Archive for the ‘PR’ Category

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When Great Products can mask over Poor Service

October 15, 2011
Butlers Chocolates

Great Coffee - Not so great service

I found myself in the queue of Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shop for about the fifth time in the week for my ritual morning treat and I just decided that I had to leave and search the streets of Cork for another alternative outlet that might serve coffee as good because of what I witnessed the previous day(Cork Coffee Roasters on Bridge Street is a little too far away).

Unfortunately I didn’t find a better cup of coffee anywhere so I just have to try to solve my dilemma by blogging about my experience in the hope that Butlers might notice.

Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shops do great coffee but at times the customer service is just appalling (my social media contacts will have seen a zillion posts about this from me). Some of the staff are very friendly and some are really quite the opposite. I find this incredible – I go in there at least three or four times a week, I buy a few coffees each time and some of the regular staff would neither smile, make small talk or even make eye contact.

There is also a very definite policy of preparing the coffee for the customer and leaving it on the counter and then “shouting” out the order until the customer hears and collects. You could be in there on a quiet day, sitting having a chat while waiting for your coffee , just feet from the counter and the staff will still “shout” your order instead of popping it over to you – I must admit this drives me nuts!

This must be how the staff are trained and I feel it also probably lends itself to a culture whereby a “no smile” scenario is quite acceptable as well. I can see the logic around staff overhead but this policy needs to be applied with some intelligence and “cop on”.

Hilariously they recently introduced a new electronic loyalty card system called a “Happiness” card and for the few weeks around it’s introduction all the staff had t-shirts with “Happiness” written boldly across them. With the card you earn your usual one in ten coffees free but you also earn loyalty points – all designed to have you coming back. Now there’s a good promotional idea!

This week I witnessed the very worst customer service incident, which motivated me to eventually write – A woman with a young kid and a new born baby around her neck in a little sling ordered a low fat latte. She seemed under pressure as she sat down while waiting for her coffee – the “shout” duly followed by the staff member: “low fat latte” to be followed by an even louder and more impatient “low fat latte“.

The poor lady who was sitting down and a little under pressure with her toddler and baby responded “I’ll get it when I am ready“. At this stage practically every customer in the coffee shop had heard the awful interaction and were trying to figure out why none of the three staff on duty could make an exception and walk the few feet over to the woman with her coffee.

I was chatting with a buddy of mine and I was about to collect the coffee from the counter and bring it over to the woman only to be beaten to the punch by another customer.

Incredible!

The product is great so we keep going back but at some point a new coffee shop will open that will know the value of smiling and the even greater the value of bringing coffee down to a customer in extreme or not so extreme situations .. I look forward to it.

If you have a great product be careful not to create an opportunity for poor service to creep in.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Ireland, Marketing, PR, Retailing, Staff training, Uncategorized | 30 Comments »

What team are you playing like?

October 3, 2011
Brazil

What team are you playing like?

For some reason this year always felt like it was going to be one hell of a challenge. I must admit I was really worried about the effect of the budget changes and the reduced disposable income that we all have as a result. While the budget has had the predicted negative affect on the domestic economy a lot of things have changed, which have managed to balance this out.

The most important of these is a genuine attitude shift from people in business who are digging deep and really trying their best to make things happen for themselves. A true fighting spirit and resolve is coming through and people are trying “positive” things in the marketplace. We are at the coal face and are witnessing the uplift first hand – We are really busy with some really exciting new projects and it is all down to people being proactive and trying their best to make it happen. After all who else will do it for you?

So here we are entering the last quarter of the year and we are still standing – I must admit that I had been approaching the year very cautiously and found myself marking each month down as another one survived!

Enough, Enough… We have done well but we need to stop all of this “survival” thinking,  and if we were to use a football analogy we have probably been playing a defensive, cautious match like a classic Italian soccer team!

It’s time for the manager to call the captain to the side of the pitch and whisper “You’re a talented team, take off the shackles, enjoy yourself and start playing like Brazil”

What team are you playing like?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Ireland, Irish Economy, Marketing, Positivity, PR | Leave a Comment »

The Three Circles and the Path you Choose

August 28, 2011
Greg and Brendan Canty

Parental advice!

My son Brendan Canty has just qualified from CIT, having completed a multi media course. He wants to work in film in some way and he is also really passionate about music.

How unusual – a 22 year old being passionate about music!

Like every other parent you worry about what your children will do – you want them to find a job, earn a living and in this climate it has never been quite so tough.

“You need to find a god solid job” I hear myself saying..

Well – he has set up his own website operating under the name Feel Good Lost and he has been busy producing videos for bands from all over the world – with the web and modern technology this is all quite easy, apparently!

