I was checking in online the other day for my trip to Digital Marketing Strategies conference and Continental had placed the following set of tabs at the bottom of my boarding pass.

Here were their suggestions for restaurants, nightlife and things to do. I am not sure how these got loaded in but the fact that these businesses have a review gathering process helps.

I would think your business could benefit from this type of exposure. But if you don’t have reviews you will not make the list. (I wrote about this in a previous article)

One other place I have recently seen how video reviews will impact business. I was shopping on Amazon and at the bottom of my searches was a request for people to submit their “product review” videos.

The more that customers see companies wanting feedback people will give it. Why not be in front of the surge of reviews and ask your customers to send in a video with them using your product or commenting. What a great viral way to show that you engage your customer base.

I think that businesses are afraid to ask for feedback and this is one of the main reasons they do not have a process. Yet they will be the first to use reviews in their personal life to decide on movies, restaurants or hotels.

If you listen to ads on the radio, or just keep looking you will see reviews are dominating ads. “Please let us know how we are doing” “Your feedback is important to us,” Read what our customers are saying “ and the list keeps growing.

Reviews and feedback will propel sales. People are telling you what matters to them. Don’t ignore this feedback or they will go to those who will listen.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing

Let me begin by saying that just because I am in digital media, I do not feel how you have been using traditional media in marketing your business in the past is wrong.  What I want you to understand is what that media is doing for you and how you may have to change some of your budget in the future.

The customer of today is over-worked, way too much is on their plate and time is precious. They now rely on technology to help them use their time more efficiently.

What this means to you is that all the traditional media you use drives consumers to the web, not your front door. If you are not on the web in a way where your busines can easily be found you are off the list of places a customer will visit when they are ready to purchase.

This is real and happening right now. The problem with some of you reading this is that you are still selling inventory or services and are successful. Changing tactics may be hard for some of you because times are good. Please understand that if you do not embrace this, your business will be affected.

The affect will not be a drastic drop off, but a slow trickle. What will happen is you will sell a little less and blame it on the economy, you will sell a little less and blame your competition as being lucky. Then one day you wale up and are selling 25-30% less and wondering why. Then you end up increasing spend on traditional and speeding up the process of your demise.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

At a recent automotive dealership workshop I asked the audience who sells Hondas. 6 people raised their hands. I asked them if they would sell me a 2012 civic

They all said yes. So how do I determine whom to buy from since I am no longer figuring out what car to buy? What I need to know from each of them is “Why should I buy from you? “ The thing that they began to understand was that If I can’t find your “Why buy from me” message online, you are off my list.

I can’t find the first one’s website…off the list

Second one’s website is not helpful…off the list

The other 4…1 has no reviews…off the list

The other 3…2 have more reviews than the third…the one with less reviews off the list

Out of other 2…may go to both, may choose one based on videos I found on one of the site.

I am not saying they buy from this one that depends on what happens when I get there but 4 of the 6 are not even given a chance to compete based on what I did or did not find online.

The days of throwing kids into the car and spending Saturday driving to multiple dealerships to talk and test drive are done

For most customers, 2/3 of the buying experience is done online or “on the couch” because as I mentioned, we are busy. My kids got karate, or swimming, or things to do around the house. I don’t have the luxury of time to waste anymore. We are going to pick one place to go because I got a lot to do and technology makes it easy for me to do so

If your website is not optimized, if your Google places is not right, if I don’t see videos of happy people who shopped with you, if I don’t see a video of you telling me why I should shop or service with you then you are off my list and I am on to someone who WILL do this for me.

Money is tight and I need help not homework. I spend time debating about spending $10 on the new Matt Damon movie. I better do research on that restaurant I want to take my wife to because go forbid I spend $100 for a dinner and it stinks. Now I feel ripped off.

Don’t you think that if I am stressing out over $10 for a movie or dinner that I am really going to be stressing out putting down such a large amount of my hard earned money for a product or service you may be offering?

I hope you are understanding that what I am buying from you is the experience of doing business with your company because as we saw, with the example of a car purchase. I can get the car from 6 different places locally, I can get the car from another state, heck someone would ship it across the country.

