Blogger Outreach: Sharp Aquos Thin Panel HD TV

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I’m doing something I rarely do. Talking about a piece of Thornley Fallis‘  work.

But I just have to point to something that makes me very, very proud – a blogger outreach pitch that our team did this week for the Sharp Aquos XS1. That’s the new thin, thin HD television that Sharp has introduced. Thin? 1″ at its thinnest point.

Smart people have taught me that great design is knowing what to leave out so that you can get at the essence of something. And that leads to simplicity. And impact. And comprehension.

So, imagine my delight when Tod Maffin’s post showed up in Google Reader last night. You have to see to understand. Here’s Tod’s post:

Form mirrors content

Form mirrors content. Awesome.

The team could simply have sent the news release to the bloggers they wanted to reach out to. But they didn’t. They did something else. A slimmed down pitch that conveyed in its form the core feature of the Sharp Aquos XS1.

A simple pitch. An elegant pitch. An effective pitch.

I’m really, really proud of the creative people I work with. So, here’s a public shoutout to Michael O’Connor Clarke and his Sharp account team. Keep it up

And thank you Tod for liking the pitch.

What would you tell PR students about social media?

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I’d like to test social media’s culture of generosity by asking for your help in giving young PR students a sense of the impact of social media on PR as a discipline and their prospective careers as PR practitioners.

Social media requires new skills

Social media demands new skills

I’ve been invited to speak about social media to the the students in the public relations program at Humber College in Toronto. In setting up the session, the organizers have told me:

We feel our classmates will benefit most from a lecture focusing on how social media is functioning within PR, primarily how it has emerged and how it is changing the field. As we all have first-hand experience with social media and popular sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc), we would like you to focus on the aspects of social media and PR of which we may not be aware: are there new technologies or sites that will impact the field in the next year? Are there common preconceptions about social media that we should know as we enter the field? How should we be incorporating social media into our careers

I’ve pulled out of this three topics to discuss with the students of Humber College:

  • how social media has affected PR;
  • new developments, technologies or sites that will impact the field in the next year; and
  • how aspiring PR practitioners should be incorporating social media into their career preparation.

Here’s where you come in

If you were talking to a class of PR students, what would you tell them about social media?

  • How is social media affecting organizational and group communications?
  • What are the technology trends that they should be watching?
  • What will it mean for their careers?

I plan to show the Humber class this post and the comments it receives as an illustration of the power of crowdsourcing. So, please give generously of your experience and advice.

Managing through the recession – Focus on customer service

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As the economy worsens, I continue to think about what Thornley Fallis and 76design can do to weather the recession. And as I do this, I look at what other companies are doing to cope with tough times.

No industry has been hit harder and faster by the economic downturn than the travel and tourism industry. One company in the industry, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, has reminded me of the ongoing importance of customer service.

Great customer service is in limited supply today

Great service wanted

Customer service can set a company apart from competitors in an era when all competitors are only a click away. In this environment, products and many services become commodities. It’s the personal element that cannot be replicated and differentiates the great company from the pack.

Much of today’s so called customer service is really driven by time management considerations. Not the time of the client, but the time of the call centre rep or the customer service representative. In this environment, an organization that creates a work environment in which it’s customer-facing personnel can actually relate on a human level with the person in front of them will stand out from their competitors.

Fairmont Hotels is a case study of great customer service

I originally started to stay at Fairmont Hotels because of the unique physical plant and location of their Canadian properties (think grand hotels from the golden age of rail travel.) However, what drew me back time and time again was the warmth and attentiveness of the employees. They actually seemed to enjoy their work, showed pride in the company they worked for and made me feel like a valued guest. That’s not something that is common to all hotel chains.

Last week, Fairmont asked me to participate in a video interview for use in new internal staff training videos they are preparing.

