Posts Tagged ‘communications’
Boris Hughes
At a recent meeting of public relations professionals I asked the speaker, Boris Hughes, the million dollar question. (Actually the correct answer to the question is worth untold fortunes.) Hughes was discussing multi-platform marketing. He manages direct mail services for Hewlett-Packard so granted, the information he imparted was favorable for the continuing popularity of direct mail.
The conversation naturally turned to the use of social media, texting and the abysmal lack of proper communications skills by the “next generation” of business leaders. By “proper communications skills” I was referring to the ability to form complete sentences that successfully presented a concept, without the use of acronyms or “text speak.” Hughes offered the observation that in many cases young people entering the corporate world didn’t even have an email address, all their communications were via texting or on social networks like Facebook or Twitter.
I wondered aloud what was going to happen next – would the up-and-comers have to learn how to use email (like the rest of us) or was the corporate world going to abandon traditional business communications in favor of 140 character memos? I eagerly anticipated the answer; after all, HP is a communications and technology giant. His answer (insert dramatic pause), “I don’t know. No one does. I wish we did.” So do I, Boris, so do I.
Photo credit: Marc Beaudin/news-press.com
Disclaimer: This is a rant. I rarely rant. I try to offer insights to help you in marketing your business. But I spent precious gobs of time this morning caught in the automatic phone system hell of two organizations that ought to know better – chambers of commerce! Never mind that they each had exhausted the number keys with their options, here’s a couple of pointers if you think you absolutely need to use an automated system in your business:
1) Don’t.
2) If you ignore #1, at least provide an option for speaking to a real person. I should never have to dial “O” for operator only to get a voice mailbox. Repeatedly.
3) If you are going to provide a company directory, do exactly that. Don’t ask me to dial the first few letters of a person’s name because guess what? I have a smart phone. If I try to dial Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F, Z, X, C or V, it is going to register as %, 1, 2, 3, #, 4, 5, 6, *, 7, 8 or 9 respectively. I don’t know anyone with numbers or symbols in their name, do you? In fact, I may not even know the name of your staff members! Give me departments if you have to.
At one point, in desperation, I selected the option to speak to someone in the Visitors Center. She explained that budget cutbacks had forced staff reductions at that chamber, therefore no one was available to answer the phone. Now, think about this for a minute. If a chamber’s function is to attract businesses to and represent businesses in a region, what does it say to me, as a business owner contemplating a move to that area or a membership in that group, when I can’t even get through to the organization? I’m going to be thinking “Hmmm, how will this lack of representation affect my desire to relocate/join? Perhaps I ought to look elsewhere.”
The purpose of my call was to determine exactly who at the respective organizations should receive a news release from me behalf of one of their members. I don’t necessarily need to speak to a person, I can make do very nicely with an email or an online upload. So I searched the “newsletter” and “member news” sections of their websites. Neither organization had the option to upload a release on their website, nor a link to a generic email like “news@suchandsuch.org.”
It’s been almost 2 hours now since I left one voice mail for an advertising representative (because I figured a salesperson would call me back if anyone would) and sent an email to a membership director. This is the age of instant communication folks. I’m just sayin’….
