Yaffe Tidbits

Are Your New Communcation Tools Meeting Customer Expectations?

I love seeing companies push their own boundries, trying out new technology and channels to connect with their customers. However, I hate to see them not make full use of the tools they're trying. It happened to me yesterday with a surprise text message from my dentist.

Now, I've written about my dentist before. They seem to be at the forefront of amazing technology. However, when you're using new forms of communication to connect with customers, make sure you meet expectations. The text I got came very early in the day and was confirming an upcoming appointment. It was very simple. I just had to text back "C" to confirm my appointment or "R" to reschedule. I texted C and got back another text almost immediately thanking me, letting me know my appointment was confirmed and that they'd see me on the upcoming date. So, far so good. Except I had a question.

I had been waiting on them to call with some information before my appointment. They hadn't as of yet, so I figured if they were texting me I'd text back and ask them about it. As immediate as the automated responses were, something not fitting their plan took much longer, not matching expectations. I didn't hear back at all via text. They did call my house and leave a message at some point later in the day.

Texting is an immediate medium. They met that expectation when they replied immediately to my response. They didn't meet it at all once I used the medium the way many people do - to carry on a conversation. It left a bad taste in my mouth about a company I admired for being so forward thinking.

So, when you're using these new communication tools, be careful to make sure you meet expectations. You may think something like an automated texting confirmation system is a good solution. But if you're not using it the way your customers are, you're setting yourself up for failure.

Another example is aclient we just picked up had set up a Facebook page just to post job listings. Again - it wasn't meeting the expectations of the medium - it wasn't a place for conversations. If you're going to use these tools, you either have to meet customer expectations or work hard to set up new expectations.

How about you? Are you getting the best use out the tools you use? Where have you seen others not connecting in ways customers expect? And, more importantly, what have you learned from it?

Mike McClure, Indulging my texting sweet tooth

How One Hotel Uses Foursquare to Connect With Guests.

Not a lot of hotels are using Twitter well, much less paying attention to Foursquare. Those that do, tend to use it to push out specials and not much else. On a recent family vacation to Chicago, I discovered one hotel that was doing a pretty good job of using these social media tools.

We were staying at the Comfort Suites right in the heart of downtown Chicago. Being the self-avowed foursquare addict I am, I got up in the morning and checked in to the hotel on foursquare. Much to my surprise a short while later I got a tweet from the hotel (@CSChicagoHotel) which said, "Mike, thank you for staying with us! I'm Natalie, here until 5pm - let me know if you need anything."

First off, the fact that they were paying attention to their Foursquare checkins and using it as an opportunity to connect with guests while they are still there was a great step. Then, that they gave me a real human person's name, how long they'd be there and asked if she could help in any way - that's using the tools to turn a customer into a fan. I tweeted back that I loved my suite, we had found it on a discount hotel site and I was very happy with the great value we'd gotten. Natalie tweeted back, "Yay! Happy you found us. Isn't the weather fabulous today?"

Again, they didn't try and sell me anything. Didn't try to get me to sign up for their frequent guest program or anything sales-ish. Instead, she just continued to have a conversation and connect with me further. I hadn't been following them, so I followed back at that point. Then, having seen that I was now a follower, she sent me a DM (direct message) saying, "Mike, so glad you're enjoying the hotel, need anything, feel free to email me" and then gave her email address. I didn't need anything at the time, but it was nice to know I had someone there who cared and would help me out if I needed something.

Later that day, I stopped by the front desk and asked for Natile. She was there working the desk and we had a nice conversation. I told her I was impressed with their grasp of how to use social media tools. She said, yeah most of the hotels around there didn't get it. If they were using it at all, the were sending tweets to guests about their room specials. Which if you're already a guest a room special really isn't helpful.

When I was looking for a good place near the hotel to take the family for dinner on our last evening there, I contacted her and got a good recommendation for someplace good two blocks from the hotel that wasn't expensive but had an interesting menu. It was nice to see a company doing it right.

How about you? Has any company pinged you back after you checked in on Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places? Who has impressed you by engaging you while you were still there?

Mike McClure, New Fan of Comfort Suites Chicago (and no, they didn't give me anything - other than a little attention - to say that)

8 Things I Learned At Brand Camp 2010

Brand Camp 2010 was last Friday. It had a different vibe than last year's event, but still was a day full of great speakers giving great presentations. Some were informational, some were inspirational, all were interesting. There were a few themes that seemed to be repeated often, too. Here's a few nuggets I gleaned.

