Walking into the office of a real estate services firm recently, we were met, not by a receptionist, but by the “Director of First Impressions.” And the woman in that job lived up to her title, warmly greeting us and making us feel welcome and upbeat for our meeting.
In this day of impersonal “press 1 for more options” customer service, PNC Bank really does stand out. They’ve made it a competitive advantage to provide the best in service – and they really do. I switched banks about six months ago because I got tired of the unfriendly treatment I got at the big, global bank I had been with for nearly 20 years.
With just a few words, prominent geologist and Interim President of CUNY College of Staten Island William Fritz vividly summed up why Hurricane Sandy hit the island borough in the middle of New York Harbor so hard: “We’ve hardscaped our sponge.”
Today I got a notice that the bill for the second-semester tuition for my daughter at Penn State is due. As I read that email, I was reminded of what a colossal failure and tragedy this scandal is on so many levels, least of which is how the university is managing any form of crisis communications with key constituents such as parents, donors, alums and the students themselves.
Does your company or nonprofit communicate effectively with your important audiences? If yours is like many enterprises that I encounter, the answer might be that you don’t because you don’t have a good communications team. That is a lame explanation for a failure in leadership communications.
The earthquake in Japan and dangerous situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant reminds us of how quickly and suddenly disaster can strike. Compounding the terrible human tragedy is the sense that people do not trust the information they are receiving and feel that the power company is not telling them the truth.
If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll certainly never get there. But all too often when we seek to engage others either to buy or use a product or to embrace our cause or point of view, we start the conversation in the wrong place. This is where professional facilitation comes in handy−to make sure we make the kind of connection we are expecting.
This question was very much on my mind at a BNI business networking event I attended this morning as a guest. The whole reason for the gathering is to connect with others to do business. Each of the 50 or so folks in the room got 30 seconds to talk about their company so that the rest of the people in the room could think about possible referrals or other opportunities. Thirty seconds is at once an eternity and a nanomoment.
