Monday, July 28, 2014

How Small is your Community

I can remember growing up in what I thought was a small Central Texas town called Harker Heights.  You know, the type of community where you would walk out of the house around 8 AM after breakfast with the family and then be home before it got dark just in time to have dinner with the same kin.  I knew everyone in a 3 mile radius (at least that is how far I would ride my bike daily in all different directions).  On Sundays I saw the same 150 people in Church.  During school, I played with the same kids on the playground.  A big event would be the “new kid” that entered school.  Every Saturday, I was at some sporting event, whether it was a game I played in or one that my sisters competed in.  During dinner time, as my family and I sat around the wooden table breaking bread; I would hear about vacations, deaths, births and typical events that others in the community were experiencing.  It became even more exciting when I visited my Aunt who was always more than happy to share all of the plights, trials and tribulations that our extended family and friends were experiencing.

This was a time that the nightly news came on at 5 PM and then again at 10 PM.  You had to make a phone call pressing buttons on a home phone.  The cord would restrict your movement and if you didn’t memorize the number you would have to look it up in a big book.  There were 12 channels on the TV in the family room.  If your parents didn’t pay for HBO which came out in 1972, you had to squint your eyes to watch in on the fuzzy channel 2 (in my case, I would see a movie I wasn’t supposed to watch and go to my friend’s house across the street to watch it.) Some households still had black and white TV’s like the one that sat on my dresser in my room.  ATARI was about 6 years old and Donkey Kong was the craze.  However, we only played it at dark because there was too much going on during the day.

Now my father was a principal and we moved to several different towns throughout the state of Texas.  We started out in Harker Heights (a smaller town outside of Killeen, Texas) then moved to an even smaller town in North Texas called Valley View where the elementary, middle school and high school were all in one building.  From there my family moved to Gainesville, then Denton, and finally settled in the historical town of Kilgore.  Each town was the same.  I made friends in school and church.  Once we moved, I started all over again and made more friends in another community.

Although technology hadn’t invented the cell phone, satellite radio or all of the other instantaneous satisfactions we have today; I was completely informed of what was going on every day.

Today I live in a suburb just outside of Dallas, Texas and not much has changed in my small community!
However, my community is NOT Rockwall, Texas where I live today that I am talking about here.  Sure, there are parts of Rockwall that are my community, but that is only where I lay my head at night.  I will explain further how I have come to this realization.

My community is very small.

Recently, I spent a month on a farm my wife and I just purchased in Northern Michigan.  I was very apprehensive about spending such a long time away from all of my electronic devices that allow me to work and communicate with the world in the same fashion I have become accustom to.  If truth be told, I think I was the most worried that I wouldn’t have access to a 24 hour news station that kept me up to date with what was happening in the world.  (The town we bought the farm has a population of less than 500 people, no cell towers within an hour and very poor internet connection.)  With a simple purchase of a Verizon JetPack; I found out how small my current community really is but how informative they can be.

Today I noticed ten birthdays, a couple of family members enjoying a beer in Ireland, one of my son’s coaches daughters getting married, my sons friend playing with a Lion in Florida, my wife’s friend sharing her determination in losing the “baby fat” from her recent delivery, several comments about how it is Monday, a friend told me they don’t like Fake People, one of my daughter’s teachers was collecting backpacks for children in Nairobi, and a college buddy of mine  whom I haven’t seen in person in years playing volleyball in his pool.

Yesterday, a former colleague of mine text me.  Now this may not seem like much but we hadn’t talked directly for over 10 years and we knew everything about each other like we had worked together daily.  We didn’t have to carry on a whole lot through text because we knew how our families were doing, what ventures we were up to and all of the experiences that have happened to each other over the last decade.

I can even tell you right now that my childhood best friend who I met in Kindergarten is spending the week in Pikes Peak, has an highly trained chocolate lab, a kid who celebrated his birthday a couple of months ago and is deeply in love with his beautiful wife.  Again, might not seem significant except the last time I talked with him in person was the 5th grade and that was only because I visited him when he moved off to Virginia from Harker Heights.

