Who can I Plug?

I’m primed, ready and full of un-fired Plugs, so who can I target?

The quickest and easiest way to answer this question is probably to ask who can’t you Plug?

One; you can’t Plug your own business. That’s a given (and against the rules). If you own a business, you can ask others to Plug you, but giving yourself praise is not an option.

Two; you can’t Plug your neighbour because they brought your washing in for you. As much as we’d love to see ordinary people getting Plugs, this is a business site, and it exists for customers and businesses. Not neighbours. (Who knows, perhaps in the future…?)

Three; you can’t Plug your coach, boss, employee or teacher (see above)

Four; you can’t Plug a rock. Or a tree or a bird or a flower.

Well that about covers it.

What you can Plug is your hairdresser, your lawyer, your chimney sweep or your dentist. You can Plug the hardware shop down the road, the video store, the Chinese takeaway and the home brew supplies store.

You can also Plug an individual real estate salesperson (separately from the company or office) and the Avon representative who leaves stuff in your letterbox.

The fact is that ANYONE who has customers can receive Plugs. And as a Plugger, it may be up to you to remind them of this possibility.

If you have used a business or a sole trader or even a farmer’s market stall, and you’re happy with what they did for you, Plug them. They’ll appreciate it – and you’ll be rewarded for it in more ways than one.

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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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How do I get more sales?

An often-asked question from business owners, and on the surface it’s perfectly sound. More sales means more profit, right? So how DO you get more sales?

Hang on though, before we get into this, do more sales really mean more profit?

If you owned, say, a Plasma TV shop, and you halved all your prices, you’d get more sales. I guarantee it. But you’d be selling each set for less than what you paid for it, and not only would you NOT make more profit, you’d be going backwards. Likewise if a plumber halved her charges or a lawyer slashed his hourly rate. More sales, but less profit (or none at all).

Here’s another example; if you took out full page colour advertisements in every newspaper in the country, you’d also get more sales. But a typical cost structure might be this; turnover up by $50,000 during the campaign, gross profit up by $12,000, additional net profit of $6,000 – and all it cost you was $30,000 for the ads!

More sales are easy. But the question should be ‘How do I make more profit?’

One of the best ways to increase profit is certainly to get more sales – but to attract those sales for NO COST to your business. And the best source of no-cost additional sales is your current customer base.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before; it’s far easier and more cost effective to draw additional sales out of happy customers than it is to attract new ones. That’s why a decent email database and marketing campaign is so good for business. These people already trust you! They’ve experienced what it’s like to do business with you. (And if they shy away now, you have a problem.) Every marketer in the world worth their salt will advise that you keep plumbing the depths of this resource.

But here’s the kicker… don’t restrict yourself to selling to these people.

Use their experience with you to convince others that you’re reputable, efficient, cost-effective and (fill in attribute here). In other words, use your present customers as a source of more sales from new customers. Ask them for referrals. Ask them if they know anyone else that you might be able to help. And if that’s a little difficult for you to do, at the very least ask them to PLUG you! Get them telling others how great you are, and new customers will come to you.

This is how you get more sales – that equate directly to extra profits. It doesn’t cost anything to market to existing customers, and any new customers that you attract will be pre-qualified (unlike those who come from expensive advertising campaigns or serious price-cutting).

You have a page on iplug.co.nz, and it’s available for all to see, so why not start using it!

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A Plug is like a Smile

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight” : Phyllis Diller

“A winning smile makes winners of us all” : Anonymous

“Life is short but a smile takes barely a second” : Cuban proverb

“Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles” : George Eliot

“If you’re not using your smile, you’re like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no chequebook” : Les Gilbin

“Smile, and the world smiles with you” : Anonymous

A lot of people have written about smiles. And as you can see, a pattern is forming. As a general rule if you smile at someone, they will smile back (or at least wonder what it is that you know and they don’t).

Smiling is easy, doesn’t cost a thing, and brings many rewards. While the opposite – scowling or frowning – only forms wrinkles and sets the world against you.

A few people have asked the question; “Why should I plug someone? What’s the point?”

As part answer, here’s another quote;

“Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful – just as one is more angry for being told one is angry” : Katherine F. Gerould

If you Plug someone for being happy and continuously smiling as they work, they’re far more likely to be smiling the next time you visit them – and smiles are contagious. But if no one ever Plugs the smiler, there’s a chance that it might wear off.

