I witnessed a colleague take about 2 hours to backcheck the math on a task he had delegated to his assistant.
To be sure, the task was high stakes and involved writing checks in the correct amounts, so it was 100% appropriate for him to double-check the math.
But, this was the exact same task I do myself in about 30 minutes a week, with the help of a bit of software automation.
All to say, try to automate before you delegate.
(Full disclosure, I’m the world’s worst delegator, so automating started as my coping mechanism. But time and time again, I’ve noticed automation often saves more time over delegating.)
It looks like you’re negotiating a merger. But you’re really playing Candy Crush.
And nobody even uses the phone function much.
I propose we call it what it is:
a TV,
a gaming system,
an entertainment device in your pocket.
“Where’s my phone?” sounds so legit that calling it a phone likely reinforces its use. Nobody will argue that a nurse, businessperson, or mom needs their phone.
But try calling it something else. Something more honest.
“Where’s my pacifier?” sounds just crazy enough that it might just nudge us to put it down.
I entered the humming bookstore, lugging a bin of heavy stuff for an event I was hosting.
“Will anyone here even remember that my event is today?”
Seeing me struggle with my large bin, a young cashier jumped over the counter to grab it from my arms.
He then walked me to the table Riley had prepared for my arrival – Sharpies, stacks of books to sign, and a table-clothed covered table. There was even water in case I was thirsty (I was!).
Riley greeted me by name and welcomed me to the event – I felt like Julia Roberts!
Because none of this was scripted, it felt so good.
Riley and the guy who jumped over the counter weren’t pretending to care – they did care.
If the word “care” is in your mission statement, start by hiring people who genuinely take pride in their work.
A few months ago, I started doing grocery delivery. Today I got a message saying that I had saved 30 hours this year – a considerable chunk of time.
Add the extra time I’m saving by working out at home instead of the 20 minutes drive each way to the gym.
And then there are the 12 hours I save each month by using TextExpander – a magical piece of software.
With all this extra time, I’ve been working on two books on climate change – one for adults and one for kids.
It’s always satisfying to create something “out of thin air.” But these books were created using the crumbs of newfound time I might’ve Netflixed away if I hadn’t been careful.
In the 1970s, my parents’ friends gathered each weekend to catch up about life, their kids, and what plumber they were using.
Today, that same “dinner party” occurs on Google reviews, Facebook, and other online review sites. And while the people aren’t friends in real life, the collective wisdom gives people enough confidence to call the plumber that’s getting lots of thumbs up.
It’s super-important that someone in your business is in charge of managing the online review process.
First things first:
Most importantly, spend time making sure your business is consistently creating happy customers.
If customers aren’t consistently happy, spend your time fixing your business. Full stop.
Good service = the best marketing because it will generate repeat and word-of-mouth business. And you also won’t have to find new customers to constantly replace your unhappy ones.
Once you’ve got happy customers, put someone in charge of online reviews:
I use 5 Star Business because it makes it easier for my customers to leave a review. Since the software on 5 Star Business “senses” what platform a customer is already signed into, there’s less chance of a customer abandoning the process because they forgot their Facebook password.
Any way you do it, reach out to all of your customers and ask them if they’ll do you a favor and post an online review.
Once you get a review, respond to it.
If you go here you can see my exact responses to Google reviews, but here’s my response “structure:”
Express “joy and appreciation” for good reviews, “This review made my day!”
Express “concern and appreciation” for the feedback on bad reviews, “This is so helpful for me so I will address it with my whole company at the next Team Meeting…”
Point out something specific about their experience with your company: “I saw photos of the mahogany deck that Jay stained, it looks fabulous.”
Mention the person at the company that made them happy – this shows that I’m not an absentee owner.
Why generate online reviews?
Your competition is already generating reviews, and it’ll be hard to “catch up” to a competitor with tons in a few years.
At some point, someone is going to leave a bad review online. This is normal and expected. Having lots of good online reviews and great responses to reviews helps to “water down” the occasional bad review.