So what’s the experience you are selling at your business and can I find it clearly and loudly online. The real question to ask is, are you doing enough to get me off my couch and come to your business.

I want to focus on what happens when customers get on site and how what happens can affect the sale. To explain my point, at a recent workshop I posed this question to attendees: “ What are some things that customers saw upon coming to a business that negatively affected their willingness to buy?”

A few auto dealers  had multiple stories, from customers having to walk through a messy smoking area to salespeople grouped together right by the door on a Monday morning, sizing up the arriving customers, to messy coffee areas, to – the worst situation in my mind – an incoming customer receiving no greeting for minutes at a time even while the customer can see salespeople standing there looking back at him yet not moving at all.

How unsettling.

So, when they asked me, “What would you recommend?” I responded simply as follows:

How do you respond to poor customer service?

For example, think of a bad customer experience in which you were on the receiving end.

• Let’s say you went to a restaurant and no one greeted you for five minutes yet workers walked right by you. How did you feel?
• Perhaps you were in a department store and could not find anyone to answer your question, so you walked all over the store, still finding no one. What was your impression?
• Maybe you asked someone a question and she ignored you or never returned with an answer. How did you react?
• Or, let’s say everything in a store you visited looked messy and sloppy. Were you happy to do business there?

If this type of behavior bothers you, then why would you allow these things ever to happen at your dealership?

Four things you can implement immediately that will have an impact on improving customer service.

• When you get out of your car each day and head into your business, look around outside and think, This is what my customers will see. Does it give a good impression? If not, fix it.
• When a patron comes in, someone from your business needs to acknowledge that person. Even if the salesperson says, “I will be right there,” people will wait because they will have felt noticed.
• Give people your full attention. Give them your focus. That gives people comfort. They will feel you care about them.
• Make sure all your employees are actively doing something during business hours. Nothing looks worse than people standing round. If anything, it looks desperate. Get your employees on the phones, studying information on product, following up with clients, etcetera.

Creating an environment where people want to spend more time takes only a little effort every day from all employees. If everyone is focused on how the dealership looks, it makes the atmosphere energetic and inviting – and that makes people feel more comfortable and willing to do business with you. Even if they do not buy today, when they are ready to buy, they will come back to you.

Sometimes it is not the sale itself but where the sale takes place that makes the difference.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing.

That made me smile. In a business where I teach customer service and how to improve their online reputation and get customers to be brand advocates, this stood out and I had to write about it.

Is your business going to that level? Is your business letting your customers know you appreciate them WITHOUT trying to sell them something?

I think the most important thing an owner or employee can remember is what it is like for themselves as consumers. How would they feel if they got great service or if they got a thank you call? And then if someone was right there to ask if they would give him or her some feedback on how they could improve. I think many would do it

So why is there still such a hesitation with businesses to embrace online reviews? I have spoken to many over this past summer on this topic and many say it is due to ownership. Owners don’t believe that reviews are important and sell their products or services.

In some ways I can understand their hesitation right now, because they are still selling products. What they are not looking at are the changes in shopping patterns. There have been many studies released this year documenting the changes in shopping behaviors but still some ignore what is right in front of them.

Many of us are so tied to grinding it out, day to day, that we don’t have time to look at trends. Many of us are afraid to risk change because it is such a competitive market, what if I am wrong and we make a mistake. Again I can understand these concerns but what executives are not doing is looking at how they shop or their families shop right now for products.

I would challenge any business owner to ask their families if they go to a store to buy a product without going online first to look at the product, reviews of the product, where to buy it and even reviews of the seller. I believe that they will see that people use the web to make their decisions easier.

So if we would do that for a movie, or a meal, why would we not do that for the product or service you sell?

Once business embraces the reality that how they go out of their way to treat customers will end up online and then in front of potential customers the better they will be long term in this new economy.