1. Make Sure Your Brand is Portable. Hajj Flemings, who kicked off the day, talked about the need to be able to take your personal brand with you when you leave a place where you are using your brand for the company. If you're tweeting under the company name, make sure you have your own account too. Several people besides Hajj sited Frank who used to tweet as @ComcastCares and had over 60,000 followers. He left Comcast a few months ago, but Comcast got to keep all the followers and Frank had to start over again. Olivier Blanchard, in his talk, said the answer is to prepare for it ahead of time and share. You need to extract your lists and set up a database that both you and the company can share. That way if something happens, both can access the list.

2. Your Personal and Your Professional Brand Are The Same Thing. Peter Shankman talked about this. Your brand is everything you do every day, publicly or privately. Your brand is your brand, there is no distinction between what you do online in a personal or professional setting, it's all you. Be aware of that. Cd Lang talked about how many people send their LinkedIn profile instead of a resume. But recruiters research beyond that. If you are one person on LinkedIn, but totally something different on your Facebook and Twitter stream, they will look at your LinkedIn profile as being inauthentic. You need to be transparent, but not so much as you damage your own brand's DNA. Don't be all buttoned up on one channel and putting posts and pics about how smashed you got in another channel. Chris Barger, GM's social media guy, said once you sign on with a brand, you always represent the brand - even when you're not talking about that brand.

  3. Vision and Mission Are Not Interchangeable. Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's Deli talked about how an inpiring, strategically sound vision leads to greatness. But don't confuse vision and mission. Your mission is your North Star. It's fixed and is always there. It guides you to where you want to be. Your vision is what your envision something will look like when you get there, sometime in the future. Your vision is where you're going and your strategic plan is how you get there.

4. Business Skills: You Need to Write Betterer. One thing we heard over and over again is that, in this new online environment, so much of our business dealings will be written word that writing skills are now of paramount importance. The panel spoke about how so much communication is in written form (blogs, tweets, updates, posts, etc) that writing skills are a key business skill. Hajj Flemings talked about how nobody is as interested in your life story as you are. You need to share compelling info in a short blast that explains what you have to say whether you're there to explain it or not.  Peter Shankman said, "social media is brevity. Brevity is knowing how to write."

5. Over 25% of the Human Genes are the Same as a Banana. Get Over Yourself! This was a quote from one of Chris Barger's slides, but it was another one of those themes we heard over and over (the get over yourself part, not the banana part). Shankman said you can provide information can just talk to yourself. You don't have the right to have followers, you have the right to post valuable information that's relevant to your audience and gain a following. Barger talked about how it's not just the social media professionals who need to "get over yourself," but the brands do to, because it's about people, not brands. Accept that your people will emerge and that they are assets to your business. Educate and train them. And have a succession plan.

6. Your Company Needs a Social Media Plan. Another thing that became clear in talk after talk. Social media is here to stay. Not only that, it's becoming an integral part of both professional and personal life. So, it's time that companies give serious consideration to creating a social media policy. As Olivier Blanchard pointed out, if you don't have one, HR people and bosses will have to make something up on the spot when a problem arises. And they may not be the best people to create one. If your company has one, employees will know what they can and can't do, and when there is an issue, company officials will know what it is they can and should do about it. I've heard from a number of experts on the subject that IBM has one of the best social media policies. It's something they build over time, with people contributing to it over the years on a corporate SM wiki.

7. Build Your Network Before You Need It. Sarah Evans told a story about how she was woke up in the middle of the night by an earthquake in Chicago. Not sure what had happened, she got up and tweeted about it. Got some responses and started investigating. Then she pulled together her information and posted it on iCNN. Later the story was picked up by the New York Times. Both the Times and iCNN called her and got stories on the quake. Evans made sure to mention her business during the interviews. When the stories ran, they mentioned her and her PR business. Because the people who were already in her network, including the iCNN reporter, she got info and got it out. The end result? She got five new and viable new business leads directly from that story.

