FUD Buster Friday #70: Time To Go

Have decided after last week's event that I want to suspend these again. This is the problem with inspiration, it comes and goes. When I renewed writing these posts, I had a bunch of ideas to get out and I did. But when I reach a point that my mind is short on ideas I don't want to force a post.

There may be more down the road and maybe not just on Friday as posts and articles come up at different times. My passion still is competitive situations and helping promote better awareness from within but there are other topics and areas I want to spend time on and not necessarily at this blog although other blogs are involved and will get referenced at some point.

You can always find me to get help or ask for advice and these posts are always out there.

Thank you for reading.

FUD Buster Friday #69: Is Confusion, Anxiety and Denial (CAD) the same as FUD

At the Entrepreneur Magazine conference titled Winning Strategies this week in Miami Beach, no one wanted to use the term FUD. It must be because tech people use it way too often, I guess.

But maybe it's because FUD is an acronym, and although it's hard to live in IT without acronyms, similar to the medical field, the average marketer and entrepreneur just don't speak that way.

They have their own TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms), but really they don't deal with IT at all. They outsource it, Cloud it, Free source it, or whatever they can, so the ideas and the offerings are the focused points, not the technology they use. I imagine if we were in Palo Alto or some similar place, this would not be the case as technology leads those discussions more often.

So do they have FUD? Not exactly. Sure they have competition, we all do, but the competition usually cares about themselves more and can not waste their time focused on the other people or solutions. Staying focused is essential. In fact, it is probably the best thing one can do for themselves, their businesses, and their lives.

So in this Social Business Media Web 2.0 world, the BS does get found faster and easier than it did a few years ago. It doesn't always go away, but at least more people raise their voices
to be heard. We saw this as a potential 20 years ago when we saw Lotus Notes. Anyone can leverage information and share it accordingly without fear of repercussion.

Entrepreneurs have no fear. Else they would be working for someone else. They do have anxiety about everything in their company. It's their name, their product, their goodwill.

Entrepreneurs have no uncertainty in their lives. They KNOW what they want to do or be doing. They do have confusion. Sometimes wrong, but often for good. Confusion makes one step back and refocus or sharpen what is vague or not good enough.

Entrepreneurs who believe in themselves and their business have no doubts. They may live in denial about how they made it or grew their business or how much better they are because they turned down buyout offers.

In the end, FUD that you create on your own against yourself or is thrown at you by others is really not crucial to your mission and goals. Of course, if your mission is to make the competition look bad, at least honest, then go do what must be done but do it honestly and openly on your end.

CAD is another level, and when you are the size of HP, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, or Google, it's the professional league, not college. CAD may be a better way. To some, it is semantics, but to others, it is a way of life.

Thank you to the 300 or so people that attended the event the other day for reminding me that the IT bubble really is not all there is to think about in life.

Fud Buster Friday #68: That "Product" is Dead

Stick any name you want, any product, any solution, to that title above, it makes no difference to me and should not to you either if you are in sales of any sort or responsible for a product of any sort.

Why doesn't it matter? Because how you reply to this question is the key.

Many answers exist on how to counter this, but here are some basics to remember.

1) Discuss with the naysayer the future road map or plans/designs or just about anything available. It is hard to continue to claim this after seeing or hearing about the plans. Yet some persist.

2) Find the internal people responsible for the product and have them call the client or someone of similar knowledge and ability.

3) If possible, do a hands on test or demo because seeing is believing, but having them do it for themselves is worth 1,000 times more. Just be there in case they need help with anything.

4) Other customer examples are helpful, especially if you know the customers or can arrange communications between the two parties.

5) Have them attend an event or conference and introduce them to key people. Everyone wants to feel special and it will usually rub off on their perspectives.

6) Try to keep emotion out of it, hard as it may be, but stick to the facts and pursue an unbiased discussion. Discussing alternative products or solutions is not a bad thing. However, know what you are talking about.