So think of all of the ways you can differentiate your business from competitors.

o   Walk people out to their cars instead of just opening the door if possible

o   Ask them how their experience with your company BUT mean it. don’t just pay lip service

o   Look them in the eye and really say thank you

o   Call them a day after their purchase to make sure all is well

o   Send a handwritten note to a few of your top customers

o   Send a thank you box of candy to someone who referred a new customer

The list could be endless. Remember that being a bit different stands out and drives your customers to brag about you and makes your online reputation stand out in a crowd.

For me-Thank you Amica. You have my business and a big plug online.

Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions and the current COO of PCG Digital Marketing

Our goal was two fold. First, get businesses to see what is online when they type in their name. Secondly, help them see that the more content they put out online, the more customer reviews they received, the more they were putting information out for their customers to see the more of the page they controlled and the better their PODscore would be.

Why I bring this up is I have been very inspired by reading Jim Lecinski, Winning The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and it made me think of how connected PODScore is in this pursuit. By no way am I saying that PODscore is the same as the zero moment, but it is a piece. PCG has created a free 6 week workshop teaching Automotive Dealers how the Zero Moment of Truth affects their business. (see end of post for link)

Statistics demonstrate that 70%-80%-90% of shoppers begin their search online to research not only WHAT to buy but WHOM to by from. Yet businesses spend less that 20% of their marketing budget online. Does this seem unbalanced?

I am a firm believer in using traditional marketing as a stimulus, but as the authors of ZMOT point out, this stimulus now drives people to the web to research your business or product. In the past it my have driven them to your store so they could rely on you as the expert, but now they can find out more online before they even set foot on your property.

Even though Google continues to rattle the search pages, I think bringing PODscore back to the discussion for businesses will help them understand how important ZMOT is for the future of their business.

Let’s use an example of a person looking for a car and assume they are not a brand loyalist. Even if they are, you can skip the first part and jump to the section dealing with “Where do I find it”.

First the customer decides on their price point. Then they search for vehicles that fit that price point. They will do their research on the vehicle using multiple websites to accomplish this task. Once they decide on what the vehicle is, then they move to the next step. “Where can I find it near me”

Next they type in the brand+dealer+geo-target location (ford dealer nj ). They are presented with options in Google Places.

In many cases you will find a multiple dealers listed with most having few or no customer reviews. Potential customers are looking for verification from your previous customers to help them make their decision. When you have no reviews, the potential customer moves on to another listing and you lose business.

If you dominate the Google Maps with reviews, then they should click through to your website to see what you have to offer. Understand that the more content you have online, the more listings you have in search for customers to see, this is an opportunity to reinforce with the customer that you are the place to shop.

If you are not dominating you give your competition a chance to steal that business away thanks to your advertising.

Winning the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) is something all businesses need to embrace. A quick way to get a jump start on this is by using PODScore to give you a baseline to build from.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing and the hosts of the first Automotive Zero Moment of Truth Study, free beginning this October

What Jared Hamilton and his team accomplished was to set the bar very high for other conferences to come in the automotive space. He not only got great educators and speakers from the industry, he reached out and got speakers who talk about marketing overall. This allowed myself and others to work our brains on how their input could be applied to our industry.

My highlights were:

Jared’s speech opening up the conference. I have been lucky to see Jared speak a few times and I thought this was one of his best presentations yet. Clear, energetic (yes, even for a NJ guy you speak fast) and challenging.

The CEO Panel. What a great idea. Having the ability to hear CEOs discuss ideas, differ on approach but mostly got a chance to see how their energy and focus makes them the leaders they are.

I am sorry I saw so little but Dennis Galbraith’s workshop but over 100 people were blessed by his energy, passion and knowledge.

I can see some of the eyes rolling because I would say my brother Brian’s workshop was a highlight but it was the topic of Automotive Zero Moment of Truth explained clearly with examples of how marketing on the web is changing and how dealers need to change their focus and marketing allocations to succeed. It was confirmed by the folks from Google and other speakers like Aaron Strout and Gary V

I have seen him on video, read some of his writing but never had the pleasure of hearing Gary Vaynerchuck. One word. WOW. He had 500+ people in the palm of his hand, using no slides and in the end received a standing ovation. His message needs to resonate with dealers. We are going back to a time where people are depending on other’s opinions to help make buying decisions. If you think social media cannot sell cars you are wrong. If you do not embrace creating and marketing to your community, you will fail.

