Tag: employee engagement

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Engagement Marketing

Got History? Part 3

To wrap up this series of posts, here are some ways you can plan & leverage your organization’s anniversary celebration, according to Phyllis Barr, founder of New York-based Corporate Culture Marketing by Barr Consulting Services.

Why Celebrate?

Start with why you should consider celebrating.  Phyllis suggests the following as sample objectives :

  • To enhance corporate or product identity
  • Rejuvenate an aging brand
  • Educate staff and stakeholders (including customers, investors, local community and/or the public-at-large)
  • Reinforce the corporate culture
  • Enhance donor awareness & fund raising efforts (for nonprofits).

How Should You Celebrate?

Consider how long you intend to celebrate:

  • on the day of the anniversary itself?
  • a week- or month-long commemoration?
  • throughout the year?

Then consider how you’ll celebrate; for example:

  • Special events – such as hosting an open house, customer and/or staff appreciation activities, etc.
  • Exhibit highlighting your organization’s history & memorabilia – can be off-line and/or on-line; for example, set up a traveling exhibit at schools, malls, trade shows, etc. (whatever is appropriate for your organization)
  • History documented in a special book, newsletter, and/or DVD
  • Special promotions and/or giveaways
  • Sponsorships – another great idea for nonprofits: link up with a local business that’s been in business for the same length of time to develop a joint celebration.

Phyllis laments that too many corporate histories tend to be “cut & dried” & put together in dull fashion, but they need not be that way.  You can be creative as your imagination & budget allow.

Also, you don’t have to do it alone – include oral history interviews with staff and customers.  (What a great way to recognize the folks who’ve been with you the longest!)  You can also solicit old photos and artifacts related to your organization.

Whatever you do to celebrate your organization’s history, make it meaningful and make it fun!

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Engagement Marketing

Got History? Part 2

My last post introduced the concept of corporate & nonprofit anniversaries as a marketing tool.  Here are some actual examples of how organizations have celebrated their anniversaries, shared by “Corporate Memory Marketing” expert Phyllis Barr.

  • To celebrate its 150th anniversary, a popular magazine co-sponsored a special exhibit with one of its long-time advertisers.  The exhibit opened in the city where the magazine was headquartered (also one of the advertiser’s locations) and then toured the country.  The magazine also compiled a brief history handout for distribution.
  • A specialty toy company organized its archives and included oral history interviews with its executives and key staff.  They also shared historical notes on their phone system’s on-hold message.
  • In honor of its 285th anniversary, a church created its own museum with special exhibits tied-in with the history of the surrounding community; created a special lecture series; sponsored a historic pageant as part of its celebration; conducted historical walking tours; and published a book of its history (dating back to the American Revolution!).  Not only did these efforts result in increased awareness & media attention for the church, but its historic research was also used in the church’s building restoration.

Besides garnering great press and public exposure, all these organizations used their anniversaries to recognize staff contributions to their longevity & success … a great way to stimulate and reinforce employee pride.

Stay tuned for my next post which will feature tips from Phyllis on how to leverage your corporate or nonprofit anniversary celebration.

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Engagement Marketing

Got History to Celebrate? They’re Not Just for Holidays!

Happy July 4th!

How does this holiday tie-in with internal marketing?  Glad you asked!

Independence Day is a festive holiday honoring a historic anniversary. But this type of anniversary need not be limited to a national celebration.

Phyllis Barr, founder of Corporate Culture Marketing by Barr Consulting Services in New York [ladyhistory@earthlink.net], specializes in “corporate memory marketing.” She helps organizations document their corporate history and leverage anniversary celebrations as a marketing tool – good for public/community relations, brand reinforcement, nonprofit fund raising, employee/stakeholder relations, etc.

So a company’s heritage can be used for internal as well as external marketing purposes.  According to Phyllis, this history “makes up the corporate culture and affects how an organization and its brands are viewed.”

Corporate history needs to be shared – through staff training materials, orientation, on the intranet, etc. – to “make employees better and more knowledgeable” and reinforce pride in their affiliation with their employer.  In her work as a writer, researcher, historian, and marketer, Phyllis has found that sharing a company’s history adds to employee loyalty. And a company able to highlight its reputation through its history also has a great recruiting tool.

