Is your business the best in its class?

People like dealing with the best. The only barriers to everyone having the very best of everything are price and ignorance.

Price

Not all motorists drive Beemers, Jags and Bentleys. Why? Because they cost more than Fords, Mazdas and Kias, that’s why. If the price tags of the former were lowered to match the latter – while keeping the same levels of quality, comfort and performance – the latter manufacturers would either have to raise their game or shut down.

This probably sounds a little far-fetched, and of course it is. When it comes to products and goods, the better quality examples almost exclusively cost more to produce, and use materials and processes that are much more expensive. That consigns the vision of a car buyer having a genuine choice between a $400,000 Bentley and a $25,000 Kia to the realms of the ridiculous.

But what about mortgage brokers? Or real estate agents? Or motor repair garages? Is the best option in these service categories 16 times more expensive that the worst? (Apologies to Kia – it’s not the worst, just the least expensive!)

Obviously not. Imagine a real estate agent telling you that their fees are ten times their competitors’ because they’re the best in the business. You’d laugh in their latte. Which brings us to the second barrier;

Ignorance

When businesses compete with each other for your custom, they can never be completely truthful. For the very best plumber in your region to successfully advertise this fact, it would take the second best to follow suit and the third, and so on. ‘Bloggs the Plumber’ would have to head up their advertisements “The ninth best plumber in Auckchurch”.

Clearly that doesn’t happen, and instead we’re bombarded with a multitude of advertisements and listings and billboards and banner ads and radio chatter, all proclaiming ‘pick me!’ Which renders choosing the best business in any category pretty much impossible.

Which brings us to the question; How do you determine who is the best? And the answer can only be that the customer or client is the only judge.

If only there were a fair and equitable way in which businesses could be ranked by their customers regardless of how much the business paid and what they put in their ads?

Well gee… now there is. www.iplug.co.nz

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I don’t want to be Slapped!

It seems the biggest barrier to businesses joining the iplug community and collecting feedback from their customers is the fear of being Slapped.

“I don’t want to ask a customer what they thought of my service in case they tell me they didn’t like it.”

Forward-thinking businesspeople know this is a crock. It’s a bit like saying “I don’t want to drive into the city to accept the award in case we have an accident on the way, or the car breaks down.”

Back at the turn of the century the thought of purchasing something online from a complete stranger, and paying for it first, was unthinkable. “What if they don’t send the goods?” or “What if the goods arrive and are damaged?” TradeMe got off to a slow and grinding start. But things soon hotted up when the early users dipped their toes in the water of online auction shopping and didn’t get burnt (please excuse the mixed metaphor). Now half the population think nothing of paying for goods from a stranger and trusting in the site and the system to protect them.

And that’s the key; trusting in the site and the system.

People are scared to list their businesses on a site that allows customers to say things about them – because they haven’t actually done it yet! And remember, you have protection! Look at it logically;

  • In the beginning the only customers who go to iplug to Plug you will be the ones YOU direct there yourself. (And if you have a disgruntled customer in your past, you’re hardly likely to ring or email them and say ‘give us a Plug’ are you?)
  • In the beginning the only members of the general public who will see your Plugs are those YOU direct there and say ‘check out our Plugs!’
  • We used the term ‘Slap’ for negative feedback because it’s harsh. A customer or client is hardly likely to Slap you because you sold out of papers, or because the root canal job cost them a small fortune. If they’re NOT happy with you, they just won’t Plug you.
  • And finally, all Slaps are moderated by iplug. A Slap can only come from a genuine customer or client of yours, and must be detailed and accurate. “These pr**ks are hopeless!” will not get through the moderation process. “He promised I would get a tax refund of $10,000 but it was only $8,780!” is a real Slap – but only if it is accurate and from a genuine client. Don’t forget you also have the right to reply to Slaps too. “If this client had disclosed all of their income in the first place, they would have gotten more than 10k.”

Before we go, check out the big players on TradeMe or eBay. It’s almost impossible to have a 100% feedback and have more than a hundred comments. Even the best of the traders attract complainers, and what’s the best way to take them out of the equation? Pile up the Plugs! 99.9% positive is common, rendering the tiny minority who complain insignificant.

All of which means, before you worry about getting Slapped, worry instead about your opposition getting Plugs, and taking the lead in the fight for the consumer.

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Where do you keep your testimonials?

And no, that’s not a rude question.

When you receive an email of thanks, or a physical letter from a pleased client, what do you do with it? Is it filed in a cabinet in your office? I suspect that it is. (If you can even be bothered printing the email, that is.)

So the real question is… what good are these documents to you?

Your testimonials are extremely valuable. These are your PROOF POSITIVE that you’re capable of doing a good job, that you have happy clients or customers. Your testimonials, more than your logo or your company motto, are more likely to convince a new customer to do business with you.

And yet they’re stuffed in a drawer (probably locked) where nobody can see them!

iplug is a feedback site. You can think of it as a ‘feedback management tool’ or a ‘testimonial display case’. Imagine that you receive an email thanking you for your service, and you reply “Thanks for that, do you want to give me a Plug?” The email author logs into www.iplug.co.nz and Plugs you. That now gives you 25 Plugs on your page. The next time someone asks for a quote or shows some interest in doing business with you, you can say “go to our iplug page and ‘check out our Plugs’”. Now everyone can read what your happy customers say about you.

More to the point, it’s a lot easier for you to initiate the feedback in the first place, to actually ask every client or customer “do you want to give me a Plug?” rather than wait for the one-in-thirty who can actually be bothered, to write a testimonial.

Just a note; you don’t have to wait until a new customer shows interest to show off your Plugs either. Imagine a notation or a button on your current advertising that tells the world to check out your Plug Rating.

If your testimonials are quietly rotting in a cold drawer somewhere (or if you don’t have any!), use iplug to initiate, collect, manage and display your feedback now!

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iplug launches!

It’s here. The business tool that New Zealand has waited 20 years for has arrived, and launches officially on May 16th, 2009. Mark this date kiwis!

But what exactly is iplug?

The iplug phenomenon is in fact several products and services, encapsulated in a single website. Okay sure, it’s just a website. But then so are eBay, Amazon, TradeMe and Google – and how have our lives been changed by them?

If you think of eBay as a modernisation of the town marketplace of 1000 years ago, then iplug is a similar update on the way in which the tradesmen and merchants of that time found customers.

In the days before advertising, if you needed someone to thatch your roof, you asked around. The man (yes, always a man back then) most highly recommended was the man you approached. Simple.

With iplug it’s the businesses that are the most recommended that rise to the top of the pile. It worked 1000 years ago, and it works today. Because let’s face it, here in 2009, if YOU need someone to thatch your roof, are you going to call the man (only a man would still be thatching in 2009) with the biggest ad in the local paper, or the one recommended by the most people?

Word-of-mouth is still king in 2009, and iplug is word-of-mouth in writing!

 

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