Trafcom News

Communicating food recalls to consumers

I dashed out this afternoon to pick up a few groceries, and found myself wandering the aisles because I could not find a product that I buy regularly: PC Brand Organics Quinoa. (Readers in certain parts of Canada know the President’s Choice or PC brand well. For the rest of you, it’s a very popular in-house brand sold by several retailers within a chain.)

I found a clerk who had no idea what quinoa was, but who was willing to find out where it was now located in the store. The good news: She quickly found the answer. The bad news: The product had been recalled. There was a sign on the shelf, but it was oriented toward store clerks, not customers. It said: “Recall. Do not restock,” with the product name in tiny letters.

Back home, I phoned Loblaw’s and got through to the customer service department right away (kudos to Loblaw’s for not putting me on hold). A cheery woman named Jennifer investigated the matter and let me know that sand had been found in the product, hence the recall. The box I already had at home was included in the recall, according to the bar code.

I asked: How would I as a customer find out about a recall like this? Other than happening to see a sign in the store, how would I know? In this case, I missed the sign entirely on several forays down the aisle because not only had the product been recalled, but its regular shelf spot had been moved to a different aisle.

I shudder to think of people consuming sand – or worse – in recalled products.

Is there an email notification list that customers could sign up for? No. But Jennifer agreed it was a good idea.

Why not a mailing list to let me know of new products, recipes and so on, in addition to recalls?

Looks like a great opportunity for a grocery chain.

By the way, I checked online and found a website for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but the quinoa product was not listed anywhere. I suspect the problem was not found by the feds. However, you can sign up for email or RSS or Twitter alerts on this site so that you can be notified of recalls.

How to stay top of mind

Does everyone know what you do? How do you remind them?

Listen here for an audio version of this post.

Trafcom News: How to stay stop of mind by donnapapacosta

I received an email yesterday that made me sad. It was from someone whose name I didn’t recognize, but I opened it because of the subject line. It was a plea for work. Apparently I’d crossed paths with this fellow at some point – me and about 40 other people whose names he put in the “TO” line. But let’s forget about this email etiquette breach. The important thing is this: He – let’s call him Joe -- was pleading for more business because things were too slow for him to keep his independent communications practice open.

That’s sad.
What’s even worse is that about a month ago, a colleague of mine was looking for someone with the precise expertise that Joe possesses. At the time, I wracked my brains, trying to remember if I knew anyone who was an expert in this niche. A search through my brain, my database and LinkedIn turned up nothing. No Joe.

Joe did not come to mind. And do you know why? Because even though we’d crossed paths at some point, he didn’t keep in touch. He didn’t ask to put me on his mailing list. He never offered me a newsletter. He didn’t have a blog – not one that I knew of, anyway. He wasn’t active on LinkedIn. Oh, and I just checked: He has a Twitter feed, with about four updates in the last three months.

So after Joe and I had that initial interaction – whatever it was – for all intents and purposes he disappeared into the ether, from my point of view.

As independents, we are always at risk of disappearing. Or falling off the ends of the earth. Or whatever doomsday metaphor you prefer.

So how do you save yourself from Joe’s fate?

1. First, of course, you have to do great work, so that clients will hire you repeatedly, and they will tell their colleagues about you.
2. Publish a regular newsletter of tips and information of value to your clients and prospects. Invite people to subscribe to it. Don’t spam them!
3. Start a blog; write posts related to your industry. Invite clients and colleagues to read your blog. Comment on blogs by people you admire.
4. Start a Twitter account; follow people who are important in your field, and post your own helpful updates.
5. Listen to podcasts related to your industry; submit comments to those podcasts.
6. Curate content that would be of interest to your clients and prospects; link to this content in your blog and on Twitter. Do this on GooglePlus, too.
7. Keep in touch with your clients on a regular basis by sending them a link to an interesting article or blog post that you’ve come across. All you have to say is: “Hello, Mary. I saw this piece in the Economist and I thought of you. I hope all is well. Please keep in touch.” That’s it. If you’re afraid of being pushy, don’t worry. You don’t have to be pushy.