In my next post I’ll share some examples of how organizations have marked their anniversaries in meaningful ways.  In the meantime, enjoy this holiday weekend!

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Engagement Marketing

Happy Employees & Organizational Success

My last posting looked at the relationship between happy employees and happy customers.  Taking this one step further, do happy employees ensure organizational success?

My answer: it depends.  It depends on a lot of things – such as the utility and value of your firm’s product/service offering, market demand, and competition (to name a few).

If your organization provides a product or service that doesn’t meet market needs and/or has little real or perceived value, or if your competitors are doing a way better job, you won’t be in business long no matter how happy your employees are.  And you won’t have satisfied customers either.

The answer also depends on your business model.  The marketplace can change rapidly, putting pressure even on those firms with happy employees & customers.  Conversely, some companies with a toxic workplace or culture do well in spite of themselves (sad, but true).

Let’s get real … sometimes bad things happen to good organizations. and sometimes good things happen to bad organizations.  But which type of organization would you rather work for?

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Happy Employees, Happy Customers

“Happiness in the workplace is a strategic advantage.”

So says Hal Rosenbluth in his book, The Customer Comes Second (2nd edition).  He explains: “Service comes from the heart, and people who feel cared for will care more. Unhappiness results in error, turnover, and other evils.”

I agree with him 1000% … it’s what internal marketing is all about.

Beyond the inherent logic linking employee and customer satisfaction, there’s a lot of research that supports a positive, mutually reinforcing relationship between employees and customers.  (Check out The Service Profit Chain in addition to Rosenbluth’s book.)

But do happy employees = happy customers? (It’s a question I’m often asked in my internal marketing seminars.)

It’s an oversimplification to be sure … but you can’t have one without the other.  Remember, if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers!

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Engagement

Down with Fast Track Management!

Outdoor professional track cycling starts soon at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, and I can’t wait!

I love watching bike racing … it’s a great sport but a lousy metaphor for management. Let me explain.

I once worked for a boss who had a bike racing poster in his office.  Over time I realized this represented his management style: wheel spinning.  He would give direction for a project, and once everything was put into place he would shift gears and change his mind.

So while the staff never seemed to have sufficient time or budget to do things right, we always had to find the time and money to do things over.  What a frustrating waste of energy and resources!

When it comes to wheel spinning, I prefer mine at the Velodrome, thank you very much.

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Engagement Marketing

Low Tech Communications (Or “Everything Old is New Again”)

In today’s world of high-tech, constantly “on” communications, I find it fascinating and somewhat amusing to know that some executives are creatively reverting to low-tech forms of communication to reach their employees.

A great example is the “desk drop” cited in Herb Baum’s book, The Transparent Leader.  When he wants to share important information or a new company product with employees, the information is dropped on each person’s desk … a more personal and effective approach than using e-mail.

And in The Cornucopia Group’s e-newsletter, The Loop, I read about a company that implemented a “no e-mail day” once a month to encourage people within the firm to actually talk to each other.  What a concept!

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 3)

So far this posting series has focused on connecting employees to their organizations as well as within their organizations.  This week I’ll address the last of Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections — connecting employees with customers.

Customer-Focus is Key

It’s no secret that customers judge an organization and its brand by how well they’re treated by everyone in the organization they come in contact with.  When asked why consumers switched companies, one study found that nearly 70% left because they felt the attention they got from the company was poor or they hardly got any attention at all!

Connecting employees with customers — ensuring employees are customer-focused — is a key component of internal marketing.

What does being customer-focused really mean?

It’s understanding your customers (including knowing who they are and what they want from your company), and it’s being attentive and responsive to their needs.  To achieve even a basic level of customer-focus, employees need to be educated about your customers.  They need to know:

  • Who your customers are
  • Why they come to your organization in the first place
  • How they feel about your organization — from customer complaints, feedback, and satisfaction surveys.  (See Pop Quiz: Customers 101.)

The more your employees know about your customers, they better they can serve them.  So don’t forget to get employee input on how to improve customer satisfaction.

Here’s a thought-provoking starter question you can use in staff meetings.  Ask employees: If you were head of this organization, what are the three things you would do to improve customer service or satisfaction?

