Garr Barr Group

You are here: Home / Archives for small business technology

By 1 Comment

Small Business Disaster Planning

Last weekend, a tornado touched down within a few miles of my home and home office. No damage to our home but others suffered wind damage, fallen trees, and electrical service interruption. In other news, our nation and world is bracing for an outbreak of H1N1 virus. Wildfires ravaged thousands of acres across the West Coast of the U.S. destroying homes and businesses, causing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

In my local metropolitan area, thousands of homes and businesses are bracing for the threat of floods throughout the Green River Valley this winter as the Army Corps of Engineers is predicting rivers overflowing from damage to the Howard Hanson Dam. Local counties and cities, as well as most large businesses, are preparing for a disaster.

Whereas I don’t get caught up in the fear of these kinds of events, I do think it is prudent to have a business continuity plan in place in the event of an unforeseen emergency. Yes, even for the small office/home office.

A business continuity plan, also called a disaster recovery plan, is defined by www.businessdictionary.com as a “set of documents, instructions, and procedures which enable a business to respond to accidents, disasters, emergencies, and/or threats without any stoppage or hindrance in its key operations.”

In its simplest format, a business continuity plan should include the following information which ought to be communicated to and in the constant possession of all key employees.

• Communication Plan
• Relocation Plan
• Evacuation Plans
• Emergency Supplies
• Vital Records
• Emergency Staffing Plan

Start by developing a Communication Plan. It takes very little time to make preparations that include a list of critical phone numbers of staff, suppliers, customers, local and national disaster assistance centers.

Backing up vital records off-site requires a minor monthly investment and is a must for any business. Web-based backups such as Mozy or Carbonite are my favorite choice for consistent and dependable backup security as there is no hassle required with manual backups, transporting the hard-drives to a safe deposit box offsite, etc. Businesses with more than 5 networked PC’s could consider contracts with Managed Services providers such as CMIT Solutions.

For more thoughts on how to develop a Business Continuity Plan, check the following resources:

http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/index.html
http://www.ready.gov/business/index.html
http://www.score.org/disaster_preparedness.html

If you are a home based business, make sure your business assets are covered in the event of a disaster. Most homeowner’s policies do not cover home-based business losses. For more information about types of home-based business insurance:

http://businessinsure.about.com/od/insuringyourbusiness/a/homebusins.htm

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst!

By Leave a Comment

Reputation Management: Are Negative Reviews Good for Business?

Great read this morning by Matt McGee at Small Business Search Marketing, “Five Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business.” Matt suggests the benefits of negative feedback are:

They create trust.
They provide honest feedback.
They can improve your SEO.
They help you make better business decisions.
They offer a golden opportunity.

Matt’s post calls to mind statistics regarding growth in social media participation by consumers. According to Forrester Research Study (October 2008) on social media adoption, consumers who classify themselves as “critics” (those who contribute to ratings, reviews, blogs, etc) increased by almost 50% over the previous year to 37% of those surveyed. Anecdotally, I suspect the number has increased substantially since then. Many recent studies indicate that between 65 -80% of consumers search the web for local businesses and actively read reviews and ratings as part of their purchase consideration process. Consumers are adopting social media at increasing rates across all categories.

I agree with Matt McGee and recommend the following strategies given trends in consumer behavior:

1. Make engagement a standard part of your marketing plan. Develop a social marketing plan that encourages your customers to provide feedback. Include tactics as simple as asking a customers to complete surveys or as complex as creating a product information and rating system on your website. The truth is that most reviews are positive so encouraging engagement only serves to improve your online reputation and customer loyalty.

2. Develop a web presence on social platforms where your customers hang out. If your target customer is on Facebook, create a Fan Page and develop a plan to engage them there. If your customer is on LinkedIn or Myspace, engage them there.

3. Create a pro-active communications plan to address the customer feedback. I recommend my clients use a simple decision tree process. Include decision points to handle situations such as :

a. Customers with verifiable complaints
b. Competitors planting negative feedback
c. Customers with incomplete information or distorted versions of the truth
d. Customers with positive feedback

Matt McGee is correct in suggesting negative reviews provide an opportunity to improve your operations. The beauty of social technologies is that they place inexpensive tools into the hands of a small business owner to form a more personal customer relationship. The functions of these tools play right into the strengths of small businesses that are already heads and shoulders above large organizations in personalizing the customer experience. Responding to the negative feedback in a positive way demonstrates your commitment to the customer and your desire to improve their experience with your business.

Would you rather use negative feedback to improve your operations and service or lose a customer without knowing why?

By Leave a Comment

Is your Brand Boring?

In my last blog post, I talked about how many social media efforts fail to bring profit because the small business does not ask the customers how and where they want to engage with their brand. Does your customer want to be a part of a community? A Facebook page? A blog? A Twitter follower? What is in it for them to engage with your business on one of those platforms?

