Chad Blodgett

I listened to a great pod-cast by DuctTapeMarketing about a month ago and have been planning on blogging about it ever since. It was an interview with Jill Giffen, the author of “15 ways to improve customer loyalty.”

My customers on WeightLossWars.com (which is a business that does weight loss competitions and weight loss programs to help with weight loss motivation - if you couldn’t tell these are some of our keywords) are very loyal users, however, I have been thinking of new ways to provide value to them - and therefore increase their loyalty to WeightLossWars. We are in the process of developing new features and tools to help our customers. You can check out the development site here.

Anyway, this pod-cast was very helpful and I have decided that the best way for me to learn the principles of the pod-cast is to implement them with my customers and then teach (blog) about them here. So, that is the plan - and I hope that I will come away with some insights on customer loyalty.

For a teaser…here are Jill Giffen’s 15 ways to improve customer loyalty.

1. Remind your customers how YOU add value

2. Get Congruent

3. Know your customers definition of value

4. Watch for signs of an unhappy customer

5. Beware of “No Loyalty” Customers

6. Beware of the “Thrill of the Chase”

7. Get advocates selling for you

8. Serve first, sell second

9. Practice the 80/20 rule

10. Learn how to comfort an angry customer

11. Learn from lost customers

12. Make it easy for customers to complain

13. Head off negative word-of-mouth

14. Say Thank you

15. Rev up your loyalty engine

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Very interesting article in Practical eCommerce of how a coupon cutting idea has turned into a business with 100,000 members, 26 employees, franchises in 49 states, and $6 million in annual sales.

Teri Gault (Founded TheGroceryGame.com) decided to take her coupon skills to the internet to help with her family income. She has developed a system based on cyclical categorical sales trends so she can match those local sales with manufacture coupons – resulting in some very cheap groceries at your local supermarket.

Her list will tell you what to buy, and how much – based on when it will go on sale again.

I thought her story was inspiring and thought you would enjoy reading the article as well.

The best part of the story is this…she did it. She didn’t talk about it… she didn’t dream about it…she didn’t talk herself out of it…she acted on it. She rolled her quarters together for a business license and web-site and then rolled up her sleeves and created some value for others.

Why wait? Do it now.

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Another player within the same space as eHealthCompete has been bought. Read about it here.

EPHIT has some really great things going for them, however I have heard complaint after complaint that their system is “Too Complicated” for the users and so their real problem becomes KEEPING PEOPLE INTERESTED in sticking to their plan.

In the end, the core of their service is very individual – leaving the employee to themselves to reach their goals. As a result participation is poor.

eHealthCompete is different. We focus on the entire employee population where community drives interest, participation and individual success. Our competition engine and incentive points program is the real secret sauce.

It is very encouraging to see companies in this industry being acquired. In fact there were nine companies in this industry that were purchased in 2005 – and another handful purchased this year.

Things are consolidating…

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My first experience hiring and working with a programmer overseas was terrible. I am sure part of it was my fault, but it resulted in three months of headache, $3,200 and not a lot to show for it.

However, I was recently introduced to oDesk through one of my Junto Partners and was very encouraged.

First, they marketed a few tools that seemed to solve some of the pains that I had with my other overseas developer. These tools allowed me to see when my developer was online through screenshots and webcams. The oDesk system also said that it monitors, logs, and pays the developer for me.

Second, oDesk screens the developers that they allow into the system to make sure their English skills are good and that their programming talents are sufficient. They don’t just let anybody in.

Third, the buyers (me) rate each provider and so (like eBay) if you get poor performance, reliability, language, or other ratings, you will drop to the bottom of the pool and not get any work.

So, I signed up for free, posted a job and waited.

Within a couple of hours I received a telephone call from my own personal account representative at oDesk. He wanted to see if I had any questions about interviewing candiates, how the oDesk system works, etc. He was great and I was impressed that I received a call.

I then received about 6 requests from my job posting within the first few hours. I tried to set up interviews with 3 of them, but only one responded. That interview went great and this provider is now building the HealthCast website.

I have been very pleased with the process that oDesk has set up.

What experiences have you had in overseas developers? Horror stories? Successes? Opinions on NOT going overseas?

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Thanks for the feedback everyone – I need your help again. Check out the following link to see the animation that we have for the logo so far and give me your first impressions, and then anything you would suggest we change.

This animation will be shown at the beginning of each video (as a branding tool).

Follow this link to view the animation

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Thanks for your comments everyone – and I have to admit that I was arguing exactly what the other men were arguing: too feminine. In the end I was won over by the following points…

1. The colors chosen represent life. They are bright, spring like, fresh and young. They will also help us communicate our “innovated” marketing approach to the HealthPromotion industry. No one is doing what we are doing, and no one has colors like these! :)
2. Today’s workforce is basically split 50/50 between men and women, especially in the service, education, and computer industries that HealthCast will serve first. So the women will like it and the men…well, they hate health anyway :)
3. The butterfly represents transformation, which is exactly what we want our users to experience. Transforming their old, unhealthy habits, with habits that improve lifestyle and prevent chronic disease.
4. Animation: we wanted an element of the logo that could have a great animation segment to it. The butterfly will have some nice effects, and we will use that element to highlight some on-screen bullet points, images and graphics.
5. Different: you don’t see this color combination in a corporate setting. It will help us stand out. Granted, it might be a trendy color, or a fad – or one could argue “other companies don’t use that color, they must know something that I don’t.” Well, I’ve never been one to follow the other guys, and I’d rather stand out – good or bad.

Those are some of the points we considered when choosing the logo. Time sensitivity was also playing its role. Let me know what rebuttals you have to our thinking, or other things we should have considered. I know I will participate in future logo designs and so your thoughts are appreciated.

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I blogged previously about our move to add greater educational content to our services at eHealthCompete.  With the addition of HealthCast we will revolutionize the way employers deliver behavior change programs to their employees.  We are in the final stages of post production on the first HealthCast Series and have chosen the following logo to represent our video education…

I am very curious to hear what you think of the logo?  I will blog later about why we chose this version from others, but in the mean time, let me know what your first impressions are, what you like/dislike about it.

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