Congratulations Milestones!

Very excited for my client, Milestones for Kids Success. Their brand new website launched over the weekend and it looks terrific. Professional, approachable, well-organized and chock-full of great information and beautiful photography. Way to go Janet, practice founder and owner and nice work Vision Friendly-- the Naperville agency she hired to re-create the site.

All site content was written and/or edited by yours truly.

Milestones is an outstanding therapy group in Downers Grove with dedicated professionals, an amazing facility and now even more services, including holistic care.

Check out their site and all they have to offer, or pass the information along to a friend.

I'm looking forward to working on more projects with this great client.

Happy Monday!

"This Call Will Be Recorded..."

"This call will be recorded for quality assurance." How many times have you heard that before? I'll tell you I've heard it more than I'd like to remember. Normally when you're hearing that recording you’ve just been on endless hold and the reason you're calling is likely not a pleasant one. You’re either trying to make a payment, bring a cost down, dispute a charge or get something fixed. 

A run-in I had this week with a phone customer service person was so excruciating, so endless, looping and stupid, it got me thinking... does anyone really listen to those recordings? Ever? One clever colleague of mine reported recently on Facebook she was working to get her cable costs down. She told the tale of how she actually challenged the company to listen to the recordings from her calls on 2 different dates when she received 2 conflicting price quotes for the same exact service. She had taken copious notes and told them—“go back and listen to the tapes!” They never did, but they did give her the lower price she was originally provided. Too bad she had to go through that hassle. But unfortunately I believe we’re now all used to situations like that which happen frequently and tend to give “customer service” a bad rap.

The concept of “listening to the tapes” is probably a good one for business owners to think about. Listen to the tapes. Listen to the recording. Really listen. Are your customers being serviced the way you intended when you first started your business? Do you really hear what your valued employee is saying when they mention a problem or concern that's happening internally or externally? Have you actually "quality assured" your company's work recently? If not, then now’s the time to go for it because quality breeds quality. If everything your company does is looked at the through the lens of highest quality, I can assure you you'll attract the best, most loyal clients and the highest caliber talent to work for you. I bet you'll also be fulfilling a promise you made to yourself and everyone you knew when your company was its early stages…providing the highest quality workplace, product or service.

Get Your Company Truly LinkedIn!

As I work to refine the services I can provide to small and medium-sized business owners, I have discovered that there are some basic marketing/social networking projects that I can tackle for busy business people.  One of these is the creation of a company's LinkedIn business page.  

LinkedIn is the #1 B2B network and building this profile out provides an excellent opportunity for a company to continue to expand its B2B presence, share compelling news with potential partners as well as increase an organization's reputation when in hiring mode. 

Below are 10 steps NJK, Inc. recommends to create a great LinkedIn Company Page that will motivate people to click the “follow” button and become more engaged/aware about your company's service or product offerings.  NJK, Inc. can manage this project initially to ensure it is completed quickly and serves as a new (free) outlet to syndicate corporate news releases in the future.

1. Write a compelling summary

2. Add products and services

3. Make sure your most important service is listed first

4. Capture attention with a compelling cover image

5. Add career/hiring information

6. Ask employees to connect with your page

7. Ask for product and service reviews from current customers 

8. Publish company updates to make the Page look useful

9. Promote your LinkedIn Company Page – add it to current website and to all company correspondence (including email signatures)

10. Use featured updates to highlight important content (LinkedIn feature that puts your most important story up top)

11. Use targeted updates to promote more effectively (this is a feature in LinkedIN that allows you to promote by audience segment-i.e. customer type, employees, etc.).

This project would cost approximately $250-$500 based on depth and breadth of content.  If this is something you might be interested in, let's connect and talk about the project!   

Thank you!

The new year has started and school children are done with Winter Break. A tradition around our house around this time every year is thank you note writing.  As I see my three working away at the kitchen island thanking their generous friends and relatives it made me stop and think about how personal expressions of gratitude have really become a lost art,especially in business.

Facebook shout outs, generic holiday cards and thank you emails have become the standard way many big companies show their appreciation for their customers. Of these, the ones that are most helpful and impactful tome are the ones that offer a meaningful, instant discount on a purchase or service. This does work a little to make me feel like I am appreciated as a loyal customer.  Of course, in big business clients get taken out to lunch, millions of popcorn tins are sent and open bar holiday parties still prevail.

It makes the month of December quite more festive than the other eleven but also the volume of "thank you for your business"expressions can become a bit of a blurred jumble.  How have you thanked your clients/customers lately?  If you did it in the month of December did that message of thanks really stand out? 

Perhaps all of us should make a resolution to say thankyou to each other more often. How much loyalty could you continue to build withyour best customers and employees if you were to take the time to thankthem  individually, not just for theirbusiness or contributions but for how your partnership with them has helpedyour company grow?  Doing it mid firstquarter or mid year will make an impact. Let's put it on our calendars now.