Over the last few weeks I have gotten great feedback from companies and leaders about my articles and videos on delivering excellence to your customers. While it is always great to get feedback, I felt a little sad and frustrated after some of these conversations because some of these leaders agreed with me but had no power to change anything in their business

This led me to wonder why some leaders still cannot see the connection between sales growth and execution of service. It puzzles me that so much money is thrown away on advertising or buying new leads and NOTHING is being spent on delivering an excellent experience so I keep on preaching to lead this change.

In these conversations, I hear the glowing praise for the icons of service, the Apple’s, Disney’s, Ritz Carlton, Nordstrom’s etc. but when I pose the question to them as to why they are not delivering the same excellence, I am bombarded with reasons why it won’t work.

• “It’s too hard to change now”
• “My staff is used to doing it a certain way”
• “ I can’t take the risk it hurts my sales now.”
• “I am doing ok as it is.”

But what businesses are not taking into consideration is that customer experience is the currency of the future. Many products are commoditized. Profits are harder to make simply by focusing on price. Studies show this but still business owners smile, nod in agreement and move back on as if the future looks bright FOREVER.

Right now most company budgets do not include anything in terms of developing the consumer experience from a delivery standpoint. Companies focus on marketing effectiveness, or user experience on their website but not when it comes to communication or face to face delivery of their goods or services.

Now for the companies that have challenged this thought and shown me the training tapes or list of videos they use I applaud them for at least beginning the journey. My next challenge to them is how do they implement this training.

Do they have a line item or a role in their company that allows them to have ongoing training, side by side coaching and then accountability measures as well? This is where many fall off and to that I say, save the $$ on the tapes it isn’t going to work. Without long term coaching or follow up you are living on HOPE that things will work out.

Customer experience is how you will differentiate yourself, it will be how you market yourself it will be how your company rises above the others and becomes the go to place of business for your product or service. The caveat is it takes time, it takes consistency and it takes leadership buy in. Without it, you have lone voices wishing for change but no power to act.

Take the time before it is too late to look at how you deliver to your customers and see what it will take in terms of investment, time and training to separate yourself from the pack. Keep me posted.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share and connect with me @sidebysidecoach.

Over the last few weeks I have gotten great feedback from companies and leaders about my articles and videos on delivering excellence to your customers. While it is always great to get feedback, I felt a little sad and frustrated after some of these conversations because some of these leaders agreed with me but had no power to change anything in their business

This led me to wonder why some leaders still cannot see the connection between sales growth and execution of service. It puzzles me that so much money is thrown away on advertising or buying new leads and NOTHING is being spent on delivering an excellent experience so I keep on preaching to lead this change.

In these conversations, I hear the glowing praise for the icons of service, the Apple’s, Disney’s, Ritz Carlton, Nordstrom’s etc. but when I pose the question to them as to why they are not delivering the same excellence, I am bombarded with reasons why it won’t work.

• “It’s too hard to change now”
• “My staff is used to doing it a certain way”
• “ I can’t take the risk it hurts my sales now.”
• “I am doing ok as it is.”

But what businesses are not taking into consideration is that customer experience is the currency of the future. Many products are commoditized. Profits are harder to make simply by focusing on price. Studies show this but still business owners smile, nod in agreement and move back on as if the future looks bright FOREVER.

Right now most company budgets do not include anything in terms of developing the consumer experience from a delivery standpoint. Companies focus on marketing effectiveness, or user experience on their website but not when it comes to communication or face to face delivery of their goods or services.

Now for the companies that have challenged this thought and shown me the training tapes or list of videos they use I applaud them for at least beginning the journey. My next challenge to them is how do they implement this training.

Do they have a line item or a role in their company that allows them to have ongoing training, side by side coaching and then accountability measures as well? This is where many fall off and to that I say, save the $$ on the tapes it isn’t going to work. Without long term coaching or follow up you are living on HOPE that things will work out.

Customer experience is how you will differentiate yourself, it will be how you market yourself it will be how your company rises above the others and becomes the go to place of business for your product or service. The caveat is it takes time, it takes consistency and it takes leadership buy in. Without it, you have lone voices wishing for change but no power to act.

Take the time before it is too late to look at how you deliver to your customers and see what it will take in terms of investment, time and training to separate yourself from the pack. Keep me posted.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share and connect with me @sidebysidecoach.

With the announcement on 11/26/13 from Google that it had redesigned it’s Review Monitoring System for its Places for Business Dashboard (http://bit.ly/1bizbiv) you would expect that business would understand how important it is to have a steady focus on garnering customer feedback.

