Why Companies Abandon Their Blogs and What To Do About It
By · Leave a comment with your thoughts
I was in a new business meeting the other day and suggested that starting a company blog had the potential to increase visitors to the company’s website. We all know (don’t we?) that Google rewards dynamic content so posting regularly will eventually boost your rankings.
Why Blogs are Abandoned
The designer I was with said “Oh, no” that won’t work. I couldn’t blame him. He had designed websites and blogs for a number of clients and within a short time the blogs had been abandoned.
It’s a commitment to write a weekly or twice-weekly blog. Who will write the blog – someone inside the company or will we outsource it? What will we write about? Where will our ideas come from?
These are legitimate questions, but I believe it is a lack of will and commitment from top management that is behind the failures.There isn’t a plan in place to keep the blog going and building momentum.
Tips for Bloggers
So, if you, or your company, have abandoned your blog here are some steps to take: Read More→
Is Volkswagen Starting a Trend by Curbing Company Email in Off Hours?
By · Leave a comment with your thoughts
Curbing company email
Volkswagen made some news recently when it came to an agreement with its unions to deactivate e-mail on company BlackBerries when its German staff members are off duty. Deutsche Telecom instituted a similar policy to give employees some time away from their smart phones.
Is this the start of a trend?
On All the Time
The on-all-the-time culture is spreading around the world. When business associates write to me in the evening or over weekends, they can usually expect a quick response – and vice versa.
There’s very little light left between work and leisure time. Companies are definitely worried about work-life balance because a burned-out employee isn’t very productive.
But wait a minute. How does this affect how many times my blog posts are retweeted or the number of comments that I get? This isn’t funny or off topic. Companies plan their social media campaigns around the times that consumers are tweeting and commenting – and that’s often after-hours on company smart phones. Read More→
Bloomingdale’s is Writing a New Script for Winning Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction
By · Leave a comment with your thoughts
Richard J. Mast
A few weeks ago I was in Bloomingdale’s when a friendly young store employee approached me to ask if he could help. I wasn’t obviously shopping at the moment so I asked him who he was and learned he was Bloomingdale’s Director of Customer Loyalty, a new position in New York. This led to the following personal interview about the store’s robust customer loyalty program with Richard J. Mast, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Mast discusses how understanding and responding to customer needs engenders customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Why did Bloomingdale’s create the Director of Customer Loyalty position? Is it part of a corporate branding program?
If you’re in the retail business you know that satisfied customers will continue to shop with you. So it’s our responsibility to enhance the customer experience. We’ve had employees assigned full-time to customer loyalty for several years. There are four Managers of Customer Loyalty in the Manhattan store but we decided to strengthen the structure by appointing a Director of Customer Loyalty with the other MCL’s reporting to him.
What are the responsibilities of this position and who does the Director report to?
The role of the Director of Customer Loyalty is to interface with the senior executives in charge of ready-to-wear, Men’s Young World, the Home Store, Fine Jewelry and other departments. They tell the Director what they need and what customers want, and then these needs are translated to the MCLs assigned to these departments who then implement the actions to be taken. Read More→
The New York Times Cancels My Subscription – and 8 Million Others! A Missed Opportunity
By · Leave a comment with your thoughtsImagine my surprise yesterday when I received the following email from The New York Times at 1:04 pm.
Not me. Of course, as you may have read, The Times committed a big boo-boo yesterday when it accidentally cancelled the subscriptions of 8 million print and online subscribers. The media and Twitter scribes were all over it in the intervening three hours before the Times sent out this correction at 4:19 pm: Read More→
