Does the appearance of employees affect your brand?

I have new company that applies fertilizer to my lawn. I started with them because we had a need and they had great timing when they came to my door to ask for my business. I am happy with the results and the relationship so far.

However, I had an experience with them yesterday that changed my feelings somewhat, and it got me thinking about brands, front line employees and how we form opinions.

Two staff members from the company came by at my request to look at some trouble spots in my lawn. One was the regular guy, let's call him Joe, and the other guy (we'll call him Tom) was someone I had not met. Tom was heavily tattooed, but dressed in his summer company gear.

As it turned out, Tom was the more seasoned fellow and had more experience about my trouble spots. Neither man proved to be an expert, but they cared enough to show up - points for them. We had a discussion about the source of the problem and possible solutions.

Tom further contributed to my opinion of him and the company brand by talking about 'coming home drunk and not being able to find his keys' as we were having some causal small talk while walking back to the front yard. Talk about walking right into my stereotype opinion of a tattooed 20 something. Ouch.

First impressions being what they are, I wondered about Tom's creditability and I began to question whether I had made a good choice in selecting this company to work on my lawn. All of that was based on one tattooed employee and his drunk comment.

Is it fair for me to judge on appearance? No, of course it's not. I felt shallow doing so, but we do it all the time. We form opinions about people and companies in all sorts of ways. And often, the first is what the person looks like and how well they represent themselves and their company.

Had Tom been very articulate and communicated to me that he was a subject matter expert in the area that mattered to me, and had Joe and Tom bothered to introduce themselves when they first knocked on the door, my opinion would have been significantly better. But, that is not what happened in this case.

In this age of self expression and as the working population transitions to a new generation, both employers and consumers are going to be faced with questions about staff and those that represent brands which with we do business. How do we make these choices as employers and as consumers?

I am going to keep using this company, but my opinion of their brand is less than it was 48 hours ago. When that happens, we all know that the door to leaving opens just a crack.

Make an appointment with your 'thinker' self

As we all get pulled in more and different directions are you saving any appointments for yourself? There are many things we all do everyday and we switch from role to role, often without thinking.

We have the administrator role - where we manage our relationships with co-workers and clients. Where we fill out our time sheet, process payroll, do monthly reports or manager our to do lists. You know the drill. This stuff is valuable, but I doubt anyone that thinks like a marketer looks forward to doing this stuff when they get out of bed in the morning. But, it needs to be done...and on time to boot.

We have the creative role - where you think of cool stuff to do that will sell more product or create awareness or move some type of change. The details that surround this are many and fun. As these ideas move toward implementation they begin to morph into the administration role duties. This is fine because it is great to see ideas turn into actions that turn into excitement, understanding or higher sales.

We also have the role that I'll call the thinker role, or at least we should. This is the place that I see many busy professionals - including myself at times - not making time in their day for strategy, consideration and general thought.

I know some make appointments with themselves for projects they need to work on or communications they need to write. However, seldom do you give yourself permission to sit and think about some of those ideas on your someday/maybe list or that idea you wrote on the mirror yesterday morning. That idea or those thoughts matter too...in fact they might matter more than getting that email sent before noon.

You can't be "on point" for every second of your work day, all week long. At least none of the great staff people I have had the joy to work with over the years could do it. So, make an appointment with yourself and keep it. It will allow you to do some deep thinking about your work, write your blog post or brainstorm about the mirror idea.

Make your appointment and keep it. You will be glad you did, and, if you are lucky, it will become the best habit you have.

The Great Disconnect!

A quick aside from marketing and other similar topics. On the surface this post might not appear to apply to my normal readers, but it does affect everyone AND it may impact marketer's ability to connect to customers in the future.

If you use a cell phone to talk, text, email or surf, did you know that most of time your call, text, email or web request is traveling on fiber optic cable under the ground...not through the air? It's true.

We all want to communicate when and where we want. That can be a voice conversation, an email, a text message or some form of video chat – just to name a few options. What used to be done solely from home can now be done from an iPad, a laptop or a smartphone.

