Framing Big Data, part 1 of 2

If you have two sets of researchers who are telling you contradictory things, and they have their own data sets to support it; how do you tell which one is believable and which one is junk. In Numbersense, what I try to do is to give people, as you say, a framework to start thinking about how you would interpret all these things out there.

…says Kaiser Fung, author of a new book, Numbersense a previous book, Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do and the popular blog, Junk Charts. Kaiser Fung is a professional statistician with over a decade of experience applying statistical methods to marketing and advertising businesses. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, in addition to degrees from Princeton and Cambridge Universities. He is Vice President of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Vimeo, a high-quality video hosting platform for creative people. He previously worked at Sirius XM Radio, American Express, [X+1], Exodus Communications, and Sonus Networks. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University teaching practical statistics.

This is the first of two podcasts with Kaiser. The second one will post next week.

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Overcoming Sales Resistance with SOAR

The traditional marketing funnel built on a theory of manipulation is gone (Kill the Sales and Marketing Funnel). In this recent blog post, I discussed the Lean Marketing: 2-Step Marketing Funnel and how you are either marketing or selling. Evidence enough that it is becoming widely accepted that 70% of the customer decision is already formed before you are invited into the customer’s decision process. This fact gets quoted so much; some people are tired of talking about it! Does that make selling outdated, in my opinion, it has never been more important. The difference is that it has changed.

In this blog post, I am going to concentrate on after the invitation has been received. You are fortunate to be one of the selected few to participate. There only really two different scenarios, you are either the preferred choice or you have been selected to re-confirm the preferred choice. These two choices break down into an immediate purchase environment which I will call the micro-level or the macro-level where it may be a large sale or a B2B environment, or my be better defined by a longer sales cycle.

On a micro-level, if you have been selected, you may be thinking that when you are invited that it is time to prepare your position and be ready to give it your best shot. Even in a short sales cycle, you may have to develop trust before someone buys from you. The definition that I use is from Covey (Taken from one of my favorite sales books: Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship ) that states Trust = Intent + Expertise. If we lead with our expertise first, which most of us do, we typically end up creating a low-level of trust. So solidifying your intent is something that you must do as a salesperson.

At the macro-level (not just for one purchase) it is looking at the opportunity to develop a relationship, more often seen in B2B sales. By asking a few questions you can often tell if you are the favorite going in. The importance is not selling but discovering the true intention and any undiscovered needs the client may have. It is not a matter of just finding out their needs because if you are not the favorite that will just confirm the original choice.

If you try to problem solve, it is much more difficult to develop trust. Often times, even the customer will accelerate the conversation to a solution. Don’t try to change them; it is a very difficult to do and you may not have the time to do it. A more attractive method is through the use of Appreciative Inquiry and more specifically leading with SOAR. It is a strength-based approach. SOAR allows you to lead with the positive side of the issues and many times you will often discover more. The SOAR framework outlined:

• Strengths: External and Internal to organization; what can be built on? How are present strengths used to get results? How do these strengths fit with realities?
• Opportunities: What are the external and internal stakeholders asking for? What existing skills exist to deliver?
• Aspirations: What do external and internal stakeholders care about most? What is the most compelling aspiration?
• Results: How will success be measured? What resources can be utilized? What are the best rewards?

Recommended Book: The Thin Book of SOAR; Building Strengths-Based Strategy

I think you will find a strength-based approach when you are not the preferred choice; quite a differentiator. The “intent” is to help them prioritize what is important. If it plays into your wheelhouse, you are in luck.

If you are the preferred choice, your mission would be to move the decision along. Besides competitors, there are many other internal and even external influences that could postpone or eliminate the purchase. I am not saying to force the decision but to make sure that you remove the barriers preventing the decision to take place.

In the book, Conversations That Win the Complex Sale , they show a Venn diagram that discusses the value parity and ask you to focus on where you are different from your competitor. I sort of agree with them. However, I believe the value differentiation is getting smaller and smaller for companies. The process methodology thinking of Faster, Better, Cheaper has become so commonplace it is no longer a game changer. It is value parity. Most of us recognize the game changer as innovation.

Or is it? Can we out innovate all the competition? How long does an innovation keep us ahead of the curve? Does our customer always want the latest and greatest? I would imagine all of our customers are not early adaptors; I would imagine most of them are in the middle part of the curve.

