Maybe grabbing an employee from another company can never be looked upon as a totally innocent move, but there is a way to do it with a little pizazz. Have you ever been at a store, business or even a restaurant and were impressed with service received from a particular staff member? It was their attentiveness, personality, attitude or just how well spoken and knowledgeable they were. Suddenly a chord strikes within you: this person would be great at my company. How can you tell them? Seems like it would begin with a long story. "I started this company three years ago and we are located here and do this and that, and you seem really happy here and I hope you don't mind me asking you this.." Doesn't seem so smooth!

Enter the Apple way. We know that business cards aren't just for names and numbers anymore, they can also have coupons on the back, special promotion info, or if you dip them in water they may turn into a sponge - who knows these days.  Some things that Apple has done have not rubbed the right way with me, in fact some things they do seem unnecessary. But coming up with the idea for this "come over to the dark side, we have cookies" card is fascinating.

The card reads: "You're amazing. We should talk. Your customer service just now was exceptional. I work for the Apple Store and you're exactly the kind of person we'd like to talk to. If you're happy where you are, I'd never ask you to leave. But if you're thinking about a change, give me a call. This could be the start of something great."

The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. What better way to evaluate a new employee than to see them in action? One of the most important things about customer service is the ability to handle issues under pressure and just keeping a cool air of friendliness. Seeing someone in their element, without knowing you are giving them a secret "interview" of sorts, is an interesting idea for sure. And applying this idea to the hosting industry is just as easy as it is for Apple. This card could have a special company website address (that is only printed on the cards) so they can get more specific information at their leisure. From there, good things can happen.

Image courtesy MacNN "Apple looking to poach retail workers?"

 

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Our company has been casually blogging for some time so now we have a good feel for what our customers like to see in this format. When our new website is released our blog will become a focal point of our site and a source for quality content on web hosting and applications. Company blogs will become more important in the next few years so you should start one now if you haven't already. While your business may already be well established, and perhaps even have a community forum with a good number of members, a blog can only further the connection with your customers. If you maintain quality posts on a regular basis, you'll really bag this new way of improving your public relations.

I have words of warning before you begin. I do see mistakes in existing company blogs out there, there are a few things that I believe should not be discussed. One of them is talking too much about your own products and services. That is what your website is for. No one wants to spend time reading about your services elsewhere only to see oddly placed sales pitches in the blog. It just doesn't fit. Your blog is a chance to point out something else about your company that is important but perhaps rarely noticed. You have to keep that in mind and be sure not to waste this opportunity. 

You should also be sure to keep things as serious as possible no matter how fun you're feeling that day. (We all have those days when the idea seemed like a good one but later turned out to just be off the wall.) The company blog is a reflection of your business. So unless you are going for silly and wacky, try to keep things consistent. There is a time for humor in many situations, but you have to control the impression that visitors will receive after reading your blog. After reading only a few posts, a visitor will have developed an image of your company and its vision. Make sure that image is the one you want.

With your goals and image in mind, the question now is: who in your company is going to create these posts? You may want to discuss the new blog idea with your staff to uncover who could work well together for developing content and then the writing process could be handled separately. Having a quality blog is definitely a challenge and really should not be the responsibility of only one person. There is a way for any team to accomplish making a blog a success for your business.

And now I'm off to hopefully start taking my own advice!

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Web hosting is still a relatively new market and its concept remains unknown to many. Walk down any street and ask a few people what web hosting means and you'll receive a variety of unsure answers. Because of that alone, you can imagine that the pool of web-host-worthy applicants to a tech job is small. Some believe that there will be a shortage of tech skilled workers in the next ten years, but I don't see it this way. Imagine the children growing up in the now flourishing Web 3.0 world. They grew up watching movies on a laptop in their room, they'll never know anything else. Netflix. Vonage. iPods. I am sure many of these children will choose to go into the IT field. Everything that we have grown accustomed to, or were forced to change, will be completely natural and inspiring for them. 

As for the present time in the hosting field, our collective results vary. Many entry-level employees at web hosting companies may only have call center backgrounds. Some of them may have websites of their own but were never sure of how web hosting really worked. Depending on how fast they learn and their initiative, these new "apprentices" can eventually be leaders and loyal members of your team. 

How many of your own employees previously worked in the hosting industry and how many are currently under apprenticeship? If you can say that everyone in your staff has hosting experience, your cherry picking may cause you to miss out on bright team players.

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It's the first month of 2008 and you know what that means. Instead of naming off goals to lose weight, stop smoking, eat organic, and run every morning at 6:30 A.M. what about our tech resolutions? Here's my list for you.

10.  Organize: If you never clean out old directories and files from your servers, what better time than now to get started? Go through your website error logs to clean up files which no longer exist but are still requested, change graphics that may have old dates or other inaccuracies, give your web presence an overall spot check and you will be amazed at how inspired you'll become during the process. As you go along you'll get new ideas of what new features should be added to your site. Do a spot check and brainstorm each month this year and you'll have the most organized and easy to use website ever for your customers. (And how about cleaning up your own desktop? Sheesh... look at all of those icons.)

9.  Apologize: Let's admit that we made mistakes last year. Did you not announce a few things that happened with your company? Did you postpone a feature for too long? If your hosting company has a blog, why not make a post that simply says you are sorry for the downfalls of the previous year and you are committed to setting everything right in 2008. 

8.  Ask: Through polls, blogs, forums and newsletters, ask your customers more questions. Get to know them and see what they think is missing from your services. In this process you will see what they do value the most already and you can work on completing the picture this year. 

7. Give: You do not have to give an iPod away with each dedicated server order, but give back to your customers more this year and show them that you appreciate them. Have contests and giveaways to connect your customers and reward them at the same time. 

6.  Focus: As the day goes by, it's easy to lose track of your ideas, especially when issues pop up with servers or customer situations. Even though we proclaim to be the geekiest of the geeks, it is not a bad idea to keep a notebook or organizer around and actually use a pen sometimes! I have personally found that writing down notes on paper and crossing them off is better than a text file. It's easy for a little text file to get lost behind thirty other windows (which seem to get all of the attention). The paper is always there by your mousepad and you will constantly be reminded it's there. Or, maybe get one of these:

ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/01/iriver_ebook...

5.  Listen: This goes along with "Ask" but sometimes you have to focus more on hearing what people have to say instead of injecting your own comments. You may miss something important if you are too immediately concerned with what you think about it. Let's say a customer is upset and has sent you a long ticket which makes you feel terrible, do not think of the ways they may be wrong, think of the ways in which they are truly right. Act upon it patiently and in the future, proactively.

4. Progress: Take a look at the features you offer. What have you changed or added in the past two years? In the past year? If you cannot make a list of at least 10 major changes/additions, then it is time to rethink your offerings and create excitement this year.

3. Help: Do you ever find yourself sending a customer a link to a blog post or tutorials site for help with a question? Sure that's the great part about the wealth of information the Internet makes available to us, but you should also create a massive amount of resources on your own site. Not only would this help your customers in-house,  it can also improve your own search engine rankings.

2. Lead: Your customers largely depend on you so this year become your own tech warrior. Be on the lookout for the next big thing, the next best applications, and your customers will benefit like never before. And they'll appreciate your hard work and dedication for bringing them the best new services and features.

1. Relax: It is hard to pull ourselves away from the computer (or stop carrying the laptop everywhere) but if you do not take the time to sit and read a book, take a walk in the park, all to have some quiet time in your mind, you may miss a revolutionary thought. You know, they can pop up at the strangest times! Let all of your experience quietly guide the way into something wonderful for your company in 2008. 

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