If you want your company to succeed at brand journalism (aka corporate media gone social), you better know how to tell a good story. Otherwise, be prepared to take a lot of heat from its critics who would be elated to escort "brand journalism" out of 2013 STAT. Brands, of course, love it, because it enables them to bypass the media and take their message directly to the … [Read more...]
Laws of Attraction – Attracting the People You Want
What kind of people are you attracting? Are you attracting the kind of people you want to work with? Or the contractors you want working for you? When writing on your website, twitter, help wanted ads, whatever it may be; it's important to write for the people you want to read it. If you have everything written in very professional language with a very professional … [Read more...]
Play up your strengths
Focus on your strengths, hand over the rest. We all fall into the trap of thinking we can do it all, or taking on too much. This goes right along with getting help when you need it, but expands upon that thought even more.... make sure you are passing over the right tasks. What are you good at? Maybe you are great at sales, but then dealing with the nitty gritty, … [Read more...]
7 Tips for your E-commerce Store
When we're going into e-commerce, we often forget the basics for what makes a good e-tailing experience work for our customers. Here are seven tips to remember when building and designing your online store: 1) Tell the customer about you. If you have a history, a mission/vision/values statement, or more about the proprietor, make sure to highlight this information. People … [Read more...]
Customer Service Lessons from a Kindergartener
Customer Service, When to Take a Break Another piece of my personal life, but then again, when you work at home, its all personal. I was having a particularly rough day, but had shut the computer for now to go pick up my daughter from school. She got in the car, and I started the now regular routine of drilling her with questions to try and get any piece of information … [Read more...]
Is it Okay to think Customers are stupid?
RyanAir CEO Michael O’Leary made headlines this week when he argued that a customer in Spain deserved to pay $380 for having RyanAir print a boarding pass. He went even further when he said that “all passengers are stupid who think we will change our policies or our fees”. I’ve been thinking about this statement all morning and I can’t shake the bad taste it’s left in my … [Read more...]
Love What You Do
Love is the Missing Piece No, this isn’t an ad for a dating site, although maybe it should be.... I was in the process of writing on a different subject when I found myself in a conversation with a client (who shall remain nameless but will likely know its them when they read this ;) ) We were discussing their business and a particularly rough couple of weeks they have … [Read more...]
Customer Service and Your Bottom Line
Guest Post by Peggy Carlaw, founder of Impact Learning Systems (Learn more about Peggy at the bottom of this post) You know that providing top-notch customer service is good business practice. But do you know just how good? Customers Spend More for Good Customer Service According to the American Express 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer, over half of customers over … [Read more...]
How GenX Affects Your Business
I was doing something decidedly none business yesterday (replacing my dead dryer) and the sales representative that was helping me was glued to his IPAD. Now I applaud the store for the use of technology to create a more accurate account of inventory, but to run a business you actually have to talk to your customers! The sales representative was great; he was friendly and … [Read more...]
What Happens if the Person Picking Your Brain is Already a Paying Client?
A lot of us have seen this article on Forbes making its round on the various social media platforms: No You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much. But – what happens if the person picking your brain is already a paying client? Most small business owners or consultants would agree – we give entirely too much information away for free. For me, a lot of times this occurs … [Read more...]