E. Sue Huff & Associates: June 2010

Summer Slump - Monday, June 28, 2010

Don’t take a vacation from your marketing plan. Its easy to fall into the “summer slump” and get lax about customer service, promotions, and employee relations. After all, everyone else is on vacation, why shouldn’t you be, too?

Summer slow-ups give you a break from the normal hectic pace. Take advantage of any lull in business to review and refocus on your year-round marketing plan. Brainstorm new ideas, tweak last year’s promotions, get cracking on that computer system software update you’ve been meaning to do. In other words, shore up what you have so that the coming year has a solid foundation for continued success.

While you’re working on the nuts and bolts, use some of your time to build relationships with your customers and staff. Review customer accounts and make courtesy phone calls about future promotions or special discounts. Do things you would not normally have the time to do when you are busy, such as acknowledging outstanding employee service or surprising the staff with goodies in the break room.

Got time on your hands? If you do, use it now!

Labels: marketing ideas, marketing strategy, small business marketing

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Job Hiring Questions - Thursday, June 17, 2010

What are the right questions to ask in a job interview? As an employer, you want to pose the hard questions that will give you a strong understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities plus the strengths and weaknesses of potential hires. Begin each interview in a comfortable atmosphere. If applicants feel at ease, you are likely to get them to talk more freely about themselves and their work habits. You might want to begin with a question such as, “How did you get involved in this line of work?” Pay attention, take notes, and let the applicant talk more than you do.

There are a few techniques and questions you can ask applicants in order to see their true colors. When an applicant comes into your office, they are prepared to answer the standard questions. Asking out of the box questions can help you decide on the best candidate for your business.

Asking a question such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” could provide some interesting answers, but keep in mind that the applicant surely doesn’t want to reveal that their worst weakness is not finishing a job on time, or habitually coming in late. Make sure you have references, and call them.

What may be more revealing are behavioral questions. Behavioral questions require a candidate to relate real situations, and demonstrate how their strengths and weaknesses are manifested on the job. For example, rather than asking a customer-service candidate to describe their people skills or problem-solving abilities, ask them to explain a recent problem or situation they experienced with a difficult customer and how they handled it.

This type of discussion can help you determine how the candidate approaches problem solving, and also generates a topic that you can ask the candidate’s references to comment on. As an example, did the reference see the situation similarly to the candidate?

Job interviews are stressful for both the potential employee AND the employer. A lot is riding on your decision, and you want to ask all the right questions so that you don’t end up with the wrong person. Think of it as a mini-marriage -- one that you don’t want to end in divorce!

Labels: Employee Interviews, Hiring Questions, Job Interview Techniques

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Clearly Written Business Emails - Thursday, June 3, 2010

I spend more time trying to understand business emails. This sounds funny coming from someone who teaches time management and effective business practices. I sure would like the opportunity to give a mini lesson to those out there who write emails that require multiple responses in order to get to the point.

As a recent example, someone asked me to give them a price on “some work”. That was all I got from the email, no details or explanation. We went back and forth on several emails before I had a good idea what the person wanted. The entire “question” took four days to answer, when I could easily have done it in fifteen minutes if the person had used TEA time: Tell, Explain, and Ask.

TEA time is the best example of clear communication, whether oral or written. T - Tell them what you want or what you want to discuss; E - explain the problem, project, issue, etc; and then A - ask for an action, decision, response.

When it comes to vendors I’d like to use, having to trade several emails just to obtain basic information from them makes me a little bit nervous about the quality of the product they might deliver. They are “dumping” their unprofessional manner on me, and I sure don’t want them “dumping” an unprofessional product on my clients.

Effective business correspondence should be a professional part of what you do. I’m here to help my clients maximize their time and dollars and hope that you have that same sense of dedication for your business. If you are operating your business with shorthand and guessing games when it comes to communication, then you are probably wasting more than you think. You are wasting time, money and clients.

Avoid flipping off a poorly defined question just to get the ball rolling and get it off your “to do” list. Don’t use shorthand and half-phrases in the business world; save all that for a personal text to your BFF.

Labels: business emails, effective communication

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