What is great about this new platform is that it will not only provide a summary of reviews from Google + Local but also other review sites that Google crawls and finds your business’s name. This is huge as a time saving aggregator for those who monitor their presence online.

In a previous article, Your Reputation is Not Being Shared Correctly I focused on the difference between Reputation Management (passive) versus Reputation Marketing (active). This new dashboard will make it easier to find great reviews and then leverage them in marketing as well as responds when necessary.

I have put together a quick summary/checklist for businesses who are wondering how to get started.

Goal: to control and improve your online reputation

Strategies: Visibility, Engagement, Incentives, and Monitoring

Tactics:

• Visibility
  • Research where you are currently showing in reviews
    • Look in Google + Local Account
    • Type in Search: Business Name+ Reviews
    • Create monthly list of what sites you will send customers to in order to post comments
  • Work with your Website platform to make it easier to find reviews on your website
  • Make sure that in your business physical location that you have posters of your staff, Wall of Fame and other assets to show you use feedback in order to serve customers better
• Engagement
  • Ask every person who does business with you. Create a process that engages without overwhelming customers with requests for feedback.
  • Respond to all negative posts. Post short response to bring conversation offline.
  • Respond to 60% of positive reviews as well.
  • Keep responses short. Do not try to defend your business online
  • Make sure you are using Social Media platforms for review postings
  • Create and post video testimonials from customers on website and YouTube.
• Incentives
  • Do not give incentives to staff for reviews. It will lead them to create “one and done” accounts that Google and other platforms do not like
  • Do not offer gifts or services to customers in order to get reviews
  • Find creative ways to involve your team.
    • Team breaks a certain goal they get lunch
    • Top reviewer gets on Wall of Fame
    • Have reviews scrolling on a flat screen TV
• Monitoring
  • Monitor accounts daily in order to respond accordingly
  • Track amount of reviews on all platforms monthly
  • Read competitors reviews to see how you can capitalize on their failures

Each week, reputation results should be reviewed in weekly staff meetings. If the top leadership does not make this important, it will not happen. Reviews have an impact on buyers of your products.

This is a short version of a process I recommend. If you would like to have a longer version please contact me directly and I will be more than willing to help.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share.

With the announcement on 11/26/13 from Google that it had redesigned it’s Review Monitoring System for its Places for Business Dashboard (http://bit.ly/1bizbiv) you would expect that business would understand how important it is to have a steady focus on garnering customer feedback.

What is great about this new platform is that it will not only provide a summary of reviews from Google + Local but also other review sites that Google crawls and finds your business’s name. This is huge as a time saving aggregator for those who monitor their presence online.

In a previous article, Your Reputation is Not Being Shared Correctly I focused on the difference between Reputation Management (passive) versus Reputation Marketing (active). This new dashboard will make it easier to find great reviews and then leverage them in marketing as well as responds when necessary.

I have put together a quick summary/checklist for businesses who are wondering how to get started.

Goal: to control and improve your online reputation

Strategies: Visibility, Engagement, Incentives, and Monitoring

Tactics:

• Visibility
  • Research where you are currently showing in reviews
    • Look in Google + Local Account
    • Type in Search: Business Name+ Reviews
    • Create monthly list of what sites you will send customers to in order to post comments
  • Work with your Website platform to make it easier to find reviews on your website
  • Make sure that in your business physical location that you have posters of your staff, Wall of Fame and other assets to show you use feedback in order to serve customers better
• Engagement
  • Ask every person who does business with you. Create a process that engages without overwhelming customers with requests for feedback.
  • Respond to all negative posts. Post short response to bring conversation offline.
  • Respond to 60% of positive reviews as well.
  • Keep responses short. Do not try to defend your business online
  • Make sure you are using Social Media platforms for review postings
  • Create and post video testimonials from customers on website and YouTube.
• Incentives
  • Do not give incentives to staff for reviews. It will lead them to create “one and done” accounts that Google and other platforms do not like
  • Do not offer gifts or services to customers in order to get reviews
  • Find creative ways to involve your team.
    • Team breaks a certain goal they get lunch
    • Top reviewer gets on Wall of Fame
    • Have reviews scrolling on a flat screen TV
• Monitoring
  • Monitor accounts daily in order to respond accordingly
  • Track amount of reviews on all platforms monthly
  • Read competitors reviews to see how you can capitalize on their failures

Each week, reputation results should be reviewed in weekly staff meetings. If the top leadership does not make this important, it will not happen. Reviews have an impact on buyers of your products.

