Do You Want Raving Fans?

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Start Up Princess Jamie Bird of MiniMeBabyGear recommends Today’s Magic Wand:

Raving Fans written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.

This book is different from many other HOW TO books since it is told in parable format, it follows a customer service manager on his quest to make the department he works in thrive. He meets his Fairy Godfather who takes him to meet threebusiness owners, all of which went on the same “Raving Fan” journey. The Fairy
Godfather emphasizes that customer service is not enough to retain customers, it takes “Raving Fans”- people who love your business and are willing to tell anyone they can about you. In fact, the author states that in many organizations, customers would even say they were satisfied if you asked them, but the minute someone has something better to offer they will go elsewhere.

Three magic wands to creating “Raving Fans”:

• Decide what you want- look at the perfect vision of a business you would shop at-whether it is free valet at the grocery store or receiving a rose and a box of chocolates when you walk into the department store. No matter how silly and unrealistic that vision is, think it all through.

• Discover what the customer wants and see how that fits with your vision.

• Deliver the blended vision plus one percent

Instead of trying to overhaul your current customer service system all at one, focus on a few goals. Be clear with your customers on what you will deliver every time, be consistent, then exceed customers expectations by one percent.If you have a minute, I would highly recommend this book for all levels of business. After all, what we all need is “Raving Fans” to keep growing business and maintaining customer loyalty.

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Magic Wands for Marketing to Women Online

Fairy Godmother, Holly Buchanan, Marketing to Women online expert (she’s currently preparing to release a book next spring written with Wonderbranding’s Michele Miller). Here Holly shares valuable insight originally featured on her blog:

What are the most important things to keep in mind when marketing to women online? What are the best things you can do? What are the worst things you can do? There’s no simple answer. Marketing to women online is about creating a relationship with your visitor/customer. Websites that truly speak to women in their language, addressing their needs are magnetic.

So, when marketing to women online, how do you create a magnetic website? Dancing Elephants (one of my all time favorite names for a company) has some of those answers.

Dancing Elephants Achievement Group is a company that helps business owners and sales people enhance their performance. Laura Posey and Will Turner are the head pachyderms. They recently published an article “The Magnetic Mindset” which listed the ways in which you can be magnetic. Many of the principles apply to marketing to women online.

Focus on Relationships - choosing the right relationships and nurturing them will pay dividends. ONLINE - create relationships with your customers by answering her questions, speaking her language, and listening to her. Create meaningful emails. Create discussion forums and online communities where she can share experiences with others.

Serve a Higher Purpose - What’s your purpose for being? How can you make a difference in the world? ONLINE - If you are connected with a charity, let her know about it. But choose a charity with a cause you or your company are truly passionate about. Dove’s Self Esteem Fund is a great example.

Read more

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Credit Card Processing

Today’s Magic Wand: After several calls and a bit of researching I found United Bank Card, www.upcps.com. What I liked about them is that they use Authorize.net and I can do my processing online, no machine, and it is only $15 a month, 2.15% per transaction plus 25 cents; no set up fee. Anyone find anything better?? I don’t have a contract either so I can cancel anytime.  Plus, they only require 24 hours for set up time.

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TickTock Almost Time to Launch

I just returned from a refreshing whirlwind trip to Newport Beach with my family. The day before the trip we traded my beloved Audi A6 for an Odyssey mini-van (so we can all fit better) and drove down the family. We all loved the opportunity to just chill at a beautiful resort, and loved every bit of the 90 degree sunny, blue skies weather (and for the record Utah got several inches of snow today. Waaa!) I took time to walk to the beach alone, read, write in my journal, hang out with my husband in the jacuzzi, look for sandcrabs at the beach, and loved the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland. However, it wasn’t as restful as I would have liked because I knew I was launching sweet & charming this week and it was hard to be there and force myself to rest and relax, but it was really good for me and my family! I did take some time there to make calls and emails and now I’m going to be running like crazy to make the first two sweet & charming holiday events for children magical. Today I’m hunting down a fabulous Sugar Plum Fairy costume and if I can’t find one, my Mom came back from LA and will make one for me. My mom generously came back with us to Utah to help me out this week…so, you likely won’t be hearing from me again this week, but we have other Start Up Princesses offering great advice and tips so, we’re covered. It’s nice to be in a community of friends who support one another and cheer each other on!! I’m thinking of Start Up Princess Lisa Rousseau this week too who is also launching her Walking Spree…best wishes!
Today’s Magic Wand: My Mom! Moms are great, if you have one close by, if not, adopt one!! She’s my biggest cheerleader and helps me with everything! Too bad she lives in California, no, actually, it’s perfect, we always have an excuse to go and visit!

