I have no doubt that one of the outcomes of the recent daily focus and general frenzy around the Federal Election has been that one of the more attractive and useful Government initiatives has gone largely under the radar for a lot of people.
Having personally spoken with many people about it, I was amazed that no one had heard about it prior to our discussion. And so for this reason I am writing down some thoughts in the hope that you may be able to benefit from it.
Essentially there is Government funding available for the nationally accredited, Diploma of Management course which is usually valued at around $3500. However as an incentive for businesses to have their
personnel trained, eligible candidates may receive the training free.
Sadly with the high levels of mortality within the services sector and on the back of the difficult economic times most businesses have experienced over the last couple of years it is not surprising that funding has been made available to raise the bar in terms of key management and leadership skill s, as a key driver of improving business productivity and outcomes.
However the need to up skill people quickly and in a way that fits in effectively with their work commitments is also as we know very important and has been well thought out, so the Diploma of Management has now been streamlined and can now be done over four days where the student does one day a month for four months.
What Does the Diploma Cover?
The Diploma is made of eight key units of which two are delivered over each of the four days.
Specifically they are:
Managing Personal work priorities and Professional Development
Show Leadership in the workplace
Managing an Operational Plan
Facilitating Continuous Improvement in your business
Leading and Managing a Sales Team(s)
Providing Mentoring and coaching within you Business or workplace
Managing Quality Customer Service
Managing Budgets and Financial Plans.
What are the benefits to my business of my staff doing the Diploma of Management?
There are several key benefits for any business that up skills its staff with such a robust course.
To begin with the diploma helps to allow you to carefully plan out your succession planning within one or multiple practices by ensuring that people are appropriately trained with the commensurate level of leadership and management skills required to be effective.
As well, training is a great retention tool for quality, high performing and high potential staff that we want to keep. Almost invariably people have an expectation for more and better training as part of their personal development. This in turn demonstrates to them that they are a valued member of the team that is being developed for bigger and better things down the track.
It should also be noted that if any staff member then wanted to progress to a full business degree, doing this course will mean they only have to do the second and third years of the Bachelors degree.
Finally this type of training will make the individual more effective, a better leader and more strategic in their thinking about the business and where possible opportunities for growth may lay in the future.
Is every state eligible for Diploma of Management funding?
Sadly no. Not every state is eligible for this funding and even within those that are,
there are differences in qualifying criteria and the rewards on offer for businesses.
If you live in Victoria:
The business has a net gain of $2500 for each student who meets the criteria on completion of the Diploma of Management. In every instance they must be an Australian citizen who works full time or part time over 13 hours per week. Beyond this it is further broken down by age?
For people under 25, who have not completed a degree or diploma, the business receives $2500 for each student that completes the course.
For people 25 and over, who have not completed a degree or diploma and have started with the firm within the last weeks, the business receives $2500 for each student that completes the course.
If you live in Queensland, South Australia, the ACT or Tasmania:
The business can get staff trained up in the Diploma of Management for free if they meet the specified criteria as follows:
Regardless of age, the candidate must be an Australian citizen who works full time or part time over 13 hours per week. As well they cannot have completed a degree or diploma. As well they cannot have completed a qualification higher than a Certificate III in the last 7 years that was not completed within 2 years of finishing high school. If these criteria are met, the course will be free.
If you live in New South Wales or Western Australia:
There is no funding available for the Diploma of Management at this time; although this may change in the future as funding is reviewed.
Suffice to say, if you personally have any interest in this type of training for you or your staff please or think this may be of use to someone you know, please as Molly would say "do them a favor" and forward this post on to them. As well anyone should feel free to call me and I’d be pleased to discuss the criteria with you and direct you more precisely based on your needs and situation.
My direct contact number is: 0413 297 617.
I hope this can help you and your business as we all continue to pursue continual improvement and grow.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Customer Service 2.0
Following up from an earlier article on customer service from the February 2009 issue titled: Are You Being Served, I’m pleased and pleasantly surprised by the tremendous response I have received from people that have read it and how much of a wake up call it has been for them to initiate some action.
