Customers

Customers — No Comments
6
Nov 11

“I Half-Expect a Kitten with a Top Hat…” – Why I Do What I Do

Suddenly, we’re receiving a lot more — and a lot more interesting — emails from Freckle Time Tracking customers.

I don’t know if it’s the Daylight Savings, the fall colors, or the cool weather that’s triggering it… either way, I like it.

Here are two of my faves:

Kittens with Top Hats… What, No Monocles?

Now your site might be the girliest thing I’ve ever clicked through but at least it’s pretty and it makes sense. I half expect a kitten wearing a top hat to pop up and serve me a cupcake when I log in but I’m sure you’re saving that for the next version.

Note to self: Put the kibosh on kitten-with-top-hat plans. They’ve seen it coming.

Awwww, My Heart, It is Warmed

And sometimes emails are just so sweet:

In the past six months I’ve gone from working full-time on a county psychiatric crisis team and following a strict meditation schedule as a resident priest at a meditation center to living in a foreign country with no schedules at all while starting an Internet-based business. From intense external structure seventeen hours a day to none.

Before I found Freckle I could not figure out what the hell I was doing with my time!

It helps keep my morale up because it makes my work visible. It keeps me honest because when I have the timer on I really just do the type of work I’m timing. So I work in a more efficient way and I can see how long it really takes to do certain tasks.

Freckle is pretty so I like using it and reviewing what I’m doing with my time. I have to admit I’ve been tracking almost everything I do with Freckle. In addition to work, I track meditation hours, running and yoga.

Thank you for such a great tool. Freckle has helped me see how hard I really work and this lets me take time off.

I love Freckle!

Ones like this, I try to save to read later. You know, whenever I feel like what I do doesn’t matter, or that I don’t really wanna do it.

How could I continue to mope after reading something like that?

This is the best part of making products that help people.

Customers / Marketing — 27 Comments
5
Oct 11

When You Should Ignore Your “Customers”

I do a lot of sales through email marketing — to folks who specifically requested that I email ‘em.

I don’t email all that much; most months, I don’t email at all.

For the past month, I’ve been sending 1-2 emails a week. Not just “buy my shit” emails, but free samples from the class, free advice, true life stories of the lessons I’ve learned. (Plus fat discounts for my 30×500 Product Launch Class.)

In other words: good shit. Good news. Stuff people want.

OMG! A European Is Angry on the Internet!

And yesterday this email appeared in my inbox:

Amy, I really like you and your blog. Really, I mean it. However you’re getting in touch more often than my mum. I’m not sure if it’s how it works in the US, but in Europe people rather get pissed off. I have plenty of e-mails already. I like to read some of your stuff if it’s time to time. I will unsubscribe if you’ll be sending so many e-mails.

No hard feelings, just saying.

Action Required!! …Or is it?

What would you do, if you got this email?

Probably try to stop annoying people, right? After all, you don’t to piss off a bunch of Europeans, do you?

Well… yes. You really, really do.

Pissing people off is actually great for your business. Not just great — but required.

Why I’m Happy to Piss People Off

Here’s what I wrote back:

And that, my friend, is why so many Europeans fail at their businesses.

They think that some imaginary social boundaries are more important than doing what’s necessary — and more important than doing what helps the most people.

The folks who stay on my list are the ones who want to hear from me… and they buy. The folks who unsubscribe are the ones who don’t buy.

Why would I waste my effort & potential income & dilute my message in order to please people who won’t buy?

Being successful means doing what works over & over & over again. And that’s just what I’m doing.

Overly didactic? Snarky? Maybe. But truth.

The folks who are invested are staying on my list — overwhelmingly. Over 90% of them stick around.

You know, I almost don’t even care if those people buy what I’m selling. The invested people who stick around are infinitely more likely to be people I can help. Who’ll take my free advice and put it to use.

Which furthers my mission to create more happy, healthy, thriving indie biz.

Irritated people don’t invest. They don’t listen — even when it’s free. And if they don’t listen, what’s the chance that they’ll implement it?

I can’t help them.

So I’m happy when they get fed up and leave.

The Bottom Line: Aphorisms Edition

The empty can rattles the most. And our immediate, instinctive urge is to try to please them. We want to please people.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. But it shouldn’t — not when that wheel’s never gonna roll the direction you want.

But we’ve gotta save up our precious energy & focus for our customers who are already pretty happy.

There’s no reward in listening to people who want to change everything about you, your business, or your products.

What do you do?

Do you have a great pissed-off-non-customer story? Have you caved to the loud minority before? (I have — it’s an almost irresistible urge.) Do you have an “action plan” for handling emails like that?

And if you want to get free advice, free goodies, free lessons from my always-sold-out 30×500 Product Launch Class… click here and sign up for the email list :)