Zane Safrit

Anna Farmery's 8 Laws of Employee Engagement

With an explicit nod to Mr. Murphy for his law, Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand has listed 8 variations of Mr. Murphy's wisdom in her post Murphy's Law of Employee Engagement.

They all are great, spot-on, for creating an engaged workforce. Number 5, though, caught my eye:

Opening the dialogue, opens the floodgates....but I would rather be ready with my waders than marooned on my own!

Overlooked in the discussions about how to create an engaged company is that in the first days of opening the conversational floodgates within a company, there may be a bit of a tidal wave of conversations that come flooding over you. It's ok. Like a dam burst, sometimes there's some stuff swept up in the current. Hold tight. Keep your waders on. Let it pass. When the waters settle, and they will, you'll have an enaged workforce, with solutions and energy and passion multiplied. The pace of change and solutions coming forth will be greatly enhanced.

That sense of isolation you may have had as a leader should be diminished. That's a good thing.

Customers and You: Do you miss each other?

Would you confess, one to the other?

Anna Farmery at EngagingBrand noted in her twitter post, loving this post at Conversation Agent...I'd say Me, too.

The post is The Cluetrain Manifesto Conversation.

"You’re either participating or you’re not"...,

These are not necessarily negative conversations, mind you. They well could be constructive discussions filled with chances to learn about your customers and what you need to do to make them happy. Happy people buy more and tell their friends. It's your prerogative whether to join the conversation or not.

Yes. Every brand has a prerogative. ( Ask Bobby Brown; he had one, too.)

Most, funnily enough, choose to not join the conversation. Go figure. Their loss, really.

That's why so much of marketing these days isn't about talking to ...gasp...the customer. No, it's about statistical modeling and research, survey numbers and margins of error, statistical anomalies... Not about conversations, no.

What an opportunity, though, especially for small businesses where one2one conversations with customers, with each other in the company, can happen daily. They should happen daily.

That close contact with the customers is one of THE KEY ADVANTAGES a small business has over the large impersonal cash-cow brands we call national brands. They can customize their products to their customers needs based on what the customer tells them...in person. That, my friends (both of you), is the true definition of direct marketing.

But enough about me...(What do YOU think about me?) Valerie Maltoni writes Conversation Agent. This post is a great post about conversational marketing.

And Anna Farmery writes a great blog and hosts a great podcast series at The Engaging Brand. She speaks, we should listen.

Are a networker or just flotsam?

At the end of the day, those of us that are part of the conversation are those of us who have the mind-set to network with and converse with others.

Everybody else, no matter what title they assign themselves is just another piece of flotsam washed up on the shore of the community they claim to be a part of.

From Paul O'Flaherty's post titled Networkers Network. Everybody Else Just Shouts

Paul pretty much sums it up.

If We Could Talk to [Our Customers]

I was out in the yard this week. And I started laughing. For some companies the reality of talking with their customers (or employees...) is as real as Doctor Doolittle talking to animals. I began to hum that little ditty If I could talk to the animals. And I came in and translated the song.

If we could talk to the customers, just imagine it
Chatting to a guy in michiGAN
Imagine talking to a buyer, chatting to a VP
What a neat achievement that would be.

If we could talk to the customers, learn their challenges
Maybe get a QNA degree.
We'd study businesses and partners, what they’re needs really are,
Alligator, guinea pig, and flea.

We would converse like people now, hear each other,
And we would never, ever need to curse again,
If people asked us, can you listen to what I have to say,
We'd say, "We do it every day?"

If we could talk to the customers, learn all their problems
Think of all the things we could discuss
If we could walk with our customers, talk with our customers,
Stop ‘n learn to hear our customers,
And they would want to come and tal-l-l-k to us.

(Ok. So, it helped pass the time working in the yard. I'm watching the NBA tonight.Take it easy. The principle still applies.... :)

Why do you blog

I realized I could make money with a business model where the blog was central to it. - Anita Campbell, SmallBizTrends, in her interview at Lexblog.

Works for me. It worked for me as CEO at Conference Calls Unlimited, when advertising, all forms, stopped working and I turned to blogs as an easy way to A. replace the missing traffic to the website; B. add to the company's positive cash-flow; C. differentiate the company's products and services and identity; E. network easily and quickly with thought-leaders and smart people around the world. And they with the company. And that led to business and partnerships. And an introduction to Anita. Back in the day, 2007, I was interviewed on her show.

Blogs are one of the resources that level the playing field for small business. Nothing is more unique than a person's voice or their words. There is no greater differentiator than a business owner's words or their voice sharing their passion, their dedication, their vision, their why-they-get-up-in-the-morning reasons, their failures, what they learned...why their product/service is different...all very personal, all things a giant corporation can only hope to emulate like wearing Armani at a neighborhood event. Very fake, very obvious. And everyone asks...who's the Goob? Who invited them? Do they belong here? And the answer's always 'no, but they're harmless. But keep an eye on 'em anyway, they're souls may be missing'.

Ok. That last one's harsh. But...if the suit fits, you know?

Top 100 Social Media Tools

A comprehensive ranking of the Top 100 Social Media Tools by Steve Dale.

Thanks, Steve.

But, I'm busy. I don't want 100...I want one. THE ONE.

[Customers] Know Best

So just ask 'em how to make your product/service/experience better.

Choice or Confusion?

Which do you offer your customers? Choices or confusion?

I know I'm not looking for choices. I'm looking for a solution. One solution. The right solution for me, right now. And anyone who can provide the right solution for me, right now, for my challenge not only gets my money, but gets my word-of-mouth, and my repeat business. An all-in-one package. Their value add was in simplifying my life, saving my time and helping get on to the next challenge. I'll return to that solutions-provider again, if only to seek their advice or their direction.

I know at Conference Calls Unlimited, where I was the CEO, prospects weren't interested in all the service options and features offered. They wanted the right solution, for the right challenge, right now. The solution there was to ask them what their goals were with the service. What they planned to do with a conference call, how many people, how often, were they going to record it etc. After that, then the sales agent could give them the right solution, right now for the right challenge. That's why the sales conversion rate was very high and so was the customer's loyalty.

Prospects and customers aren't interested in what you have to offer. They're interested in what they need. Help them find it. Help them find solutions for their challenges. Then you have a solution for some yours including: growth, sustainability, positive cash-flows, customer loyalty...employee loyalty, happiness...

Link: When Less is More in Consumer Choice at MarketingProfs Daily Fix.

Customers or guests?

The more we treat them like customers, the less we have to be nice to them, because the niceness is purchased.

The more we treat them like guests, the easier it is to be nice to them, because we are less worried about the price and more interested in the relationship. - From Expectations at Levite Chronicles by Jon Swanson.

Customers or guests?

I vote guests.

DIY Website Design

Becky McCray offers 2 ways to build your small biz website nearly for free. Check it out. It's a great post. It's focused, it's clear, it's USEFUL. And she goes a few steps more and walks you through domain-name registration, getting your website found, she shares some examples and how she uses these resources.

Good stuff.

Seeing your website finished and live is a satisfying moment. And the  tools Becky shares bring that moment to you sooner, and with less agony.

Remember: Your website is what sells, not your personal agony in creating it, ok Vincent?