For example one business owner told me that he decided on doing some market research to gain an insight into how his customers felt about the level of customer service they were receiving, which to his disappointment revealed some disturbing feedback regarding widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.
This type of feedback although upsetting, is none the less particularly relevant for any business when you consider the findings of the well known and often quoted landmark TARP study on the effects of customer dissatisfaction through poor customer service.
It confirmed what most people suspected to be true about the ripple down effect of poor customer service and the inevitable reaction of the dissatisfied customers.
The study found that every very dissatisfied customer would tell ten people about their experience who inturn would tell another five people on average. Do the maths. For every complaint you know about, up to one thousand people may be hearing about it.
Problem number 1. The same data showed that for every complaint made, around nineteen are not made. This rings of truth to me because most people are conflict averse and will try to avoid direct conflict unless they have no other option.
Problem number 2. The results of the TARP study were released well before the advent of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook, where we know that around 85% of people are likely to trust their respective peers that they network with. As little Wednesday Adams says in the Addams Family movie, “be frightened. Be very, very frightened”.
As a result these numbers may quite possibly be conservative and underplay the scope of the potential harmful effects of ongoing, poor customer service will bring.
And as for legal remedies, well consider that for deformation to be present, you need to show that the statement being made is incorrect and that the intention of the person making it was do harm. The only real defence is a proactive offence that completely lives, breathes and delivers quality, consistent customer service every time that people will rave about.
Since the earlier article, along with some dreadful examples I wont talk about, I’m pleased to say I’ve also seen some really first rate customer service. Here are some examples. Can any of the principles be applied to your business or brand?
1. Having recently traded my old Nokia for a new Blackberry Bold I one unwanted side effect. Namely that by deleting my emails on my phone (and not on my laptop), I would clog of the server and stop receiving emails.
I asked by my telephone company and the retail outlet for help but was politely ignored by both. Help cam from my ISP of all places (Spacelink Connect) who generously invited me to their office and fixed the problem free. Of charge while I waited. Key take out: When you can help someone, do so.
2. Like a lot of others this time of year my trees have grown and are causing problems with blocked drains and gutters. Accordingly I called Taylor’s Tree and Stump Removals and booked a time. The day prior they let me know they had some people out and would need to reschedule which I did. Later that week a written apology and $20 Bunnings voucher arrived in the mail.
Key take out: When it’s your fault, take accountability and show your remorse.
3. Finally an example around income protection insurance. Now for people not familiar with this area, the bottom line is that once you have formally applied for IPI with one insurer, there is a duty of disclosure to tell any subsequent insurer you approach about it, which they can then check. I therefore wanted to know if someone with my particular (albeit unremarkable) medical history would have any issues obtaining it without having to go on record formally. I’m pleased to say that Halstead Financial Services were very helpful and conducted a pre-assessment, which meant they asked about the profile generically without having to provide a name.
Key take out: Give your clients and customers greater control.
In each of the three examples above, the firms did not know me and definitely had no idea they would be later cited in an article extolling the virtues of customer service. In each case their responses were customer focused, fair and reasonable. No customer could expect any more and no customer should ever have to put up with anything less.
For example one business owner told me that he decided on doing some market research to gain an insight into how his customers felt about the level of customer service they were receiving, which to his disappointment revealed some disturbing feedback regarding widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.
This type of feedback although upsetting, is none the less particularly relevant for any business when you consider the findings of the well known and often quoted landmark TARP study on the effects of customer dissatisfaction through poor customer service.
It confirmed what most people suspected to be true about the ripple down effect of poor customer service and the inevitable reaction of the dissatisfied customers.
The study found that every very dissatisfied customer would tell ten people about their experience who inturn would tell another five people on average. Do the maths. For every complaint you know about, up to one thousand people may be hearing about it.
Problem number 1. The same data showed that for every complaint made, around nineteen are not made. This rings of truth to me because most people are conflict averse and will try to avoid direct conflict unless they have no other option.