Interestingly, all of these capabilities are still reliant on the network that keeps your home connected. Not the wires that actually come into your home, but rather what those wires are connected to, the broader network of fiber that stretches across town, the county, our state and our world.  It is that network that connects us all.

It is that underground network of fiber, which companies like Panora Telco, Marne Elk Horn, Walnut Communications and hundreds of others like them own which carry almost all of the wireless calls, emails to your smartphone, text messages and allows you to access the Internet from your wireless phone.

Wireless phones CANNOT function without an underground network to support them. This is a greatly misunderstood point by customers and more importantly regulators. It is the Great Disconnect!

The National Broadband plan, or more importantly the FCC rule making process currently underway, will have an impact on all of this because it incorporates changes to the funding model about how companies like those named above get paid to transport traffic. On the surface this is a good thing because changes are needed to adjust for the significant changes in the marketplace.

Deeper down is where the problems start to surface. It becomes apparent that DC regulators want to apply different rules for different areas. They are proposing to change the long held position that all American’s should have equivalent services, by giving more populated areas better services than you will be able to get.

Lest you think that 'only rural areas' will be affected, know that the FCC considers all of Iowa and many other rural states across the country as too rural to deserve the same services as a customer in, for example, New York, Washington DC and LA receive.

If regulators have their way, the cost recovery system will be changed in such a way so these companies will not be able to maintain the network that makes it all possible – including wireless services and broadband Internet. In addition, companies will not be able to bring expanded Fiber to the Home products which will provide huge bandwidth potential - up to 100Mb per home.

When you talk with Federal legislators, tell them to make sure the FCC treats less populated areas the same as metro markets. We all deserve the same platform for opportunities.

If you are interested in details go to www.thegreatdisconnect.org or talk with your local communications provider. Please help spread this message. Thank you in advance.

Why do your customers block you?

We have a lot of communications tools to use to reach customers these days.

And customers have a lot of ways to block or screen those messages from reaching them. Have you ever considered why that happens?

I cannot point to research (although I am sure it exists), but from my experience and from those I've observed, the reason customers put up walls is because they are getting messages they don't want - or at least not when and where they want them. Therefore, they develop ways to screen messages or block them altogether.

Certainly this is an evolution of sorts. When media and mass media was new, we purchased time to interrupt our customers to get them to consider our message/offer. When the messages get so abundant, customers go running for cover - with DVRs or ipods or voice mail, just to name a few 'screening' options.

I offer this food for thought today, so you can consider how you are communicating with your customers. Is it permission based? Can they opt in to methods of communication that they want?

All customer bases are somewhat unique and certainly all businesses are, so I encourage you to think about your customers and your business. Consider using your full quiver of arrows...even some that can be blocked or screened, but also be sure to provide communications options that customers have a voice in the 'how' and the 'when'.

In doing so, you will be remarkable and your loyal customers might just become positive word of mouth champions for you and your business.

Directions: Care. Demonstrate. Repeat

The signs are huge and everywhere. Sometimes you don’t even have to look for them.

You can immediately tell if a company cares about its customers or not. And, given a choice most of us will choose a company that thinks about making our life or experience better, over a company that does not.

And how is caring demonstrated: thousands of different ways, some small and some not so small. The details can vary by industry, but you know them when you see or hear them.

Examples could include: making it easy to pay your bill, allowing you to easily find the information you want on a website, having clean bathrooms, having loving frontline employees, or having clear signage.

What needs to be apparent is that the company has been intentional about considering what the customer experience is like AND then comparing that to what the preferred customer experience should be.

In reality, caring companies all come from one source – caring people. My initial thought is that you can’t teach a person to care…just like a basketball coach can’t coach ‘tall’. But I am reconsidering my initial thought, at least for now.

The only hope a non-caring person has is to slip through the hiring cracks and get hired by a company with a caring culture so strong that it engulfs them. But, if they don’t catch on quickly, the company could just as easily spit them back out.

Some might argue that not every person in a company needs to be caring. They might say that frontline, customer service and human resource staff are the only ones that need to be caring souls. They might say that accounting or senior management doesn’t need to care about customers the same way.

