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Tools and Deliverables: Activation

So as we kind of wind down our three days together and we get to the last two segments, I wanted to leave you with two things first in this segment, I wanted to show you how some of the best companies that I've experienced either had the pleasure of working with myself or trust been a customer of or have heard about our doing the first hundred days and so what we're going to do is walk through those eight phases that your audience members are going through showing examples of companies that are doing a great job of being interesting, creative, different, making remarkable experiences. Now, before we dive too far into this, I want to again preface what we're about to say with I am not suggesting that the examples I'm supposed to shoot I'm going to show you now will fit right into your business and that's what you should d'oh you got to be willing to do the work you have to be willing to look atyour audience and say what would be an interesting present for my audience? What would be an i...

nteresting tone of voice that my audience would resonate with if I were to send my audience a package in the mail what would like them up what would make them feel excited or enthralled or intrigue some of these companies in fact all of the companies were going to be doing examples off did that very very well with their audience but their audience may be different than yours ok? So before anybody is either lighting up the chat room or here in the studio audience saying wait a second I don't have a fleet of trucks because there's a truck example in here okay that's what we're talking about the other thing we're going to do hopefully in this segment is to spark your creativity to get you thinking there's a different way to approach my business there's a different way to approach my marketing materials my communications you know, I think one of the comments that I saw earlier that was in the chat room that we didn't really address is somebody said, well joey, this is great that's talking about new cussed rumors could I kind of apply some of this stuff to my existing customers? Absolutely the reason I focus on the first hundred days is your existing customers your existing audience has already been riding the roller coaster for a while I'm not sure where they're at your new customers haven't quite been thrown into that topsy turvy experience of doing business with you so while they may be unsure of what's about to happen well they may come in the door a little skeptical or a little worried or right after they buy be hit with that cognitive dissonance and that buyer's remorse they don't have a track record of that with you so it's easier to focus on the new customers right when they're coming in but as you notice at no point have I been talking about how do you get new customers in the door because everybody talks about that I'm the guy who talks about once they're in the door what do you do with them and how do you keep them in the door and how do you get himto walk over and grab their other friend or even better yet call their friend from the party and say oh it's happening get yourself over here is looking good tonight that's the kind of experience you want to be creating for your audience you want them on their own accord be saying how I get more people over here how do we get more people at the party? How do I make it happen? Okay, so when we look att tools and specific examples of things that are happening in these eight phases as a reminder for those just tuning in or just a za refresher if you've heard it before hearing with new ears now and let it sink in in a different way these numbers you decide where they are in the process day zero is always the same for everyone the assessment stage day one is always the same for everyone activation when they give you money but affirmation, admission, acclamation, assimilation, adoption and advocacy those are different for your business depending on what industry aaron and even more importantly they're different depending on which persona we're talking about yet I promise you it works in all businesses across all industries around the world the wonderful opportunity you have as the business owner is that like uncle sam, I want you to make the decision about what works in your business I'm gonna give you some examples I'm not saying do this this isn't joey giving you the prescription for increasing your profits by twenty five to one hundred percent if you copy down the script from this email example, I'm going to show you I mean I wish right? We all wish you're kind of like, well, that would have been a fantastic creative live course and it would have lasted twenty five minutes instead of three days I'd rather teach you to fish than hand you a fish so let's teach a little bit and look and see what some of the best in class world class companies some that you've heard of someone you've never heard of are dealing when it comes to creating amazing customer experiences in the first hundred days, so we're going to start with day one activation activation remember the moment when we give our hard earned money to a company, what are they doing to acknowledge that decisions a good choice and to embrace the euphoria of that moment we're excited we found the solution. We found the thing we've been looking for. We've assessed in day zero and looked at all the different options and said, this is where I want to spend my money. This is where it's at I'm gonna give him my money. And of course, who do we go to? But the gold standard of customer experience? Certainly in the