I’ve been working with a client of ours, Matco, for some time now. They’ve been very good about updating their page, and because they work on it frequently, they ask me a lot of questions.
We’ve had numerous interactions and I’ve helped them with a lot of things. Each time, I receive warm, sincere thank you’s. There eventually became a running joke between both our companies that I would be receiving cookies in the mail from them because of my help.
Little did I know that I would receive them, and coincidentally, on my birthday! A big basket of cookies was sent directly to me with a thank you note attached.
So why am I mentioning this? This is a prime example of great relationship building between companies. By simply providing good, prompt customer service I was noticed. On the other side, by being great clients that are understanding, friendly, ask good questions, really try to learn more, and show great appreciation they earned a special place in my book. The cookies was a great way of showing they care, and helps strengthen good relationships. Customer service worked both ways here. Oh, and if you’re reading this, thank you Debra!
Yesterday was Chinese New Year. For me, that meant celebrating the new lunar year with monks, my fellow martial artists, and lots of tea. This year we did something decidedly different and did a play, complete with martial arts demos and costumes. Next year will be a lion dance, but buying a the lion head and drums costs quite a bit of money. Thus, marketing skills must come into play to raise money for it. What can we do to raise money and spread awareness? Here are a couple of my thoughts:
- Do demonstrations and ask for donations
- Charity work
- Attend and participate in events such as health and fitness, martial, etc.
- Start a group online for raising money.
These are just a few of my thoughts so far. We’ve always faired well with demonstrations. Having the face to face contact with people combined with live, visual demonstrations really sends a powerful message. As such, that may be our best best. Do you have a group you work with on your spare time that you are trying to promote?
There is great new meme project by on the top 5 reasons you blog making its way around the web. Mike Sansone of Converstations recently wrote his top five, and then some. Here are my top 5 reasons I blog:
- Learning – This works many ways. First, I learn more as I write, about what I know and don’t. You find out quickly what you do and don’t know when you try to put your thoughts into words. It is a true test of your own knowledge. Also, I learn more by reading other blogger’s posts and ideas, which leads to my next point…
- Community – Meeting other fellow bloggers and extending my network. Nothing like meeting new people to gain more ideas and get to know interesting people. Blogs are a great way of generating good contacts. You never know who you’ll meet.
- Visibility – As a marketer, I want to increase awareness of both myself and our company. Blogging gives me the opportunity to introduce myself to the public and extend my reach throughout the web rather than just having one site. The ability to mingle with other bloggers strengthens my visibility ten fold while also working on point 2.
- Ease of Use – Blogs make it easy to quickly update information. It only takes a moment to add new content to your page. Updating a webpage has never been easier.
- Use those tools! – Most of what I do for a living is on the web, and what better way to learn more about it than to work with something like blogging? This is only one of many tools I use to communicate with others and increase visibility on the web. I’m a self professed tech geek, so I love making use of what is out there.
What’s your top 5? Send your comments and trackbacks here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
How many times has this happened to you: You have a problem with a product/service. It’s giving you a hard time so you call for customer service. You give just a brief description of your problem and the supposed “help” tells you, “Sorry, it isn’t our fault. It’s someone elses and there’s nothing we can do. Go bother them. You do something, not me.”
This is the worst thing someone can do in customer service. Ignoring the problem and passing the blame. The problem isn’t solved, there was no help, and it leaves the customer with a bitter taste in their mouth. How can this be corrected?
- Listen! No matter how many times you have heard the same problem before from other customers, let the customer speak. The customer needs to know that you are there to help and that you care. Cutting them off sends a strong message that you don’t care and that they are bothering you. That is the worst thing you can do. Also, keep in mind that these people are frustrated. Let them work off their steam. It is nothing personal, they are just upset about the situation. Once they are done, then speak.
- Ask questions. Get what you can out of the customer without making it feel like an interrogation. Once again, this shows that you are serious about helping them. Also, it can provide valuable insight for fixing their problem. Just take care not to ask too many questions to the point that the customer is annoyed. Just enough to gather ideas for a solution.
- Explore options. Telling the customer there is nothing you can do is the very last thing you ever want to say. It makes you look incompetent and uncaring. Try to reason out other solutions first. If for some reason things are out of your scope then ask the customer if they would like to speak to a manager. That should be a last resort, but may be necessary if things are severe. Still, try your best to rectify the situation without having to pass the buck.
If the situation seriously is out of your hands, make every effort to guide the customer through the proper steps to solving the problem with the outside source. For example, if the problem exists with another company, provide them with the phone number and tell them exactly what to say to them. Better yet, try to take it to the next level by calling them yourself. This can lead to great customer loyalty by just this simple effort. Good customer service is a must if you plan on keeping your customers happy. Make sure they are a top priority and not just something shoved to the back.
I admit, I’m one of those people that watched the Superbowl yesterday for the ads. Save but a few ads, I came away disappointed. It seems like it was less of a spectacle this year. Also, it was interesting that only a few companies really had ads on it, and really just spread it out. Coke had around 3 ads. Two were entertaining, one sentimental. I can’t help but think what happened here?
The answer is likely that television advertising just doesn’t sell like it used to. Perhaps the cost benefit of Superbowl advertising just isn’t worth it anymore. Although it is true that television is a less used form of media now, the Superbowl is still the highest watched program of the year. Have times really changed that much? Somehow, the event that was once a spectacle didn’t really feel as special anymore. Perhaps it is just me. I ask you, the reader, your thoughts. What did you think of the Superbowl and its advertising?