I would agree that they don’t need to demonstrate caring the same way, but they need to care – a lot MORE than frontline and customer service staff. Why? Because they make policy and then assure that it is followed. They develop training programs and they provide incentives to staff with praise and wage increases. They set the tone and build the culture.

So if you want to go far in a company or get your start in the world of work be sincere about caring for people and demonstrate how you HAVE and how you WILL bring those vital skills to your role.

Good IS the enemy of Great

Good is the enemy of GREAT.

Yes, I know Jim Collins started his book Good to Great this way...and that is the point.

All too often, in fact everyday, busy professional people that care about doing things well struggle with this idea.

You might or might not recognize the battle, but it is there.

Building something great is hard work. It requires a lot of effort and persistence...at a minimum. And building something Great may take a long, long time.

My wish for you and for me is that we recognize the choices that we are making and that we choose paths that lead to Great...not just Good.

Always remember that 'good enough' might be just that, but it is not Great.

Getting things DONE – what’s the next action!

Let’s take a quick departure from marketing specific things, and open up another topic near and dear to every working person. How do we move beyond fighting fires to efficiently and effectively working on projects?

I am a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). The book is different than many in that it provides practical tips, tricks and how tos that help you get all the stuff out of your head and into a trusted system.

After various starts and stumbles over the past 7 years, I have tried many different ways to manage my ‘next action’ lists. David Allen is right when he says that no one system is right for everyone; you have to find what works for you and use it. But the best part is the concepts stay the same, whether you are managing your lists in the cloud, in Outlook or on paper.

Over the years, I have tried many different set ups: The Outlook add-in, the file folders and finally my customer 3 ring binder.

I could not get comfortable using the electronic systems. When I got overwhelmed I would always run for paper and pen to make a list, so I figured I needed to just adopt that strategy from the outset. Now two years later, I am still using essentially the same system.

I am a digital guy and I love my electronic tools, but I love paper & pen because it is the most flexible planning tool you can use.

One of my fears with managing my lists electronically was about back up. Granted, my paper system could be lost, but it is much less likely given how I use it.

If you are interested, my tabs in my binder are these:

@Calls/Emails – for calls I need to make and emails I need to send

@Office – next action tasks for all work related projects

@Home – next action tasks for all home related projects

@Errands – list of stuff I need to get when I am out and about

@Dated Notes – all meeting notes go here. I archive the whole system (in another big 3-ring binder), but this is by far the biggest section. I used to use steno pads for calls and legal pads for meetings, but the challenge was how to store them for easy retrieval. Now it is all in one system.

@Someday – for all the someday/maybe projects or ideas

@Waiting For – this is the most helpful trick I gained from GTD. Make a dated note when you send an email, make a call or delegate something, now you don’t have to remember it because it is in your system.

@Projects – my list of projects. It is the only piece in my binder that is typewritten because my projects don’t change very often.

Tools you need to do this:
A standard 3-ring binder
Tabs of some kind
Paper you like to write on
Writing utensils (I have a pen, mechanical pencil and an eraser)
3 hole punch (if your paper is not punched)
(Optional) Labeler…to mark your tabs, etc.

We all need to get things done and with all the inputs we have in our lives today, this is a concept and some ideas for you to consider.

Good luck getting your things DONE and your inbox to empty!

Windshields and arrows

My perspective recently has been from the driver’s seat of an automobile. That is good in that I get to engage clients AND I get time to think about a variety of things I wouldn't if I was in my office. For instance:

How do you view your customers?

How do they view you?

Those are critical questions that I am not sure many business owners or marketers consider enough – because of time or other reasons. And yet, it is the answers to those questions that are so often sought after when we are looking for ways to increase sales or develop marketing messages to reach our customers.

Spend some time thinking about these two questions. You might be glad you did.

Another idea that has been rattling around my head is this. Often I hear marketers say to one another that ‘you should not use yourself as an example’ for how marketing messages are perceived/received.  While I understand what they are saying and what they mean, I have come to the conclusion that we SHOULD consider ourselves as examples…but we should also consider various other personality types…and how they receive and perceive messages.