Everyone is Faster, Better; Cheaper and Innovation has less of an effect on the decision.

Tomorrow’s Blog Post: Sales to the rescue!

Should Innovation be driven by Capabilities?

Innovating in services is the escape route from the commodity trap and a solution for growth, giving firms a significant competitive advantage. As they innovate into the future, companies must think beyond their products and move outside their own four walls to innovate. –says Henry Chesbrough’s, author Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era.

I am a firm believer that Standard Work is the 1st step of innovation followed closely by continuous improvement. Detailed in the blog post, The Lean Innovation Engine–Turn the Key. In summary:

• SDCA: Standard Work that creates a CAN-DO attitude and free up time to spark problem solving.
• Applying PDCA, allows you to “see” opportunities for improvement.
• A Continuous Improvement Culture (Kaizen) catalyzes the creation of stimulating habitats, leveraging the resources in your environment.
• These habitats, along with your attitude, influence the culture in your community (The Customer Experience will mimic the Employee Experience).
• The culture allows for EDCA and the BIG “I” of innovation.

So it is our culture that allows for effective innovation. Why do we believe that out of the box thinking drives the innovation engine. Seldom are we short of great ideas. We are short of the capabilities to deliver on the great ideas. But we proceed and make choices on what we need to “innovate” without this understanding.

In the The Lean Startup, we discuss the idea of the Pivot (a way to adapt and adjust before it’s too late). Many pivots may take place not because of improper product/market fit, but because we lack the capabilities of moving forward  with the idea. Even in mature companies, if our capabilities are not matched to the innovation, we may disband the idea (I think that is one of the values that can be derived through Osterwalder and Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas described in the book, Business Model Generation).

In most of my improvement engagements, I start with a current state map of someone’s existing process. We utilize the Business Model Canvas and future state mapping to “design” the new innovation. We will map out the process first, assigning the resources as needed. This normally exposes our weaknesses and highlights the additional training and outside resources that may be needed. We continue down this path, but why?

Should we consider, internalizing more of the “design” process? Would that help us to better understand the solution that we can design for the customer? Would it allow us to better utilize our existing resources? Would it allow us a better chance of delivery? Would it create a better ROI?

We hear a lot about change and change management but is evolutionary change better for us than disruptive change? Can we have disruptive innovation without disruptive internal change? Will we have any innovation implemented without a thorough understanding of our existing capabilities? I wonder.

What type of thinking solves dilemmas?

• What if there are conflicting requirements that ensure that you will be wrong?
• What if you have to pay an extortionist or suffer the loss of someone?
• What if you have to make a choice between resources, fairness, payment?
• What if your choice becomes take it or leave it? 
• What if your choice only have bad results?
• What is your choice is giving money to your child or withholding it to make them become responsible?
• What is more important a short term gain or a long term benefit?

You are just between a rock and a hard place, technically called a dilemma. It is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is acceptable. The simple fact; we face more dilemmas than we care to admit. And most of the time they go unsolved.

One of the best tools that I have run across in handling dilemmas is Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Evaporating Cloud, which is also referred to as The Conflict Resolution Diagram. It was developed to find a solution between two opposing points of view trying to reach the same point of view. You can get dig a little deeper by going into  the other Thinking Processes of the Theory of Constraints. (Check out the Business901 podcast with Bill Dettmer).

Another method for handling dilemmas is The Cynefin Framework. It allows executives to see things from new viewpoints, assimilate complex concepts, and address real-world problems and opportunities. Using the Cynefin framework can help executives sense which context they are in so that they can not only make better decisions but also avoid the problems that arise when their preferred management style causes them to make mistakes. You may also want to view, Using Cynefin for a Lean Transformation.

Does Lean thinking prevail; can I go through the seven step problem solving process of an A3 and find root cause? Can I effectively create counter measures for a dilemma? Is everything black and white? I struggled with a few of these thoughts and always justified my thinking by saying that I was achieving the best possible solution and applying a countermeasure to it. If it did not work, we would go through another  learning cycle, PDCA.

Design Thinking practices seem to embrace dilemmas. They might even try to create them. I use the term EDCA learned from Graham Hill  to designate the Explore aspect of Lean.  I view it as more of Design Type thinking concept that allows for more creative or productive type thinking (When Lean Thinking is not enough!). When you are dealing with a high degree of uncertainty, I believe there still needs to be a process in place. If not, you may end up fighting the process versus working on the problem.