8. Your Hashtags Say a Lot About You. Cd Lang ended her talk spelling out what some of the hashtags she sees really mean If you don't know, a hashtag is a word or phrase without spaces on twitter with a # in front of it so you can find what other people are saying about a subject. Sometimes they're also used for editorial comment. Lang gave these definitions of what some editorial hashtags actually mean:#justsaying - means you really don't want to listen to another opinion. #tellitlikeitis - really means you're saying you are a leading authority. #donttakeitsoperaonally - it was meant to be personal. #justmyopinion - another "expert" who doesn't want to listen to your opinion. In other words, some hashtags say "I'm kind of a douchbag."

Well, those are some of the things that jumped out at me from this year's Brand Camp. There are other things that might make for good blog posts down the line. And I haven't even touched on the amazing things I heard and learned the week before at TedX Detroit!

Mike McClure - Yaffe Social Media Guy - overflowing with good stuff recently input into my brian.

Are We Pushing Our Clients Too Hard Into the Social Space?

The landscape of social media marketing changes every day—literally. That's not a revolutionary statement, but I find it helpful at times to step back and do what I tell my clients to do: listen to my customers and hear how their needs are evolving so that I can be the change they need.

In the past week, three different business owners have expressed the same frustration to me:

I know I need a social presence, but I don't have time to do it and I can't justify paying someone to do it for us.

A year ago, we were still trying to convince most of our clients of the first part of that statement. Now they're saying it to us. I'd like to first take a minute to sit back and be thankful that that battle has been won. *exhale*

And now I'd like to discuss how to begin finding a solution for the new challenge of resources in small businesses who want to participate in social. I believe that in another short span of time, that problem will take care of itself as social marketing continues to amass data and, if you will, social proof that will justify budget (both time and money) for social to even the smallest businesses. They'll find the time. They'll spend the money.

But for now, on a human level, how do we help them without letting our own passion for the project push them too hard and too fast? Again, how do we take our own advice and engage them rather than hard sell our services?

One of the three business owners that vented to me is not a client, which allowed me the distance to actually hear what she was saying without feeling a responsibility to fix it. (On a side note, it's ironic that sometimes our desire to fix things for our clients gets in the way of really listening to them.) This particular business owner is a woman who opened a thriving local restaurant two years ago. She actually touched my arm as she expressed her frustration, waving her free hand around the restaurant, "I just don't have time to do that stuff. I have to be here with my customers and my team." Her tone was guilty. Confessional. As if not participating in social testifies to her lack of passion for the success of her business. 

I found myself laying my hand on the one she had rested on my arm and using my other to point to the full restaurant she was waving at in frustration. "They're all doing it for you. People are talking about you because of the time you're investing on this floor. They're watching the owner pour water into their glasses and ask them about their children. You are participating. You're creating the story, and now they want to share it for you—to their own communities." 

She actually sighed, relieved. 

That doesn't mean I'm not passionate about what it could mean for her business if she could get out there on the virtual floor and engage with her community regularly. And that doesn't mean that's not my ultimate goal for her. It just means that I learned a few very important things about my business, my passion, by listening to her.

If we tell our clients that social provides a chance to be human with their customers and that it's not a place to hard sell, we have to teach them that by showing it—not through scare tactics and telling them that they must do it now or perish, full steam ahead. We have to remember that if we push them too hard and too fast so that they neglect their other responsibilities, then we're actually helping them create the wrong story. We have to create a plan that works with their existing priorities and restrictions. We have to stand on their floor with them, look around, pick up a pitcher and fill some glasses. We have to find them an intern, make them a daily shortlist, or do whatever it takes to create a doable strategy that can grow as they do. But most importantly, we have to inspire them in their move into this social space with our own visible passion for it, not by pushing them. 

 Jen Wright is a social strategist who lives in the Detroit area.

10 Surprising Things I Learned at Future Midwest

The first Future Midwest conference was held in Royal Oak, MI Friday and Saturday. It was a great event with nationally known speakers on the subjects of using digital technology and social media to help companies, brands and individuals migrate through the changing world we live in. There was some serious knowledge dropped into the laps (or in my case, laptop) of all who attended. It was especially good if you are a marketer or business trying to carve out your niche in today's fast-changing, connected world community. I swear I have enough notes to write 20 blog posts from the conference. It was both inspiring and practical. I learned stuff I can use for clients right now stuff I can use to prepare them for the future. There will be more in-depth blog posts on specific subjects from Future Midwest here over the next few weeks (probably not 20 of them, though). But, as a quick overview, here are 12 surprising nuggets of knowledge I picked up over the last two days.