Yet, my community is very small.

You see Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr and so many other social media sites allow us to experience the day to day lives of people we have come into contact with.  We are able to see kids grow up and get married, enjoy in their successes and consul during tough times.  Social Media has allowed each of us to develop our own personal communities just like the one I grew up in as a child.  Although we have jobs, kids and other life obligations that keep us from talking in person or seeing some of our oldest friends; we are still able to keep them as a daily part of our lives.  My personal community is built of the best of old colleagues and friends from every place I have been employed or lived.  It continues to grow, but only at a pace I allow it to grow.

My community is small compared to many on Facebook as it only consist of 532 people which is just a little larger than the small township our farm resides on in Northern Michigan.  However, it is my community, and the great thing about my community is I can retreat back to it anytime the everyday stresses start to mount.

For more information on how you can utilize Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest or other social media sites into your business community visit DeliveryMaxx at http://www.deliverymaxx.com or contact 888.936.6299.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Why Is Utilizing Social Media in Customer Service Important?

Some people may find this hard to believe, but even today in the year 2014; I’ve routinely heard customer service representatives refer to social media as a “fad”.  A surprising number of business professionals put next to zero value in managing online social media accounts because they fail to see its importance.

I would like to share with you something I learned Sunday evening: There’s a branch of Avis/Budget car rentals in Portland Oregon that provides awful customer service.  Wait actually I can be even more specific.  The branch is the one on Washington Street, and the awful customer service is taking rental car reservations despite having zero cars on the lot.  Not specific enough?  The woman at the desk actually yells at the customers, “It’s not our fault we ran out of cars!”  Oh, and her name is Ursula.

You probably think that in order for me to know all of these details I must be that customer who was yelled at.  Nope.  Well, then the customer must be a close friend or a family member.  Nope.   Perhaps, I’m a close friend of Ursula.  Nope.  Well, maybe I’m actually Ursula and this is some sort of confession.  Nope.   Actually, I don’t know the customer or anyone involved personally, nor have I have ever even been to Portland…or Oregon…or a state that borders Oregon.  Also, I’ve never dealt with any branch of Avis or Budget – I’ve actually never rented a car and I didn’t learn this information while searching for anything remotely related to renting a car.  I read about the customer’s horrible experience looking at my Twitter feed.
That’s a screenshot of just one of an entire slew of Tweets from comic book writer of Batgirl, Gail Simone.  She detailed her entire experience Sunday evening on Twitter for her 52,000 followers to see.  And as you can see above this tweet received 14 re-tweets and 52 favorites.  Each snippet of her experience has similar or greater than share numbers.  That means that the original 52,000 followers that the tweets were shared with are now extending further beyond her network to followers of followers and so on.  As a comic book writer, Gail Simone doesn’t have millions of followers like big-name celebrities, but the effects are evident.  It’s probably a good thing a big-name celebrity never complains about a business online.
Oops, maybe they do.  Now, these are extreme examples, if you’re running a local business odds are Will Smith isn’t going to come by and then follow up his visit by slamming you on social media.  However, the average person has over 250 people in their personal networks.  And if one or two per week are complaining about you online, it doesn’t take very many weeks to cripple your business.  And as you can see, complaints aren’t just going to review sites such as Yelp or Google.  Each day the number of users on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, etc. are growing exponentially.  And if you handle your business and online reputation the correct way, customers on these sites will be telling their hundreds of friends how great you are!
Above is an example from Gail Simone the same evening after her ordeal was resolved by another branch and you can see people are perfectly happy to favorite and share the good opinions of your business as much as they do with the bad.  This is why there’s no need to view Social Media as a hassle, because the reality is proper management can turn Social Media into the best thing that’s ever happened to your business.

