May 10, 2009

The ‘Only’ Statement: The Birth of Differentiation

Probably one of the most critical BE DiFFERENT practices I discuss in my book is the only statement.

It says that your quest to BE DiFFERENT has the objective of defining in very precise terms how your organization is unique relative your competition. Clearly if you are the only one that provides specific value to your target customer, your chances of success are significant in comparison to a firm that provides what I call ‘common value’ - value that is very similar if not identical to others - and has to use price as the gimmick to attract customers.

Here are two examples that I discovered while I was doing research for my book.

‘Unlike job boards, TheJobMagnet is the only pay-for-performance interactive recruiting service that goes where the candidates are, instead of making them find us. Our complete line of interactive candidate sourcing services addresses your recruiting needs, while our success-based pricing ensures you only ever pay for performance, not promises.’

‘AM 730, All Traffic All the Time. AM 730 Vancouver’s Traffic Station is the only station providing traffic twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.’

Developing the only statement for your organization is not a task for the faint of heart. It is very challenging and exhaustive process and you may not get it done! Or it may take you weeks to finally get it right. Stay with it though and it will be well worth it.

And don’t get memorised with your work. Make sure you go test it with your customers to make sure that the value you have chosen in your only statement is both compelling to the customer (it addresses a real high priority need) and it is real (they believe that you deliver it). If you don’t get a thumbs-up on both counts go back to square one and begin your work again.

Look in every nook and cranny in your organization to find only value. Some companies like ARA Safety of Vancouver chose a product, Marriott International Hotels chose their ‘Spirit to Serve’ while Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario chose providing personal coaching to meet the special needs of each student.

Take the BE DiFFERENT Quiz and test if you’re on the right track.
Seen good examples of the only statement? Send them along to me.

One of the most effective leaders today in the personal networking space Darcy Rezac, Chief Engagement Officer of the Vancouver Board of Trade, highlights the use of the only statement in telling people what you do in a way that captures a uniqueness that you possess. His Positive Networking Networking Tip of the Week expresses it nicely. More pearls of wisdom on how you can increase your network and enhance your career can be found in his BE DiFFERENT book Work the Pond.

Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 5.10.09 at 01:30 pm by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 6, 2009

Twitter Value

An April 30, 2009 article in the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada reported on a recent Neilson study finding that the churn rate for Twitter users in a single month was over 60%.

Notwithstanding the precise accuracy of the figure, even if the churn rate were 30% it would still be a critical issue for Twitter leadership.

I said in a blog back in February, that I viewed the power of Twitter in a business-to-consumer application as a Customer Learning tool for business rather than a personal media vehicle in the Facebook space. I have yet to see Twitter position the service in this way; they continue to let it develop in the market without any specific value proposition to guide it.

So, Team Twitter, start to communicate the value of the offering to business. Leverage the good efforts of businesses that have begun to use Twitter as an ongoing dialogue and relationship building tool with their customers. Discuss the specific applications they use. Talk about how they use Twitter to build their brand. Get real specific on the business value that you create and step away from the personal communications space that really isn’t a unique place for you to be since others are there competing with you.

In addition, help businesses learn how to get their customers to follow them. To a business, the value of Twitter is directly proportional to the customer audience available to build relationships with. Show us how to do it. Give us tips from the best.

So focus on the business market segment, re-define your value and communicate your value in a clear compelling way. BE DiFFERENT and watch your churn rate decline.

Cheers, Roy Osing

Remember to follow me on Twitter.

Posted 5.6.09 at 02:31 pm by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 3, 2009

Dazzle your customers #1 - Hire Human Being Lovers

Rule #1 of the four step practice to dazzle customers is to hire people with the innate desire and ability to serve and please others.

Why is it that we run into service people who obviously hate their job and would rather be working with technology than real people? Why is it that frontline positions are filled with people who have a lot of seniority in an organizations but don’t like humans? Ever been in a restaurant and have been afraid that the server would either throw something at you or subject your underdone steak to the population residing on the floor of the kitchen? Oh ya, we have all been there!

First of all, I can’t think of a more important position in any organization that one that deals directly with the public. These people should be called, as Tom Peters once called them, Supreme Commanders. They literally control all aspects of an organization that involves its brand: honesty, integrity, caring attitude, responsiveness and overall service quality. In the Telecom world, the telephone Operators handled well over 250,000 Moments of Truth every single day! Do you think they could influence customer perception toward the Company and subsequent decisions to buy a product or service. No question.

Second, why would the leadership of the organization put anyone into such an important job if they didn’t have the requisite skills and attitude to serve other people? Beats me but they do. I believe this dysfunctional behavior is due to the fact that they look at these positions as entry level junior jobs rather than a career destination, responsible for influencing customer loyalty and long terms profitability.

So, there are a few things you can do to make sure you get people obsessed with serving people in frontline positions:
- make sure the recruitment guide asks the right questions to expose this virtue. I find that there are many of what I would call hygiene questions asked, but rarely do I find that the ‘love’ questions are absent to any sigfnificant degree.
- Ask direct questions and see what the response is. I use to have fun with this and come right out and ask the candidate ‘Do you love people?’ and then ask them to describe 3 situations that proved it. You can tell quickly if the person is suitable to turn loose on your most valuable assets (customers) or not.
- get a senior person in the organization to participate in the panel interview process. This does three things: first it shows people in the organization that hiring frontliners is a critically important matter; second, it shows the candidate how serious the organization is about getting ‘people lovers’ in these positions and third, it enhances the richness of the interview around the interpersonal need in the job.

Can you train people to like people? My experience is a resounding NO! You either have a natural inclination to like humans or you don’t; no amount of training will change that. Training might influence how you behave and as long as the customer interaction is scripted you might get away with it. The reality is, however that customers can’t always be scripted and sooner or later the trained frontliner will have to rely on their innate abilities to handle the customer in an elegant and memorable way. The trained facade goes and exposes the real person who really would rather be on Facebook where only pictures and text messages exist.

So where do you find them? You should always have a frontline recruitment program underway to ensure that you are gathering the best peopple lovers you can to fuel the funnel created by employee turnover. Tag ‘em early by going to schools at all levels and spotting (through your people loving due diligence) the chosen ones. Adveritse explicitly about what you want. Check out TheJobMagnet for a BE DiFFERENT way to attract the right people.

Cheers, Roy Osing

Other blogs in this series
Recover from Your Blunders
Kill Dumb Rules
Bend the Rules

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Posted 5.3.09 at 02:08 pm by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)