Bailey WorkPlay
Customers, Marketing, Work, and Thoughts on a Creative Life
|
Plan Ahead To Your Next Job
Last week I started a new job as a marketing manager for a software company here in Austin (which I hope offers a sort of apologetic explanation for my hiatus). The first week is always a mix of excitement, bewilderment, and high anxiety. It was also a chance to practice some ethnographic techniques which I’ll explain in greater detail in an upcoming post. But as I experienced the full rush of being back in steady employment for the first time in 20 months, I was constantly... |
|
What Does Customer Delight Mean Anyway?
Anyone know what it means to “delight” customers? Or what it takes to exceed their expectations? Is it even worth the effort? These are some questions raised in the latest Harvard Business Review article, Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers (or read Anne Miner’s synopsis Should you stop trying to “exceed customer expectations”?). I once served under a VP of Services who wanted to dramatically improve customer service so he made it a benchmark to “delight”... |
|
Are We Down For The Count? Never!
One of my all-time favorite movies is Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman and George Kennedy. Remember the classic scene where both men fight in the yards and Newman’s Luke refuses to stay down? It’s right up there with the egg eating bet in terms of iconic scenes. We’re all going to get knocked down. It’s a fact. And as so many wise folks have said before, it’s not the getting knocked down that’s the problem…it’s refusing to get back... |
|
The Price Of Free And Google Voice
There’s an update – and positive resolution – to this saga. What’s the price of free? It’s not a trick question like “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb” but a dead serious one, particularly if you’re a small business relying on inexpensive business solutions to succeed. You might use Zoho CRM for your customer database, Evernote to take important business notes, and Skype to communicate with your employees or contractors.... |
|
Kill The Resume
I can’t possibly say how much I dig this article. Ben Popper at Business Insider advises companies Want To Hire Smart? Ditch The Resumes. Regardless of whether you’re in the middle of a job search or gainfully employed, I think the ideas highlighted in the article will resonate with you. For me, resumes are like elevator pitches. Excellent at helping job seekers fine-tune their professional marketing focus but utterly worthless when it comes to adequately communicating... |
|
My Problem With the Fast Company Influence Project
The latest social media meme to roll around is Fast Company’s Influence Project and I’m going to take the role of pissy curmudgeon on this one. Fast Company wants to find out who the most influential people online are right now. In order to figure this out, they’ve devised the following measurement criteria: 1. The number of people who directly click on your unique URL link. This is the primary measure of your influence, pure and simple. 2. You will receive partial... |
|
Your Opinion Is Valuable To Us…
Well, that is, if we ever get around to doing anything with your opinion. Sadly, that’s often the internal corporate dialogue that happens around customer surveys and feedback mechanisms. Once upon a time when I was a membership development director of a nonprofit association, I had a long chat with my Board of Directors. They wanted to conduct an extensive member survey to solicit opinions on the state of the professional society. At this point, it was my job to ask questions... |
|
Importance Of The Internal Customer Experience
A couple days ago, Eric Jacques wrote a post called How to Listen to Your Customers which was an excellent complement to my Listening to What Isn’t Said. In the post, he made one recommendation that really struck home for me: Everyone in your organization needs to learn how to honestly and completely listen to customers (and remember the internal customers). In particular, it was his reminder about internal customers. How many times do we focus so intently outside the organization... |
|
Three Questions For Every PR Professional
I don’t get them everyday, but today I received three emails from assorted PR agencies that kind of struck a nerve. I’m not technically in public relations, but I am heavily involved in communications so I know a thing or two about what works and what really sucks. Don’t worry…this isn’t going to be a “Bash PR” post. Well, at least not totally. Instead, I’m hoping I can offer some feedback to those in the PR profession who might... |
|
Sensemaking and the Customer Experience
How much do you know about your customers…I mean really know? Get beyond the demographics, beyond the statistics, beyond the purchasing numbers. How much do you know about how your customers interact with their everyday world? And more importantly for you, how do your customers interact with their world using your product or service? It’s in understanding this interaction where your brand can go from ordinary to extraordinary. Enter anthropology and the expertise we... |
|
We’re All In-between Swims
This one’s subtitled: An essay on learning (and trying not to drown). Once upon a time, I decided I wanted to experience the excitement and anxiety of learning something new – the art of whitewater kayaking. Ever since my first rafting trip as a teenager, I knew I wanted to paddle my own boat. The kayakers looked like they were enjoying the river in ways that we on the large raft were unable. I told my buddy next to me that someday I wanted to do that. Someday. So, a few... |
|
Listening To What Isn’t Said
Peter Drucker once said, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” Exactly…and I’d also suggest hearing what isn’t said is just as important in building a remarkable customer experience. But instead, how many times do businesses listen for what they want to hear from their customers? Or maybe get defensive about what is said? Or take what is said at full face value and miss out on so much of the subtext and subtle... |
|
Five Myths Perpetuated By Big Brand Employers
I wish I didn’t have to write this post. I wish it wasn’t required to point out something that seems so damn obvious. But it has become tragically necessary based on far too many things said and emailed to me lately. Therefore, I’m going to attempt to clear up an unfortunate misconception that blinds too many otherwise smart individuals. It’s called Big Brand Blindness and its based on a lie that seems to carry so much weight: An individual with little-to-no... |
|
Python Thursdays: In A World Full Of Supermen…
…Sometimes it’s the simple things that really differentiate who we are and what we can add to the world. What our hero, Bicycle Repair Man, shows is that it doesn’t matter if we’re surrounded by awesomely powerful individuals. Our job is to dig down and discover what truly makes each of us unique and what skills we have that we can use in our own distinct way. So what about you…how do you relate to our hero here? |
|
You’re Outta Here!
If you’re anything like me, you probably deal with clutter in your life. Even though I try to stay organized, I often find my home office in some state of mess. Oh, and my garage, my truck, my storage shed…you get the picture. And what about our minds? Any crap cluttering up our thoughts like anxiety about tomorrow or worries about past mistakes? Perhaps lingering bitterness around a relationship gone bad or a job that’s gone downhill? Personally, I was hanging... |