Fairmont Hotels and ResortsThis is smart on the part of Fairmont. Not because I’m photogenic. (Brad Pitt I’m not.) It’s smart because I stay frequently at Fairmont Hotels and I have real stories to tell about my experience. And if Fairmont employees want to truly know the impact their decisions have on guests, how better to understand this than through the words and eyes of actual guests?

In setting up this interview, Fairmont didn’t ask me to gild the lily. Not at all, they asked me to talk about not only my positive experiences, but also the ones that weren’t so positive. To be truthful, I really couldn’t think of any negative experiences.

My experience with Fairmont employees

One time I could not get an Internet connection in my room. The hotel put me through to the telephone support (fairly standard procedure.) When that didn’t work, a technician came to my room. When that didn’t work, the desk staff assigned a new room to me, a bellman showed up at my door and I was transferred from my existing room to another (and the Internet was tested for me). Throughout this process, the Fairmont staff were patient and willingly helpful. And what makes this even more remarkable was that I later discovered the problem was with my computer, not the hotel’s Internet connection. I repeat: Throughout the troubleshooting process, the Fairmont staff were paitent and willingly helpful – even in the face of a technically challenged guest.

I’ve experienced the same caring approach when I’ve travelled with my family (a time when a good experience is even more important than when I’m travelling on my own.) My children love to go to Toronto in the summer. One year, we were assigned a rambling suite that gave us room to stretch out in a comfortable sitting area and had a round dining table large enough for a family of five. The room was perfect. When I made my reservations for the following year, I couldn’t remember the room number. However, the reservation agent searched my stay history and identified the room we like and assigned it to us for our return stay. A small extra gesture. But small things leave big impressions.

What’s the bottom line for me on why I think that Fairmont charaterizes great service? In every interaction with someone who works at the Fairmont, I feel like I’m dealing with another person who’s treating me as an individual. And I feel that I’m dealing with people who care enough to make it that way and an organization that has created a culture and organized their work in a way that supports this type of behaviour.

Great service. I don’t expect it, but I have become accustomed to receiving it from Fairmont.

How do we achieve great customer service?

Good service cannot be generated by the imposition of “cookie cutter uniformity.” Good service flows instead from consistency in the values that are shared by employees. It also comes from a culture that encourages service providers to focus on the people they are helping as individuals, not as units in a quota to be processed. If the quality of the interaction, not the quantity of transactions, is the objective then quality of service will be the outcome.

Dealing with complaints is very important as well. I believe that most problems actually go unreported. We all make a cost benefit analysis of the effort we will need to invest in order to get a response. The smart organization understands that The unsuccessful handling of a complaint makes me question whether I want to repeat my experience again. A complaint acknowledged and dealt with will outweigh the memory of the original complaint. I will return to an organization that has acknowledged my complaint and responded.

As businesses of all kinds think about how to cope with the coming recession, it’s well worth looking at a company like Fairmont as a model. I bet they make it through the recession with relatively less damage than their competitors. I’d like to do the same for my business.

A glimpse of things to come?

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The economic downturn is being felt by businesses and their employees everywhere.

Katie Paine points to a heart breaking post by an employee who has just been laid off by Cision.

I feel for the laid off employee.

And I also know that no employer – regardless of how hard we try to provide a caring, progressive work environment – is immune to anger and attacks from former employees.

It’s to be expected that the people you lay off first are the disaffected and less effective. And in this era of social media, they can share their views – with little effort.

Regardless of how hard I try to be kind in a termination situation, I understand that it is essentially a gesture of rejection. And it’s only natural that the person who has just been let go will search for justification. And in doing this, it’s only human to magnify all the shortcomings of the employer – real or imagined.

That’s not excusing any employer. That’s just recognizing that, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

And I think we are going to see a lot more of this in the future. A sign of the times.

Managing through the coming recession

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While I was on vacation two weeks ago, the real world kept intruding by way of reports of a plummeting stock market and world leaders in full-out crisis mode. On Friday of last week the Conference Board reported that Canadian consumer confidence is at a 26 year low.