1. Retention is the new Acquisition. The opening keynote speaker, Joe Jaffe, gave one of my favorite presentations, based off his new book "Flip the Funnel." One of the key points in his talk was that rather than spending a ton of money in a medium where only a small part of your audience is actually interested and ready to buy your product, why not concentrate on the few that are your product's biggest fans? Spend your money being helpful to these few brand evangelists and they'll tell others who are interested and ready to buy. But don't try to buy them. Be helpful and they'll do the rest. Customer service is becoming one of the biggest differentiators for companies. The real role of social media is to gain retention and engage your current customers, not to acquire new ones.

2. Talking about your advertising will engage your social media community. In his case study on the Pure Michigan campaign, presenter Tim Schaden of Fluency Media talked about this surprising finding from their social media efforts. One of the things that got more comments and more people interested in their social media was talking about their advertising. People were interested in it. Schaden said they expanded that subject matter to talk about what went on behind the scenes of the commercials and they created content like videos that showed part of the process in creating the advertising.

3. Soon, your car will be able to read your tweets to you. Ford's social media brandprenuer, Scott Monty, showed us a demo of a new twitter app they're developing for their Ford SYNC system. Through voice commands he could get it to read the latest tweets he'd gotten. Hands free tweeting is coming to a car near you!

4. Zombies can be good salesmen. Also, in Scott Monty's presentation, we saw a video ad featuring the new wireless key system for the soon to be launched Ford Fiesta. It was a video created with one of their Fiesta Movement agents. A chained zombie was release to chase three car owners through the woods. The only one who escaped had the new key that wirelessly lets you open and start your car. It was a very funny ad.

5. Having a twitter and Internet enabled phone is changing the way we poop. In their Pardon My Interruption style presentation on all things mobile, Henry Balanon and Damian Rinfelmann referenced this quote. It was to point out that now we can take the web with us anywhere and it's changing our lives significantly. You can't get lost now, because you can use a number of mobile and web tools, including geolocation to get you where you need to go. You always have a camera with you. You carry all sorts of ways for social interaction. And it will only continue to change how we spend our time and interact with the world.

6. Publicly complementing your competitors is good for your company. GM's head of social media, Chris Barger, talked about taking the high road in this always-watching, high transparency world. Do it in terms of dealing with your critics and with your competition. If your competitor is doing something good, compliment them on it. Publicly. Being nice guys really does aid your reputation. Humanizing your company only works if the public likes the humans it sees.

7. Fear is a natural resource. A lot of speakers talked about how companies fear change, fear the new digital and social tools, fear letting the customer have more control of what's being said about their brand, fear being transparent the way you need to be these days, fear failure and others. Jay Adelson, former CEO of Digg gave an inspiring keynote speech on how true innovators do things a little crazy, because they don't fear failure - and that's how success happens. Several speakers talked about harnessing the energy of that fear to spur your company on. Sam Valenti of Ghostly said the scariest thing in the world is not dying; it's that split second before you die when you say, "oh crap, I should have done this"instead of just "oh, crap!" So, use the fear of facing that moment as a natural resource. Do the things you should have done now.

8. My living room will be a powerful computer. Shiv Singh of Razorfish talked about preparing for life in the post digital era - when we don't talk about digital anymore because it's just an everyday part of our life. He showed us a picture of a living room that looked like any living room today. Then he said some day, not too far off, that living room will have more computing power than all the laptops and cell phones in the room - and we're talking about a room filled with 700 computer and digital enthusiasts & professionals here. He said, not only will it be more powerful, you won't see it. It will be ambient and seamlessly worked into the room.

9. Spikes in online conversations align with spikes in sales. In his Saturday workshop on data and analytics, Ken Burbary of Ernst & Young presented a case study where he showed graphs for a footwear retail company. You could see the spikes in the graph monitoring online conversation coincided with spikes in sales. So, there was a direct correlation between online chatter and sales. Also, by monitoring what was being said, they found that 47% of the conversations were about availability and new product releases. Further looking into those conversations revealed that customers weren't able to get the shoe they wanted because it wasn't in stock. Once they discovered this inventory management problem through the online conversations, they were able to fix it.

