Archive for January, 2012
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Years ago I bought shoes from online retailer Zappos.com. The company recently sent me an email, saying there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of my account information. The company “expired” and reset my password, gave instructions on how to change it and recommended I change my password on other sites where I use a similar password.
The email began “First, the bad news.” That was good. Zappos.com did not tap dance around the problem. The company told me what happened and what steps to take. The CEO Tweeted about it. He has a big Twitter following. The company was not hiding the bad news. But Zappos didn’t dig in its heels there. It reached out and communicated in other ways:
- a company blog post which showed the internal email it sent to employees along with the information customers received
- a separate page on its website for customers about the incident
- a dedicated email address for employees with questions
- a dedicated email address for customers with questions
Communications and social media circles often discuss this company for its culture and empowering employees. Now Zappos.com’s latest email to customers is just the right fit. Other businesses should take a similar approach if the shoe is ever on the other foot.
Tags: Arizona, CNN, communication, empowering employees, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, pr issue, PR pro, pr problem, Public Relations, Scottsdale, shoe company, Social Media, social media strategy, Twitter, Zappos.com
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Monday, January 30th, 2012
Tags: Arizona, media coaching, Media Relations, media training, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Social Media, social media strategy, video marketing, video production, video production companies, video production service, videographer, videography
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Thursday, January 26th, 2012
In our first blog Public Relations: Handling Customer Emergencies, we explained our encounter with a bank after depositing cash into an ATM but getting no receipt. The money at first was not deposited into our account.
We have two updates. As promised, the temporarily lost money was credited to our account by the crack of dawn. And when we returned to the bank today for the first time since the incident, a bank teller in the drive thru said “Hi Keith.” We looked at each other in the car, taken aback a bank teller remembered us. We don’t remember a teller ever beginning one of our bank visits with a “Hi Keith.” She then asked if the ATM accident was resolved.
Now that’s personal service and a nice touch.
Tags: Arizona, communication, money, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pro, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms, Scottsdale
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Monday, January 23rd, 2012
On January, 18, a friend and Star Wars geek sent us a link to a YouTube video entitled “The Bark Side: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial Teaser.” With the assistance of clever editing and cooperative canines, a chorus of dogs barks out Darth Vader’s favorite tune. The video pulled us in over and over with the power of a tractor beam. When the link was sent to us, the video had 305 views.
Four days later, the video included around seven million views. We’re not surprised. After we watched it, we quickly forwarded the link to several people and posted it on Facebook. More than five thousand people have struck back with YouTube comments, including two video responses of how people’s dogs reacted to the dark side’s Imperial March theme.
Wait a moment … we’re watching the video once more.
Ok, we’re done. Our dog Molly watched the video with us this time.
Anyway, the video’s description includes this link: http://vw.com/star-wars-invite. The link leads to the video “Intergalactic Invite” and talks of inviting your friends to your Super Bowl bash “with a customized Star Wars title crawl.” We’re not even sure we understand the whole thing, but it’s all on Volkswagen’s page where someone can build and price, get a quote or find a dealer.
We don’t know if these dogs will help Volkswagen sell more vehicles or lead to a big return of the Jetta. But the company sure is giving it one heck of a try. Viral videos can feel like the force: Only a chosen few can actually figure it out. But your business doesn’t necessarily need a viral video to get its sales out of carbonite. It just needs a good video … and maybe a few dogs or droids … to expand your universe.
Tags: Arizona, darth vader, Facebook, jetta, Phoenix, PR, Scottsdale, star wars, super bowl, video, video marketing, video production, video production companies, video production services, videographer, viral video, volkswagen, website videos, YouTube
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Thursday, January 19th, 2012
I deposited cash in an ATM. The cash door closed and the ATM coughed out my card. That was it. The ATM never asked if I wanted a receipt or to complete another transaction. My money disappeared into the machine and I had no clue if the bank deposited the cash in my account.
I walked into the bank and explained what happened. Everybody was polite and apologized for the trouble. The bank allowed me to use one of its offices to call the “claims department,” which explained it would credit the money to my account by the next morning. As long as the money shows up in the morning, the bank overall handled my situation well.
When I first explained the situation to someone inside the bank, he gave me two options: I could talk to a personal banker or call the claims department. He explained the personal banker was busy and he couldn’t fit me in for several hours. That’s why I decided to call the claims department. I suggested calling from the bank. I feared the claims department might send me into a black hole. Leaving the bank and calling from home might diminish my chances of someone sympathizing with my situation and resolving it quickly.
When the man inside the bank told me the personal banker was not available to assist me with my matter for several hours, I could feel the tension and adrenaline within trying to convince me to break my promise of keeping calm. I almost blurted out “You need to fit me in considering your ATM just took my money!”
Telling a customer the problem your company caused can’t be resolved face-to-face for several hours is, in most cases, a big blunder. Most of us have watched other customers piercingly make clear in a store or business how they feel a company screwed up. Everyone listens and stares. When someone walks in still in “calm” mode and respectfully explains your company’s slip-up is costing him both time and money, solve it. At least try to resolve it. Telling customers they need to wait in line or call someone else sitting in a cubicle at an unknown place is asking for trouble. People, especially these days, live on short fuses, and you don’t want other happy customers Tweeting about the guy screaming in the lobby.
We all appreciate schedules. But you shouldn’t plan a trip so you arrive at that important business meeting with one minute to spare. You build in extra time. So you shouldn’t staff your office and schedule their hours in a way that prevents your business from handling unexpected issues. Customers often become your biggest fans when you handle tough situations fast and fairly. Don’t fail that test. The next guy who walks in worried his hard-earned cash just disappeared into the magic money machine may otherwise decide to address the situation with a few four-letter words no one really wants to hear.
Tags: Arizona, how to handle customer complaints, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pros, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
When companies have a new product, they often spend a lot of time testing those products before they roll them out, especially when it comes to software and websites providing a service. They want to make sure everything functions properly and the end-user experience is the best possible one. So why not take the same approach with your communications – before you send them out?
You likely have some kind of review process for the materials you create. Your boss, your boss’ boss, your internal client, legal. What about your “end-user”? Whether you’re communicating a new company program or marketing a new product, someone from your target audience can provide invaluable feedback before they see the final email or the shiny new brochure along with everyone else. If you work in retail, for example, that target audience person can be a store manager, district manager or front-line associate. If you work in health care, that target audience reviewer can be a doctor, nurse, HR administrator or patient. If you are working on a marketing brochure, reach out to your network and find someone you know that fits the customer profile.
Giving your target audience a sneak peak of the product and how you plan to market and communicate it can save you a lot of time, energy and money. Because he or she is not as close to the project as you are, your target audience tester will think of questions you might not have thought about. He or she will hopefully be up front and let you know if something is unclear or sounds too salesy and not authentic enough.
Does your review process allow for testing your communications with target audience members? What works for you?
Tags: Arizona communication consulting, Arizona public relations, Arizona public relations agency, Arizona small business marketing, communication, content, employee communication, Internal Communications, marketing a new product, marketing strategy, personalized communications, Phoenix communications agency, Phoenix marketing firms, PR, public relations agencies, Scottsdale communication consulting, Scottsdale marketing agency, small business communication, small business marketing strategy, target audience, writing
Posted in Internal Communications, Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
We called a company to request what the industry refers to as a “courtesy credit. ” We first navigated the phone system, which requires the talents of Indiana Jones minus the hat and whip. The feeling of finally finding a real person must be similar to Indiana’s relief when he’s defeated all obstacles and the treasure is safely in hand.
What we didn’t anticipate was a customer service representative who, intentionally or not, liked to lay down some verbal booby traps. He explained our account didn’t qualify for a courtesy credit. Why? He listed possible reasons. Which reason applied to us? He didn’t know.
We asked if we could speak to someone else who might further assist us with our request. He said yes, but our statement apparently wasn’t clear enough. After some silence, he asked whom we were interested in talking to. “Your mother! We would like to talk to your mother and explain you’re being difficult.” We actually asked for a supervisor, which we thought was obvious but clearly needed to spell out in more detail. After another pregnant pause, customer secret agent man double-checked if we wanted to speak to a supervisor now as if scheduling a call for next month might be an option. When agreeing to make the connection, he couldn’t help but point out moving up the chain might not help.
When the supervisor later joined us, she might as well been his mother. She was nice, sweet, professional and granted our courtesy credit as if she was handing us a batch of chocolate chip cookies with a glass of milk. Her son seemed more like Dennis The Menace or Mr. Mayhem we see in those insurance commercials laughing at us at the other end of the line. Yes, we got our courtesy credit but after how much frustration and time wasted?
Give your front line employees some authority to make simple decisions that require mostly a strong dose of common sense. If employees can’t give what customers want, give them the tools to specifically explain why. If customers want to speak to supervisors or someone’s mom, train employees not to treat the request like an act of Congress. And don’t encourage those on the customer service team to discourage customers from seeking a supervisor’s help. Employees often tell us supervisors may not offer us a different result but they almost always do.
We don’t have an Indiana Jones hat handy. But sometimes we desperately feel like we need one.
Tags: Arizona, customer service representative, how to handle customer complaints, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pros, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms, Scottsdale
Posted in Public Relations, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Tags: Arizona, bbb, Better Business Bureau, business video, online video production, Phoenix, Scottsdale, seo services, video, video marketing, video production companies, video production company, video production for the web, video production service, video production services, videographer, web video production
Posted in Video | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
We bought burgers at Costco but couldn’t find French fries. We asked but an employee explained the store didn’t sell that side dish. We didn’t think much more about our plates of lonely burgers until exiting and seeing people hover around a tall, red customer comment box.