Problem number 2. The results of the TARP study were released well before the advent of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook, where we know that around 85% of people are likely to trust their respective peers that they network with. As little Wednesday Adams says in the Addams Family movie, “be frightened. Be very, very frightened”.
As a result these numbers may quite possibly be conservative and underplay the scope of the potential harmful effects of ongoing, poor customer service will bring.
And as for legal remedies, well consider that for deformation to be present, you need to show that the statement being made is incorrect and that the intention of the person making it was do harm. The only real defence is a proactive offence that completely lives, breathes and delivers quality, consistent customer service every time that people will rave about.
Since the earlier article, along with some dreadful examples I wont talk about, I’m pleased to say I’ve also seen some really first rate customer service. Here are some examples. Can any of the principles be applied to your business or brand?
1. Having recently traded my old Nokia for a new Blackberry Bold I one unwanted side effect. Namely that by deleting my emails on my phone (and not on my laptop), I would clog of the server and stop receiving emails.
I asked by my telephone company and the retail outlet for help but was politely ignored by both. Help cam from my ISP of all places (Spacelink Connect) who generously invited me to their office and fixed the problem free. Of charge while I waited. Key take out: When you can help someone, do so.
2. Like a lot of others this time of year my trees have grown and are causing problems with blocked drains and gutters. Accordingly I called Taylor’s Tree and Stump Removals and booked a time. The day prior they let me know they had some people out and would need to reschedule which I did. Later that week a written apology and $20 Bunnings voucher arrived in the mail.
Key take out: When it’s your fault, take accountability and show your remorse.
3. Finally an example around income protection insurance. Now for people not familiar with this area, the bottom line is that once you have formally applied for IPI with one insurer, there is a duty of disclosure to tell any subsequent insurer you approach about it, which they can then check. I therefore wanted to know if someone with my particular (albeit unremarkable) medical history would have any issues obtaining it without having to go on record formally. I’m pleased to say that Halstead Financial Services were very helpful and conducted a pre-assessment, which meant they asked about the profile generically without having to provide a name.
Key take out: Give your clients and customers greater control.
In each of the three examples above, the firms did not know me and definitely had no idea they would be later cited in an article extolling the virtues of customer service. In each case their responses were customer focused, fair and reasonable. No customer could expect any more and no customer should ever have to put up with anything less.
Friday, August 6, 2010
14 Attention Grabbing Tactics for Launching a New Business Blog
Are you doing enough to ensure that your blog is up to scrtach. You have some small amount of competition of course with over 12o million other blogs already out there competing for people's time and energy. So what are some things you should be routinely trying to do to be certain yours is a blog others will read, follow and possibly even share with others. Here are some thoghts by Denise Wakeman from August 5, 2010 you might find useful. Enjoy.
So you’ve created a blog for your business. Now what? You’re probably asking yourself, “How do people find out about my new blog?”
The simple answer is: You have to promote your blog and let people know it exists.
Optimizing your blog for search engines is critical, but just like any website, product, book or service you create, you have to promote the launch of a new blog.
There are a lot of ways to promote a new blog and I’m sharing 14 tactics to help you get the word out about your new baby. Heck, you could use these tactics for an established blog as well if you want a boost in traffic and subscribers.
But before you tell the world your blog exists, make sure you have completed these essential tasks first:
Does your masthead (banner) make it easy for new readers to know what your blog is about and if it’s right for them (target audience)?
Is your name as author/publisher easy to find?
Do you have an About/Contact page?
Do you have subscription options (RSS and email)?
Do you have a call to action to get more info (join your mailing list, get a free report, etc.)?
Do you have social sharing buttons on your posts?
Do you have links to your social networking profiles?
Do you have comments enabled?
Do you have 7 to 10 posts published?
Point #9 is important because you don’t want to send people to a blog with only one or two posts. New readers will want to get a sense of your style, content and expertise before they commit to subscribing. I strongly recommend having a minimum of seven posts published before you start promoting your new blog.
Implement the Obvious First
Before I get to the 14 creative ways to promote your blog, implement the obvious and see #12, 13 and 14 in this article.
Syndicate your blog content to your Twitter stream.
