by Daria Steigman on January 21, 2009
Like many people, I was impressed yesterday by how effectively the Obama transition team had worked behind the scenes to rebrand the U.S. government. By 12:02 p.m., the first tweets were showing up alerting people that whitehouse.gov now belonged to the new president.
I realize that every new adminstration, like a corporation after a merger, moves quickly to slap its name up on the door. But the Obama team has already gone one step further by setting up a blog, identifying the White House’s director of new media (Macon Phillips), and creating an opportunity for ordinary Americans to provide feedback.
Time will tell how effective President Obama and his team will be in creating a truly participatory process. Governing isn’t easy, and the mechanics of government can, at times, be unwieldy. On his Innovation Insights blog, Scott Anthony offers three lessons from the corporate world to guide government transformation: 1) you can’t just get better at what you’re already doing; 2) start small; and 3) invest in human capital.
In his inaugural address, the president said that the question “is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” If he can successfully harness 21st century tools to bring more voices to the fore, and to incorporate into policy our collective views, expertise, and experience, our nation will surely be better for it.
Tagged as:
Brand,
Leadership,
Obama
by Daria Steigman on January 15, 2009
Companies make mistakes. After all, they’re run by people–and we’re not perfect. But those that “get” customer service understand that it’s how you respond after the fact that truly leaves an impact. Good or bad. Yesterday, Comcast responded in a way that says: We’re not that cable guy company anymore.
Here’s what happened. I had a service appointment set up for yesterday between 11 a.m.-2 p.m. As anyone who has waited for a technician can tell you, it never turns out to be a great time to be tied to your home. For me, I had to reschedule one appointment and push back a conference call. So when 1:30 p.m. rolled around, I figured I should call and check when the technician might be there. That’s when I learned that Comcast had me down for service the following Wednesday.
The customer service representative was very nice, but there was nothing she could do to help me except give me another 3-hour window on another day. I set up the appointment, hung up, and was feeling pretty frustrated. That’s when I sent a DM (Twitterspeak for a private message) to Frank Eliason, the public face of Comcast’s customer service operation, asking if he had two minutes to talk. I didn’t expect him to be able to do anything for me; I just wanted someone to feel my pain.
I got a phone call almost immediately from @ComcastBill, who’s a member of Frank’s team. He took the details, asked how long I would be home, and said he’d try to get a technician over there before I had to leave two hours later. I then received four calls from Pat Carroll, a manager in the local office (one to tell me he was sending one of his best tech guys to my home, the second to verify that his technician had arrived, and two voicemail messages to make sure the problem had been resolved). Bill also followed up to close the loop.
This is my Comcast story. Others have their own, and I’m sure not all have such happy endings. But I think it’s important to acknowledge when people go above and beyond to be helpful. We scream a lot when we’re things go wrong; it’s only fair we share the love when things go right.
What’s your customer service story?
Tagged as:
Comcast,
Customer Service,
PR
by Daria Steigman on January 12, 2009
I once gave a talk to a group of independent consultants about how losing a big client can be a good thing. I’ve been thinking about the topic a lot lately as I see more and more people lose jobs or clients, or feel the pinch of shrinking marcomm budgets. As many of us cope with one form of loss or another, it’s a good time to revisit how solopreneurs and small business owners can turn this around and create opportunities for ourselves.
So here are my top five reasons why losing work can work out for you:
- You have to figure out what went wrong. Unless you screwed up, it likely has nothing to do with you. And that’s helpful to understand (and, if you screwed up, it’s important to recognize that and resolve not to make the same mistakes again). I once lost a great client when her company was bought out in a $9.8 billion acquisition deal; another client, when his departmental budget was cut.
- It forces you to evaluate your existing client relationships. Are you coasting comfortably along or have you asked your clients for feedback? When things are going well, it is easy to become complacent. Losing work ends that illusion, and reminds you that it might be wise to make sure your perception of the work relationship meshes with theirs.
- It frees up your time. Okay, stick with me here. I know you don’t want this free time, but what can you do now for your business that you didn’t have time to do before? I focused some time on better understanding social media, and I started this blog, during a slow period last summer.
- It brings new urgency to business development. If you’re like many solopreneurs and small business owners, your new business efforts are inversely proportional to the time spent on existing client work. There’s nothing like a revenue dip to focus your attention on the business side of your business.
- You get to test new business ideas. This goes hand-in-hand with #4. Every change in my business strategy has come after the loss of a big client. While that’s probably not a big surprise, here’s what might be: I was relieved to be free to try something new. As a result, I’ve been able over the years to expand my business from public affairs to include strategy and marketing communications offerings.
There’s one more reason why I’m big on loss as opportunity: I started my business after I lost a full-time job.
So what have I left out? How did losing a client or a job help you?
Tagged as:
Business,
Business Development,
marketing