His last music video was for a “secret” American solo artist who goes under the name Slow Magic and the track he produced was for a song called Corvette Cassette. There is a video producers peer website called Vimeo (this is like a worldwide YouTube for video and film producers), which has just featured this song as a staff pic – at the time of writing the video has been viewed 63,000 times across the world.

While Brendan does some excellent corporate video work for Fuzion and his own clients he excels when he combines his love of music and his film profession. On Friday nights he DJ’s in The Pavilion in Cork combining music and visuals as part of his unique set operating under the Feel Good Lost name.

Slow Magic // Corvette Cassette from Feel Good Lost on Vimeo.

He is following his dream and his passion and it had me thinking about career choices and Three Circles..

In Jim Collins fabulous business book Good to Great (for me this book is a business bible) he talks about companies using a Three Circle criteria as a guide to the activities they should get involved in:

A company should only engage in activities that:

  1. It is passionate about
  2. It can excel at
  3. It can make money from

The basic principle is that if companies concentrate their efforts on activities that meet all three of these criteria then they will inevitably be very successful – this is one of the factors that Jim Collins attributes to the success of what he calls “Great” companies.

If you are looking for a new job or a new challenge how about using the Three Circle Criteria for deciding which path you choose?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Irish Economy, Parenting, Personal development, Positivity, PR, Recession, Self Help | 14 Comments »

Making the Sale or Changing the Customers routine?

July 31, 2011
Cafe Chico

What would make you change your routine?

I admit it … I’m boring!

Every Sunday morning myself and Dee go for a walk with our four legged creature, Bing to the local park with our good friends Tommy and Joan and their four legged creature, Tammy.

This routine was so predictable – walk to Ballincollig Park, lap of the first field, walk alongside the river to the lower fields, cut up through the Gunpowder mills and the GAA fields, into the village, stop for coffee and scones at Nosh and Coffee, chat, walk through the village and home. This as I mentioned is what we do pretty much every Sunday.

A few months ago a very cute little mobile coffee kiosk moved into the car park at the start of the park serving coffee and buns and they even have a few very neat tables and chairs outside their unit complete with flowers in vases. Now, this didn’t really suit our break “routine” as the location of the kiosk was at the start of our walk and not in the middle so even though it was a really nice set up it wasn’t quite right for us (its a big deal changing people’s habits!).

Recently we did our usual walk but some of the “crew members” were a little hungover so having completed stage one of our walk we double backed, cut the walk short and went back to the little kiosk, “Cafe Chico” (the owner called the kiosk after her dog, who she brings with her for company each day) for some very welcome refreshments.

The woman working in the kiosk was really friendly, the coffee and home made scones were perfect and to top it all she offered us biscuits from a tin especially for the four legged creatures – Wow! this woman knew and understood her customers really well.

Officially we have changed our routine! Now the first leg of our walk is the same as it was before but now we do a few laps of the lower fields, double back along the river to lap the first field again and then return to the beginning to enjoy our coffee, scones and chat at Cafe Chico!

I know.. exciting stuff!

Why? She runs a great little friendly business, she understands her customer and she goes a little further than you would expect but fully appreciate.

Are you making a sale or are you changing a customers routine – which is worth more?

While we can look after your PR needs, your reputation starts with what you do yourself.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Marketing, PR, Retailing, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

How much time off can you take this summer?

June 26, 2011
Summer Holidays

One week or two?

I am a few days away from my annual holidays and I can’t wait – it’s been quite a while since our last decent break and at this stage I could really do with it!!

For the next few days I have a “lorry load” of work to get through so that I can go on leave with a clear head, knowing that there is nothing important left undone.

This might sound like I am going away for a month but I am taking just one week off!

Feel familiar?

I wonder am I doing something wrong that I am managing just a week off?

I know the importance of some chill out, switch off time to recharge the batteries and I wonder is a week enough? To be honest I don’t think it is – I always need a few days to fully unwind, then I start to properly relax and with a few days left I tend to start thinking about work again. With a one week break you have barely relaxed when the break is nearly over!

While I know and understand this I feel a week is the maximum amount of time I could take off without disrupting the business to much. Deirdre, my other, and much better half is my partner in the business and she is holidaying with me, which affects the amount of time we can take off together but surely we should be able to manage more than a week?

In Fuzion we are really lucky in that we have a dedicated hard working team who we totally trust, so we should be able to take a longer break- this makes me wonder are we not delegating properly and enough?

I was chatting to another business owner about his holiday plans and he totally shared my anxiety about leave – he reckons the very most he could comfortably take off is about 10 days. So much for working for yourself!

