The RDA Blog of Faith Caldwell
I have been working in the quality arena for 10 years, first as a Quality Manager for a help desk supporting over 300,000 seats and now as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. These assignments have changed my perspective – I see everything in terms of a customer experience now. From encouraging the grocery store to be more forthcoming about products no longer carried, correcting the errors in my frequent flier account, or pointing out discrepancies between web site information and reality – it all boils down to improving the business - customer interaction. I want this blog to help businesses use the web as an effective marketing tool – one that will engage your customers and deliver positive results. I’ll look at and comment on web sites – the good, the bad, and the ugly – so that you can make more informed decisions on how to take your web presence to the next level.
Now, small community businesses are greeting ‘cash mobs’ of cash bearing customers who have been organized using social media like Facebook or Twitter. Participants in the cash mob receive an invitation with a date and time only: the location and name of the business comes just before the event to maintain the element of surprise. Each person commits to spending a predetermined amount of money - $20 seems to be the accepted standard – in cash. A good coordinator will also plan a debrief at a local restaurant or pub, doubling the evening’s benefit to the community.
Read more … Cash Mobs: Social Media Meets Small Businesses
If you ask a small business owner about competing with the legacy business with 4,000 employees and unlimited marketing budget, you’re likely to hear that that they can’t and won’t compete in that space. What all small businesses need to know is that the Web in all its forms is as much available to them as it is to the ‘big guys’. The key is to use the Web tools that will generate market share. Here’s a quick look at the tools and strategies that make that possible.
Read more … Web Content: The Great Business Equalizer
he ones I do pay attention to are from my local small businesses that have been late entries to web-based anything. Three are great examples of different ways to use this powerful marketing tool: one is a local branch of a national franchise bakery that has done very well in my neighborhood; another is an upscale ladies wear store with a minimal web presence; and the third is a non-profit sports organization.
Read more … E-Mail Marketing: A Must for Small Businessses and Non-Profits
Credit Unions offer real banking alternatives. Notable is its strong support for business accounts, a hard-to-find service in many other credit unions. Business deposit accounts and lending are supplemented by merchant card services for credit and debit card transactions and Automated Clearing House (ACH) electronic transfers – services usually associated with fee-charging commercial banks. Funding comes from member accounts - $1. per month per deposit account provides a $25 million source for community college and university scholarships, grants to state museums and the national guard, as well as an innovative teacher housing project.
Read more … Credit Unions - Meeting Members' Needs
Millions of Americans were able to relax when a certain behemoth financial institution announced this week it would begin to charge five dollars a month for customers to use debit cards for non-ATM transactions. Why? Because as much as the profit-driven banks like to ignore them, credit unions with their 91 million members will never follow that model. Since 1909, credit unions have provided service based financial safe havens for their members.
Read more … No Fees, Please - We're Credit Unions!
Advertisers considering the mobile market will need to sharpen their strategy because mobile users won’t want to pay network charges for ads that don't interest them. Local based marketing sounds good in theory – use the GPS location of the mobile device to offer ads for businesses in the immediate area. But how many times do you want to see the grocery store ad when you're headed for the drug store? Push commerce – where ads are sent to the mobile device either through a subscription service or through local based marketing is a relic of the current technology. Pull commerce where mobile users decide what they want to see (and are willing to pay for!) challenges marketing and IT departments to work collaboratively.
Read more … Banner Ads - The Pesky Reality of the Internet
We all know the drill - and either love it or hate it. But going to the grocery store is a fact of modern life, even if you are a denizen of the local farmers' market or a committed CSA subscriber. Industry-wide adoption of m-commerce (mobile commerce) has been slow to non-existent, yet opportunities exist to focus on the grocery customer who is smart phone savvy. So listen up Austin-based national organic chain and all those regional chains who compete of the barest of margins - here are three ideas to bring m-commerce customers into your stores.
Read more … Grocery Stores Lag Behind M-Commerce Trend
I am a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt leading process improvement projects across the company. As predicted by my instructors in the certification classes, I have also become a keen observer of processes outside of work. Guaranteed, a truck-sized process gap exists in each of these companies between payment processing and billing. It doesn't matter if the processes are in-house or out-sourced. What matters is that no one is watching the electronic payments – they come in silently – and communicating with billing. My bet is that the one company that has figured it out has marked my customer record so that when the bill is prepared, no envelope is included.
Read more … The High Cost of Poor Quality Business Processes
