Social media has given your business an opportunity to talk to your customers as if they were sitting right beside you.
Answering concerns, addressing new promotions, and appreciating your returning and future customers are the name of the game. Conversational marketing allows you to get up close and personal with the people that fuel the success of your organization.
As is the case with the message in every conversation, there may be noise (or interference), an incorrect channel or possible miscommunication as you try to deliver your message. Whether the noise signifies your customer service line being busy or ringing without an answer, the incorrect channel being trying to reach teenagers via the newspaper, or miscommunication through mistyped event information or incorrectly hitting the caps in a way that could REALLY confuse your audience, it takes a significant amount of discipline to be able to listen and lead in a manner that will strengthen the relationship with your customer.
Luckily for us, that’s what they train us to do here at Incept. All of us. From the Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) to the Conversational Quality Managers (CQMs), we all listen between the words for missed opportunities and ways to strengthen relationships.
I’m sure we all remember back in high school, as soon as students started “clique-ing up,” that people were going to begin talking about you. With or without you. It was quite possibly the birthplace of gossip and rumors. Sometimes, this can work in your favor, especially when someone gossips that you excel in a certain area that many may not know. However, more often than not, the conversations refer to something negative, usually never fact-based and very heavily opinionated with each passing messenger. This not only defines our culture, but it will also take place in defining your organization. It’s a heck of a lot easier for me to tweet the great or terrible customer service I had (sharing it with hundreds of people) than to answer a customer service survey (sharing it only with that hidden part of the organization).
People want to share stories, knowledge, facts, tips, how-to’s and opinions with others that will understand and most likely appreciate it the most: other customers. I can personally say that the first time I went to the A-1 Japan Steakhouse near work, I told everyone in my family how amazing the food was, with generous portions and a substantially lower cost than the other local hibachi restaurants. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when I returned again, this time with four additional members of my family in tow, ready to see and experience this customer service extravaganza for themselves. Add that I posted about it on my Facebook page and Twitter account and the number of people who may have been impacted by my opinion could be much larger than even I am aware.
That means just through my personal opinion of this experience, I may have impacted the fluctuation and likelihood of their customers in the future. The same goes for amusement parks, hospitals, photographers, schools, vehicles, movies and even blood centers and blood donations. As a matter of fact, it’s especially applicable to blood donations. With such a large portion of the population unable to donate – and with only a small percentage of the total actually donating – any bad experience a donor may have with a phlebotomist or the blood center can have a substantial impact on future donations should their concerns go unaddressed.
All right, so what’s the key to all this?
That’s easy. Become a part of the conversation. Immerse yourself within the opinions of your customers and be there to respond to their issues, questions and concerns. You will be amazed at just how beneficially you can impact someone when you take the time to show that you truly care about their satisfaction with your organization. This rings especially true for businesses and organizations who are often categorized as part of non-customer-caring corporate America. Develop an online presence, become a part of the conversation going on around you, and show your customers that you are taking charge of any evolving method of conversational communication to ensure that all of their issues are resolved.
What would it take for you to become a part of the conversations that are happening without you?
We’ve all had those moments.
You spend ten minutes talking to someone – maybe a family 
member or loved one – and after the conversation is done and you go your separate ways, you have no idea what you’ve just discussed!
It can be really frustrating to be on the receiving end of someone’s selective hearing. Believe it or not, it’s not the listener deliberately ignoring you, nor is there something wrong with their hearing. The human brain is great at sorting out unimportant information, including sounds. It’s all about what your brain determines is a priority.
What are some good ways to improve your listening skills, you ask? Here are some suggestions on how to become a better listener:
- Make eye contact. It may seem odd, but looking someone in the eyes when they’re talking to you really helps you stay focused. Not only that, it also lets the speaker know you’re paying attention.
- Turn off other distractions. It’s horribly easy to stop listening to someone when the TV or radio is playing in the room. Try turning off those unnecessary distractions or putting away the papers you were reading. You’ll be surprised at how well it helps you focus.
- Don’t talk when they’re interrupting. This trick might be the hardest to master. Nothing is more frustrating than being interrupted when you’re trying to speak, so be courteous and don’t interrupt the person you’re speaking with. Calmly let them finish what they wanted to say, acknowledge it, then say your piece.
- Repeat key parts back to them. It may sound silly, but by repeating back important info, you help yourself remember what was said and let the other person know you heard them. Ask questions too. They’ll help clarify things and will, once again, let the speaker know you’re concentrating on what they have to say.