Economic CrushThe warning signs are inescapable. Challenging times lie ahead.

What does this mean for companies like Thornley Fallis and 76design? We have to prepare ourselves to receive telephone calls that start with, “We’ve decided to reduce the budget…” or “We’re holding off proceeding with the next phase…” or “We’ve decided to consolidate our spending with one agency.”

What are we doing about it?

Well, first, I am changing my own thinking from “grow, grow, grow” to “cash is king.”

In the coming recession, there will be surviviors and there will be casualties. I made some mistakes in the 2001-2002 downturn and I’m determined not to make those mistakes again.

This simple change of mindset will drive a whole series of cascading decisions. We won’t stop growing where we can, but we will be more selective in our investments. More cautious. Less open to higher risks.

How does this translate into our day to day reality?

Zero Budget

First, we’re resetting all of our discretionary budgets to zero. This will force each decision-maker to make fresh decisions about how we spend money. What worked yesterday may not work today. So, let’s reexamine what we’re doing to be sure that we put our resources behind those things that work and match up against the new tighter economic realities.

Maximize

Second, I’m asking each manager to maximize the use of our current human resources – the people who are the essence of our company. Instead of recruiting ahead of our need for people, we will wait until people are working flat out before we hire new staff. In tough times, it’s much better to be too busy and working very hard than to be sitting in an office in which you know that there are too many people for the work to be done.

Choose

Third, we will be more selective in the new business opportunities we pursue. The best opportunity is a happy client who says, “Let’s keep working together.” Next to that, we will scrutinize closely the opportunities and make pragmatic decisions based on our assessment of the prospects for success of the potential client, their business strength and why they have come to us. We won’t participate in any competitions for business unless the prospective client tells us that there is a clear reason that they have come to us. If they know our core strengths or one or more of our team and they really want to work with us, then we’ll compete. If they’ve selected us off a list so that they can round out a competitive roster, well, sorry, we’ll pass that one by.

But wait. There will be opportunities to grow

Ironically, at the very time that things are tightening, there will also be opportunities to grow and to plant the seeds for future growth.

There will be companies that look to make more effective use of their marketing budgets. There will be suppliers whose core business comes unstuck and who shed good clients as their ability to service them is diminished.

By paying attention to our business fundamentals through zero budgeting, maximizing and choosing, we will be able to answer the call when those opportunities arise. If we do this, we can emerge from the recession with all our capabilities intact and as a stronger competitor.

What’s your view?

So, that’s our gameplan this week. I say this week because in this time of uncertainty, we are  reexamining our assumptions and assessments as every week goes by. What seems right to us today may not seem quite so right next week. And we will be ready to change our stance as the world changes around us.

How about you? Have you already felt the effects of the downturn? What are you doing at your company to weather the recession?

What is the most you have paid for Internet access in a hotel?

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What is the most that you have ever paid for Internet access in a hotel?

I thought I’d seen everything. But this week, I stayed in the Westin Paris and I realized that gouging customers could be taken to a whole new level.

First, Internet in my room costs 7 Euros for one hour or 25 Euros for 24 hours. That’s Canadian $10.74 per hour or $38.50 per day. In U.S. dollars it’s $9.59 per hour or $34.25 per day.

But wait. Read on. There’s more!

Internet in your room costs 25 Euros per day

You’d think that buying Internet access in your room for $38.50 would get you access to the WiFi if you are sitting in the hotel lobby or buying a bit of lunch in the bar. But you’d be wrong.

If you shell out $38.50 for Internet in your room and then try to log on to the WiFi in the hotel lobby, you’ll discover that WiFi costs extra. Not a little bit extra, but 12 Euros for one hour or 39 Euros for 24 hours extra. That’s Canadian $18.48 per hour or $60.06 per day. In U.S. dollars, it’s $16.44 per hour or 53.43 per day.

Wow. Let me say that again. WOW! Read on.