7) Don't lie. I repeat never lie about anything if you are trying to persuade someone to change their point of view.

8) Use The Force. Choose your words carefully and use inflections or speaking tactics to draw attention and get them interested. Don't just ramble on reciting information like you are reading the phone book.

9) The Godfather Deal. Make them an offer they can't refuse. Just kidding.

10) Talk about how the product can help them or their customers, use their own examples or businesses, customize the discussion to them. Again, making them feel special goes a long way to getting your point heard.


Don't forget to ask why they say this.  Push for reasons. Did someone tell them this? Did they read it someplace? Hear it on a podcast? Saw a Tweet? Discussion on G+?

The answer to this question also might give you a lead where to look for more information or push your PR.

Remember the person's last reason is the most important one to them.

The others are just smoke and mirrors although also sometimes valid. 

If they still will not change their mind, you have at least tried to do more than the usual steps but can feel you tried.

Fud Buster Friday #66: Telemarketing works?

I should save this for Friday but too annoyed to let it sit.

If you do webinars, write white papers, provide some type of positioning document or think you have something important that I must read/watch/listen, think again.

If your emailing about it, fine, it either gets blocked by spam filters (I hope), auto tagged using a mail rule for the word webinar to Trash(not a good idea but I know some people that do this), or maybe gets to my inbox. Here's a hint, if I see the word webinar in the Subject field, it is deleted without opening from my phone or client. We work with only a handful of Vendors and Partners who I will possibly look at the email, or from one of my friends companies.

Now that is the unobtrusive way to get my attention.

Having a telemarketer or outbound call center ring me up and ask if I am interested in any of this is a serious waste of your money and efforts and immensely  intrusive way to get my attention and possibly sour me on your company. I am not one of those people that thinks you have money to do outbound calling so you must be big, good or whatever.

Don't you think that in this age of information at the speed of sound I could find whatever you offer if and when I need it? Does your marketing team know this is going on? Or do they follow the "we try everything since everyone works differently" theory? Here's a hint, if you don't post it in enough places, say Linkedin, Facebook Events, Twitter announcements, G+, your blogs, your website and more then how would someone find out about it? Ah, but you say, that's why we are calling, so you know about it.

Look, I don't know how you work, but I work on an as need basis. JIT, just in time, it's not just for inventory you know. Sure I have interests too, but when I have the time, I will listen/watch/read. WHEN I HAVE THE TIME! So post your webinars or documents, I don't mind registering to get to them when I need them.

While we are at it, you called me, you gave me a name and maybe a company name. Now as it happens, as an example, I know who IBM is, but I do not know all of the existing Business Partners. If you say you are from company X, so what. What do you do? Are you a Business Partner? A financial adviser firm? HR legal practice? Your webinar titles mean nothing to me, they are sales, product or industry specific but that doesn't tell me if you are new or old, big or small, US only or International. I am not always so hard on telemarketers, they have a job to do and I will at least listen to them if I am in the mood, but somethings, as I will close with, will get you hung up on in a second.

This is the bet. They catch people when they are in the mood. My kids ask for cookies all the time, they figure at some point I will say yes and maybe I will. A numbers game that really sucks if you ask me from a pay off perspective. How many calls do you need to make to get someone to talk to you and maybe, just maybe, register or agree to whatever your pitch is? Would that money and effort be better spent in some other way?

Google does some nice work on their mailings. Mail is not always better than spam, but if mail is unique enough, something you can't be in a subject of an email, then it will get opened. Including something for free like a sticker or notepad or pen is not going to get you business. No buy in or not enough to get me persuaded. Engage me, don't pitch me. Suggest you read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.

Lastly, do a search before you call and ask to speak to the owner. I don't care what company you are calling, the owner's name is out there if you try a little bit of searching. Here's a hint, Florida has a corporation lookup database that tells you the owners and details. Then again so do 1,000's of other sites. Try Linkedin at a minimum. This asking to speak with the owner line will get you hung up on immediately. This is a sign that all your efforts will fail. Next time make sure you are on the call rotation list and interact with the call center. Eye opening is a mild way to describe how you will feel.

