Sun Tzu on Social Media & Freelancing

I wanted to be a lawyer once, so I took a big career step sideways and first became a certified paralegal, then went to work for a major Chicago based law firm. My boss was a partner in the 350 person litigation department. To say that he was smart and aggressive would be an understatement. Combine those traits with his almost insane passion for the law and his clients and he made partner early in his career. Specializing in civil litigation, he had an almost near perfect success record. 

He was a fair boss, but as you might imagine, working for him was far more than a typical job. To succeed, you had to be accepted by his close litigation family and subscribe to the philosophy that all litigation was all out war. Losing was not an option. Whatever it took, no matter the hours worked or the (legal) techniques and strategies applied to a case, winning was the #1 goal. Going to work in the early morning after a mandatory hour or so at the firms health club working out, was like connecting yourself to a high tension electrical power wire. Twelve hours later you couldn't see straight or think clearly. You've read the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu of course. That and the Florida Statutes were our bibles. 

Well, I never did become a lawyer. Working inside a large law firm and observing the insane competition between partners, associates and departments - litigation, real estate and corporate - they did not do criminal law - I decided that spending my life dedicated to that environment was just not for me. Rather than learn to love the law, I not only had no passion for it, I hated it. I moved on, but the philosophy of winning is war remained with me and will forever. I've tried to impart similar to my son. And now as a freelance writer and someone surrounded by social media nothing has changed. Whether your marketing a service or product on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or any other of the 15+ social media platforms. The principles outlined by Sun Tzu are in fact what winning and gaining ultimate advantage over competition is all about. Whether your marketing a service or product on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or any other of the 15+ social media platforms 

You must take a no prisoners approach to gaining business. You've heard the expression, "To the victor, go the spoils". It's true. Making money is what it is about. What else can possibly be as important? Charity? Tithing? Donating? Job Satisfaction? There is a Klingon saying: "tIq Daq Hosnatulu" which means real power is in the heart. While that's well intentioned and certainly admirable but, the fact is, make no money and your efforts to assist any group, organization - soup kitchen or mission - will never happen. Another expression: "Show me the money baby, show me the money" is what it is all about for freelancers.

It's not arrogant or narcissistic to think that no one does what you do best. One first step in eliminating competition is to believe there really is no competition whatsoever. The road is filled with users, but waiting for you to come along and re-pave it with you're brilliance. A major obstacle that freelancers face is - let's say you're a writer - going into a book store to survey what other writers are selling. Another is constantly checking out best seller lists. Why bother? Sun Tzu tells us" To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." 

So, for goodness sakes, subdue the market, don't fight it - write it -  then sell the hell out of what you produce. Think like this: "Victorious warriors win FIRST and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win". Any freelancer that bids for work against me is my enemy. They are not to share from, but to destroy. I don't want your advice, I want your business. Sun Tzu says: "If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he (she) is superior in strength, evade him. If you opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be wek, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking ease, give him no rest. Attack him where he is unprepared and appear where you are not expected."

You need to post that above your computer when you seek out new business. The lower photo is the Gatorade social media war room. Learn the principles of Sun Tzu and apply them to your freelance business. Stop wasting your time tweeting your feelings and retweeting other writers work and get down to business. Set high goals and push yourself. Declare war on those goals and achieve them already. Your time has come. 

Scrubbing on Social Media

There are plenty of definitions for the term "scrubbing", but as an observer and critic of social media, for our purposes, this refers to wiping comments, concerns and opinions to and about a company off a site, permanently. In television parlance you would have been "burned", James Bond would have liquidated you or in La Femme Nakita fashion your entire Tweet, Facebook post or Google+ entry would have been "cleaned. It also occurs on a company blog. Scrubbing is the wiping out - the negation - the disappearance of whatever a business does not want the public to know about.

The chief villain of this process is the social media manager typically who "resides" within the marketing department. Scrubbing most likely is an established corporate communications or public relations policy and it typically follows suit that businesses engaged in such a process are also the toughest to e-mail, call or receive a response to from a traditional complaint letter. Scrubbing is not a habit of any one industry in particular nor is it illegal to do so. You will not read about the "procedure" advocated in an annual report or see it on a company website. Many are well aware of it being done, but there is little that you can do to stop it.

I hear what some of you are saying. Some customer comments are untrue, downright nasty, use language that is highly inappropriate, vulgar and might be personally threatening. You don't want to leave that on your site for public viewing anymore than links to newspaper articles claiming the CEO is a thief. That's a given. Removing that is common sense public relations, not scrubbing. However, scrubbing is clearly corporate censorship. It both suppresses inconvenient or objectionable customer communication just the way a dictatorship supervises and bullies its press.

Here are real world examples of scrubbing. A cruise line developed a new customer rewards program and attempted to market it through its Facebook page, website and blog. The response was highly negative and customers expressed their "distress" with it though their comments and posts. 99% of them were scrubbed within a few minutes of them being published. A restaurant chain scrubs any and all reviews that are not glowing with admiration for their service and food. A major vehicle manufacturer scrubbed its entire blog because drivers made comments not about the company, but about industry practices they deemed unfair.

The most recent evidence of scrubbing was a passionate female consumer who objected to companies advertising and supporting a highly controversial terrestrial radio program. An effective harassment program of Tweets were hitting the offending companies hard. Just as fake plastic ducks disappear after being hit by a toy gun at a State fair the comments were scrubbed within seconds after being posted. It takes a strong corporate communications backbone to let these communications stand and address them in a professional customer oriented responsible way. That sadly is not the case with businesses that engage in scrubbing.

I do not recommend doing business with any company that scrubs on any level of communications, customer service, or public relations. One has to conclude that if they don't want to be honest with customers the same relationship must exist with their employees, vendors, subsidiaries and the communities where they are located. It is said that social media has led to a new transparent relationship between business and the public. That sure sounds good, but the revolution that is social media has not made irresponsible businesses better, in fact it has represented no change whatsoever.

Huh?

Huh? Where did this "term" come from? I wonder if the French, Brits, Chinese or Italians have a version of "huh" in their language. I hope not. I don't even think it is a word, but more a guttural sound from a person not even minimally interested in presenting themselves in a confident positive way. I hear anyone use this “term” and as far as I’m concerned the bells and whistles of “this person is stupid” go right off. It is a completely negative trigger word that a lazy individual uses versus excuse me or can you please repeat, or even sorry, I didn’t hear that.

For those who like trivia, the technical definition of “huh” (it’s an interjection?) is a grunt, articulated as a syllabic, uttered with a range of intonations, used to express confusion. The first “recorded” use of “huh” was back in 1608, no doubt by some uneducated serf who didn’t know any better. Shame on him – or her. Perhaps that person was worked at some local tavern and an “outsider” – someone from several villages over – asked for a cold beer or something and the response was “huh” – and not bl-eye-me, sir, just what did ya arder? “Huh” was just a lot easier.

Huh and customer service do not go together, at all. My last post had my son and I at Wing House in search of our French fries. Today, we got the "huh" from the emaciated girl taking food orders at a place called Jason's Deli. They claim to be "Celebrating 35 Years". As with the many other establishments we try, I, with rare exceptions, find it surprising that these businesses last 6 months, let alone years. There should be an electronic buzzer attached to fast food servers when they say “huh”.  The tavern owner back in 1610 should have hit the first user of “huh”with a skillet over the head. That just might have ended it there for good. Now, unfortunately, “huh” is even used by supervisors and managers. It is symptomatic of the destruction of any class remaining in our communication. I can live with LOL, the use of “2” and not two, or to, or too and even calling someone “Gaga” but certainly not “huh”.

We, as customers, have to look past the “huh” – the primary product, the food that is, has to outshine the “term” and the employees using it.

Technorati Tags: huh,customer service,fast food,service,jason's deli,restaurants

Customer Service - The Wrong Way

My son and I were at Wing House in Clearwater FL last week and the service was poor to fair. Now when guys are at a place like Wing House, waiting for your meal is not the worst thing. That's because, if you're a male and have been to Wing House or Hooter's, the view, specifically the waitresses, make up for the eccentricities of the service. But hungry is hungry and even the most spectacular view gets old rapidly.

Many of you who travel and eat out a lot are familiar with the disappearing server routine. It can happen before your order is taken and you may or may not be nursing a drink. It also can happen, and this is typically the case, when you receive your drinks and you place your order with the server and he or she mysteriously disappears. It might happen when your meal finally appears and the next time you "experience" service with your waitress is when the bill comes. And this is what the server expects 20% for? I think not.

With my son and I, we placed our order, received the appetizer and then our meal arrived, without our order of french fries. The meal was delivered by someone other than our order taker and she seemed completely uninterested in us or our lack of fries. In addition, our drinks were getting near empty.

As those in the trade know full well, the failure of the server to ask patrons whether they would like another beverage - specifically the alcoholic variety - accounts for million of dollars in lost revenues. This clearly reflects poor training, lack of adequate floor supervision and inattentive management. In this case they were soft drinks, but lunch in Florida, in 85 degree heat, with hot food - you don't survive on only one glass.

OK - so we begin eating. I corral another waitress "responsible" for the table next to us and ask her to please see to our fries. A minute later the manager stops by our table. He asks if everything is alright. My son, quite astute to how customer service is delivered, notices and tells me that this manager never looked either of us in the eye. He was asking if everything was alright without asking anything. He was in what I call a customer service fog. He never looked up from the floor. Did he like my sneakers?

I mention we haven't received our fries. He mumbled something and left. Meanwhile, surprise, surprise our original waitress all cheery and glad to please anyone and everyone, shows up with the fries, 3/4th's of the way through our meal. After she puts the plate down she disappears again like Samantha on the old Bewitched TV show. No refill of beverages.

So, the food was acceptable, but, as I said at the outset, the service fair to poor. I don't recall how we got our bill. As a experiment, I flagged down the "other" waitress - the one who I asked to get our fries and who apparently found our "original" waitress and told her to get crack'n. I slipped her $5 and said thanks for your help. She leaned into me and whispered how she really appreciated "it" since all of her tables today have been tight with the wallet. For the record, she did try and refuse the money.

Bottom line, I'm not impressed. The manager was a whimp. I would put him back in the kitchen or wherever he came from. He needs more customer service and leadership training. His lack of experience and assertiveness led to our server's disappearance. At least three to five more "times of contact" should have been made by her. She failed doing her job. The system failed to provide the service promised. Next time we'll go over to Hooter's and give them a try.

You have just got to be kidding me...

It is my strong feeling that when a company makes money, they can make even more by providing outstanding customer service. It doesn't matter what the business or industry. In today's economic environment, you need to present to the consumer value, the user friendliness of your product and a unique dedicated customer service team to back it all up.

So, let's take a look at Verizon. I needed, for the second time in a week, to go into one of their strip mall locations to attempt to solve a product "failure." This was one of many of their "convenient" locations around where I live. But, some of them are not "official" Verizon "authorized" stores or service centers. Of course, the consumer is, at first, completely unaware of the difference.

So my wife and I go inside. The first thing that is very noticeable is - looking around at the wall display of "phones" - that 99% of them are out of date. What I see online is very much different from what is being presented here in the store as new. There was one Blackberry model that is kind of current, the HTC Incredible and two older versions of the Motorola Droid. There are a lot of clearance items and accessories for old model phones. And most of the  "hot" new product, like the Incredible, is, no big surprise, out of stock.

OK, so you meander around wondering what to do and where to go. You know nothing is going to be simple. Everyone, who seemingly works here, is busy. There is a gentleman in the back talking on one of the display phones. He has a clip board in his hand. Since the customers are all in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops and he is wearing a tie and slacks, he must be with Verizon.

Doorbell, be back...

Please enter a username between 4 and 31 bytes...

This is a "requirement" to establish an account with Technorati. You can attempt to enter what you think they are asking for and have your "request" be rejected over and over and over. The typical internet user is still, nor will ever be, savvy enough to interpret technical instructions and translate them into something user friendly. This is clearly a customer service "glitch."

Why, for example, is Thunderbird so "pushed" as an optimal E-mail "service." I have downloaded several versions of it over the past few years and have found each one terrible. The only E-mail "service" that makes any sense to me in terms of user friendly handling and reliability is G-mail.

I used to use Yahoo mail and for every valid entry into my inbox, I would also receive about 1-3 pieces of spam, usually link to porn sites. It used to drive me crazy no matter what settings I would select. Quite honestly, I don't think I have received one piece of spam porno or aluminum siding advertisements since I began using G-mail. That benefit alone has saved me thousands of seconds of productivity time.

Technorati and the entire SEO universe is so foreign to most internet users. How and why Google sorts this and that website or blog is a layman's mystery. And, along with HTLM code, SEO is a process that needs much explaining. It, right now, is like the IRS tax code. The old expression, never defend yourself in court, applies. If you want to see your name up in lights, so to speak, and get the #1 position - on top - when someone searches for what you do, hire a pro.

More later...

The failure of the media...

Watching the nightly news is so frustrating. What ever happened to who, what, where and why? There is a ship registered in Monrovia "steaming" toward the Gulf to assist in the clean up effort. So says the middle-aged frumpy reporter with the bad hairdo. She has the handle of chief environmental correspondent. I believe that was her in the report being hoisted in high in the air to board the vessel.

"It" apparently was transformed from something else into what it is now - a big ship that can "suck in" oil. Why the transformation? Who owns it? Who gave "it" permission to go from wherever it was to the Gulf? Is the Coast Guard aware of its pending arrival? Where was this ship a month ago? Why are we now just hearing about it? Are there others like it? None of these questions were answered in the report.

Granted these "journalists" are under extreme time constraints, but there is no excuse for doing such a sloppy job with such a serious subject. This is the failure of the media today, especially the television news, in this particular case - NBC. It's long overdue to ramp up their inadequate work and revisit the tenets of journalism 101.