Imagine you’re a public relations professional in search of a job. You’re clicking through Craigslist when you see this ad:

“PR manager sought to execute association media campaign. Duties will include: contacting at least 7 radio stations per week (between 10 am and noon); purchasing banner ads on sites selected by PR director; launching a print ad campaign with the tagline “Building a Better Future”; pitching stories to the press (scripts will be provided). . . . . and other tasks as dictated by PR Director. Office hours are 8 – 5 pm; lateness will not be tolerated. For consideration, send cover letter, resume, five writing samples, six letters of reference, certified college transcripts, and Social Security Number.”

Would you respond? My guess is probably not. Not even in this lousy economy.

A job ad is the beginning of a dialogue between the employer and the eventual employee. This ad opens the conversation with a tone of micromanagement and mistrust, and eliminates any promise of autonomy. Most talented candidates wouldn’t bother to reply,

Think of your RFP as a want ad for a vendor. It’s an opportunity for you to outline your needs, identify your challenges, and articulate your goals. It should give potential vendors a solid understanding of what you want to achieve with the project and what their role will be. Here are a few tips on what to do, and what not to do the next time you sit down to write an RFP.

Continue reading "Writing an RFP for Results" »

Seth Godin has a new free e-book out, "What Matters Now." It gathers together nuggets of ideas and inspiration from some of today's top thinkers--from business consultants to authors to creatives of all kinds.

It's a quick read and provides some fresh food for thought as we look ahead to 2010, and what's next.

Download the PDF for yourself, or read the Scribd version, below:

I followed two separate links on Twitter in the past week and found two radically different stories about customer service and corporate culture.

The first story tells of a young woman who has been working with the One Home Many Hopes charity supporting orphaned girls in Kenya. As she was preparing to go to Kenya to deliver clothes for the girls, she realized she’d be radically exceeding the baggage limits for the flight. Considering the purpose of her trip, she called the airline and asked if they could waive the excess baggage fees.

“Absolutely not,” was the answer she received. Not even to help clothe orphans in Kenya?

There’s a policy and no way around it. Her attempt to question the policy was met with, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” Apparently not.

In the other story a woman called Zappos to order shoes for a friend’s daughter. While stressing how important it was for them to arrive on time (before Christmas) Loren, the customer service representative, asked if everything was okay. She explained that her friend’s house had just burned down. (Take a look at the video – it’s pretty dramatic. And remember this is just days before Christmas.) Loren immediately offered to upgrade the package to overnight shipping and the woman was grateful. Imagine her surprise when she received a call from her friend saying that two boxes had arrived from Zappos – the shoes plus another box from the customer service department with clothes, presents and a gift certificate from Zappos.

The customer was so touched by this act of kindness that she created a video to thank the company, generating incredible word-of-mouth and additional goodwill. How great is that? Zappos didn’t have to produce anything saying how great their customer service is – their customers do it for them.

What’s even better to me is finding out that Loren didn’t need to get ten levels of approval or write a memo. The culture at Zappos is built around that kind of service and reacting as people to a situation rather than sticking to a script.

If you hire the right people and trust their judgment, you should be able to do the same. What kind of environment do you foster? And how do you think that makes your customers feel?

What amazing / horrible customer service have you experienced?