"The Customer is Always Right." Anyone who has spent anytime in a client driven industry is familiar with the phrase. From grocery stores to marketing firms, when your business depends directly on the amount of customers and clients you get, this phrase is treated like the gospel. Unfortunately, anyone who has ever worked in client driven business also knows that the client usually has no idea what it is they want.
The whole reason why you hire a professional is because you don't have the knowledge to do it yourself. You might have ideas, you might have suggestions, but you don't have expertise. This is why you go to a doctor when you're sick, and when your doctor gives you medical advice, you follow it. An ideal client relationship works like a doctor-patient relationship. The client comes in with a problem, offers some suggestions of what the solution might be, but ultimately defers to the experience of the professional they hired.
In reality, the client comes in with suggestions or ideas that will not work, or won't work without heavy modification. You tell them this as politely and deferentially as possible, because after all, you can't afford to lose the client, offer some suggestions, and inevitably, your suggestions are rejected. If you followed the motto "the customer is always right", this is where you would back down, go with the client's ill advised idea, and then have to deal with the blow back when it doesn't work, or doesn't work well enough. The problem with the "client is always right" is that the customer comes to believe this as well. Obviously if things didn't work out the way they wanted, it's your fault for either not listening to them or, conversely, listening to them even though you knew it wouldn't work. As a professional, you can't win.
The solution? Acknowledge that the client isn't always right. Don't be afraid to state, clearly and decisively, why the client's idea, while interesting, will not work. Use examples of similar ideas that have failed. Provide one or two suggestions for alternatives, and don't be afraid to emphasize the years of experience you have.
For example, if you have been tasked to design a flyer for a client and they want to put something on the flyer that just won't work - it's too strongly worded, the design is ugly, it's the sort of information that isn't meant to go on a flyer - explain to them why it won't work, and if (when) they ignore your suggestion, provide two examples. One with their suggestions, implemented exactly as is, poor wording, color scheme and all, and one the way you know from experience will work best. Present the two suggestions side by side, and 99% of the time, they'll pick the one you designed.
Most of the time if you let the client know in no uncertain terms that their suggestions are a bad idea, and provide alternatives, they will listen. Trying to turn a poor idea into an acceptable one is a waste of time and effort. If the idea is salvageable, let it drop. The good thing about most clients is that they don't know what they want until they see it, so if you provide examples of what you know works, they'll find something they like and you can go from there.
For the 1% who persist in making poor design choices, there is quite literally nothing you can do. It comes down to whether you can afford to be associated with a poor design - if you pride yourself on the quality of your work, this might be the time to drop an ultimatum on the client, instead of the other way around. But usually, it doesn't come to that. Generally, when you firmly but gently tell a client "how about we try this instead", they'll go along with it.
Always listening to your client is a good way to churn out mediocre work. You will not, in fact, have a high rate of customer satisfaction. Ultimately, you and the client care about the same things - results. If you do everything a client wants, and it fails that is your fault. The client will very rarely if ever take responsibility. It's much smarter to make sure all your projects succeed, even if that means proving a customer wrong.
How do you deal with difficult customers? If
you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or
didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on
twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
5 Tips to Improve Your SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically, how do you make Google work for you. Anyone who's ever used a search engine understand the concept: the results on the top of the first page are the ones you click on. So how do you get there? Honestly, it's better to just hire a SEO certified professional, or a marketing team to handle it for you. But here are some tips to get you started.
1. Keywords - Figure out what sort of words people use to search for your product, and include as many of them as you can in your website. This is often done on a coding level, where the website itself is designed to make it as easy as possible for search engine indexing to find it.
2. Cross Linking - The more times people click through to and around your site, the higher it climbs in the search engine rankings. One strategy is to have, essentially, sets of links, where the main page takes you to a second page which takes you to the content you're looking for, to have links to other pages on the most important pages. There are ways to do this organically, without disrupting or annoying the user, such as linking to a page with services, then having the user click on each individual service to see examples of it.And/or, when organically mentioning another service in the description of your current one, linking straight to that service in the text.
3. Inbound and Outbound Linking - Advertise your website. have links to your website on your social media sites, on your blog, and links to your blog on your website. The more places that your blog or website shows up, the more it will be scene, and more importantly, the more it will be trafficked. One of the things search engine crawlers, the things that find and rate the sites, look for is how often your site gets mentioned on other sites.
4. Data and Analytics - Once you start getting traffic, you need to track that traffic. Search engine algorithms change all the time. Make sure that you know who's visiting your site, when, where and how, so you know how to change your website and your SEO tactics to match your demographic. Most companies that provide SEO help or expertise include analytics and tracking as part of the package, as it's hard to optimize something when you don't know h0w it's performing in the first place.