One of my favorite authors is Alex Lowy. He has authored The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix and No Problem (which is the basis for my outline below). Alex outlines a method for managing dilemmas.

1. Map Symptoms: What are the effects of the dilemma? Dilemmas tend to be messy and difficult to define. It often helps to begin at the end by looking at the consequences or symptoms of the dilemma. Identify symptomatic patterns to define the underlying dilemma.
2. Identify the Core Dilemma: What is the core dilemma? This is very challenging and he recommends two steps: Generation of trial dilemmas applying symptoms, metaphors and brainstorming to identify aspects of the dilemma and synthesis by making sense of material by naming, testing and constructing scenarios.
3. Analyze, Model and Redefine using the Archetypal Dilemmas: What else is going on here? He cautions that when we get to the core dilemma that it is harder to think creatively and see new options. He defines eight recurring archetypal patterns of dilemmas and by applying the archetypes to the core dilemma; you gain new insights that advance understanding and progress.
4. Resolve Gaps: What need to change so that we can successfully handle the core dilemma? He discusses the change and development gaps that need to be managed; social and technical.
5. Plan and Implement: How do I ensure successful follow-through? Implementation is easier if you have a plan that everyone supports. He forewarns that most change in dilemmas do not happened immediately.

I found Alex’s approach is very understandable and comfortable to use. He turns the process into solving through his specialty of a 2 x 2 matrix but that is ok, I like matrixes.  Next time you are stuck between a rock and hard place, No Problem may be you answer. 

When Lean Thinking is not enough!

When are Lean Thinking, A3 Problem Solving, PDCA, Kaizen and Continuous Improvement not enough? There is actually a time when considering small incremental improvements are the wrong thing to do.

When you are dealing with a high degree of uncertainty, there still needs to be a process in place. If not, you may end up fighting the process versus working on the problem. I am not sure where I heard this but it is worth repeating here: “How many good ideas have you lost because of a poor plan?”

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) tries to solve some of these problems but it is a fairly laborious process for the most of us. I came across a book by Tim Hurson recently, Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking that I thought was well written and the examples in it make implementing the process described quite simple.

I created a quick PowerPoint to walk someone through the process.

When Lean Thinking is Not Enough!

View more presentations from Business901

An excerpt from an Amazon review:

I'll admit to being a bit jaded, and the first few sections of the book offer more of a history lesson about innovation and innovative thinking than I felt necessary, but for those approaching the topic for the first time, the concepts of the monkey mind and gator brain are compelling, since they demonstrate that our current methods of thinking avoid risk and most often simply react to threats or patterns. The book starts to get really interesting in the fourth chapter, which deals with resisting the urge to quickly arrive at an answer. Instead, the book encourages us to "Stay with the Question". In his approach, Hurson sucks us in, peeling the onion a little at a time and getting agreement, till we are in violent agreement that we must change drastically. Then he rolls out section three of his book, which outlines a process for creative and innovative thinking, supported by a number of simple but powerful tools.

The phases describe a method to generate better ideas, use some divergent then convergent thinking to stretch them, then move on to evaluate and determine which ideas should be considered for evaluation. What I also like is that he adds a step for deciding actions and assigning resources. Too often we get excited about selecting ideas for further investigation without determining and identifying the resources and plans necessary for the critical next steps. Along this process he introduces a number of tools: the I-cube or the C-5 or the DRIVE model, all of which are relatively easy to use and bring shape and focus around thinking and decision making that traditionally has been very subjective.

Related Information:
In love with your products more than your customers?
Using the wrong set of 5 whys in problem solving
SALES PDCA Framework for Lean Sales and Marketing
If all of us need to be marketers, what’s the framework?

Using the wrong set of 5 whys in problem solving

Do you try to quickly to get to why? The purpose of most questioning is to stimulate reflective thinking by probing for needs and concerns. Instead of probing with the 5 why’s try a more subtle approach or architecture for your sales and marketing.

In the paper, The Art and Architecture of Powerful Questions by Eric Vogt, he states that most groups working on this dimension of linguistic architecture produce a variant of the following general hierarchy.

