When A “Courteous Follow-Up” Is No Longer A Courtesy

There are some days where I feel like it’s a battlefield of communication where emails and phone calls come whizzing at me with more force and fury than actual bullets. I try and put up a good shield by opting out of junk mail as quickly as I seemed to get signed up for it, but this is far from a fix-all solution. Inevitably, unsolicited emails and phone calls hit me on a daily basis. Though they take merely minutes of my day to digest and dispose of, this time adds up as does my overall feeling of annoyance and agitation. In the last few days I took note as to where most of these communications were coming from and I was surprised to find that they were often the byproduct of a “courteous follow-up” for a recent account I created or order I purchased. Why was my time being wasted and inbox being inundated with so much junk that someone somewhere thought I actually wanted to hear about?

These “courteous follow-ups” I experienced couldn’t have been further from a courtesy. They were providing me with information I already knew, promotions I wasn’t interested in and taking up extra time and energy I didn’t have. Follow-up communication especially with new or potential customers is a tricky balance. You want to appear excited and helpful, but you need to also know when to get out of the way and give the customer some space! I feel like there needs to be some rules of common courtesy for “courteous follow-ups.” Even if they’re just a friendly guideline or a desperate plea from customers all across the globe, businesses should really take note as to how their marketing efforts may actually be turning off their customer base. The following are simply my own “courteous” contributions to this proposed guideline – and with any luck they may just save some businesses a phone call, an email…and a customer.

Offer an “opt-in” for customers to initiate further communication

I don’t like that the norm is for people to have to opt-out of being contacted. Sure, this makes it easier for businesses to build their email list because they bank on people not taking note to that tiny check box, but if it’s happy and engaged customers you’re looking for—this tactic isn’t going to provide that for you anyway. Allow me to opt-in and put your effort into creating a compelling reason why I should. Will this newsletter offer me exclusive discounts or news on something I’m interested in? If so, I’ll likely sign up on my own free will and stay subscribed much longer than if you did it for me.

Allow customers to specify their communication preferences

I’m an email communicator and I make no effort to hide this preference even with my clients and other contractors. Email is the best way to reach me and the way I feel least intruded upon. When I receive a call from a number that’s not in my phone book, my immediate reaction is “this better be an emergency!” And I promise you it rarely is. Never do I find a courteous follow-up call a courtesy – I find it a nuisance. Either I pick up and am forced to talk to someone for at least a minute or two (which takes much more time than deleting an email) or I screen the call and am forced to listen to a voice mail at a later time. The bottom line is I’d like to be given the opportunity to voice my communication preference and only if I already opted-in to be further contacted. That is what I would consider a courtesy.

Never take up any unsolicited amount of someone’s time

I always appreciate a phone call that starts with “Are you available for 5 minutes to talk right now?” It prepares you that someone only wants 5 minutes of your time and is not assuming you have that much time to give them at this very moment. A courteous follow-up email or phone call should not ambush someone and steal any amount of their time. First, it should always be solicited by means of allowing someone to opt-in to future communication. Second, it should be courteous enough to be scheduled at a time that’s most convenient for the potential customer. I can’t convey the depth of my annoyance when I realize I accidentally picked up the phone for a long-winded telemarketer when I’m actually waiting on a very important call.

Be sure the message is meaningful and adding value – not wasting time

This might be the most important guideline to follow out of them all. Whatever type of follow-up communication you’re pushing out to your customers, make sure you’re offering them something new, something of interest to them specifically or something that adds value. For example, when I create a new account on a photo printing web site, I don’t need a welcome email simply thanking me for signing up. If this email was to offer me a coupon or contain important login information for my account that I should save, then that adds value. Any courteous follow-up, whether it’s a phone call or an email, should offer the customer something beyond just wanting to say hi. It goes without saying that a business would be happy a new account was created with them; don’t waste your first communication with a potential customer on stating what can be assumed.

Say it once and let it go!

The example of creating a new account on a photo printing web site can also be applied to this final guideline. Once I create an account and get through the onslaught of “welcome” and “how can we help you” emails, I don’t want to also be bombarded every week with an email reminding me that I have an item left in my shopping cart or an unclaimed promotion. Receiving this reminder once is a courtesy, receiving this reminder weekly is a nuisance.

What are some of your biggest pet peeves regarding courteous follow-up calls and emails? Do you also feel bombarded or ambushed with unsolicited communication? Share what’s the most effective to reach you or what turns you off completely. You might just help to save many other businesses the wasted effort they put into wasting our time.