Some other ways to connect employees with customers:

  • Host an “Open House” where you invite customers to your place of business to meet & mingle with staff.  I remember hearing about a small company that would host small groups of clients on Friday afternoons (tied-in with the firm’s casual day) for a social hour.
  • On a much larger scale, General Motors Saturn car division hosts an annual get together of Saturn car owners.
  • One of my favorite examples is QuadGraphics, a Wisconsin-based printing firm that hosts a three-day “camp” where customers attend educational seminars and fun events to learn about printing processes… they also learn more about the company and connect with its staff.
  • At some catalog companies, employees will “mystery shop” the competition.  They actually shop their competitors to learn what it’s like to call & place an order (either by phone or online), check out merchandise quality, or see what’s involved in handling a return.  The value of this exercise (where appropriate & applicable) is that employees develop empathy for the customer experience + gain insight on how to improve their company’s own operations.

These internal marketing tools can be used with all employees, not just those with customer contact.  But non-contact staff pose a unique challenge — in what additional ways can you connect them to customers?

I’ll cover that in the last post of this series.

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 2 – continued)

Building relationships among employees throughout the workplace enables them to feel connected within the organization.  Communication is a key ingredient in this process – sharing information within and across departmental silos to let people know what others are doing in the organization to help it move forward.

Trading Places

Role switching is another effective way to build internal relationships and appreciation for other employees. 

  • UPS sales reps accompany drivers on delivery runs, and drivers will go out on sales calls with the reps.  Sales reps gain appreciation on the experience of package delivery (and brand promise fulfillment), while drivers gain insight on what new accounts are looking for (including what it takes to land a new account).
  • Once a year, corporate employees from Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar work a shift at one of their restaurants.
  • I don’t know if they still do this, but Hyatt Hotels used to observe an “In Touch” Day where corporate staff went into the field to work in one of their hotel facilities – working alongside housekeeping, bell staff, catering, check-in or check-out.

The value of these programs is that they help build empathy for other staff, reinforcing teamwork and a sense of common purpose.  The combination of any such initiative to create a sense of appreciation and respect among co-workers, along with internal communications, helps strengthen employee relationships.  That’s what connecting employees within their organizations is all about.

Coming soon: the last in this series of Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections — connecting employees with customers.

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 2)

Ever notice the natural divisions that occur in organizations?  I’ve seen this in every industry I’ve worked with; e.g., in financial services, it’s the branches vs. operations.  In higher education, it’s faculty vs. administration. In advertising, it’s the creatives vs. the agency’s business “suits.”

Doesn’t matter whether it’s manufacturing vs. sales … or sales vs. marketing … or marketing vs. engineering … there always seems to be an “us” vs. “them” mentality in organizations.  So how can employees effectively serve customers when they’re fighting internal turf battles?

Bridging the Great Divide

Everyone needs to understand where they & their colleagues fit in the scope of the organization and how working together, they can help an organization achieve its goals.  (This was addressed in my April 11th and 14th posts about connecting employees to their organizations through orientation & communication).

To bridge the internal divides, employees also need to feel connected within their organizations.  This involves building relationships with others in the organization so that everyone is on “the same page.”  Here again, communication plays a critical role in bridging the connection:

    • Open up staff meetings – invite reps from other areas of the organization to attend department meetings so they know what’s going on & can share what they’re doing.  This is especially important when departmental initiatives impact others’ work.
    • Showcase what a department or division does & how its work is important to the organization.  You can hold an “open house” type event or spotlight the department in print (e.g., in employee newsletter or intranet).
    • Southwest Missouri State University senior administrator, Greg Burris, launched an ‘ambassador’ program modeled after community leadership-type programs.  Groups of employees engaged in learning about the different facets of the school to improve cross-campus communications and, ultimately, customer service.
    • In his book The Customer Comes Second, Hal Rosenbluth, suggests management can also create cohesion by basing leaders’ compensation primarily on overall organizational performance, instead of relying on individual performance and fostering inter-departmental competition.
Building relationships with others in organization won’t preclude internal squabbles — there will always be internal politics — but it can help minimize them and get everyone working together to move the organization forward.
I’ll have additional ideas on how to strengthen relationships within the organization, so stay tuned for my next post.