This is a short version of a process I recommend. If you would like to have a longer version please contact me directly and I will be more than willing to help.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share.

Too many times our companies are so focused on delivering great value to our customers (and we should be) but we forget to give that same value to our employees

The reason this came to mind is that I was with my family recently at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. I was learning about Milton Hershey and his philanthropic nature. He and his wife could not have children so he built an orphanage to help. He also created a trust so that it owned the company and eventually the resort so that it would always be funded. The building is now a school for underprivileged children and those in need. What inspired me the most was how he felt that if he took care of his employees and gave them a good lifestyle, they would be more productive.

There are examples today of great places to work, but in the case of most companies, we need to ask ourselves: do we look at our employees as something we nurture or as something that is replaceable?

Take a look at your employees as if you would a garden. If you feed and water the plants and make sure the weeds are taken out, they will grow.

Are we feeding them with training to make them better, are we mentoring them and making sure they are growing correctly? Are we weeding out bad habits or obstacles that could inhibit growth?

I looked at my own company and it is not always easy, so I am not saying that I am perfect. But I have committed to doing these following steps that you can use as a starting point to help your team grow.

Weekly communication:

We have quick staff meetings each Monday and Friday to communicate what we have going on, new developments, updates and recognition.

One of the biggest things employees find important, based on multiple surveys, is being kept in the loop.

Weekly/Monthly Training:

Department heads and team leaders have time set aside time for training. Anyone can attend, even if it is not your department, because I want people to learn what others do. I think it helps with communication and team cohesiveness if you understand what another person does each day.

Upward mobility:

We let people know of our new opportunities or positions and work to fill these roles internally when we can. Bringing people up internally helps because they already know the culture and shows that if hard work is applied, new challenges can be met.

Lastly, open door policy.

Now this one is tricky because everyone is still stuck in the mentality of the Boss/Employee roles. I am not naive to think that everyone will come running into my office, but being available and out on the floor breaks down the barrier and gets you out from behind the desk. I think of it as walking through the garden and seeing how things are going.

Leaders need to get out from behind their desks and see the impact of their efforts. If you want to keep your people, invest in them. Put in the time and effort to make things grow.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share.

Too many times our companies are so focused on delivering great value to our customers (and we should be) but we forget to give that same value to our employees

The reason this came to mind is that I was with my family recently at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. I was learning about Milton Hershey and his philanthropic nature. He and his wife could not have children so he built an orphanage to help. He also created a trust so that it owned the company and eventually the resort so that it would always be funded. The building is now a school for underprivileged children and those in need. What inspired me the most was how he felt that if he took care of his employees and gave them a good lifestyle, they would be more productive.

There are examples today of great places to work, but in the case of most companies, we need to ask ourselves: do we look at our employees as something we nurture or as something that is replaceable?

Take a look at your employees as if you would a garden. If you feed and water the plants and make sure the weeds are taken out, they will grow.

Are we feeding them with training to make them better, are we mentoring them and making sure they are growing correctly? Are we weeding out bad habits or obstacles that could inhibit growth?

I looked at my own company and it is not always easy, so I am not saying that I am perfect. But I have committed to doing these following steps that you can use as a starting point to help your team grow.

Weekly communication:

We have quick staff meetings each Monday and Friday to communicate what we have going on, new developments, updates and recognition.

One of the biggest things employees find important, based on multiple surveys, is being kept in the loop.

Weekly/Monthly Training:

Department heads and team leaders have time set aside time for training. Anyone can attend, even if it is not your department, because I want people to learn what others do. I think it helps with communication and team cohesiveness if you understand what another person does each day.

Upward mobility:

We let people know of our new opportunities or positions and work to fill these roles internally when we can. Bringing people up internally helps because they already know the culture and shows that if hard work is applied, new challenges can be met.

Lastly, open door policy.

Now this one is tricky because everyone is still stuck in the mentality of the Boss/Employee roles. I am not naive to think that everyone will come running into my office, but being available and out on the floor breaks down the barrier and gets you out from behind the desk. I think of it as walking through the garden and seeing how things are going.

Leaders need to get out from behind their desks and see the impact of their efforts. If you want to keep your people, invest in them. Put in the time and effort to make things grow.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer. If you liked this article, please share.

Businesses spend thousands of dollars each month creating and distributing a marketing message hoping to attract customers.  In a previous article, “Digital Marketing is still Marketing” I spoke about how to create a unique message. This article is not a rehash of that but showing you an example of a company who lost valuable opportunities due to confusion of their message

I was at a friend’s house prior to the 4^th of July and as I looked through the local paper, I saw an ad for a local auto dealership with what I thought was a pretty unique approach. The name is not important so I will not be publishing it but here is the proposition they offered.