- Want to listen. I know. I know. We may not be interested in hearing the play-by-play of a friend’s or spouse’s entire work day or latest hobby, but it’s obviously important to them, otherwise they wouldn’t tell us about it. You don’t have to be as enthusiastic as they are, but be interested just the same. Being supportive and listening shows that you care and can help strengthen relationships regardless of whether it’s a loved one speaking or a client.
It can be tough, but by practicing better listening skills, you’ll improve relationships both in the workplace and in your personal life. Who knows? Maybe other people will try a little active listening too!
Taking the advice of my superiors has always been something etched into the very fabric of my being.
When I was able to shift up from a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) to a Conversational Quality Coach, the need to pay careful attention to said advice grew exponentially. Creating an entire Online Conversational Results division has been a very rewarding challenge, as we continue to meet and chisel out different approaches and methods of our continued success. Now, as Dave said in his ‘How You Can Get Better‘ series, it’s time for our team to set the bar once again through improvements to our current processes.
Nate Riggs was the one who originally told me that “you don’t need to work harder, just work smarter.” There might not be an easy way to do something, but there is more often than not an easier way of doing something. For example, when producing the videos for Incept – be it a Highest Performer video, CME Spotlight, spontaneous video or highly produced project – the backbone of any video is the footage itself. Music beds and title slides are great for extra production enhancement, but, for content engineering, more video is better. People will not remember the music you had in the background as much as they will the message that was being delivered. Remember that. It will save you time without having to cut corners on what matters the most within video production.
This also holds true when it comes to our case study listening reports. As we avidly work toward documenting different analytics from tweetstats, Klout and Tap11 – to display how an organization uses their social networks and ways they could use them more effectively – we continue to sharpen our skills on applying the same concepts. Knowing what days have the most engagement, what content drives the most engagement and when to balance the delivery of that content will be able to save us the time of doing “everything,” instead allowing us to focus on delivering the best material at the best time. Essentially, we are going to be able to maintain the same steady increase in our active fan base, engagement, likes and content sharing while doing less work by weeding out the content that truly doesn’t drive a response and enhancing the content that does.
Many of our CMEs on the contact center floor are very eager to see what it is like on the inside of the “new marketing division” of Incept, where the reins of the company’s social media presence are held. So, by allowing them to become a part of our company and the presence our organization maintains in the online world, they not only help us continue to deliver new content but also embody “who we are.”
We always had our logo as the profile picture on our page, until two CMEs suggested we let other CMEs pose in front of the logo and have a new one each week. Now, we have the same logo, but it’s also tagged on that CME’s page so that their family and friends can now engage with them (and us). This is just another way we highlight the individuals that create content for Incept.
Also, many of our CMEs enjoy writing. So much so, that they have been volunteering to share stories and write their perspective of what it’s like being a blood donor recruiter. Jeff Wein has written a blog post for us on his experience as a CME in blood donor recruiting – even during 
code calling – that has given him the opportunity to become a contributor on our blog, have his picture taken and share his contribution with his family and friends. We can now use the time it would have taken to establish a guest post on any given day and utilize it in another area of content creation and management.
The thing about “working smarter, not harder” is that you will initially want to work harder at working smarter. This can become a rather confusing situation! However, continuously looking for ways to improve, listening carefully to the advice given, taking constructive criticism sincerely and engaging others in the work your doing has the ability to create a system of fluid content management.
So how do you plan on working smarter, not harder?
Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Thanksgiving! This is the time of year to reflect back on all you truly have to be thankful for. While you are enjoying this day with your friends and family, remember to take the time and say thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving and thank you from Incept!
Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Incept!
Welcome to Your Values - Population: You
I am made up of my belief in the following values:
- A softness of heart
- Compassion
- Cooperation
- Creativity
- Dedication
- Friendship
- Generosity
- Honor
- Humbleness
- Humility
- Humor
- Integrity
- Kindness
- Loyalty
- Persistence
- Personal growth
- Pride
- Relentlessness
- Respect
- Teamwork
It might seem like a waste of time to define what beliefs your personality is based on, but you should try it. While you do, I challenge you to take an honest look at each value and ask yourself if you really live by it.
Be honest with yourself, and you might learn a thing or two about how you live your life.
So… what is the power of a thank you?
I want to take a minute to walk through the idea behind our appreciation segment and specifically discuss thank-you calls. After all, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. What better time than now to think about giving thanks to the donors that ensure you, as a blood center, can supply hospitals and, ultimately, patients with the blood and blood products they need?
