I recently took part in a Dragons' Den event where I was a Dragon, along with three other eminent business people.

In one respect, it was a very different way to spend a morning. I learned much about the approach taken by the start-up businesses we met. But in another way, I realised it represented some of the conversations I have with potential new clients who have gone ahead and started a business without enough prior preparation and thought.

Our brief that day was to imagine ourselves as the Dragons on the TV programme, with a large pile of money on the desk in front of us. Which business would we invest in? The start-ups we were seeing had been briefed to use the time with us as a useful opportunity to practice what they might well have to do in the real world later on, but in a safe and 'friendly' environment.

Photo source: Thameside Media

First of all, it was particularly interesting to see that none of the start-ups actually asked for an investment. If you don't ask, you don't get, right? Will there be investors lining up to contact the start-ups, begging them to let them invest? Unlikely.

Secondly, each was incredibly emotionally involved in their businesses which is perfectly natural, but there needs to be a reality check which can't take place if you can't disassociate yourself from your business persona. 

My next observation was that some of the candidates had taken a perfectly good hobby and thought they could make a business out of it. Whether they'd read something in a magazine which said it was easy to do so or not, I don't know, but there had been little or no market research (professional or not) to see if there was a need for the product/service nor any real life experience or consideration of sourcing products, manufacturing, distribution, business management or marketing.

At some point, our role as potential investors turned into 'critical friends', and our feedback became as realistic as it had to be. Some must go back to the drawing board; some did have a sound business idea but needed a rethink on their strategic direction and some should go get a job working for someone else. 

Did we feel we could 'invest' in any of those start-ups? Sadly not, but let's hope the start-ups took on board our advice and will come back to us another time to wow us into handing over our imaginary dosh.

Managing social media for a charity

Guest blog by Kerrie Carter, Worthing Churches Homeless Projects

As a PR and Social Media Apprentice, I know first-hand what it takes to get a charity noticed online. There are so many platforms out there and it can sometimes be hard to choose which is best for the needs of your particular charity. You should really stick to two and do them well. Develop these platforms so you have a good following on each, aiming for key decision-makers and opinion-formers. It’s important that your followers should be invested in the service you’re providing.

Working for a charity that helps the homeless, I have to be incredibly careful about the message I put on social platforms as it can so easily be misinterpreted. There is a huge stigma attached to the topic of homelessness and every person has their own opinion to give, which they like to do on social media. It’s important to be neutral to all of this and remember your charity’s aims; those are what you have to deliver no matter what.

Besides, the majority of people who follow you on social media are genuinely interested in the service you give and want to support it in any way, and that’s the valuable thing you need to focus on.

Facebook is a popular platform for our target audience so I tend to post on there the most as we get more engagement. Occasionally we get a negative comment which I may hide if likely to cause offence to clients/supporters, but in most cases I don’t delete a comment as everyone is entitled to their opinion. When posting, I try to stick to the same tone and this is reflected by my colleagues as well so the audience knows what to expect from the charity. We also get the chance to be quite personal as it’s a fairly small, local charity and those in our area are the audience we want to be targeting. I find posts with photos attached to them always work the best for our audience as they like to see the work the charity is doing.

Twitter, on the other hand, is less prominent for us. We get more support from local businesses on here but mostly through the form of retweets and favourites. When we team up with other organisations, Twitter is a valuable tool for tagging and updating people on what’s happening. The same goes for fundraising events however, it’s easier to document these through photos on Facebook as this is where our dominant audience lies.

Scheduling tools like Hootsuite are brilliant for managing your social media accounts and for us, ensures there is content going out over the weekend so the account doesn’t suffer with loss of traffic.

There are other platforms we are considering using, such as Pinterest or Instagram, and we do post appropriate videos on YouTube, but since our following is constantly growing, Facebook and Twitter are the main forms of promotion. They are easy to use and can put out a powerful message although restricted to 140 characters on Twitter. Now that’s what I call effective marketing.