The goal is to be top of mind so that you don’t have to send out a desperate plea as Joe has resorted to.

Don’t be him. Make yourself top of mind.

Of course there are many other marketing tactics that independents can use. But I think all of these that I’ve mentioned could have been helpful to Joe or to any writer, editor or communications or PR consultant. What would you add?

For more content like this, follow me on Twitter or GooglePlus.

Related post: Don't be shy about following up.

Don’t be shy about following up

Audio version below

This morning I was speaking with a fellow independent communicator about the subject of following up. Sometimes we indies fall into the trap of responding to a request for a quote, and then forgetting all about it. You get busy. Stuff happens.

In my experience, clients appreciate your following up, for a couple of reasons:

1. Your quotation may have gone astray. This happened to me this afternoon. I had sent a proposal on March 25. The prospect phoned today, March 31, to say she had just found it in her junk folder. If I had followed up, she would have been alerted to the presence of my precious message among offers for malehood enhancement.
2. The client may truly want to move ahead on the project, but is bogged down with other priorities. So, your follow-up call helps her to stay on track with her project.

My favourite way to follow up is by phone. These days, email is so ubiquitous that a phone call stands out. And if your original email got trapped in Spam Land, what makes you believe that your follow-up note won’t suffer the same fate? In the call, I don’t want to badger the person by saying what might be on my mind: “Hey, have you read the proposal that I spent six hours on? Huh, didja?

No, instead I say something like: “I was wondering if you’ve had a chance to look at my proposal for your podcast project. April is looking pretty busy, and I wanted to be sure to set aside time for you.” In this way, you’re seen as helpful, not pushy. And of course, in your heart of hearts, you do want to function as an important resource for your client, right?

So please don’t be afraid to follow up. Even when you’re busy.

Here's an audio version of this post. Note, if you want to download it, click on the "down" arrow in the player.

Following-up by donnapapacosta ;

IABC/Toronto Communicator of the Year

Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING DIRECT Canada, received the 2010 Communicator of the Year  award from IABC/Toronto this morning at a ceremony downtown. ING DIRECT Canada is the largest direct bank in the country.

If you’ve seen Mr. Aceto in one of his videos or read his tweets, you know that “what you see is what you get.” He carries this sense of transparency in all of his communications.

Powered by two lovely cups of coffee, I’ve captured some of his remarks for you.

Truly a “social CEO,” Peter Aceto places the highest value on communications and connecting with people, referring to this strength as the biggest predictor of leadership success. Of course a CEO must be concerned with profit, but he contends that the leader must also be held accountable for valuing people and communications, for behaving responsibly, for providing value and service, and for always telling the truth. “Communications will become the most valued leadership skill in five years,” he predicted.

To be effective, messages must be simple, transparent and honest. He believes that there’s no longer a need to communicate differently to different stakeholders.

Throughout his speech, Peter Aceto emphasized the excellent contributions of his team at ING DIRECT Canada (some of whom were in the room – along with his wife and mother), and introduced a few of the staffers who so capably handle internal and external communications.

He reminded us that communication occurs when the message is understood, not just when it’s disseminated.  He then shared a story of one time within the bank when leadership assumed that all employees were aware of a new program. Thanks to Peter’s brown-bag lunches with call centre and operations staff, he discovered that this wasn’t the case, and that employee communications needed to be improved in this particular area.

When asked about internal communications, Mr. Aceto told us that the bank has recently implemented Yammer, an internal Twitter-like micro-messaging tool. “It’s important for us to hear what people within the organization really care about,” he said.  

Responding to a question about the time he himself devotes to social media, he said: “We know that social media is not going away. We need to be there, to be a part of the conversation.” He cited the example of ING DIRECT Canada’s new Thrive account. “Online we’re getting direct feedback from people, from customers,” he said. The public responds through social media much more easily and quickly than they would by email or letter.

All the IABC/Toronto members I spoke with were impressed with Peter Aceto’s passion for his work and his dedication to constantly improving as a communicator.