Instinctively, we at Incept always knew that placing a next-day, follow-up thank-you call was “good business.” How good, you ask? Well, we sought results from several blood centers across the country to find out just what kind of impact these calls were making.
The results are pretty powerful. Blood centers making next-day thank-you calls to every single donor (including on-site deferrals and QNSs) have an average conversion rate that is 8% higher than those who do not make the same calls. Similarly, those blood centers making next-day, follow-up thank-you calls average a 10% higher show rate!
As a test, increase your current conversion rate by 8% and your show rate by 10%. How many more units per month does that mean for your blood center? I think you’ll find that when compared to incentives and promotions, a next-day thank-you call will statistically beat anything you’ve tried previously and strengthen your relationship with your donors, ensuring a long-term partnership.
Give thanks in a special way this Thanksgiving!
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Knowledge is power.
As humans, we tend to impose an almost instant, negative apprehension of the unknown. The less we tend to know about a certain something or situation, the more likely it is we are to be afraid of or simply just not care about it.
As an Incept CME, I keep many people as active parts of their local blood donor communities and programs. Recently, I had an interesting experience reactivating a fellow blood donor and had two great conversations with a man named Fredrick from Pennsylvania.
Fredrick was a man who had donated in his time with the military, but since moving to his new residence, had never donated blood in his area. After introducing who I was, Fredrick told me he’d like to donate blood, but just didn’t know of a drive that was convenient for where he lived. He also did not know if he could donate blood due to recently being diagnosed with diabetes.
After listening to the needs and concerns that Fredrick brought up, I informed him that despite his circumstances (even being diabetic), he was still eligible to donate. We were also able to find him a blood drive that was quite conveniently located. It turned out the blood drive I scheduled Fredrick for was located at the church two houses down.
Funny thing is I actually ended up speaking to Fredrick a few weeks later while calling to thank him for donating. We got to talking about how his blood donation went and the thing that stuck out the most was him saying, “I wanted to get back into donating, I just never knew a place to go!”
The above is just an extremely brief example of reactivating a blood donor. Most times, the only thing people need to donate is a little information on where to go and to simply be asked!
When is knowledge power? In what other circumstances does it help to be informative?
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
In “The Growth of a CME,” Brian Dodson’s post on Incept’s blog, he reviewed what he has learned since becoming a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) at Incept. Along the same vein, I’m going to summarize my own experience since coming to Incept, specifically my growth as an iCME (Internet Conversational Marketing Expert).
Here’s what I’ve learned in the past three months as an iCME:
- Incept values what we bring to the table. Whatever skill or ambition an iCME has, the staff at Incept wants to put it to use. The iCMEs are encouraged to come up with their own ideas instead of just waiting for orders. All of us are new to this type of work, but our ideas are taken seriously!
- The Internet is the ultimate tool for communication. Online, you can communicate in any way, shape or form. You can post status updates, blog posts, pictures and videos. You can chat with your roommate or someone on the opposite end of the Earth. Your voice is heard.
- People get paid to play with social media! Before I joined the department I didn’t realize what a big business social media is. I knew that the creator of Facebook was waist-deep in profit (as illustrated in the movie “The Social Network“) but had no clue there was such a thing as a social media consultant, like our own Nate Riggs. I also hadn’t put a lot of thought into how businesses can use social media to promote themselves. Many businesses communicate with their customers via Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and Incept is now in the game.
- Your reputation is just as important online as it is offline. Nowadays, there is no difference between yourself and your online identity. When I’m representing Incept as an iCME, I have to not only promote the company but also protect its reputation. Whatever I do on the internet, I do with my company’s well-being in mind.
- Goals need to be quantified. I’ve noticed this about my personal goals, as well as my goals at work. When my goal as an iCME is to post a minimum of five tweets per day on Twitter, I’m far more likely to do that amount than if I tell myself to tweet when I can. Having a specific goal helps me do my best work as an Internet Conversational Marketing Expert.
- Editing film is fun! Although I don’t necessarily enjoy the actual filming, I do love piecing together the final product (and adding nifty text effects and soundtracks). The social media department at Incept films video interviews of our highest performing CMEs every week!
- Identify what’s expected, then do 10% more. Tim Johnson touched on this in his post on Incept’s blog, Are You Waiting or Creating Your Opportunities. When I was in school, I always did extra credit when my teacher offered it. It’s important to do the same thing at work, to the best of your ability.
- Take risks. Calculated risks, of course, but risks nonetheless. It may seem like common sense but every life coach and mentor will say the same thing: you won’t accomplish anything unless you risk failing. It’s cliche but true that if you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough. Be willing to make mistakes and have the guts to bounce back!
I look forward to the days when I get to do social media work at Incept. What do you enjoy about your job?
6:00 a.m. – The garage door opens, and it’s time to get to work! There are lives to be saved, and I’m the right guy for the job! Okay, time for my checklist:
- Gas up so I’m full
- Cookies and snacks so the donors can stay energized
- Water and juice so the donors stay hydrated
- T-shirts and mugs so the donors know how important they are
- Bright, multi-colored bandages so the donors can proudly display their selflessness
- Make sure all my collection supplies are topped off (we’ll need them!)
- “Blood Drive Today” signs
Check! Now, I’m ready to roll.
8:00 a.m. – Cruise on over to pick up my collections staff so we can go save some lives!
9:00 a.m. – Park the bus and get set up! The line’s forming and I can’t wait to open the doors and let the donors in.
9:30 a.m. – “Places everyone! It’s showtime!” Open the doors, get some of my donors inside and kick off the donating.
12:45 p.m. – Lunch time. My staff is doing great today and that line isn’t getting any shorter! We’ve got 15 units of blood on board, but there’s room for more!
1:15 p.m. – Back to work. Have to make sure the A/C is working. I don’t want my donors to be uncomfortable while they’re giving blood.
3:00 p.m. – “Okay team, we’re into the home stretch. Keep it up!” Almost done. Let’s get these last few donors in before we close up for the day.
4:00 p.m. – This drive’s a wrap! 22 units of blood collected. AWESOME! Let’s get this blood loaded into my transport van and head home.
4:45 p.m. – My staff did so well today, they deserve a treat. I’m pulling over to get them some ice cream!
6:00 p.m. – Back home in my garage. What a day! All those donors, so many blood donations. Lives have been saved, but I know there will be more to save tomorrow. The need for blood never takes a vacation, so neither can I. Just another day in my life. The life of a Bloodmobile!
Have you ever donated blood in a Bloodmobile?
Thank you.
They’re two small, simple words but they have a lot more of an impact than you might think. Despite what might motivate us to do something, we all like to know that our actions are appreciated – no matter how big or small.
Letting your clients know that you appreciate not only their commitment to your business, but also things as simple as taking the time to talk with you, can go a long way. Even if you don’t get the result you were hoping for, you should ALWAYS let your client or customer know you appreciate them.
Saying thank you lets your client know you actually care about them as a person, not just as a number. It can turn a ”No thank you” today into a “Sure! Sign me up!” next time. Appreciation is a relationship builder, one that I think is often overlooked.
We handle a lot of different clients here at Incept, but the ones I’m most familiar with are the blood banks. Every day I get to speak with donors on the phone, hopefully to get them scheduled for an appointment to come in and donate blood. Many of the donors I speak with are repeat donors who come in pretty frequently to donate a pint. Even those who aren’t repeat donors have helped out at least once before.
These folks, whether they’ve donated a dozen times or just once, have all given a little of their time and of themselves to help total strangers. Most of them will never know where or to whom blood goes, or even whose life it impacted. Most of them will never receive a thank you card or any sort of recognition other than from the blood center.
Don’t get me wrong, the feeling of helping out is great and I don’t know many people who would turn down a free t-shirt, but sometimes you need to hear someone say, “Thank you!” I’ve never been in need of blood myself, but I’m grateful to those who take the time to donate.
Thank you to all of our donors. Your time and compassion are literally life-saving.
As is the case with the message in every conversation, there may be noise (or interference), an incorrect channel or possible miscommunication as you try to deliver your message. Whether the noise signifies your customer service line being busy or ringing without an answer, the incorrect channel being trying to reach teenagers via the newspaper, or miscommunication through mistyped event information or incorrectly hitting the caps in a way that could REALLY confuse your audience, it takes a significant amount of discipline to be able to listen and lead in a manner that will strengthen the relationship with your customer.
People want to share stories, knowledge, facts, tips, how-to’s and opinions with others that will understand and most likely appreciate it the most: other customers. I can personally say that the first time I went to the A-1 Japan Steakhouse near work, I told everyone in my family how amazing the food was, with generous portions and a substantially lower cost than the other local hibachi restaurants. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when I returned again, this time with four additional members of my family in tow, ready to see and experience this customer service extravaganza for themselves. Add that I posted about it on my Facebook page and Twitter account and the number of people who may have been impacted by my opinion could be much larger than even I am aware.