Kerrie had 1-2-1 social media training with us as part of her development as an apprentice with Worthing Churches Homeless Projects www.wchp.org.uk

My favourite new way to learn : webinars

I love webinars.

In what other context can you join experts in their field without having to leave your home or office, have the ability to raise any number of pertinent questions, wear your PJs if you want (if you work from home, naturally!), avoid hideous traffic jams/train delays/arriving late through no fault of your own and upsetting rows of tutting people, all for free and at a time that (more often than not) suits you?

OK, so some are in the middle of the night if they’re in a different time zone. But you can always ask to see the webinar afterwards.

And that’s another thing. I love that you get access after you’ve attended a webinar just in case you missed something or want to revisit a particular point.

Would it benefit you to hold one, or more? Here’s why you should consider being a webinar host:

You get to reach the people you want to reach – in a session that almost feels like it’s one-to-one

Find out what your target audiences want to hear about; it’ll show you what’s hot and what’s not in your sector. People are more likely to ask questions during a webinar without having to worry about putting their hands up in front of others, if they’re of a timid nature.

You can get across your key messages without sounding like you’re ‘selling’ and therefore people will be more likely to respond favourably.

Increase the reach – a webinar is for life, not just for the moment

Your messages will live on after the webinar is finished, through the ability to let people see it after broadcast. So don’t forget to give it some SEO welly too so you edge up those Google rankings.

Use different ways to grab interest

Show the breadth of your expertise by reinforcing what you’re saying through more than just talk. Use slides, animation, polls and any other method which captures the imagination without being visually unappealing or annoying.

Be a cheapskate

So much cheaper and easier than holding an event, webinars are also value for money as your database will grow with each one.

What’s not to love?!

Crisis? What crisis?

Every day brings a fresh batch of crisis situations, happening to businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes, so it's no point thinking it'll never happen to yours.

Today's offerings include an execution, fraud, breach of duty of care, fire, massacre, trade pacts, taxes, raging hormones, social media posts, loss of drinking water through burst main pipes and a plethora of other situations. 

Depending where you work, these can range from murder, drugs raids, to fat cat salaries, food safety, outbreaks of disease, petty theft to a closed sign on a shop when it should be open, and everything in between.

So it makes sense to have a proper Crisis PR Management Policy on the shelf for when you do need it. This will cover who's in charge - and there should only be one person in charge when a crisis hits - to, if it's a housing issue for example, where people should be temporarily housed. If it's the drinking water case above, how long will it take to repair and what will you do to make people's lives run smoothly in the meantime?

Your policy needs to cover who does what, who says what and why, and who is going to investigate the situation and speak to the media. If you don't plan for this sort of eventuality, you can expect (in the worst case scenario) journalists to be camped outside your premises or even your home, waiting for the slightest glimpse of you and that's not very nice at all.

Make sure you regularly brief the media, if that's the appropriate action, and let them know when the next briefing will be. Even if it's to say you can't give any update, it's still communicating which is what people want in times of crisis. How many times do you hear that airlines haven't kept passengers in the loop while they spend many hours delayed without any information? It's relatively simple to avoid this, keep your customers informed and keep them customers in the future.

You'll also need to connect your policy to your Business Continuity Plan. This will ensure your business will carry on as seamlessly as possible if, for example, your premises are no longer available to use (through flood, fire, vandalism, riots etc). Where will your team go to work? How will they communicate with your customers? Mobile phones, social media?

All this needs careful planning and prior preparation. The odds of you being kidnapped and held hostage may be slightly lower than a four-hour power cut, but it's always better to think ahead and be prepared!

Is the customer always right?

Despite our in-built response mechanism to believe the customer is always right, is this true?

As a service provider, our clients are buying in our years of expertise and experience, our professional qualifications, adding all of this to their teams and commercial weaponry. Each client has a choice about whether to do this or not, based on their ability to shop around, listen to recommendations and referrals, check out our quotes, hear our initial ideas and choose whether they trust us to deliver outcomes and advice worth taking up.