Is this the reality of self employment or does this mean we are disorganised or have issues about effective delegation?

How much time off can you take this summer?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Marketing, Personal development, PR | 15 Comments »

Is your natural instinct holding your business back?

June 6, 2011

George Lee - The Business Show

“There is no way that I am going on TV” , “Neither am I, not a chance”

Here was a golden opportunity for the Fuzion team to achieve some national coverage for the business, which would be invaluable and the PR team’s first reaction was a collective “No way“!

The call had come through from RTE as they were looking for the Fuzion team to appear in the new George Lee, Business Show.

As soon as I heard about and understood the opportunity it was time to put the foot down – Guys, we’re doing it , end of story .. like it or lump it and that was it (for once I got away with being authoritative!).

This was a terrific learning for all of us – here was a clear opportunity for the business, which better than anyone we fully appreciated but the immediate “gut” reaction from the team was – No way!

What was that all about?

I think for most of us there is a humbleness, a shyness, a natural instinct to stay behind the camera – we are more comfortable as the reader than being read about, we are more comfortable watching than being watched. Is this even more exaggerated in Ireland or does it happen everywhere?

The learning was terrific – all of a sudden we were the reluctant client!

Everyday we spend our time negotiating opportunities for our clients, pitching their businesses to newspapers, radio stations and TV programmes all with the objective of achieving valuable coverage for them. We will look at every angle, attempting to excite the different media with that interesting story that they hopefully agree to cover.

Bingo! ..they love the story but they insist on an interview, an appearance, a photograph of our client. Often the media prefer the “people” behind the story rather than the story itself.

Thrilled with the successfully negotiated opportunity, we pick up the phone and call our client to convey the great news, the success..

Hmmm, what is this reluctance from the client about? “They want to do a piece about me? Will my photo be shown? Will I have to answer some personal questions as well as business ones? Will they want me to actually talk on the radio? Will I have to go on TV?”

Even though this is what they are paying us for, even though they fully understand the benefit to their business of the coverage in that instant “something” takes over and we get a point blank “I’m not doing it”

Oh my god, the frustration – we have negotiated a clear win and the client is letting it slip through their hands.

Richard Branson
Richard Branson was really shy but realised that he had to push himself forward for the business

Our own experience with the George Lee Business Show at least gave us a deep understanding of what it feels like for our clients.

Our appearance went great and we were featured on national TV with other big companies such as Google and it was superb for our business. If we had given in to our natural instincts and refused to appear a huge opportunity would have been wasted.

.. Is your natural instinct holding your business back?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Personal development, PR, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Barack Obama and his “Penny Drop” Social Media moment

May 8, 2011
Barack Obama - Social Media

Barack Obama's Penny Drop Moment!

I have come to realise that no matter how you map out the Social Media Opportunity for clients, or try to demonstrate the success that others have had using the different platforms, they themselves have to realise the magic, the possibilities – I call it the “penny drop” moment!

Once that happens they are “off”, they are converts, they assign resources to their social media efforts and they start seeing results.

The “penny drop” moment arrives at different times for everyone and for each of the different platforms.

For me it happened at different times :

Facebook – a peer I met in Dublin casually commented on “how well Fuzion were doing“, I gladly accepted the compliment but asked how they arrived at that conclusion, ” Oh, I follow you on Facebook” … Hmm, I didn’t realise how many people were listening or paying attention to what I was saying

Twitter – we were able to achieve valuable coverage for a client, an International NGO during the Haiti disaster by communicating directly with journalists on Twitter who were actually out there  …. Hmmm, now I get it!

LinkedIn – this one was easy, reaching out to the business community in your target locations and being able to generate relevant discussions on your areas of expertise. You go to networking meetings and people you have never met, come up and chat to you because they have seen your posts and recognise your ugly mug …… Hmmm, this seems to be working – no brainer!!

Blogging – in the beginning you wonder how this will work for you, then you see with “sticky” content (stuff that is interesting, or made interesting) and posts in relation to your areas of expertise that you receive large numbers of hits and your search engine scores are great. I even managed to highlight nasty issues, quickly sorted out issues with a national phone provider and had material published nationally …. Hmmmm, now I get it!

If you are in any doubt or need further convincing about the value of Social Media we might ask Barack Obama, the leader of the free world, the first ever “social media” President , when was his “penny drop” moment? ….. Hmmmm, I’m the President of the United States!

Have you had yours ?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Facebook, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Are you spending enough on Positive Costs?

April 25, 2011
Doorman

Positive Cost ?

In my accounting days (yes, I know most of you won’t believe it – I was!!) we had a few different ways of looking at the costs of a business.