Link your blog to your Facebook business page.
Link your blog to your LinkedIn profile.
Submit your blog to the appropriate blog directories.
Write and post a media release.
Send an email announcement to your list.
The Not-So-Obvious
When I was thinking about this topic, I decided to “tap the wisdom of the crowd” to get the best of the best ideas. I posted the following question on LinkedIn Answers:
Question posted on LinkedIn Answers.
There were 27 responses in 7 days. There were many similar recommendations and a few that stated the obvious (like using social media and writing engaging content). I’ve culled through them and offer you a selection of tips I feel are the most effective for launching your new business blog.
#1: Host a Live Streaming Video Event
When Mike Stelzner launched Social Media Examiner, he created buzz and a lot of traffic by hosting four back-to-back video chats with the initial contributors (me, Mari Smith, Jason Falls and Chris Garrett).
#2: Use Offline Marketing
Boris Mahovac recommends going offline and sending postcards to your existing clients, asking them to promote your new blog to their contacts. Using a unique URL will allow you to track new visitors/signups, and this can be a way for you to reward the one client who sends the most traffic to your new blog. You need to give your clients an incentive to promote your new blog—say a chance to win an iPad, or something more expensive, depending on the business (model).
#3: Create a Video to Promote Your Blog
Apryl Parcher suggested using Animoto.com to create a video about your blog. Post it on your YouTube channel and Facebook page. Send the video link to your email list as well. Several others also mentioned creating videos and with the popularity of video, I encourage you to include it in your launch plan.
#4: Use Remote Blogging Sites to Extend the Reach of Your Content
Brandon Uttley uses Posterous.com to post excerpts from blog posts with links back to his main blog and other social media sites. Remote blogging sites often have high traffic and this puts your content in front of potential new readers.
An excerpt of the original blog post is published on a Posterous blog with a link back to the original post.
#5: Host a Live (In-person) Event for Your Announcement
As Barry Hurd says, “I think a lot of people forget the social part of the media. Launching a new blog is really about reaching through your relationships.” Host a private reception, dinner or cocktail party with industry leaders in your niche. Or, go big and host a meetup or tweetup and cross-promote with a charity. Live events are an opportunity to connect face-to-face, get to know the needs of your target audience and build a lot of goodwill.
#6: Repurpose Your Content
I could relate to Kathi Browne’s suggestion to submit blog posts on article sites like EzineArticles.com. There’s more on repurposing your blog posts here.
#7: Feature Experts
It comes as no surprise that Liz Strauss , a master at building community, shares a tip about featuring other people on your blog. Start an interview series that features experts who folks want to know better. Invite a wide range of people to participate in short interviews that ask unusual and insightful questions. Include the expert’s name in the blog title. Additionally, make heroes of other people who are just starting out. Point out their work as well.
#8: Comment on Other Blogs in Your Niche
This suggestion was offered by quite a few people, and with good reason. As Janet Fouts says, “Commenting on other blogs with useful (not promotional) information and insight can pique the interest of other readers and also build those treasured backlinks.”
#9: Do Some Guest Posting
This idea came up many times as well. There are two sides to this: inviting other bloggers to guest post on your blog and offering to guest post on complementary blogs. Both ways can generate visibility for your blog. The value is in creating connections with colleagues and creating win-win-win for you, other bloggers and your readers. The links and buzz will support your blog launch.
#10: Host a Webinar
Along the lines of a live video chat or an offline event, create a webinar or teleseminar to introduce your blog. Rather than simply announcing your blog, make it a learning experience by teaching or demonstrating an aspect of your expertise. Remind your audience they can continue getting the same great content by subscribing to and reading your blog.
#11: Run a Contest
Dawn Pigoni offered this excellent idea: Run a contest based on the content of the blog. Have an “answer hunt” where the answers to win the prize(s) are found within the blog posts. That will get people reading the quality, content-rich posts while attempting to win a prize. Then use Twitter to post questions and the winner(s).