DeliveryMaxx is a full digital service provider for Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimization, and complete Content Management program.  Their Patent-Pending Program cannot be duplicated and gives their family of clients a competitive advantage.  Clients include automotive dealerships, attorneys, church organizations, non-profits, hotels & hospitality and many more.   For more information visit http://www.deliverymaxx.com or contact 888.936.6299.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Five Steps to Controlling your Online Reputation

When I was a kid, my southern Baptist Preacher father used to tell me I could never outrun my reputation.  I wasn’t the fastest kid around, but Jesse Owen, Carl Lewis, and Usain Bolt can’t outrun their reputation either.  Now with Social Media and hundreds of Online Review Sites- this fact is more real than ever; especially for businesses.
Today, ninety percent (90%) of all buying decisions are made before customers ever contact the business or organization they are interested in.  That means Automotive Dealerships, Churches, Attorneys, Real Estate Agents and any other business you can think of is not immune from anyone with a PC, tablet, or smartphone from sharing their experience perceived or otherwise about your organization.

So how do you make sure your Online Reputation reflects the real story that you want your potential customers to see?  The following steps to having a great Online Reputation is easier than you might think.


  1. Provide a great product or service.  Yes, we all know that sometimes you will not be able to satisfy the most arduous consumer.  Later in this article we will discuss this point.  However, most consumers when making a purchase expect their product or service to perform as advertised.  If this happens 100% of the time then usually your reputation will be strong.
  2. Thank your customer.  By letting your customer know that you know they have choices and you appreciate their business you have taken one of the easiest steps available.  It is a fact.  You are not the only game in town.  Consumers have more choices than ever, and they know this.  Let your customer know that you are happy to have earned their business every chance you get.
  3. Give your Customers a Chance to Talk.  Now, most people do not go home and take the time to write a great review.  (Some customers do, but most don’t).  Most Online Reviews are written by individuals who feel they did not get the treatment or value from the business they patronized.  Usually businesses never know that this customer was unhappy until the review has been posted for the world to see.  This will happen to the best of companies or organizations.  So, if you have taken care of Point Number 1 and Point Number 2 then you will not have to worry about many negative reviews posting on your personal review sites.  However, you must ask your happy customers to share their wonderful experience online.  In general, customers would love to share their great experience if it is easy and convenient as long as the first two points happen.  If you are receiving ten positive reviews for every one negative post then your Online Reputation will be solid.
  4. Respond to all.  Businesses and organizations should respond to every review.  All too often, most reviews are never acknowledge online in a public forum.  Take the time to thank the customer for taking the time to write the review.  Second, address the information (both positive and negative) in each review.  That means you must read the review.  It shows you care.  Do NOT post a generic response because you are telling the world that you really do not care about the time your customer took to share their experience.  Do not just respond to negative reviews or to only the positive reviews.  This also sends a poor message to the group of consumers you are not responding to.
  5. Social Media is also Online Reputation.  Understand that your Online Reputation is not only expressed on review sites such as Google, Yelp, CitySearch and others.  Your reputation is anything and everything that is posted online.  That means Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress and other Social Media Sites also hold the keys to your Online Reputation.  Businesses must have a plan to understand and work their social media network.  A recent blog; ‘Is your business Social’ shares the importance of understanding how to allow use Social Media to improve your business.  It is very important to blend both Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation together to help share your story with the world.

Now unless your digital legs are stronger than the most tested athletes of all-time than you will need to place your efforts into Online Reputation because you cannot run from it.  Since the beginning of time, reputation is everything and your business has to have a plan.  As you have just read, it isn’t hard to understand what to do about managing your Online Reputation.  You just have to do it, and have the right plan of action.

DeliveryMaxx is a full digital service provider for Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimization, and complete Content Management program.  Their Patent-Pending Program cannot be duplicated and gives their family of clients a competitive advantage.  Clients include automotive dealerships, attorneys, church organizations, non-profits, hotels & hospitality and many more.   For more information visit http://www.deliverymaxx.com or contact 888.936.6299.