The most popular of these was a very simple analysis – Fixed Costs, which were those costs that would not vary with volume and Variable Costs, which were the costs which did vary according to volume. This was quite a simplistic model, which didn’t always hold up!

We then had other methods of looking at costs such as Zero Base Costing and Activity Based Costing .. interesting stuff indeed!

Since the recession has kicked in I have witnessed first hand clients being advised to cut back on expenses by the accounting fraternity and often they just do it themselves automatically – the types of costs that get chopped first are those that are deemed to be “unnecessary”, which will typically include marketing &  advertising spend, sales reps, items like training, corporate entertainment, Christmas gifts, staff entertainment  and other “extras”.

On the surface it is easy to figure out why companies would cut back in such a way but you could ask the question: Why spend this money when sales were easier to come by and when it is harder to win business you just abandon them?

Could reduced sales be a self fulfilling prophecy when you cut out certain overheads?

The New Cost Model

Taking the knowledge of my old profession and combining this with what I am witnessing with clients every day I am now proposing a new way of analysing costs.

Here goes ..

There are actually three types of costs:

Negative Costs –   these are the costs that a business is “stuck” with, regardless of volume. It would include Rent and Rates (but not necessarily 100% of these – I will explain that later), Insurance, ESB, etc.

Maintenance Costs – these are the costs of servicing the business that you have brought in. It would such items as staff costs, raw materials, power and delivery costs.

Positive Costs – these are the costs that are all about bringing new business in, effectively the costs, which should have a “positive effect” on the business.

Positive costs are the most important costs of the whole business, they are the elements that are designed to start the engine, the elements that can make things happen, that “trigger” customers to actually place an order.

Positive costs are far reaching and could include surprise elements that you would not expect: the premium you pay to have a premises in a location that will bring in more customers, the cost of washing the car after it has been serviced, the cost of polishing the shoes that have been repaired, the cost of having a receptionist who answers calls promptly and deals with customer queries swiftly.

There could be an element of positive costs to most people overhead in the business – the porter who does “meet and greet” at the door of the hotel, the credit controller who carefully spends time with customers who are experiencing difficulty, the accountant who spends time with customers to understand the business better, the staff party to reward a hard working team and a deliberate initiative to improve morale.

I’m sure with a little effort you will think of thousands of other unexpected examples – all of these elements contribute to bringing in more business and create a “positive effect” on the business.

Of course Positive Costs will include items such as advertising, marketing, graphic design, web marketing, social media activity and even PR!

Positive costs are absolutely essential for generating business for any company – cutting these out may be viewed as a necessary step but it will eventually choke the oxygen of the business.

Recession (or any time for that matter)

Using our new cost model I would suggest the following approach:

Analyse your costs into the different cost categories and work towards –

1. Reducing the negative costs as much as possible

2. Improving efficiencies and work practices so that maintenance costs are as little as possible

3. Spending as much of your overhead budget as possible on positive costs .

I am not for one minute suggesting naive spending – always look for the best value in your positive costs and don’t waste money, making sure they are actually positive costs – that the spend results in increases in business.

Are you spending enough on Positive Costs in your business?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Accounting, Advertising, Business Planning, Customer Care, Irish Economy, Marketing, Positivity, PR, Recession, Social Media, Staff training, Training, Uncategorized | 22 Comments »

Opportunities in a Crisis?

March 26, 2011
Crisis PR - A deck of cards

Crisis PR - Manage the situation

Hopefully you will successfully manage to steer yourself away from any Crisis situation for you or your business.

However, if you are misfortunate and some Crisis situation occurs that is going to lead to quite negative publicity then we would recommend that you approach it with a really positive frame of mind – I know, this seems unusual and under the circumstances it may seem impossible to do, but ..

You must manage your reputation at all times, even in a crisis – this is Crisis PR

Our positive Crisis PR approach in these situations is to:

1. Accept that what has happened has happened – you probably can’t change this but you can change what you do and how you behave from here on in. This will influence how people will view you and the situation.

2. Get all the facts, 100% with as much clarity as possible – capture this in writing and share it with everyone involved.

3. Don’t ignore the media – get someone (a PR company is normally used to doing this) to field all calls, taking their details and assuring them that you will get back to them with a statement. “No comment” is a wasted opportunity to give your side of the story.

Your voice and your message are so important.

4. Concentrate on the message – with someone else fielding your calls you can concentrate on getting your message right. We would advise doing this with the assistance of an outside source who can bring objectivity to the issue – a PR company used to dealing with the media and crisis situations would be recommended.

