issues with printers. The printers here reason that they cannot do small runs because the ten dollars they stand to gain is not worth the trouble. What they fail to calculate, the basic math of it, is that each satisfied student will bring in twenty more. That's ten dollars times twenty, or two hundred dollars. And all of those students will come back again and again and send their friends. And they will all potentially become lifetime customers as they move into the workforce and establish themselves as creative director and perhaps some day the CEOs of major corporations all needing the services of a printer.
This is your chance to contribute to building community. And if it's all done right, everyone in the equation is treated equitably so that the common man, the every man, has a voice and a vote.
Get it? Got it? Good.
