Articles

How hard is it to understand that everyone who reads your newsletter
.. in print or on line..
does NOT know your address?

This is a rant based on  three invitations of sorts, two in print and one on line. None of these inviations included important information about where to go!

Oh, I’d like to tell somebody where to go, but that’s a different story.

First:
Earlier this month we received the Harrisburg Magazine’s annual “Best Of” issue—including all the places that residents voted as the best places to do or get something.

And not a one of those beautiful full page promotions gave an address or a phone number. I wrote to the publisher to ask if that information was somehow classified for only “real residents,” to keep it all secret from the new comers? No reply. Sheesh.

Second:
Then there was the printed quarterly newsletter of the township where we live. We don’t live in the actual town, we live in the woods NEAR the town. But the town is the closest place with a post office and a pizza place.

They’re having a Halloween tour at their historical society. But no address. And heck, because we’re new and don’t live in the actual town, the picture of the building just wasn’t enough. A link to their website would have helped a lot!

Third:
An on line newsletter for the Hershey Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America (which is a very big deal event in old car circles around here in Pennsylvania. Quoted from the top of the email:

If you’ve never been to the Hershey Fall Meet, make this year your first. You will be amazed by the size of the show, the cars you see, the people you meet and the memories you make!

Buried about half way down this VERY long publication with info about voting and parties, I believe I found the dates, the actual address is a big sketchier.

There’s nothing worse than planning a big event and nobody shows up, simply because they didn’t know where to go!

Remember the simple Who, What, Where and When questions that belong at the top of what ever you write.

1. Who is sponsoring this event?
2. What is it? Tour, garage sale, fund raiser, church service, big party?
3. Where will it be? That’s an address, people!
4. When? Date and time
5. And perhaps most important for events you want people to PAY to attend, include the FREAKIN’ PRICE!

When you’ve included all that information at the top of your article or invitation, then writing the call to action is pretty easy.

Call to action:
Remember: People tend to do what you tell them, and do it without thinking.

So say: Call, visit, email… whatever you want them to DO!

Don’t say, please consider… blah blah blah.

You want me to consider something? I’ll do it later, maybe in the tub or while I’m driving someplace and can’t actually DO anything you asked.
Include a contact phone number, email address, or web address for more information

Get the most from your members’ address books, email or otherwise, supply them with the specifics above.

Write the copy for them.

Supply the pictures.

Make it a copy-and-paste job so it’s easy to share the important details.

The people who get the info will be able to decide what you want them to do! And then maybe actually DO IT!

What do you think is missing from invitations you’re seeing these days?  Give me something else to get ramped up about!

From polite and not so polite complainers

Often complaints can be the impetus to
fix a giant mistake or just
make an better experience for the next customer

If you have been in business for more than 20 minutes, somebody has probably complained about something you did or did not do right.

How you handle these suggestions can affect the progress you and/or your business will make.

A stereotypical grandmother will probably tell you that your garden is lovely even if it’s really not. She’s being polite or perhaps, she thinks, encouraging.

A master gardener will tell you if a plant is invasive or just not suited to your area.

But let’s say your grandmother IS a master gardener. She will tell you that you can’t grow palm trees in Boston. She’ll keep coming to visit and she’ll keeps trying to tell you what’s not working in your garden.

If you’re not smart, you grumble to your friends about that “idiot old woman” who can never be satisfied with what you’re trying to do.

If you are smart, you listen to her advice and find something else that will grow better in your yard.

Further, I’m just guessing that this lovely kind grandmother will continue for some time to help you with your plans. Sometimes, perhaps she’ll be less patient with your efforts. But you know she was right about the palm trees so you keep trying to hear her points.

But if you don’t acknowledge her expertise, or say, at the very least, thank you, she’ll quit poking her nose in your business.

You might be happy about that because it’s way easier to not be annoyed with all the “help.”

On the other hand, your Boston neighbors will laugh hysterically when at your palm trees fall over in the snow and die.

How many Dear Abbey columns have you read where the grandmother says, “I’m just not sending any more checks. The kid never says thank you!”

What’s this rant about?
The folly of ignoring the expertise of outsiders by a business or organization

Sometimes the person complaining, we’ll call that person Gene, has no tact at all and calls the organization to task on obvious missteps. Leadership feels their collective blood boil when they see a comment from Gene. In an all too human way, they just want to shut Gene up and avoid any confrontation.

So they miss the jewel of wisdom in the conversation.

Sometimes the person complaining, we’ll call that person Kelsey, has a good history with the organization, specific needed skills and a habit of knowing when things won’t go as planned. Kesley has a bit more tact than Gene, but the longer Kelsey’s contributions are ignored, the less generous Kelsey is with advice.

Not everyone has the skill or social grace to criticize constructively.
But by ignoring the information, in either case, the organization suffers.

Don’t miss the message for the attitude

Some people will say that complaints written in email tend to be overly blunt, that the reader can’t always hear the intended tone of the writer.

However, the advantage of email is that the reader CAN take a few minutes to get past the rant and find the jewel in the pile of doo-doo and then, take a high road in response.

If the master gardener says you can’t grow palm trees in Boston, ask for suggestions of what you could grow to give you the same feel of height or architectural interest that you were aiming for.

If someone complains about your website, ask for specific things you should consider doing.

Do a little research over the suggestions. The Great Google knows everything. And without too much investment of time, you could find support for the suggestion or a different way to address the issue.

Photo credit: by: Ian Britton at FreeFoto.com

Good feedback is
like a warm blanket on a cold day.

It makes me feel safe and warm and cared-for. And I hope the warm fuzzies transfer to new people who might be thinking about working with me.

But what if you don’t have any actual written feedback?

It’s remarkably easy to get it. Just ask for it.

A good time to do that is before you’re all the way finished with a project, when you client is excited about what’s happening.

That’s not to imply they won’t still be happy later, but in the middle of the project, you are top-of-mind for the client. Later, they may be on to something else and, much as we don’t like to think it’s the truth, they probably forget about you.

When you’re asking remind them, too, that you don’t want a letter of recommendation, just a few words that describe the relationship and what they get from it.

Remember, if it’s your plan to share the feedback on your website or in a brochure, nobody will read a long letter anyway.  So when you’re publishing, bold the important part of the comment. That will help visitors get the salient points and skip over the extra words.

Alexandra Franzen posted over at Mashable a great piece on helping people give useful feedback.

She says if you can give people at least a starting point, they’re more likely to give you what you want and need.

She lists great prompts for good feedback, the kind you want your mother (or possible clients) to see. Like:

I’m constantly impressed by the way [your name here] handles problems like ___.

And then there’s also the other kind of feedback.

They kind that points out where you’ve messed up or didn’t complete something exactly like the client thought. That’s the kind we wish we didn’t have to hear.

HOWEVER, it can be the most useful of all.  Think about it:  If nobody tells you you have spinach in your teeth, how would you ever know?  And once you do, it’s easy to fix.

So she lists some prompts like:

 The most challenging thing about working with [your name here] is ___.

If you ask for feedback, you have to be ready to receive even the negative kind.

And not with an excuse or even a reason. It’s more useful for you and more respectful to the client if you ask: How do you think I could fix that?

Do you have some other prompts for getting feed back?

OR if you’d like to write something about working with me, I’d be really happy about that!

Photo credit: JessicaGale from morguefile.com