How You Respond (or Don't) Says a Lot About You!

There are several things that bug me and one is bad manners, but I am not referring to the rude person in a social setting, but rather the bad manners in the online world. I have interactions as a customer and also as the operator of my own business that very often make me cringe, or just say to myself "Why?" You may beg to differ but I feel common courtesy and respect needs to be ramped up a lot more, as it says a lot more about the person who doesn't respond than the one being ignored.

The Tumbleweed Syndrome

You contact a business via its online contact form or email seeking more information about a product or service and then the tumbleweeds appear...

You may re-contact and do your best to give them some of your hard earned, but they never get back to you. What does this do? It annoys and frustrates you, but more importantly you end up going somewhere else to do business, which is more often than not inconvenient, but also not good for the business you wanted to frequent.

The Ghost Lead

One of my favorite annoyances, which has happened to me many times and makes me say the "Why?" to myself is when someone contacts me for a consultation and when I get back to them to arrange it I simply get no response.

Why did they bother? Why take the time to send a query, when I reply I get nothing? This one I don't get. I don't feel my reputation is harmed in this case, but the person who contacts me is simply saying they are either not serious, or severely lacking any integrity in the first place, and it certainly gives me a negative view of their brand without even having the opportunity to know them.

What do You Do?

I am not sure there is an answer to either of these situations. A business that is too busy, too incompetent or too lazy to respond to queries, probably deserves to lose business and to have negative stories told about them.

Those who book and then ignore may fall into the same category in my humble opinion. Perhaps it is a form of self-qualification in the sales process, as you may not find they were an ideal fit anyway, but I still have to ask why they bother taking the time to contact if they don't want a response!

With social media, web reviews, bloggers and good old fashioned water cooler discussions all too evident, businesses can't afford to be lax in either responding or following up. The damage potential is huge, especially when business owners are looking for cost effective ways to get new business.

Here's one cost effective one for you- respond to queries!

Am I being too precious, or are other business owners and potential clients finding the same level of frustration, and if so, what do you do?

Source: http://www.smallbusinessmba.com.au/

Independent Work - Tastes Great, Less Filling

At first glance comparing independent work with a beer commercial doesn't seem to make sense.  But segmentation data from the MBO Partners 2014 State of Independence study indicates there are similarities. 

Miller's "Tastes Great, Less Filling" ad series, which they used to launch the lite beer segment in 1974, is considered one of the most successful ad campaigns of all time.  The goal of these ads was to communicate the two key consumer benefits of Miller Lite.

As part of the 2014 State of Independence research we conducted a cluster analysis looking at why people become and stay independent workers (self-employed, freelancers, etc.).  Much like lite beer, there were two key motivations - flexibility and fulfilling work. 

Flexibility is more than just being able to take time off from work.

Independent workers value their ability to choose the type of work they do, when, where and how they work and who they work with. 

Independent workers see flexibility as a key benefit of the control they have over their work and their lives.  For many independents, flexibility is important enough that they're willing to accept lower incomes to have it.

Independent workers describe fulfilling work as work that engages them by matching their skills, interests and abilities. Many independent workers describe this as work they love, especially those in the creative fields.

But most independent workers do not say they love their work. Instead they describe their work as something they enjoy, are interested in, motivated by or provideing a sense of purpose. 

Interestingly, our cluster analysis shows most independent workers who report being satisfied or highly satisfied with independent work are almost evenly split between the fulfilling work cluster and the flexibility cluster as their main motivation for being an independent worker.

I don't think a "flexible work", "fulfilling work" commercial would be successful. But like the Miller commercials, these two attributes describe the main benefits of independent work. 

Source: http://www.smallbizlabs.com