Cindy King’s Weekly Business Article Review - December 28, 2009

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Cindy King’s Weekly Business Article Review – December 28, 2009

by cindyking on December 28th, 2009
38 Comments

Happy holiday greetings to all Bloggertone readers! Despite the holiday rush I managed to read business articles on bizSugar.

Here are the articles that stood out for me this week with some of the cross-cultural and international business thoughts they inspired. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.

9 Tricks to Receiving World Class Customer Service

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David Grenda gives some good tips on dealing with customer service representatives located in different countries. This article highlights the challenges of growing into an international business.

As a native English speaker living abroad I’ve also noticed inconsistencies between the information available on company websites and the information given by customer service representatives based in different countries. International coordination is not always easy to implement across all levels.

Have you had any international incidences with customer service?

5 Marketing Lessons From The Festive Season

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Susan Oakes shows businesses what they can learn from the festive holiday season. There is also a good parallel to be made between the points made in this article and international marketing.

It is often worth spending some time looking at the marketing practices in different countries for idea inspiration on what you can do in your own markets.

I am always surprised by the “Happy Holiday” wishes I receive from people in my business network who do not celebrate Christmas. This reminds me to ask them what big national holiday they celebrate and whether they send wishes to each other in the same way at this time or not. It’s a little extra effort to incorporate these personal touches into your marketing, but they often help to deepen the relationships.

What do you learn from your observations of this holiday season?

Christmas: For Making Biz Connections

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Tony Johnston also makes a good suggestion to get a business advantage out of the holiday season. This time it is to strengthen relationships and connect with people.

Most people all over the world are receptive to connecting during the end of year holiday season. Unfortunately, no matter how good my intentions are I never seem to be able to reach out to everyone I’d like to over Christmas. There is just too much going on.

So for several years now, I have changed the date to do this. I now make it a point to personally reach out to all of the people who matter to me just before Easter. I take more time to do this and others also have more time for me too. And I also remember to reach out to the people I missed connecting to at Christmas.

How do you use holidays to connect with your business network?

Done Deals: Stop Analyzing and Start Experimenting

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Chris Brogan talks about one of the common mistakes I see people make with international business. As he points out there has to be a balance. You do need to do thorough research before entering a new international market. But I see too much paralysis. Besides with a little thought, many businesses today can apply the small marketing experiments Chris outlines. And you can also experiment with international markets… with special attention to segmentation and adapting your communication to connect with different cultures.

In fact, the process Chris outlines here could be the base of a marketing plan to test the right way to connect with different foreign markets. These practices may not yield great results in all countries. But they may be worth a try. And all English speaking businesses outside of North America interested in reaching this market should be doing this already.

What are you doing to learn more about your international markets?

The Social Listener

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This is an interview with Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami at Network Solutions LLC. I found this story inspiring. Social Media Swami is his actual job title. What I find interesting is how Shashi sees his job function beyond that of a social listener. He uses the cultural meaning of the word Swami to give his job function a much broader role. He compares it to being more of a customer evangelist within his company.

It is interesting to see how different cultures impact these new job functions and I wonder what the future has in store for us as social media becomes a bigger melting pot.

What other cultural influences have you noticed in social media in business?

Don’t Let Sales Skills Atrophy

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This short post from Skip Anderson has a great message. We must not become complacent with our skills. In international business you need to continually make the effort to build cross-cultural skills to be successful.

I occasionally hear people claim to have good international skills because they “lived” in a foreign country for 2 months 15 years ago. The trouble is people change. Cultures evolve. And the skills you pick up in one context may not fit very well in another one.

The actions Skip mentions here are all important. But I think self-analysis plays an even greater role in learning how to adapt to different practices. And you need multiple international experiences and time to digest them before you can go deep enough in self-analysis to build strong international skills.

How complacent are you about your international skills?

7 Ways Posterous Improves Your Social Media Presence

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This is an article I wrote about Posterous on Social Media Examiner. As the comments started coming in I realized that as an international marketer I am particular interested in easy publishing solutions to segment content marketing.

International marketers can use segmentation to find the best way to communicate to different markets. It takes time to carry out an international content marketing plan, even on a small scale. So a quick and easy publishing platform can help you to experiment with some segmented market research.

I’m definitely going keep my ear open for other easy publishing platforms popular in different countries.

Are you interested in laser focused international market research through easy content publishing platforms?

What About You?

Which articles got you thinking this week and why?

