Which perspective do you chose? Or does it depend on the sides of a coin?

On Tuesday, the Federal Budget was announced.

I’ve read quite a few summaries of the Budget so I can write updates for clients. Some are better than others, of course.

Perspectives of the Federal Budget

However, my point relates to how small business is impacted by this Budget. Noting that small business got very little direct mention by the Government in this budget.

A number of business groups have released their view that Government ignored this significant sector of our economy. As advocates of this diverse group, they are annoyed because small business don’t appear to have been included.

Yet another business group or two has put out the view that small business was lucky to have avoided the attention big business got in the Budget. I for one am glad we don’t have to report PAYG each month, for instance.

Both views are based on the  same fact (little mention of small business) but are looking at it in different ways. I found that very interesting.

Early drafts may contain a lot of edits!

That is, when the designer returns a draft to me, someone else goes through and checks the designer has implemented all the changes I requested.

Why check everything? Well, I trust the designers I use, no question about that. However, they are human so may have missed something or misunderstood what I wanted. Or they could have made a simple error (eg made $654 into $664 instead of $646).

Benefits of outsourcing edit checks

Having someone else check those details has two major advantages in my eyes:

1. I don’t have to do it! Ok that is really a third reason as my original point was that it saves me time to not have to do it, but it’s not something I enjoy either
2. by not reviewing those small details as often, I am better positioned to actually read the report and thus spot issues with the flow or tone of information. If you see the same words and images over and over, it gets much harder to see errors – like putting space between writing and proof reading

I guess you don’t need to find a highly skilled person to outsource checking edits, either – as long as they are detailed orientated, it isn’t a hard task. I am lucky to have found someone I trust for many tasks as he not only checks edits have been made but will suggest other potential improvements he notices, too.

Outsourcing frees up time

To me, this is the perfect example of outsourcing and leaving me more time to use my writing skills.

What is the perfect task for you to outsource?

Do you outsource that task?

A fire truck is a not-so-boring safety precaution at airports

Obviously we are meant to do this every time we catch a plane but it isn’t the most interesting speech you’ll ever hear so it is, uh, challenging to stay focussed on it.

On Tuesday, the Qantas staff acknowledged one of the complaints about these safety messages by starting the presentation with

We know you can operate a seat belt, but we want to give you a few tips on using ours today.

A different message

It was a bit more human to acknowledge most people are smart enough to use a plane’s seat belt so it felt friendly and more interesting than ‘here’s how to do your seat belt up’.

However, just the fact that it was different to the usual safety blurb got my attention. And kept me listening to see what other changes they’d made to their message.

Unfortunately, that was the only deviation from the normal approach.

It certainly wasn’t like Air New Zealand’s safety video!

Nor is it now standard at Qantas. My return flight used a video to present the  safety message and it was routine. And I didn’t really pay any attention to it.

When’s the last time you listened to a flight safety message?

When’s the last time you consciously changed something in your business to keep it fresh and attracting attention?

great service makes us smile

Let me tell you a story of a great idea from a service provider…

Great service…

Today, I received a SMS from my daughter’s school telling me (and other parents on the list) that the kids  had arrived safely at camp.

I think it’s a great idea to give feedback like that; it builds trust and loyalty, reduces parental concern and therefore probably means fewer calls to the school to check all is good.

Many similar activities could do this same thing quite inexpensively. For me, it’s something like an emailed ‘your annual report has gone to the printer’ or ‘I submitted that guest blog post for you.’

Can you think of a way to use this idea in your business?

but details count.

The problem with today’s message, however, is that my daughter left yesterday so I would have hoped they arrived at camp about 24 hours before I got the safely arrived message.

Yesterday, the SMS was a great idea.

Today, not so much. At best, it makes them look a bit silly or slack. At worst, it worries parents about why it took 24 hours longer than expected to arrive at camp!

As they say in comedy, timing is everything!

No one can stay productive at a desk like this without regular breaks

How often do you feel overwhelmed with things?

How often do you feel quiet – no tweets, emails or status updates firing at, no phone calls or client/boss requests, no attempts at reducing a to do list?

As I mentioned a few days ago, I heard a webinar in which Matthew May spoke about his book,  The Laws of Subtraction (6 simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything).

I intend reading this book, and will review it in this blog, as I am very conscious of how much stuff business people have to deal with. We’ve always had to deal with multiple roles (accounts, marketing, sales, staffing, production, etc) but now we have digital presence and technical changes to keep up with as well.

I am also thinking of reading one of his other books, The Shibumi Strategy (A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change). It sounds interesting and apparently is written as a story rather than in typical business book mode.

