Quality Service Marketing

Dear Mr President: About Employee Engagement ...

I’ve enjoyed being a guest on many radio shows since my first book, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care, was published. One of the most unexpected and intriguing questions I was asked was on Zane Safrit’s show. In what he called the “Imagination Moment,” Zane asked me to imagine responding to an email from President of the United States that read:   

‘Sybil, our economy reflects our failure to take care of the people that matter the most. I want you to come to the Oval Office and present your three ideas to reverse this trend, nationally.’ 

This was my response:

1. Gather information. First, I suggested business/industry associations and academia partner with each other to collect examples of effective employee- and customer care. They all have members from whom they can gather info on what works and what doesn’t.
2. Make people aware of engagement’s impact and importance. In a collaborative effort, business and academia could then create awareness among their members and the business community about the positive relationship between engagement and the bottom-line.
3. Help people learn and apply engagement skills. Lastly, provide the appropriate education and training organizations need on how to engage their employees and customers.

Although Zane interviewed me in early 2011, the question and my response is just as valid today. (While it may seem simplistic, keep in mind this was a spontaneous response on a live broadcast.)

This post is not intended to incite any finger-pointing in the campaign, but I am curious – in what other ways can engagement help with our economy? What advice would you give the Oval Office?

Coping with the Clueless in Charge

Does your organization’s management suffer from a credibility gap? They bring out program after program – jumping on the latest management bandwagon – then fail to follow through. Meanwhile, you and your fellow employees invest countless hours in these short-lived special initiatives on employee engagement, recognition, talent management or other fill-in-the-blank trendy topic.

With an uncooperative economy offering little job movement, it’s easy to become frustrated (the “enemy of engagement”) and cynical. Try not to dwell on the precious resources wasted in these “flavor-of-the-month” programs.

So what can you do to preserve whatever sanity you have left? Here are several suggestions:

• Find humor in the situation – amuse yourself and your colleagues with what management is going to do next. Play games like Business Word Bingo or the Buzz Word Generator.
• Consider management’s ineffectiveness as a learning tool that can make you more marketable … seriously, so you know what NOT to do in your next job.
• Maintain perspective – keep in mind this is a temporary situation (although it may not seem that way). Eventually you can change jobs or retire.
• Make an anonymous suggestion to get your organization featured on Undercover Boss or take up a collection to get a management coach. [Just kidding!]
• Besides maintaining perspective and a sense of humor, find ways to de-stress; e.g., go for a walk in the fresh air or engage in whatever healthy activity brings you endorphins.

These are just a sample of attitude adjustment coping mechanisms. I welcome your ideas!

How Marketers Sabotage Themselves

I recently spoke to a group of marketers about our need to internally market the marketing function. Before we can begin to develop brand ambassadors or marketing champions, we need to engage ALL employees in what marketing does since each employee impacts delivery of the brand promise. 

To better engage employees with our marketing programs, it’s important to understand how we inadvertently sabotage our own marketing efforts.

• We fail to recognize that marketing is perceived as creating extra work for employees. I learned this lesson earlier in my career as a bank marketer. Whenever the Marketing Department would launch a new deposit promotion – offering gifts to customers for opening new accounts – most branch people were less than receptive. On top of their regular duties of meeting daily operational standards for efficient transaction processing, business development & sales goals, customer service standards and customer retention goals,  we expected the tellers, customer service reps and branch managers to display, process, distribute and control inventory of whatever premiums that marketing had sent their way (stadium blankets, golf umbrellas, toaster ovens, VCRs, etc.). No wonder they wanted to bar the doors whenever they saw Marketing coming! 
  
  
• Just because the Marketing Department is part of the organizational chart doesn’t mean that employees know who we are and what we do. We forget that we need to continually educate others within the organization as to what Marketing really does … other than sitting around having a good time creating work for everyone else.

Our challenge is how do we engage employees who deliver on the brand when they have no clue as to what we really do and we have little/no authority over them?

As marketers we know how to develop and strengthen customer relationships; it’s not a stretch to apply this skill set to develop and strengthen employee relationships. But we’re so busy taking care of everyone else’s marketing needs that we neglect our own.

In what other ways does marketing sabotage itself? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience on this topic.

