Recently we had a situation where a printing order delivered direct from our supplier to our client arrived in terrible condition.

Our client, most unhappy with the printing, dropped in the two boxes of newsletters and we could clearly see how the printing had gone wrong: lots of scuffing and smudgy ink. Out of 2,500 copies of the newsletter, we were only able to save about 800 copies — 1,700 needed re-printing. Our client wasn’t upset with us, by the way, because we are very upfront about using trade services, and don’t pretend to supply something ourselves when it comes via a supplier).

I called the printer, and they agreed to reprint the newsletters required. They were adamant the job left them all okay (we didn’t dispute that), but that the problems must have occurred in transit. I can only guess that technically, cold winter weather can cause problems, although it still seems rather poor to us, that either the packaging didn’t protect the contents, or how, technically, the problems only arose after leaving the factory. (The boxes weren’t damaged in any way.)

Whilst the goods were sent road freight, we used a different company (TNT, who we find excellent) than the printer would normally use, because of an extremely bad experience earlier this year with the printer’s choice of freight companies (in that experience, goods sat unaccounted for in Melbourne for 5 days and missed a very critical deadline, and the freight company refused to do anything about it. At that point we vowed not to give the freight company any more business and instructed our printer they weren’t to be used in future).

Back to this recent job.

We then got a phone call, later in the afternoon, from the printer, saying that, as we hadn’t used their allocated freight company, but our own alternative choice — they weren’t accepting any responsibility for the problem, and we should bear the full cost of the reprint. Even several days later, I still cannot see how this ends up being OUR problem — as the goods were sent from the printer to the client and arrived in terrible condition. How could a choice of freight company make a difference, as they both would have driven the same road route on virtually the same schedule?

I was somewhat aggrieved by this stance. We’ve given this print supplier more than $49,000 in work in the last 12 months, and had thought they had an excellent can-do attitude. Now, here they were baulking at a reprint that would probably cost them no more than $150 to $200 — what were they risking?

What was our “Lifetime Customer Value” to them?

On our average supplier relationships, you could easily expect us to be a customer for at least 5 years, if not 10 years or more. Our longest print relationship is 14 years and counting. Even if you halve that — and call it “7 years” as what we’re worth — that’s 7 x $49,000 (which we expect to grow to at least double that amount over the next 18 months).

Conservatively, the next 6 years are worth $294,000. That’s just from us — not even from referrals that we make. And here that relationship was at risk for a mere $150 or thereabouts.

Would you risk $294,000 in future business on a $150 decision?

I wouldn’t.

For our own clients, sometimes they make mistakes when ordering particular products we offer. In this case, it’s personalised honeymoon registry invitations for our travel shops. Occasionally, the shops gives us the wrong spelling of a name (they’ve supplied the names, approved our proof, and we’ve printed and despatched the goods. Our client’s honeymoon customer then sees the invites and points out the error).

In that case, our client knows they’ve made the mistake. They call us to order again, knowing they have to pay again, and even letting us know they’re sorry for the mixup and waste of time.

They expect us to bill them for it. But we don’t!

In fact, we generally reprint and send the goods again for free, even when we don’t have to.

How good — relieved — does that make our client feel?

They don’t have to wear the cost themselves, and they can even let their own clients know that replacement invites are being sent for free.

We operate ABOVE their expectation. They expect us to bill them again, and know that we can. But when we don’t do what they expect, we go one level better.

They love us! We get thank you emails and calls, our clients appreciate our attitude.

I’m not silly. I appreciate their business and I know what it’s worth. I know their Lifetime Customer Value to me. I would be crazy to risk that relationship and future business — even when we haven’t done anything wrong. Our clients are our advocates, and bring us in new business. We get word-of-mouth referrals multiple times every month.

So I’d never be as silly as our print supplier in making that kind of decision to aggravate my client. In the printer’s case, the decision is BELOW what we expect. That’s not conducive to future transactions, especially in a competitive marketplace (actually, for the particular product we’ll reprint free, we don’t really have a competitor, but we still ACT like we do).

For our printer, we politely pointed out to them our value — not future value, but just the past year. We also pointed out why, because of past very bad experiences, we don’t use their freight company. In the end, after our lengthy letter, they agreed to do the reprint for free, and recognised our valuable relationship.