 Taking and making breaks

Matthew’s fifth law is ‘break is the important part of breakthrough’ and I think that will be a very interesting chapter. I think breakthroughs can change lives – whether it is a breakthrough new product that changes the world or a simpler breakthrough on a better way to deal with a difficult client or finding a new tool that will save you time.

Any break from routine/habit/patterns can make us look around, take notice and see the things we take for granted most of the time. Then we can be more creative and find solutions or new ideas.

I like the idea of regularly getting away from my desk – and by regularly I mean once an hour or so – but I admit I often get caught up in things and stay working for longer than I probably should.

So I want to ask how you fit breaks into your working day/week. Is it something you plan or do you ‘go with the flow’?

What do you do in your breaks?

 His third law hits a similar theme to what I often write so I wanted to share it.

Limiting colour can engage and stimulate imagination and thought

Law #3: Limiting information engages the imagination

This law is commonly stated as the cliché ‘less is more’ and writers are often told to ‘show not tell’ for more powerful writing.

Giving all the facts leads to overload and disinterests people so I suggest writing as little as possible to suit the message.

But I like Matthew’s twist – I believe it is true that too much information stifles imagination. Giving enough information to set a foundation is enough.

What information can you limit to get people’s imagination working in your favour?

Matthew gave the example of Steve Jobs launching the first iPhone – he showed one, explained some of what it could do and then said no more until it launched a few months later. And something like 20 million people signed up to buy one before it was on sale. That’s a lot of people acting on limited information, isn’t it? 

For me, that’s the order things have happened – I did the research because a client asked me too. And now I am thinking about adding chat to my site as well.

Of course, I could wait a while and see how chat goes for my client… Yet again, their business is so different to mine that any data would probably have limited value.

So what’s so good about offering online chat functions?

 Here are what I see as the reasons for adding chat to a website…

1. you appear approachable and interested in helping potential clients
2. it is simply another way people can choose to contact your business
3. you can solve issues quickly – no waiting for emails or loosing people because they can’t find the answer they want from your site
4. some people prefer to interact online instead of via the phone – and I suspect this tendency will increase
5. an online chat can be quicker and less intrusive than getting a phone call
6. by answering immediate questions, you can learn what people want to know when visiting your site – and maybe what is missing (or hard to find) from your site
7. it’s a relatively simple way to make your website more interactive
8. as a service provider, it can also be a great customer service tool for existing clients
9. for someone like me, knowing how to use a new feature can be beneficial in advising my clients

And what’s NOT so good about adding chat to your site?

If online chat was perfect for every website, we’d all have it, right? So here are some downsides to adding an online chat function…

1. it costs money – there is quite a range of prices but you are likely to pay for the software and maybe hosting
2. it will take time to set up - choosing a supplier, adding the code to every page on your site, customising the system to match your site/brand/clients
3. there may well be time and money in getting a designer involved to integrate things nicely into your site
4. it’s a new tool to learn how to use
5. it’s potentially a distraction – being interrupted as you work and having a new set of stats to look at and worry about
6. if you can’t be online a lot of time when your clients may expect you to be, it may give an impression of being unavailable or disinterested. Most software shows you are offline – yes, people can leave a message for you to get back to them, but not all will and the offline message may not be great. Some software has the chat button disappear when you are offline so that could be a solution if you are frequently unable to monitor chats.
7. it may not suit your audience. Taken to extremes, a blind audience is more likely to prefer phone calls to online chats, but there would be less extreme examples where chat would be a waste of effort to install
8. being live, you need to think faster than if answering an email or even updating social media. If writing (or writing clearly with good spelling) is a struggle or you’re concerned with being 100% accurate, then an online chat feature may be intimidating

Making the choice

Have I missed any other points to consider?

I think it’s also important that a website gives the right impression. Do you think online chat is suitable for professional businesses or perhaps just for more informal or technology businesses?

Or put it this way, would you ever use an online chat feature on a professional website?

Of course, these are my personal opinions and experiences, and are based on a user’s perspective. I looked at many websites, compared features and made a short list of  six suppliers to try – this is my short list.

Online chat suppliers

I will list these roughly from best to worst so you can skip the rest of the list once you’ve found one to suit you. I’ve added a couple of explanations at the end, too, so you can understand their terminology when visiting their sites.

Prices listed are as listed on their sites – presumably in USD so at least comparable to each other. You can convert to local currency online if need be.

Note many of these have an affiliate program if that is important to you. I am not an affiliate with them (I won’t promote products/services I wouldn’t use myself!) and note that the ones I like best either don’t have or don’t promote an affiliate program – I wonder how coincidental that is?

