Refer to older posts…

TashWord

Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.

A great idea but poorly implemented

Published 23 April, 2013 | By TashWord

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!

* Image courtesy of 123RF

Posted in Business Communications | Tagged great idea, safety, service, timing | Leave a comment

Taking breaks makes you more productive, less overwhelmed

Published 22 April, 2013 | By TashWord

overwhelmed businessman at his messy desk

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?

Posted in book review, business info & tools | Tagged breaks, breakthrough, laws of subtraction, overwhelmed | 1 Comment

Limiting information engages imgaination

Published 18 April, 2013 | By TashWord

Today I heard a webinar based on the book The Laws of Subtraction (6 simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything). Matthew E May, author of the book was interviewed by Suzi Dafnis of ABN.

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

Beach at Ricketts Point, Victoria, in black and white

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?

* Image from Word Constructions

Posted in book review, Business Communications, business info & tools | Tagged imagination, information, laws of subtraction, limit | 1 Comment

Adding an online chat feature – good idea or not?

Published 12 April, 2013 | By TashWord

Maybe it seems a little back to front. I mean, first I reviewed some online chat software and now I am writing about whether or not adding online chat to a website is worth considering.

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…

you appear approachable and interested in helping potential clients
it is simply another way people can choose to contact your business
you can solve issues quickly – no waiting for emails or loosing people because they can’t find the answer they want from your site
some people prefer to interact online instead of via the phone – and I suspect this tendency will increase
an online chat can be quicker and less intrusive than getting a phone call
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
it’s a relatively simple way to make your website more interactive
as a service provider, it can also be a great customer service tool for existing clients
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…

it costs money – there is quite a range of prices but you are likely to pay for the software and maybe hosting
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
there may well be time and money in getting a designer involved to integrate things nicely into your site
it’s a new tool to learn how to use
it’s potentially a distraction – being interrupted as you work and having a new set of stats to look at and worry about
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.
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
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?

Posted in Business Communications, business info & tools | Tagged contact, feature, live chat, online chat, reason, website | 14 Comments

Online chat solutions in review

Published 10 April, 2013 | By TashWord

I have been researching online chat software for a client. There are a lot of options available so I thought I’d share some of my observations for anyone else who may be thinking of making their website more interactive.

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?

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged feature, online chat, review, website | 11 Comments

What does April Fool communicate?

Published 3 April, 2013 | By TashWord

Did you see Virgin’s glass floored planes announcement on Monday?

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:

making people smile and feel good generates warmth towards your brand
getting into the spirit of a particular day or event shows community involvement and can also build good feelings towards the business
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?
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?

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged april fool, business, joke, message | Leave a comment

Blog post writing isn’t always easy, but it’s possible

Published 26 March, 2013 | By TashWord

Does every blog post come naturally and easily?

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:

if the blog’s topic is too far from my areas of knowledge, I don’t write posts for them
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
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
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.

Posted in blogging, writing | Tagged blog, force, marketing, writing | 2 Comments

Give ideas time to develop

Published 21 March, 2013 | By TashWord

Ideas & plants take time to grow

Last night I read a blog post on guest blogging (or SEO outreach) as it is something I am interested in and enjoy doing. There were some great tips in this blog post, but there were also a couple of points that I reacted to.

Post ideas can take time

Researching blogs to offer posts to is obviously an important step in guest blogging, but I disagree with the following statement:

If you don’t have any ideas for articles the first couple of minutes of scanning the website, better spend the next minutes looking for another website to scope out.

Many people will never find a host blog if they used that criteria!

A couple of minutes may show the blog is not suitable for you (eg the wrong topic or demographic) but it often isn’t enough to get ideas. Sometimes I get ideas from the first sentence I read in another blog, but other times I have to read a few posts to get a feel for that blog and allow inspiration to strike.

Creativity is in all of us, and I believe it can be developed, but even so that’s a lot of pressure to state you need to find ideas so quickly while also assessing the blog overall.

Fast fix or quality results?

There’s a business concept about giving clients a choice of two elements – well done, fast or cheap. They can’t have all three options in the same project.

I think that’s true for guest blogging, too. You can do it well – quality writing on well researched blogs to build relationships with bloggers and their audiences – or you can work at getting a lot of posts online in a short time frame.

It’s that old quality vs quantity argument, I guess.