But how often do we provide our best advice only for clients to ignore it and to come back at a later date saying "We should have listened"? Thankfully not that often, although our reaction is tinged with a slight sadness and frustration that time will have been lost and efforts will have to make up for further slippage in reaching objectives.

If we have toothache we go to the dentist, we don't try to fill the tooth or take it out ourselves. So it makes sense to choose your business advisers, consultants or mentors very carefully - take into account personalities, approach, gut feelings, recommendations, testimonials, previous work, a mutual sense of humour and likeability. Then, trust them or at least give them a chance to prove they can be trusted; because they should be bringing their best work to the table, to the benefit of you and your company.

It certainly takes a degree of confidence and the ability to let go of the reins in favour of someone whom you consider knows more about a topic than you do. Some executives are unable to do this but the ones who do, get the best results. 

Listen to your consultants or advisers, ask questions, calmly consider then make your decision to take their advice, or explain why it might not work. Try a different approach to the issue to make it work if necessary; it may be something has not been passed on correctly or some information is missing. If you decline every piece of advice on the basis you know better, you have to ask: why employ anyone? It's a waste of time, money and effort on everyone's part.

Similarly if there are issues communicating or your relationship of trust is compromised, it's probably better to make a change. 

Working in partnership with a client should be a joy, filled with successful outcomes. We have certainly found that's the best way to work.

PR is good for motivating your employees as well as for gaining customers

Guest blog by Pete Jenkins of e-Advantage Solutions Ltd

A recent study shows that 69% of European workers are ‘not engaged’ or are ‘actively disengaged’ by their work (Blessing White, 2013, p6). In the field of human resource management employee engagement is considered an extremely important force in managing and eliciting positive staff responses and driving their motivation. Employee engagement relies heavily on organisational citizenship, personal commitment and job satisfaction.   

The build-up of a brand by a company through its media presence and marketing/advertising affects the relationship between the employee and the company as well as the relationship with consumers. One can see an increase in the importance employees attribute to the brand. This has a positive influence on their awareness about competence, autonomy and commitment that gives them confidence to don the role of brand representatives for the company.

Any organisation today relies on PR and consumer advertising (including other methods than paid-for) as an effective marketing tool to reach as many stakeholders as possible. Though the marketing department’s main focus may be directed at the consumer, you may be surprised to learn about its cascading effects on the company employees as well. In other words, consumer marketing/advertisements and publishing have a major influence on employee performance and their sense of organisational identification (OI). 

So far, little research has gone into this area of the effect of an organisation’s PR and marketing/consumer advertising on its staff and employees. However, some recent studies are now revealing that there is positive employee reaction to these media efforts of the organisation and that this can have a telling effect on organisational identity of the employee. Studies conducted on groups of employees and their reaction to campaigns created by the company have provided heartening results on the employees’ personal bonding with the marketing and advertising and thus the company. This shows a positive side of consumer marketing on the employees.

All PR is good PR… or is it?

It would be a mistake to believe that all news, marketing and advertisements about your company can elicit the same positive reaction from the company’s employees. Their perception of the effectiveness of the campaign will be key in establishing their pride in and identification with the organisation. 

To summarise, PR, marketing and advertising are useful tools in aligning your employees with the company brand and play an important role in getting them on board. You can even get these benefits early by involving employees in campaign design and discussions at an early stage in the process and it sets the ball rolling for particularly fruitful employee participation and favourable reactions. Organisations would do well to evaluate employee reactions to press releases and adverts through an internal campaign first.

Getting news and information about a company into the local, national and online media is a sure-fire way to get their employees on board and earn their sense of loyalty, personal participation and commitment in advancing the interests of your organisation.

