ETD: 770 Consumers to Retailers: You're Fired!; The Check's No
Longer in the Mail; 7 Day-Timers Secrets for Success
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Mar 23 11:41:36 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0770 March 23, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Consumers to Retailers: You're Fired!
[3] The Check's No Longer in the Mail
[4] 7 Day-Timers Secrets for Success
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Spring is here in the Northern Hemisphere, and in NYC we had 3-5" of
snow. Warm weather needs to come soon. So what are you doing to boost
sales this Spring (or Fall in the Southern Hemisphere)?
We have an interesting piece on the value of e-mail customers. It may be an
overlooked part of your communications strategy. So look at it seriously.
AOL has introduced a new bill payment service, free for AOL users. It
seems 25% of all households now pay bills on-line. I can't understand why
everybody doesn't pay their bills on-line. Do you?
I found an excellent piece on success tips from Day Timers. It's something
you should post on your desk and follow them.
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Consumers to Retailers: You're Fired!
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E-mail customers are your most valuable stakeholders. When a recent survey
looked at customers by demographic or segment, those typically targeted by
income, age, or gender don't compare to the most powerful segment of all:
e-mail subscribers/recipients.
But e-mail customers also have high expectations, which every retailer
should take seriously or risk hearing the dreaded words: "You're fired."
Those harsh words have been made all the more famous by a reality TV
series. In real life, being fired is seldom a surprise. There are signals:
a warning; ongoing performance issues; a sudden management change; or the
power of consumers, stakeholders, or shareholders voicing concerns or
dissatisfaction. In most cases, there's opportunity for change or
improvement through a performance plan, role switching, product
improvement, or a change in attitude or approach. Whatever the situation,
the message is simple: Shape up, or ship out.
In a recent survey of retailer shoppers assessed consumer perception,
satisfaction rate, and interest around e-mail and retail shopping for the
2003 holiday season. They looked for signals to further guide and educate
clients on their customers' needs, interests, and satisfaction.
Some signals are clear and direct. The most glaring was that over 40
percent of consumers who purchased at a retailer in the past three months
"believed their retailer could be doing a better job sending more relevant
e-mail communications based on interests and past purchase behavior."
E-Mail Subscription Rates and Purchase Behavior
E-mail's alive and well. Despite reports of its demise due to spam, more
consumers than ever are opting in. Approximately one third of all adults
(28 percent) and 40 percent of adults with home Internet access subscribe
to or received an e-mail communication based on a request or purchase
during the 2003 holiday season. Those who currently subscribe or received
an e-mail based on a request or transaction during the past three months
were more likely than the total population to have purchased from retailers
in the past three months, including the 2003 holiday season:
E-mail is a growing influence affects our daily lives. E-mail customers are
your best customers.
Al DiGuido
Details at...
http://ecommerce.internet.com/how/customers/article/0,,10363_3329531,00.html
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[3] The Check's No Longer in the Mail
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Nine years after the Web went commercial, many large Internet players are
still trying to find a bill paying solution. America On-line is the latest
to believe it has found the answer. Launched on Tuesday, AOL Bill Pay lets
AOL members pay 2,500 different billers from a single menu. The service is
free to subscribers even though AOL is paying a partner, Yodlee Inc., an
undisclosed sum to do the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Increasingly, on-line bill paying is becoming a strategic tool used by
large businesses to reel in and retain customers, especially since it
appeals strongly to folks with high incomes and lots of monthly bills.
Banks and other financial institutions have been falling over one another
in the rush to offer free on-line bill payments, based on a belief that
customers who take the trouble to set up the accounts will remain more
loyal than those who don't. So far, one-third of the nation's largest banks
and brokerage firms offer free Internet bill payments, according to
financial research firm TowerGroup.
For its part, AOL is hoping free bill payments will help stop the exodus of
folks from its dial-up Internet access for high-speed services from cable
and phone companies. Whether bill payments can heal AOL's wounds remains to
be seen, but the new service offers an intriguing take on how consumers
might manage their finances on-line. And since AOL still has tens of
millions of active users, it's a good bet this freebie will accelerate the
growth of on-line bill payments.
One in four American households pays bills on-line each month. Adoption of
Internet bill payments rose 26 percent last year and 19 percent the year
before, according to TowerGroup.
Details at:
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/33180.html
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[4] 7 Day-Timers Secrets for Success
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I got these in my Day Timers newsletter, which are quite good. What do you
think?