Seth Godin recently wrote a post reiterating points he made on bad powerpoint presentations, and how they can become great ones. He makes a lot of great points. I’ve enforced many of these in the past, and he makes some great points I haven’t heard before. One of the key things to remember about giving a presentation with powerpoint is that you are the one giving the presentation, not the powerpoint. It is merely there to support you, but you are the one ultimately selling. Seth’s point on using only up to 6 words per slide seems to work with that idea.
As I think back to all of the poor powerpoint presentations I had to sit through in meetings, it is nice to read this breath of fresh air. Take a moment of your time and read his post. You’ll come out a stronger powerpoint presenter if you take his words to heart.
[tags]presentation, powerpoint, speech, Seth Godin[/tags]
You’ve created your new marketing piece, but is it unique or does it? It can be seen everywhere, marketing and advertising ad nauseam. Every cliche you can think of being thrown into an ad. Bigger! Better! As seen on TV! Everyone using the same action words and phrases, designs, and claims as the next guy, becoming a forgettable, uninspired mess. It is one thing to use techniques you learned from marketing classes, but it is another to set yourself apart from the rest of the ones out there sing the same techniques.
What is one to do? Think outside of the box. It is okay to step out of the norm and experiment with different forms of advertising, advocating, or design. The easiest way to think of this is to not limit your self to your same tools. Think of anything and everything as a potential marketing tool. Rid yourself of standards for what a certain product has to look like, or be. Take for example, Seth Godin’s book, The Big Moo, which was done as a milk carton for promotion. Definitely not what one would expect to find a marketing book in, and it definitely got people talking. Advertising moments have been expanded in all kinds of interesting ways such as selling forehead ad space. This was definitely a unique idea that created an immense amount of buzz for him (and a nice profit).
Set yourself apart from the rest of the clutter by being original. The best place to start is by ridding yourself of what defines advertising. Tying yourself to too many boundaries can put you into a rut of average marketing. It’s time to be remarkable and choose marketing that creates a buzz heard all around.
[tags]marketing, buzz, innovation[/tags]
I was reading through some blogs yesterday and was trying to contact one fellow blogger directly. There was one problem, though: No contact information was listed! I searched high and low, checking for what I thought were obvious locations for contact information. After searching for quite a while, I gave up. I didn’t contact them, and I left disappointed.
If you are trying to generate some buzz and make new contacts having your contact information is vital. The most obvious place to put it is on your About page or even your footer. If you have a profile listed on your sidebar then definitely take advantage of the space to give people a way to connect to you. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to say hi.
Just one simple sentence can make a difference from meeting an interesting person, to no one at all. Ron McDaniel told his story of how it worked for him with Buzzoodle. The question is, then, are you making it easy for your readers to reach out to you?
[tags]buzz, contact[/tags]
Do you work at a desk job? If you are like me and work behind a computer then you may have noticed your body crying out for some mobility.
If you work full time, this means at least 8 hours of your day is spent sitting down. Remaining inactive for so long can be a detriment to your health and productivity. It is important that we keep blood circulating throughout the body. This will not only work well for the body, it will also increase blood flow to the brain so you can keep on task.
How do you do it, then? Here are some simple things you can do while at work:
- Stand up and stretch! This is important to get things circulating. I stretch every morning. I do more than these, but they are still good to get you started.
- You can start simply by reaching down and touching your toes.
- For your arms, you can bring one arm up, and behind your head, like a chicken wing.
- For your back and arms, stand up and point both arms to the sky with your palms up. Push towards the ceiling and exhale. Stand straight during this and let the stretch elongate the spine.
- Go for a walk during lunch and breaks. This has been especially good for me after lunch, and provides me with a great second wind to tackle the second half of the work place.
- Rotate your shoulders and neck. This is a good one to relieve tension. It is also very simple and can be done at your desk.
- If your workplace has a gym, use it! Doing a few reps when you can really gives you a boost and some extra motivation to keep going.
It is very important to do something outside of work as well. It doesn’t have to be anything too demanding. You can start off with just a half hour of exercise a day and build from there as you feel comfortable. Jogging, bicycling, and walking are simple things to do. There are many groups that you can join as well. For example, twice a week I attend a martial arts class to learn more and practice each day.
Staying in shape is a commitment, and a rewarding one as well. Keeping in shape provides you with the motivation, energy, and spirit to keep going. From another prospective it also keeps your health care costs lower for you and your workplace. A client of ours, Dr. Tom Gilliam stresses the importance of a healthy work force with his book, Move it. Lose it. Live Healthy. He understands why it is important to stay in shape. Shouldn’t we all?
Every now and then a product comes a long that gets me as excited as a nine year old boy with a new toy. For me, it’s the iPhone from Apple. Although Apple has talked about making something like this before, it wasn’t until recently that they hit us hard by unveiling the product.
They have a way with design that is at the top of its class, and the iPhone is no different. There is a lesson to be learned here: Having high technology is great, having great design can take you far as well (just look at the craze for the Nano over its superior original iPod), but having both implemented intuitively is the real deal. It comes with what I would expect as far as features, but its implementation and technology are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Multitouch screen technology combined with accelerometer and ambient light sensor allow for some slick things. Just check out the site to see for yourself.
Unfortunately, the only provider for this phone is Cingular, and the contract for that exclusivity lasts until 2009. Who knows if Apple will release something else for other providers before then? Either way, it will be interesting to see if Cingular service sales go up once the iPhone hits the market. Until then, I’ll just sit back and drool at it.
