Woo Hoo! At the heart of the matter

A Virtual Assistant I know of recently blogged her recommendation that a business owner or GM should not publish their contact details to their website unless they get their mail re-directed automatically to a PA, assistant, junior manager.

The rationale was that from an administrative point of view the head of the business doesn't want to be too accessible because they will get swamped with communication.

And I get it from the point of view of time management.

But from a branding point of view having the head of the business hidden behind a gate-keeper may not be the message you want to send.

In particular in small business it is often seen as a big benefit to customers that in dealing with a small business they are dealing with the business owner direct.

And small business often wants to promote that accessibility - that the 'personality' of the business is not big, corporate, pompous, but flexible, friendly, down to earth.

I think a far better option is to set up Email Rules within your email host - publish the friendly, up front email address (such as Fred @ Domain) and have all emails to that address go immediately into a specific folder (with a copy to the assistant) so that the customer feels that they have direct communication to the head of the business - and the head of the business knows that the assistant will flag want needs to be actioned.

It may be that the way your Administration person wants things set up is what will work best for your business and for your brand.

Or not.

Beware the sweeping statements that claim one best way of doing things.

How do you handle how people can communication with you?

 

I’ve always enjoyed singing; in the car, the shower, and in shops accompanied by Muzak. I thrill to the words:  “How does that song/TV theme go?” especially if uttered by the strangers at the next table.   My first public performance was as a 2 year old in the haberdashery department at the top of the escalators in Myer Lonsdale St., Melbourne. The Song was in fact a Jingle (an early dalliance with advertising?).  The lyrics:  It’s pink and blue and primrose too – Dawn Toilet Paper.  (It had a special resonance as my mum’s name is Dawn. But at a time of Vegemite naming disasters I wonder if the marketing manager at Dawn had considered the play on words...Mmmm...I digress.... ). 

I loved being part of the choir at school many decades ago.  Daily school assembly was made bearable by the opportunity to belt out a hymn. Singing was one of those things I was going to do something about “when I grow up”.

Well, I haven’t grown up yet but nudged along by the joy of the rain choir and a dawning realisation that at almost 50 there are things still to be done so I better get moving, I finally made time this week to go along to the local singing group.

My criteria for gracing that particular group with my vocal process was pretty simple.  Convenience. They are local.  There is car parking.  They meet on Monday nights (when there is nothing else on and it is far too early in the week to start making excuses for not going out).  No audition was an added bonus!

I envisaged that as they advertise for people to join at the start of each term, that I would probably be one of a few newbies on the night.  I had pictured humming a few bars of something so that they could decide if you could carry a tune and whether to stick you in with the sopranos or bass.  My vision extended to perhaps a sweet old thing on a keyboard along the lines of a Vicker of Dibley character, handing out stacks of sheet music to the eager vocalists; and a conductor/choir mistress taking as line by line, part by part through a couple of numbers.

I pictured wrong.

I was the only new kid.

Most of the members of the choir had been members for 3 years or more.

They all knew the repertoire.

By fluke I was standing next to a tenor – Could just as easily have been a soprano and that would have just got ugly.

After breathing exercises and massaging the stranger next to you, and then a bit of chest pounding and stretches, we started singing.  Song that I had never heard before.  Primarily in languages other than English. Without sheet music. Without lyrics. Nor accompaniment.  In 4 part harmony.

And with only 20 people standing in a circle, there was not the slightest opportunity to sneak out the back.

I found myself just on the other side of the Comfort Zone. 

The problem with a musical instruction of “Just follow the person next to you” is that you are, by definition, singing a split second behind everyone else – as you have to hear the damn note before you can sing it.

I should say – they were a great group.  Nice sound.  Very friendly.  The choir mistress/manager obviously knows her stuff and has a real passion for it.

But would it come as a surprise if I said I won’t be going back? And I think I had come to that decision before the second number – which involved choreography.  Yes, unknown tunes with African lyrics, in 4 part harmony, with dance steps!

It made me think of how customers first experience our business .

A customer said to me this week, when I referred to finding a strong branding position:  No, I’m not ready for that yet. 

In a way, I was getting her to follow a few dance steps while singing a song she had never heard in front of 20 strangers.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that we do most of our growing outside of our comfort zone.  But have you ever had
clients who you feel aren’t comfortable enough to embrace what you are doing?  Have there been clients who
seemed ideal, but never came back?  It may just have been that they are scared, a bit confused, or embarrassed.

