Editor's note: This article is excerpted from
The 10-Minute Marketer's Secret Formulafrom
Entrepreneur Press.
One of the hardest concepts to get across to business owners is
that your employees and staff are also your customers. You can do
all the clever marketing in the world, but if your staff isn't
on board, if they aren't engaged and enthusiastic, the results
will be unsatisfying.
The first input you want is from all the managers in your
business. Create a system--a hospitable work environment--that
encourages your managers to speak openly and honestly with you.
It's their neighborhood, it's their career, and they should
have a sense of ownership in any plan you come up with. Otherwise,
they won't help make it effective.
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Managers will often find something to complain about. That's
okay. Let them complain. Everybody needs to vent, and you need to
leave your ego at the door. You want the truth, not a response that
makes you feel good. You want a candid evaluation from every
internal customer, from your top-line managers right down to the
guy who vacuums the floor. What do they really think about the
product or service, the pricing, the atmosphere--all of it?
It regularly amazes my clients when they learn that their
managers have been thinking that something needs to be improved or
changed but haven't felt comfortable about speaking up or
simply haven't had time in the rush of doing everyday business.
You need to give your managers a sense that you really want their
opinions about your business: What are the opportunities? What are
your strengths and weaknesses?
The Power of Anonymity
Buy Tom Feltenstein's
The Ten
Minute Marketer's Secret Formula today.
Buy it now.When reaching out to staff, make sure your internal-customer
survey lets your employees express their opinions anonymously.
These are the people who know the day-to-day business, who are the
point of contact between your business and your customers, and you
need their unfiltered advice. They can make or break you.
Many clients tell me at the start of this process, "The
staff are just going to slam us." That's not always the
case, but if they do, there might be an important lesson in it. The
insights that come out of these surveys frequently surprise
business owners and managers.
We often hear managers complain to us, "My people
aren't that bright," only to discover that they not only
are bright, but caring and filled with valuable knowledge and
insight.
The internal-customer survey must be self-administered,
confidential, and anonymous. Your staff must not have any concern
that one of them is going to be identified because she's
writing with a blue pen and somebody else is writing with black and
the boss is going to know who wrote which.
Put a staff member in charge of this process and hold an
all-company meeting. Tell your staff why they're being asked to
fill out the survey, that their feedback will be taken seriously,
and that everything will be confidential and totally anonymous. To
demonstrate that you mean what you say, have your employees drop
their completed surveys into a pre-addressed FedEx box that is
sealed in their presence for shipping to a research company for
tabulation.
Anonymity and confidentiality are important. Comments like
"My manager is looking over my shoulder right now as I'm
filling out this survey" are no help to you in formulating
your marketing program. It costs surprisingly little to have a
research company administer the survey and tabulate the results, so
don't cut corners and compromise your employees' confidence
by trying to do it yourself. Show complete respect for their
opinions and privacy. Build trust. What you'll get back are
trustworthy employees.
In your internal survey, ask employees how they feel about
themselves, how they feel about the company as an employer, what
they think about the marketing. We often find that employees hate
their uniforms, even the ones who get to wear a chic button-down
black shirt and black pants. You may not want to change things, but
you should know what they think before you go out and spend a
fortune on your next set of uniforms.
Ask about their feelings on culture and diversity in the
workplace. There are enormous and rapidly growing opportunities in
marketing to diverse backgrounds, and you ignore these at your
peril.
How do your employees feel about the salary and benefits you
offer compared with other companies in the area? Of course
they're going to think their salary and benefits are lower, but
often this issue can be handled very simply. If you know
they're misinformed, you can go out and do a little research
yourself. If you're right, hold a staff meeting and show them
in black and white that the grass is not really greener on the
other side. You may, in this situation, even be able to reinforce
some of the benefits you do offer, benefits your staff may not know
about or understand.
If your employees are right, if their salaries and benefits are
indeed on the low side, maybe you'll have a clue to high
turnover, or low quality of staff performance, or any of a host of
other issues. It all counts, and everything sells.
Before you try to draw in new customers, make sure you're
serving your current customers well. The best way to find out is to
ask your employees.
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