PS - As a contrarian, I could be way off on all of this so I apologize to my friends in telemarketing, advertising and marketing. But seriously, get people to stop asking for the owner!

Fud Buster Friday #65: Name Changing Works

So many companies tout their collaboration and social business solutions as though they are unique. Naturally they never bring up the path that led them to be this way.

And why not? Do you discuss every teacher, class, game or boss that shaped you? Yet, do you go around saying you are better than your teachers or mentors?

But that is not how business works. Business works on bludgeoning the competition or ignoring it entirely. Stay focused on your product, your goals, the competition? Who has time for them anyway?

Is there a right or wrong way? Probably not. But if you represent that original patent or technology or solution, why not use that to your advantage? Why shy away from a robust history in favor of a shallow existence?

History is filled with companies and products that experienced renaissance's, and yours is just as likely to do so. Look at Apple, Nokia, IBM, Vespa, Harley Davdison, Fender, GM, Ford and The Mini car(too many corporate owners to list). Each of these companies went through down times as well as up times, in many cases still doing the same thing they always did, sometimes without changing anything except management.


Would a Stratocaster be as cherished if it was called something else? Perhaps. But even the off models had their fans. The look and feel are retro, but GM, Dodge, Ford all have iconic brands with loyal fans that are just happy the Camaro or Hemi returned.

Even Fiat has, after 20 something years returned to the US to sell their cars. Hope springs eternal..

Talk about the rich traditions, bring up the history, impress upon customers your depth of experience and integration, your seamless integration or your Web 2.0 coolness. Just don't think changing your name will be an elixir by itself, change your attitude, your management or its style and you too may have a renaissance.

Fud Buster Friday #64: Quickr is Dead?

 At The View conference, I explained to the room full of Quickr Admins that Quickr is live and well and IBM has plans for the future.

This is from what I saw and heard at Lotusphere 2011.

While the arguments about Quickr J2EE for Websphere Portal range from "why isn't it part of IBM Connections", not that Quickr for Domino is part of it, to "who uses Quickr?"

Here are some Quickr customer references in case you were wondering who uses it.

The truth is Quickr serves purposes within the IBM portfolio that are very useful to many organizations.

Maybe you have a sales organization that needs to stay on top of the latest info, pricing, competitive info. Or perhaps you want to share information with an external source or client.

In these cases, Connections does provide an increasingly more productive way to accomplish these tasks. So it is easy to see why some IBM competitors say Quickr is dead. But again, the truth is far from this.

Project based efforts, client engagements and more, require more depth than what is currently in Connections, the type of depth and details are what make Quickr so useful.

At this junction, IBM sales is quite regularly selling Quickr coupled with Connections to provide a full collaborative solution to cover both the project needs such as multiple levels of files and more granular security in addition to being able to easily create blogs, wikis and share the information outside your organization.

Quickr is not only about file sharing, as many people think. This misnomer comes from competitors who wish to pigeon hole it as a limited product to compare to their own limitations. Quickr has check in and check out benefits as well as a deep directory structure for files.

If your company is looking at a workflow process for your projects or business deals, then Quickr meets that requirement too over Connections.

Quickr provides an integrated calendar sharing for the sites and your projects. Sites are what one may think of as a group or project. There are also Lists, multiple place templates, custom document types too.


Need Quickr on the run? There are mobile options for phones and iPhones and iPads.

Naturally Quickr integrates very well with your existing Lotus Notes and Domino environments, Sametime too, from attachments stored directly inside a Quickr site from any email sent to dragging and dropping emails into sites to keep all information in one place.

Quickr, as well as Connections, integrate into your existing environment of Office and with Outlook as well.  From this wiki page for Connections 3.x:

Install the SharePoint widget and make it available to community owners. A community owner can then add the widget to a community so that community members can view and edit files uploaded from a SharePoint server.