The general thesis is that virtually any question can be converted into a more powerful question by moving up the pyramid. As an example, consider the following sequence:

1. Are you feeling okay?
2. Where does it hurt?
3. How are you feeling in general?
4. Why do you suppose you aren't feeling well?

As we move from the simple yes/no question towards the why question, you probably notice that the questions tend to motivate more reflective thinking, and are generally more "powerful.

There are refinements within this dimension of linguistic architecture available to an interested practitioner. For instance, using the conditional tense rather than the present tense will often invite greater reflective speculation:

• What can we do?

seems to offer fewer possibilities than...

• What could we do?

I like this architecture because Why is too powerful of a question to start with. Toyota’s, seven step “Practical Problem Solving Process” model encourages you to stay away from why till the fourth step.

1. Initial problem perception
2. Clarify the problem
3. Locate area or point of concern
4. Investigate root cause (5 Whys)
5. Countermeasure
6. Evaluate
7. Standardize

They actually follow a similar architecture depicted in the triangle above. They used simple closed ended questions to identify and clarify the problem and then locate the area of concern though the 5 whys. Not the 5 Whys of root cause, but the 5 whys of When, Who, Where, Which and What.

The power of the first 5 whys is where the true power of discovery lies. It is the focusing step that provides clarity and provides the basis for agreement. Without these steps irrelevant information may be acted upon and finding agreement on root cause may be difficult. Effective action can only follow clear thinking. Providing a consensus on the point of concern before moving to root cause is imperative.

In the paper cited, author Eric Vogt goes on to state:

The dialogue group concluded that clearly one dimension which defines a

powerful question is this linguistic architecture. However, other factors are also at play when we consider the relative power of the following two questions:

1. Why is my coat unbuttoned?
2. Where can we find spiritual peace?

This is an instance where most people would say that the "where" question has somewhat greater power than the "why" question. After reflection, we hypothesized that there were probably three dimensions which define a powerful question: Architecture, Context and Scope.”

The paper is a short and easy read and I encourage you read it in full.

Related Information:
Problem Solving – Think 3, Not 5
Pair Problem Solving in the Workplace
Problem Solving really the Core of Lean Implementation
Quit Brainstorming and start Q-Storming®

Visit the Marketing with A3Website

Can anyone truly understand and empathize with another?

By leading the Americans in his audience at TEDxPSU step by step through the thought process, sociologist Sam Richards sets an extraordinary challenge: can they understand -- not approve of, but understand -- the motivations of an Iraqi insurgent? And by extension, can anyone truly understand and empathize with another?

This is very powerful video but my use of it is not to encourage any agreement in the messages that are presented but one of the big picture message that Sam Richards is trying to portray, understanding others!

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.

Related Information:
Changing the shape of your marketing funnel!
Does the Juran Trilogy = PDCA?
Keeping it all together with Personal Kanban
7 Habits, Getting Things Done and now, Personal Kanban
Understanding Complexity utilizing Cynefin

Understanding Complexity utilizing Cynefin

The Cynefin framework draws on research into complex adaptive systems theory, cognitive science, anthropology and narrative patterns, as well as evolutionary psychology. It "explores the relationship between man, experience and context"^[1] and proposes new approaches to communication, decision-making, policy-making and knowledge management in complex social environments – From Wikpedia

Mark Schenk from Anecdote uses Pecha Kucha format to describe complexity using the Cynefin framework.

More information from Wikpedia: The Cynefin framework was originally developed in 1999 in the context of knowledge management and organizational strategy by Dave Snowden. It was originally a modification of Max Boisot's I-Space combined with the study of actual, as opposed to stated management practice in IBM. By 2002 It had developed to include complex adaptive systems theory and had started to become a general strategy model. From 2003 it was the further developed and elaborated with Cynthia Kurtz as a part of their work with the IBM Institute of Knowledge Management and with other colleagues in Cognitive Edge formed by Snowden when he left IBM in 2005.

The Cynefin framework has five domains. The first four domains are:

• Simple, in which the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the approach is to Sense - Categorize - Respond and we can apply best practice.
• Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond and we can apply good practice.
• Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
• Chaotic, in which there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel practice.

The fifth domain is Disorder, which is the state of not knowing what type of causality exists, in which state people will revert to their own comfort zone in making a decision. In full use, the Cynefin framework has sub-domains, and the boundary between simple and chaotic is seen as a catastrophic one: complacency leads to failure.