A business placing out customer comment boxes is not unusual. But Costco’s is different. The box is not off to the side or tucked away in the corner. The box is not smaller than a breadbox. The comment box is big and bold and nearly impossible to miss at the very time you’re rolling your oversized cart out and wishing the store sold something it doesn’t.
And people appear to buy into Costco’s big red comment box. From what we witness, people don’t ignore it or assume it’s window dressing recommended by a marketing guru trying to score points at a corporate conference table. A nice older woman filled out her card while we filled out ours.
I began to wonder if the big red box fit into a bigger puzzle when I stopped by Costco’s gas station. I thought I was the only obsessive driver who felt he desperately needed a hand wipe or bucket of soap and water after filling up. After all, if you forgot to pack the sanitizer, your gas station hands then touch the steering wheel, radio and seats, meaning the whole car is … well, that’s a blog for Psychology Today.
Much like a kid ripping open the wrapping paper covering the latest, greatest new gadget, I was overwhelmed with appreciation when noticing for the first time that Costco placed near the gas tanks the largest hand sanitizer jugs I’ve seen. Somebody’s listening! Or somebody read my mind! Or Americans are simply obsessed with germs.
When speaking about responding to customers in real time, social media is often considered the Holy Grail. But Facebook and Twitter are new tools, not necessarily replacements. Perhaps the response time isn’t as rapid, but businesses can still use good ‘ole fashion techniques to prove they’re listening. Just be genuine. Make the comment box big, red and conveniently located. And respond. Stock those shelves with French fries or explain why you can’t. I’ll take a huge bottle of hand sanitizer any day. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to wipe my keyboard clean.
Tags: communication, costco, Facebook, media, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Let’s take a look at The Flip Side of our last blog post about how to turn a PR problem into a positive using Target’s example about breastfeeding. Because we’re not employees, we don’t know how Target communicated internally about the string of events and how they advised their employees on how to handle customer complaints and questions in stores. We can, however, use it as an example about how companies can stick to some guiding principles to proactively communicate with their employees when a PR issue or crisis arises.
Be timely: Get the word out to your employees quickly. Don’t wait for the storm to get worse or blow over. Your employees should hear about important events affecting them and their company from an internal source rather than an external one. Well-informed associates can serve as informal ambassadors of the company. Proactive communications with your employees helps them better communicate with customers who might ask them questions. Tactics can include:
- Check in with your cross-functional team of go-to people from HR, Operations, Legal, Marketing, Social Media and of course any leaders who need to know. Keep them in the loop of your communications plan of action and get their input on communications. Don’t forget external communications folks if they are in a separate department. They should be integral partners. Internal and external communications should be aligned.
- Let your employees know about the situation through your regular channels as soon as possible. Keep them in the loop on an ongoing basis. Even if you don’t have all the facts, communicate this is what we know now. We’ll keep you updated when we know more.
- Create a central source of information on your intranet. Don’t bury information so employees have to search to find it. All communications should be visible here and should point employees to this central location for all the info they need. Post a link to important documents like the company policy involved to reinforce the correct actions.
Be open and honest. Let your employees know what happened. Don’t leave out details you think your employees can’t handle. Transparency builds credibility. Be forthright. Let them know if the company screwed up. Tell them what should have been done and what will be done to handle the situation. Tactics can include:
- Make your top execs visible. Think about a thoughtful and sincere CEO blog or video addressing the situation with employees.
- Arm managers with tools such as talking points to inform and discuss the issue, explain how the company is handling it, reinforce the company’s policy and where to get additional information.
- Create talking points for frontline employees who speak with customers in person or on the phone. How should they handle customer questions or complaints? Keep the message consistent and clear companywide.
Two-way: Keep the lines of communication open. In the face of a serious issue or crisis, employees will have questions and concerns. You need their feedback to know how to communicate differently or better. Tactics can include:
- Create a central point of contact to field questions and concerns. Depending on the PR issue, you might want to create a special internal email box or hotline.
- Ask managers to forward any questions they are getting from their teams.
- If your intranet platform lets employees post comments, use them to gauge how well you’re communicating.
- Refresh your communications if you see a pattern of questions or comments.
Sometimes PR problems bring out the best in a company. As mentioned in our previous blog, they can help establish your company as an industry leader and give your employees a chance to shine under pressure. If you hear about an extraordinary example of how an employee handled a situation related to the issue, share the story with the rest of the company. It shows appreciation, boosts morale and lets employees know they can make a difference even during difficult moments.
Tags: Arizona, breastfeeding, communication, communications plan, crisis communications, employee communications, how to handle customer complaints, HR consulting, Internal Communications, Phoenix, PR, pr issue, PR pro, pr problem, Scottsdale, Social Media, target, The Flip Side Communications, video
Posted in HR Communications, Internal Communications | No Comments »