5. Sponsored Links - If doing SEO the organic way just isn't producing the results you want, you can always pay the search engine to get featured at the top of the results. Whether or not this is actually effect is up in the air. Many people, myself include, specifically avoid the sponsored links because we assume that their not actually the best results. Search engine user like to think that the reason an article or a business is at the top of the list is because it's the most popular, and most relevant result. Sponsored links bypass that, and as silly as it sounds, feels like the company is blatantly "cheating" to improve their standing.
These tips can get you started, but as you've probably figured out, SEO is best left to professionals. Luckily, there are a lot out there (including my company, UnimarPR). Just try to focus on companies that provide "organic" SEO optimization over sponsored links or pay per click, as search engine companies prefer websites and businesses that game the system naturally.
How important do you think SEO is to a business? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
1. Keywords - Figure out what sort of words people use to search for your product, and include as many of them as you can in your website. This is often done on a coding level, where the website itself is designed to make it as easy as possible for search engine indexing to find it.
2. Cross Linking - The more times people click through to and around your site, the higher it climbs in the search engine rankings. One strategy is to have, essentially, sets of links, where the main page takes you to a second page which takes you to the content you're looking for, to have links to other pages on the most important pages. There are ways to do this organically, without disrupting or annoying the user, such as linking to a page with services, then having the user click on each individual service to see examples of it.And/or, when organically mentioning another service in the description of your current one, linking straight to that service in the text.
3. Inbound and Outbound Linking - Advertise your website. have links to your website on your social media sites, on your blog, and links to your blog on your website. The more places that your blog or website shows up, the more it will be scene, and more importantly, the more it will be trafficked. One of the things search engine crawlers, the things that find and rate the sites, look for is how often your site gets mentioned on other sites.
4. Data and Analytics - Once you start getting traffic, you need to track that traffic. Search engine algorithms change all the time. Make sure that you know who's visiting your site, when, where and how, so you know how to change your website and your SEO tactics to match your demographic. Most companies that provide SEO help or expertise include analytics and tracking as part of the package, as it's hard to optimize something when you don't know h0w it's performing in the first place.
5. Sponsored Links - If doing SEO the organic way just isn't producing the results you want, you can always pay the search engine to get featured at the top of the results. Whether or not this is actually effect is up in the air. Many people, myself include, specifically avoid the sponsored links because we assume that their not actually the best results. Search engine user like to think that the reason an article or a business is at the top of the list is because it's the most popular, and most relevant result. Sponsored links bypass that, and as silly as it sounds, feels like the company is blatantly "cheating" to improve their standing.
These tips can get you started, but as you've probably figured out, SEO is best left to professionals. Luckily, there are a lot out there (including my company, UnimarPR). Just try to focus on companies that provide "organic" SEO optimization over sponsored links or pay per click, as search engine companies prefer websites and businesses that game the system naturally.
How important do you think SEO is to a business? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Preventative Medicine
The classic of a doctor is someone you go to when you're sick. Are your eyes failing? Go to the eye doctor! Skin cancer? Go to the dermatologist! This doesn't make a lot of sense. You shouldn't wait for a building to collapse before you fix the cracks. Humans are not self repairing, self sustaining machines, they require work and care. This is why it's so important to schedule regular check ups, check regularly for lumps and moles, and schedule regular appointments with your dentist before you have a single cavity. Brushing your teeth doesn't fill your cavities, it prevents you from having them in the first place.
This sort of thinking - the knowledge that you can avoid health issues once you know the cause of them - is why we developed spray tans, to provide an alternative to cancer causing suntanning booths. Why almost all states have passing anti-smoking laws and bans. Michelle Obama has also drawn attention to the problem of obesity in our country, especially in schools, and almost all schools now focus on creating health providing environments, as well as education. It's more difficult to find a fast food chain without posted calorie counts and salad options, then with them.
But does this increased concern with and awareness of health issues actually lead to healthier people? One study in the American Journal Of Preventative Medicine one the effects of labeling caloric values on fast food menus, conducted as a cross sectional longitudinal from 2008-2010, which was evaluated in 2011-2012 on the effect that caloric labeling (that began at the beginning of the study) had on the caloric intake and overall weight of study participants. Their results were surprising. The calorie labeling only served to increase healthy eating in some participants, at some of the restaurants, and only among women. What the signs did do was create awareness of the issue.
Our understandable desire to stop ourselves from getting sick, and our increased knowledge as to the underlying causes of things like cancer and obesity, have inspired us to discover new techniques for promoting wellness, and to re-discover, old ones, like acupuncture. Even the department of defense is getting in on, having recently established the first full service acupuncture clinic on a military base.
Since people are doing more to stop themselves from getting sick in the first place, does this means, as a doctor, you're going to start losing patients? Of course not. An increased interest and reliance on preventative medicine can actually get you more patients. Consider recommending massages, acupuncture, helping your patients develop good nutrition plans, healthy exercise habits. Encourage regular check ups, consider natural remedies like green tea, and acia berries. Don't just help your patients get healthy, help them stay healthy too.
How do you stay healthy? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
This sort of thinking - the knowledge that you can avoid health issues once you know the cause of them - is why we developed spray tans, to provide an alternative to cancer causing suntanning booths. Why almost all states have passing anti-smoking laws and bans. Michelle Obama has also drawn attention to the problem of obesity in our country, especially in schools, and almost all schools now focus on creating health providing environments, as well as education. It's more difficult to find a fast food chain without posted calorie counts and salad options, then with them.
But does this increased concern with and awareness of health issues actually lead to healthier people? One study in the American Journal Of Preventative Medicine one the effects of labeling caloric values on fast food menus, conducted as a cross sectional longitudinal from 2008-2010, which was evaluated in 2011-2012 on the effect that caloric labeling (that began at the beginning of the study) had on the caloric intake and overall weight of study participants. Their results were surprising. The calorie labeling only served to increase healthy eating in some participants, at some of the restaurants, and only among women. What the signs did do was create awareness of the issue.
Our understandable desire to stop ourselves from getting sick, and our increased knowledge as to the underlying causes of things like cancer and obesity, have inspired us to discover new techniques for promoting wellness, and to re-discover, old ones, like acupuncture. Even the department of defense is getting in on, having recently established the first full service acupuncture clinic on a military base.
Since people are doing more to stop themselves from getting sick in the first place, does this means, as a doctor, you're going to start losing patients? Of course not. An increased interest and reliance on preventative medicine can actually get you more patients. Consider recommending massages, acupuncture, helping your patients develop good nutrition plans, healthy exercise habits. Encourage regular check ups, consider natural remedies like green tea, and acia berries. Don't just help your patients get healthy, help them stay healthy too.
How do you stay healthy? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Improving Online Doctor Listings
I just spent the day looking through many different online doctor listings, and I noticed some things they all have in common, and some thing that most of these listings just don't have. Most listings are focused more on the doctor then the practice. They have the doctor's information - education, degrees, affiliated hospitals, and so on, but pretty much nothing about the practice itself. None of these listing have the doctor's website's listed. They all separated the individual doctors from the practices they work in, and in many cases, founded. This is a mistake.
In no other profession, do you list the owner of a business separate from their business. I'm not just looking for a doctor, I'm looking for a doctor's office. Especially when seeking out family practices, and general practitioners, I want to know what sort of services, hours and locations the practice or hospital the doctor works at keeps. ZocDoc.com, a very respectable and very popular doctor listing site, allows you to book online appointments with any doctor in their database, and read reviews from previous clients. They don't, however, tell you anything about the practice the doctor works for. Many of them don't even tell you the name of the doctor's hospital or practice.
It's a system set up to prioritize patients who already have the names of doctors they'd like to consult, and need more information about. If you're seeking out a new eye doctor, or dentist, or family practitioner using ZocDoc, and most of the other doctor listings like healthygrades.com, you'll find yourself having to do additional searching to find out information about that doctor's practice. A practice is nothing without good doctors, but good doctors function within existing structures -within practices and hospitals. When you're looking for a doctor, you're also looking for the doctor's office.
Online medical listings should reflect that reality. When you're looking at universities, you may be drawn to a school because of its excellent professors. But if the most accessible information about a university said nothing about the school itself, and focused only on the teachers, you wouldn't go to that school.
What are some ways online medical listings can be changed to improve the experience? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
In no other profession, do you list the owner of a business separate from their business. I'm not just looking for a doctor, I'm looking for a doctor's office. Especially when seeking out family practices, and general practitioners, I want to know what sort of services, hours and locations the practice or hospital the doctor works at keeps. ZocDoc.com, a very respectable and very popular doctor listing site, allows you to book online appointments with any doctor in their database, and read reviews from previous clients. They don't, however, tell you anything about the practice the doctor works for. Many of them don't even tell you the name of the doctor's hospital or practice.
It's a system set up to prioritize patients who already have the names of doctors they'd like to consult, and need more information about. If you're seeking out a new eye doctor, or dentist, or family practitioner using ZocDoc, and most of the other doctor listings like healthygrades.com, you'll find yourself having to do additional searching to find out information about that doctor's practice. A practice is nothing without good doctors, but good doctors function within existing structures -within practices and hospitals. When you're looking for a doctor, you're also looking for the doctor's office.
Online medical listings should reflect that reality. When you're looking at universities, you may be drawn to a school because of its excellent professors. But if the most accessible information about a university said nothing about the school itself, and focused only on the teachers, you wouldn't go to that school.
What are some ways online medical listings can be changed to improve the experience? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)