Knowledge Creation will be the barometer of future success. From a personal standpoint, I have become intrigued by the Cynefin Framework. It seems to be a step beyond your more traditional knowledge management practices. If this is true, will it give me a leg up on others?

Related Posts:
The Marketing Knowledge Spiral
PDCA Cycle introduction to Lean Marketing
Future Framework for Understanding your Customers
Profound knowledge for Lean Marketing
Value Stream Mapping your Sales Team

Recommended Resources for Lean A3 Thinking

My new eBook, Marketing with A3 utilizes A3 thinking and enables you to apply a systematic method of problem solving to your marketing and sales. If you want to learn more about the A3 thinking process, this is my recommended list. There is little duplication of material between these resources and I think you will benefit from each and everyone of them. Tracey’s Business901 podcast on the Lean Problem Solving was excellent and would recommend you would start there.

In Understanding A3 Thinking, the authors first show that the A3 report is an effective tool when it is implemented in conjunction with a PDCA-based management philosophy. Toyota views A3 Reports as just one piece in their PDCA management approach. Second, the authors show that the process leading to the development and management of A3 reports is at least as important as the reports themselves, because of the deep learning and professional development that occurs in the process. And finally, the authors provide a number of examples as well as some very practical advice on how to write and review A3 reports.

Managing to Learn by Toyota veteran John Shook, reveals the thinking underlying the vital A3 management process at the heart of lean management and lean leadership. Constructed as a dialogue between a manager and his boss, the book explains how A3 thinking helps managers and executives identify, frame, and then act on problems and challenges. Shook calls this approach, which is captured in the simple structure of an A3 report, the key to Toyota's entire system of developing talent and continually deepening its knowledge and capabilities. The A3 Report is a Toyota-pioneered practice of getting the problem, the analysis, the corrective actions, and the action plan down on a single sheet of large (A3) paper, often with the use of graphics.

The One-Page Project Manager set a new standard as an understandable and easy-to-apply organizational tool, allowing managers to summarize complex projects on a single information-rich page. This book, third in the OPPM series, describes how to combine the OPPM with the Toyota A3 report to create an enhanced, integrated management tool.

The A3 Workbook: Unlock Your Problem-Solving Mind is designed to teach A3 Problem Solving to workers at every level of an organization. This workbook provides a practical tool for solving specific problems or for making a specific proposal, while also encouraging the development of a corporate culture that empowers all employees to support continuous improvement. The workbook follows the progression of a basic A3 Problem Solving format, offering instructions every step of the way.

Podcast on Lean Problem Solving: Is Problem Solving the Core of Lean Implementation?

Related Topics:
Starting with Lean A3 Thinking in Marketing
Introduction to Marketing with A3
The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota
Best Marketing Advice Ever, yes Ever!
Lean Marketing is a Problem Centric Discipline
Online collaboration is leading the way for Lean Marketing

Marketing with A3 Book Release

Sales and Marketing not only needs to improve but must improve their problem solving skills. The book, Marketing with A3 is the introduction needed. It enables sales and marketing to use the Lean tool of A3 as a template or structured approach for their strategies and tactics. It will also demonstrate meaningful and measurable results of their activities. You will enter meetings armed with facts and profound knowledge of sales and marketing efforts. As a result, you will engage in more meaningful conversations. It will require a different approach. The dialogue is sometimes not easy. But seldom is any improvement.

Using a structured approach, such as the Lean thinking tool of A3, the mind remains open, enabling one to examine each element of the decision or problem separately or systematically, and sufficiently, ensuring that all alternatives are considered. The outcome is almost always more comprehensive and more effective than the instinctive approach.

Visit the Marketing with A3 Website

Sample A3s

A3 Podcasts

A3 Community

A3 Experts

Amazon Links

Rehearsing your next Sales Call, why not?

At the Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't).

Tim Brown is the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, taking an approach to design that digs deeper than the surface. Having taken over from founder David E. Kelley, Tim Brown carries forward the firm's mission of fusing design, business and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas -- they call it "design thinking."

One thing that I have been encouraging lately is role playing. Since we have become a service society our product has become us. Have you ever videotaped or just talked into your webcam to see how you looked and sounded? Technology has made it so easy and  at practically no cost. The benefits of a rehearsal can make all the difference. 