10. Most presenters are very friendly and accessible. Okay, it's not that surprising, since many of them preach that we live in an age where you have to be helpful. And I have connected to some of them before. But, one good example of practicing what you preach was Ben Smithee. After the conference was over, Yaffe EVP Michael Morin and I were standing in the lobby talking about an upcoming nonprofit project we're working on and how it had some similar issues to one of the case studies that Ben Smithee of Fieldwork had presented in his afternoon workshop. When we realized he was standing about 20 feet away, we went and asked him about some of the issues we were dealing with. Not only did he graciously give us some great insights, he invited us to continue the conversation after he got back home. 

These are just a few of he many insights from the Future Midwest conference that are clogging up my head. I look forward to sharing more of them with you in the weeks to come.

Mike McClure, still full of Future Midwest goodness.

What Story Does Your Brand Tell?

"Your brand is all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build." That's what Todd Gentzel said over 10 years ago when he was putting together the foundation for Yaffe's brand consulting and corporate culture business. Today, that practice is thriving in our Houston office, where Todd and his team run it as part of Yaffe/Deutser's main offerings. And those words mean even more today than they did 10 years ago.

With digital, mobile and social media all becoming ways for consumers to connect with the brands they love, building relationships is all the rage today. It's talked about all over the place, in article, blogs, on Twitter, in podcasts, any media you can think of really. But I want to talk about the first part of Todd's statement. Because as you look at the really successful and innovative brands, it still is all about the stories you tell.

Online shoe company, Zappos is probably one of the biggest success stories of the digital era. It's a brand with fierce loyalty from customers and almost cult-like devotion from it's employees. Last year, Inc. Magazine wrote a long piece on Zapposand their CEO Tony Hsieh called The Zappos Way of Managing. It's a worthwhile read if you have a few minutes. Among the many things they discussed in the article was how devoted Hsieh is to happiness, both his customers' happiness and his employees' happiness. Part of that is his employees are empowered to make decisions on their own.

Hsieh tells the story of one employee that received a call from a woman trying to cancel a shoe order for her husband, who had just died. Not only did the employee cancel the order no problem, she sent a bouquet of flowers to the man's funeral, from Zappos. Not only is that woman a fan for life, she has a great story about the Zappos brand she tells often. So, do the 30 or 40 people who attended the funeral.

"Stories like these are being created every day, thousands and thousands of times," says Hsieh in the article. "It's just an example that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff follows."

In another article by The Harvard Business Review, A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, they also talk about stories. In this case, they're talking about a company that wants to change their corporate culture even though they're very successful and profitable. When asked why the CEO relates their culture of work above all else by telling the story of an employee they told had to come in for a meeting with a client on her wedding day. She was told the meeting was early enough in the day that she would still have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding. The CEO was ashamed of the story, but yet it's one of the stories he tells about his brand. The consultant in the article then told the CEO, if he wanted to change his culture, he needed to change the stories they told. And he gave some pretty good examples.

Every day we work with clients on defining their brand and their corporate culture. There's a lot of research and technical stuff that goes into it. But, in the end, it really still is about all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build. What stories are you telling about your brand? Are they saying the things you want to be said about you? Or is it time to start creating new stories?

Mike McClure, Chief Storyteller

Is the bad economy or big competition killing regional chains?

Another good company, Snyder’s Drug Stores, announced a couple of weeks ago that it is closing. I know because we sent out the press releases. Each press release listed my name, Michael Morin, as the contact for more information. We do crisis management for our clients, but this is one you hope you never have to do – going out of business. It resulted in a grueling couple of days on the phone with radio, TV and newspaper people throughout Minnesota, the US and Canada.

The whole ordeal was physically draining. But, it was more than that; it was sad… really sad. Snyder’s was a vital part of the neighborhoods where they had stores. Some of the calls I got asked me where the local seniors were going to turn to for their prescriptions. Another call talked about how Snyder’s had been delivering prescriptions to a paraplegic veteran. Now, what was he going to do?

In most of the areas, Walgreens bought the prescription lists and will take care of those who were loyal Snyder’s customers. In many markets, Walgreens is even taking over the existing store and will convert it. But, some neighborhoods will be without. And the big national chains won’t deliver the kind of personal service that took care of a local vet who couldn’t make it to the store. Many people won’t have the trusted pharmacist they’ve had for years. It’s a sad story that’s told over and over these days as regional chains fall by the wayside.