About Pete:

Pete is founder and managing director of gamification consultancy e-Advantage Solutions Ltd. Pete is Entrepreneur in Residence at Brighton Business School, University of Brighton and is Chair of GamFed (International Gamification Confederation) and a Researcher on Gamification in Human Resources at CROME (Centre for Research on Management and Employment).

His practical background at e-Advantage Solutions is in implementing CRM systems, and motivating staff to use them. For the last 2 years e-Advantage has been the UK Partner for Zurmo CRM, a gamified CRM, as well as consulting on gamification strategies for organisations in the financial services and infrastructure industries, along with a few smaller but interesting companies and charities.

At the University of Brighton and CROME he lectures on Gamification and Entrepreneurship, and is running the first Undergraduate and Post-Graduate courses on Gamification for Business available in the UK.

As Chair of GamFed he is aiming to spread the word about gamification and to foster best practice within the gamification industry. 

http://www.e-advantagesolutions.co.uk/

The difference between good customer care and bad

Today, as they say in footballing circles, has been a day of two halves.

I have received some of the worst customer care ever - and then, to reinforce my faith in human nature (even corporate nature), I had some first class customer care.

The first involved a matter which had been going on for almost a year. OK I have to admit I was responsible for some of the initial delay but after that the company messed it up all by themselves.

This was a case involving some really important issues so the detail on all the paperwork had to be right. It was quite a complex case but on every single piece of paperwork, something was wrong - a name here, an address there. Each time it was pointed out to them, we were promised it would be rectified and each time it was but with the addition of another error.

At one point it seemed almost impossible to believe the catalogue of cock-ups the company was making. It beggared belief in this day and age of the spell check, let alone competence and intelligence. 

Where one or two meetings were needed, five or six had to take place. As a consultant, I should have been charging them for my time!

There was a final fundamental straw which broke this camel's back and I lodged an official complaint. Nearly three months on, I think, and you'd imagine we'd have a written reply to my request for confirmation that the paperwork throughout had been done correctly and we had a full copy of each document.

But no, what I did receive today was a call from a gentleman who had been delightful at the beginning but was now patronising, rude and downright argumentative on the phone. When I pointed out that - ahem - I was the actual client who had paid their fees and (a) I was not happy, (b) I didn't like being spoken to in that manner and (c) as he hadn't been involved after the initial stage and admitted he knew nothing of what had gone on after, he was unqualified to make any comment. He said he was merely ringing up to find out how I was - most strange after nearly a year - and that I had jumped down his throat. As he didn't let me finish any of my sentences, the boot was definitely on the other foot. 

I tried to let him know that as a senior person within the company, he mus surely want to know that the service itself didn't work (thus believing I was putting some other poor soul out of similar misery in the future) but he just wouldn't hear what I was saying. A typical example of a man shouting over a woman, thinking her to be a fool. When I asked who was the principal of the company, he fobbed me off with the name of an administrator, thinking I wouldn't notice. 

A shortsighted move, for sure. Will I refer business to them? No. Will I recommend them? No. Will I ever use them again? No.

The man's answer to me was that the business had increased some six-fold in size. Actually, companies should ensure their base service and capabilities are in place and working perfectly before expanding because if they can't get it right when they're small, what chance do they have when they're bigger?

By comparison, and coming close on the first call's coat sleeves came a call from a large company. This young man had taken our query first thing this morning and needed to pass some information on to another department to get us an answer. He called around midday to say he hadn't been able to get through but he didn't want us to think he wasn't on the ball.

The second call was to tell us he'd been trying all afternoon but as today is an extremely busy day (Cyber Monday - quite understandable), he still had no news for us. He gave us a Plan B and said he'd check on our case first thing in the morning. He was at pains to say how much he wanted to give us great customer care - and it was appreciated.

So, companies of all sizes out there - please note the difference in PR profile, company reputation and downright good sense that can be garnered through your approach to customer service and dare I say it - customer care. Everything will be affected from your shares, your bottom line, your staff to your raison d'etre - your customers.