Technology and Corporate Change
7.3 million pages of information are added daily to the Internet. An individual based in San Antonio, TX, can conduct a virtual conference call with live cameras (built into a computer) to an unlimited number of people in multiple countries daily. A company can network its phones, printers, computers, bank accounts, payment systems, meeting schedules, human resources functions and almost anything else between offices across town or offices around the globe. Today’s American business is operated by knowledge and data along with the prowess to sift through what is important and what is not. An encyclopedia used to take up a large bookshelf. Today, all of that information can be stored on a piece of equipment the size of a stick of gum and taken with you in your pocket.
Since the mid-1980’s the ability to consolidate and assimilate information via technology has been the core growth factor in US business. If you aren’t convinced, check out almost every paid position in the country over $30,000 per year and see what the requirements are for having a grasp of the computer or another tech oriented device. The positive side to this is that we are aware of vastly more of the world around us than before and where business used to be limited to a small area for most, now a company of only one employee can be described as a multi-national. The downside of it all is that we have become far less personal. Most business today is conducted via the web using email and similar communications functions. As an example, the youngest billionaire ever(23 years old) created the communications website Facebook. It is a social network, professional network, and advertising space all built into one. Companies use it to recruit while populations in Columbia use it to fight a war against rebel factions. That removes a lot of the personal element of business making the relationships much more about how an employee can act and react to what technology they have at their finger tips.
If one is to study and learn the rapidity with which a corporation can change, they must recognize that data transferred via different technology to its core customer, employee, or constituent can be done in the fraction of a second. That can mean instantaneous sales or instantaneous business collapse.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
A long day in the customer service line
I've got a congratulations and a complaint today.
We'll start with the congrats because I"m feeling like good news. I bought a great Samsung printer in mid-2007 but there was a bit of a programming glitch that kept popping up. It got bothersome enough that I called customer service. After a fairly frustrating day dealing with people who act more like automotons, it was nice to get a person who actually knew what he was doing. When I called a computer voice told me that the wait would be about five minutes but they were on in three. Then, after discussing my problem for about 60 seconds, he told me what the problem was and that the tech service guys would need to email me a fix. Then, you know what he did? He actually called the tech guys himself and it was in my email box within ten minutes. So, in total, my problem was fixed in under fifteen minutes. CONGRATULATIONS TO SAMSUNG for doing the right thing and to the customer service rep for actually fixing a problem and taking care of the customer. Customer service is practically non-existent these days and it is a moral imperative to recognize it when it comes along. Even better, I'm not paying any premium fees to receive good service from Samsung, they just did it. I'm now a devotee.
Thankfully my good experience happened late in the day because it's always nice to finish on a high note. Earlier, I had the misfortune of actually calling a billing department at Verizon and expecting them to know something about my bill. I've got to hand it to them for their commercials which are excellent, but their affiliation with Idearc Media is a nightmare. Let's just say that while advertising does work, advertising with them cost me more than the business I received by a lot. It doesn't help when the company you are supposed to be working with crashes your website and then blames it on you. The details are too painful but if you really want them, email me. Just don't do business with Verizon's directories or Idearc media if you can possibly avoid it.
We'll start with the congrats because I"m feeling like good news. I bought a great Samsung printer in mid-2007 but there was a bit of a programming glitch that kept popping up. It got bothersome enough that I called customer service. After a fairly frustrating day dealing with people who act more like automotons, it was nice to get a person who actually knew what he was doing. When I called a computer voice told me that the wait would be about five minutes but they were on in three. Then, after discussing my problem for about 60 seconds, he told me what the problem was and that the tech service guys would need to email me a fix. Then, you know what he did? He actually called the tech guys himself and it was in my email box within ten minutes. So, in total, my problem was fixed in under fifteen minutes. CONGRATULATIONS TO SAMSUNG for doing the right thing and to the customer service rep for actually fixing a problem and taking care of the customer. Customer service is practically non-existent these days and it is a moral imperative to recognize it when it comes along. Even better, I'm not paying any premium fees to receive good service from Samsung, they just did it. I'm now a devotee.
Thankfully my good experience happened late in the day because it's always nice to finish on a high note. Earlier, I had the misfortune of actually calling a billing department at Verizon and expecting them to know something about my bill. I've got to hand it to them for their commercials which are excellent, but their affiliation with Idearc Media is a nightmare. Let's just say that while advertising does work, advertising with them cost me more than the business I received by a lot. It doesn't help when the company you are supposed to be working with crashes your website and then blames it on you. The details are too painful but if you really want them, email me. Just don't do business with Verizon's directories or Idearc media if you can possibly avoid it.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year and Holiday Experience
Happy New Year to all and may 2008 be great. As I travelled across the country by car this holiday season, I got the chance to observe the world outside my little corner of it a bit more. The sad truth is that the state of customer service continues to degrade, but there were a few highlights among the holiday service disaster. Amazingly, I found Alamo car rental's speed, efficiency and price to be amazingly good. I'd always felt as though Hertz provided the "Gold" standard in customer service for the car rental industry. But, they've been slipping lately in that sector while their prices continue to lead the pack. This year, Alamo had the best price and great service, and I haven't been able to say that about anyone in a long time. I should also point out, a lot of that had to do with the three customer service reps on the front desk. They acted as though they wanted to be there. They didn't treat their customers like one more bolt on an assembly line waiting to get screwed on too tight.
