Using blogs as buzz-marketing tools can have its dark side. Blogs, in the hands of those who use the technology unscrupulously or in “stealth” mode, are a double-edged sword, as likely to generate bad publicity as they are good.
As with any other nascent marketing tool, mistakes are inevitable. Because of the viral nature and (more…)
When we apply credit card, usually there are some steps until we got the card (if our personal and financial data are approved by bank). The first step, we fill all information required on the available form and send it back to the bank or via (more…)
For any growth plan to succeed, you have to include the entire organization in the process. It can’t be the founder’s plan or the management team’s plan. Some people call this getting buy-in. I call it logical. If I want people to perform at their very best, then it only makes sense to let them have a say in what they plan to achieve and how they plan to go about achieving it. I learned this helpful piece of information early in my career and quite by accident.
Customer communication is going to look far different in the near future than it does now. The key is going to be honing your database to give all customers what they want, when they want it, the way they want it.
There was a term in vogue in the late 1990s—mass customization. The notion was that many successful companies (more…)
As it relates to customers, everyone in your organization should be able to access everything they need to know, any-time or anywhere. This is difficult, yes, but not impossible.
How many times have you heard, “that’s not my department” or “that’s not my job”? That’s a (more…)
Do your new hires know what makes you tick? Do they know why you exist and what matters to your customers? The training I’m talking about is customer-driven training, not internally driven training. Most small businesses have some rudimentary form of initial training, but it is focused on how to work the cash register, how to input data into the computer, or how to file the paper work. Yes, those things are (more…)
Perhaps you read the last section and think that you are the rare exception. You are saying to yourself, “Steve’s right; most companies aren’t customer driven. Thank goodness we have stressed a customer-driven orientation so much in my organization.”
Let me see if I can’t convince you that you probably have more work to do.
Let’s take a look at something as simple as your invoices. Not every (more…)
You’ve probably heard of Peter Senge’s work (The 5th Disci-pline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, 1st edition. New York: Currency Doubleday, 1994) even if you’ve never heard his name. His breakthrough thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in the late 1980s proposed the systems thinking method to help a business become (more…)
Any growth plan should be written down if you expect it to have a lasting impact. When it is written down, the plan takes on the sort of permanence that you need. It can be easily shared with others. Drafts redo, and improvements can be made over time. Remember, the growth plan is a never-ending (more…)
Once all those involved are more or less nodding their heads yes to the growth plan, it then becomes important to share that information with the organization in all forms of communication. First, get a copy of the plan into everyone’s hands. From this point forward, every ad hoc meeting by every division should review the current plan. Every internal newsletter or memo can highlight aspects of the plan. Your web site can also include plan information, with sensitive data password protected in an intranet application. Even new hires should be brought up to speed right away.