Q & A: Success in the Digital Age

Success in the digital age relies on many things. You have to think different and act differently than in age’s past. Consumers have all the power, and it’s up to companies to respond and react to what consumers want.

You need to be Q & A. Quick and Agile.

I know, I know, not what you were expecting when you saw the title of this post. But it’s better than a question and answer, it’s just a perfect answer.

Quickness and agility are the two biggest factors to success for your company…in all areas.

Your marketing needs to be quick to change and update based on new trends or product releases. Your social media team needs to be quick to respond to public comments or questions. Your customer service team needs to have the quickness to answer inquiries on time and the agility to come up with creative solutions for customers who need them.

Slow companies are struggling in today’s business climate. Whether they’re slow to react to a crisis, slow to change course after a misstep, slow to answer questions from potential customers, or slow to offer discounts and specials when their competitors are already doing so.

Small companies benefit from a natural ability to be quick and agile. It’s time that larger companies follow suit.

Q & A, it’s your new mantra.

How to Incentivize Everything: Series Recap

When you want something done right, do it yourself.

That way of thinking is the quickest way I know to collapse under the stress of doing business, quit, shut it down, and go insane. In the business world, if you want something done right, I say incentivize it.

Adding incentives is a great way to get people to perform a certain way, say or do something that you want in order to help your business. And that was the entire basis of my blog series, Incentivize Everything!

In preparing to reboot this series, I thought I’d start by sharing where we’ve been. Below are seven posts written last year on different ways to incentivize employees, customers, and the consumer market in general.

• Incentivize Everything! New Hires
• Incentivize Everything! New Customers
• Incentivize Everything! Product Evangelists
• Incentivize Everything! Customer Loyalty
• Incentivize Everything! Consumer Feedback
• Incentivize Everything! Fans and Followers
• Incentivize Everything! Innovation

Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Who wants to start?

The Key to Success = Know Your Role

The other day I went to pick up my laundry at the Laundromat. It was something I’d done many times before. This time, when I went to pay, the guy behind the counter could not make change. He suggested I go down the street to the deli to make change and come back before he could give me my laundry. My first instinct was to be frustrated with that kind of service.

How on earth could you not have enough cash on hand to make change for your customers? Why are there places that still do not accept credit cards? I want my laundry!

But as I took the 30 second stroll to the deli, I was able to catch myself.

I don’t go to this Laundromat over any other because of the quality of service. I don’t choose them because they always have the best operations, or their efficiency, or their (lack of) credit card reader. I choose them because they are the closest to my apartment, and they are cheap. And those two facts have not changed.

It’s important when you are responsible for running a business to remember why people are choosing you. Why are your customers coming in the first time? Why are they returning?

Sure, it’s nice to go out of your way to make your business better, smoother, more efficient, more helpful. But it’s not always necessary. If you are the cheapest, be the cheapest. If you are the friendliest, be the friendliest. Know your role, and own it.