We’re trying something different, and releasing my latest interview for the podcast in 2 parts. Whether you decide to listen one at a time or binge them both together, you’re going to want to take notes.
Our guest is the founder of Scarlett&Co, Katrina Scarlett. She shares insights on humanizing your brand, identifying opportunities to connect authentically, and flowing through offers with valuable tips for businesses looking to improve their customer experience. By following these strategies, businesses can create a loyal customer base, increase their revenue, and achieve long-term success.
In this first episode. Katrina discusses the top tips and strategies she shares working with business owners to help them humanize their brand and bring customer experience and service to the forefront of their online business, and how to really hone in on how they want people to interact with their business.
With a background in the luxury hospitality industry and years of providing tech and integration support to high-level business owners, Katrina has a unique ability to view digital business from a customer-centric lens. Knowing how automated and impersonal the digital business world can be, she is on a mission to bring customer experience and the human element to the forefront of online businesses.
Stay tuned to part 2 to get actionable steps to take the info shared here and get started applying to your business. And check out the links below to connect with Katrina personally!
Highlights from this Episode
- Her experience in hospitality/customer relations and global customer-facing brands, and how that experience and a tech background led to her beginning her own business in the online space.
- The pivotal conversations that shifted her business focus to leverage her human-centric perspective.
- Mistakes business owners make when it comes to tech and the customer experience journey
- Recognizing the Customer is Savvy to the online space, and meeting them with more solid customer service throughout their journey instead of an impersonal automated funnel
- Using your own experiences to identify where you stand in your values and how you want to make people feel, and the kind of legacy you’re trying to leave in the world.
- The positive impact of predictable communication and helping your consumer understand and support your boundaries when it comes to a reasonable communication timeline.
- Understanding the conversations going on in the online community about your services when it comes to testimonials and level of satisfaction.
Captivating Quotes from this Episode:
7:11 The transition from corporate to going into business for herself, and how she found a new calling within that journey
So I took that leap of faith, you know, long story short, I left my career in the resort industry. And I just started making connections, I went to online events, I started meeting people in the chat rooms, I kind of got myself visible just in that perspective, which opened up some introductions and reaching out asking people how we could be of service to them. And after about three years I would say that a lot of people would have called me a Tech and Integration Specialist at that point. And probably around my third year of business, you know, when I started finally turning a profit, because as they say, you know, you’re usually not very profitable in your first two years, which was on point, I had a great client who I was on a call with one day. And I can’t remember how we got into it. But at one point, they said, You know, I don’t continue to work with you because of your tech skills. And I was like, Well, that’s what I’m doing for you. So that’s really weird to say, and I was kind of like, Okay, can you elaborate, and they’re like, that’s not your secret sauce…you bring such a customer-centric approach and hospitality-like level of service. And you know, that concierge mindset to my online business that nobody really has.Most people come in, they’re all focused on the tech, the automation, streamlining, making everything less human. So like, and you’re always asking me the questions is like, Okay, well, how’s that going to impact the customer? Is that is that for the customers benefit? Or is that for the business benefit? I’m like, Oh, okay. Like, she’s like, You need to leverage that more.
10:50 The mistakes some business owners make by taking in what everybody else is doing in their online business.
I think one of the things that happens in the online space, is we get so bogged down by all of the information overload and that you know, that need to follow what somebody else is doing. And for lack of a better term, funnel hack, right and figure out like how other people are getting their success. And then that need to feel like you need to do it yourself. So I think there’s a lot of robotic thinking to some degree, and less focused on what’s important to you and the people you serve, right? Practicing your own boundaries, following a value based system, and making your business work for you, while also offering exceptional service to your customers, your clients, however you refer to them, and not getting so bogged down and distracted by what tool should you use what, you know, do you have a five step funnel? Or do you have a two step funnel? Do you have an upsell? Do you have a down sell? Because at the end of the day, the more you sit on that stuff, the more you are indecisive, the more you delay getting your services out there, the longer you aren’t being of service to your ideal client.
19:25 Using your personal interactions as a consumer to map out the journey for your customers
You’re having a customer experience yourself as a business owner, every single day. And in the online space, it is like amplified, right? So if you start paying attention to those experiences, past or current, you’ll start to draw out things where you’re like, I never want to do that to one of my customers. I don’t ever want one of my customers to feel the way I just felt. And so that’s really I think, where we get started and then we start to map out some really key components such as having a customer promise, what do you stand for in your business? And what do you not stand for?
26:56 Knowing where to automate, where your customer still feels valued
Where I think automation steps in well, is in those kinds of scenarios is if there are things that continue to happen in meaning that like the ball gets dropped, because it’s just, it’s becoming too much for a human to manage. Because either team, the team hasn’t grown in, you know, correlation with the business, or you know, somebody has stepped away and there’s a gap or something like that, then let’s look at options for automating it and trying to still make it feel humanized. Obviously, there’s the things like having somebody go through a sales process or an opt in, right, you’re gonna have the tech there, and your you know, your email sequences and nurturing after that. You can write those emails in a very good way that still has your tone that still has your personality and make somebody forget that they’re getting an automated email.
33:40 The importance of exceeding expectations with your offers for long-term loyalty.
How you market your offers, directly sets a perception of what level of experience comes with that offer, right and more than anything else in the world, you always want to exceed those expectations, rather than the other way around. And I think that there’s people out there who think that maybe people aren’t savvy enough, they they aren’t, you know, overly invested in needing a good experience, that they can pull wool over their eyes, right. And like, I’ve seen it happen more than I would like to say, from my own experience, and the stories I hear from people of just how let down they are right and even if a high ticket price point for somebody might be $25,000 but the person standing beside them, a high ticket price point for them might be that $1,000 self study course. And so not getting lost in just one set of your client tell one set of your customer is really important because that person who today might be like really nervous about investing $1,000 with you very well could be a person who two years from now says Hello Yeah to that high ticket $25 $25,000 program. So that person deserves just as much respect and to feel valued, seen and heard.
Connect with Katrina:
Website:https://scarlettandco.ca
Email: katrina@scarlettandco.ca
Blog: https://scarlettandco.ca/blog/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/scarlettcoltd
Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/scarlettandcocx/
Next Step Links
Freebie: https://scarlettandco.ca/5-customer-centric-emails/
My website: www.juliecalcote.com
Instagram: juliecalcoteobm
TikTok: @juliecalcote
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