Archive for August, 2008
Transition Smoothly Or Incur the Wrath of Customers
Last week, I received a call from a CEO who had been mishandled by a prominent professional services firm. It turns out that because one of the senior professionals was moving on to other accounts, the CEO was ‘transitioned’ to an other professional – who would be handling her account.
Sounds simple enough. You’d think so, wouldn’t you? You’ve probably introduced less potentially disruptive changes to how you work with customers/clients yourself.
But, the unfortunate truth was that this firm — in the interests of efficiency, profitability and some inaccurate assessment of customer service — kept the CEO completely in the dark of the transition.
All of a sudden someone else was handling the account — no warning, no communication, no rationale…just a new person.
The lesson here, can be summed up by way of a key question: “How do you prepare your customers/clients for any kind of transition?”
Keep in-mind that a transition may come in many forms, for example — a transition from one primary contact to another primary contact. Or, it might be from one contract to another. Or, it may involve upgrading products, new processes for ordering, new technologies or new pricing.
The reality is that how you make the transition is often more important than the new product, process, person, etc. that you’ve introduced to your customer — regardless of the benefit that it brings them (or you).
So, keep in-mind that no matter how small you think the transition is for the customer/client, you’ve got to think about it in terms of the their day-to-day activities. Best rule of thumb: give them a heads-up. Let them know the nature of the transition so that they can plan for any potential impact on their business. And, use that opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them.
Robert and I will delve more deeply into this subject in an upcoming BusinessCast Podcast later this Autumn.
Have You Planned for Your Next Business Crisis?
Every business gets rocked by crises – at least once. And, truth be told, usually more often than that!
Sometimes the crisis comes in the form of a key person leaving. It can take the form of a strong competitor blanketing and sustaining a heavy promotional ‘push’ or dramatically underpricing your offerings. Alternatively, crises may come in the form of a very public error in judgement or processes.
The consequences of your next business crisis can be minimal or potentially disasterous. For example:
- Losing short- and/or long-term sales
- Lengthening the sales cycle
- Employees leaving
- Investors cashing-out
- Law suits
The rule of the thumb is to devote time, energy, and resources to crisis planning directly proportional to the potential seriousness of the consequences you would face.
Robert and I have found that most entrepreneurs are very aware of potential crises and often, they have even identified likely time frames when crises could hit them! However, entrepreneurs — who tend to be very enthusiastic — are equally as unlikely to plan for crises to avert or minimize their consequences.
This ability for entrepreneurs to foresee crises and yet not prepare for them strikes us as highly problematic. So, let us know about your state of crisis planning. And, we’ll share the results in an upcoming BusinessCast podcast.
[polldaddy poll="879366"]
Heads-Up!
These are the final days of the Summer and yet, Robert and I are still getting hundreds of requests for us to tackle many of the pressing/common challenges faced by entrepreneurs.
So, we’ve identified some of the most popular requests. And, by way of giving you a heads-up, here is a partial list of the topics that we’ll be tackling in the BusinessCast podcast and (on this blog) over the next few/several weeks:
Marketing
- Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- Referral Marketing
- Tag Lines
- Fine Print Marketing
- Luxury Marketing
- How to Leverage Marketing Demographics (Boom, Bust, Echo…Belch)
- Popular Marketing Tools (i.e. Newsletters, RFPs, Email, Presentations, Events)
- How to Acquire New/Right Clients
Human Resources
- How to recruit staff that really works
- Effective and Cost-Efficient training
Finance
- Alternate Sources of Funding
Leadership
- Knowing How/When to Delegate
- Succession Planning
Operations
- Logistics
Finally, we’re also be interviewing a handful of business entrepreneurs and business book authors.
So, keep tuned. Keep listening to episodes of the BusinessCast podcast. And, keep your comments coming. We’ll be here to help you get the most out of your business.
Hockey Is a Business: Now's the Time to Score Big!
Have you ever wondered if the issues you face on a daily basis as an entrepreneur apply to other types of organizations? Well, the fact is they do!
And, nowhere is that more evident in the compelling stories told by our entertaining guest, Ron Bremner – former President & CEO of the NHL’s Calgary Flames hockey team and the Saddledome.
Listen to the BusinessCast Podcast episode #71 – Hockey Lessons for Business - and you’ll get some down-to-earth advice from Ron, Robert and myself on addressing some of your most critical issues. Many of the lessons Ron surfaces are items that we’ve explored in some of our previous podcast episodes, including:
BusinessCast Podcast # 55 – Feedback – Or Is It Just Noise? with Gold ‘n’ Brown - where Robert and I provide an overview of how/when to collect customer insights that can increase your success; and
BusinessCast Podcast #46 – Wow Client Service’ with Gold ‘n’ Brown - where Robert and I discuss how to “Wow” you client with customer service that really has an impact!
Success: NextGen Player Wins the Battle!
In BusinessCast podcast episode #64 – Blogging For Business, we met intrepid entrepreneurs Paul Hunter and Matthew Vernhout of NextGen Player (www.NextGenPlayer.com). In fact, they were so enthusiastic about blogging that they inspired Robert and me to begin the BusinessCast blog!
Well, I am very excited to report that NextGen Player is now an undisputable and truly exceptional success story. In just over three months, their online business — blogging about the Canadian gaming industry – has skyrocketed beyond all original expectations.
“What kind of success have they achieve in just a few short months?”, you ask. Well, here are just a handful of their accomplishments to-date that prove their efforts to build a strong and loyal following within a very niche market have been a resounding success. Specifically, they have been:
- Referenced and sourced by the World’s most popular gaming sites (www.kotaku.com, www.n4g.com and www.gamegrep.com) and arguably the largest online media blog network (www.gawker.com)
- Invited as an ‘official’ member of the media to product launches (the Amp Your Game Tour)
- Invitated as experts to an exclusive Microsoft pre-launch (X ‘08)
- Solicited by PR representatives and sponsors who now want them to promote a Hollywood ‘cult movie’ (Uwe Boll’s ‘Postal the Movie’)
These committed and astute gaming enthusiasts have achieved such unprecedented success for several key reasons. But, as Matthew and Paul see it, the key reasons include:
- Staying focused on one topic only (i.e. the Canadian gaming industry) rather than being lured into biting off more topics (e.g. U.S. gaming industry).
- Leveraging sites that speak to a very specific audience. For most entrepeneurs, the equivalent is networking with those who have established credibility with target audiences.
- Generating “buzz”. Choose a topic that gets people talking – and, remember that it’s okay to be controversial – as long as you do it responsibly (i.e. being as even-handed as possible).
- Bringing a passion for the business - in the case of Matt and Paul, they truly love gaming and are committed to contributing their unique value to the industry!
Listen to episode #64 – Blogging For Business to hear Paul and Matthew’s (now proven) approach to business and to blogging. Their’s are lessons applicable to every entrepreneur.