All Things Promotional Marketing
Posts tagged business owners
Promotional Products – Beyond The Customers
Sep 29th
Just the other day, I had a unique experience to sit in on a professional sports team staff meeting. The staff was clearly excited and buzzing in preparation for the upcoming season and everyone had their lists of responsibilities from season ticket organizing to corporate golf tournament management, but one thing caught my ear in particular.
The head coach surely had is pressing issues that needed addressing, but he spent most of his time discussing something the rest had seemed to almost forget about, the in-game camera operators for the jumbo-tron. On top of everything else going on in the office the coach was concerned about the commonly ignored $8.00 camera operators, and more importantly how the organization could keep camera operators longer than just one season. The initial response was to simply pay them more, but due to restrictions with the facility and their employment this was not negotiable. The coach then asked the group: What can we make special for them that adds value and builds their loyalty to us – the brainstorming began that very moment. I was simply fascinated at how all of these other important issues froze for that moment to figure out what the organization could give to camera operators to impress upon them how valued they were.
I won’t give away the final decision, but it’s looking good for the men behind the lenses. I took this as a lesson for the future though: Cool stuff with your brand on it should transcend simply finding new customers. Business owners and managers have responsibility to their teams and their staffs to develop not only loyalty but personal investment. Sure, these camera guys won’t stick around because they got some cool team-branded swag, but providing the experience and connecting with them with legitimate gratitude makes ALL of the difference in the world.
rushIMPRINT has so many options for you to consider recognizing your teams today. Check us out and make the difference for your most valuable resources, people!
What Happened To Customer Service?
Sep 21st
We live in a world where not valuing your customer service is a severely poor idea; information travels too quickly for your brand to combat bad customer experiences! I’m really frustrated right now with my cell phone and trying to get a seemingly simple problem fixed. I’m quite confident that this could be taken care of effectively if somebody just took the time to care about my issue, but I don’t think I’ll be so lucky. Honestly though, I don’t blame the people on the other end of the line; I feel the problem is quite clearly with a compartmentalized system and poor treatment of customer service representatives.
My phone is having an issue connecting to the internet, it keeps telling me to have an authorized person contact the customer service 1-800 number. I called. I spent six minutes going through an automated system designed to spit me out to an appropriate representative to resolve my issue. The young gentleman informed me that due to system limitations he would not have access to help me and that the issue was something I could manage online myself. I was then transferred to online support and another digital queuing machine only to be spat out to another representative who walked me through the process of creating an online account to fix my own issue. Before the problem was resolved, she assumed that I had done all the tasks required, but since I was calling from my phone I would need to disconnect before I could investigate our success.
Problem remains.
![not getting what I need accomplished ]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/2276575450_26198b94f9.jpg)
The system makes it impossible for me to find the same rep again. I go through the queue again; after explaining the issue (3rd time) to a new person they again remind me that they can’t fix it and it’s my job to do this online and then I am transferred again. More time… more digital queue. New young man in online support gets a lightly frustrated version of myself and a full explanation of the scenario; his response: “Well I can help you with that!” He then takes a few moments and claims that I should be good to go – again, I can’t check unless I am off the phone. I disconnect after thanking him.
Problem still remains… Mobile internet is not in my future it would seem. Looks like I’ll be switching to Verizon after all.
The moral: Information travels so fast these days – companies like major cellular providers can’t afford to continue this level of customer service. Business owners would be wise to realize that your customer interactions are the fundamental cornerstone of success while your customer service representatives, cashiers, baggers, and phone operators are the front line for your business – pay them well and make them value the experience of working for you.
Back to School & Back to Basics: 5 Ideas for Marketing to Students
Aug 10th
Summer is almost over and it’s time for the kids to start gearing up to go back to school! For business owners in college towns this can be a magical time of year for promoting your business and raising brand awareness. With so many young people mobilizing in preparation for fall classes, now is your perfect opportunity; the only real problem can be finding the right way to spread the good word of your business. Here are 5 great ideas for reaching out to the campus community.
Sponsor a club
Whether it’s a Greek Letter Organization, a sports team, a campus ministry club, or the AV club, they all need places to meet, t-shirts purchased, or donations to host events! A simple call to the campus life department should render you with some kind of organization that could use any amount of donation or sponsorship.