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Podcasting 101

Fairy Godmother Nancy Cadjan of Sign Babies also reports on PODCASTING:

Cammon and Start Up Princess Lorri Randle of Copper Rain Productions presented recently on the basics of Podcasting. Podcasting is a method of automatically distributing multimedia files over the internet (aka webcast, vidcast, cast, vlog). Podcasts are user-generated. They are received by using RSS feeds (really simple syndication) which allows the automatic download of media files. It is like getting the paper delivered to your door every day. Podcasts were created to be viewed on mobile devices, but can be viewed on any computer.

You look for podcasts using directories like iTunes, podcastalley.com, podango.com, and ipodder.com. To listen to the podcast, you need an Aggregator or podcasting software (that reads the RSS feed) like iTunes, Democracy Player, and Juice.

In the first two days after Podcasts were introduced, over 1 million people signed up for casts. In one example, a podcast about rock climbing that has been around for 7 months gets to more people downloading it than the number of subscribers to the oldest climbing magazine in the country. A business in Sandy, Utah is in the top 5 business podcasts next to Harvard Business Review. Spending no money, they have hit 30,000 downloads in one day. This has generated more leads than any other marketing strategy that they have done.

Copper Rain gave the Top 5 Reasons to Podcast:
1. It is Cost-effective
2. Gives people control of what media they consume (so you are hitting the people who want to have the info)
3. You hit your target market
4. You establish yourself as an authority
5. It is fun

Read more

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Business Blogging 101

Fairy Godmother, Nancy Cadjan of Sign Babies recently attended a seminar in Utah County on Blogging, her report:

Bryce K. Nielson gave an introduction to blogging. Bryce maintains 4 blogs (see http://wasatchbusinesscommunity.com/blogs/bryce_k_nielsen_blog/ ) Blogging started over 15 years ago. The name originated with Web Log and was shortened to blog. Blogs can be online journals or they can display news, events, and thoughts. A blog is kind of like a Soap Box. Blogs are grouped by genre. It is useful when there are several people blogging on the same blog (hence, Kelly’s request for guest bloggers).

Generally, people find blogs by stumbling on them through Google or by getting referred to them from a friend. There are blog search engines (www.blogdigger.com, www.feedster.com, www.technorati.com). Read more

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Start A Gratitude Journal

Today’s Magic Wand: In this week’s Thanksgiving celebration, take time to write down your blessings…you may even consider starting a gratitude journal, inspired by the book, Simple Abundance written by Sarah Ban Breathnach. About ten years ago I read this inspiring book for the first time and have kept a gratitude journal ever since. To start a journal, simply write down five things you’re grateful for each day. I keep mine by the side of my bed in a very tiny spiral book with a pretty bouquet of flowers on the cover.

Here’s my top five today:

1. Walking to the beach
2. Yoga
3. Sharing Disneyland with my kids
4. Sending out our Thanksgiving cards
5. Holding my husband’s hand

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The Skinny on RSS

Today’s Magic Wand written by Start Up Princess Lisa Rousseau of Walking Spree.

Here is an excellent post that defines RSS and how it will save you time browsing your favorite blogs on the internet. Great illustrations explaining how it all works too. This has been very helpful to me.

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Walking Contradictions

Fairy Godmothers Carrie and Danielle write:

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” – Walt Whitman

In order to thrive, wholeness has to be the priority – not political correctness, or likeability, or protecting your mother’s feelings. But…what if your preferences and the various parts of yourself are seemingly in conflict? Like the MBA who wants to be a stay-at-home mom, or the eco-friendly yoga teacher who wants to be a millionaire?

It’s good – it’s all good if it’s all real. It is infinitely more empowering, not to mention more interesting, to be full of contradictions than to accommodate the status quo.

THIS WEEK: make a short list of your own contradictions. Leave it out where you can see it for a while. Smile when you read it. Learn to love it.

Wholeness demands that we expand – our perspective, our definition of success, and our belief in what’s possible.

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Unlock The Potential of Snowy Nothingness

Today’s Magic Wand written by Rachael Herrscher of Today’s Mama:

A Blank Notebook!

Simple I know!  Low-tech, low-cost, low-maintenance!  My favorite
thing in the world is to buy a brand new unlined notebook.  Blank
pages!  The latest one I’ve been using I got for free in the mail
from veer.com.  There is a little blurb in the front of the notebook:

“A place for your ideas . . .”

“As a creative, the blank page is where you work, where you play,
where you test ideas and prove your points — it’s where the rubber
hits the road.  Sometimes ideas flow effortlessly.  Sometime they
take superhuman effort.  But you persevere, because it’s your job to
unlock the potential of the snowy nothingness.”

I couldn’t say it any better!  So go get yourself a blank notebook -
keep it with you always - in the car, by your bed, in your diaper bag
-  you’ll be surprised how often your brain wants to “unlock the
potential of the snowy nothingness.”

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