Kevin Stirtz

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Kevin Stirtz

Kevin Stirtz

Stirtz Group LLC
Kevin Stirtz is a web marketing consultant. He uses SEO, social media and local search strategies and tools to help businesses attract and keep more customers. He is a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional and has written two books about marketing and customer loyalty. Kevin lives in the Twin Cities metro area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN.
  • Caribou Coffee Fails at Customer Service Recovery
    0 comments 969 reads
    Posted on 2011-09-13

    None of us are perfect. Neither is any business. The good news is most customers don’t expect the people they do business with to be perfect. But as customers we do expect businesses to fix things when they go wrong.

    One of my favorite coffee places provides a current example.

    It was a beautiful late summer morning. A Friday morning. I had time to swing by Caribou Coffee for a decaf and a breakfast sandwich.  The young lady who helped me was very pleasant. She seemed to to enjoy her work and she did a good job engaging with me while I waited.

    Things went downhill from there.

    They put cream in my coffee which I did not order. (I have never taken cream in my coffee.) And they filled it to the rim, which I asked them to not do. This made my coffee undrinkable and caused it to spill all over. If you drink coffee in a car, you know what I’m talking about. That’s why they invented the term...

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  • Five Ways to Improve Customer Service Starting Today
    0 comments 1,120 reads
    Posted on 2011-06-20

    There is plenty of room for improvement in how many organizations serve their customers. And there are substantial benefits for those that do. The good news is you don’t need to spend a lot of money to start making improvements in your customer service.

    Here are some specific suggestions to get you started.

    1. Improve People Skills

    To deliver Amazing Service, people skills count. So a fast and high return way to improve customer service is to find ways to improve your team’s people skills.

    This might include bringing in a speaker or trainer. It could mean focusing on people skills topics at staff meetings. It could involved providing useful training content to employees in a variety of formats like audio CDs, online material, videos, books, blogs, articles and even newsletters...

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  • Don’t communicate. Conversate.
    0 comments 1,214 reads
    Posted on 2011-05-24

    Our friends at Dictionary.com define the word communicate this way:

    To impart knowledge of; make known:  to communicate information

    This is something companies are very good at. They should be. Big companies have entire departments dedicated to communicating. They “impart information” and make their messages known on a grand scale. For decades, big business (and small business too) has spent vast amounts of money perfecting the fine art of communicating.

    Trouble is, being a skilled communicator isn’t worth much anymore.

    Because, as the definition above implies, communicating is a one-way deal. To be successful, all you have to do is make your story known.  If you are heard and understood, you have communicated.

    Back in the day, that was fine. It was all we customers expected. We lacked the mother lode...

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  • Don’t leave customers hanging
    0 comments 1,277 reads
    Posted on 2011-05-08

    Every day the Internet makes it easier for people to connect. Employees, customers, friends, family, neighbors…you name it. We have more technology than ever before that can help us reach out to people. If we choose to.

    And that’s a big problem for many businesses. They choose to NOT reach out to customers. 

    Actually it’s worse than that.

    Too many businesses ignore when customers reach out to them. Every day businesses are served up piping hot customer engagement opportunities and they walk right by. They ignore their customers’ attempts to connect and converse with them.

    When someone reaches out to you and you don’t respond, it’s like not returning a high five.

    The other person has put time and effort into trying to connect with you. They’ll probably be frustrated (even angry) when you fail to respond.  They’re standing there with a hand in the air and you let them hang.

    Not a great way to engage a customer.

    At...

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  • Social media advice: Get real or go home
    0 comments 1,286 reads
    Posted on 2011-05-03

    Chris Garrett wrote a post a while ago about being real vs. phony. Here’s what he says about real people:

    Real people rock. If anything, I would always rather meet an imperfect human being than a fake robot. Be proud to be you, mistakes and all.

    Too many companies hire and train robots to handle the vast majority of their customer contact. They treat employees like equipment. They seem to believe people’s behaviors can be designed and managed like machines.

    A key tool in this strategy is the much-maligned script. Most employees despise them. So do many customers. To a customer, a scripted employee sounds like a phony, uncaring employee.

    When management forces unnatural scripting on employees, they can be become the robots Chris talks about. They say and do as they...

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  • Web Marketing Tip: Create a Free Resource
    0 comments 1,155 reads
    Posted on 2011-04-04

    We know the Internet offers even the smallest organization the ability to (potentially) reach millions of people. But just putting up a website is not enough. Because with all this opportunity to reach people comes just as much competition for their attention.

    So to attract more customers using the wonderful Web, you need to give people a reason to visit your website. Here’s a way to get more visitors that will keep on working year after year, if you do it well.

    Create and offer a free resource your visitors find useful.

    Done right, a free resource showcases your company’s skills and gives potential customers a good reason to learn more about you. By giving the something of value, with no strings attached, you create goodwill and give them something to tell others about.

    A resource can be many things. Here are some examples I have seen that have gotten good result in search engines.

    White Paper...

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  • How to claim and optimize your Google Places Listing – Resources
    0 comments 1,462 reads
    Posted on 2011-03-07

    Local businesses can do themselves a big favor by using the free yet effective internet marketing tool called Google Places. Google Places Local Search Directory

    For a business owner, manager or marketer, the most important thing to know about Google Places is how to make it work best for your business.

    ...
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  • What are the top local search directories?
    0 comments 1,477 reads
    Posted on 2011-03-02

    Go to one of the most well known local search related websites,GetListed.org, and the first thing you see is a free tool to help you get listed on some of the top Top-Local-Search-Directorieslocal directories (they call them local search engines). In fact, as you might have surmised based on the name of the site, GetListed.org is all about helping organizations get accurate, consistent listings on the most important local directories.

    Read blogs like Andrew Shotland’s ...

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  • 10 Ways to Turn Online Reviews into More Loyal Customers
    0 comments 1,523 reads
    Posted on 2011-02-22

    Companies like Google, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, CitySearch and many others have made it easy and convenient for customers to share their thoughts with the world. And they’re not just talking about what they had for breakfast.

    They’re telling the world what they think of YOUR BUSINESS.

    Smart companies are using these online reviews to attract and keep more customers. Here are ten ways you can use Web 2.0 tactics to turn online...

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  • Google, Yelp et al, help you connect better with customers
    0 comments 1,331 reads
    Posted on 2011-02-07

    There’s  a lot of talk these days of new Web tools that help us communicate with customer better. Websites like Yelp,CitySearch, Google Places and HotPot, Angie’s List and Judy’s Book all provide easy platforms for customers to tell us what they think.

    And we should be glad they do.

    One of the best ways to attract and keep customers is to give them what they expect and more. When you do this, some of your customers will be thrilled enough to tell others. And most will consider returning, because they know what to expect.

    ...

    Read More »
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