Where I tend to hear this line of reasoning is when someone doesn’t like a certain medium or tactic, they will say, “I never look at (billboards, print ads, direct mail…you pick) and I know that our customers don’t either.”

While that might be true and one should always review if tactics are beneficial, it is also worth noting that customers consume information in a wide variety of ways. If everyone was the same that would be too easy and what fun would that be?!

I subscribe to the quiver of arrows approach to marketing. We have all these arrows in our arsenal, and we need to carefully select which ones we need to use for different reasons. But, relying on only one arrow, or too few to do the job, will lead to poor results.

Is this basic marketing? Yep. Do I see this mistake (or similar) made all the time? Yep. There is a reason they are called fundamentals. Often, those that handle the fundamentals best win. Good luck and have fun this week!

A warm cookie experience

Most people like a nice warm cookie...and my family and I are no exception. So, we were surprised and pleased to get warm chocolate chip cookies from a special warming drawer when we checked into the Double Tree in Denver last night. What a great treat after a long drive.

More importantly it prompted my girls to say..."I love this place, we should stay here again!" They quickly followed that comment up with this gem..."Do they have the hotel in other places? We need to stay here more often."

I laughed and agreed, but the brand and marketing guy in me was really thinking.

DoubleTree had done something unique that was not complicated, AND it had an impact and built great brand awareness with two young buyers - not to mention their parents. Proof that small things can make a big impression.

Making chaos less chaotic!

The first time I played organized football, I knew we would be learning ‘plays’ so we could move the ball and score points. What I didn’t realize is later in life I would identify this as a process that made something complex, so simple.

So simple in fact, I can recite the process to this day: Head-up, On-side gap, Off-side gap, Away Linebacker. I might not be able to execute it today, being an older version of myself, but I still would know what to do if my coach called a: slot right motion, 21 George trap.

You see I was a lineman. And we lineman needed a process to know who to block on any given play, regardless of what type of defense was being used against us. We also had to put ourselves in the shoes of our fellow linemen. We needed to know whom they were going to block, so we could make sure we blocked everyone. And, we needed to do all that in about 10 seconds or less.

We all used the same process and we trusted everyone to ‘read’ things the same way because we practiced it over and over. Most interesting is that regardless of what play was called, we used the same blocking process.

So, even though many different things were happening with the backs and receivers, we always ran the same process. Regardless of what the defense was doing, we always used the same process. The only difference was for certain plays, with a key word in them, we had to move to our secondary blocking assignment because another player was going to take our place. The purpose of this was to trick the defense, so we could get an advantage. It almost always worked.

This process took what could have been very complicated, something that could have changed game to game, and made if very easy to learn and execute. It was flexible and consistent. As such, we were very successful.

What is chaotic in your business today? You can implement a process that makes your chaos less chaotic. Maybe it is a process for returns. Or maybe it is a method to up-sell customers on the phone or at checkout. Perhaps it is as simple as developing a set of great answers to common customer questions.

The benefits to you are at least twofold.

1) You know some important, potentially costly, areas of your business are being handled consistently & efficiently.

2) That comfort will free up your staff from managing chaos to thinking about better ways to run your business, which can mean more profits to the bottom line.

So, who is Head-up to you and how are you going to handle the On-side gap in your business?

Blink...again

I just read this blog and it made me think about Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.

I understand what Graves is saying, and I'll give him the self justification themes, but I am having a hard time thinking that customers do not 'participate' more in their buying habits than Graves suggests.

I realize that this is somewhat of a tease for his book - good for him, by the way - but conceptually the idea that consumers are robots most of the time doesn't wash with my view of people. Certainly, we all have products or parts of our consumer behavior where this is true, but most of the time we are very self centered and plugged into our purchases.

Consumers are sophisticated and smart. Upon further review, the connection to Gladwell is only superficial. Beyond my initial reaction to the similarity of the topics, I am not sure they have much more in common beyond that. Sorry about that Malcolm!

Think drip...not flood.

I learned many things growing up on the farm. Like you do, I connect my life lessons to my experiences as a child and teenager.