united states and one would argue internationally. Zappos okay, we've talked about it before and again, I say this tracing the interest of full disclosure and total transparency have had the pleasure of working with apples for many years. And zappos, when you make a purchase on day one, when you give them your credit card as soon as you hit submit milliseconds later an email is generated and it sent to you. So I want to tell you about an email that I received and it's kind of hard to see. But in the upper right corner this e mail was received on august fourteenth. Twenty thirteen. So this is just, you know, two months ago, uh, at three. Twenty eight pm the reason I call that out is it's going to be relevant to our conversation about activation, okay, so I at this point placed in order four. Ah bag actually placed in order for two bags like a laptop bag okay? And because apples is so fabulous I ordered too because I didn't know which one I wanted. Zappos has free returns, they pay the shipping and they credit back your credit card it's fantastic so they encourage youto get stuff that you don't actually want to do the assessment in the comfort of your own home? How cool is that? How can your business be different if you help people you recognize they may not be one hundred percent sure while they're in the assessment stage, so let's welcome him into the activation stage by saying, hey, if you're still assessing we're fine with that. Let us give you the opportunity to make an even better assessment with all the fax and while many of those customers just out of either because they love them both or because they're lazy, how many of those just mean toe by two to try them out but end up keeping them both and you keep sales huge percentage huge percentage I only decided again true confessions a week ago to send back one of the bags and the only reason I did it is because I know myself well enough to russ's point when I got the two bags I kept the zappos box and I left both bags sitting on top of the box and then I took one on one trip and one on another trip but I when I came back from my trip so I put them back on top of the box in my office so that it was a glaring beacon reminding me joey, you don't need to laptop bags you only need one send one back I'm a little weird that way that's my system that I created for making sure that I followed up on that russ is absolutely right I have hundreds of things at my house that I meant to return but never have and now we're past the returnable item okay, so zappos is really good about this so what's fascinating about the first email communication you get from zappos is it sense across the top thank you for your order something that probably many of our communications say butt right out of the blocks they start to set the tone for what our interactions are going to be like they try to capture the spirit off their company in every communication so as you see, we zoom in here it says hi, joey, taking us back to our personalization days really interesting that they say hi, joey, because my credit card has that full legal name I shared the other day it doesn't have joey on it, so their algorithm and their metrics and they're tracking of my preferences is working I already like this email better hi, joey kun. You like us? You really like us? How many of us have said that when we got an order, they like me? They like my work. They like my websites. They like my photographs I take they like the massages I teach. They like the coaching I give. They like my software. They like my smartphone mt who it's me it's me? Why not let the customer in on the fact that we're excited? Why not share in the euphoria of the moment? Why not anchor in their decision and the dopamine hit that is happening in their brain? Taking us back to day one when we talked all about the science of buyer's remorse buyer's remorse doesn't set in until after by her happiness by her happiness occurs when I press admit I've gotten a bag that I was looking for in this case two bags, but I'm still excited because of all the possible computer bags in the world. I've narrowed it to two. The paradox of choice has gotten better. I'm down to just two and I'm excited and I'm feeling good about it and right in the moment when I'm feeling good about it, it went under a minute after I press the button there acknowledging that you really like us, you really like us exclamation points I'm feeling the dopamine yet I get the email I'm feeling good that I get the email it confirms that the order went through down the page they acknowledge what I ordered and they actually show me pictures of the two bags right? It's cut off on the screen but they say hey, by the way we got the order, right? We know what it is on we're really excited that you place the order with us. I am two sentences in to a confirmation email what most businesses would treat as a transactional exercise and I'm smiling I'm feelingood they go on to say we couldn't be happier about this unless, of course there were ice cream involved. Okay that's a little fun that's a little playful doesn't even matter whether I like ice cream or not I read that my truck flynn I'm like okay, you know that's pretty good once the last time your customer read your confirmation e mail or your email kicking off the project or your contract and smiled some to think about they conclude it at the very end in the p s, which we talked about earlier the ps they've done studies is the first thing people read, so the first thing that statistically I would have read when I got this email is ps be on the lookout for a shipping confirmation kind of the most important