So, how did this happen? Was it a product of the recession that has hit small to mid-size companies especially hard this last year? Or was it part of the trend this past decade with larger competitors gobbling up the smaller chains all across the country? We’ve seen this happen to many Yaffe & Company clients the past 10 years. Michigan based Perry Drug Stores, a Yaffe client, was bought out by Rite Aid and then their local competition Arbor Drugs was bought up by CVS.

Snyder’s Drug Stores were founded by Max Snyder in downtown Minneapolis in 1928 and grew to become a formidable player in the drugstore category with over 80 stores in the Twin Cities, plus dozens of franchise stores in many other states. A merger 8 years ago turned out to be a bad move, resulting in bankruptcy. Then, in the past five years, three big competitors (Walgreens, CVS and Target) opened 60 new pharmacies in the Twin Cities. So, the weakened Snyder’s now had to compete against the big national players who opened stores at all the best intersections.

So, if Snyder’s had been able to stay relevant, adapt and remain financially strong, would they have been able to overcome these obstacles? It’s hard to say. If they had been strong enough to weather the economic storm that was 2009, who’s to say they might not have still been bought out by one of the big players like so many regional chains before them. The end result would have been better for the Snyder’s people, but would have been the same for the neighborhoods who believed in their local drug store chain.

Small and mid-size chains are disappearing all over the place. Is it the economy, the homogenization of America, merger mania or some combination of all? I’d be interested in hearing what you think.

Michael Morin, EVP, Client Services

Helping the "real moms" is key to marketing success.

Moms are not what they used to be. They aren’t like those old-fashioned mothers portrayed on TV, where they had all the time in the world to stay at home and take care of the family. Nowadays, women want to have families, but they also want careers, social lives, hobbies, and more. Not only are women busier, more stressed, and unhappier than ever, more and more women are doing it all on their own, without a spouse or partner. Generation X and millennial mothers are substantially different from their predecessors. Having seen the women before them exhaust themselves trying to achieve the cookie-cutter ideal, these new moms are trying to "have it all" without actually doing it all.

Marissa Miley and Ann Mack report in an Advertising Age White Paper how these real moms are on the rise. As marketers we need to make things easier for them. They don’t have enough time in the day to take care of all that they need to, so imagine how little patience they have for shopping. They want to be in and out of a store and on to the next errand. We need to engage them fast, and offer them something worth their time. And right now during this tough economic time we need to demonstrate value as well (cheap can be chic).

Moms want products that will help them manage their lives, lessen the stress, and give them more time to focus on the important things like their kids. Moms want products and services that provide value to their families. Because moms really want to find value in what they are purchasing, they are weighing price with the benefits of the product. Price alone is still important though; these moms are buying based on sales and coupons. Some buy in bulk to lower cost and others comparison shop until they find the best deals. But a lesson to retailers - if you are going to sell something inexpensive to these mothers, it better be a quality product; they can’t be fooled.

Women do most of the shopping. They spend $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, and yet most women feel as though advertisers are not communicating with them. The problem advertisers are facing now is that these real moms don’t have the time to pay attention to ads, and over time, it will only become increasingly difficult to reach these women. Advertisers need to use media that is especially convenient for the multi-tasker. The content must be engaging and it must fit into their busy lives. What we are seeing now is a layering of media, so one way or another we can capture audience. Bravo is encouraging viewers to multi-task while watching, either by blogging, e-mailing, or texting about Bravo. They would rather have them looking at their screen than doing anything else.

Marketers need to remember that these busy mothers are not like they used to be, in real life or on TV. Moms do a lot of shopping, and if you communicate with them effectively, they just might buy from you.

This white paper is a great guide map that all marketers should take to heart.

Michael Morin, EVP,  The Yaffe Group

Win Over Customers by Responding to Online Reviews

Guest blog by Marilyn Suttle, co-author of "Who's Your Gladys? How to Turn Even Your Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan"

Today's customers research their buying decisions on the internet, comparing prices and educating themselves about the products and services they use. They don't see things from the antiquated "you're the expert," and "I am the grateful client" point-of-view. Instead, they are more likely to say, "Here's how I want my service performed."

The internet has also brought online review websites like Yelp.com, who give computer-savvy customers a way to spread the word about their experiences at your business.

Preston Wynne Spa is one of ten companies featured in the bestselling book, "Who's Your Gladys, How to Turn Even Your Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan." Spa owner Peggy Wynne Borgman knows that with a quick internet search, anyone looking for a spa in a particular city can click onto a review site and see comments and a rating system. Reviewers use pseudonyms to protect their identities, so they feel free to reveal their strongest opinions.