Quickr relies on its Connectors to provide integration. This reference about the Connectors elaborates:

Using the place connector for Microsoft Office, users can exploit the updated Lotus Quickr Ribbon Tab Add-in for Microsoft Office 2007 if they use the Add-in tab. All activities that users can perform from this connector are available on the Places tab in the Office ribbon, which appears next to the Add-In tab. The Ribbon is an enhancement of the previous toolbar and menu options that were available for earlier versions of Microsoft Office as well as previous versions of the connectors installed in Microsoft Office 2007.  The toolbar also exists for versions of Microsoft Office prior to 2007.

But enough about the integration, that was not really the reason for this post, although the truth should be seen and heard, or better yet experienced.

While IBM does not expect to ship any major products this year, pending the arrival of the Vulcan efforts, it does not mean they have not been extending the product lines with point releases and other updates like support for 64-bit which came out in June. Luis Benitez, Quickr for Domino Product Manager just last week posted an update on Quickr and Connection integration.

The ease of use and installation, out of the box, for Quickr for Domino , slightly more effort for clustering, also helps provide a quick ROI. Quickr J2EE can also be used out of the box, runs on Websphere and can likewise be up and running, again with slightly more effort for Clustering.

Based on my session at The View for Quickr admins, I had a good percentage of the show attendees in my session which is a great showing to me that Quickr has not gone away, a number of people had just put it in and were getting trained on it even. So it is far from dead.

The book I co-authored, which is on the top right side of my blog, was written knowing there is a growing interest in the product again.

IBM has the numbers and while I can only guess at them, I do not believe it is dying, in fact, because of Connections, Quickr is growing. Why? Because together the two products complement each other. By providing project efforts, coupled with external and internal collaboration, and without ANY programming involved, you can extend your business and learn more about your own employees. Enable them to easily blog, post to wiki's, share files, secure project data and receive proactive notifications of all of the activity, as much or as little as required.

That is true collaboration.

Fud Buster Friday #63: Diet Coke is good for you

I love this one. It just amuses me to no end.

There are people out there who really believe drinking Diet Coke is better for them, in some way, than drinking regular coke.

Got news for you all, drink water, and no matter how much you pay for it, tap water, in most civilized countries is perfectly fine for you.

Do you really think drinking a 2 liter bottle of this stuff a day or 3-4 cans is good for you? Drinking it instead of regular Coke will save your waist line?

Now what is this really about? Perception.

Is the Cloud good for you? Or is it like Diet Coke and just easier on your waist line of business, called your budget?

What about Outsourcing? Is that just a Diet Coke to reduce your budget as well?

What's wrong with hiring people and managing your own servers? Drink the Coke.

Licensing doesn't go away, entirely, other expenses have a similar trap.

Maybe it's the belief in someone else's initiatives? You have run out of ideas and think someone else knows better? Like everything else in life, it only works part of the time as planned.

Is it easier to drink Diet Coke then eat better? What if you just drank water instead? Change your viewpoint and see what you are doing from another angle.

The world around you is not waiting for anything. You want something, you go do it, but don't be fooled by marketing and sales campaigns that are aimed not to help you, but sell more product.

Advertising works evidently, shocking, I know. But next time you reach for a Diet Coke, or a software equivalent, think about it.

Fud Buster Friday #62: What if They are Right?

The ever popular, They, do everything. They go on vacation, They went out last night, They are on Twitter or Google+.

But when it comes down to knowing what is good for your company, what do They really know?

Do They understand the multinational language issues? Or do They really support every mobile device as they claim...even the ones not available in the US?


What about when the sales people come in to let you know all about how Others(a euphemism for They) have taken up with the new Macguffin and their world is amazing now. They save money, They have less headaches, They have moved forward, They are better than you.

Poppycock

I understand there is a method to this sales madness, and in truth it works for some people on both sides of the fence. But does it really work in a modern world of social business?