Starting a Marketing Department from Scratch

“Great news!” said the young woman who called me after attending one of my marketing workshops. With a background in graphic design, she was responsible for advertising, special events, and employee communications for a group of physicians in a multi-specialty medical practice. “My boss agreed to start a formal marketing function, and he wants me to head it up,” she explained. “Help!”

Where to begin

I shared her excitement, enthusiasm, and even a bit of panic. “First, take a deep breath,” I advised her. “Now, tell me about your company’s most pressing marketing needs.” We discussed these to start to prioritize them and get a realistic perspective of what could be achieved given her status as a one-person marketing department.

Beyond Marketing 101

Since there are plenty of books available on how-to-do marketing and how-to-write-a-marketing-plan, her concern was really how to be effective in developing a formal marketing function that would be accepted and respected within the group practice. My advice centered on four areas.

• Focus. Prepare to discuss the practice’s critical marketing needs with key internal stakeholders – in this case, physicians and administrators. Then get their agreement on selecting no more than three priorities that will receive most of marketing’s attention.
• Build Relationships. Cultivate and nurture relationships with marketing-related providers – printers, media reps, research suppliers, promotional sales reps, web designers, direct mail firms, etc. At the same time, develop and maintain relationships with marketing partners inside the practice. Educate and communicate with physicians, nursing staff, and administrators so they know and understand what marketing is doing and why (i.e., explain the rationale and goals of marketing’s strategy), including how individually and collectively they impact the brand based on their interactions with patients, families, hospitals, and the community-at-large.
• Manage Expectations Carefully. Once people within the practice know about the marketing department, everyone will have a laundry list of things they want marketing to do for them. So it’s important to manage organizational expectations of marketing – its goals, capabilities, limited resources, deadlines, etc. – upward (among management) as well as laterally (between and within the practice specialties). Stay focused on marketing’s top priorities [see Focus above] to keep from being overwhelmed with marketing requests.
• Make Time for Professional Development. It’s not easy to do it all as a one-person marketing department. Which is why it’s even more important to continue learning how to be a better marketer. Some of this knowledge can be gained by investing in formal development – taking classes, webinars, reading, etc. And some of it can be obtained via networking with other professionals in the field. Try to learn how they manage their marketing functions and how they handle marketing challenges, including being creative with limited resources. This networking can be invaluable for sharing ideas and coping strategies with other marketers and using them as sounding-boards. Whether over the phone, over a meal, over coffee or a more potent beverage, it’s also helpful to know that others have survived similar challenges.

Special Note: This advice is applicable to other organizations. Identify the internal and external stakeholders who are important to your organization and insert them to replace the physicians, administrators and other segments mentioned above.

New Book Preview: Share of Mind, Share of Heart - Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits

One of the reasons I love working with nonprofits is that they are so mission-focused. When you’re passionate about your mission, it’s easier to feel good about your work. But having a noble mission doesn’t guarantee organizational success!

Effectively managing a nonprofit on a daily basis is a challenge that involves:

• planning and delivering mission-based programs in response to constituent needs
• securing scarce resources and funding to meet ever-increasing needs
• developing and maintaining good relationships with the board, staff and volunteers
• ensuring governance compliance, etc. 

These are just a few of many critical tasks facing nonprofit professionals. With so many responsibilities, it’s easy for nonprofit leaders and managers to get caught up in operational issues and lose sight of what matters – and what matters is the tremendous impact every employee and volunteer has on the organization’s brand.

This is why I wrote Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits – to help nonprofits better engage their employees and volunteers. The book is scheduled for release this June, but here’s a sneak peak at what’s inside. 

Part 1: Nonprofit Marketing and Engagement

Ch. 1. Understanding Nonprofit Marketing and Your Brand

Ch. 2. Why Nonprofit Marketing Needs to be Different but the Same

Ch. 3. Taking Care of the People Who Most Impact Your Brand

Part 2: Marketing Tools of Engagement

Ch. 4. Introduction to Internal Marketing Tools of Engagement

Ch. 5. Connecting to the Organization

Ch. 6. Connecting to Customers

Ch. 7. Connecting to Other Employees and Volunteers

Part 3: Facilitating Your Nonprofit Engagement

Ch. 8. Keeping People Engaged

Ch. 9. Making It Happen – Your Internal Marketing Plan.

Special Pre-Release Offer: Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits will be published this June, and I'm pleased to offer a special discount of 20% off the retail price before the book's actual release. Click here to reserve your copy now!