I am reading his new book, The Thank You Economy and cannot recommend it enough.

It was great seeing so many people I have not seen for a bit, too many to name but a little like reunion week.

Thanks Jared and your team for continuing to push the level of what an event should be.

Love to hear everyone else’s feedback and thoughts on the event.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing and the hosts of the first Automotive Zero Moment of Truth Study, free beginning this October

According to Webster’s Dictionary the meaning of follow-through can be:

1. The completion of a motion, as in the stroke of a tennis racket.

2. The portion of such a motion after the ball has been hit.

3. The act of continuing a plan, project, scheme, or the like to its completion.

Personally many of us have battled with time management to make sure we follow through. Our days are filled with endless lists of things we want to accomplish or even new ideas that were started and then we moved on to something else.

There are many different types of follow but the one I feel managers need to focus on is following through on what they say. This lack of completion or follow through in business is incredibly harmful.

In the very hectic pace of our daily lives, following through on your word is a lost skill. We are so focused on what we are doing now that we do forget what we had promised. I believe there is a small portion of people who just don’t care to follow through but the majority of people just plain forgot.

Managers: take a quick review. Have you followed through with everything you said you would to your employees?

When an employee comes up to ask you for something and you said “I will check back with you later”. Did you?

When you told a customer you would get back to them with the information on a product, did you?

The reason this is so important is because it shows that your word means something. It sets a great example to your team. Many times we are very good following through for our superiors but do we have that same desire to follow through for our team.

In business, following through on your word builds a strong culture in your office. Your employees know you take their requests seriously, that you value them and you care about making sure you address their concerns or needs. How valuable is that to an organization where employees feel management is on their side versus feeling they DON’T understand or care.

One way to remember things is to carry a pad with you and write things down as they come up. Then check them off when completed. Finally review your list before you leave for the day. Anything that you did not accomplish goes to the top of your list for the next day. This simple technique saves you the worry of trying to remember everything.

I have been on the road a great deal this year speaking at conferences and leading workshops. Keeping in touch with all of these events, tracking what is going on at the office as well as my family duties can be quite a strain on my memory. One of the best ways I have found to keep myself on top of things is using an online tracking tool from Behance. Their CEO,  Scott Belsky has written a book called “Making Ideas Happen” which I highly recommend. It is an excellent book on how to keep yourself organized, how to delegate and follow up effectively.

The premise is that everything you do is a project: Marketing an event, financial review, ordering supplies, meeting planning and even personal things like Home improvements or vacation for family. The tool allows you to set up the project and then create tasks that have to be done to move the project to completion. You set a due date, you can assign tasks to people, you can tag a task as a priority, meaning you would like to get this done today.

I love the fact it is mobile and can be used on my Ipad, Iphone and laptop. All of the devices syncs together so that when I am on the run I can add a task to a project in real time and not worry that I have to upload it to each device.

I still struggle with disciplining myself at the end of each day to make sure all tasks have been entered getting but having one place for all my tasks allows me to keep track of my progress.

Your days are busy, things happen that pull your focus. You need a system to keep yourself following through.

By committing to following through the benefits of your actions will show in the level of respect and commitment from your team as well as grow your customer base.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing and the President of Improved Performance Solutions

That day I learned a new word. A-symptomatic. Meaning not showing symptoms. I thought about this and it struck me how certain businesses can also be a-symptomatic. Everything looks great on the surface, but lurking below the surface are potential problems that only will surface when it is too late.

To drive this point home, how many of you reading this article inspect your processes with the same intensity when you have your best month versus when you had a month that missed expectations?

How many of us focus on our top performers to understand what they did to achieve results so that we can take certain behaviors and implement them across the other team members.

Many of us are so pleased we hit our goals that we focus on the next month without ever thinking, “How did we do what we just did?” Maybe we give our team praise, “Great job, let’s do that again!” (see previous articles on specific feedback)

Now understand I am not saying that you should not celebrate success but what I am saying is that each month you should be focusing on the execution of processes, not only on results. Focusing on “How” things are executed can help you better train your staff so they can replicate success.

