Written by: Joyce Valley, NCCI Holdings, Inc.
As marketing research becomes more Web-based, it’s a luxury to gain face time with customers, but, at the same time, can make good business sense. When you know what to provide, you can turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer.
One local in-house marketing research professional and her research team complete nearly 70 in-depth research surveys each year. Their company provides services to 600 member companies, responds to nearly 500,000 customer inquiries, and hosts educational forums throughout the US. Surveys help identify areas of potential improvement.
Consumer companies with huge customer bases can sample their audiences electronically, but conducting online surveys among smaller audiences typically yields a smaller response than a personal call. Online surveys are also more difficult to control, because they are self-administered.
Many departments within the company have asked the research team to conduct surveys to determine if the company is meeting the customers’ needs. Is Customer Service helpful, quick to respond, thorough on the first call? Is the quality and format of materials that the customers receive easy to use and valuable to them? Recently, she conducted a survey for the company’s outside cafeteria vendor.
As a result of the survey, they upgraded their technology to make the cashier lines faster. They realized, from the survey, that it was a matter of some urgency.
The following seven steps are important for every successful survey.
Project planning and design—meet with the department head to determine the goals, budget, and survey methodology (telephone interviews, electronic survey, or face-to-face interviews)
Sample generation—determine the appropriate survey audience and the number of people to include
Data collection/field work—conduct a pre-test, which helps to ensure that the responses will meet survey objectives
Data processing and analysis—edit out ambiguous and inconsistent answers, and code or categorize the data to reduce responses to answers that can be tabulated and analyzed
Conclusions and report preparation—prepare a clearly written, concise executive summary and a detailed report with recommendations
Report review—conduct a final quality check of the report’s numbers and interpretations
Deployment—present the findings and discuss recommendations and action plans with the client (event or program leader)
The detail in surveys is sometimes excruciating, but that’s how to find out how you can improve. Many times, small changes have yielded big results.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
So, what do you do for a living?
Written by: Ted Frangos, Licensed Professional Business Coach
If I were to ask you “what do you do for a living”, what would you say? Would you say, I am a chiropractor, a plumber, a sales rep for xyz company, an insurance agent? If you were to ask me what I do, I’ll tell you what I would not say. I would not say I am a business coach, even though that’s exactly what I am.
Why not, you ask… Because if I were to say that to you, you would say, “oh that’s nice” or “that’s interesting”, and you may not even know what a business coach is. The chances are much less that you would know what a business coach could do for your company. More importantly, those are not the responses I want you to give me. How many times have you told someone “I am a _______ and heard a similar response followed by an uncomfortable silence? I hate when that happens! So, let’s work on this a bit.
Take out a piece of paper and write down two or three benefits you provide to your customers/clients. Make them short and sweet. Now with them in mind, write down a few problems that those benefits solve. C’mon, get a piece of paper and do it, this is really simple, will only take a few minutes and I promise it will make you money.
Done? Ok. Now all you have to do the next time someone asks you what you do for a living is answer them by saying… “You know how? [the problem you wrote down]. What I do is [tell them the benefits you wrote down]. Then wrap it up with another benefit statement. And make it a strong benefit statement.
Ex: You: What do you do Ted?
Me: You know how small business owners are so passionate about growing their
Companies, but they often feel overwhelmed, alone, or get stuck on solving
the same problems over and over again?
You: Yea, uh huh…
Me: Well, what I do is help them clearly define exactly what they need to
do, teach them exactly how to do it…then I work with them on a continuing
basis to make sure that everything keeps getting done (pause) so they can
finally enjoy the business, lifestyle [Time & Money] they’ve always wanted.
(italics added for emphasis)
Me: (at some point near the end of the conversation…be cool)
May I give you my card in case you know of anyone I can help with my
services? Do you have a card?
Like it? It’s yours to use. However it wont’t work unless you employ the answer to the old joke, How do you get to Carnegie Hall?... Practice. (Sorry, my wife and I took a few days off last week to walk around Manhatten and I get that one stuck in my head every time we walk up 57th street).
Important: This must be turned into a flowing conversation. If it sounds “canned” or like a 30 second networking commercial (which it can be also) it will not produce the desired effect. So practice. Practice with your spouse, friends, your staff, or anyone else who will help you…even with your business coach!
Ted Frangos is licensed by the Professional Business Coaches Alliance www.PBCA.biz and is the President of Victory Business Coaching Corp., in Boca Raton. www.VictoryBusinessCoaching.com
If I were to ask you “what do you do for a living”, what would you say? Would you say, I am a chiropractor, a plumber, a sales rep for xyz company, an insurance agent? If you were to ask me what I do, I’ll tell you what I would not say. I would not say I am a business coach, even though that’s exactly what I am.
Why not, you ask… Because if I were to say that to you, you would say, “oh that’s nice” or “that’s interesting”, and you may not even know what a business coach is. The chances are much less that you would know what a business coach could do for your company. More importantly, those are not the responses I want you to give me. How many times have you told someone “I am a _______ and heard a similar response followed by an uncomfortable silence? I hate when that happens! So, let’s work on this a bit.
Take out a piece of paper and write down two or three benefits you provide to your customers/clients. Make them short and sweet. Now with them in mind, write down a few problems that those benefits solve. C’mon, get a piece of paper and do it, this is really simple, will only take a few minutes and I promise it will make you money.
Done? Ok. Now all you have to do the next time someone asks you what you do for a living is answer them by saying… “You know how? [the problem you wrote down]. What I do is [tell them the benefits you wrote down]. Then wrap it up with another benefit statement. And make it a strong benefit statement.
Ex: You: What do you do Ted?
Me: You know how small business owners are so passionate about growing their
Companies, but they often feel overwhelmed, alone, or get stuck on solving
the same problems over and over again?
You: Yea, uh huh…
Me: Well, what I do is help them clearly define exactly what they need to
do, teach them exactly how to do it…then I work with them on a continuing
basis to make sure that everything keeps getting done (pause) so they can
finally enjoy the business, lifestyle [Time & Money] they’ve always wanted.
(italics added for emphasis)
Me: (at some point near the end of the conversation…be cool)
May I give you my card in case you know of anyone I can help with my
services? Do you have a card?
Like it? It’s yours to use. However it wont’t work unless you employ the answer to the old joke, How do you get to Carnegie Hall?... Practice. (Sorry, my wife and I took a few days off last week to walk around Manhatten and I get that one stuck in my head every time we walk up 57th street).
Important: This must be turned into a flowing conversation. If it sounds “canned” or like a 30 second networking commercial (which it can be also) it will not produce the desired effect. So practice. Practice with your spouse, friends, your staff, or anyone else who will help you…even with your business coach!
Ted Frangos is licensed by the Professional Business Coaches Alliance www.PBCA.biz and is the President of Victory Business Coaching Corp., in Boca Raton. www.VictoryBusinessCoaching.com
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