If we believe what we hear or read, again from Others, then people ask Others for advice and look to their peers for more insight and gauge which way the wind is blowing.

But what if the wind is blowing from Florin or towards Guilder? How does one know which way to go? Are the new 2.0 companies truly on par with the big boys? Are the big boys really in the know?

Does it really make a difference which solution you choose for your company in the long run?

Sometimes, it does.
Is it because They told you so and it worked somehow?
Or did You knew what you needed and went after it and found a company that listened to You.

They don't care about your company usually.

Find a vendor who cares about you and not just your license or services revenue, this passion is what They are usually missing.

Fud Buster Friday #61: Cheap, Cheap, Fail

There are times when you can get by on the cheap, but there are many more times where doing so will cost you much, much more in the end.

Let's say you need to get some new laptops or desktops. Naturally you have a myriad of choices and not just Dell, HP, Apple or Lenovo. Operating systems, sizes, processors, disk space and so much more. But you decided that the most you can spend per employee is $500.

What will you get? Can you get something useful? Maybe if they already have a laptop with peripherals, like wireless or USB keyboard/mouse, LCD. But what if they do not? Do they need it? Further more do you need a docking station or network/dock hub? What about software licenses?

You get the picture. So you balance cost vs. need and forget about support, warranties and reliability. Help desk support and installation/setup costs get involved as well.

Before you are done you are at $1,000 and now what? Maybe it will be fine, maybe it won't.
But you ended up spending 2 times as much as you wanted.

This is paralleled in software, projects and almost everything else in life. The world is full of instances where someone chose to err on the side of saving a buck which later was the cause of great catastrophes in business and life. The Titanic inferior bolts, the Boston Tunnel, Airplane parts that were long past usage, car tires worn bald.

Taking the cheaper solution even though it will cost 2 or 3 times more before you get any retuirn out of it, instead of the one already working from day one that costs just a little bit more is daring, reaching and what leaders do.

It's always the same.
                                You can be different.
                                                                 Change your Reality! Don't do things the same old way.

Fud Buster Friday #60: Sharepoint is the Future

I love this graphic, no idea if it really was used but thanks to Sharepoint magazine for sharing it.

In a blog post, A Guide to Leaving Lotus Notes and Moving to Microsoft SharePoint, by Andrew Vevers which was a finalist entry for the Aspiring Authors Competition 2011 according to the post, we see a classic case of ignoring the obvious.

What is the focus really about here? Is it to gain Mr. Vevers new clients? Is it to be used as a sales tool to persuade companies to move off Lotus Domino? Maybe to teach other consultants how to make money off their clients? Like this line:

"If you think they might not be sure what they need to keep, consider offering to migrate the last six months’ data or implement a per-GB data migration charging model. That’ll get them thinking!"

No, I believe the focus is entirely misguided. It is focused on the past. Cleaning the data? Design? For what? To "convert" to Sharepoint? Really? Is that the best you can offer your clients Mr. Vevers? The past? Like this line:

"Despite these factors, your main focus should always be on reproducing the functionality, not adding unnecessary bells and whistles."

What about the future? Don't you think that if you were going to convince people to move off a well used platform that it should be to something new, improved and providing more benefits? But the bells and whistles could have been part of the Domino application all along, even in R7 where he last left his Lotus knowledge.

The discussion never hits web apps and stays focused on Notes apps.

While I agree that companies should have been building apps for the web for years, it has not always been their focus until the last 2-3 years, Notes applications are not impossible to update for the web. Recent efforts have been made to transform apps to Xpages and more web/mobile access and perhaps this would be a cheaper solution in some cases, if not all.

Those of you in a similar situation, the crossroads of business and technology should keep in mind. The future is bright but only if you can see it. If you can enhance your applications, do it. Be agile, customer centric, responsive. Help your management see the better future, do a mockup, do something. If you are an employee it costs you and the company nothing more to enhance your apps, and you should be doing it no matter who owns the app or how old it is. Your administrators will get their job done and get you to 8.5.2 but if you aren't helping the apps, then why bother going beyond R5 or R6?

