Five ways to determine whether customers like your company

For the cynical reader: Yes, it does matter if the customer likes your company, at least in the long run. Companies that are disliked (check out the 10 most disliked companies in America) pay for their unpopularity in a number of ways. There were few lines at BP service stations this spring and summer, even though station owners were far removed from the decisions that precipitated the environmental disaster.

Okay, likability is in many ways separate from business results. Most of us work with a few companies whose names we could use as a curse! Factors including pricing, convenience, product quality, the mass or lack of competition a company faces, and others compete with and sometimes trump the "nice" factor.

Nonetheless... it matters. How is your company doing?

1-Do customers communicate both their satisfaction and their dissatisfaction to your company and its staff? Praise and happy customers are great. Constructive criticism, especially in terms that indicate customers would genuinely like to continue doing business with you, is just as important. Constant angry feedback, on the other hand, must not be construed as a positive.

2-Do customers exit stage right as soon as a viable alternative appears? Not good. If they work with you solely because you're the only provider of certain computer chips or fresh bagels, that's scant protection from new competitors.

3-Do customers who've stopped doing business with you (perhaps because they've retired, moved or changed focus) often keep in touch in some way? Outstanding...

4-What is the daily tone of your customer interactions? Friendly? Curt? Listen carefully.

5-Have you asked or surveyed? "What's our reputation among our markets (or in our community)?" "How are we doing for YOU?" "Would you recommend us?" Make it easy for customers to tell you - online or off, in writing or in person - what they think.

It's good to know.

The onus is on the applicant.

We've been reviewing resumes. If the right person applies, we may have a position available. Admittedly, the bar is high. And we've had a lot of applicants. Over 100 so far for a single job.

But here's the thing. I'll bet van Schouwen Associates is like a lot of companies right now, in that we're not looking for just anybody who can fill a seat and perform some tasks. vSA staff is high-performing. Always, and these days especially, anyone who joins our ranks must bring stellar skills, a certain sparkle and the get-up-and-go to get really challenging work done on really snappy deadlines.

When the cover letter says, "I am looking for a position with a growth-oriented company that allows me to further my career goals," do we jump up and down with excitement? When the resume blats, "achieves marketing goals within budget and exceeds corporate expectations", guess whether an interview will happen?* When the email announces that the applicant seeks a sales position (which this isn't), how does that come across?

Savvy employers want more than ever from employees and applicants because we face a wild business environment. If a company like ours doesn't find the right applicant, it may not hire at all. At vSA, we know full well that some of the resumes we just put aside required a lot of effort on the part of the applicant, and that the cover letters are heartfelt. We've all been there.

The challenge is to get into the head of the employer. We admire an applicant who addresses our real concerns, which may variously include ramping up quickly, being well-versed in up-and-coming industry sectors, writing like a star... etc. We also admire an applicant with a personality.

So that's the input we sometimes wish we could offer in the "no thanks" email we send to many applicants. Because we do mean it when we say, "We wish you well in your career search."

*No.

"My boss says we're being bought up by a European company and nobody is supposed to know."

Social media can be an excellent marketing tool for your company. It's also a venue in which your employees are spending a lot of time, and every so often, someone makes a comment such as, "We deliver cold pizzas every Saturday night because it's just too flippin' busy" or "Rumor has it my boss is leaving the company - but he doesn't know it yet." Also every so often, an employee lets the competition know, in no uncertain terms, that they "stink" - or worse.

If you haven't established a clear, written social media policy for your company, you can call your employees to task when and if you catch these indiscretions, but the responsibility for any damage done lies also with your firm.

Just as your company has, ideally, established standards for brand use, for dealing with the press, for giving (or not giving) employment references, for use of company computer systems and more, you must also establish standards for employees' use of social media as it impacts your company.

Certainly, standards include the basics: don't talk online about confidential company matters, don't reveal new products, don't discuss litigation, don't harass or badmouth management or coworkers, don't flame the competition – but there are many other considerations as well.

As a firm that has long been involved in supporting clients in developing and managing their messaging, vSA knows that the power of social media can be used for good or harm - even inadvertently. ("Facebook, are you a good witch or a bad witch?") We work with clients to help assure everyone at their companies with access to a keyboard knows what's okay and what's not in terms of promulgating company-related information that could pop up on Google for years to come. We'll share more on this topic in upcoming blog posts, and are available to consult with clients regarding both their focused use of social media and risk management techniques.

Five best uses for a microsite

[caption id="attachment_916" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Simonds International Microsite, www.neveryieldtosteel.com"][/caption]

Why develop a microsite when you already have a corporate site? There are a number of situations in which a microsite can be an unbeatable marketing tool. Here are five best uses for a microsite:

1-You are running a specialized promotion or contest. Examples may include: an offer that you're making in specific geographic regions and/or to specialized market segments. For example, one of our clients created a B2B promotion for just a few southern cities in which sales had been lagging. All sales and marketing outreach led small business owners from these cities to a microsite that offered business tips and allowed firms to compete for regional recognition... all while promoting our client's best products for small businesses.

