Monthly Archives: March 2016

March 25, 2016 · 11:53 am

Your Kitchen

It’s Foodie Friday! It’s no secret that I watch a bunch of cooking shows. In all candor, most of them are wonderful displays of individual talent but really don’t teach us much about the real food world. Nor are they extendable into business thinking, which is what we like to do here on the screed.

Chefs in training in Paris, France (2005).

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The real challenge in a professional restaurant kitchen is coordination and teamwork. Other than Hell’s Kitchen and the annual restaurant wars episode of Top Chef, we rarely get a sense of how difficult that teamwork can be. It does neither the quality of the product nor the business any good to have the meats sitting under a heat lamp while the garnish is being prepared. Obviously, it’s the chef who must oversee the coordination and foster communication, but it’s also the individual cooks.

You probably know that most kitchens have a line and there are various stations in that line. Meats, fish, salads, etc. generally come from different cooks. If one line cook is struggling, the entire process can break down. The cooks need to be organized, making sure to have all the materials they will be needing ready to go. They need to be able to multitask – handling several different items at once. That requires training, practice, and supervision.

Your business isn’t any different. As “the chef” overseeing my “brigade” in the non-food businesses in which I worked, I never felt as if I had to be able to jump on to any station.  By that I mean that no boss needs to be able to handle every job as well as the people doing them each day.  We do, however, need to recognize when there is a problem and ask the right questions to make the problem go away.  Just as a chef can’t make excuses for a slow line cook (train them, move them to a different station, or fire them), no manager can deflect blame for very long.  After all, it’s your kitchen!

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March 23, 2016 · 11:13 am

A Thought About Budgeting

Where are you in your annual planning cycle?  The end of March always seemed to be a time when I would have to begin looking at marketing budgets for the upcoming fiscal, so I had a thought you might want to keep in the back of your mind if you’re entering the process now.  It will be worth thinking about if you plan later on as well.

This is a "thought bubble". It is an...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of us spend a lot of time looking at the plethora of marketing channels available to us.  Mass media such as TV, more personalized media such as social, and very specific, time-based media such as search tend to dominate our thinking.  That’s the pattern I see with many of my clients at least, and it might be where you are as well.  It’s probably misguided thinking, however.  The reality is that how our customers want us to communicate with them is via email:

MarketingSherpa commissioned an online survey that was fielded August 20-24, 2015 with a nationally representative sample of U.S. consumers. We asked consumers, “In which of the following ways, if any, would you prefer to receive regular updates and promotions from companies that you are interested in doing business with? Please select all that apply.”

After summing up the numbers of consumers who prefer email at a frequency chosen by themselves and email at a frequency set by brand, email emerges as the most preferred way to receive updates and promotions (60%). Notably, subscribing to receive emails at a frequency consumers choose is twice as popular (49%) as subscribing to receive email at a company’s pre-determined frequency (24%).  Email is perhaps unexpectedly followed by snail mail (49%), leaving visiting the company’s website in third place (38%).

In other words, we need to stop thinking in terms of what’s new or what’s sexy and focus on our customers’ wishes.  While you’re spending your time trying to get them to follow you on social media (where the algorithms of the services will probably hide your message anyway), your customers are reading something meaningful.  You should be spending your time – and resources – on re-engaging your email database, building up open and response rates, not blasting out messages that fall on deaf ears.

Something to think about?

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March 22, 2016 · 9:02 am

Frictionless

One of the most basic principles of selling is that when a customer wants to give you money, take it. Take it as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. Any delay or friction is a chance for the customer to reconsider and for you to lose the sale. I saw this in action yesterday and it’s instructive for all of us.

English: Golf balls.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s almost golf season. Rotten golfer and cheap person that I am, I generally buy “recycled” golf balls for my non-tournament play. These are balls that some intrepid soul fished out of a water hazard (nasty work as this article shows) and which are cleaned up and sold by any number of websites. I usually purchase 8 or 10 dozen before the season begins and since I had a couple of discount coupons in my mailbox, I logged on to the site from which I’ve made several purchases before.  I put my purchases in my shopping cart and went to log in so I could check out quickly.  My login credentials are stored in a password manager, which filled in the user name and password automatically.  Unlike the other few times I’ve used the site, a box popped up letting me know that my credentials would be shared with Hubspot, a well-known CRM system.  That’s when the fun began.

I suspect it had to do with the use of a third-party cookie, but I couldn’t log in.  I was told my information was incorrect (it wasn’t) and they couldn’t log me in.  Sure, I could have called their phone number (listed right on the cart – props for that) but who knows how long that would take.  I also could have checked out as a guest, but then I needed to find my credit card and type in all the billing and shipping information that was already on file.  In short, they’d created friction in the sales process, and at the very worst moment to boot.  What was worse is that a chat window popped up (more CRM) asking me if I was finding everything I needed?  I responded immediately, explained the situation and was greeted by a reply that stated “Matt” (the name that popped up) would be with me shortly.  At that point “shortly” was too long.

Since I had a coupon for another site that offered the same balls at a lower price and a 15% discount along with free shipping, I ordered from the competition. Sure, I had to type in the information but at least now I was getting a better price.  While I was willing to pay a bit more to do business with a site I knew in a seamless manner, when it became a hassle, thereby lowering the value, price became an issue.  Interestingly, about an hour later I received an email (automated) asking me if I had forgotten something since there were items in my shopping cart.  I responded to the customer service address with a shorter version of what you’re reading.  Maybe I should have charged them for the consulting?

These guys did a lot of things right.  Their site is  helpful and easy to navigate.  The pricing and costs of shipping are clear.  They clearly are using CRM and lots of it.  But they failed at the most important time. Selling is hard but the process isn’t.  Explain how you’re solving the customer’s problem.  Provide them with great value for the cost.  When they agree, take their money, say thank you, and leave them alone. Prevent friction, provide support.  You with me?

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