Sharepoint is not the future. It may be new and shiny, but it is NOT the future nor does it represent it in any way, shape or form. It is just another platform which just happens to be licensing, server and hardware heavy. Posts like Mr. Vevers do not fairly discuss the issue because it is presumed already one will be migrating.

I don't believe that many companies have removed Domino from their data centers and I do not believe many will still for years to come. I believe at least 85% of the Fortune 500 still run Domino applications today and I hope at some point IBM will bring back the campaigns that highlighted the usage across industries because it is true and it is important to get that information into the minds of executives.

Fud Buster Friday #59: Theory is Cheap

Reality is Expensive.

Anyone can provide theories, opinions or blog posts but are they worth anything?
What happens when the theory goes horribly wrong?

Ever get into a discussion about a project with a client only to find out that someone told them it should be easier, simpler, faster or cheaper than you just stated?

What do you do? How do you defend yourself? Should you even bother to defend yourself?

Usually this is a sign that you have not done your part properly and gathered enough information from the client. No, you may never get to find out what the other bids are, but you are not looking for those details. What you are looking for is the value or time, the customer feels the project will take/cost and how that could be worked on your end to a better deal for everyone.

If you know, for example, that creating a new ID takes 1-2 minutes depending on the server speed and network, you can safely say it takes less than 5 minutes. If another vendor came in and said it takes 15 minutes an ID, what do you, as the client or the vendor, think or do? The client usually has no idea or bases their knowledge on what the norm has been in their company. In some companies they really believe it takes a day. Bet you wish you had that client don't you? Or I bet you hate to hear that from your own employees mouth?

Maybe the client says, why do you need 15 minutes when it takes a minute or two? Sometimes clients do know what they are talking about. But, that other vendor has a job to explain the reality from the theory.

Let's see, they may say:
1) Log in to the client/server to create an ID
2) Get to the ID screen
3) Start entering all the pertinent information
4) Verify what you typed is correct
5) Add any security/access required or denied for the user
6) Save/OK the entry
7) Wait for it to say complete or
8) Push the change out manually so you can test the ID
9) Test the ID
10) Copy the ID, if a file is created, to a secure/safe secondary home
11) Email/IM/Tweet the user that they can now login

12) Document the user was created and the password assigned, especially if there is no log file for this or a way to fix it later.

Now when the client looks at this, they see a produced document which can also double for guidelines, training, certifications, documentation. They also now believe, because they were shown this list, this is a bit of psychology in how people think, that it takes 12 minutes to make an ID file. In some cases even longer, more because there are even more steps to some systems or processes. You get the picture.

But, what you want top do instead is this:
Ask the client, how long THEY think it takes their staff to create an ID.
Or what is the current time allocated for ID creation or what they think it takes if something is new to them.

Somewhere between your thinking and their reality is what you are looking for, in both time and money. Don't leave money on the table, but don't lie to your client either. If you use their time and their words, you can not go far off course. But taking advantage of someone who does not know the difference may come back to haunt you next time you try to do business with them. Don't be short sighted.

Theory works very well until someone needs to get work done. Then what should take a minute takes 15 or 15 hours. Sometimes, that is how it happens. Other times it really does take a minute. Be open and upfront with your clients and vendors, and they will be with you too.

Knowing in advance what to expect, for better or for worse, will help you more in your negotiations than anything else you can do.

Fud Buster Friday #58: You want Open CRM?

Which one is your data in?

Ever wonder when a client says they want a CRM application what they really mean?
When you push them, do they really understand what they are after?
Is it really yet another server to store repetitive data or a Cloud based solution to duplicate everything?

Or do they want to replace their existing solution...if they had one?