Preston Wynne receives many glowing customer reviews, but they have had their share of unfavorable comments. The downside of the internet review sites is that some unhappy customers are quick to complain with an online review, while leaving the business owner in the dark. Some people even do it recreationally. Peggy believes that, in general, younger consumers know their power. They know that the companies want their business and they wield their power through online reviews, almost like consumer vigilantism.

Peggy appreciates all her reviewers, even the ones who complain. "If someone has taken the time to write a review, even if it isn't good, they are more emotionally engaged with your company than someone who just walks away and never comes back," she explained. "There is an emotional investment that the complainer has, so I always respond where I can."

Yelp.com gives business owners a way to respond to reviewers while allowing them to remain anonymous. Peggy sends an online thank you to all her positive reviewers, though she gets in touch with the complainers, too. Peggy has never asked a "Yelper" to change a review, no matter how nasty. "I simply contact them and say, 'I wish I'd known about this and now that I do, I would like to make it right for you. Come back in and have the experience you deserved to have in the first place.' The vast majority of the online complainers appreciate her gesture and give the spa another chance. In every instance where she connected with the Yelper and got them to return to the spa, the reviewer modified or amended their online review on their own accord, expressing appreciation for management's commitment to customer service.

Peggy sometimes asks her online critics if they would be willing to complete a detailed secret-shopper evaluation form. The people who review on Yelp tend to see themselves as opinion leaders so when they're asked to evaluate the spa, they are usually thrilled. They also love getting a complimentary spa treatment for doing the evaluation.

"It helps us develop a really good relationship," Peggy explained. "Another really good side effect is when you put an evaluation in someone's hands, they see everything that you've done right."

What do you think?

Do your customers write reviews about your business using sites like Yelp.com? How could you improve your customer relationships by responding skillfully to both the positive and negative reviews?

Marilyn Suttle is the coauthor of the bestselling book, "Who’s Your Gladys?" How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan" She is the president of Suttle Enterprises a personal and professional growth training firm through which she has trained thousands across the country. Visit

www.whosyourgladys.com for more information.

Looking for new ideas for your business? Get uncomfortable.

Still waters don't always run deep. Sometimes they just stagnate, fill up with algae and smell bad. This same thing can happen to your business model, marketing plan, corporate culture or new product development. Especially in these turbulent times. Sticking with something because it's comfortable isn't always the right way to do things. Cries of "we've always done it this way before!" have killed many a good idea. If you want things to change, you have to embrace something different than what you've been doing.

In this age of Web 2.0 and the transparency the Internet is bringing to all companies, the old in-company silos are breaking down, by necessity. This will make a lot of people in your organization uncomfortable. But, it's necessary. The customer can find you through so many venues these days, you don't know where the crucial touchpoint is going to be. So you need to make sure HR is talking to customer service who is talking to PR who is talking to marketing who is talking to merchandising who is talking to sales... well, you get the point. Your people may not be comfortable interacting with strange people from other departments. But, the interactions may bring about new ideas that are not just radical, but brilliant. The perspective a sales person brings to PR or a customer service person brings to marketing could lead you into great new directions.

Some years ago, when our Barrelhouse Creative division was doing it's first real big job, we were asked to come up with a series of spot using the great Ray Charles for the Powerball lottery. We needed to come up with lyrics that Mr. Charles could record in six different genres. I had my writers and myself working on this. Todd Gentzel, who now runs our corporate culture, branding and strategy practice at Yaffe/Deutser, was interested in working on the project. Most of my fellow executive creative directors would never let someone else in the agency work on creative, let alone a strategy geek. But, I knew Todd was also an amateur musician in his spare time. So, even though it was out of my comfort zone, I had him work on the project. And, when his lyrics were chosen, I didn't feel bad at all - we had the basis for a very good campaign. Without going outside of my comfort zone, that wouldn't have happened. You can see one of the Ray Charles lottery spots in the broadcast portfolio section of yaffe.com.

So, go ahead. Get uncomfortable. Look in new directions. Put unlikely pairings of people within your organization together. Think of things you never would do and then think of how you could make that very idea work for you. You may come up with some surprising results.

Uncomfortably yours,

Mike McClure