Nine Predictions and 5 3/4 Questions for the New Year

A very Happy New Year to readers in the Garden!

I've come across two little gems that have helped get my head and my heart in the right place as I embark on another (universe willing) 365 revolutions.

The first is Branding Guru Tom Asacker's Nine Predictions for 2009. This isn't your your typical "let me tell you how it's gonna be" upchuck of New Year prognostications. I love Asacker's wit, warmth, and wisdom. If you like his predictions, I highly recommend subscribing to his blog feed and/or his insight-packed and highly readable and entertaining books. (Note: Asacker's predictions are posted as a PDF. If you want to read in more bookmark-cut-and-pastable html, see link at: http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com.)


The second gem is Michael Stanier's The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding. It's a very nice flash animation with a drummy-jazzy soundtrack. Have a pen handy or plan on watching it twice! If you dig it, check out Michael's blog, The Possibility Virus.


Bon Appétit!

As for me, I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions. But one of my intentions for 2009 is to continue to ask and answer the question, "What is the need here, and how may I be of service?" AND to remember to factor my own needs into the equation.

Wishing you all good things in 2009!

Tags: marketing, newyears, predictions, coaching, questions, libraries

Funny Video: Diluting the creative process

Thanks to branding guru extraordinaire Tom Asacker for sharing this great video. We're in the process developing a new QandANJ.org commercial so this piece is particularly relevant in my world today.

Kathy Dempsey Joins The M Word!

It's not like we needed another reason to read Nancy Dowd's wonderful marketing blog, "The M Word", but we got one anyway.

Kathy Dempsey, editor of MLS: Marketing Library Services, speaker, and library marketing consultant, has joined the M Word team. Now that's a dynamic duo!

Looking forward to many more wonderful, insightful, practical, and entertaining posts!

Enjoy the Smorgasborg!

Quote of the Day:

The library is like one big smorgasbord. It's easy to pick up something and try it out.

Taken from the article "The value in your library may amaze y0u" that was posted today on Cincinnati.com

It is a short article that does an admirable job of pointing out the value of a library to a community -- and it even includes a link the Maine State Library's really great library calculator -- a really useful tool that demonstrates how much money can be saved by using a public library.

I also love this marketing idea that the Kenton Public Library will rolling out shortly:

In September, the Library offers cardholders even more value. Libraries in Kenton, Boone, Campbell and Grant Counties have joined with local businesses to offer a discount to anyone who presents a library card. This partnership was formed to encourage residents to use of obtain a library card. More than 50 local businesses including Snappy Tomato Pizza, Golden Corral, Sherwin Williams, Mad Cup Café, and Pawsitively Perfect Grooming understand the value the library provides to the community and local businesses.

Pimp Yourself

Please don't be offended or turned-off by the title.

I know there have been a few occasions where "pimp" this or that has been a problem, but just try to get past that for a moment and consider this ....

The other day I attended a wonderful workshop and one of the suggestions in that workshop was that as librarians we need to stop being so quiet and shy about ourselves and start boasting about ourselves, our libraries, our profession, etc.!

Well, I have heard this before and embrace it wholeheartedly!
However, the group attending this particular workshop seemed especially uncomfortable with this suggestion.

The specific suggestion made that really got them squirming was to "use your credentials on everything."

I personally LOVE this and started doing it as soon as I had heard it.
I put my MLIS on everything I can - in my e-mail signatures, when I sign things, on my business cards, etc.... Some may think it is even excessive, but I don't care! I paid for the MILS, I earned the MILS, I have an MLIS and it does mean something!
(I was in the first class of students who graduated from SCILS at Rutgers with the additional vowel "I" - it stands for Master of Library and INFORMATION Science - boy, do I LOVE having that extra "I"!)

Several attendees really seemed aghast about this and I was sort of surprised. I can understand that it may go "outside your comfort zone" to boast about yourself or your library, but adding a few letters to the end of your name!?

Other professions do it all the time and no one thinks anything of it! Or, they have a prefix to designate their qualifications and/or professionalism, i.e,. "Dr.", "Esq.", etc.

We as librarians need to do this as well!

Sometimes this suggestion is met with, "Well, no one knows what that stands for anyway!"

GREAT! That gives you the chance to TELL THEM what it stands for, what it means, why you have it and what it means YOU CAN DO!

C'mon, as far as "pimping things" goes, this really is one of the easier ones (and free too!)

I challenge everyone who doesn't use their credentials to make a commitment to doing so as a "first step" toward becoming more comfortable BOASTING about how awesome we are! (Cuz we are!)

The Ultimate Question and One More...

I just came across this article in OCLC's NextSpace No. 5 (from Dec. 2006 - Yikes! Where was I!?) Are You Asking the Ultimate Question? which talks about a book by Fred Reichheld, The Ultimate Question.

This article talks about how the most important question to ask of your customers/patrons is "Would you recommend us to a friend?" In fact, the argument is made that this need be the ONLY question if you survey. Yes, a one-word survey!

I actually heard this recently when I toured a hospital in Paterson - they have this question stated explicitly as a goal - "Would you (in this case the employee) recommend this hospital to your friends or family members?" A pretty good question to keep in mind! I think it is a good thing just to ask ourselves to make sure we are providing a level of service that we would be proud to offer to our own circle.

Which reminds of something I heard recently about the bathrooms in some public libraries - the staff wouldn't stand for having to use them and have their own bathrooms which are in much better shape, but they expect their patrons to use them all the time!? This is like a "home" and the patrons are a guest in your home - is that the bathroom condition you would present to your guests at home?

Anyway . . .

Fred Reichheld is saying that the answer to this one question could determine the future of your business or library.

With something that is this "old" (the book came out in January 2006) I always worry that someone else has already addressed this, but it is totally new to me and I think very important for libraries.

Nonbusiness organizations also have customers; they need to delight the people
they serve, and they too can benefit greatly from the use of one simple metric.
- Fred Reichheld in NextSpace No. 5.

Wow! DELIGHT the people they serve! What a novel idea! So how does this one question work?

You ask a question such as, "On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

Promoters score 9 or 10 - are loyally enthusiastic, keep coming and urging others to do so

Passives score 7 or 8 - are satisfied but easily wooed away

Detractors are the rest - UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS, feel ignored/mistreated, plot to get even!

Sometimes a follow-up question is asked to gain more insight. "If you would not recommend us, why not?" (Those answers might be hard to face!)

Ironically, customer loyalty provides companies with a powerful advantage - a
battalion of credible sales and marketing and PR troops who require no salary or
commissions. Yet the importance of these customer promoters is overlooked. -
Fred Reichheld, NextSpace No. 5.

We already know the power of negative experiences in stores or libraries and the studies that show that if a customer has a bad experience they are likely to tell (something like) 12 people! If they have a good experience they don't tell nearly as many. It takes way more positive experiences to overcome one negative experience. We need to create as many positive experiences, and positive, PROMOTER-users as possible!

I recommend you read the article if you're not familiar with this - it also contains information on the OCLC report Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. Steve Hiller also provides a lot of information in this article.

I plan to check this out some more and do some reading on the blogs related to this idea. I think it would be fascinating to do this type of one- or two-word survey and see what we get!

One other question I want to bring up here is "What business are we in?" I used this today when a volunteer came to me with yet another ripped magazine cover, very distressed. I told her that we aren't in the business of preserving magazines perfectly forever. We are in the business of providing magazines to be read. True, if one person destroys a magazine they are obstructing others from having access to it, but some ripped and torn covers is not really the priority of our business.

So I say, ask yourself, "What business are you in?" and then ask yourself and your customers, "Would you recommend us to a friend or family member?"

EDIT:
Okay sorry I'm having trouble in the comments but the link for the new forum on Net Promoter is:

http://netpromoter.groupee.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2731073251/m/6701054452

Sorry I couldn't edit or delete those messed up comments b/c I didn't install greasemonkey yet per Peter! :-)