Some have had IBM Lotus Domino based solutions that were built in-house or from a now defunct consultant or company and want to get away from them because, well they are older solutions, and you want new shiny and exciting CRM applications. Right, because you have a 100% customizable solution and would prefer a 50% one? Sorry did we give you too many choices? Afraid to hire a developer?

Maybe you have a solution from an existing company who has kept updating it perpetually so it is not just web based but mobile as well and for all your devices. Maybe this solution is now part of SugarCRM which is open source and relatively cheap per user at around $30/month. Your Notes license is depending on the license type, renewed at $20-50/yr. So the new solution costs you 7 times as much PER USER as the one you already own.

Sure you can say development will be expensive, let's say your enhancements are $25,000. In a small company this would be overkill, but for your average 500 person company that is $50/user. Still think it is expensive?

But you say the money for an SaaS or Cloud offering comes from a different budget and out of the IT budget. Fine I can't argue with that entirely but what is more important for the data?

Huh? The data? Who cares about data we care about cost! You may say this, and that is okay.

But have you thought about how are you going to get that new solution, SalesForce, Sugar, MS CRM or whatever to connect across all your services, software, devices and secure it in a way that makes the sharing of data easier...not harder?

One client went the MS CRM route and then related to me how painful it was to integrate it into anything because of 3 things. Cost, Resources/time, knowledge. The last one especially was intriguing as they implied the Business Partner they used had no idea what they were doing. It happens. But A second client related similar issues as they dug in deeper to MS CRM. It is a build it to use it solution. Typical of Microsoft to make companies work harder to do the simple thing and leave the really hard stuff for some other time or version.

A new silo has been built and you paid for it, congratulations.

You were expecting the opportunity to merge various databases and depositories into one nice place. You still get all of that from Domino, it will connect to your MS CRM as well. One storage for all. No mess, no years of consultants.

You want a truly open solution and they are out there. IBM has worked out deals with SalesForce and SugarCRM for Lotuslive. They are partially integrated right now so calendar invites etc.. get fed through and some other points of integration. These may now start looking better to you.

In soem cases it is easier to get information into Domino, then push it out to whatever end source. No matter which way you choose, you have an open solution but that MS CRM hard to say the same.

Fud Buster Friday #57: Management Knows What They Are Doing

Every company, school, university, non-profit organization goes through this at one time or another. When management says trust me, you know you are in for it. Like an interview with a questionable job/company, if anyone says trust me or us, just run away. Or worse, acts like they know what they are doing, doesn't say trust me and proceeds to act like nothing is wrong.
Hubris! Wikipedia says it means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance.

If management knows what they are doing....how did they get you into this hole to start? Was it too little management? Too much micromanagement? Lack of training? Too much training and not enough selling? The list is endless.

Everyone goes through rough patches, some weather it better than others. Others fly blind in the face of ignorance that their world has changed.

Do people ever tell Steve Jobs he's off his rocker inside Apple? Not likely. So how does he retain that respect? Aside from being the CEO and founder and a micromanager who just happens to get almost everything right?

There is a plan, sometimes half baked, but any plan is always better than NO PLAN.
The company encourages feedback on the plan.
The plan is distributed to all parties of importance, vendors, customers, press or whatever it is intended, but it does get out to the masses.
The audience may gripe or moan but the reality is if the plan makes sense there will be buy in. Does it make management look smart? No, not yet, wait until the plan gets executed and then who get scredit 90% of the time?

So what seems to be the problem? It is the Easy Way vs. the Hard Way:

1. Easy way: Price cutting? Not a bad idea, but (now the Hard Way)did you also reduce the size, quantity or package on offer with that reduction? Sales people are not always good at this part, they usually stop at the price cutting. An excellent interview question when hunting for a new VP/Director of Sales by the way.
2. Easy way: Firing staff? Not going to win any fans this way. Instead (now the Hard Way) did you think that there was a way to retain some of the people, on flex time or some other mutually beneficial efforts? Also a great question to ask of C level executives. This will tell you which side they are on, their bonus or your staff.
3. Easy Way: Denying the customers are going to the competition. Hard Way says it happens quite frequently but not always because of price. Many times it is because of poor customer service or bad attitudes. Do you (Hard Way)tell people or do you (Easy Way) keep inside the degradation in sales? What can I say, I like competitive discussions, but few can answer these questions well in interviews.

