Tag Archives: advice

July 24, 2013 · 8:45 am

Clients And Clarity

A couple of conversations over the last few days provided today’s inspiration.  The chats were with two folks who are smart, good at what they do, and completely lost when it comes to technology.  That’s really not a big deal for either them given that they’re not tech professionals.

Chat bubbles

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They do know as much as the typical “civilian” and they spend time on the web and using digital tech in their non-work lives.  In fact, they know quite a bit more than the average person since both have web sites for their respective businesses and were involved in those sites’ creation.  Each is also working on making improvements – new designs, better SEO, a smoother social integration.  That’s where things have gone awry and what provides a good business thought today.

The design and coding firms with which they’re working are typical of a number of folks working in the field.  Their work is fine but their interaction with their clients sucks.  They build up barriers of bullcrap instead of providing clear explanations of not just what they’re doing but why they’re doing it.  They are incapable of translating what can be baffling vernacular into terms that their clients can grasp. This frustrates (and I expect frightens) their clients, who are smart business people used to making informed decisions.

Keeping them in the dark by speaking to them in a language they don’t speak is harmful to everyone involved.  The client can’t be sure they’re making the right choices and, frankly, neither can you since you haven’t provided clarity.  If it’s NOT the right decision, would your expectation be that the client will immediately re-engage you to fix it?  Maybe so, but it won’t be at additional cost to them.  All it does it eat into your margins by your having to perform more work for no more money.

My rule of thumb is this:  I channel my mom.  My mom is TOTALLY technically illiterate (she’d be the first to tell you that) but smart about a lot of other stuff. If I feel as if the explanation I’m giving a client  would be good enough for my mom to explain it back to me after I say it, I’m probably on solid ground.

Like any business, the business I’m in – tech and consulting –  has a lot of moving pieces and tons of jargon, but the concepts aren’t dissimilar to other things.  As professionals, part of  our job to be translators for those folks who touch our business even if they don’t speak its language.  What do you think?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, digital media

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 16, 2013 · 10:13 am

Staying Together

It’s Tunesday! Today is a special one for me since it’s the 35th anniversary of the day the Mrs. and I got married. Because of that, I wanted a song from roughly the time when we got married that’s also a love song. What popped into my head this morning is “Let’s Stay Together“, a hit for both Al Green and Tina Turner.   The two hits actually happened on either side of our wedding date and I’m very aware that a lot of folks use this as a wedding song (we didn’t – Embraceable You, as I recall…).  I’ve always thought that Al Green’s version was way too low-key for the passion of the song and the video below is a live Tina Turner version which captures the song’s essence:

So what’s this got to do with business?  Actually, quite a bit.  You see, trying to stay together is what all of us do as businesses – with our customers, our team, and our vendors:

Let’s, let’s stay together
Lovin’ you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

The one thing that makes a relationship last is the trust that you’re standing on certain ground.  As the lyric says, you may go through bad times as well as good but never wondering about the underlying connection is crucial.  A customer with issues may not be happy but they’ll stay a customer if they trust you’re working to resolve their problem.  They want to hear “let me be the one you come running to”, not “I’m unable to help you.”

At its core, a relationship of any sort involves an investment of some sort.  While there is a lot of sanity in not throwing good money (literally and figuratively) after bad, it’s generally easier to keep a customer than to find new ones.  A commitment to trying to stay together makes that happen.  That’s how you celebrate 35 years as partners!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

June 19, 2013 · 11:34 am

Fins

I was listening to a podcast and someone used an analogy that resonated with me.

English: Apparently a 1960 Plymouth Fury, seen...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They likened a new product to what the car companies did when they really didn’t have any new innovations to add to a new model so they added fins. The fins didn’t do anything but they gave the car a new look and made all the old cars look…old!

I suppose every business that produces ongoing lines of product – phone manufacturers, cars companies, TV makers, etc. – are under a fair amount of pressure to add features constantly so you’ll feel the need to update a perfectly good item for a newer model.  After all, if we used many products to the end of their useful lives, the economy would probably be in much worse shape.  I’m not sure, however, that simply “adding fins” in the figurative sense is the best route for most businesses.

If you’re going to produce something new, make it something new.  If the new stuff is not a reason to buy the product – and in my mind “fins” don’t do it – they need to make the product demonstrably better.  It should be something users will employ on a regular basis, and preferably they’re something unique.  Adding, say, a soda can cool zone to a car doesn’t, in my mind, fit the bill (yes, that’s a real thing).  Adding dozens of new features to Word, which Microsoft is notorious for doing, that 99% of users won’t use and are just clutter and confusion for a huge percentage is self-defeating.  In many ways, phone manufacturers are the worst.

I love to buy new stuff.  I won’t buy it, however, just for the sake of doing so.  I suspect most consumers think as I do.  I’m waiting for the day when the press release comes out saying “there’s nothing new this year – we made a great product that we hope you bought and we’re committed to making it better.  We’ll let you know when it really is.”  I’m buying the new model of whatever that is the day it’s released.  I won’t be buying something because the release reads “and now with fins!”

You?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Reality checks

Tagged as , , , ,