thing of this entire communication is in the ps and it's not written in kind of crazy fun playful that senses really straightforward. Joey be on the lookout for the shipping confirmation because by the time you get to the bottom of this letter buyer's remorse maybe setting in oh right, you four euphoria is right away when I buy buyer's remorse khun b seconds later, days later, months later just depends on the purchase. It depends on your brain depends on the biochemistry of your individual structure that's why I keep reminding us we do business with humans and every human is different. It's the genius of this opportunity in this life we get tau live we don't always know what it's going to be it's kind of why we date we don't always know it's going to be when we get married that steps up another level we think we know what it's going to be and then we get married and it's not exactly what we thought it was gonna be it's better honey it's awesome it's awesome it's fabulous, right? It exceeds expectations deal with humans and so they sign off be on the lookout for the shipping confirmation will send it once your order leaves the warehouse oh good, you're sending the shipping confirmation once my order is in route how many of you have gotten the shipping confirmation on what is the first thing we do when we get the ups tracking number? Let me click on it and go track it when we come to the screen at ups or fedex at the post office that says this shipping number has not been entered into the system yet please come back later to check and see where your product iss what does that do we go from feeling like yes, they shipped it I've got it clipped thanks for providing me with the tracking number what am I, a human being roof pavlov, what am I going to do clicked on it and I go and I look at the screen and what do I see? We don't have any record of what you're talking about do you think I blame ups? Do you think I blame the post office? Do you think I blame fedex? I go to the people that shipped it and I go well did they really send it like they said they sent it? Is that lost in translation? Is it in the middle of the flow? Did it fall off a ship? I'm never getting my stuff why did I do business with this company? Oh my gosh, I think I need to consider a chargeback let's, get my credit card company on the phone cause this we're going to be bad being a little dramatic but you know you've had that thought so what's apples does is they say yeah, we'll send it once it leaves the warehouse once it's in route once it's someone else's responsibility and you'll be able to click on the thing and track it live one of the things I love about my business and I love about working with companies to enhance the experience their customers they're having in the first hundred days I'd be willing to bet you've never even thought about little things you've had the experience when you've received a tracking email you've clicked on it and you've had that dejected feeling of where is that are well I wonder if something's wrong but I imagine the majority of us have never thought what am I doing in my business that is causing the same emotional reaction from my customers don't get caught up in the fact that you don't ship things, okay that's not the point. The point is are you having communications with your customers with your audience members where you're sharing some information and it's not the full story and the picture that they're painting in between what you shared and the full story is not being painted with the paints you want it to be pain it because guess what we know from our research that they're more negative emotions than positive emotions that a human being can experience so if I have a palate fellow artist of colors and some are dark and negative and some are bright and cheerful and I am pushed back into an emotional state where I'm asked to grab a brush and paint the scene I see statistically I'm gonna be quicker to grab a negative brush even if I'm not having a negative experience at the time it's easier for me to relate to that one there's more of them I've probably experienced that more recently and then I grabbed that brush and paint the experience your company dark gray not black because it's not horrific but I'm really not liking this it's making me feel pretty glum some to think about they finished the email though so what's fascinating is we've got three sentences in the ps be on the lookout for the shipping confirmation oh, thanks that's the important thing and by the way when we send it it'll mean it'll it's in route it's on its way to you okay, good we're clear on that and then they conclude with the final sentence what everybody reads m w a h and they know what that means is awesome thanks for the kiss zappos I am feeling good ordered to laptop beds and we got a smoochy out of it pretty cool company my gosh, they're based in vegas ironic mo kei so anyway eight hours later okay and that's why I called this out eight hours later I get the email that says your order has shipped I wasn't expecting it ship same day well that's a nice surprise and what do we see it says we've programmed your order to ship at warp speed p s that's super faster f y I that's super fast again the language of their company the spirit the type of emotional reaction remember think of what the typical person's emotional reaction during their day is kind of like this samples is powering that up come on it's warm speed it's going fast it's coming at you by the way we're called zappos we're going to zap it to you know that's not why they're called zappos okay comes from the spanish about those for shoes