Maine Creative Services

Customer service is another one of those things that can be vastly improved with better communications. Not just communicating clearly with your customer, but communicating with co-workers to make sure the customer is being well served. As the old saying goes, the customer may not always be right, but s/he’s always the one with the money!

It seems to me that customer service communications includes three basic steps:

1. Setting customer expectations before the sale. (“This is what our widgets do. Is that what you need?”)
2. Listening (and asking) to make sure the customer is happy after the sale.
3. Making things right when something goes wrong.

It seems so simple. I was thinking about this after yesterday’s post about Dell, and how one disgruntled customer’s opinions are pinging all over the country, both online and in “real life”, thanks to a post on his blog.

No one knows yet what the long term effects to Dell’s reputation might be. But I can’t help thinking how much damage could have been avoided if there was only a simple, effective way for unhappy customers to tell Dell, “Dude, I’m having a problem.”

Does YOUR company have one?

I know you’re talking to your customers. Are you listening, too?

Word of mouth is a powerful way to spread the good word (and the not-so-good ones) about your company– or a company like Dell.

The newest and most powerful ways for word of mouth to spread are via blogs. They’re going mainstream fast, as Rick Segal points out below. Millions of eyes and ears are hearing one guy’s blog rant about Dell’s lousy service. It’s pinging far beyond the blog/ IT/ geek world… even to bank tellers on their lunch break.

“Lots of people (Dell?) are making the assumption that ‘average people’ or ‘the masses’ don’t really see/read blogs so, we take a little heat and move on.

Big mistake.

That interchange probably cost Dell at least two sales and lord only knows how many over time. And those lost sales are coming from a feedback system that didn’t matter a few years ago.” Link

Business owners and marketing mavans: ignore the implications at your peril. “Simple” conversations are shifting from one-to-one… to millions of people at a time, all around the world. And these conversations carry credibility that even million dollar ad budgets can’t match.

Your thoughts are welcome.

You and your business communicate with more than words, of course. The color(s) in your logo, brochure, business cards and web site all send strong messages about who you are, what you do, and how well you do it.

According to Darrell Zahorsky at About.com, in North America, here are the messages certain colors communicate:

• White: Pure. Clean. Youthful. It is a neutral color that can imply purity in fashion and sterilization in the medical profession.
• Black: Power. Elegant. Secretive. The color black can target your high-end market or be used in youth marketing to add mystery to your image.
• Red: Passion. Excitement. Danger. Red is the color of attention, causing the blood pressure and heart rate to rise. Use red to inject excitement into your brand.
• Orange: Vibrant. Energy. Play. Add some fun to your company if you want to create a playful environment for your customers.
• Yellow: Happy. Warm. Alert. Yellow can be an attractor for your business with a relaxed feeling.
• Green: Natural. Healthy. Plentiful. To create a calming effect or growth image choose green. Go green go.
• Purple: Royalty. Wise. Celebration. Maybe add some purple tones to your look for your premium service business.
• Blue: Loyal. Peaceful. Trustworthy. Blue is the most popular and neutral color on a global scale. A safe choice for a business building customer loyalty.

Do you agree? Your thoughts? And what if every business used these colors in exactly this way? The world might get a little more boring and predictable, do you think?

Is writing difficult for you? The most common pitfall is trying to do two things at once: writing and editing. They’re two separate tasks, and trying to do them simultaneously is a fool’s errand.

First, grab a pen (or open a blank document) and just jot down what you’re trying to say. As thoughts come up, just write them down. If you can’t quite grasp it, ask yourself, What am I trying to say? Then write down the answer as it comes to you.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be pretty, glib or eloquent. Fractured grammar, false starts and sentence fragments are OK for now — this is only a first draft. A brain dump. Just write down your ideas before you forget them.

There’s plenty of time later for you go back over it and tidy things up — or as we Professional Wordsmiths call it, edit.

Write first, then edit. Both jobs are hard enough. Don’t make it harder by trying to do them simultaneously — like rubbing your tummy and patting your head (or vice versa).

The other day the New York Times published a piece on some of the editing they do to every article that’s been accepted for their Op-Ed page:

• Correct grammatical and typographical errors.
• Make sure that the article conforms to The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage… expletives will be deleted; some words will be capitalized, others lowercased.
• See to it that the article fits our allotted space.
• Fact-check the article. While it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that everything written for us is accurate, we still check facts – names, dates, places, quotations. Here’s the full article.
  

And all that happens after the freaking article has been accepted by the New York Times, of all places! Ya gotta figure — if they have to go back and edit, you do too.

So be gentle with yourself. First, just write. Everything doesn’t have to flow easily and perfectly from your pen (or keyboard). Oh, it’s nice when it happens, but don’t expect it. Hemingway once said, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.”

Later, like Hemingway — and every other writer — you can go back and edit your mess into something clearer and stronger and more polished.

Has this helped? Let me know. I welcome your comments.

It’s been said many times before, but it’s worth repeating:

“Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

Harvey MacKay of Swim with the Sharks fame. (No relation, unfortunately.)

Inform. Explain. Persuade. Motivate. Sell.

That’s all.

But if you run a business, that’s all you need.

If you’re like a lot of people, you hate to write. You may not mind talking to people, explaining what you want or need. But writing? No thanks.

For some reason, as soon as you click the “Create Email” button, or open Word and hit “File > New”, your mind goes to Tahiti. On strike. Gone fishin’.

If you work — in an office, on a sales floor, or a construction site, wherever — you have to communicate with other people. Customers, co-workers, everybody. You not only need to understand what they’re saying, you have to tell them what you want or need. In person, or in writing. Or (probably) both.

If you work in an office, you have to read and write emails, memos, letters and other routine business correspondence. Perhaps you’re also responsible for drafting proposals and reports. Or communicating with customers, clients and coworkers.

Like many of my clients, maybe you own a small business. Or you work in a marketing or corporate communications department. If so, you need to write specialized messages. For example, persuasive advertising copy, informative brochures, accurate product specifications, sales letters, customer newsletters, news releases, PowerPoint presentations and a variety of other sales material (sometimes called collateral).

CEOs, top managers, consultants, professionals and other so-called “knowledge workers” must frequently demonstrate “the vision thing” by penning speeches, white papers, reports and trade journal articles.

How about you? What do you have to write? How do you do it? How do you face the Big Nasty Fear that lives on the blank page? Please share your tips, tricks and other means of coping.

A few of my best articles on marketing and communications are here on my web site. Take a look. Maybe they’ll help. I’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks!

And of course, if your company needs a good writer to create some of those important communications materials, drop me a note. (OK, end of shameless plug.)