 Live Help Now

• this was highly rated in a review I read, and I can see why
• fully customisable although it takes a bit of effort to change every aspect
• can respond to a chat via your desktop or mobile device
• offers a 30 day free trial – with no credit card details to get started which I like
• $21 per operator per month (nice to choose the number required but pricey if you have a few people)
• SSL chat with data stored in a data centre in the USA (not in the cloud)
• has a section where you can add ads to promote specials, etc
• pre-prepared responses, links and images (most only have text)
• two-way file transfers
• hide chat or use a contact form when you’re offline
• can run multiple chats
• real-time visitor tracking & stats
• print or email transcripts of chats – stored on the system for 3 months (or less upon request)
• extra $50 a month to remove ‘powered by’ link on chat windows – very disappointing
• can view visitor’s Facebook profile but otherwise doesn’t integrate with social media unfortunately
• I received a welcome email the next day with a contact name – nice touch
• easy enough to use although I sometimes forgot to swap between the operator and admin panels so couldn’t find what I wanted
• can also chose a tab function so visitors can search answers or chat
• free WordPress plugin

Banckle

• 14 day trial (1 operator, 25 chats)
• free WP plugin
• Works across browsers & platforms (including mobile)
• detailed stats reports (easy to export)
• multiple chats
•  unlimited operators and the ability to chat with other operators (eg ask them a question to help a customer)
• offline contact form
• searchable archive of chats
• track & record visitor data
• transfer chats between operators
• customisable
• pre/post survey
• $9 = 1 operator online at a time, no customisation, their name; $29 = 4 operators, no customisation; $69 = 8 operators, customisation. Note an annual payment discount applies.
• Many help videos
• Can save/print/email offline transcript easily (as can member) – but Banckle staff can’t access them
• SSL and works over https
• they apply good security measures– not stored in cloud but can choose to use Dropbox
• sharing links work
• simple to operate
• my client couldn’t access the backend through their strict firewalls unfortunately

Website Alive

• $30 USD per month or $98 for additional features (supervisor access, recording stats, adding photos of operators)
• customisation
• chat with transcripts (searchable and download as csv files, or email at end of chat)
• email form if offline
• visitor tracking & analysis
• pre/post chat survey
• multiple chat lines
• spell check
• auto-greetings
• 2 operators allowed
• mobile chat (including transfer current chat to mobile or back!)
• transfer chats to other staff, internal chat room
• integrate with Facebook & Twitter (ie they can start chats from there!)
• can embed onto all pages for permanent viewing, text link for emails
• Free 10 day trial, 60 day money back
• Nothing to download – access from anywhere, easy set up
• No document sharing
• Participate in Truste Privacy Seal program
• “All chats are saved in our system for future reference

Comm 100

• WP plugin
• 15 day trial
• $21 per operator per month – no mobile access, 3 months transcript storage, no email transcripts
• $29 per operator per month – mobile access, email transcripts, indefinite transcript storage, chat queue
• Discounts for multiple operators & annual payments
• Per & post surveys
• customisable
• multiple chats
• spell check
• pre-prepared responses & URLs
• offline message form
• transfer chats, internal chats, supervise chats
• visitor stats & web path,
• visitor can be emailed transcript
• search transcripts
• minimal stats (missed chats, operator metrics – more in $49 plan)

Zopim

• From review – good layout, basic customisation, very easy to use, great info on visitors, resembles Facebook chat
• Free 14 day trial, 5 day money back refund
• Free – 1 operator, 14 day archive, 1 chat only
• $14 ($11.20 if pay annually) per month per operator unlimited chats, 2 triggers
• $25 ($20 if pay annually) per month per operator – unlimited calls, unlimited triggers
• Offline contact form or hide it
• track visitors
• transcripts for visitors & archive
• encryption on SSL sites
• customise  widget colours
• pre-prepared responses
• manager can supervise chats
• plugins for WP
• transfer chats to mobile device
• internal chats
• dashboard for stats
• permanent window
• FAQ indicates some teething issues with IOS; they are looking into SM integration; friendly service via chat!