right? But they're letting us experience a little bit of their energy their spirit, their ethic that's really what your brand is all these but you see about branding branding is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room I'm talking about zappos I'm singing their praises they're not even in the room that's branding that's messaging now one thing I want to do is point out that the two laptop bags I ordered no judgment on this please combined retail price was one hundred eighty nine dollars throughout each of these examples I'm going to be sharing the cost of the item that was purchased and there's a reason I'm going to do that because I've done this enough to know that some of you are saying well, joey, but you don't understand they can afford to do that they sold you to laptop bags I sell one little smartphone mount I sell of a software that's only three dollars a month or on the contrary, joey up you know that's fine for me, I couldn't confirm with my net my clients have paid two thousand dollars to tend an event some type of email that was playful and flighty like that that would resonate with my audience. I know I get it that's why we started with uncle sam pointing at you saying you have to build this to your business the first hundred days has to be structured for your audience this may not apply, but some of us evaluate and we decide where we are in the mix of things based on money lot of entrepreneurs do they evaluate the success of their company based on their revenues? I'm going to do one hundred thousand this year who I might break a million next time what wonder if I'll ever get to ten million? We're constantly setting the goal out on we're measuring our success by money that is one way to measure success it's not the only way and I'd encourage you to measure with a lot of different rulers use money as a measure you really should and don't feel guilty about you it is a measure, right? This is one that's classic with artists they say well, you can't put a price on my craft. Well, then guess what? You can't put food on your table it's not a bad thing to charge for the value of the work you've created. Most of us, ironically enough, are under charging, especially creatives, especially creatives were under charging I had the opportunity to visit an art gallery not too long ago in las vegas it's company called our nonprofit called opportunity village amazing, amazing organization if you were ever in las vegas, it is worth going to their facility. They do training for people that are severely special needs I mean, severely special needs on one of the things they've done is they had somebody in the community who that was there, and it comes there it's, a program that they offer during the day, who didn't really do some of the activities that they had set up, but they had some paints and some crayons and he liked to draw and he started trying these beautiful pictures. I'm painting these beautiful pictures and they're busy scuse me, their business model is really fascinating in the sense that they're a nonprofit that earns money because what they do is they retrain these folks who can't hold down what you were my dot you or I might call a traditional job so that they can earn a wage and they can feel excited about it opportunity village amazing organization I walk in and people are cheering everybody we met told us what their paycheck was going to be that weak it was precious I'm making twenty eight dollars this week I'm making seventy two dollars, one one guy was like one time I got to check those one hundred no, no was one hundred twenty no, no, it was one hundred forty and someday I'm gonna get a check that's two hundred and he was jubal right in his excitement they have a program there where they do ah shredding of documents let's seize people can't read have you ever thought about the most perfect shredding company that can guarantee security of the documents that are being shredded when its staff's entirely people that can't read talk about looking for what your audience once and saying I've got the solution april yet brilliant organization so as part of this they have an art gallery that they've created for their students creating their artwork and that's why tell the whole story? I mean, I'm thrilled that it just came up that I got to plug opportunity village it's an amazing organization but I was bringing it back to this reference point of artist there were a bunch of entrepreneurs there that you're going to get to hear about later in this part of the presentation on we're walking through and we like to collect art a bunch of us do we started getting pieces were like, can we buy this piece in the gallery? The problem is and I told the executive director you need an add a zero to the price tag of everything you're selling for a couple reasons number one is somebody who collects art that's actually what it would be valued at in a gallery that is the quality of work we were looking at. I'm not saying this is a charity case o charge more so I can help the poor little art no, no, no that's what the quality was that's what the value wass most of us running our businesses in a creative field, we don't actually value how unique it is that we have the ability to see things before they're created. We talked about this a little bit the other day you know that is the artist's gift thie artists can look at the block of marble and see the statue inside it the artist can look at the blank white canvas and see the oil painting masterpiece the non artist can't there's value for that you should charge for that it's okay and when in doubt you khun sake joey made me do it