 

Good, Cheap, Fast: The dilemma of providing ideal service

Just a few days ago I was in a local mechanic’s shop and amidst the shelves stacked high with dusty papers and some foreign-looking objects that were likely common knowledge auto parts, there was a simple sign hung on the window that looked into the garage. It read, “We offer three kinds of service: Good – Cheap – Fast. You can pick any two.” After my initial amusement from envisioning an old crotchety man pleased with himself as he hung this sign in his shop, I realized that is the dilemma every business owner faces when trying to offer a customer ideal service. For a laundry list of reasons, my business is very different from this mechanic’s. But when it comes to customer service, this sign accurately summarizes us both.

If it’s fast and good, it won’t be cheap. “Rush” projects are common in almost every industry. From the mechanic to the Public Relations professional, sometimes some things just cannot wait. Because a rush project can save a client from a terrible inconvenience, loss of potential business or increase their revenue, I certainly accommodate them whenever possible. In fact, one of my main reasons for keeping ahead of my planned projects is to allow for the occasional rush project. Allow me to say what most other business owners think; we keep this open time for rush projects because they’re a great source of unexpected and well-paying work. People are willing to pay more to prevent a bad situation – and thus, the dilemma of rush service. A bad business owner takes advantage of this opportunity to gauge a client in a vulnerable situation (i.e. obscene rush shipping charges or overtime wages), while a good business owner charges just enough more to compensate them for the extra hours of work and the opportunity-cost of pushing their scheduled projects to the side.

If it’s good and cheap, it won’t be fast. For clients who want the highest quality of service at the best price possible, the key is to be flexible with your deadlines and to start well ahead of when you need something done. The best example I can give here is my experience with mass mailings and the postal system. If I have a large enough mailing, I can benefit from pre-sorted postage rates which are half that of a regular stamp. This is a huge cost savings when your list is in the thousands! However, the big caveat here is that you must give yourself ample lead time for the mailing to process and hit mailboxes—I’m talking about a month. The postal service offers this discount rate, but it can take up to 25 business days to be delivered, as opposed to the standard 2-3. If you want something done good and cheap, you must be more flexible on the time frame in which you wish to have it completed. A long lead time (and ample patience) can save you a lot of money in the long run if you can plan ahead for it.

If it’s fast and cheap, it won’t be good. This combination of service is the one that most good business owners would prefer to avoid entirely. When it’s all said and done, neither the customer nor the business will be happy with a final product that was done quickly and cheaply. I know this is one of the rare instances where I might need to step away from a project if I think it will poorly reflect upon me or my business. Certainly I offer every client my best services at the fairest rates; it’s only when I’m stretched beyond reason that it becomes a problem. The two other options above prove why fast and cheap service won’t be the best quality. A business either needs to charge more for a rush project that pushes all other projects to the side or needs more time and flexibility from a client to do the best work on a tight budget.

Can we ever have all three? If you’re talking in extremes, I’d say the answer is no. An award-winning web site design done in three days for under $500 is either a scam or poor business management. In the real world, one of these three factors (time, quality or cost) would need to give. In less extreme examples, I have personally benefited from rush projects, done completely to my standard and for a fair price. The key is relationships. Once you build a good relationship with a business owner or contractor, you can work with them to achieve a good balance of all three.

As for me and the mechanic, I paid well under what the dealership would have charged me, fulfilled my inspection until 2014 and had my car back in just a few hours. So regardless of what that sign hanging in his window said, I think I just might have gotten away with choosing a little bit of all three!

 

Examining the Foundation of Effective Teamwork (Guest Blog by Todd Shirley)

This week’s post comes from returning guest blogger, Todd Shirley. Todd is a talented writer with a wealth of knowledge to share. I hope you are inspired to leave a comment or engage in conversation after reading this post. To learn more about Todd, please visit his biography at the end.

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Examining The Foundation of Effective Teamwork

I am convicted about my work. I show initiative. I am highly motivated to promote positive change for my student’s learning and home environments. I hope to empower educators and parents through consultation to effectively work with adolescents. I consider myself well read on counseling related materials and special populations. I often boast or complain about my 65 hour work week entrenched in counseling related work.

This does not mean I am a good team player.

Teamwork is hard for me.  It’s also a fact of life. Professionally, I stand with a foot in both education and human service;  EVERYTHING I do is through the vehicle of an education team or service team.

Ayn Rand was not cut out for either field.

Recently another hectic school year came to an end. I used my time off to reflect and ready myself to face another summer filled with teams.  What resulted is a new understanding of teamwork that I describe as the following:

1. Delegation Is An Opportunity To Encourage

Team projects can be difficult experiences for me as I tend to embody a “if it’s going to be done right, I have to do it” mindset.  Now I see teams and group projects as an opportunity to demonstrate trust and encouragement through delegation.  Delegating allows others to reach a goal.  Helping others reach goals was exhilarating this year.

