Skype’s apology
December 31, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Nobody’s perfect, and neither is any technology. Continual growth and development is going to come with its hiccups, the important thing is how you manage the hiccups and recover from them afterwards.
Last week, Skype services went down for an extended period of time. During that period, Skype rushed to identify the reason for the service disruption and provided updates on their Twitterfeed every few hours. Although it came back online within the first day, the recovery was short-lived as service went back down the very next day. It took hours more to stablize the system again and to bring normal services back up for all users.
The culprit: a number of the support servers for offline instant messaging had become overloaded and one of the Windows versions of Skype became paralyzed. « Read the rest of this entry »
Great expectation management: Real time updates for the anxious customer
August 7, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I went to throw a quick update up on my posterous blog this morning, and came across the message below on their site.
I actually had not been aware of the scheduled maintenance that was to occur, but upon being informed, understood and had no real reaction. (Contrary to my confused reaction and subsequent post a few months ago when the JustMeans website went down. To be fair, that was not a scheduled maintenance, but all the more reason and need for effective communication.)
Posterous did a very good job in keeping the page clean and the message abundantly simple. The call to action for me, the customer, was clear: if I wanted real time updates, I should go to their Twitter stream. The main message was also very clear: a scheduled maintenance was underway, the site was temporarily down and would be back up and running as soon as they were done. I noted that the estimated time of completion for the scheduled maintenance had actually been 2AM PDT, but didn’t bother doing the time conversion for my timezone immediately. I went straight to Twitter. « Read the rest of this entry »
Effective Communication: The Power of Meaning (Part 3)
July 13, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Image credit: © iStockphoto
In moments of conflict, it’s easy to get caught up in what is being said and the clashing points of view. Particularly when the conflict feels like it is getting increasingly personal – it’s hard to take a step back and see the bigger picture. Quite often, what’s overlooked is how much power you actually have to guide and even quickly diffuse the conflict. To take it a step further, it’s actually not what’s being said that people get caught up in, it’s the meaning behind it.
When we interact with other people, we apply many filters to what they are saying to us. We make assumptions according to those filters, and interpret what is said. Our interpretation always includes some level of meaning: the meaning we create around what we think they are saying. We do this all very naturally, and often without realizing.
Effective Communication: Keep it simple (Part 2)
May 9, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Image credit: iStockphoto
In approaching mass marketing campaigns, so often, the communication focus is on reaching as many people as possible with our message or our client’s message… so much so that the underlying objective of understanding is lost. How do we get to them? Where are they already going to be? What are other ways we can reach them? Got that? Great. Now, let’s get them the message. And frequently, there’s a lot to say. We want people to know about the company, what the company is doing, that there’s a great promotion or initiative happening, and why people won’t want to miss out. Throw into the mix dates, locations, rules, participating partners, sponsors, prizes or donation opportunity, and even celebrity endorsement. But don’t forget the overall brand message… and campaign message. Oh, and also the partner sponsor brand and campaign messages too.
And that’s usually only the baseline of informational requirements. That’s already a lot.
It’s critical never to forget that although we want to reach people and get the information we want them to receive when we do – most often, less is more. Or actually, simplicity is key. Managing to fit all of the various points we want people to know doesn’t mean they will receive it when they see, hear, or read it. How do you ensure someone will walk away not only having been exposed to your message amongst all the other people and companies trying to get their messages out, but understanding it in the way you had intended it? You can’t, but you can certainly make it easier for them.
What are the one or two ideas you want someone to walk away with, and more importantly, if you could make it happen – what would you want them to do? That’s what should be in your communication, and everything about your design should support this. Your core idea and what you want someone to do with it.
A firehose of information is overwhelming and can result in more harm than good. Chances are people won’t listen to or read your full ad or write-up, or worse, get confused by it. The small act of keeping things simple – although easier said than done – can make all the difference, and well worth the effort.
Effective Communication: Assume you will be misunderstood (Part 1)
May 2, 2010 § 1 Comment
Image credit: iStockphoto
All too often, we think of communication from the perspective of getting our message out. In the interpersonal interactions of our day-to-day lives, we are focused on telling the other person what we want to say. On a grander scale, as in marketing, the objective is to reach as many people as possible with our message. In both cases (and everything in between), it’s easy to forget to consider a crucial point: the receiver, and the real goal of mutual understanding.
Miscommunication happens when the person or people we’re talking to don’t understand what we’ve just said to them. (For now, I’m going to stick to the one-on-one communication, more on the marketing messages in another post.) Problems occur when an assumption is made that when we’re talking to someone, the other person is coming from the same perspective, mindset and understanding as we are. Usually, it’s an unconscious assumption, but it also causes a lot of the misunderstanding and conflict that happen.
Consider that the opposite is true. Chances are, the person you’re speaking with is coming from a completely different place than you. They may be from another generation, culture, background, upbringing, value-system or even something as simple as mental space (are they ready to receive your message). What that means is that misunderstanding is the norm and can be assumed. To bridge that gap, to the best of your ability, it’s helpful to consider those differences as you communicate.
Obviously, this isn’t so much an issue with really simple messages like “I’m going to the store and am picking up eggs and falafel.” But it really makes a difference in more complex issues, especially those that are sensitive and could lead to argument.
So, assume the other person has a high likelihood of misunderstanding what you have to say. Consider what those areas of misunderstanding may be, and let that guide your communication with them. It may be technical knowledge they don’t have, if so, explain in simpler terms. You may have had a rotten day and could come across as being abrupt or irritated, say so. You needed someone to do a task in a particular way for you and they didn’t, explain in more detail what your expectations were. Whatever the case, proactively anticipating misunderstanding and either simplifying or elaborating can make all the difference.
Ultimately, effective communications is not only getting the message out, it’s getting the message to the other person in a way that they understand what we said in the way we intended it. Seems obvious, but is often harder than it seems.
Corporate social responsibility: Employee satisfaction
April 8, 2010 § 3 Comments
Back to the topic of corporate social responsibility – but this time from an introspective corporate perspective. Social responsibility is so often thought of as being synonymous with philanthropy, community relations, and sustainability, but it’s just as much about the internal attitudes and behaviors within an organization as it is about the external.
Organizations can sometimes fall victim to hyperopia and fail to see that their largest potential advocate base exists just under their noses — often under the same roof. Employees that love their companies are contagious, and spread the positive word to other potential employees and customers. Of the companies that recogize this, only a small percentage successfully align their internal behavior and actions with their goals in a way that embodies internal CSR. Social responsibility within an organization translates into policies, behaviors and organizational cultures that spotlight the employee and emphasize their well-being.
Employees that feel valued, cared for, a sense of belonging, and empowered in their contribution to the greater vision will work harder and more effectively. Aside from this, the creativity and innovation from a happy, committed employee is far superior to one who has fallen into an indifferent routine. I know this is obvious, but looking around at the number of inspired corporations, it makes me wonder: is it obvious? I think it’s considered common knowledge that satisfied employees mean better productivity and ideation, and lower costs of hiring, training, and lost productivity in onboarding. So where’s the missing link?
For me, I think it’s in congruency: An alignment of what’s on the wall with what actually happens in the trenches. From employee hire to employee departure, what do you communicate, how to you behave, do you have a plan? Do you set your teams up for success on a regular basis? Do you have an infrastructure and culture established that fosters discourse, ideation and innovation? What about your management style? Communication style? Conflict management and resolution style? Are these ones that encourage open dialogue, mutual understanding, and win-win solutions?
More on these individual topics later – but for now, it’s food for thought, because you can’t mobilize positive change if you don’t know where you’re coming from in the first place.
Yes but, where can I buy that?
March 14, 2010 § 3 Comments
I was recently looking for a Massimo Dutti location as my favorite wool coat is starting to show the tell-tale signs of the years I have enjoyed it. In the time since I bought the coat, I have relocated back to Canada, and for the life of me have no clue as to whether there’s even a Massimo Dutti retail store here. Upon diving into their website, I was dismayed to find that although there is a very comprehensive country list upfront that you must choose your location from, when you actually get into the site, their actual stores are nowhere to be found. (It would also appear that your country selection doesn’t have any impact on the content you see whatsoever, which also begs to question – why force the extra step that adds no value to me in the first place? But I digress.)
The lack of, at the absolute least, a low-fidelity global list of store locations feels like a significant miss. It seems so obvious to say, but for every piece of communication, it’s important to consider what the overall purpose is. What you want people to think and potentially do in reading or accessing that website, email, brochure, newsletter, etc. I’m sure for most retailers, they’d love for people to fall in love with something, and go find it at the store to buy. In the case of Massimo Dutti – with the exception of certain cities where they have more prominence – potential customers would just leave and forget. A lost sale.
In the end, I stumbled onto an obscure unrelated wiki that happened to mention a Toronto shopping mall with a listing of all their stores. Luckily, Massimo Dutti was one of the stores listed. Unluckily, upon traveling there, it would seem that the store was closed more than a year ago. So, it would seem that the trail has turned cold until Massimo Dutti writes back to my inquiry on a store location. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how promising that will be as it’s already been over a week since my original contact – which is a whole other discussion.
What’s in a word?
April 8, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Behind every change is an inspiration for change. Something that grabs us and compels us to do something. Growing that seed of inspiration into something with a resemblance to change takes expression, action, and sharing. And that – starts in the kernel of words. Within words are our expressed thoughts, decisions and ultimately, a means towards shared understanding with other people. They have the power to move or to stall, empower or to belittle. And they have the power to inspire towards something more, something desired – something changed.
So what’s in a word? Inspiration. Empowerment. Movement. Momentum… Change. What do you want to change? Maybe you should put it down in words.