So, how do we improve the experience – for newbie choir members and clients everywhere?

1.            Ensure that we communicate up front what the experience of dealing with your business will be like.  Your communication can be as simple as telling them, or include pages on your web-site, info in brochures.  Use testimonials from other customers.  Put together a ‘welcome’ kit that goes through terms, conditions, policy, your vision, how your work – what it will mean to your customer.

2.            Try to avoid jargon – or at least explain the language short-hand that you use in your business.  People don’t want to say – “Sorry – I don’t know what that means” – so explain along the way.

3.            Manage expectations.  Ask your clients for feedback.  How are they finding your business.  Is there anything you could be clearer about?  How do they want to receive that information?

4.            Even if you are dealing one on one with a customer, make them feel part of a community.  Introduce them to other customers or suppliers.  Refer to previous customers facing similar challenges.  Let them know they are not alone.


In other words, put yourself in the shoes of your brand new customer and look at dealing with your business through their eyes.  What do they need from you to ensure that you are all "singing from the same song sheet"?

(And if you know of a choir in Melbourne who does pop, rock, soul – with sheet music – please let me know.  You will save the ears of the poor folk who find themselves in the same supermarket aisle as me!)

I’ve been doing a lot of flying lately. Nothing exotic. Just the bus trip in the air between business meetings and presentations. And it is like getting a bus isn’t it? Back in the old days it was exciting and just a bit glamorous – I use to even like the dinky little trays of food, and being waited on, or offered a little rug to put on my knees, even when in cattle class. It was really quite a special experience even though there were no TV screens or background music or airline magazines or headsets.

Now we are all flying all of the time; following the rules, obeying the signs, holding our boarding passes the right way, jamming our overweight bags into the overhead bin ourselves and the experience – regardless of what airline you are flying with is…identical.

Unless you are right down the pointy end of one of the very exclusive airlines brands, with a few million frequent flyer miles - it can be really difficult to identify who you are flying with just based on the experience.

And when it is all just the same, you can’t help but notice the little things…Familiarty breeds higher expectations.

I know that I should consider it remarkable that they have got me safely to my destination but as with any product or service, it is about the experience and the experience is....very ordinary.

The other night, all sleepy and grumpy and cramped and uncomfortable at the end of a long day I didn’t focus upon the airline doing the one big remarkable thing that I had paid and trusted them to do (get us all back down onto the ground again safely). All I could notice was that they while they wanted me to buy stuff from the trolley – and promoted it repeatedly on the back of the seat in front of me, via our friendly ‘Cabin Supervisor’ and in the seat pocket by way of promotional menus with attitudes - they then announced, over the PA, that passengers needed to ensure that "you have the right change"!

Hey - Not a problem – I’ll just nick out now and change my $10 note at that handy teller machine on the wing…

What? So, now it is my job, just before the flight to:

Take off my jewelry, Empty my laptop bag, Throw my keys/phone/change into a tray , Open up my handbag to demonstrate my lack of aerosols (Keep in mind that I am carting all this stuff through the airport like a pack horse because I don’t have another hour to spend after a one hour flight to wait for them to get my bag to the carousel). Take off my shoes, Remember to take the glasses of my head, Balance on one toe whilst packing my bags, restoring my jewelry and glasses, trying to get my shoes back on and not fall over (Aside to airport management: Chairs…low things, usually four legs, people get to sit on them…you may have seem them around), Be scanned for explosives, Answer questions about how often I fly, Asked to give my permission and consent to open up all my bags again so that they can stick a probe in them…

And then…Decide before I board exactly what I will feel like eating and drinking, calculate the total, and ensure that I have exactly the right change to give the staff on the flight who SURELY KNEW THAT THEY WOULD NEED CHANGE AT SOME POINT!

So, keeping in mind that the airlines (most of them anyway) are absolutely nailing the big picture – how about nailing the little things?

If you want me to buy a cheap ticket, and then up-sell me - as a member of your very captive audience – to improve the general profit
per head ratio – then you get to take care of the change.

Whether it is airlines or phones or banks – any of the big guys targeting big markets – there is little difference in the big things that they do – due to their sheer size they have to automate and cookie cutter the systems and process. Which is why the really little things, the people thing, the soft things, make such a difference.

What are the really little things that your customers notice? What are the little things that they care about? What are the small things that as a small business you can easily do? The little things that remove any barriers to their doing business with you - and the things so small that big business doesn't get it or are just to big and cumbersome to work out how to get into their system.