Conversion Support

•  this was actually at the top of my list until I tried it
• Free 30 day trial
• Free WP plugin to include chat on a blog (last updated Nov 2012)
• Mobile access
• customisable
•  visitor tracking, stats & reports – but I couldn’t find any stats within the admin area
• no contracts, no software to download (just code to site)
• pre chat survey
• offline contact form (or hide)
• incoming seen by all online
• pre prepared responses
• multiple chats
• integrate with FB or google talk
• records transcripts
• Free – 1 operator, 100 chats
• $10 per month  -  5 operators, 3,000 chats,
• $20 per month – 10 operators, 6,000 chats
•  simple to install 
• button on the site sits below the footer despite changing settings to put it elsewhere
• Can’t change time settings to local (eg transcripts will show 5.30pm when it is 11.30am for me) which will make tracking chats more difficult
• chat works through my client’s strict firewalls but dashboard access shows an error message
• Transcripts emailed instantly & easy to access in backend. Can’t delete them so they are there forever
• Links appear as text not a hyperlink – push feature described on the site but the relevant buttons not visible in the admin area
• Cloud based storage
• Service very poor – chat operator can’t answer how-to questions and they never emailed me back

Online chat glossary

operator – the person who answers the chats for the business. If you have a system with multiple operators, you can usually personalise it and use their names; if you only have one operator function but multiple staff, they will have to share a name.

pre-prepared response – often called a canned response. SImply a commonly used answer or question that is added to the system to save time and typing during a chat. For example, I could have ‘Yes I write guest blog posts’ or ‘My monthly newsletter is free to subscribe to’ as canned responses.

 pre-chat survey - the ability to ask some questions before allowing someone to chat with you. Common questions are name and email address but you can add things like ‘what do you want to ask about?’ or give them a choice of departments to chat to.

permanent window - the chat window will stay open and visible even if the visitor changes pages within your site. This is most relevant if the chat window is not a pop up window (ie is embedded into the page)

How do you decide?

If you are looking at doing something like adding a new feature to your website, how do you go about the process?

I love the simplicity of just grabbing one option and running with it, but I would never feel I had the best deal unless I had looked at other options as well. I like to shop around a bit – even if that just helps me learn more about the features to look out for – then create a short list and decide.

Do you need to look at options yourself or are some good reviews enough for you?

In short, they joined the April Fools Day spirit and announced a plane that would allow you to watch the passing ground as you flew. Spectacular views maybe, scary probably!

A number of other companies also ran some jokes on the day, and it got me thinking about the message behind such jokes.

What does it say?

Running a public joke like that can obviously be taken a number of ways, but I think most people appreciate it as long as it remains appropriate.

Making a joke shows the company can be fun and don’t take themselves too seriously. It may make it seem more approachable and flexible, too.

It could send a message of being too frivolous or flippant, but I think that comes back to keeping the joke appropriate – to the business brand as well as generally appropriate for the public.

Is it a good business tool?

I think it can be good for a number of reasons:

1. making people smile and feel good generates warmth towards your brand
2. getting into the spirit of a particular day or event shows community involvement and can also build good feelings towards the business
3. if it’s well done, people will share the story so the business gets lots of publicity. How many Facebook and Twitter mentions did you see of company April Fools jokes this week?
4. it can be fun for the staff and thus build morale and staff retention

Of course, these benefits need to be weighed against the cost of running such a joke. It may not cost a lot of money to Photoshop an image or put a message on a website, but there is a cost in time to plan a joke so it works and goes live at the right time.

Speaking of timing, remember that April Fools jokes should only be run before midday on 1 April. That can get tricky with a global audience such as on social media.

So what do you think – do you enjoy such jokes?

How does it impact on your view of the business behind the joke?

Speaking for myself, the answer is a definite no!

Speaking on behalf of clients and many business people I have spoken to, I would also give a resounding no!

Speaking for yourself, do you think it’s easy to write blog posts? How about if you try writing them to fit a marketing schedule?

So sometimes we have to make ourselves write a post, even if it is hard finding an idea or topic.

Don’t force your writing

A post on SEO outreach by Emma Fox stated “don’t force yourself into making something for a website.” (Yes, the same post that inspired my post about taking time to develop ideas last week has inspired this post, too!)

It’s an interesting statement.

You can take it to mean its best to write naturally and don’t go too far in making your posts relevant to a very different topic. Which are good points.

Or you can read it as advice to  only write for other blogs when you feel like it. Which sounds very nice, but is not so practical for a business owner trying to market their business!

Choosing a guest blog host

 When it comes to choosing where to put a guest blog post, I try to get that balance through the following ideas:

1. if the blog’s topic is too far from my areas of knowledge, I don’t write posts for them
2. I only approach someone with a potential guest post when I know I have the time to provide the post, meaning I have a bit of time to be able to write without it being a huge chore or stress
3. I don’t try being someone else or write in another’s voice so the post feels natural. I will angle the content and tone to suit an audience but keep to what feels right for me
4. I am experienced in writing on demand – I think you can choose to write at any time, not just want for the right mood, without feeling forced into it. Habit and attitude can get you writing – like Chris Guillebeau, I like the quote  from Somerset Maugham: I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.