Be patient!
I aim to generate just two online reviews a month. Please re-read that sentence and set your expectations low. This is not a sprint, but a marathon.
Understand, it’s much better to consistently get reviews than to get them in fits and starts.
Don’t:
Gather at the holidays and get your relatives to post tons of reviews in one week. Not only are fake reviews against the rules, putting tons of reviews up at one time is a signal that they’re fake.
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments.
You also might like:
I publish small business ideas weekly. To receive future posts by email, subscribe here.
This is the first post in my series, “Is my small business normal?”
As you may know, I own a house painting company in the Boston area, and I post to 4 social media accounts each day.
A friend of mine saw me post so often on Social Media for my painting company that she assumed I was getting tons of direct, measurable painting leads from the posts. She said she was even thinking of hiring a marketing associate whose sole responsibility would be to post on Social Media for her business.
I assured her this would not be a good use of her finite marketing dollars.
You see, I get almost NO direct business from social media posts. For me, posting on social is 99% for “awareness” and not as a natural lead source.
This is worth repeating – in my case, posting 4x a day on Social Media does not bring in any measurable amount of painting business. I consider Social Media as a way for prospects to become aware of my painting company’s brand, in case they need a painter in the future.
This way, if someone gets my direct mail, sees a Google Pay-Per-Click ad, or sees one of my lawn signs, they might think to themselves, “That logo is familiar to me,” in a way that your neighbor’s face might be familiar.
If the internet is a highway, then my Facebook and LinkedIn posts are billboards.
Like driving down a regular highway, there is customer awareness a brand can capture by having an outdoor billboard. And while you probably wouldn’t pull your car over to buy an iPhone or life insurance from the billboard right then and there, the advertiser is hoping the billboard makes enough of an impression on you that you remember their brand when it is time to buy.
Since I’ve already maximized my marketing budget in other lead-generating ways like direct mail, pay-per-click, and SEO, using social media to give another brand impression of my company works for me as part of a larger strategy. Remember, it takes a person seven times to see your message before they take action – Social Media, for me, is just one of those times.
A tenet of my blog is to explain what’s “normal” so you’re not comparing yourself to some unrealistic metric.
So, if you’re posting on Social and not getting any quantifiable leads, you’re not doing anything wrong.
I publish small business ideas weekly. To receive future posts by email, subscribe here.
Ina Garten (aka “Barefoot Contessa” on Food Network) cooks with love.
I have cooked her recipes dozens of times, making sure to follow them perfectly, and mine never taste nearly as good as when my mother makes them.
My mother cooks with love too.
But the love I don’t bring to cooking, I do bring to other things.
I love untangling a problem. I love SEO and Google Analytics.
Heck, I’d even say I love preparing invoices. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I “send customer invoices with love.”
I love when I see people take pride in life’s little tasks.
After I email a customer their invoice, I also send them one by snail-mail.
I make sure a (pretty) postage sits nice and straight in the corner of the envelope.
In fact, since the post office will deliver an envelope with a crooked stamp, the only reason I put a postage stamp on straight is, well, pride.
When I “invoice with love” I write a handwritten note thanking each customer, and include a postage-paid envelope, so customers don’t have to find a stamp.
I also enclose a little treat: a magnet that’s personalized with important phone numbers from the customer’s town.
Including the personalized magnet also provides some weight to the envelope. Customers open my invoice more quickly because they’re curious about why it’s so heavy. I guess it’s not a stretch to say that “invoicing with love” actually improves my cash flow.
A treat inside an invoice! I’ve never got one, have you?
If you have no idea how your invoices look to your customers because someone else prepares them, then take a peek this week.
How do your invoices make you feel about your company? These tiny customer touch points add up to what the big-wigs call “branding.”
They say, “how you do anything is how you do everything.”
What tiny thing do you do with love?
***
If you’re a from CertaPro, don’t forget your free bonus logos here.
I publish small business ideas weekly. To receive future posts by email, subscribe here.
