In the top-down structure of the classic pyramid company, production and marketing have a higher status than sales and customer service. Products are pushed down to the salespeople to sell. And if any complaints try to come back up, you guessed it, they are kept down by the customer service people.

Some companies actually rate their customer service people by how few complaints escalate up to management. We think this limited view of the customer service is not only unfair, but it’s unprofitable, wasteful, and ultimately unwise.

Why? Because this view of customer service ignores the fact that, except for your salespeople, your customer service people are the only ones in your company who talk directly to your customer every day. They know what your customers like …and hate about your company’s products. They know about your competition. They hear daily suggestions about how to improve your products. They know when and where your products are out of stock. And they are the ones who can turn your complainers into advocates.

In fact, we don’t call it “Customer Service.” We call it “Customer Intel.”

The Two-Division Company

A popular keynote we present for large companies that want to engage and empower their people with the entrepreneurial spirit is “The Two Division Company.” The two divisions are Sales (which includes Customer Service) and Sales Support  (everybody else from the CEO to the receptionist).

Customer Service – Resolve Issues, Win Back Customers & Get Feedback

A customer can only give you two things: their money and their feedback. The feedback is extremely valuable. That’s because it is the information you need to keep your goods and services relevant, stay on top of your distribution system, and stay ahead of your competition. In other words, it’s the information you need to stay in business!

Unlike the focus groups and market studies that the marketing people spend thousands on, the information your customer service people get is unfettered, unbiased, and timely. And it comes from folks who care enough about your company to call and complain. Many are brand advocates seeking resolution for their favorite brand, the brand they’ve told their friends and neighbors to buy. Now that brand let them down. If they can get resolution they won’t feel obligated to go back and tell everyone they know about the problems they ran into. Instead, they will celebrate the problems and the solutions as validation for their continued advocacy.

Once their problem has been resolved, they can provide vital information you need like: Where did they buy it? Was it in stock? How long have they been a customer? Have they been satisfied with it in the past? What suggestions do they have to improve your products, marketing, and service? Will they recommend your brand to others?

Formal Lines of Communication Focusing on Sales & the Customer

If you don’t have it already, we recommend that you at least establish formal lines of communication between sales and customer service on the one hand, and production, marketing, and management, on the other. By focusing on sales and the customer, instead of divisions of labor, specialization, and chains of command, some of those complaints and suggestions can find their way back up into the company structure where they belong to keep your products relevant and competitive.

Why not start today by renaming your customer service department, “Customer Intel” and benefit from what they hear from your customers? They can do much, much more than complaint resolution.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Does Your Company Have a Customer Intel Department? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

We often say “face time beats Facebook” and “high touch beats high tech,” but we don’t always have the luxury to meet everyone in person. That’s why we recommend GoToMeeting, Skype, FaceTime, or other live video.

Seeing the other person’s facial expressions gives you instant feedback you can’t get over the phone. You can quickly correct misunderstandings before they’re verbalized. You see each other in person in real time, and that alone appeals to our human nature. This is a real person, not a text, memo or a voice on the phone.

Using this technology over the years has taught us several points of etiquette that will make your video conferencing communications more effective. Here are our top 10:

1. Video — meet first. If it’s important, make your first meeting by live video. They will feel more comfortable with you, be more likely to forgive your imperfections, and give you the benefit of the doubt. You will seem more sincere. This is your opportunity to make a good first impression.

To read the entire article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post ​10 Tips for Video Conferencing Etiquette appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Seeing the other person’s facial expressions gives you instant feedback you can’t get over the phone. You can quickly correct misunderstandings before they’re verbalized. You see each other in person in real time, and that alone appeals to our human nature. This is a real person, not a text, memo or a voice on the phone. Read more… 

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Entrepreneurs’ Organization – Top 10 Tips for Skype Etiquette – Setting the Stage appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post C-Suite Network – Sales and Consumer Care May Know More About Your Customers Than Marketing and Production appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Then you’ve delivered that experience. Your product was in stock, priced right, and provided exceptional value. But then, something went wrong. Maybe it was a quality control problem. Maybe it was the way the customer was treated by a clerk. Or maybe it was just a misunderstanding. So they called your 800 number to seek a solution.

All that great work you and your team have done to create exceptional customer experience is suddenly at risk. Your customers don’t judge you so much by how well you do when you are doing good as by how well you do when you’re doing badly.

But when you’re doing “badly” who do they call? They call your customer relations people, and how your customers are treated on that critical phone call can make or break their opinion, their loyalty, and their message to friends, relatives and colleagues. Because they have been advocates for your brand, now their personal reputation is on the line and they feel obligated to spread the word about how you handled their problem.

How your customers are treated begins with how you treat your Customer Relations people. Do you see them as “Customer Care” or “Complaint Resolution?” Are they relegated to a lowly status near the bottom of the organization, or are they elevated as the source of current feedback from the customer to keep your products and services relevant?

We think Customer Care is where the rubber meets the road. Complaining customers are gold mines of information and the perfect opportunity to turn disappointment into advocacy. They are already fans and believe that their favorite brand will make things right. Remember, for every one customer who takes their precious time to complain, there are thousands who don’t. They simply buy your competitors’ product. The Customer Care Department makes the most powerful lasting impression, and the customer information they collect should guide your production and marketing people.

So what is your complaining customers’ 800 number experience? Do they spend what seems like an eternity making selections, being shunted around, and repeatedly giving personal data to a recording that never gets to the live representative? Are they abused by long wait times, wrong transfers and drop offs? When we call an 800 number with a complaint, we hope they really are recording it and more importantly, top management listens to not just the dialogue, but the transfers, holds, and drop offs. Chances are you’ll never hear how many of your customers get so frustrated that they just give up because that is not measured.