#12: Host an Online Radio Show
BlogTalkRadio is a popular and free site that provides the tools and foundation for creating your own show. Because of high traffic and the syndication options on Blog Talk Radio, a show focused on your niche could generate an ongoing stream of visitors to your blog. If hosting isn’t for you, most radio hosts are always looking for guests to fill their time slots. No doubt you can find many shows that are in alignment with your blog’s niche.
#13: Create a Related Special Report
Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com shared his secret: Release a valuable piece of “extended content” such as a PDF report or video tutorial (without an opt-in) fairly early after the blog launches. While the content itself is valuable, it also acts as a “sales letter” for subscribing to the blog, due to the promise to keep expanding on the themes presented in the extended content in more detail. This allows you to create a “content event” early. And it’s a natural way to attract long-term subscribers if well done. Just be sure to have the opt-in call to action at the close of the extended content, because that’s the action you want people to take.
#14: Advertise Your Site
Clay Franklin recommends using Craigslist, eBay classifieds and Facebook ads to boost awareness of your new blog. This will depend on your budget. If you do want to spend some advertising dollars, you can test a Google Adwords campaign and see what kind of results you get.
If you were to implement just three or four of these ideas, you would see a boost in visibility, traffic and blog subscribers. Pick the tactics that fit with your business model, style and intended audience and you’re sure to experience success.
Now it’s your turn. What creative tactics have you used or observed to launch a new blog? Share your ideas in the comments box below.
So you’ve created a blog for your business. Now what? You’re probably asking yourself, “How do people find out about my new blog?”
The simple answer is: You have to promote your blog and let people know it exists.
Optimizing your blog for search engines is critical, but just like any website, product, book or service you create, you have to promote the launch of a new blog.
There are a lot of ways to promote a new blog and I’m sharing 14 tactics to help you get the word out about your new baby. Heck, you could use these tactics for an established blog as well if you want a boost in traffic and subscribers.
But before you tell the world your blog exists, make sure you have completed these essential tasks first:
Does your masthead (banner) make it easy for new readers to know what your blog is about and if it’s right for them (target audience)?
Is your name as author/publisher easy to find?
Do you have an About/Contact page?
Do you have subscription options (RSS and email)?
Do you have a call to action to get more info (join your mailing list, get a free report, etc.)?
Do you have social sharing buttons on your posts?
Do you have links to your social networking profiles?
Do you have comments enabled?
Do you have 7 to 10 posts published?
Point #9 is important because you don’t want to send people to a blog with only one or two posts. New readers will want to get a sense of your style, content and expertise before they commit to subscribing. I strongly recommend having a minimum of seven posts published before you start promoting your new blog.
Implement the Obvious First
Before I get to the 14 creative ways to promote your blog, implement the obvious and see #12, 13 and 14 in this article.
Syndicate your blog content to your Twitter stream.
Link your blog to your Facebook business page.
Link your blog to your LinkedIn profile.
Submit your blog to the appropriate blog directories.
Write and post a media release.
Send an email announcement to your list.
The Not-So-Obvious
When I was thinking about this topic, I decided to “tap the wisdom of the crowd” to get the best of the best ideas. I posted the following question on LinkedIn Answers:
Question posted on LinkedIn Answers.
There were 27 responses in 7 days. There were many similar recommendations and a few that stated the obvious (like using social media and writing engaging content). I’ve culled through them and offer you a selection of tips I feel are the most effective for launching your new business blog.
#1: Host a Live Streaming Video Event
When Mike Stelzner launched Social Media Examiner, he created buzz and a lot of traffic by hosting four back-to-back video chats with the initial contributors (me, Mari Smith, Jason Falls and Chris Garrett).
#2: Use Offline Marketing
Boris Mahovac recommends going offline and sending postcards to your existing clients, asking them to promote your new blog to their contacts. Using a unique URL will allow you to track new visitors/signups, and this can be a way for you to reward the one client who sends the most traffic to your new blog. You need to give your clients an incentive to promote your new blog—say a chance to win an iPad, or something more expensive, depending on the business (model).