So here is the problem, you trained your staff, your hired great people, now those great people are making you look bad and losing customers for you. Yet these are the people you kept!? Makes you wonder doesn't it. Makes the rest of the staff wonder about you as management. As I watch more and more people be let go from companies, some they had been with for decades, it really makes me wonder just who you did keep since these are people that have battled for your company for years. Loyalty obviously has no place in this post-9/11 world.

The Easy Way out will cause unrest among the staff. Attitudes do not get better, they get worse. Yes, they are following orders but when enough points of reference say there is a problem, staff stops working until management recognizes there is an issue. Woe to you if you are in a company that does not see this, I feel for you. Some of you have also had the revolving doors of executives, one after another brought in to be the savior but each one failing as well. Your Board of Directors should get tossed, but that is REALLY hard to do.

What takes a little more effort, goes a long way, but in this era of me, me, me, no one wants to make the effort. Companies could benefit from listening to staff recommendations, schools should listen to parents and their own teachers, sports teams should really listen to their fans. The alternatives is a complete break down which no one wants to see happen nor experience in an already fragile economic time.

It isn't always easy to be creative and save jobs or your PR but if management could try to work with everyone when business gets better there will be more business. But until then, Management doesn't really know what they are doing because they do not know what tomorrow brings. So don't be like the bad management and take the easy way out, instead take the hard way and be humble, be open, be candid and honest and in turn make a better world for your staff who is already doing all of this behind your back on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and a million other ways.

Fud Buster Friday #56 - Social Media helps Customer Service

Your pig with lipstick is still a pig.

Just because you have 356 different social media, web 2.0 accounts and services where you post for advertising your brand, doesn't mean your company stands behind you.

In an era of instant on, we also have instant feedback expectations.

So what are you going to do about it?

As an example, I discuss business uses of social media but when I ask about the execution of the services side, usually you hear, of course we expect the best from our people or some other similar line. Now it is all very nice for marketing and the executives to say they want to use all of this, but what about the front lines people? The ones that actually have to see, speak, touch or help real people? How does this help?

The usual complaint is the executives are not on Twitter or use someone/something else to post for them. Who cares about that, why is this any different than a weekly newsletter they don't write?

But the front lines get it, or so you think. What they get is you have opened the flood gates to any site someone wants to join. This is a great thing, but getting the employees to use it for business is hard. They use these programs for their benefit usually and sometimes for business.

As I am writing this at the PACLUG and The View Admin conference in Las Vegas, I pondered what if housekeeping was on Twitter? What about the bartender? Valet?

As it turns out they are on Twitter, someone from the hotel and they respond fairly quickly. So kudos to them.

Is this the new customer service/ What if you could Tweet to these people? Would they respond to your needs efficiently or properly?

The premise of Social Business is to be more interactive and engage the customer....but what if your front line customer service is not so great? Case in point, my hotel room had 1 hanger.

Presumably the hotel has a checklist that Housekeeping follows and my guess is a previous guest helped themselves to some hangars. There was 1 which held the laundry bag and list of services, so I know Housekeeping was there, but I would think they would make a note to get more hangars to the room. This is where Social Business gets hurt, because what if I or you started ranting on Twitter or a travel site? People don't take the time anymore to go through proper or usual channels, they just want to tweet or ping someone and get instant help.

Social Business should be an extension of customer service in a natural way. Yet, that is not really how it is working in every organization. Make the effort to be prevalent across the board so everyone is part of the solution.

Social media is being used as a shortcut but there is no shortcut to great customer service.