Kevin Price, Host of the Price of Business on Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK (on Bloomberg’s home in Houston) recently interviewed Liora Farkovitz.
About the interviewee
Liora Farkovitz is the founder of LioraFarkovitz.com. She is a Content Strategist who does the writing, narration, publishing and organic promotion on behalf of professionals and subject matter experts.
Tell me about your firm (number of employees, location, type of companies you work with, etc.).
We are a small business consisting of five employees, located in New York, NY, US. We work with subject matter experts such as attorneys, doctors, artists and inventors, helping them by developing their business and product concepts and then articulating those opportunities to other businesses or consumers. We use many different conduits to communicate: websites, eBooks, audiobooks and curriculum, as well as a robust public relations machine to promote their content.
Tell us about what it means to you to “put customers first”?
Putting customers first means that you take the time to understand their needs and expectations and design your program around their needs. It requires weekly communication sessions, a constant review of priorities and applied creativity. For instance, when we review reporter inquiries for press, we try to be inventive in our responses so that our story ideas are “out of the box” for the reporter and their publication, and so it exposes our clients to a tailored audience.
What mistake do businesses make when it comes to taking care of customers?
It’s important to understand the underlying reason why a client may complain. Sometimes, they want to pressure you for more than they are paying for, and over time, you may decide that your client is not a good fit for the kind of business you are trying to build. They may be sampling what you are offering as something they would not ordinarily do for their business. Or, they may want what you say you have to offer, and genuinely feel they are not getting a good value. When it is the last instance, listen very closely. This client may be handing you a goldmine. They may want or need something that no one has thought to offer in the marketplace, and if you listen well, you would be the innovator.
What is your firm doing to demonstrate your beliefs in this principle?
We currently have a promotion where we help a potential client build their primary expert profile. We spend about six weeks getting to know them and their business, by referring media opportunities to them. Through the ones they accept and reject, we learn how to hone in on the message they are trying to generate to the public. We discuss our progress every week or so, and once they’ve been through the experience of working with us, we can each determine if we are good working partners.
We know we’ve hit the jackpot when our client is collaborative, creative and enjoys the way we do business; the ones that are willing to try new things are happiest with us. If a customer is unhappy, we make sure we respond by focusing on the “gap” between our effort and their expectation, steadily closing it, until we are meeting the mark.
Contact information:
www.liorafarkovitz.com
