Solar advised the Barrett brothers to survey half their customers in early 2011 and save the other half for later that year. Gathering information in manageable chunks is key, he told them, because most people expect you to act on the information they just gave you.
About 30 percent of Barrett's customers wound up completing the 12-minute survey, which asked 56 questions about how well Barrett was doing its job. Six weeks later, Brookeside produced an hourlong presentation on the results, which it delivered to the Barretts and their customer service teams.
The findings were surprising. Some clients, for example, did not know the company had operations in Memphis and in Northern and Southern California—a serious problem, because many actually needed warehouse operations in those regions. The brothers also discovered lots of little things that led to small but significant changes. One client expressed frustration that he had to explicitly ask for inventory reports. Now, reports are sent automatically every week. Another complained that account managers were not detailed enough in e-mail exchanges. So the company trained employees on improving their communication skills.
One customer, Vibram FiveFingers, a maker of athletic shoes, indicated in the survey that it needed help in two areas: handling product returns and creating an electronic ordering system for large retailers. Barrett came back with detailed plans for both. "They really took the survey results to heart, and they were able to help us figure out our path," says Michael Martin, a Vibram vice president. The volume of business from Vibram wound up quadrupling.
The process cost just $30,000. Last year, Barrett logged revenue of $28 million, compared with $16 million in 2010. To be sure, not all of that is the direct result of the survey. But Tim Barrett gives the process a lot of credit. "We found out where we really stood with a customer," he says, "and what they wanted us to change."
Action Plan
Make listening routine. Inform clients that once a month, once a quarter, or once a year, you will ask them to weigh in on your performance.
Be honest. Give people an idea of how long the survey will take. Fewer questions means more responses but less valuable data.
Be specific. And general. Open-ended questions let customers share ideas or concerns. Specific ones let you make measurable comparisons.
3. Act locally. Not globally
For years, M.P. Mueller, president of the Austin ad agency Door Number 3, had a very specific dream customer in mind: It was the national account, the big brand, that would bring credibility—and new business—to the 15-person firm. The company went to great lengths to land those accounts. And it had seen some successes, including the Dallas Cowboys. But there were also episodes like its 2009 bid to get the attention of Saucony shoes. Door Number 3 went all out, creating a spoof issue of Sports Illustrated that was packed with articles explaining the firm's vision for the brand. It printed 100 copies and paid someone to create and staff a newsstand in the lobby of Saucony's Boston headquarters.
The result: Mueller never heard a word from Saucony.
With more firms bidding on fewer jobs, that experience was growing increasingly common, and Mueller recognized that she needed a new approach. She looked at her firm's most successful and satisfying accounts and noticed a couple of things: First, they were solid relationships. And second, almost all of them were located in or around Austin.
So, in 2010, she made a change: No more Hail Marys aimed at snagging prestige accounts. Door Number 3 would focus on becoming the go-to ad shop for clients in its hometown. Now, 80 percent of the company's clients are in Austin, up from 15 percent a year ago. Among those accounts: Cirrus Logic, a local maker of audio chips; American Bank; and the Austin Film Festival. "We booked three times the amount of work last year that we did in 2010," says Mueller.
Some of these accounts may be smaller than the national accounts the firm once coveted, but Door Number 3 makes up the difference in the amount of time it saves. Bidding on national accounts generally meant days spent preparing proposals and presentations. Staff members often had to travel out of state. And there were far more people involved in campaigns—that meant more opinions, more meetings, more phone calls. With large clients, says Mueller, "There's the expectation to do quite a bit more for less, and they made it clear that there was a line of companies willing to do the work."
Today, most of Door Number 3's accounts come through referrals and word of mouth. And the firm is no longer competing against dozens of agencies on a national account or sending proposals to big companies it doesn't really know. "We're seeing a higher return on our marketing dollars," Mueller says.
Action Plan
Be a joiner. Get active with local businesses and charitable organizations.
Speak up. Find local speaking opportunities and share your business expertise.
Be an expert. Exploit staff members' knowledge of local issues to wow accounts.
4. Treat everyone you know (and even everyone you don't) as a potential employee
When the economy began to crater in 2008, Tom Koulopoulos had no illusions: He knew that the advisory and research services offered by his Andover, Massachusetts, consulting firm, Delphi Group, would be the first thing many of his customers would cut. He also knew that Delphi could ill afford to waste time and money bidding on requests for proposal, or RFPs, it had low odds of winning. So Koulopoulos decided to try something new: He began using his network of contacts—many of them experts in their fields—as de facto partners in those bids.
Koulopoulos first tested this model when he bid on a contract from the city of Anaheim, California, to help develop new permitting procedures for utilities. Delphi's record in process consulting, Koulopoulos thought, would be attractive to the city. But he lacked expertise in city planning or public works. He knew someone who had it, though: Nathaniel Palmer, a former Delphi employee who had since built his own consulting practice. Palmer in turn knew Michael zur Muehlen, an expert in process consulting who had helped create one of the largest academic centers focused on process, at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