Check out this blog post from Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research that I ran across this morning. It suggests your social marketing strategy must consider whether your brand is a “boring” brand or a”talkable” brand. Combining your knowledge of the type of brand along with the customer’s engagement requirements leads you to a better social media mix for your business.

For those who are developing a social marketing strategy for your small business, I highly recommend you subscribe to Josh’s blog. I further recommend you read “groundswell” by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. The book gives a great overview of social technologies, statistics, and case studies of companies who are winning the social marketing game. The case studies are primarily for larger companies and brands but you are certain to find great inspiration for implementing social marketing programs in your business.

By 1 Comment

What About the Customer Experience?

No, I did not abandon my blog series! Pneumonia struck me in April and it took a few weeks to recover but I am back to my full schedule. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern!

This is the third installment in my ten part series regarding the biggest mistakes small businesses make when it comes to implementing social media technologies. Mistake # 3 – many small businesses forget to develop and implement a participation marketing strategy that engages the customer and enhances the brand message at every stage of the customer experience.

Traditional marketing and advertising programs focus upon creating awareness via a variety of shout techniques: advertising, promotions, public relations, etc. The concept is that the more the prospect hears your message, the more they trust you and the more inclined they are to buy. But social technologies empower the prospect in ways unseen until this time. Most people research your name and your brand on the web before they make a purchase decisions. Most prospects consider ratings and reviews as influential in their purchase decisions. For you to be successful with social technologies, you must have a marketing strategy that creates awareness, educates the prospect through consideration and preference, encouragers purchase, and ultimately fosters loyalty.

Awareness: You may have a Facebook page and a website and a twitter account. Are you using these platforms as a way to engage in 2-way conversation or are you simply sending status updates all day long? Again, are you taking traditional shout marketing and transferring it to the web? Expect to be blocked and dropped from friend’s lists. Try joining groups and twitter chats. Provide value in the conversation so your readers want to know more about you.

Consideration: By this point, you are connected in some way. They know your name and may consider buying from you. Your target prospect is a “friend”, or “follower” and they may have actually subscribed to your newsletter. Again, making connections is not good enough if all you are going to do is send sales messages all day long. Ask questions. Create surveys and ask your readership for feedback. See who is following your competitors and who the influencers are for your industry. Befriend them and engage them. Determine what kind of information and content you can provide to help them make a purchase decision. Educate them with product information.

Preference: Follow-up on your conversations. Thank them for their ideas. “I enjoyed your participation in this class or this tweetchat.” Comment on their blogs. Send them bookmarks and articles that provide value, content created by yourself or others. Your prospect has given you permission to begin a conversation so inform them about ratings and rankings. Let them know what others are saying about your company and brand. Follow-up on prior conversations.

Purchase: Ask for feedback on the purchase process. How do you like our product? How has using the product been for you? What uses have you found for the product that we did not consider? Consider a targeted promotion for the customer asking for their feedback and providing a discount on one future purchase. Ask them to join your loyalty program!

Loyalty: At this stage, the customer is a fan. Whether they purchase from you or not, you want create campaigns that encourage them to make future purchases and refer others to your brand. Develop a loyalty program that provides customers increased value for engaging with you as a member or affiliate. Their value to your business increases as they refer you to others and become a repeat purchaser – make it worth their while. Continue to survey. How is the brand working for you? Target promotions for loyalty members only. Create an affiliate awards program. Encourage them to write online reviews. Ask them to join a focus group, a collaboration team to develop new products. Create communities and engage the membership! Remember their birthdays and anniversaries or provide other personal promotions.

Keep in mind all the systems and processes of your business that touch the customer experience from pre-sale awareness campaigns through point of sale emails and communication and finally through distribution and reflect a consistent brand message at every customer touch-point. At every stage, ask the question – how can I provide value? Better yet, ask your customer.

By Leave a Comment

Ignoring the Trends?

This is the second entry of our series Mistakes Small Businesses Make Preventing Web Profitability.

As fate would have it, I came across a terrific blog post this morning by Gerd Leonhard of Media Futurist describing the 8 Key Trends he sees regarding the future of new media. As I describe in my upcoming webinar “They ARE Talking About You”, many small businesses are ignoring the rising trends in technology that can help them leverage their brand to new sales channels using social media tools. One of the biggest trends that should not be ignored is the significant functionality and value provided by this technology for free or for unbelievably low fees.

I think Gerd Leonhard does a great job of describing the future of ubiquitous communications and its impact on media. Small business owners would be wise to become educated about the groundswell of changes in technology and revise their business strategy to take advantage of the opportunity these trends provide for them. The winners will be those who acknowledge the trends and ask “how can I add value?” to new and existing customers within these new markets.

What do you think? Is your small business crafting a customer experience across your offline and your online sales channels that profitably leverages the use of pervasive communications and your customers need to participate with your brand?

Let’s Talk!

We'd love to hear from you! Please send questions or comments via email to admin@garrbarr.com

Social

Follow Garr Barr Group: