Spend Less Time at Work to Make Your Advertising More Effective

You overhear an employee say to a customer, “I'll have to check with my manager.” Quick... what's the word-of-mouth going to be about this business? Too early to tell? We know too little to decide? Perhaps. I can assure you that its at least one step removed from “When I had a problem they took care of me.”

And no matter how many ads you run proclaiming the value of your customer service, people's real experiences keep running into “That's not how we do it,” or “I'll have to check.”

Neither is a strong reaffirmation of your advertising.

According to Rich Dad, Poor Dad's Robert Kiyosaki, as an employee you have a job. When you start selling your own services (or products) you own the job. But until you develop a system that lets other people do the work for you, you don't yet have a business.

In Designing the Company for Your Vacation, I recommended that you work out the best way to handle the responsibilities of each job, standardize the procedures, and codify them. This works well as you're building the company.

It also limits your company's ability to adapt as customers expectations of service change. And that's a constantly moving target.

Its a control issue.

Some owners can't let go. Their authoritarian management style sends a message to employees: “You may do whatever is necessary to solve the problem, provided that you do exactly as I would do.”

As you built the company you were the motivating force. Now, you're the limiting factor. Until you can step away from the day-to-day operation you've limited your company's growth as well as your ability to cash out the equity in your company.

So, in addition to teaching your employees to do their jobs as you would do them, you must also give them the authority to do their jobs as they would do them.

Risky? Yes. It involves sharing the dream with your employees, and letting them help you to make it real. It requires relinquishing control. Until “empowerment,” became the buzz word, this was called delegation.

Successful delegation requires that you:

Define expectations, and focus on results. Be very clear about standards and how results will be measured. You don't need to be concerned with all of the steps your employees take to achieve those results.

Turn them lose to do the job. Once you're convinced they know what's to be done, the deadlines, and the results you expect, get out of their way.

Give your employees the authority to complete the job, and hold them accountable for the outcome.

We opened with an example of an employee having to check with a manager. If the employee had simply said “Yes, we can fix that for you,” what would that customer, and the others who overheard this conversation, think?

Whether you call it delegation or empowerment, employees who can successfully run the business when you're not there make your company worth more, and your advertising more effective.

Some managers have given employees the authority to resolve any problem that will satisfy the customer and cost the company less than $25. Interestingly, employees seldom go to the limit. Managers are frequently chagrined to find that empowered employees cost the company less than the managers do when it comes to customer satisfaction.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about the effect of customer service on advertising may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Designing the Company for Your Vacation

A long-term client called last week to brainstorm his next business venture. We talked about how to structure the business, and I suggested that he outsource as many of the operational functions as possible.

He fought the idea. Said it didn't give him enough control.

So I asked, “Are you trying to build a company, or to change jobs? Because it appears that you're designing a company which will require your presence.”

Isn't that the worst thing about self-employment? When you go on vacation, the office shuts down.

That's not owning the business. That's being the business.


Here's a simple way to plan your organization.

Draw the plan to show now how things will run when the company is fully developed. Show the President, both VP's, the Marketing Director, the Personnel Director, Sales Manager, and line level employees. Put your own name in every blank (assuming that you're the only employee).

Now, starting at the bottom of the chart, at the customer contact level, write an operations manual for one of those jobs. Detail exactly how you want the job (and the customer) handled. Hire someone to fill that job, and put her name in the box.


Follow this procedure with every job in the chart, removing your own name as you hire and train your replacement for that particular responsibility.

When the only place your name remains is at the top, you've built a company which can survive your vacation. Now you can start implementing your exit plan.

You do have an exit plan, don't you?

We'll discuss that strategy next time.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about competitive organization of your company may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Restaurants and Monday Nights.

While browsing the web, I recently came across an article titled, "Why is My Restaurant Not Full Every Monday Night?" (Google search if you're all that curious. The article doesn't answer the question, which is why I'm not linking it).

But it does pose a valid question. Why isn't your restaurant full on Mondays?

Its a common desire in retail to advertise the things which aren't selling, and let those which will sell easily sell themselves. This is frequently bad strategy. Very bad.

It may well be part of the reason Wal-Mart thrived while K-Mart worked its way through bankruptcy. Of course, their respective advertising policies may only be a reflection of their inventory management. Then again, this all may be only a coincidence.

And for the record, our story is completely fictitious.

Assume that we have one Wal-Mart store and one K-Mart store, each stocked with various sizes of golf shirts in four colors: red, blue, green, and yellow. We'll further assume that each store stocks ten in each color.


For some reason, the yellow shirts are in hot demand.

Each store sells out of yellow golf shirts.

K-Mart, in the traditional Henry Ford fashion * notes that they still have 30 shirts in stock. No problem.

Wal-Mart however, takes note that they are completely out of yellow golf shirts, and promptly puts ten more in inventory.

Humm. People will buy what they want, when its available to them. The won't necessarily buy what's being advertised. So, while K-Mart is advertising golf shirts in various colors, Wal-Mart advertises that they have yellow golf shirts, and they have them in stock. (Again, this story is of my own invention. It has only a passing relationship to any reality).


Can advertising sell them things they don't want?

The bitter experience of K-Mart would indicate that people will purchase only what appeals to them, rather than what's being advertised.

But our question wasn't about golf shirts, was it? The question was "Why is My Restaurant Not Full Every Monday Night?"

The reason is simple.

Its not lack of advertising. (Rookie media salespeople will assure you that it is. They are wrong. It has nothing to do with advertising.)

It is because people customarily don't go out to dinner on Monday evening.

They just don't want to.

They tend to go out to dinner on Friday nites, on Saturday, even on Sunday. By the time Monday rolls around, they're feeling as if they should stop being so extravagant.

On Mondays they plan to eat at home.


Is there a Monday appeal?

Is there a way to attract a relational customer to your restaurant on a Monday? Sadly, if Monday isn't Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or a spouse's birthday, there is not. You could maybe get a transactional customer into your restaurant on a Monday if you offered a discount, but transactional customers tend to stay home on Mondays too.

OK, make it a BIG discount. That will insure two things:

1. bad turnout, and
2. no profit from those rare few who do show up.

Humm. Advertising a restaurant is very much like duck hunting. You shoot when there are ducks to shoot at.

So what can you do about those Monday nights in your restaurant?

You can cut back on your staffing on Monday and hold your costs to a minimum. Then advertise your great Friday night specials, or your Saturday dinners, or even your Sunday brunch.

Your will start boosting attendance when you cater to what your customers want - and do so on their timetable. Wait for them to be inclined to dine away from home, then remind them to pick you.

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* Henry Ford is rumored to have said about the available colors of his Model T automobile, "You can have any color you want, as long as that color is black."

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about maximizing sales during times of natural traffic flow may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Why Do We Pursue Publicity?

Publicity. Securing public notice or attention. The act of getting people to talk about us.

We pursue publicity because it has an interesting ramification – increased sales. The more people know about you, the more likely they are to buy whatever you're selling.

Publicity and its sibling, word-of-mouth, have more credibility than does, say, advertising, for a simple reason. What other people say about you is more believable than what you say about yourself.

Can you buy publicity? On occasion, yes. Usually, no.

But publicity is freely available to those who with unfettered imaginations are paying close attention to everything around them.

When you're prepared, publicity opportunities are limitless.

Some of us only want notoriety.

CEO of Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson, indirectly draws attention to his airlines each time he makes another attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon. Very few people care if he actually sets a new record – the attempt itself is newsworthy. Branson has made four attempts so far.

Then there's the publicity stunt.

One of P.T. Barnum's homes was right next to the main line of the New York and New Haven Railroad. Barnum hired a man to pay close attention to the railroad timetable, and have an elephant pulling a plow each time a passenger train was due to pass by. Reporters from all of the New York papers wrote stories about Barnum's elephant, which boosted attendance at his New York museum of curiosities.

Some of us are victims of exaggeration, gossip, or outright lies.

In a 1969 Toronto concert someone threw a live chicken on the stage where Alice Cooper was performing. Not realizing that chickens don't fly, Cooper picked up the bird and threw it back into the orchestra pit, where it was inadvertently stomped to death by the audience. By the next morning the story had grown to front page status in the Toronto Star, where it was picked up by most other daily newspapers.

Frank Zappa called Cooper to ask if what he was reading was true - that Cooper had bit the head off the chicken and drank its blood. When Cooper denied the story, Zappa reportedly said “Whatever you do, don't tell anyone it isn't true.” Zappa considered any front page publicity priceless.

Some of us invent the stories being told about us.

When other managers might have issued a press release announcing their artist's planned performance tour, Andrew Oldham called a press conference to to announce the Stone's pending lawsuit against twelve U.S. hotels which had refused to book rooms to the Rolling Stones for their 1966 tour. Weeks later when reporters finally started asking which hotels were defendants, Oldham became unavailable for interviews.

When Mohammed Ali was still Cassius Clay, a free-lance magazine photographer was dispatched to Louisville to shoot some pictures of the champ working out. Ali asked which other magazines the photog worked for, and was told Life. He then asked the photographer's hobbies. Learning underwater photography topped the list, he mentioned “I train under water,” and explained that the resistance of the water provided a superior workout. The resulting Life photo layout made Ali's underwater training regimen legitimate, even though it was a story he'd invented on the spot.

And sometimes creating those stories backfires.

On November 23, 2007, Ingrid Marie Rivera, the reigning Miss Puerto Rico, claimed that someone had laced her clothing and her makeup with pepper spray in an attempt to force her out of the Miss Universe competition. By the end of the week the pageant organizers announced that forensic tests showed no traces of contaminants and were demanding an explanation.

Some of us see relationships.

Bossier City Jeweler, Todd Everett, deals with people's valuables. He tapped into their collective visual memory and purchased an armored car to promote his store. People all over Shreveport and Bossier City know how to find T. Everett, Fine Jewelry Broker. He's on Benton Road. Just look for the armored car.

Some of us just like being admired.

At the turn of the last century the ultra rich John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie made generous cash gifts to communities in which they wished to be well thought of.

Carnegie gave his money to libraries, schools, and universities throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. How many Carnegie Libraries are there?

Rockefeller used his fortune to create the modern concept of targeted philanthropy, supporting medicine, education, and medical and scientific research. In case the schools weren't enough, the world's richest man is remembered for passing out dimes to children everywhere he went for the last several years of his life.

Then there's Vess Barnes.

When Wizard Academy founder Roy Williams was told by Amarallo, Texas jeweler Vess Barnes “You really need to pave this driveway” for the umpteenth time, Roy volunteered Ves to pay for it. Vess wrote the check, and didn't get anything for his generosity other than a few mentions like this.

Publicity isn't advertising.

It is marketing, however. Publicity is marketing in one of its most powerful forms. In terms of creating top-of-mind awareness it can be priceless.

What are your publicity opportunities? Will you have the courage to pursue them?

Do you have your own publicity triumphs? Hit the "comment" button and share with the rest of us.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about using publicity to boost sales may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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Dear Doctor - How Do Your Patients Rate YOU?

Dear Doctor:

For a single, brief instant I was your patient.

I'm new in the community and needed to have my diabetic prescriptions renewed.

I didn't mind that I had to wait five weeks for the first appointment. I like that your practice is that busy. It implies that you're in demand.

I appreciated the reminder phone call yesterday, confirming the appointment and suggesting that I arrive 15 minutes early to handle any necessary paperwork.

Perhaps you remember that my appointment was for 10am. Since I didn't know what the traffic would be like, or how difficult your office would be to find, I left for your office at 9am, and arrived at 9:30. After checking in and completing your new patient forms I sat patiently waiting to be called.

I wasn't upset when 10am passed and no one had called my name.

I wasn't really upset at 10:15.

By 10:30 I was becoming annoyed. I asked your receptionist if it was going to be much longer. Without even looking up she told me she didn't know, but they'd call me as soon as they were ready for me.

By 10:45 I should have walked out, but I needed my prescriptions. I didn't have five weeks left to start this process with another doctor.

I waited.

At 11:02 a nurse called my name. She weighed me, took my blood pressure, confirmed the meds I'm taking, and showed me to an exam room. She closed the door upon her exit, and I sat alone there until you finally walked in at 11:36.

Instead of making eye contact you looked at the chart, and introduced yourself. No apology. No recognition of my inconvenience. In fact, you didn't look up at all until I asked what had caused you to be running 97 minutes behind on your first 120 minutes of operation.

As you looked into my ears and mouth you told me that you couldn't anticipate how long each patient would need your attention.

I wondered why not? You've been in business for at least 90 days. It seems to me that tallying the number of patients you see, the number of hours you're open, and dividing one by the other should get you in the ballpark.

Perhaps you recall, Doctor, indignantly telling me that you haven't been able to take a lunch in the last two months? That you worked straight through your scheduled 90 minute mid-day break to take care of the patients waiting to see you?

If, in every one of the last 60 days it took an extra hour and a half to catch up on half a day's appointments, then you obviously are scheduling them too close together. This accomplishes nothing but to really make your patients cranky.

Not as cranky as you appeared, though, when you handed me the scrip I'd come in for. (That was when I explained that by working through lunch you were only making my point).

And we arrived at the critical moment.

Do you remember when you angrily demanded to know if I understood how much it costs to have your staff standing around waiting on patients, and that you still had student loans to pay off?

That was the exact moment when our doctor/patient relationship ended.

Oh, you're probably not aware of it. I took the sheet with your charges to the clerk and paid on my way out. But, the relationship has definitely ended. I decided that long before I arrived back at my office at 12:29, very angry to have wasted half a day to simply renew the prescriptions I've been taking for years.

You see, whether you realize it or not, you're a consultant.

People hire you for the expert advice you give them when they have health care concerns. Many other people are consultants, too. Insurance agents, hair dressers, and Realtors come to mind.

They call people who purchase their services “customers,” while yours are known as “patients,” but it's pretty much the same relationship.

I wouldn't have waited an hour and a half beyond a firm appointment for any of them. I wouldn't have expected them to wait on me were the tables turned. But with you and a great many of your colleagues, this is business as usual.

You keep your productivity high by insuring that mine is low.

That, and your total disrespect for me as your customer are the reasons I won't be back.

So, as I tell you goodbye, let me leave you with two thoughts:

1.Your accountant has been counting your inactive patient files as assets of your practice.

He's kidding himself.

If he ever sat in your waiting room he'd understand why you have such a large percentage of inactive patients.

2.People like me, the well-paid executives who can afford your services, don't normally make a scene as we leave.

We simply determine that you're not worth the investment of any further time.

So, when you find yourself squeezed between managed care and deadbeat patients, remember that I'm in my peak earning years, my time is valuable to me, and I'd have gladly paid more for express service.

Remind yourself, too, that I am a great source of word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, in your case, it won't be favorable. I will, however, get a massive amount of satisfaction repeating this story. I'll be telling it for years. When you advertise your practice, how many gross ratings points will you have to purchase just to neutralize me?

One of these days one of your colleagues is going to figure this out. He's going to appear on television with a simple message:

“I'm Doctor Johnson, the business person's doctor. I'm not one of the lower priced doctors in town – in fact, I'm probably one of the most expensive. But, if you're accepted as my patient (and not everyone is) I promise you'll never wait more than 15 minutes for your appointment. Come see me. Doctor Johnson, the business person's doctor, at the corner of Main and Second Street for your convenience.”

He's going to make a fortune on people like me.

Signed,
The Ephemeral Patient

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about scheduling practices to attract better-paying patients may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.

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