How about role playing an issues they were having with your service team? Getting a few actors from your local college to role play for you could be a lot fun in a training session. Think about developing ways to mimic the problems your customer faces. If nothing else, you could be putting yourself in their shoes – not a bad idea at all!

Related Posts:
Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service
The Disney Way
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Crafting your Storyboard
Converting Storyboarding to Marketing or Value Stream Mapping
Storyboarding for Business

How do you know when you are you not getting your point across?

Do you think that some ground work should have been laid before they got to this discussion. Always remember your biggest challenge in sales is usually clarity.  Make sure your prospects are ready for higher math before taking them there. It’s not their fault for not understanding. It’s yours. Right pop?

Related Posts:
The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota
Best Marketing Advice Ever, yes Ever!
Lean Marketing is a Problem Centric Discipline
Are you focusing on your customers conversations?

Using Theory of constraints to handle Uncertainy in Decision Making

This is a transcription of a podcast I had with noted Theory of Constraints author and expert Eli Schragenheim . Eli as been part of the Theory of Constraints movement practically from the beginning. He started working with Dr. Goldratt as a programmer to program a game for adults that would teach them how to think over 25 years ago. During the podcast we dove into the subject of Uncertainy! A great discussion, that affects our everyday life and how it relates to forecasting and even our intuition.

Uncertainy in Decision Making

He is the author of Management Dilemmas: The Theory of Constraints Approach to Problem Identification and Solutions.  He recently collaborated with William Detmer and Wayne Patterson on the book Supply Chain Management at Warp Speed: Integrating the System from End to End. The new book contains much of the new development of TOC and operations.

You can contact Eli Schrangenheim through his e-mail @ elyakim@netvision.net.il

Related Podcast: Removing Uncertainy in your Decision Making

Business901 Related Information:
Theory of Constraints Roundup
Holistic approach to the Theory of Constraints.
Theory of Constraints Handbook

Cut Customer Service? You'll Lose Customers

Just about every company faces tough choices about how to improve operations in an increasingly tough environment.

Companies need to be careful that short-term cuts don't lead to long-term pain.I've clearly stated my perspective that the worst thing companies can do in the Great disruption is to stop investing in innovation. Companies might think that innovation and survival are discrete choices. They are not. Companies that stop innovating are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

The first was Hertz...

In future posts I'll present some different ways to think about cost cutting that truly allow companies to do more with less, drawing on some of the material that will appear in my forthcoming book The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times.

In the meantime, any other good stories about clear cuts in customer service that have damaged what used to be a great relationship with a company?

Read the rest of this post from Scott Anthony.

I would promote you looking at building a referral program using some creative techniques before cutting service. For a few ideas look at this web page of mine.

Using Great Customer Service as a Differentiator

Over at the Instigator Blog by Ben Yoskovitz he made a good blog on Customer service, read below. However, I would like to add one thing: Many times my screw ups have allowed me to gain business. When I handled the problem to the best of my abilities, people just about always appreciated my efforts and the one that didn't was not necessarily my"ideal client" anyway. Thanks to all that were.

In a “me too” world of easy-to-build and low cost startups, it’s becoming harder and harder to differentiate yourself from the competition. Just think about your potential customers and all the “stuff” they’re getting bombarded with on a regular basis. You might have invented a better mousetrap, but getting that message across isn’t easy.

Andone of the areas where companies (startups and non-startups) continue to fall flat on their faces is customer service and support. It’s amazing to me that so few companies do a great job when it comes to treating customers well and responding to them in a timely and professional manner. To me, that’s basic. It should be a given. But it’s not.

You should look at those continued missteps in customer support as a huge opportunity.

Every company needs to differentiate itself in a crowded market — and one way of doing that is through great customer service.

I’ve always been a huge believer in providing the best possible service you can. And even in our infancy at Standout Jobs it’s paying off. Here’s a couple testimonials from customers:

Honestly,this level of service is really excellent, unexpected, and
of course very welcome. So far, in the 20 minutes since I signed up, I have had a great
experiencewith Standout Jobs and I’ve told 2 people. Well done!

Standout Jobs is great for our recruiting needs. The team’s customer service is second to none. From the outset, everyone has been there for us to make our site and job postings better. I’m most thankful for their continued support. I get more support from Standout Jobs than I ever will from another job site that I’ve already paid thousands of dollars to be on. Thanks for everything, and please don’t ever change who you are!

