Ardent Admirers

“AA” stands for “Ardent Admirers” – and it is a goal of all millimeter businesses to ensure their customers, clients and patients are part of the club. Why should your business aspire, encourage staff, and set up programs to create your own AA membership club? To find the answer, let’s look at what advantages, opportunities and prosperity other millimeter businesses enjoy by developing their own AA membership club.

WHY DO YOU NEED ARDENT ADMIRERS?

A millimeter business like this one understands the importance and necessity of having Ardent Admirers. These are the customers, clients and patients who love your business and refer their friends and family. These Ardent Admirers represent the 20 percent of your business that generates 80 percent of your referrals. They are the customers, clients and patients who forgive you even when you have a “millimeter” slip in your service or communication.

Just like the above example, Ardent Admirers are developed one at a time. Millimeter businesses know that they need to take care of each and every customer, like they are the only one they have. A millimeter business will go out of its way to make sure its communication with its customers is consistent and frequent. They understand that communication on a regular basis with real information is the key to building a strong AA membership.

How do millimeter businesses create Ardent Admirers?

They do it by making sure the millimeter things they do either with their service or product is done consistently and with passion. In the dental field, where I live, most patients are not that excited about getting crowns on their teeth. They realize they need a crown or else they could potentially lose the tooth, but the idea of a few hundred to thousands of dollars on a tooth repair is not nearly as exciting as getting a new pair of stilettos (for you ladies) or maybe a new golf club.

To read more about this, pick up a copy of my book It's All About Millimeters. 

Love Yourself, A Millimeter At A Time

Do you have this voice that pops up occasionally or maybe even daily that lets you know about all the things you are not doing, the things you could be doing differently, the things you failed at, and all the things you should have done?  Yikes!

I confess that this is unfortunately, for me, a common occurrence, and one that I have learned to overcome by using my “millimeter approach.”

Here are my tips for you:

1.     Love yourself.  I know this can be a tough one for some of us as we are constantly giving, giving and giving more and often taking a backseat to what we want and desire.  Try daily doing one thing for yourself.  Take a walk, get a massage or a pedicure, take 30 minutes to read your favorite novel in peace and quiet, or whatever it is that makes you feel most happy and refreshed.

2.     Journal.  Write down all the things you want to do, places you want to go, experiences you want to have, careers you want to pursue, money you want to make, everything and anything you want to achieve and experience in this lifetime.  Make sure not to edit anything in your journal.  Just write. Keeping adding to it.  Could be outlandish today, but five years from now you will be crossing it off as a done deal. 

3.     Tithe.  No matter how often we may feel things are not going well for us, or that deal did not come through, there are tens of thousands of people facing more serious situations including starvation, homelessness and illness.  No matter how small your bank account may be right now, commit to giving money to your favorite church or charity. Furthermore, find a cause you are passionate about and go volunteer in any way you can. I call this tithing your time. Even a “millimeter” of your time spent helping others, provides massive impact not only for those you are helping, but you too. 

Set a goal to launch these three strategies this month and see if that “nagging, depressing, demeaning voice” becomes less and less audible over time.

"Millimeter" Check Lists for Project Management

Do you make lists? Grocery lists? To-do lists? When working on a larger project, breaking down the steps makes it easier to manage and check off each step. "Millimeter" steps make any project manageable. How do you make a proper millimeter checklist? Work it backwards.

1. Think about the project finished.

2. Consider each step that would go toward finishing it.

3. Start making the checklist.

Working backwards to forwards ensures you consider each little step in-between. Let's use this blog, for example. You see the finished product -- a graphically designed and branded blog to match the book It's All About Millimeters. Now break it down. How did the graphics get done? How is the content provided? Where did the ideas for the content come from? Re-engineer the blog and you see it's all millimeter steps to not only create it but manage it.

1. Graphics mock-ups created

2. Graphics designed to match market brand

3. Content theme developed based on book

4. Content lists and ideas developed

5. Content written ahead of time to lists

6. Graphics approved

7. Site coded

8. Content pre-written and approved

9. Content uploaded on a near-daily basis

See how that works. Taking the big picture and breaking down the steps. In project management and business, checklists provide the framework and guide to the whole. As each step is completed, check it off. And here is an even bigger tip: celebrate! Don't forget to acknowledge and celebrate the "millimeter" wins. Satisfaction comes from recognizing you just did something great.

Turn a Negative into a Positive

Change goes both ways -- good and bad. Life works that way, too. Keeping a can-do "millimeter" mindset even when the change is negative means understanding that if something goes south, small efforts to move it north work, too.

When it comes to business, I have a quick tip on how to handle the difficult moments. Let's say you have clients or patients. A client suddenly decides to stop doing business. What is your attitude? Do you let it defeat you in a BIG way or do you have a "millimeter" attitude, which means one, small shift in your attitude to change your outlook. Do you want to hear a good one? It's small! It's simple! It's easy. One word: NEXT! Don't dwell. Move on. A client or customer quits, you just immediately focus on the one, simple next move. Don't get bogged down in disappointment or ask why? It would be good to ask the client why, listen to it, don't argue it, but realize that is their perspective. Take something you can use to improve, and then move on.

Back To Running, A Millimeter At A Time

In my book, It's All About Millimeters: How Small Changes Can Make A Big Impact in Your Business and Your Life, I share the story of how I trained for my first and only marathon, using my “millimeter” approach.  It took six months of disciplined and focused running, but I was successful in my first marathon and finished without having to be carted away in a rescue van or worse an ambulance.

After that marathon in 2007, I decided to keep running, but quickly grew bored of those long runs and took up other forms of exercise. However, after I recently moved into a new house and new neighborhood with some great running trails, I decided it was time to lace up those shoes and hit the pavement again.

Using my “millimeter” approach, I am slowly but surely adding those miles each and every week -- and best of all I am gaining my confidence back in my ability to run distances greater than 50 feet!

Whether you have a goal to run a 10K, marathon or just a walk around the block without stopping, use the “millimeter” approach to achieve your fitness goals once and for all.

A Millimeter Idea for a Big Pay Day

One of our favorite “millimeter” marketing strategies is a handwritten thank-you note to our patients who refer other patients to our office. My scheduling coordinator at the end of the week, handwrites a simple card and places a gift card for Starbucks coffee.  It is a small token of appreciation and recognition of their confidence and support in our practice.

How many times do we have clients, customers or patients that are referring business to us and we fail to thank them.  Believe, me these customers, clients and patients are not walking around thinking about you and your business each and every day.  However, they do remember a nice gesture of recognition and thanks and when the question comes up at a cocktail party or little league game, “who does Mary see for her braces?”  Our goal is to make sure they answer, “Cater Galante Orthodontics, we just love them!”

Make handwritten thank you notes a “millimeter” marketing strategy and watch how your business blossoms.

Break the Pattern with One Millimeter Change

Nothing has to be monumental to suddenly change course or direction. Even habits can be broken with one small choice. We frequently come to forks in the road. Have you heard the old adage, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. When you hit the fork, and a decision needs to be made, apply the idea of opposites. If you've been doing the same thing over and over -- and it's still not working for you, change it right then and there. Make that opposite choice. See what happens... in one small choice major changes in your life can happen. One plus one no longer equals two. It can be simple, true and life-changing.