This holds true for all business activities. If you don’t tell the business operator what it is that you like, then you risk that part of the operation disappearing.

There was a case a few years ago involving a bakery in a small city in the US. They had a shop from which they sold all their products, and behind the long counter there was a plate glass window through to the bakery. The customers could watch the bakers toil away at the ovens while they paid for their buns and bread and cakes. Then in a shop revamp, the window was taken away. And guess what? Business dropped off. It turned out that in a world of centralized bakeries delivering product by truck to branches, it was comforting for the customers to see actual bakers making real products. The thing is, though, none of the customers had ever told the bakery that this was the case. (As a result of a customer survey the window was put back, and subsequent marketing shouted ‘see the bakers at work!’)

If you like what you’re receiving, tell the supplier. Give a compliment, give a smile.

Give a Plug.

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What if my competitors Slap me? Part 2

If you recall, there were two answers;

  1. It’s unlikely they will, and
  2. They very well might (you hope).

Let’s expand on them. First of all, it’s unlikely that they will.

  1. The iplug Terms and Conditions expressly forbid malicious use of the iplug feedback system for personal gain, and we like to think that most business owners and managers are honest.
  2. Only a genuine customer of yours can Plug or Slap you, and it’s unlikely that a direct competitor is utilising your services.
  3. Should a direct competitor actually use your business and genuinely feel the need to render a Slap, then you must have done something wrong or failed to achieve a minimum standard (so you probably deserve a Slap).
  4. Any business owner who goes out of their way to Slap their competitors is risking a reciprocal response, and as the Mafia learned, infighting is bad for the bottom line.
  5. Finally, it’s an oxymoron that a competing business owner is savvy enough to attempt to slight your business in this way, yet be unable to see the dangers in doing so (risking being kicked off iplug, risking a reciprocal attack, and taking their eyes off their own road ahead in the process).

And don’t forget, you are able to respond to Slaps. If you suspect that the comment is bogus, and that a competitor is behind it (and you think you have proof), you can defend yourself in the same forum – if you feel it’s worth the bother.

Now… they very well might.

You should hope that they do! That would be a sign that they see you as a threat. The dominant player in a market won’t stoop to that sort of strategy against lesser players, so being Slapped by a competitor is confirmation that whatever you’re doing, it’s working!

There’s nothing worse than being ignored. I once took on one of the biggest newspapers in the country in a lucrative market – and received a three page, carefully worded letter from their lawyers. Wow! I must have stung them big time! (And the legal cost to them…!)

To summarise, being Slapped by a competitor is probably a good thing. It means you’re hurting them. It’s when your competitors ignore you that you should be worried.

And remember, the very best defence for a Slap is ten more Plugs!

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What if my competitors Slap me?

This, more than any other, is the question being asked by potential iplug Listers. And it’s a good one too. In fact, it’s right up there with;

  1. What if I get no customers to my new business?
  2. What if my business fails and I have to lay off all the staff? and
  3. Will I regret leaving my cosy, salaried position in order to go into business for myself and be my own boss?

In other words, it’s a valid question, but only one of the many that plague all business owners throughout their business lives.

What if my competitors Slap me?

There are two instant answers to that question;

  1. It’s unlikely they will, and
  2. They very well might (you hope).

So there you have it; quick and concise answers to the most perplexing of questions, delivered honestly and succinctly.

You want more? Okay, we’ll expand on the answers in Part 2.

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iplug launches again with version 2.0

iplug 2.0, son of iplug, is here!

We launched iplug a month ago to a select few, and listened to their feedback. We wanted to know how intuitive the site was, how easy to access and understand its principles, and what people thought of the sign-up process.

We then listened to all the comments, suggestions and raves (mostly raves!) and decided on the spot to revise the site. Not that there was much wrong with Version 1.0, just that we wanted it to be Goldilocks Perfect before we spread it to the rest of the country.

And we think we’ve achieved that. iplug 2.0 is lighter, faster and has 67% less fat.

Well that’s it. This is the final version for people to use, and it’s available now. For new users, it’s a simplified process;

1. register with the site, and this allows you to Plug (or Slap) businesses,

2. registered users can then list a business (or more than one), and

3. registered users can become an Affiliate and earn money by promoting the site to others.

That’s all there is to it. New Zealand will be a better place if all consumers spoke up, praising the businesses and services who do well, and informing them when and where they might stray from the path of perfection.

iplug really is Word of Mouth on Steroids!

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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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