How have you improved your international marketing this holiday season?

What international business insights have you acquired recently?

Category: Business articles reviews

Tags: article, bizsugar, bloggertone, business, business article, chris brogan, cindy king, content marketing, cross cultural, customer service, david grenda, holiday, international business, International Marketing, international segmentation, international skills, marketing experiments, open forum, posterous, sales skills, shshi bellamkonda, skip anderson, social listener, social media swami, susan oakes, tony johnston

The Author: cindyking

Cindy King is a cross-cultural marketer helping businesses develop globally with international social media. Follow Cindy on Twitter @CindyKing http://cindyking.biz/

Add Your Comment

http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

I feel a bit stupid for never realising this before now, Thanks for letting me know
http://twitter.com/LDFerguson Liam D. Ferguson

That’s interesting. I had only fairly recently discovered bit.ly and other URL shorteners and have been using them because of their analytics. But I guess it’s not such a good idea after all.
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Hi Liam

I had to check with Ali at Webmentor.ie because as I said I’m not an expert and she explained the following regarding URL shorteners:-

If the url shortening service uses a 301 permanent redirect (not a 302 or 303), then the search engine will refer back to the original url. That’s good, and link juice is preserved. Not all url shortening services do this. For an excellent comparison chart of url shortening services, please refer to Danny Sullivan’s article http://searchengineland.com/analysis-which-url-shortening-service-should-you-use-17204
which gives a green box to good features, and a red one to bad features. Its worth a read as he points out, for instance, that short.ie (relevant to Irish readers) was unable to handle a complex url such as:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=movie+times&btnG=Search
losing everything after the ?
(Shame I use short.ie a lot and didn’t know that!!)

Hope that is some help

Sian
Anonymous

Very interesting and it seems like common sense but in the heat of the moment, all preordained logic can quickly dissipate! I was once told the reason I did not get the job was because I strive for perfection and the role would not be able to satisfy this apparent need for perfection…maybe some stuble and and a pair of jeans might have worked in that scenario!
http://www.channelship.ie/blog facundo

Hey Cindy,
Great review. Your post on Posterous got me thinking. Funny enough, posterous being so simple, I haven’t played around with it quite much yet. Will definitely look more into the advantages of being that space in between Twitter and one’s own blog. Can definitely be a solution for the busy business owner.
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

Cindy, thanks for another great series. I will have a read and report back
Pingback: Tweets that mention Cindy King’s Weekly Business Article Review - December 28, 2009 | International business strategy | going international -- Topsy.com
http://cindyking.biz/ Cindy King

Hi Facundo, the first Posterous pages I saw were those of my online friends who used Posterous as sophisticated CVs. It was only really after seeing different styles of Posterous pages that I got it.

The way how Guy Kawaski uses his Posterous page is fascinating. It’s his Holy Kaw page where he publishes longer entries with photos for all of the useful links he finds on Twitter. So he has a good trace of all of his tweets in one easy to find place.

The thing to remember is that although you can redirect your Posterous to your own URL, it still remains Posterous. So you never want to use this as the only real estate you have online. But once you have your own website, Posterous is great to look into.
http://cindyking.biz/ Cindy King

Niall, you know I’d love to hear what thoughts The Social Listener inspires and if they were a bit similar to mine.

I’m curious to know if you think the Irish social media community could impact social media in any way. The Irish have a reputation here in France of being very sociable when compared to others… so just curious. But I guess it is much too early to tell.
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

Cindy, Thanks for the question! and Yes, I think we are quite social and that we traditionally form strong communities both here and around the world. 70-80 million people claim some type of affinity with Ireland, or putting this another way we are merely a very small portion of the Global Irish. Our track record of engaging in a meaningful way with this extended community is very poor but perhaps now social media has given us the tools to at least begin to start the conversation. In my opinion, any attempts to leverage our global community would surely have to include use of social media.
http://www.TonyJohnston.biz/ Tony Johnston

Cindy, thanks for helping keep my social media world fresh and new. I especially like reading your weekly reviews of what’s the latest in best biz articles to be found on the web. To have made the grade with a listing above is a real honour for me. Cheers – I hope you have a very happy New Year.
http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

Sian, great post!
I agree that we need to be there for our customers, but as I mentioned before, I think if we make ourselves available 24 hours a day, then we work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This can only lead in one direction – burn out.
I am aware we can lose a customer or two, but I certainly would rather someone else looked after a potential client at 2am, while I get my much needed beauty sleep.
As we do more business globally, it is accepted that our e-mails to the US or Asia may not be answered immediately due to time differences, and this cannot change unless we work 24 hours a day.
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

Sian, of course the strange thing is that the advent of technology has in fact increased working hours rather than having the expected decrease. I think its important to be available to customers but we are in danger of taking this too far. Most people now take work with them on holidays etc, I can’t say I believe this is now a good thing and I think we need to rethink what important in our lives.
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Thanks for the comments – I thought it may be controversial

Elaine – I appreciate that time for sleep is needed, as I mentioned in the post. And of course if you are in touch with a company in another country with time differences then you would expect a delay. I was talking more from my point of view dealing with Irish companies and providing a service to them.

Niall – I think I must be a workaholic then because I do tend to work on holiday too, lol. But then I normally holiday alone, home from home, in Spain.

Ian – thank you, sounds like a good plan

For those that don’t want to man the phones/emails after hours then a virtual office service can be used to ensure customers get some sort of response too.
Ian

Being self-employed produces a different work ethic from a 9-5 salaried post. Those you can walk away from, and leave for another day, with a clear conscience. Building your own business requires more committment but gives more job satisfaction and hopefully more money. Your returns are based on the amount of work you put in. Hopefully Sian, you’ll be able to build a business where somebody else can eventually put in all the hard graft while you enjoy an early retirement.
Anonymous

I agree with lots that you say Sian. Getting your own business up and running requires lots of dedication and much more than 24 hours in every day. Making a success of it however requires a balance of work and play. Of course if your work is your play well then you can spend more time that most at it. But even the really succesful need to take time out to refocus and recharge.
Being self employed means there are days when we’d love to just switch off at 5.30 and let some fictional boss worry about the future of the business.
That said, I wouldn’t swap the long hours, hard work and lower income involved in being your own boss for the demands of another boss — even if I did get to work only 9 to 5 everyday.
Anonymous

It is vital to take time to recharge those batteries and unwind. However when you become self employed you can decide what hours and effort best suits you and your business. I can find myself enjoying a walk in the day and writing a Powerpoint presentation at 10pm at night. To me that is Freedom! Also I live by this quote – “Choose a job you love,and you will never have to work a day in your life.”- Confucius
Alan

To get a business up and running a great deal of time and effort is required. 9 to 5 cannot be considered. You either have the backing to afford helpers or you have to carry the business yourself. Of course if the business is sucessfull and creating jobs then the time to relax and catch up with holidays will be there for the taking, all being well you just touch base when required.
BeachHut81

People that say you don’t have a life, are obviously at ‘work’ on the sunny days when you can take a longer break, or even work outside
http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairéad Kelly

I can understand the “need” to keep clients. Having said that, there is the issue of life balance and if all a person is doing is working to the exclusion of the other parts of their life then I just don’t see the point. When we are self-employed we often don’t work the set 9-5, but quite a lot of staggered hours. I’d sooner not take on a client if it is going to clash with my family life. I’ve done the “on call at all costs” before and from experience (for me) the price is far too high.
Anonymous

Nice post Sian – food for thought. I too have experienced the 9-5 regime in the corporate world and the open-all-hours model common to many SMEs. It is very important to service your customers in a timely manner. It is also important to stay healthy, focused and rested to ensure that you are able to meet your customers requirements.

Sometimes a customer will need out of hours support, most of the time (in most industries), it can be dealt with in the 9-5 window. The key is to be able to distinguish the important/urgent tasks from the never-ending ticker tape of regular customer requirements. Otherwise we’d never get to sleep…
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Thank you for all the comments. I must point out that I only said “be available” – I’m not snowed under with calls and emails every evening or weekend although we get one or two and I don’t mind dealing with it if I’m available and it may only take 10 minutes. I appreciate queries and time taken to deal with them will vary from business to business. Once the enquiries get too much and means we’re working stupid hours then we’ll employ a virtual office service to deal with out of hours enquiries. I just believe that in a service industry then the best possible service should be given when possible. Especially these days when businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

Controversial indeed Sian! Agree with you on all counts, the trick is to make sure that you do actually get a life at some point otherwise you do have to question what the point of it all is! This takes time to develop though so the trick is to work smarter to ensure that you don’t get consumed 24*7. Is there technology that can help you out perhaps? For those that need a break from the phone but don’t have staff – perhaps a “virtual receptionist”… or…
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Things are changing with Whatswhat.ie and the workload will change soon. I’m really not complaining as I love my work and life and I do have time out of course. We will always keep our service personal though and not automate everything. I just wondered if people are making themselves available more in these times.
http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

Hi Sian,

I’ve seen a number of sites profess to offer a direct link but actually offer a redirect and tell you its SEO friendly.
Just a note on an every day occurance – many site owners also own other versions of their website (.ie/.com/.org etc) and set up a temp 302 forward manually within their web cpanel account.
Two things to note here – 1) Its a temp forward, a redirect and 2) search engines only index one version of a page if there are more.
The solution is to host two sites for content you intend to update and ask the hosting company to set a 301 perm forward.
TheDude

The ongoing battle between two mentalities and in the end two social and economical statuses. Being a 9 to 5 employee and feeling trapped and miserable, having to ask for permission even for going to the toilet (I’m exaggerating this a bit to make a point) or having your own business, working 16 hours a day in it and thinking you are free. )
I don’t know which one is best. Judging it from the amount of working hours, it may seem that having your own business is a bit stupid. I mean the whole point is to have as much time for yourself as possible. In reality, owning a business gives me the chance of at least try to escape the corporate net and make it. Meaning work less hours, earn enough money and be free from the 9 to 5 cage.
So I guess at the end of the day is just a matter of how long it takes to make it.

Hope it won’t take a life time and then regret I didn’t go 9 to 5 when I was young. It is a bit of a catch 22 isn’t it?
TheDude

The ongoing battle between two mentalities and in the end two social and economical statuses. Being a 9 to 5 employee and feeling trapped and miserable, having to ask for permission even for going to the toilet (I’m exaggerating this a bit to make a point) or having your own business, working 16 hours a day in it and thinking you are free. )
I don’t know which one is best. Judging it from the amount of working hours, it may seem that having your own business is a bit stupid. I mean the whole point is to have as much time for yourself as possible. In reality, owning a business gives me the chance of at least try to escape the corporate net and make it. Meaning work less hours, earn enough money and be free from the 9 to 5 cage.
So I guess at the end of the day is just a matter of how long it takes to make it.

Hope it won’t take a life time and then regret I didn’t go 9 to 5 when I was young. It is a bit of a catch 22 isn’t it?
http://www.wchingya.com wchingya

I can see your passion in your work, Sian, and that’s wonderful! To really be into what you’re doing, most of the time it’s about fulfillment, even enjoyment. The ethical working ethic (care for customer needs) even during off hours, that can really happen for a nine to five day job if you’ve found the perfect one (the one that suits you). If you can enjoy that, it’s a dream job so good for you. (but we still ought to rest sometimes too, I’m struggling that even doing the job I love, lol..)

@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
http://www.mountainmovingmindset.com/blog Frederique Murphy

Love that you wrote that post Sián, as it is one of “those” topics!

I think this is a personal choice and I believe it should be, personal and that all of us should decide and take control over our own hours, so for me, there is not right or wrong behaviours; and, actually, it is my belief that you need to act in a fulfilling way, then, when it is fulfilling, that is your “right” way.

These decisions have to be made considering our balance, our market, our niche, our services.

Personally, I am not a 9 to 5, and while I was, at some point, in a 9 to 5 job, I just very rarely left at 5…! This ties in to my belief of over delivering and committing at 100% to deliver the best service I can. I have had, however, colleagues who could “switch off” at 4.59 and go home; for me, I rather finished what needed to be done and then go home.

Since I have my own business, I have total freedom of my hours and certainly do not follow a 9 to 5.
But, yes, there is a but, I have boundaries; boundaries that serve me and my couple, my family , and my friends.

Those time boundaries, commitments and set expectations are key to my balance.

I believe that my clients get the best from me when I am at my best and this is not when I am working 24/7; so, I don’t work 8h a day; on some days, I work way more, and some days, I will be chilling in A LOT

I do not mind having to work harder for a specific amount of time when I know that play is coming up; you know, “Work hard, player harder”!
Anonymous

I hear you Sian, it’s a tough call, yes we need to make sure that our services/products are available to our customers when THEY want them, otherwise they’ll find someone who will give them what they want, when they want it!

However, and here’s the catch- as business owners yes we absolutely need to do everything we can to ensure that our businesses survive & thrive, but if we don’t take care of our own health & well being then we will underperform. If we neglect taking care of ourselves & having appropriate relaxation & down time over sustained periods we also face the risk of jeopardising our health.

It’s a fine balance- one that all too often can only be seen clearly when it’s too late. I have a personal experience which I will share here- I implored my father to take time off as he was working far too hard. The words I used were “If you were to drop down dead in the morning, they’d find someone else to replace you” but as a Manager he was committed to his responsbilities. Within weeks after that conversation I had with him, he had a massive heart attack & passed away instantly.

So, YES do everything you can to make sure that your business is competitive & it meets the demands of your customers, but PLEASE, please take care of your health too- without it- you won’t have any business at all.

If you make your mobile number available to customers- have 2 phones, one that you can happily switch off at a predetermined time of day. We need to relax & recharge in order to work to our optimum performance. And to stay healthy, happy & alive
http://www.fortysomethingbride.com/ Colleen Cole

There is give and take to being flexible. Yes, you need to be available when your clients need you (within reason), but the flexibility should also allow you to do things you might otherwise be unable to, like attend your daughters school during the day for an event.

It’s not 9 to 5, it’s better, don’t you think?
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Hi Colleen. yes I agree and flexibility does come into it too. I just believe that businesses have to put more hours in to survive these days. And if it means being available after 5pm to take a call or email then so be it. I’m not saying it should impose on your family life too much or your social life either if that is important to you. Just has to be within reason. If I’m not doing anything and can help someone when they phone at 8pm then I don’t see the problem in dealing with it then. I’m not saying make myself sick from overwork or not having any life at all. I enjoy a quiet life now – in fact much more than the mad social life I used to have. I like my work too which is a big part of my life when running a company
http://www.fortysomethingbride.com/ Colleen Cole

Hi Sian, Didn’t mean to imply that you were working yourself to the bone! Rather I thought the discussion would be a little more balanced when you acknowledge that the flexibility has to extend both ways. If you can work smarter, rather than harder, it is more beneficial to both you and your customer as well.

Thanks for your article and your comments!
http://www.sianphillips.ie Sian Phillips

Sorry, Colleen. Was also a reply to other comments above really. I agree, work smarter rather than harder. But also be available to your customer outside 9 to 5 – within reason. And that includes flexibilty as you mentioned.
http://www.ladyumbrella.com/ LadyUmbrella

Great post Sian and totally agree – have to be available when the customer is..there is no such thing as a 9 to 5 when it is your own business…Even if your customers were only available from the hours of 9 to 5 because it is your business, your baby, your hopes and dreams, limiting yourself to just 8 hours is not a possibility..Also, because it is your own business it doesn’t really seem like work but something that you enjoy as you’re doing it for you..Working 9 to 5 (and all the rest) what a (great) way to make a living..
Anonymous

Hi Sian,

First off, congrats on a great business, what’s what are very visible in the marketplace and a real success story-kudos

I’m in full agreement with you and I am not self-employed. I have always firmly believed you work until the work is done. Simples. I make my personal mobile number available to all clients (it’s on my business card). I will take calls when I’m needed and I will work as many hours as are necessary to get the job done, for example before taking time off for my wedding I had a major project on and it required 3 weeks of 12 hour days so that’s what it got. I see my future with Passion and frankly I enjoy it anyway! I genuinely love what I do.

The other side of it of course is those hugely successful people who spend very little time working and insist that nobody should have to. Take for example, the wonderful Joan Baker (Wealth Masters), her philosophy is that you achieve 80% of your results in 20% of your time so be productive in that time and forget the rest! Another guy, Neil Asher (fantastic AM) insists he works very little enjoying his Internet-amassed fortune…..
Anonymous

For people working 9 to 5 , time is important. They have fixed mind set . But those who do not follow 9 to 5 and work till the job is complete , work and results are important.The salaried people mostly have 9 to 5 attitude . May because they are working for some body else’s business . They are not directly benefitted by the results. But the self employed work for themselves and hence extra hours put in benefit themselves. But in todays cometitive atmosphere it is seen at many places an employed person is given a target which has to be completed . In such cases people do work extra time.In a family wife would always want the husband to work 9 to 5 , so that he can be with family and spend time with them. But a businessman / self employed person mostly has to work extra so as to acheive the goal set,which in turn does not allow him to give quantitative time to his family.
Rob Roe

Great message.. whenever the customer wants to contact you, make sure youu2019re available. Well writen blog (survivor)

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Bloggertone » Global » Cindy King’s Weekly Business Article Review – December 28, 2009