Afew thoughts about leveraging customer service as a differentiator:

1. Great Customer Support = More Referrals. Happy customers won’t spread the word as much as angry customers, but they still do a great job as your army of sales people. And for a startup (which typically won’t have many, if any, sales people) a wee army of happy customers is a very powerful thing.
2. GreatCustomer Support = More Testimonials. Testimonials and case studies are important for startups, especially those in the B2B SaaS space that need to quickly establish a reputation and level of professionalism that gives prospects a high degree of comfort and increases trust. Companies often think to themselves (of B2B startups), “Are these guys for real? Can they last?” Testimonials, client success stories, etc. help to assuage those concerns.
3. Seta Precedent Early. The best time to implement great customer support is when you first start the company. Make it a policy. Make it standard. Make it part of your culture. It will bleed into everything you and your team does, which is going to lead to better results all around. And once killer customer support is baked into your startup’s DNA, it’s hard to strip out. If you don’t do it early, it’s also much harder to get going later on.
4. SellYour Customer Service. It’s not always easy to sell customer service to customers. Customers tend to be wary of promises in this area, but if great customer support is part of your company’s DNA then find a way to sell it as a value proposition to customers. Make sure your messaging and brand are representative of how important customer service is to your company. Reflect it in everything you do, so that customers don’t feel like you’re simply paying lip service to customer service in order to get their credit card numbers.
5. BeFaster Than Everyone Else. The simplest way to master great customer support is to be fast. You don’t need an army of customer support people to be fast, you need an efficient system with multiple channels for handling inquiries. If you’re doing a B2B Software-as-a-Service startup, I’d recommend that your phone number go right on your site (and prominently.) Setup forums. Use Twitter. Leveraging multiple channels ensures that you’re “everywhere, all the time” communicating with customers the way they want to be communicated with; and you’re doing it at lightening speed. In many cases, being right (i.e. having the perfect answer to a customer’s inquiry) is less important than the speed with which you deliver the response…
6. Thinkof Customer Support as a Profit Center. Too many companies think of customer support as a cost center. (Not dissimilar to HR, but that’s a story for another day!) Done poorly, customer support is absolutely a money sucker. It can very easily be a black hole of crap. And that’s exactly what it is for so many companies. But you can turn it into a profit center by recognizing all the value it brings. And beyond the ancillary value (referrals, leads, testimonials, etc.) you can start to generate direct revenue too. Create enough of a positive vibe with customer support and suddenly it becomes much easier to upsell customers. And think about the dollars that might exist in extended training options you offer customers (especially for B2B companies.)
7. BuildMomentum. You can build momentum with customer service. It has a way of snowballing into more and more success, by increasing referrals, testimonials, goodwill, etc. The momentum can be external and internal. You can have as much buzz about your amazing customer support as you can for your product - that’s totally fine, and a great way of differentiating your startup from the competition!

Startups that launch with no strategy for providing the best customer support possible will find themselves in trouble very quickly.

It’snot expensive or complicated to provide great customer service. But because so few companies do it right, there’s a goldmine of opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

Ten Affordable Small Business Marketing Ideas : Virtual Small Business Marketing Support

Just a few thoughts that you may have even thought about, but have you done them??

Ten Affordable Small Business Marketing Ideas : Virtual Small Business Marketing Support

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The power of problem statements

This is from the QSB Newsletter. They have good project management tips every month and this one seems fitting for a lot of us. Six Sigma or not!

A problem statement is a short but concise description of a problem. In just 2-3 sentences, a problem statement should describe, in simple language, what the problem is, how often it happens and how serious the problem is for the business.

Sounds easy? Well, in reality, project teams often find it quite difficult to reach agreement on what the problem is. Even when a team appears to share the same view on the problem, differences in opinion can surface when the team try to summarise the problem into a short statement of 2-3 sentences.

So, problem statements help to develop a shared vision within the project team. In addition, they also help to gain consensus between the project sponsor and the project team, since a problem statement is a critical part of a project charter - signed off at the end of the Define phase. In summary, the power of problem statements lies in the fact that they force the team to sit down, discuss and understand the problem, before everyone rushes off in different directions trying to solve it!