First let’s review what to do if you achieve the results you desire.

This can be very tricky because most times no one looks into what you did to achieve results, everyone is just happy you did. What you need to ask the employee is, “What did you DO to achieve the results?” Notice I asked what they DID. This allows you to understand their process but more importantly THEY understand what they did so they can repeat the behavior.

One of the most important things you are doing is complimenting them on what they did. We as people repeat behavior that makes us feel good so if they are getting compliments when they achieve success, they are more than likely to repeat the behavior, thus achieving continued success.

This also allows you to have a benchmark in case they ever fall into underachieving expectations.  You have their process that you can review and see if they are skipping a step or have taken a step for granted. This allows you to easily get them back on track.

What if someone has not achieved the results you are expecting?

This first place to look is if they have been given the proper employee performance training to do this task. I cannot tell you how many times I have asked that question when I am helping someone, only to find no one ever trained him or her correctly. They may have been TOLD what to do but no one showed them WHAT needed to be done. Remember telling allows interpretation by the listener. Showing leaves no room for interpretation. If they have not been trained, then train them correctly.

If they have been trained, I recommend training them again. This time YOU have trained them so later you can look them in they eye and know training is not the issue for not achieving results.

If you have trained them and they still are not getting results, you have to make a decision if you want to retrain. Much will depend on the person’s effort. If you see they trying and they are almost there, then I would retrain them. By asking them what they are doing, you can easily see what part of the process they are missing and can tailor your training to that specific part of the process. Make sure to document the training so that you have something to refer to later.

If you have trained and retrained but the person is still not getting results then it is up to you to document the failure and have a heart to heart with them. Most of these conversations fall into two categories.

• The person is really trying but just is not suited for the position. There are many people who come in and give it their all and you want them to succeed but results are not there. You have to be honest with them and give them one last chance or maybe there is a different position in your company.
• The person is not even trying. This person needs to be documented and the conversation is a wake up call. Most times they can do the job but they are choosing not do. These are very dangerous employees to keep on board. Too many chances will impact your other employees who see poor performance being rewarded. My advice is cut ties as soon as you can with proper documentation.

By doing this type of inspection each month, you will be anchoring in behaviors that achieve results and address any that will not help you be successful. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Looks can be deceiving and success can be a very strong hallucinogen.

Celebrate success by rewarding execution of process, not just results.

Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions and the COO of PCG Digital Marketing

First person to offer up comments said that it was going slowly because they had a “Digitally Challenged boss”. They were doing it all themselves. They wanted to implement new ideas but their boss did not want to hear about changes.

My Suggestion: work on getting one salesperson and one service advisor who are advocates of his and ask them to get people to post. Once you had some positive reviews posted and feedback from these “helpers” in the dealership was how easy it was to get customers to post and how they feel it is important, your boss may see things differently. Remember without specific details, your boss will think changes are drastic, time consuming and will take too much to implement. Start slowly.

The second person had great news. They took 2 stores from their group and in one month had over 100 reviews each using techniques from the workshop.

They implemented the use of I-pads very effectively. They ran a raffle for employees with the winner receiving an I-pad. The great way they ran the contest was that for each review the employee got a ticket to put in the raffle jar and then one ticket was chosen. They also took the winning department out to dinner on the company, which turned out to be the service department.

Comments: Notice they said service got the most reviews but in many dealerships, service is not the place they choose to focus on reviews even though they have 3 times the volume of sales. Dealers are afraid of bad reviews but remember what we discussed. Customers will tell you where you are falling short so that you can address and improve. Don’t hide. It does not fix any problems.

Secondly they involved everyone in the dealership by giving employees a ticket per review. If they just counted total reviews, you would have had one or two people contending for the I-pad and the people who are on the low end would give up because they will not win. By giving value to each reviews/ticket, people keep pushing till end of the contest. You never know if the last ticket on the last day was the winner.

Lastly, they took the team out not the top service person. This again creates a team mentality that they are all in this together.

