The Yin Yang of PR and Marketing Communications: On Being An Entrepreneur

Pardon the expletive, but I did a little web surfing yesterday and found one of the best step-by-step plans for “How to Write a Business Plan” on Mahalo, a human-powered search engine. There are all sorts of other resources that you can find in the article including how to write your marketing plan.

If you’re starting a business or reviewing your business plan, this is a great place to start. And, if you don't have a business plan, you really should put some of your thoughts and company direction in written form somewhere. While it doesn't have to be as comprehensive as the guide on Mahalo, putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) will help you think things through. Writing down your thoughts will bring clarity, serve as a reminder and keep you on track. In my experience, entrepreneurs really have a lot of drive, but they need to focus it in a direction and be disciplined about it.

As for Mahalo, I have no idea what it’s supposed to be. Human-powered search engine? What the heck is that?

Every company talks a great game about respecting the customer. If that’s right, how come customer service sucks at many companies? Just to name a few – Verizon, Time Warner, ADT, Comcast, etc. I’m certain anyone reading this can probably name about 20 more. If customer service sucks, if you’re getting shoddy product or whatever your complaint is, you’ll likely stop doing business with the company. To borrow a saying from my old boss, “The fish stinks from the head.” And, the sad truth is that the CEO probably doesn’t know what the issues are.

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch, who writes the Marketing KnowHow blog, outlines three imperatives for what CEOS should focus on to attain customer insights: metrics that indicate sales or profit performance, ensuring sufficient market opportunities and developing marketing talent throughout the company.

The sad fact is that the majority of CEOs and managers are far removed from the daily ritual of customer service and having to meet customer demands. In fact, I would venture to go so far as to say that the majority of upper level executives at large companies have spent less than 24 hours this past year with customers (minus the closing of a huge sale). And, few CEOs address bad customer service issues. Dovetail Software has a great view on the disconnection between customer service and the CEO. Of course, the main argument is that CEOs are too busy running a company, but it’s similar to running a presidential campaign. If the nominee if out of touch with what the people want, how can (s)he deliver?

So, what should a CEO do to get to back in the game?

1- Understand what it really means when you say “we provide world class customer service.” Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com – the first US shoe e-tailer – is on target for hitting the $1 billion revenue mark. He based his company on providing the best online experience possible with the best customer service. Customer service was based on his employees being human. His call center has no time limits on service calls and they care about what the customers. Case and point, a woman was returning shoes bought for her deceased husband. Of course, Zappos took the shoes, but the customer service rep also sent flowers to the widow. Though the CEO may not be directly involved in this case, by setting up a distinct culture of caring for the customer. The widow was astonished by the action, she mentioned Zappos’ lovely gesture at the wake. The message (though unintended) is wouldn’t you want to do business with a company this caring?

2- Get out and meet your customer. Well, duh….it’s that simple. I would even advise you to not identify yourself as the CEO of the company (unless asked) and see what people have to say. And, if you’re hearing something that’s not in line with your customer service philosophy, don’t slink away. Let them know who you are; say “Gee, I’m really sorry to hear that. I’d like to hear more”; move forward with an actionable plan. Most customers just want to be heard and who better to listen to them than the CEO of the company. Is says that you care.

3- If something is broken, admit it and fix it. Kudos to new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse for shaming the devil by telling the truth – Sprint has customer service problems (now if only Comcast, Verizon, ADT and many of the large service companies out there would admit the same). Granted, Hesse only made the statement after Sprint lost 1.09 million customers in Q1. Shortly thereafter, Hesse became the face of Sprint with a surprising and successful commercial and customer response.

4- Numbers. Look at your customer acquisition and retention numbers either. Numbers rarely lie, but people do. If you’re looking at customer service for the first time, get the data for the last 6 months broken down by month.

5- Be accessible. Most CEOs are not accessible to the average consumer. But with social media today, there is no reason why you can’t be accessible. Must be working since 75% of purchases are from repeat customers). He can be found on Twitter @Zappos and is often found Tweeting. Kevin O’Keefe talked about how companies are using Twitter for customer service. The only CEO mentioned using Twitter…you guess it - Tony Hsieh.

6- Meet and talk to your customer service people. Your customer service people are the front lines in your company. If there is something wrong, they are hearing it directly from the public. Meet with your customer service people. I hate to keep using Zappos, but Tony Hsieh really does it right. He meets with his people to find out what’s broken (if anything) and what can be fixed.

7- Become part of customer service – even for 30 minutes. Steve Jobs must be one of the busiest people alive, but he’s rumored to answer customer service queries as a way to keep in touch with what customers are saying.

So, what does this have to do with marketing. Everything. Today, the public wants transparency and part of that means access to the CEO. They want to be communicated to in a genuine fashion. A primary responsibility of the CEO or anyone at a company is to understand the customer.