5. Be honest – the very worst thing is to get caught out with misinformation. Be sure of every thing you are saying. If unsure of anything don’t comment on it until you are sure. If you get caught out all credibility is lost.

6. Written statement – once you have your message agreed capture this in a written statement, which can be issued to press. With a written statement you are totally limiting the chance of being misinterpreted.

7. Don’t talk to press – When we say this we mean at least not until you are ready to. In a “crisis” situation people can be very upset and may be unable to actually “talk”. Written statements should suffice until you are ready to talk. When you are ready to talk be clear about your key messages, write them down and rehearse them. A little role play beforehand is a good idea and will help in getting this right and avoiding little traps.

8. The Press want a story, help to write it – even in a crisis you can leverage the situation and include positive messages and initiatives about you and your business. The crisis may be awful but when there is an appetite for a story we would advise taking this opportunity and using it to “sell” some positives. This could include changes that are being implemented as a result of the crisis or even previous success stories or investments that the business has made. Paint as positive a picture as possible. The media are competing for stories and will be delighted to get a different angle on the situation – this could be a positive angle.

9. The story has a shelf life – all stories have a shelf life and will eventually be replaced by other stories. Recognise this shelf life and use this period to include those positive initiatives and actions in your statements. When the shelf life has expired it may be impossible to communicate the positives – the media will have lost interest and your opportunity could be gone.

10. Measure the temperature – during the immediate post crisis period carefully measure the press coverage about the crisis and also use online tools to capture what is being said by people generally. Gauging the temperature correctly can influence the content and timing of statements and positively contribute to the success of your “Crisis PR” campaign.

11. The Legal advice – The legal guys have their job to do and we have ours. By all means the two need to work closely together but this can only happen with a practical understanding of each others objectives.

Some of the legal guys will advise “no comment” – this could be safe legal advice but not good business or good reputation advice – know and understand the difference.

All press is good press? – we wouldn’t go along with that idea but we do advise staying calm, dealing with a crisis positively and making the very most out of a bad situation.

A vital step is to bring in outside professional help to assist with this process as early as possible.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Crisis PR, PR, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

The Candidates – Derry Canty, Fine Gael (Cork North West)

January 30, 2011
Derry Canty, Fine Gael

Derry - we want to hear about you!

As part of the election process I am going to do a “Ronseal” (what does their tin say about them) review of the political candidates literature that comes in through our letterbox and score them accordingly!!

Candidate: Derry Canty, Fine Gael (Cork North West)

Now this review is tricky as he is a namesake and I know him! .. but, the idea here is to review the candidates purely based on that flyer that comes through the letterbox. After all I reckon that is as much as most people voting will get to see of their candidates unless they have been really active in their particular area.

Design and Layout (5)
Derry and his team opted for a really small flyer, A6 size, it’s tiny but it is printed on heavier paper than the other candidates so far. For some reason there is no mention of which constituency Derry is running in – score 3

Photo (10)
There is a good enough photo of Derry, looking friendly and approachable. He is wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and a blue tie – standard attire for a politician I guess! Would you trust this man? On the higher side of average I guess! – score 7

Contact Details (5)
He includes both his email address and his personal phone number on his flyer, a nice “open” approach. As well as this he has his Facebook page listed .. ok, that puts him in the progressive box and gives everyone an opportunity to really find out more about what he is like and what he is up to – score 5

Background (10)
There is absolutely nothing on the flyer about Derry. When I say nothing I really mean nothing.. how can I be expected to vote for you if I know nothing about you, what you believe in, what you are qualified at, what you have achieved – score 0

Sales Pitch (10)
The sales pitch on the flyer is a generic Fine Gael pitch and not why we should vote for Derry. To be fair it does give a point by point review of what they would do. It is a little generic though using terms such as “radical stimulus plan” and “radical reforms” , tell me more, I’d love to hear more about these radical changes .. – score 5

Big Picture (10)
The big picture argument was the same as the sales pitch and did attempt to explain how FG would make a difference. At least there is an attempt at explaining how the “big picture” might be different if we voted for them – score 8

Overall Score
This is a Fine Gael flyer with Derry’s picture and contact details on it. I suspect we will see exactly the same across the length and breadth of the country with other candidate’s names and pictures.

Derry, people vote for people and you know this – your flyer is a wasted opportunity to get your message across to your voters. Lots of pressing the flesh is needed to show them you – check out Aine Collins flyer who goes some way to showing what she is like and why we should vote for  “her” – overall score 28 out of 50.

Best of luck in the elections Derry!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Communications

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Posted in Irish Economy, Irish Politics, Marketing, PR | 1 Comment »

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