Great job to this individual and their teams. They are going to begin rolling this out to their other stores in the group.

Third person: This dealer focuses on using both Dealer Rater and Presto Review platforms. He works on getting people to do an in-house review with Presto and then follows up with an email asking them to go to Dealer Rater as well. He has seen great success using this tactic.

His struggle was with getting his whole team involved from both sales and service. He has decided to play on the “ego” of the employees in 2 very cool ways.  First he has a flat screen in the waiting area with reviews rolling so people can see them. Sales people love seeing their name up there and employees kid each other when they see their name up and not someone else’s. Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of a team pushing each other to be successful. Get them started and get out of their way.

Secondly he uses the SEO capability of the Presto Review platform to optimize the reviews not only for the car or service but also for the name of the salesperson. He then shows the salesperson or advisor how when they Google their own name they dominate the first few pages of Google because they are accumulating reviews. This is exciting for the employee.

Then he told me something that made me really proud. He taught the sales and service people to use their Presto Reviews website when they are in the appraisal process or getting initial information. They pull up the reviews and let the potential customer read reviews, saying “see what other people have said about me and why they did business with us”. Some may say it is a bit cocky but it has increased business so why not be proud of your results.

In the book “Influence, the Power of Persuasion” by Robert Caldini, he states that we as people like to be part of a winning team. I could not agree more in regards to getting reviews. If you have set up posters, POS products, email templates, dialogue from your personnel all focusing on wanting feedback from the customer, and then when a customer goes online to post they see large amounts of people who have previously posted they will also want to be part of that team.

No one wants to be left out.

I want to thank those who participated in the follow up webinar and sharing their successes and also their struggles. We will continue the dialogue and I look forward to seeing you at a Reputation Management Workshop in the future.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing and the President of Improved Performance Solutions.

Now I have been one of those people who are fascinated by these claims, but I have also been in the coaching and training field for over 20 years and been in a position of managing others for close to 30. (No my photo is not retouched, just good genes)

So why is everyone claiming they can change you in a few minutes or weeks? Because it sells or as my wife says, “It is good TV”. People have such a  “fast food” mentality that if we have to wait for anything it can’t be good.

Trust me you did not gain those 20 extra pounds in a week nor will you lose them in a week and keep them off. Everything can have a shadow of reality. We can go on some extreme diet, lose weight in a few days but it comes screaming back as soon as we go back to what we were doing. What the infomercial wanted us to do was too extreme for a long term lifestyle.

Where people create real change is they first understand “why” they have to change and then find the “how”. Telling someone they have to change is not the answer. Helping them to realize it themselves is the answer. No one changes for anyone other than for themselves.

Businesses are no different than people. If you look at your company as an entity, it does not change unless everyone agrees that there is a big enough “why” to change and processes are put in place to change long term.

I have been coaching and going into businesses and can get a “spike” anywhere for a week. Not bragging but it is not that hard. Many people sell the spike and that’s ok but I am talking about long-term change. Change that happens after the “business coach” has left the building. Change only happens because the employees understand the Why and execute the “new” How.

Maybe that’s my frustration. As a business leader and personal coach, I sell the long term and people want the “wow”. Even now, as I speak to businesses around the country no one has any patience to change. Everyone has a 30-60 day mentality. I need to see MASSIVE change in that time or it does not work

Too many infomercials have ingrained it into our brains. I actually applaud P90X because they sell 90 days but they sell an everyday commitment. It is not casual. It demands you show up, at whatever level you are at, every day.

And if you take anything from this article, that should be it. Bring what you have every day. Work your plan of change each day. It is not easy. It is not fun at times and you will have to combat the naysayers. But I promise you, slowly but surely you will see results. You will see progress. All of those people who have not seen you in awhile will see the change. You competition will not see you coming and then you surpass them.

If you are looking for quick wins, they are a cherry on a cake. They are not the foundation. If you are looking for long-term change, find a coach or someone you trust. Let them guide you and mentor you until you can do it on your own.

Plan where you want to be in a year or two, not in 30 days. The infomercials can get you 30 days but mentors get you new realities and lifestyles.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions and a personal coach.