Posts tagged as:

Lee Watts

Are You Building Relationships or Burning Them?

by Daria Steigman on December 1, 2010

Business, Networking, Training, Teamwork | Independent Thinking | Steigman Communications, llcHis name was Matt, and I loved him.

Matt was a trainer at Gold’s Gym when I first met him. He said hi to everyone, and he’d go out of his way to correct your form or (in my case) nag me to switch up cardio machines more often. When I decided to get a trainer, I worked with him. When he branched out and started up a boot camp program, I signed up right away. Months later,  I ran into Matt when I was training for my first marathon. He was excited for me, and he hooked me up with his nutritionist–gratis–s0 I could get some advice on fueling for 26 miles. We lost touch sometime after that. Which is too bad, because I’d recommend him to anyone looking for a good fitness trainer.

At my current gym, there is no one that I would recommend. (My trainer isn’t there.) For the last 8 months I’ve been whipping my body back into athletic performance shape. Not one trainer has commented on my fitness, said “atta girl,” or otherwise showed that they care at all what I’m doing. And I’m in there several times a week–and I’m friendly.

Some of the staff know I’m not in the market for a trainer. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know others who might be.

It seems a cliche to say that “people do business with people they like.” But apparently we can’t say too often that business is about relationships.

Are you building them or burning them?

Photo by the U.S. Army (Flickr).

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Who Else Wants Brand Evangelists?

by Daria Steigman on July 12, 2010

Who Wants Brand Evangelists | Independent Thinking | Steigman Communications, llcI’ve talked before about how picking up the phone is a key component to customer service. But that’s really only the starting point for building customer loyalty.

If you’re lucky, your best customers are evangelists for your brand. Here are four ways to earn that loyalty:

1. Be the solution. OneWorldHosting gets that most small business owners don’t just want a place to park their Web sites. We want (and need) tech support. So when a recent service upgrade messed up access first to my WordPress dashboard and then later to my ability to upload blog photos, I could make a call and get the problems solved.

RNJ Sports is another example. While lots of stores sell running shoes, RNJ sells peace of mind. I know that after watching me walk and run that they’ll recommend a shoe that will decrease the likelihood of injuries ranging from shin splints to hip pain.

2. Make it easy. Is it easy for customers to connect with you? I’m not talking about social media per se, just whether you’re socially accessible. If I have to jump through hoops to find someone who can talk with me, I’m going somewhere else. Companies that that have made it easy for me include Eddie Bauer, Dell, and (usually) Verizon.

3. Value me. I’m very loyal to my local GNC store because the owner knows me, remembers what I purchase, and chats with me when I stop by. Ditto for my local Robeks franchise, where the owner and employees know my name.

4. Be remarkable. You don’t have to be Zappos to wow your customers. When I mentioned to Lee Watts that I’d backed off slightly on my workouts because of ligament pain in my left tricep, he cleared time on his schedule that morning to bring me into his studio to tweak my routine. This is a guy who primarily trains elite athletes, but he  made time for me. Not only does this go to #3, but he also created a wow moment.

What is your business doing to get talked about today?

Photo by PD Breen (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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Is Collaborative Blogging Right for Your Business?

by Daria Steigman on January 12, 2010

wordle_collaborative bloggingMy friend and uber-trainer Lee Watts asked me the other day about collaborative blogs. His idea is to bring together several colleagues in related fields (i.e., sports performance, nutrition, physical therapy, and so forth) to create a broader and more dynamic go-to resource. His question got me thinking about the broader pros and cons of collaborative blogs. Clearly, it’s a good idea for some businesses–but not necessarily for everyone.

There are definitely some benefits to having a collaborative blog, including:

  • potentially richer content across a sector, industry, or profession
  • you aren’t responsible for all the content
  • there are more people to share the posting load (which is exponentially more valuable when the primary posters aren’t natural writers)
  • the potential to attract a more diverse audience drawn in by one or more of the key areas of expertise

But there are also some downsides:

  • your company loses its unique branding
  • loss of control over the content (versus having your own blog)
  • you gain responsibility for bad content, but without the ability to remove it (i.e., whatever is on your collaborative blog reflects on your brand)
  • there’s a danger of losing blog focus
  • it’s harder to fire someone if they’re producing badly written or dull content

My recommendation: Keep your own blog and use guest posts to beef up your content and create opportunities for cross-blog collaboration. This will allow you to (1) keep your branding intact while showcasing your broader referral network; and (2) guest post to other blogs (and expand your visibility with new audiences). The exceptions: If you believe your area of expertise is too narrow to sustain a blog or you are unlikely to post at regular intervals.

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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11 Months, 1 Web Design, and the Perils of DIY

by Daria Steigman on November 23, 2009

MyWebsite

Eleven months. Eleven months, which equals a cautionary tale about good intentions. As in mine, and my time and ability to brand a Web site.

When I migrated SteigmanCommunications.com onto a self-hosted WordPress platform in January (or, more accurately, when my friend and uber-trainer Lee Watts did this for me), I had every intention of adding design elements quickly. The problem: I thought I could do it myself. And that, at the time, meant learning hooks and understanding CSS style sheets–not my forte.

Not my forte, as in: smart business owner, take your own advice and farm out the tasks that aren’t your specialty (like accounting and Web design). So eventually I figured out that I wasn’t going to do it (and certainly wasn’t going to do it well), and hired someone who actually gets this design stuff.

If you’re reading this post via feed reader or e-mail, pop over to the site and check out the new design. It was 11 months in the making.

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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