We were also inspired by a speech by Priya Bates, ABC, who has been named a Master Communicator, the highest honour bestowed by IABC in Canada. Congratulations, Priya!

Thanks to the organizers of IABC/Toronto for this worthwhile morning, and to the event sponsor, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.

If you’re not going to check your sites, then don’t bother with social media

My friend Dave Howlett once suggested that people wouldn’t have pet peeves if they stopped feeding their pets. (I’m paraphrasing.) Dave is right; in a perfect world, I wouldn’t let anything bother me.

Well, I’m still working on being perfect (ha!), but I do need to get something off my chest. Here goes: Increasingly, I’m coming across Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, blogs and other social media presence points that have been created by organizations and then seemingly abandoned.*

Just imagine a customer or prospect being interested enough to post a comment to your blog or Facebook page, and then being ignored. This is the equivalent of never returning phone calls or answering emails.

So what’s the answer? Do not create a social media site if you don’t have the resources to maintain it and to monitor it. Simple, right?

When I work with my clients, I try to help them to understand the conversational aspect of social media – the give and take, the exchange of ideas, indeed the social aspect. Unfortunately, too many people still view social media as a broadcast mechanism, a way to shove content out into the world. This approach just does not work.

Thanks, I feel better.

(*UPDATE: I haven't even addressed the scourge of spam left on blog posts and FB pages because admins don't even know it's there. Sigh.)

Air Canada, you missed a chance to help us root for you

Online denizens know the story of Air Canada and Tanner’s wheelchair, which set Twitter ablaze last week. It even hit the mainstream media. Air Canada is a popular whipping boy in this country, but they missed a perfect opportunity to let us cheer for them. If the airliner had had an active Twitter presence, they could have shown us that they were hard at work to repair and/or replace Tanner’s special power wheelchair. Instead their Twitter account just made them appear clueless on August 4.

In fact, a squatter has the name “Air Canada” on Twitter. Why doesn’t the airline claim this handle?

Some commenters in the mainstream media noted that it’s not fair to expect a company to respond immediately. I disagree. Today, organizations must act quickly in a storm. If the situation can’t be resolved in an instant, that’s understandable. JUST TELL US WHAT you’re doing. Imagine if Air Canada’s Twitter stream had content like this on August 4:

We’re sorry that Tanner’s wheelchair was damaged. We are trying to find a 24-hour repair shop.
OR
We are doing everything we can to replace or repair Tanner’s special power wheelchair as soon as possible.

Instead, it was silent until almost noon on August 5, leaving the Twitterati to wonder if Air Canada was doing anything at all to help this child to regain his mobility.

In the end, the story had a happy ending: Tanner got his chair and Air Canada announced it would send the child and his cousins to Disneyworld.

In today’s online environment, companies not only have to do the right thing; they also have to be SEEN doing the right thing.

Air Canada, I really wanted to cheer for you this time. Next time, let me, OK?

Social media case studies online

Tod Maffin has put together a terrific resource for people interested in social media tactics in action.

Check out Case Studies Online, now in beta testing. I like the feature that allows you to search by demographic or industry or tactic. As this site evolves, it could become the go-to resource for marketers and others using social media.

Are you easy?

A few weeks ago, a client and I were working feverishly to finish a high-priority multimedia project when she remarked: “You make it so easy to work with you.” Later, when we were able to take a break, we talked about why she made this statement. You see, she had been working with several suppliers on this project, and a few of them were NOT making the job easy. For example:

• One guy didn’t know how to “get his email to work” while using the wireless network at the  client’s location. The whole team needed to work quickly and efficiently, and he was failing on both counts.
• Another supplier wanted to burn DVDs of multimedia content rather than FTP these large files. Truth be told, he didn’t know how to use FTP. I’m not sure he’d ever heard those three letters strung together.

I’m sure you can pick examples from your own experience: the person who truly doesn’t know how to search with Google (my friends on Twitter were joking about this recently, but believe me, I know people like this!); the supposed professional who types URLs in a search box;  the guy who looks quizzical when you say “RSS,” and the nice lady in the next cubicle who has no idea how to transfer photos from camera to PC.