2. It’s Valuable To Pay Attention To Resentment

I recently found myself talking to people about how I resented one of my school teams. This team deals with student concerns but looks to me with facial expressions that seem to say “isn’t it your job to care about these things?”  It goes without saying, I feel it’s the team’s job to care about student concerns.

Three helpful insights came from paying attention to my resentment:

1. My inability to let things go.

2. My inability to say “no” to things.

3. My inability to accept people for where they are and not be angry with them for where they should be.

The last insight was powerful because I try to nudge everyone I work with to reach a point of acceptance about others and life circumstances.

3. Teamwork Can Be The Kitchen That Makes Good Humble Pie

This school year’s end of year faculty meeting provided the inspiration for this post. Faculty meetings in my building often involve a lot of tangents and side chit-chat. This year, everyone fell notably silent as a co-worker (and team member of mine) shared information I had put together.

“10% of our students were referred to our student assistance team this year. Of those 10%, 25 students had to miss school due to illness or death of a parent.  14 were referred for non-suicidal self injurious behaviors etc…”

I was taken aback as I realized the information had to come from her for it to matter. If I had presented (which I enjoy doing), I would have been dismissed. As disheartening information related to our individual students came from a fellow teacher, people received it readily. Apparently, things can get done without me. Fork please!

Looking Ahead

I believe passion in my field can either prevent or cause burnout.  I hope to do this kind of work forever but if I am an ineffective team member, I don’t know if I can.

If I can approach teamwork as an opportunity to encourage others, establish trust, and embrace humility,  it’s only going to help students, families, and educators embody this approach too.

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Todd Shirley works full time as a school counselor and carries a caseload of clients who are in the foster care system. When he is not working, he is reading, working out, cooking Paleo and discussing all that is arbitrary about life. Oh-and his favorite animal is the manatee. Todd is an incredible guest blogger with a wealth of knowledge to share. I hope you are inspired to leave a comment or engage in conversation having now read this post. You are always welcome to share your thoughts below!

 

Your Brand is Your Identity (Guest Blog by Cheval John)

The following blog post is part of the Bennis Blogger Battle. Support Cheval by “Liking” this post, leaving a comment and sharing it on your social media! The blog with the most hits, wins.

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Most people understand and implement the concept of branding in their business every day. It is also most people that only associate branding with a product or business. While this is certainly one aspect to branding, what most fail to realize is that the most important brand you have control of is yourself.

But what does that mean? It means that when you go out and do your day-to-day duties, the rest of the world will view you either positively or a negatively depending on how you treat people. You are constantly forming your own brand based upon your actions.

For example, if you act consistently like a jerk to people, whether at work, school, recreation, etc, then you develop a reputation (brand) of being an unpleasant person to be around and that reputation will often precede you. Even if you do recognize this character flaw and make efforts to change your behavior, it will take a very long time to repair that trust with the people that you hurt. For better or worse, your brand is more a constant that it is a variable.

To translate into business terms, if you are the CEO of a large company, how you treat your employees and clients on a daily basis determines the perception the world develops about your company and whether they support your business.

Take this real-life example: Sir Richard Branson turned the Virgin Group into one of the most recognizable brands in the world. They have over 300 products ranging from cell phones to airlines. Branson first started this enterprise as Virgin Records in 1970 with successful music acts that made the company millions of dollars. With this capital, he then started Virgin Atlantic with the first transatlantic flight from London to Newark in the 1980’s. When the airline began to struggle as the result of a “dirty tricks” campaign by their competitor, British Airways, Branson sold his record company in order to save the airline. The decision made him realize that he was the Virgin brand that ultimately influenced and determined the fate of the company and whatever he put his mind to, he had the control to make happen. With the realization of the power of his personal brand, he has since turned Virgin Atlantic into the second largest airline in the United Kingdom.

The lesson from Branson’s story is that if you make the effort to form a strong, positive brand and learn how to harness this power, you have the ability to take your business to level far beyond just a product or a service.

Cheval D. John started “Vallano Media” on February 6, 2012. Previously, it was a blog called “What’s The Word?” and it remains vital to the website. In addition to running the site, Cheval is a freelance reporter for The Huntsville Item, a daily newspaper in Huntsville, Texas and a team member of Priority One Public Relations, an on-campus public relations firm. Please support Cheval by “Liking” this post, leaving a comment below and visiting his personal blog: http://vallanomedia.com/.