Millerwood Communications

Journalism Principles Help Design Corporate Web Site

When you see an organization's home page for the first time, you form an opinion about the company. Is it professional-looking, well-written and attention-getting?

The six principles of journalism -- who, what, why, where, when and how -- can help establish general guidelines to follow when designing a site.

- WHO is the target market your site should appeal to?

- WHAT are the products and/or services you are selling?

- WHY should a consumer buy from you?

- WHERE are you located and how can you be contacted?

- WHEN can the consumer receive a return phone call or email on an item they ordered if they contacted you today?

- HOW will the product and/or service be delivered?

The answers to these questions should drive the design concept to draw someone in.

That said, navigation that makes it easy for a consumer to find what is important reflects the organization and will appeal to the target market.

Millerwood Hits the Links

OK. Time for a little self-promotion.

If you're in eastern Massachusetts next week and enjoy playing golf, this is an opportunity to find out how Millerwood Communications can help you drive better business results (we can't promise we'll help you drive better off the tee).

On June 12, Millerwood is sponsoring a hole at the Wachusett Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament at bucolic Cyprian Keyes. At the hole, we'll offer giveaways and raffle an iPod. But what we're really hoping for is a chance to meet and spend a minutes with other business owners looking for help with communications.

As consultants working for several different firms before launching Millerwood in 2003, we've worked with clients located all around the country including San Francisco, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Norwalk and several locations in New Jersey.

That's all good but, ironically, we've had limited encounters with businesses in our home state of Massachusetts. We're hoping our presence at the golf tournament gives us a chance to establish local partnerships.

Every organization has communication challenges. Some are familiar to all companies, and many of the concerns are the same. Management changes. Morale issues. Ambiguity.

How do you retain good employees and keep them engaged?

How do you connect each and every employee to the goals and objectives of the business?

Millerwood can help.

If you're reading this, we'd like you to join us on June 12. We're hoping you shoot a low score but we'd like to help you gain higher scores with your employees by taking the time to communicate effectively.

Bring it Home

In the past 10 years, we've seen many companies set up call centers offshore in low-wage areas, including India and the Philippines. Now a new trend is emerging called "homeshoring."

Homeshoring is the practice of setting up a call center using free-agent, at-home workers residing in the United States. The latest research estimates that there are 112,000 home-based agents working in the U.S. for companies including JetBlue, Office Depot, J. Crew, Wyndham Hotels and Sears.

The cost-effective way to provide customer service eliminates the cost of a physical call center and enables employers to tap into a new workforce -- mothers with young children, the disabled and retirees. This workforce contains many people motivated to work, but due to restrictions are not able to go to an office every day.

Although homeshoring may reduce customer service costs, there is the added requirement of keeping the agents motivated, trained and informed on the company culture and policies. JetBlue addresses this by only hiring agents in the Salt Lake City area, providing mandatory on-site training and attendance at quarterly events. JetBlue currently has 4 percent turnover among JetBlue agents.

The early read is that homeshoring will provide a company with motivated employees, reduced costs, high customer service and low turnover. If this continues to prove a success, we will probably see many call centers return to the U.S.

Don't Exclude Customers in Communication Planning

The best way to keep customers and clients is to provide a good product or service. But often companies miss the opportunity to go beyond being just a preferred vendor to being a meaningful business partner.

To form partnerships with customers and clients, include them as an audience in communication planning. Implementing tactics that engage customers in the business may not only bring customers back, it may actually help to improve your performance. Here are five ways to grow your relationship with customers:

1. Involve customers in business planning - Hold focus groups comprised of current customers and ask for feedback on the future of your industry. Ask for ideas on how to improve and how to meet future market needs. No one knows better than those who are buying from you.
2. Gather feedback from unsatisfied customers - Ask unhappy customers for suggestions on how you can improve. These current or past customers may have critical information on broken processes, quality issues with products and customer service. Try to hold these meetings at their work site, to make it as convenient for them as possible. Even if they have switched to another vendor, this may be the first step to getting them back.
3. Form a customer advisory board - Use this group to review new product ideas, process changes and how to meet customer needs.
4. Form a rewards program - Employees are not the only ones who appreciate being rewarded for successful ideas. Customers will also feel rewarded by recognition from senior management and, perhaps, other customers.
5. Communicate progress and success -  Use communication channels, such as newsletters, Intranet and e-mail to report to clients and employees on the status of customer feedback and input.