On the other extreme was my historically favorite ski area in the country. I hadn't been back to Winter Park Ski Area in the heart of the Colorado Rockies since they finished their "upgrades" over the last two years. While this area's ski school is still way beyond average, I noticed this "family" ski area has priced itself so high that my lift-mates on most rides were asians or europeans and not the more regional based crowd of the past. While this kept the lift lines short and you can credit this to the weak dollar if you want to, but Winter Park along with most of the rest of the domestic tourism industry has forgotten who their "core" customers were. I understand they can make a buck right now, but it isn't sharp long term thinking to forget to take care of the guy who can drive to you while wooing the people who have to fly 5000+ miles.
The key message to all of this is take care of your core, and build your level of service.
On the other extreme was my historically favorite ski area in the country. I hadn't been back to Winter Park Ski Area in the heart of the Colorado Rockies since they finished their "upgrades" over the last two years. While this area's ski school is still way beyond average, I noticed this "family" ski area has priced itself so high that my lift-mates on most rides were asians or europeans and not the more regional based crowd of the past. While this kept the lift lines short and you can credit this to the weak dollar if you want to, but Winter Park along with most of the rest of the domestic tourism industry has forgotten who their "core" customers were. I understand they can make a buck right now, but it isn't sharp long term thinking to forget to take care of the guy who can drive to you while wooing the people who have to fly 5000+ miles.
The key message to all of this is take care of your core, and build your level of service.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Some nice ideas on advertising with Blogs
Ok, I don't want to steal somebody else's stuff and post it as my own, so I need to send you to another post. Check out the link below, its a post regarding how to make sure that online blog advertisers do things in such a way that people actually pay attention and care. Of course, many of the concepts proposed apply across marketing mediums, but we are a "blog" so figured we'd keep it relevant, right?
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/11/dear_nbc_your_ad_on_my_blog_su.html/?adref=NsbF3c7
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/11/dear_nbc_your_ad_on_my_blog_su.html/?adref=NsbF3c7
Monday, December 17, 2007
Underestimating yourself
This week, I was reading a marketing question from a small business person on MarketingProfs.com. He happened to be in Residential Construction. As he posed his question to the forum, the question was posed, "Since Construction is a dry market, what else can I do thank make a logo and some business cards?" Actually, the complete list of what he'd done is here:
1)Made company logo 2) thank you letters (send these out after completing jobs 3) Business cards 4) Magnets 5) Also a large photo album to show out potential new customer our excellent work on estimates. 6)Envelopes with our logo 7)website 8)send before and after pictures of their job when sending thank you letters 9)Company t-shirts
This actually makes me distraught. I am a HUGE fan of small business and I constantly find hard working entrepreneurs and business people selling themselves short. What is more important to an individual than the roof under which one puts their family to sleep each night? Your home is your castle, the place in which lifelong memories are built. While the components of construction may be bricks, mortar, nails, drywall and the like ----- the product of construction is what dreams are made of. Ultimately, what you say with the logo, t-shirt, website, and the rest is vastly more important than the stuff itself. If you feel you are in a "boring" industry, your marketing will convey that very point.
Sometimes it helps to have someone look at your business from the outside in to show you what they see. If, as a business person, you work to provide a service or product, you cannot allow yourself to diminish its importance.
1)Made company logo 2) thank you letters (send these out after completing jobs 3) Business cards 4) Magnets 5) Also a large photo album to show out potential new customer our excellent work on estimates. 6)Envelopes with our logo 7)website 8)send before and after pictures of their job when sending thank you letters 9)Company t-shirts
This actually makes me distraught. I am a HUGE fan of small business and I constantly find hard working entrepreneurs and business people selling themselves short. What is more important to an individual than the roof under which one puts their family to sleep each night? Your home is your castle, the place in which lifelong memories are built. While the components of construction may be bricks, mortar, nails, drywall and the like ----- the product of construction is what dreams are made of. Ultimately, what you say with the logo, t-shirt, website, and the rest is vastly more important than the stuff itself. If you feel you are in a "boring" industry, your marketing will convey that very point.
Sometimes it helps to have someone look at your business from the outside in to show you what they see. If, as a business person, you work to provide a service or product, you cannot allow yourself to diminish its importance.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Some cool mass marketing from a traditional below the line marketer
I'm generally not a fan of Television advertising as a way to build relationships with your customers. Unfortunately, unless you've got the ad budget of an auto manufacturer, government entity, beer brand, or Nike; it is hard to make a splash and then keep it going. But, I think Starbucks has grown big enough that they can now pull it off :) and with McD's breathing down their experiential marketing coffee cups, it was time.