Their dealership was closed on July 4^th but people would be able to walk the lot. On the evening of the 3^rd of July, after hours every car on the lot would have a red tag placed on it. People could come on the lot during the 4^th and if they saw a price they liked they could write down the ticket # and price and they would be able to receive it during the 5^th and 6^th, that weekend when the dealership was open no haggling, no questions.

It seemed like a great selling point. No one on the lot to bother you while you looked, everything you needed listed on the car and a price they guaranteed as long as you had the ticket number from the car because on the evening of the 4^th all the tags were removed.

Pretty unique I thought so I decide to jump on their website to see what they said about this event. As I got to their home page I saw NOTHING about this event.

Actually it was a pretty standard OEM type-site with nothing about this sale. In fact it was a pretty bland site in terms of having anything stand out to tell me why I should by this brand from them, seeing as they were in a metro area where within an hour there were multiple other dealers selling the same brand.

So I thought that maybe it was just something blasting out on social media, but again, nothing on their Facebook page, in fact the last post was from May.  What did that tell me as a consumer? That they let things drop, they do not follow through and this could be how I would be treated.

If you as a business are going to be creative and work on ways to drive traffic to your location, understand that traditional marketing drives people to the web. If I do not see the same information on your website as I do other places, it makes me think I am in the wrong place. It creates doubt instead of taking me one step closer to the sale

We must look at our marketing, as ways to take away concerns, not increase them.

Make sure all of your marketing aligns with your message. Make sure all your marketing is tweaked for the platform you are using but it has to be familiar and similar.

I feel bad for this dealership because I am sure they lost multiple opportunities to gain business and stand out in their marketplace.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

Write your post here

Businesses spend thousands of dollars each month creating and distributing a marketing message hoping to attract customers.  In a previous article, “Digital Marketing is still Marketing” I spoke about how to create a unique message. This article is not a rehash of that but showing you an example of a company who lost valuable opportunities due to confusion of their message

I was at a friend’s house prior to the 4^th of July and as I looked through the local paper, I saw an ad for a local auto dealership with what I thought was a pretty unique approach. The name is not important so I will not be publishing it but here is the proposition they offered.

Their dealership was closed on July 4^th but people would be able to walk the lot. On the evening of the 3^rd of July, after hours every car on the lot would have a red tag placed on it. People could come on the lot during the 4^th and if they saw a price they liked they could write down the ticket # and price and they would be able to receive it during the 5^th and 6^th, that weekend when the dealership was open no haggling, no questions.

It seemed like a great selling point. No one on the lot to bother you while you looked, everything you needed listed on the car and a price they guaranteed as long as you had the ticket number from the car because on the evening of the 4^th all the tags were removed.

Pretty unique I thought so I decide to jump on their website to see what they said about this event. As I got to their home page I saw NOTHING about this event.

Actually it was a pretty standard OEM type-site with nothing about this sale. In fact it was a pretty bland site in terms of having anything stand out to tell me why I should by this brand from them, seeing as they were in a metro area where within an hour there were multiple other dealers selling the same brand.

So I thought that maybe it was just something blasting out on social media, but again, nothing on their Facebook page, in fact the last post was from May.  What did that tell me as a consumer? That they let things drop, they do not follow through and this could be how I would be treated.

If you as a business are going to be creative and work on ways to drive traffic to your location, understand that traditional marketing drives people to the web. If I do not see the same information on your website as I do other places, it makes me think I am in the wrong place. It creates doubt instead of taking me one step closer to the sale

We must look at our marketing, as ways to take away concerns, not increase them.

Make sure all of your marketing aligns with your message. Make sure all your marketing is tweaked for the platform you are using but it has to be familiar and similar.

I feel bad for this dealership because I am sure they lost multiple opportunities to gain business and stand out in their marketplace.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

Write your post here

Too many times when I am asked to sit on client calls with their other vendors, I am shocked at the quality of interactions I hear. Prior to the calls, these clients will tell me these vendors are their strategists, but as the call progresses, I tend to think they are more of executors. It is imperative that business owners understand the difference.

Let’s look at the definitions of both of these words.

Strategist

This is someone who is an expert at planning a method or series of maneuvers for obtaining a specific goal or result.

Executor

This is someone who executes, carries out or performs some duty, job or assignment.