#3: Create a Video to Promote Your Blog
Apryl Parcher suggested using Animoto.com to create a video about your blog. Post it on your YouTube channel and Facebook page. Send the video link to your email list as well. Several others also mentioned creating videos and with the popularity of video, I encourage you to include it in your launch plan.
#4: Use Remote Blogging Sites to Extend the Reach of Your Content
Brandon Uttley uses Posterous.com to post excerpts from blog posts with links back to his main blog and other social media sites. Remote blogging sites often have high traffic and this puts your content in front of potential new readers.
An excerpt of the original blog post is published on a Posterous blog with a link back to the original post.
#5: Host a Live (In-person) Event for Your Announcement
As Barry Hurd says, “I think a lot of people forget the social part of the media. Launching a new blog is really about reaching through your relationships.” Host a private reception, dinner or cocktail party with industry leaders in your niche. Or, go big and host a meetup or tweetup and cross-promote with a charity. Live events are an opportunity to connect face-to-face, get to know the needs of your target audience and build a lot of goodwill.
#6: Repurpose Your Content
I could relate to Kathi Browne’s suggestion to submit blog posts on article sites like EzineArticles.com. There’s more on repurposing your blog posts here.
#7: Feature Experts
It comes as no surprise that Liz Strauss , a master at building community, shares a tip about featuring other people on your blog. Start an interview series that features experts who folks want to know better. Invite a wide range of people to participate in short interviews that ask unusual and insightful questions. Include the expert’s name in the blog title. Additionally, make heroes of other people who are just starting out. Point out their work as well.
#8: Comment on Other Blogs in Your Niche
This suggestion was offered by quite a few people, and with good reason. As Janet Fouts says, “Commenting on other blogs with useful (not promotional) information and insight can pique the interest of other readers and also build those treasured backlinks.”
#9: Do Some Guest Posting
This idea came up many times as well. There are two sides to this: inviting other bloggers to guest post on your blog and offering to guest post on complementary blogs. Both ways can generate visibility for your blog. The value is in creating connections with colleagues and creating win-win-win for you, other bloggers and your readers. The links and buzz will support your blog launch.
#10: Host a Webinar
Along the lines of a live video chat or an offline event, create a webinar or teleseminar to introduce your blog. Rather than simply announcing your blog, make it a learning experience by teaching or demonstrating an aspect of your expertise. Remind your audience they can continue getting the same great content by subscribing to and reading your blog.
#11: Run a Contest
Dawn Pigoni offered this excellent idea: Run a contest based on the content of the blog. Have an “answer hunt” where the answers to win the prize(s) are found within the blog posts. That will get people reading the quality, content-rich posts while attempting to win a prize. Then use Twitter to post questions and the winner(s).
#12: Host an Online Radio Show
BlogTalkRadio is a popular and free site that provides the tools and foundation for creating your own show. Because of high traffic and the syndication options on Blog Talk Radio, a show focused on your niche could generate an ongoing stream of visitors to your blog. If hosting isn’t for you, most radio hosts are always looking for guests to fill their time slots. No doubt you can find many shows that are in alignment with your blog’s niche.
#13: Create a Related Special Report
Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com shared his secret: Release a valuable piece of “extended content” such as a PDF report or video tutorial (without an opt-in) fairly early after the blog launches. While the content itself is valuable, it also acts as a “sales letter” for subscribing to the blog, due to the promise to keep expanding on the themes presented in the extended content in more detail. This allows you to create a “content event” early. And it’s a natural way to attract long-term subscribers if well done. Just be sure to have the opt-in call to action at the close of the extended content, because that’s the action you want people to take.
#14: Advertise Your Site
Clay Franklin recommends using Craigslist, eBay classifieds and Facebook ads to boost awareness of your new blog. This will depend on your budget. If you do want to spend some advertising dollars, you can test a Google Adwords campaign and see what kind of results you get.
If you were to implement just three or four of these ideas, you would see a boost in visibility, traffic and blog subscribers. Pick the tactics that fit with your business model, style and intended audience and you’re sure to experience success.
Now it’s your turn. What creative tactics have you used or observed to launch a new blog? Share your ideas in the comments box below.
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