As with any other communication plan, follow-up is essential. Once you reach out to customers for their opinions, advice and feedback, be prepared to follow through with the program. If the customer perceives that a ball is dropped, or that you wasted their time, you risk damaging your reputation and the future of your relationship. 

Why No Refrigerator Doors?

As an employee and manager, and now business owner, I am a firm believer that suggestions and ideas from the workforce are the crux of any organization. It's where most improvements originate, where new product ideas come from and where cost-saving programs begin.

But what about customers?

They too can provide a wealth of ideas to improve a business. I know no matter where I am -- in a department store, a grocery store or Starbucks -- I am constantly coming up with ideas to improve my experience. For example, I absolutely hate seeing employees smoking at the entrance to any establishment. Having to hold my breath as I walk up and wait for the automatic doors to close behind me doesn't get my shopping trip off to a good start.

How difficult is it to provide smoking employees with an area anywhere except the front door?

Another problem I have are menus that can only be read when you are at the counter ready to order like in Panera Bread or Einstein Bagels. Why can't menus be provided when you enter so you can make your decisions without holding up the hungry lunchtime mob behind you?

A cost-savings idea I have is to put doors on the refrigerators in grocery stores. Can you imagine the amount of electricity wasted to run those open areas housing yogurts and milk? I wouldn't think of leaving my refrigerator open all day.

But for all my ideas I have yet to write a letter, drop an e-mail or talk to a store manager. I guess there isn't enough incentive for me to get involved in someone else's business.

Companies should think about how to get their customers to care enough to share their opinion. For me, a survey in the mail or a "how are we doing" card at the register isn't enough. How about some sort of compensation or prize for ideas that are implemented? Or instead of employee of the month, initiate a customer of the month program.

Customers are an untapped resource that could help generate new ideas. Businesses should wise up.

   

Patients are Customers, Too

Anyone who has spent time as a hospital patient would agree that patients should be treated as customers.

Having recently spent four days in the hospital having our first baby, I experienced first-hand how important this is. Even though I received the best medical care Boston has to offer, there was a lack of consistency in how the nurses, doctors and rest of the staff communicated information to me.

With each shift change, I was told different preferred methods on how to care for the baby and best practices on how to manage my recovery. I even got conflicting information on how to discharge from the hospital. It was like calling customer service several times with the same question and getting a different response each time.

In the medical profession as in all professions, there should be an emphasis on customer communications. Attention to the quality and consistency of  information given to patients should be as an important a priority as the actual medical treatment. Instead, what happens is the staff offers their opinions in lieu of best practices established by the hospital.      

Patients want to be assured they are receiving accurate information. Once they receive conflicting information, even though it may only be what time they will be discharged, confidence in the doctors and nurses can be compromised.

Reach Your Customers Through Blogging

A company blog gives organizations the opportunity to show credibility and expertise in their line of business. Different from the company web site, which gives the "About Us" and "Products and Services" type information, a blog allows for informal communication with a chance for the audience to provide feedback.

To be most effective, writer(s) should possess a deep knowledge of the topic and be passionate about what they write. The writing should be conversational, and can even be fun. It is the accumulation of quality and creative entries that will eventually set the blog apart from other sources of content.

Blogs can also be a forum for customers to share experiences with the company. For example, if a new product has been released, an organization can invite customers to share experiences, satisfaction and even gripes. This type of information is usually timely and expensive to obtain, but with a blog it can be immediate. In addition to the company obtaining information, it can be proactive and reach out to customers before the problem reaches the customer service lines.

But remember, blog content, whether it is written by the organization or is positive/negative feedback from customers, is public. The companies that recognize this and aren't threatened by it are the companies who "get it."

Blogs are a two-way symmetrical communication tool. Blogs are not sales tools and should not be overrun with marketing and sales information. If this happens, readers will see right through it and may stop coming back.

The blogosphere is a captive, viral audience and is not easily fooled. Companies that blog need to understand that passion and honesty are what make blogging the new communications art form.