---
SUCCESS TIP #1: The Life-Changing Power of Specificity! Tell a friend
you’ll exercise together some day and you probably won’t. Tell him you’ll
meet at the gym at 1:00 pm on Monday, February 16, and you’re far more
likely to do so! Likewise, most New Year’s resolutions fail because they’re
merely dreams, not quantifiable goals. Remember the book you’ve thought
about writing? Don’t say, “One day I'll write that book.” Instead declare,
“Tonight I'll work on the title of my book for 1 hour or until I have at
least 3 good possibilities.” Assigning dates and numbers specifics
moves your goals from dreamland to reality.
SUCCESS TIP #2: Swiss Cheese Your Way to Success! Nibble away at your goals
instead of taking huge, overwhelming bites. Want to quit smoking? Swiss
cheese the task by smoking 1 less cigarette a day. Want to save money? Have
your employer automatically put 5% (or more) into a company-sponsored 401k
every paycheck. (You’ll likely never miss it!) Want to learn another
language? Resolve to learn 2 new words every day. Change your image
upgrade your vocabulary
become more informed! Make a list of what you
specifically want to improve and work on just one item a week
that’s not
so tough. Break down your goals into tiny pieces that are so ridiculously
simple you can't fail to begin!
SUCCESS TIP #3: Observe the “Pareto Principle.” Italian economist Vilfredo
Pareto found that 80% of the wealth in most countries is controlled by
about 20% of the people. It’s now a management principle that says the
majority of your success in most any endeavor is the result of focusing on
the 20% of the activities that are really important. In other words, “Don’t
simply work hard, work smart.” That means identifying the activities in
your life that make the biggest difference and focusing on them. Things
getting hectic? Getting overwhelmed? Unless you identify the 20%, you won’t
know what you’re letting slip through the cracks and how to best prioritize.
SUCCESS TIP #4: Change Desires into Action Statements. Desires are great,
but unless you follow up with action, you’ll never fulfill those desires.
Instead of simply wanting a better relationship with your spouse, create an
action statement saying what you’ll actually do to improve your
relationship. Rather than simply saying you want to be financially
independent, state what action steps you’ll actually take to make more
money. Begin thinking with an action mindset. Keep asking yourself, “What
will I do? What steps will I take? How do I get from point A to point B?”
You don’t have a plan to succeed if it doesn't contain any action verbs!
SUCCESS TIP #5: Copy-Catting, Modeling, Mentoring
whatever you call it,
find someone who did it successfully and learn from them! Is the
achievement of your goal worth $50 to you? Did you ever think about
offering a $50 consultation fee to pick someone’s brains for a few minutes?
How much could you learn from someone who has spent 10 years in the field?
You'd be amazed how many top-achievers are willing to offer you a helping
hand for little or no compensation. And in most cases, all you need do is
ask! If you could get the best of someone’s decades of experience in one
hour, would it be worth it? Of course! Your job is simply to ask the right
questions. Phone consultations are best, because with permission you could
record the conversation instead of taking notes and thereby cover far more
ground.
SUCCESS TIP #6: See Setbacks as Guides, Not Failures! Plan didn't work?
What did you learn? Try something different! Still didn't succeed? Try
something else! There are thousands of ways to do things. It’s your job to
find the many ways that will work. That’s your part of the bargain
and why
educating yourself first speeds you to success. Begin to regard so-called
failures less emotionally, as simply “outcomes,” and keep trying until you
get the outcome you desire. Life is a game of cause and effect. For every
cause, there is a corresponding effect. Good cause, good effect. Bad cause,
bad effect. No cause, no effect. If you’re convinced it can be done, then
it’s simply a matter of finding the “cause” that returns the desired
“effect!” The world is impersonal it doesn't care who succeeds or fails.
It’s all a matter of finding the 20% of the causes that return 80% of the
results you want. So keep trying. And remember the great expression,
“Failure isn't the falling down, it’s the lying down.”
SUCCESS TIP #7: Remind and Reward Yourself! Post your goals on your car’s
dashboard
computer monitor
Day-Timer planner
refrigerator! And be sure
to reward yourself for hitting each plateau or for each month you’ve stuck
with your goal. Remember: “The Rule of 21” says it takes 21 days to form
new habits. After that, your new behaviors will become easy and automatic!
Test it with any new success habit. Force yourself to do it for 21 days
then watch it become a part of your new success routine! Think how much you
can accomplish using this one tip alone.
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