• Hard work won’t kill you; in fact, it will make you strong in both body and mind.

• Working together with others toward a larger goal is very satisfying.  Usually strong effort leads to great results.

• Perseverance. For the times when great effort DIDN’T turn out well initially or at all, we learned to pick up and carry on. Sometimes it meant doing it all over and other times it meant learning to do without.

• Be resourceful and use what you have to make, build, fix or create what you need. Resourcefulness is a valuable life skill that not everyone has.

• You cannot control the weather and as such, you need to make the best of things regardless of the circumstances. Out of this, comes a great marketing lesson.

A farm kid learns the meaning of a ‘soaking rain’. It means that ever drop is absorbed into the soil where it will do the most good. In contrast is the ‘gully washer’. That is a downpour that comes so hard the water runs across the ground so quickly that it takes good soil with it…on the way to the creek or river. Not only didn’t it soak in, it took good things with it.

So when you market…regardless of the strategies you use…are you a soaking rain or a gully washer?

Many think if they flood the market with messages, customers will have no choice but to see, hear and then react to the messages, and they might to some extent. However, most of those messages run off into wastebaskets and email trashcans or the like. And, if all the messages do connect with customers, are you prepared to service all that business in a way that represents your brand like you want it to be represented?

Using a soaking method might work better. Always staying in front of your customer in some way, which is relevant to them, will go much farther in delivering your message. There are many great strategies to use to ‘drip’ market and you can read them here. In some cases it puts the customer in charge of when and how they get your messages, so your points have a better chance to soak into them.

Sometimes a flood tactic is needed to have an impact or to make a point, but using it as your only philosophy might not be the best choice for your brand or your budget. Think drip…not flood.

What to do with a BIG idea?

Big ideas are exhilarating. But, big ideas can be overwhelming too.

What do you do when you get a BIG idea? Tell someone? Write some notes? Start working on the idea? I suppose your answer might have a lot to do with your idea and who it affects or who it benefits.

BIG ideas, like any project, cannot be implemented immediately or just be done. I am a David Allen, Getting Things Done sort of guy. You can't do a project. You can only do the 'next action' on your list of actions to move it along. Yes, that is a simple statement and it IS a simple thing to do. And yet, often we don't do things that way. We fiddle and we fidget and we move about like a cow eating grass - hoping, almost begging, for lightning to strike and magic to happen. It won't.

The next time a BIG idea comes your way, first write it down and then break it down. Figure out all the small steps you need to do just to explore it and then to do it. And to do that, repeat this question: What is the next action I need to do to move this along?

Best of all, you don't need software or a computer or anything else technological. All you need is the most flexible and powerful of planning tools - a pad of paper and pen.

Let the BIG ideas flow!

"Marketing" doesn't have to be hard

I had a conversation with someone the other day that doesn't think like a marketer (their words, not mine). And that got me noodling on that idea.

Since I think like a marketer, diving into creative ideas to solve problems comes naturally. But I think marketing, and learning to think like a marketer, is more than that. One needs to understand what the ailment is before any marketing prescription is filled with hopes of healing.

Changing your product mix or where the checkout counter is will not raise your name awareness in your market.

Measuring the results of your marketing efforts is either time consuming or difficult, depending on your perspective. And even when done well, 'measurement' might not show the whole story.

So, before you let a radio or newspaper account executive tell you what you need, find someone that thinks like a marketer and invite them to lunch. Think of them as your personal business doctor.

Customers buy solutions

Customers buy products that solve problems. I know that sounds obvious, but I am continually amazed by what passes for 'planning' or 'strategic planning' in some companies or by some staff members at companies. Too often, we fail to focus on what customers want and we instead focus on what we know how to do or worse what we can do with the technology that we already have in place.

I understand from where these ideas come, but I don't understand why often those idea are acted upon. The only explaination I can come up with is staff may not take the time to really consider what they are undertaking. If they did, they'd see the absurity of some actions or lack of actions.

Consider it your duty to engage the process or the idea that is 'in play' and give it the brain power it needs - otherwise your customers will soon be someone else's.