And you know what? This is not an age thing. One of the most technically savvy people I know is 60 years old, and one of the most technically challenged is just 25.

Getting back to making it easy to work with  your clients… may I share a few tips from my two decades (and counting) of experience?

1. Ask how your client prefers to communicate. Some hate email; others abhor the phone. Find out what they like and then use that method whenever possible.
2. Set up your office so that you can easily transfer files, whether it’s via FTP or a service like YouSendIt. Put your fax machine in mothballs, unless you have a client who clings to fax transmissions.
3. Learn how to exploit the power of your computer, whether it’s  PC, Mac or Linux box (although chances are, if you’re running Linux, you’re pretty geeky, right?). Mac users can sign up for very inexpensive private tutorials at their local Apple store. For people on any platform, there are loads of free resources online.
4. Try to keep up with new software and technical developments so that you’re not mired in a time warp. If you feel stuck in 2002, start by reading David Pogue’s Circuits column in the New York Times. If you work in PR and communications, listen to For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report.
5. Always be clear about deliverables and timelines. Most problems occur because of misunderstandings about what’s due when.
6. Be easy to reach. This does not mean that you need to be accessible 24/7. I don’t give out my mobile phone number, but my clients know they can send an email or leave a message on my office line at any time, and I’ll get back to them quickly.

What tips would YOU add?

Solve, don’t sell

One of the things I’m enjoying most about podcasting my client’s conference in Vegas is the people I’m meeting. You see, this is an internally focused event for sales people and resellers (which is why I can’t share any of the audio content we’re creating – sorry). In conversations with these top performers, I’m hearing a recurring theme: Don’t try to sell your product or service; instead, work hard to solve your customers’ problems.

In an address to 3,000 people this morning, the CEO of my client’s organization cited one example after another of success stories that happened only because someone looked at the long-term relationship with the client (not just this quarter’s sales figures), listened carefully,  and then  asked, “How can we help solve this customer’s business problems?”

Especially in this economy, clients and prospects want to know: “Do you understand us? Are you listening? Can you help?” And if you’re positioned to be that person who listens and understands, you’re golden.

Photo: Indoor waterfall at the Palazzo Hotel.

Why don’t sales guys know about Google?

Several encounters with sales people over the past few weeks have convinced me that there’s a gaping hole in their knowledge about simple online tools.

Here’s just one example: The other day I received a call from someone who apparently was phoning every member of the local chamber of commerce. The conversation went something like this:

Sales guy: Hi Donna, I’m Doug F----- of the ------ Company. We sell learning solutions.
Me: Uh huh.
Sales guy: So what do you do there at Trafalgar Communications?
Me: I guess you haven’t had time to look at my Web site.
Sales guy: Uh, no.
Me: Well, here at Trafalgar Communications we do mainly employee and marketing communications using both print and  online content, including audio and video. I don’t have a need for learning solutions right now.
Sales guy: Well, is there something you’re interested in learning more about? How about productivity training?
Me: No, not really.
Sales guy (with an air of desperation): Well, is there some software you want to learn?
Me (feeling sorry for the guy): Sure. Final Cut.
Sales guy: Hold on, let me check on that.
Sales guy (after a long pause): No, we don’t have any courses in First Cut.
(I guess he thinks I want to be a barber.)
Me: Well, Doug, it’s been lovely but I really have to get back to work now.
Sales guy: Well, give us a call if you need some learning solutions.
Me: Yeah, sure.

Doug should be glad that I am able to filter the words that come out of my mouth (most of the time), because what I really wanted to say to him was this:

You jackass. How can you attempt to sell me something when you don’t know anything about my company? Have you heard of a little search engine called Google? Why not plug in the name of your prospect and do 60 seconds’ worth of reading, so that you might at least know what industry they’re in before you dial for dollars? As for productivity,  I could boost my own by hanging up  on you.

I didn’t say any of those nasty (but true) things, and I doubt that Doug made a sale that day. Sheesh.