The reason why I used the term “executor” is it means someone who carries out your wishes. Now there is nothing wrong with hiring an executor. There are many services people perform where you do not need to be involved in a strategy. The person is skilled and after an initial meeting you let them perform the task.

My point in this discussion is that there will be times you need to hire someone for his or her strategic skills and you need to know the difference. Here are some things to look for when hiring this type of vendor.

First Things First

When you are hiring a vendor and they are claiming to be a strategist, are they coming to you with a plan of attack and how it will be executed? Or are they asking you, “What do you want me to do? I will execute it.”

That is not a strategist.

The Right Questions

When you are having calls with the vendor, who is leading the discussion of the strategy?

Are they asking you the following questions?
• What would you like me to do?
• Where would you like to target
• What specials are going on?
• What would you like me to focus on?

Or are they saying things like:
• Here is the data we have looked at from our efforts and this is what we suggest we should do.
• After our analysis, here are the trends we see and this is how we think we need to respond or adjust to move forward.

Then asking the question, “Is there anything going on in your business that may not align with what we are looking to do?”

That is a more effective use of questions.

The Right Reporting

When you are getting reports, how do you review the results? Is the vendor educating you on the process and progress or are they waiting for you to lead the discussion?

Worse yet, do you get your reports and the email states, “Here are your reports, call me if you have any questions.”

Here are a few more things to re-evaluate:
• Are the reports clear enough?
• Can you see what work the vendor is doing, what you are spending and the results clearly communicated?
• Do the accomplishments credited to them apply to your goal?
• Are they taking credit for things out of their control?
• Are they bringing to your attention things that need to be changed or are they relying on you to interpret reports and then come to them with changes you need to make?

Remember that many times you hire vendors because what they provide is out of your realm of understanding. If they are not helping you to understand what they do and providing a strategy for you to improve, then you may not be getting what you are paying for.

Every industry is very competitive. Business owners are looking for an advantage to keep them ahead of their competition. The next time you need to hire a strategist, use these questions as a guide during the interview process. It will help you weed out the pretenders and you will get what you paid for.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

Too many times when I am asked to sit on client calls with their other vendors, I am shocked at the quality of interactions I hear. Prior to the calls, these clients will tell me these vendors are their strategists, but as the call progresses, I tend to think they are more of executors. It is imperative that business owners understand the difference.

Let’s look at the definitions of both of these words.

Strategist

This is someone who is an expert at planning a method or series of maneuvers for obtaining a specific goal or result.

Executor

This is someone who executes, carries out or performs some duty, job or assignment.

The reason why I used the term “executor” is it means someone who carries out your wishes. Now there is nothing wrong with hiring an executor. There are many services people perform where you do not need to be involved in a strategy. The person is skilled and after an initial meeting you let them perform the task.

My point in this discussion is that there will be times you need to hire someone for his or her strategic skills and you need to know the difference. Here are some things to look for when hiring this type of vendor.

First Things First

When you are hiring a vendor and they are claiming to be a strategist, are they coming to you with a plan of attack and how it will be executed? Or are they asking you, “What do you want me to do? I will execute it.”

That is not a strategist.

The Right Questions

When you are having calls with the vendor, who is leading the discussion of the strategy?

Are they asking you the following questions?
• What would you like me to do?
• Where would you like to target
• What specials are going on?
• What would you like me to focus on?

Or are they saying things like:
• Here is the data we have looked at from our efforts and this is what we suggest we should do.
• After our analysis, here are the trends we see and this is how we think we need to respond or adjust to move forward.

Then asking the question, “Is there anything going on in your business that may not align with what we are looking to do?”

That is a more effective use of questions.

The Right Reporting

When you are getting reports, how do you review the results? Is the vendor educating you on the process and progress or are they waiting for you to lead the discussion?

Worse yet, do you get your reports and the email states, “Here are your reports, call me if you have any questions.”

Here are a few more things to re-evaluate:
• Are the reports clear enough?
• Can you see what work the vendor is doing, what you are spending and the results clearly communicated?
• Do the accomplishments credited to them apply to your goal?
• Are they taking credit for things out of their control?
• Are they bringing to your attention things that need to be changed or are they relying on you to interpret reports and then come to them with changes you need to make?

Remember that many times you hire vendors because what they provide is out of your realm of understanding. If they are not helping you to understand what they do and providing a strategy for you to improve, then you may not be getting what you are paying for.

Every industry is very competitive. Business owners are looking for an advantage to keep them ahead of their competition. The next time you need to hire a strategist, use these questions as a guide during the interview process. It will help you weed out the pretenders and you will get what you paid for.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer