A Golden Moment in Action
I have had some interesting customer service experiences lately and wanted to share my perspectives from the consumer point of view.
We are remodeling the powder room in our house. The past few days we have been shopping for a vanity light. The purchase of this light has held up the whole project. We need to know the finish and size of the light before we can purchase a faucet, towel bars, mirror etc. So apparently a big decision. We went to the big boxes first. Home Depot, Lowes and Menards. Nothing really jumped out at us and we were never asked if needed help or offered any assistance at all. Most of the lights were on and all the heat and light was really distracting. NO PURCHASE
11 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post
You’ve just finished writing a great new blog post. You’re excited to share your ideas and expertise with the world. But what should you do next? 
As I work with more and more companies to develop social media strategies, blogging inevitably comes up. As it should. But this post isn’t about why a company should be blogging, it’s about how we can make that blog grow legs and turn it into a major traffic and activity driver for your business.
Setting the Stage: Create Good Bait, Find Your Fishing Holes
Before you start throwing your blog content blindly into cyberspace, you need to think strategically about the content that your target audience will find valuable (your bait). What assistance do they need? What are their pain points? Which formats might work best (written posts, video, audio, etc.)? You also need to do your homework to sniff out the best social media ponds in which your targets are swimming. For example, if your business is trying to reach C-Level executives in your local market, then using Twitter as your main promotional vehicle may not get you many bites.
How to Mine Social Networking Sites for Sales Opportunities
Preface: If you were to execute the strategies discussed in this post, you could significantly reduce the amount of time spent on each social networking site. But remember that the social media space is built on engagement and interaction. If you aren’t engaging with your community at least once in a while, your community may not be very receptive to your pitch if/when a new sales opportunity is staring you in the face.
Is It Ever OK To Break Best Practices?
This blog talks a lot about the “best practices” involved in effective email marketing: relevance, design, expectations…
…but are best practices always the way to go?
I recently saw an email newsletter that made me wonder how far we should follow best practices. While the newsletter and website follow a lot of email marketing best practices, they definitely break at least one (and maybe more). Normally I’d chastise them for it, but… I just don’t know here.
Have a look and tell me what you think.
Customer Service – Do the Right Thing
When you read about companies that have great service, such as Zappos, you read about passion, and a desire to put the customer first. I’ve heard Tony Hsieh says Zappos is a customer service company that happens to sell shoes. If you want to grow like crazy and have your customers love you, you have to do the right thing – set up your company and corporate culture to focus on service from day one.