Massaker.Me

Instead of telling you what I think, I want to know what you all think. In a commodity type business, such as IT support, you look for any distinct advantage, any method of differentiation that you can to market your business. It’s tough because there are so many strategies. If you develop a new product or service that no one has in order to differentiate yourself, you will soon be copied and lose that edge. Re-bundle your services, same thing.

When I sat down with our customer advisory council about this, we were told our biggest distinction was our customer service. However, I am finding that difficult to market because I want the message to rise above the status of a platitude. When is the last time you went to a networking function only to hear people say the same old crap:

“We pride ourselves on customer service”

“We the most reliable, dependable, etc.”

blah, blah blah. It’s all talk unless you can prove it.

What I want to market, the story that I want to tell the world, is that we are the best at what we do. Something like:

“Everyone claims to have great customer service, but we can prove it!”

Some of the ideas I have had are:

• Promoting that we are the most recommended IT consulting firm on Linkedin.com (already using this)
• Customer Service Award from the Better Business Bureau or some other type of entity (we have a competitor that has done this

I’m not thrilled with the idea of awards because I think people today realize that many such awards are shallow victories. The chance of you winning an award these days seems to be more about who you know than actually possessing the merit to deserve the honor.

I need a way to prove that Carceron is the best at Customer service and I need a way to spread the word. Can you even market customer service?

P.S. If you have any other ideas around differentiation for a managed IT services business such as mine, I am all ears.

P.S.S. I’m not looking for a marketing consultant, so please don’t reply with a solicitation.

While I have written this in 1st person, I hope that I do not come across as being “bitchy”. This is a list of personal pet peaves that I suspect others share with me, coupled with common business sense.

1. Don’t hand me your business card unless I ask you for it. I promise to do the same. I meet a lot of people and if you’re someone that I don’t think I can help, or you can’t help me, or you can’t help someone I know, then what’s the point? We should be honest with one another. If you do force me to take a card, you’re getting added to my email marketing list and getting spammed – fair warning.
2. Don’t issue cheesy status updates to any of the various social media outlets (FaceBook, Linkedin, etc.). Make sure what you post is interesting enough to read. A good rule of thumb is the “So what” contest – if another person posted what you were going to post, would you say “So What?”. If so, it’s probably not a good post. I know the idea behind status updates and micro-blogging is to talk about what you’re doing right now – what they forget to add was “What are you doing right now, that is interesting to the people you are connected to?” Otherwise, I’m clicking the “hide” button. If my posts bore you, feel free to “Hide” me by all means. Here are some examples:
   • Good
     • I am at the Networking in ATL event at Sutra Lounge with Brandon Miltsch, owner of FireWolf (tells you where I am and who I am with, both of which might be of interest)
   • Bad
     • I’m going to ________   [mom's, bed, the toilet]
3. Don’t call me and try to sell me something the day after we have met. If I took the time to get to know you, I will have told you on the spot that we need to set a follow up appt to discuss your services or product. If I didn’t, and you want my business, then help me pay for what you want to sell me via a referral. This goes a long way. I promise to do the same (and already do).
4. Don’t send me invitations to cheesy FaceBook applications like “Snowball Fight” or Kidnap. These are annoying time wasters. ’nuff said.
5. Don’t hand me a brochure or any other kind of sales collateral at a networking function. Your business card will suffice. I assume that you have a web site if I need more information. If you don’t, I have a referral for you.
6. Don’t ask me to become a fan of or join a group related to something that is obviously not interesting or of benefit to me (e.g. cosmetics)
7. Don’t assume that I remember you if we’ve only met one time. Reintroduce yourself to me every time until we have had a 1:1 meeting, beers together or whatever. I promise to do the same. Again, I meet a lot of people (as you should be) and it is impossible to remember everyone after just one meeting in passing. (Exception: if you are someone important to the networking function I am at, i.e. chapter or associations president, etc.  – leadership has its perks)
8. Don’t connect to me on Linkedin with a free-mail email address as your primary contact email address. Freemail accounts are, for example: @yahoo.com, @gmail.com, @bellsouth.net, etc. (Exception: this only applies if you are a business owner. I understand the case for sales people to maintain control of their profiles with their personal email address? Also, this it is ok if you’re between jobs or retired)

As an owner of an IT company, I am constantly asked my opinion on allowing FaceBook (or other Web  2.0 platforms like MySpace) into the workplace. Like so many other things in life, the answer is that “it depends”. It depends primarily on who in the company is using it and also how your company is structured.

Let’s start with the “who” should be using it: anyone in marketing, sales, or most management – assuming that they use it to some extent for business purposes and that your business is suitable for use on a social media platform. If you manufacture skateboards or provide marketing services, you should be using FaceBook. If you’re a defense contractor… not so much. FaceBook and other social mediums are becoming more used as the de facto communication tool, so allowing these platforms to be used by people in business development makes sense. As of this writing, I am guessing that a full 20% of my own business communications are going through FaceBook or Linkedin.

If your company is structured as a performance-only culture, then I say “Open the flood gates!”. By performance-only culture I mean that every single employee’s salary is somehow affected by incentives and/or commission based on performance metrics. In this case, FaceBook should not make a difference since all that matters is putting scores on the board (who cares how it is done short of breaking the law). Incidentally, this is crucial for employees that telework as you do not have any ability to block computers on their home network from accessing these sites.

Since I have told you “who” and “what types of companies” you should allow, here is the “why”: Blame it on the millennials. This generation wants to work from wherever during whatever hours they want and the ability to collaborate easily which is what tools like FaceBook provide. In the end it is all about collaboration, very current information, and staying “in front” of one another. Social media is a great place to announce events, post blog article links, links to other useful resources and to show a more human side of you if you’re willing to open up a little. Why is the latter important? Because people buy from people, not from companies – unless you’re just that well branded.

My company, Carceron, has allowed FaceBook because it is a medium we sometimes communicate on and also a medium we communicate to customers and fans with on our Carceron fan page.

In summary, there is no one size fits all answers to this question. Seek expert advice from experts in information technology, especially those in security.

Side Note: For those of you not aware of how web sites are blocked, many solutions exist that allow a business to block specific web sites like FaceBook, as well as generic web sites by category, such as: pornography, hate groups, etc. This is usually done by a small investment in a higher level firewall, such as a SonicWall, with a content management subscription. If that does not provide enough security, there is software that can monitor and record everything a user does. SpectorSoft makes such a product and is the solution of choice for Carceron.