A 'rewarding' catalogue – for customers and employees

Every so often, Glue receives a catalogue from the premiums and incentives organization 4imprint. What is commendable about this selling tool is that they not only have very clear photos and pricing info about their wares, they also subtly sell their own corporate culture.

They do this by frequently having their own employees holding or wearing the merchandise, and by naming the employees (first name only) along with their years of employment with the company.

What a great way to foster employee pride and drive engagement while helping customers see the product in a realistic setting. Bravo!

When book shopping time is short...

Despite the best efforts of customer service rep. Steve at the Chapters / Indigo store at Manulife Centre, the two copies of The Challenger Sale: Taking Control Of The Customer Conversation by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon that their website showed as in-stock were both on customer holds and thus unavailable.

At this point, the ever-trusty AbeBooks.com digitally rides to the rescue!

Not only was I able to order the book noted above, but also Achieve Sales Excellence: The 7 Customer Rules for Becoming the New Sales Professional by Howard Stevens and Theodore Kinni.

Expected delivery time: should be less than 8 days for both books!

10 ways to strengthen employee engagement

I've just completed a new whitepaper that shares my thoughts on how organizations of all kinds can take action to enhance their workplace environment and boost employee engagement. (You can download the document by visiting my LinkedIn page at Tim Morawetz.)

The 10 ways presented in the whitepaper are:

Give   inspiration
          instruction
          information
          informality
          interaction
          influence
          initiative
          input
          incentive
          intensity

I hope you'll take the time to download it and read it... I welcome your comments!

How would your employees handle a 'pop-up show'?

An organization's internal culture is one of its most important and precious assets (or liabilities, as the case may be.) 

Because culture is so intangible, it can be hard to assess – and harder still to first establish or to change. But there's little doubt that culture has an enormous influence on how successfully employees collaborate with one another and how effectively they interact with customers.

Consider the role of corporate culture in the situation recently cited by Globe and Mail columnist John Warrillow in his article about the unexpected appearance of a 'pop-up' piano performance in a retail environment. Would your staff feel right thanking the pianist with the gift card, or would they feel it necessary to quash the fun? 

Virgin's Richard Branson, in a Canadian Business column on customer service excellence, advocates 'first to know, first to handle'; empowering employees who first encounter a problem to make every effort to solve it on the spot.

In these days of greater demand for top talent, be sure to unleash the best instincts of your people by fostering and reinforcing a positive organizational culture.

  

How employees can help put the 'corner store' feeling back in retailing

In the current issue of the American Marketing Association's Marketing News magazine, columnist Don E. Schultz suggests that today's shoppers long for the intimacy and caring service once provided at their local butcher, baker or dairy deliveryman.

He contends that retailers wishing to survive in today's hyper-competitive environment must possess three attributes:

• Fast: Like Spanish clothing retailer Zara, merchants need to respond quickly to changing consumer tastes.

• Friendly: Like the Apple store where employees are taught not to sell, retailers need friendly people, friendly products, friendly atmosphere and friendly shopping.

• Focused: Here, Schultz cites online retailer Zappos as having narrowed its mission to one thing, namely making customer service their true competitive differentiator.

I believe that retail employees – as well as their managers – play a key role in delivering on these priorities:

• Fast: Employees can listen carefully to customer comments and requests on the floor of the store; pay attention to market trends on their own as consumers; then feed their insights back to the company to accelerate innovation. (For this to be successful, the company needs an easy system for collecting such feedback, and needs to build receptiveness for such employee engagement into its culture.)

• Friendly: Employees are chiefly responsible for providing customers with helpful and friendly service. Staff need to understand the products they sell, and know the store's policies on returns, exchanges and the like. (This means that management should provide adequate employee training about products and service delivery, and should consider some form of recognition program to motivate employees to deliver the best customer experience.)

• Focused: Identifying the company's focus – then communicating it to employees in a manner that they can act upon it – is a prime responsibility of management.

AMA members may read the full article by clicking here.

Duh, it's about the customer!

Kudos to Alexa Samuels for laying bare the dangers of not being customer-centric when creating your communications – Is your marketing making the customer think too much?

Begin with the mindset of: Where's my customer's head at regarding my product? and you will, at minimum, prevent customers from bypassing your message since they'll recognize themselves in your piece. At best, you will have gained new brand advocates since you've solved a problem for them and demonstrated respect for their intelligence and time.

On the other hand, if you launch your communications thinking: Hey everyone out there, lemme tell you all my detailed news!, you will likely confuse people who aren't as close to things as you, or worse, create a lasting negative impression of your brand.

Remember the old saw that it takes 100 contacts to create a good impression, but just one to break it!