We then agreed to pay air freight so our client had replacement goods within 2 business days of asking for the reprint. Our client gets the replacment goods days quicker than expected… again, we know what our client is worth to us and do MORE than asked to make sure they’re happy with how we’ve helped fix a mistake they know is not our fault. Our client is not dissatisfied at all, and appreciates our efforts to rectify the problem and advocate on their behalf.

Do you operate ABOVE or BELOW your client’s expectations? Are they aggrieved or relieved by your decisions? Do you know what your customers are worth to you, in terms of the value of their business over the average life of your customer? Do you act in a way that your customers become your advocates?

Can you afford to do it any other way?

According to Dennison Hatch, here are the eight copy drivers — the “emotional hot buttons” that make people act:

1. fear
2. greed
3. guilt
4. anger
5. exclusivity
6. salvation
7. flattery, and
8. patriotism

Keep these hot buttons in mind as you create your copy — and how you can use them as an influence tool, ethically, in directing the reader to buy.

I have two of Denny Hatch’s excellent books in my direct marketing library, 2,239 Tested Secrets For Direct Marketing Success and Million Dollar Mailings (here are links if you want to check them out):

And in a future post I’ll review both!

Is “Powerseller” really a “status” on eBay?

Powerseller eligibility is (in part) based on turnover, but not on profit. You could, technically, qualify as a Powerseller and be making a loss every month!

Here’s what eBay says makes you eligible to be a Powerseller:

• Uphold the eBay community values, including honesty, timeliness and mutual respect
• Average a minimum of $1000 in sales per month, for three consecutive months on eBay.com, Half.com, eBay Express or eBay Motors
• Achieve an overall Feedback rating of 100, of which 98% or more is positive
• Have been an active member for 90 days
• Have an account in good financial standing
• Maintain a minimum of 4 average monthly listings for the past 3 months
• Comply with all eBay listing and marketplace policies

Do you notice anything in that list about profit? No! It’s all about your contribution to eBay, both being a good member and maintaining a minimum number for sales and income.

eBay make their fees based on your listing price, final valuation and all sorts of listing options. eBay don’t care if you make a profit or loss: the more turnover/higher incoming revenue you have, the more they make. They do of course, hope you make a profit, so you keep selling and buyers keep buying — but profit isn’t a pre-requisite to becoming a Powerseller.

So, in summary, Powerseller status simply helps eBay make profits — which doesn’t necessarily mean in turn that sellers make profits!

Isn’t that why eBay looks after its Powersellers — they bring in the best profits for eBay!

Do you look after YOUR best customers like eBay does? Do you know WHO your best customers are?

As a marketer-cum-copywriter with a strong sense of “consumer advocacy” — it really irks me when other copywriters and marketers “stretch the truth” about what they’re trying to sell.

Claims need PROOF. And they also need a dose of truth!

To protect the innocent, I’m not going to name specific culprits in this example.

I listed to an MP3 audio “special report” just yesterday, flogging a new product to do with online marketing. Specifically, eBay.

Part of the interview highlighted that the product author, until several months ago, didn’t really understand the internet, or internet marketing. Sure, it mentioned this person had had a successful business career as an entrepreneur, and as a marketer, but not online. They’d even been to, and presented at, seminars — but not really about this.

So why then, after just 5 minutes of public research, did I find out the product’s author is an eBay accredited “Education Specialist” who has been teaching people about internet marketing for 2 years?

Clearly a case of message incongruency.

I’m sure the strategy in the interview was to create empathy with possible purchasers, along the lines of “I was just like you, I didn’t really understand the internet until this magic pill — my product — came along.”

In turn, that means to imply something along the lines of … “you too can achieve great results because you are just like I used to be.”

Interesting too that the figures being mentioned dealth with “they made $xxxxxx” rather than the amount of PROFIT. Turnover isn’t profit! There were also a couple of other claims which are not specifcally true, although a little more explaining would have been proof enough to warrant making the claim.

In all honesty, I can’t rate the actual product that was for sale — because I don’t own it. But I don’t intend to own it, especially now!

The funny thing is, as a copywriter, I don’t know why this eBay background wasn’t turned into an advantage, rather than being hidden. There are plenty of ways I could use this info to prevent the 20 percent of the population who have my type of personality (that can be quite rebellious, and need logic, proof and details!) from being turned off a sale.