2-You have a new Web application or service that deserves its own Web presence. Examples include: training, certification, relevant calculators, product life cycle assessments, competitive comparisons, product specification/product selectors/e-commerce, or specialized product catalogs. The sky is the limit here!

3-You are running a specific advertising/marketing campaign and want to test its success in bringing respondents to your landing page - a microsite allows you not only to track responses but also to continue the conversation or even clinch the sale on the spot.

4-You want to communicate actively with customers and prospects, creating a special place for them to speak or be recognized, through vehicles such as customer-focused case studies, awards, testimonials, Q & A, real-time communications, or other personalized content that develops and sustains relationships between your firm and your customers.

5-You want to entertain, engage or inform customers and prospects on a site that does not overtly promote your products, brand or services as the main corporate site may do. However, consider that you need to plan to "hook" these prospects at some point, so some (even subtle) branding and a link to your main company site are often in order; this is also an important consideration for search engine optimization (SEO).

Your thoughts and experiences? We'd enjoy learning from you.

Hot day kick start – for rainmakers only

It's a hot summer day. So sometimes what's obvious eludes us. After all, the sidewalks are steaming.

Here's an example from my own role as rainmaker: vSA offers strategic marketing. GREAT, I think to myself. PR with a new emphasis on interactive, really sharp Web outreach, innovative sales tools, advertising... and lots more. Cool.

BUT.

What does a prospect care about marketing, really (perhaps not much). It's my job to light the fire by determining SPECIFICALLY how vSA can improve the prospect's situation and life.

As in... vSA bolsters sales, builds market share, helps create thought leaders. vSA makes companies more visible than their competition so they LOOK BETTER than their competition, SELL MORE than their competition, and WIN in a dog-eat-dog economy.

Furthermore, we help make our individual clients ever more successful as executives or business owners. vSA can help them make more money as well as enable them to go home on time more often – feeling good – so they can ride their bikes or float in the pool.

After all, it IS hot out there.

Naptime has been canceled.

As I compose this post on a lovely summer afternoon, financial headlines include phrases such as "market swoon" and "U.S. Economy Is a Complete Disaster".  That's arguable, but nonetheless, it's no time for business professionals to close their eyes, not even for a moment. Here's why:

We're doing it all. Productivity continues to be high, because there are fewer people doing more jobs, working longer hours, coming up with better ideas. If we don't remain at the alert (or if we don't hire back some of those people we've ushered to the sidelines) production will fall and our ability to respond to opportunities quickly will drop.

Prospects and customers say "maybe" and "no" more easily than they say "yes". We must stay on our toes to give them reasons to move forward with us. They'll save money. They'll save time (which is money). They'll be more productive (which is money). Or they'll feel happier (which is more important than money sometimes, eh?). Get to yes. Argue with the going wisdom of the day, with the "we have no budget" or "we're not planning to do that until 2011" or "we have a supplier already." Invite your prospect to look at a situation through new eyes and improve results.

We're operating in a new environment. Picture yourself trying to perform everyday tasks in a weightless environment. Your cereal floats away. You can't move from here to there the way you used to. Doing business today is similar. People don't often pick up their phones unless they expect your call. They may make decisions by doing research online rather than talking to people like you. They do without, or they do things themselves. (How many major corporations have taken to creating their own sales materials, for example, or simply have no current materials? Oh, there's nothing more impressive than the sales rep drawing the new automation system on a frayed paper napkin at Burger King to show to a key prospect, I'll tell you!) Take the time to dream up new ways to help your prospect, and to speak to his or her real concerns, which are very likely different than they were two years ago.

Since you're wide awake anyway, walk away from the lagging crowd. Think for yourself or find a fresh new adviser or partner with whom to share ideas. Figure out how to develop, value, sell, and build market share for your product or service. Learn about the new tools and techniques, motivations and buy signals that work in a strange new world, even as the pundits wring their hands and your competition slumps in its seats.

By the way, coffee helps.

One question every person in charge should ask

There is not much of a silver lining to the Gulf oil spill, but people in charge – whether entrepreneurs, executives or longtime business owners – can garner valuable wisdom from one of the many mistakes that made the disaster more likely.

Potentially, busy with the severe recession, the financial sector bailout and the fight for a national health care plan, the Obama administration missed at least one ball it should have been keeping in the air: effective regulation of the oil industry in general and of deep-water drilling in particular.

The potent lesson for those of us in charge? There's a question we should ask ourselves often, and that we should grant ourselves the mental space and creative license to answer: What am I missing?

It's natural and tempting to get on a track and follow it, or to create a plan and execute it without taking the time and energy to step to the side and take stock - frequently. Are you missing opportunities? Not alert to certain dangers? Letting issues, people, money, or projects slide while you deal with everyday urgencies and tempests in a teapot?

It's true that people in charge have many of their best ideas while driving, showering or taking a vacation. Extend that freedom of mind into your everyday routine. Assign or put aside routine tasks to facilitate your own creative thinking. Read a business book on a new topic. Ask yourself if there's anything on your mind that you're not dealing with (it's often right there below the surface). Access your right brain.

What am I missing? I'm glad I asked myself. I'll ask again. And again.