Westin Paris charges 39 Euros extra to log on to WiFi

If you add up both the in-room charge and the WiFi charge, you can pay Canadian $98.56 per day (U.S. $87.68) for Internet access at the Westin Paris.

That seems to me to be an excessive charge. In fact, I’d call it gouging.

How about you? What do you think? Is this too much? What is the most you have ever paid for Internet access in a hotel?

Heard on Air Canada

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Air Canada, Canada's largest airlineAs my flight arrived in Ottawa last night, the pilot came on the intercom to say, “Thank you for flying with Air Canada. I know you have choices. Thank you for flying with us.”

It’s a small thing. But,the fact that the person who had just flown us safely from one place to another cared enough to say these words sent a message that he was conscious of the fact that he was responsible not just for a chunk of flying metal, but also a hundred souls. And that means a lot when you entrust your wellbeing to a stranger on the other side of the locked door.

So, to the pilot of Air Canada 462 on October 4, thank you for bringing me home safely to my family. I did have a choice. And I’m glad that I chose to fly with you.

Note to Air Canada management:

Your customer facing and flight personnel are doing a great job. Please be concerned with their welfare, keep them happy and Air Canada will have a better chance of making it through the economic downturn.

Niall Cook is speaking at Third Tuesday Toronto and Ottawa

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Third TuesdayNiall Cook, author of Enterprise 2.0 and Hill and Knowlton‘s Worldwide Director of Marketing Technology, will speak at both Third Tuesday Toronto on October 7 and Third Tuesday Ottawa on October 8.

Here’s the description from the Third Tuesday sites:

Enterprise 2.0: How social media will change the future of work

Social media has taken the Internet by storm, generating an unprecedented level of audience participation in corporate communications and marketing that were previously tightly controlled.

Niall Cook is Hill & Knowlton’s worldwide director of marketing technology and author of Enterprise 2.0, one of the first books to explain the impact that social software will have inside companies.

Join Niall as he introduces this emerging landscape and the key concepts that make up ‘Enterprise 2.0’. Using examples from well known companies in different industry sectors, he will illustrate how to apply enterprise 2.0 thinking to encourage communication, cooperation, collaboration and connections between employees and stakeholders in your own company.

This will be a rare chance to meet and talk with a social media expert from the U.K. You can register online to attend Third Tuesday Toronto on October 7 or to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa on October 8.

(Thank you David Jones and Brendan Hodgson for booking Niall for us.)

BlogOrlando – Pulling back the curtain on the mistakes I've made

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BlogOrlandoI’ve been told that the best kind of presentation is one that tells a story with which the presenter has some emotional involvement. If that’s true, then the session I’m leading at BlogOrlando should be a good one.

Josh Hallett has just posted the session description. It reads:

You’re enthused about social media. You see its potential to change the way you and your company relate to your customers, your industry and those who share your interests. And you want to seize these opportunities. So, what do you do?

Joseph Thornley asked himself this question in 2005 as he decided to launch Thornley Fallis and 76design into the world of social media. He will talk about the approach he and his company adopted. What worked? What didn’t? What mistakes did they make? What lessons did they learn? Now, Joseph’s companies are reviewing and revising the way they integrate social media into their existence. Call it Social Media 2.0. How are they changing their approach in the future?

In this session, you’ll gain insight into the do’s and don’t’s of bringing social media to your company. Profit from Thornley Fallis’ and 76design’s experience to gain insight into the pitfalls that you can avoid and the best practices you can adopt.

If you’re anywhere near Orlando on September 27, come out to BlogOrlando and watch me bare my social media soul.

Seriously, Josh has attracted a roster of topic speakers, including Jake McKee, Phil Gomes, David Parmet,  David Alston, Paula Berg, Spike Jones, Chris Thilk and Leah Jones. They’ll be leading four tracks of topical discussion about social media, community, journalism and marketing/PR.

Blog Orlando. Well worth attending.