But when a real person, who understands how important the call is to their company, takes it on the second ring, the results can be much more effective than any advertising. For one thing, you know the caller is outspoken. For another, you know they have already chosen your product. If they are treated like VIP’s, they will sing your praises like never before. And nothing speaks more loudly about a great customer experience than the way your company handled their problem.

Dollar for dollar we think your investment in quick response telephony, adequate call center staffing, generous credits, and solid lines of communication from customer service to production and marketing are your best investments in a positive customer experience.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post The Customer Experience is Trumped by the 800 Number Experience appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

We were recently asked what kept us going when we were under-financed, ill-prepared, and monumentally challenged building the Barefoot wine brand. We were up against a staid wine culture at the time, with little appreciation for a fun approach, let alone a non-vintage upstart with a foot on the label! Our price was low, resulting in low profits. So we had to produce and sell hundreds of thousands of cases per year just to break even. We took every extra dollar and put it into expansion to keep on growing. What kept us going? Just stubbornness? Just ignorance? What was it really?

It was the same thing that keeps all entrepreneurs going – it was YOU! We were cheered on by the relatively few folks who knew about us. They kept telling us, “You guys are doing the right thing. We love it! Keep it coming!” This constant feedback, even from a limited number of customers, was more powerful than all the no-sayers, challenges, and hardships we had to endure.

When you buck the system, cut the pie a different way, or attempt to offer the market a product that is new, you become a missionary. You not only have to sell your product, but now you have to sell the reasons why there is a demand for your product. This may take years! You know that the eventual user wants it and can appreciate it, but you have to go through a well-established system of distributors and retail buyers set in its conventions. You have to convince decision makers and gatekeepers that their own customers really want what you are selling.

At first, they may not even give you a chance. You may have to sell around them for years to document the demand for your product in secondary or foreign markets. Finally, when one of the established buyers brings in your product, you had better perform quickly or you will be discontinued and not given a second chance!

But during that missionary period, what keeps you going is that your product is selling in the markets where you have managed to place it. But, better yet, your product is getting rave reviews by end-users. Without the constant positive feedback, appreciation, and encouragement we received from some of our first customers, there would be no Barefoot wine today!

So, yes, tenacity is king, but without the validation and encouragement of the folks who first bought it and supported our efforts, tenacity would be cold, tiring, and tedious. When you understand what drives tenacity, it is easier to see how it’s preserved. It takes constant encouragement from fans and their belief in you, your product, and your ability to perform to keep entrepreneurs going, year after year without instant reward.

Today we speak to colleges of entrepreneurship and to disabled veterans about what it takes to be a successful business owner. Validation, no matter how small at first, will help them secure the tenacity they need to overcome the obstacles and see their dreams become reality.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement to help us build the wine brand and, more recently, write The Barefoot Spirit, the story of what’s behind the brand and what we learned. You are the fuel for our tenacity!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post What Keeps Entrepreneurs Going? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

As we’ve said many times before, it’s not the quality of the product, the price, or the demand so much as it is mastering the distribution and timing.

They say you can move the Queen Mary if you exert enough pressure over time. You can push with all your might for years and then, at last, slowly, it begins to move! You finally overcame the momentum and you are gaining traction. What if you gave up and stopped pushing after the first year?

We read in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Inc. magazines about seemingly overnight start-up successes. It almost looks easy. It seems like you can have instant success with just the right product at just the right time. Although there are some examples of that kind of success, it’s the less glamorous, and unheralded, “get rich slow schemes” that are more common, and more dependable.

The number-one ingredient in start-up success is not necessarily the great idea, the great price, or even the great demand. It is tenacity!

Here are 5 Tenets of Tenacity:

1) Deferred Gratification. Sometimes you work 12 hours a day and weekends just to get your idea off the ground. You may even have to forgo vacations in the early stages. Take advantage of pop-up social opportunity? Forget about it.

2) Belief in your Concept. When you are new or different, you’ll be hard pressed to find people in the distribution channels that will give you a shot. You have to hold onto a deep-seated belief in your product and its eventual success. You have to constantly imagine your customer enjoying your product even when others try to discourage you.

3) Focus. Understanding your priorities is job one. As events unfold and the hoops you have to jump through present themselves, it’s easy to get distracted. Keep your eye on your goal and focus on the big picture. The details are tedious, frustrating, and take time, but the realization of your vision is well worth the struggle.   

4) Support. Gain encouragement from the ever-increasing number of supporters you attract along the way. Starting out small, the positive feedback you get from even a relatively few happy customers will give you the confidence to press on. The support you get from other businesses that have an interest in your success will validate your concept.

5) Progress. Yes, it may take a lot longer that you thought, but you are making progress albeit ever so humble. Each little victory is one step closer to your goal. There’s nothing like actual sales to demonstrate the viability of your product. And every mistake you make, if treated as a learning experience, will improve your chances of success.

Today, tenacity has many fashionable names, like drive, charge, and the right stuff, but whatever you call it, it’s just plain old stick-to-it-ness. Starting a new business is easy and fun. But once you discover the surprising amount of time, hard work, and sacrifice necessary, it’s your tenacity that will see you through. And when you do succeed, try not to laugh when they say, “Wow! That idea just took off!”

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Gaining Traction in the Marketplace takes Tenacity and Focus appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.