So, the good news was that the new Starbuck's holiday commercials were a nice breath of charmed wintery air that left you feeling all warm and cozy inside, much like they want you to feel in their stores. The long term transition of Starbuck's marketing to mass media will have to be watched closely to see if they can hold it together, but their initial foray left me at least feeling pretty good about it all.
For the $4.0o Venti Dulce Macchiatto Amaretto Mocha Latte with cinnamon and a twist they are still going to have to deliver the "Experience" that their followers expect on site. But, with an ultra caffeine fix location on almost every street corner and the master of the Big Mac on the hunt for the perfect cup of coffee, even this "normally anti-TV" guy has to congratulate them on a good move.
So, the good news was that the new Starbuck's holiday commercials were a nice breath of charmed wintery air that left you feeling all warm and cozy inside, much like they want you to feel in their stores. The long term transition of Starbuck's marketing to mass media will have to be watched closely to see if they can hold it together, but their initial foray left me at least feeling pretty good about it all.
For the $4.0o Venti Dulce Macchiatto Amaretto Mocha Latte with cinnamon and a twist they are still going to have to deliver the "Experience" that their followers expect on site. But, with an ultra caffeine fix location on almost every street corner and the master of the Big Mac on the hunt for the perfect cup of coffee, even this "normally anti-TV" guy has to congratulate them on a good move.
Marketing a Brand
Marketing 101
Marketing, in a nutshell, is how you communicate who and what your product is and what you, as a company, stand for in an effort to expose the most people possible to the product and ultimately sell a LOT of it. This can include everything from traditional sales tactics to Advertising, event sponsorships, public relations through the press, the internet, product sampling and a variety of other pathways. Marketing conveys to a customer your passion for the product and why they should buy from you instead of a competitor. Why should they buy and tell others about it? How do you build a relationship between a product and a customer that conveys the kind of feeling we all have when the work week is over and we get together with good friends on a Friday night. That is what we need to be. That is marketing.
Creating a personal relationship between products, services, and consumers.
Who are Marketers?
In an organization everyone is a marketer to some degree. Everyone who works on mixing the product, assembling the packaging, shipping it to customers and selling to distributors is part of the marketing process. Perfecting the taste of a product, perfecting the package, and perfecting the customer’s access to the product are keys to one's growth. Then, insuring that the marketing team is effectively communicating the perfection of the product and its key attributes will make for a successful venture. Truly successful companies find ways to create passion among not only their “official” marketing and sales staff, but also within every individual employee. If every employee understands the passion customers have for a product, they will be excellent public representatives every day.
How do we do it?
These days, people are so absorbed with life, work, family, kids, and activities that to create a relationship between a company and a customer, you must go to where they are. In terms of marketing dollars across the United States, Television and other mass media spends are going down while direct investment in neighborhoods, cultural programs, sports, and music are going up. It is involvement in peoples’ lives that make the biggest impact now. This is true across culture groups and across age groups. Television, while it still has its place, is so cluttered with hundreds of other messages that it frequently gets lost. By essentially going, as a brand, to a family soccer game or a local concert, we prove that we understand what is important to our customers and thus, they trust us and purchase our product.
Marketing 101
Marketing, in a nutshell, is how you communicate who and what your product is and what you, as a company, stand for in an effort to expose the most people possible to the product and ultimately sell a LOT of it. This can include everything from traditional sales tactics to Advertising, event sponsorships, public relations through the press, the internet, product sampling and a variety of other pathways. Marketing conveys to a customer your passion for the product and why they should buy from you instead of a competitor. Why should they buy and tell others about it? How do you build a relationship between a product and a customer that conveys the kind of feeling we all have when the work week is over and we get together with good friends on a Friday night. That is what we need to be. That is marketing.
Creating a personal relationship between products, services, and consumers.
Who are Marketers?
In an organization everyone is a marketer to some degree. Everyone who works on mixing the product, assembling the packaging, shipping it to customers and selling to distributors is part of the marketing process. Perfecting the taste of a product, perfecting the package, and perfecting the customer’s access to the product are keys to one's growth. Then, insuring that the marketing team is effectively communicating the perfection of the product and its key attributes will make for a successful venture. Truly successful companies find ways to create passion among not only their “official” marketing and sales staff, but also within every individual employee. If every employee understands the passion customers have for a product, they will be excellent public representatives every day.
How do we do it?
These days, people are so absorbed with life, work, family, kids, and activities that to create a relationship between a company and a customer, you must go to where they are. In terms of marketing dollars across the United States, Television and other mass media spends are going down while direct investment in neighborhoods, cultural programs, sports, and music are going up. It is involvement in peoples’ lives that make the biggest impact now. This is true across culture groups and across age groups. Television, while it still has its place, is so cluttered with hundreds of other messages that it frequently gets lost. By essentially going, as a brand, to a family soccer game or a local concert, we prove that we understand what is important to our customers and thus, they trust us and purchase our product.
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