And to be frank, if you give me the impression of trying for maximum posts rather than quality the chances are I won’t accept your guest post. So I would never tell people to only spend a few minutes researching a potential host blog – it looks fast rather than in-depth to me.

Developing ideas

How do you develop ideas, whether for a blog post or anything else?

Do you give up if no idea hits within a couple of minutes?

* Images courtesy of 123RF

Posted in blogging, writing | Tagged guest post, ideas, quality, time | 2 Comments

Poor surveys are time wasters…

Published 13 March, 2013 | By TashWord

I’m busy, you’re busy and I suspect even people (including Government employees) writing surveys are busy.

So why do people put up silly surveys and waste everyone’s time?

Throwing time away…

Late last week I was asked to fill in a survey Government-run gathering information to help small businesses – a worthy cause so I completed the survey.

But some of the questions were a waste of time – not only were they hard to answer, I doubt they will give meaningful results so it has wasted everyone’s time.

Poor survey question samples

Here are some of the worst questions I answered, with my comments to explain why I didn’t like these particular questions.

Q1 – is your website interactive? Can you edit it yourself (eg online forms, content)?
A1 – yes or no

What is the correct answer if my site is interactive but I can’t edit it, or if I can edit it but it isn’t interactive?

Q2 do you use a still or video camera for work purposes?
A2 – Yes – what do you use it for?

Um, for taking photos or videos? I wonder how many people gave that answer! I decided to be nice to them and answered ‘take photos for use in my blog’

Q3. who is your local IT service company in a, b and c?

Personally I had no idea! And what did they mean by local anyway – same suburb, same city, same state?
The question perhaps makes more sense if you assume they want to know who I used for those services or maybe they were trying to ask ‘do you use a local IT service company for a, b or c’.

Q4. how do you get business advice and information?
A4 – rate each option in the following list {which includes trade magazines, state gov department website, dept of broadband, communication & digital economy}

The list did not include professional advice (accountant, coach, etc), online articles/blogs or government business info sites which were the first three things I thought of! Yet it included such specific things as a government department site and the dept of broadband, etc which I have never heard of!
When giving answers, it is important to review the list to ensure it covers enough breadth – or change the question to indicate it is a narrow aspect being researched.

Q5. do you or any of your staff telework? (work from home connecting to the business network and database)

How do I answer that – I work from a home office so I am nearly always connecting to the business from home but I don’t think it is really telework when the network is also at home!
Do they want me to include sub-contractors/suppliers as staff or keep ‘staff’ to mean employees?

Maybe this post will compensate for the wasted time as at least we can all learn what not to do in our next survey or feedback form!

My strong recommendation is to always get an outside person to read a survey when you think it is finished because they will spot errors in logic, assumptions and inconsistencies better than you can.

What are your survey stories? Have you found they are harder to write than they appear? Or maybe you’ve come across some time-wasting questions like these ones. I’d love to hear them – although it would be nice to think most surveys are well done!

Posted in Business Communications, writing | Tagged poor, questions, survey, tips, waste | 1 Comment

Choosing your blog hosting arrangement

Published 26 February, 2013 | By TashWord

Setting up a blog may seem daunting but it really doesn’t have to be. However, the first step, how to host your blog, can be difficult if you haven’t done it before.

List of varous factors in choosing a web host

Some things to consider

So, here are some things to know and consider before making your choice…

check out the various advantages to hosting yourself or through your blogging software
if you already have a website, adding the blog to that site means you share the traffic, have only one URL to promote, can see combined statistics through your host and only have one host relationship to deal with
think long term – what do you want from your blog? how do you want to manage it? Just because you don’t need a feature now shouldn’t be a major reason in your choice. For example, a hosted blog won’t let you add Adsense ads which may be something you want to do in 12 months when you’ve built up some traffic.
how technical are you – or how much technical support do you have? While installing and updating the blog software doesn’t require html knowledge, some people find it challenging so a hosted blog has appeal
what will your audience expect? Do you need to earn their trust? Seeing your blog on your domain and branded appropriately goes a long way to building trust and credibility
minimise risk by choosing a reputable host which ever type of hosting you go with
assess the different risks for your business

What other questions are you considering (or did you consider) as part of your decision?

Posted in blogging | Tagged blog, choosing, hosting | 2 Comments

Welcome!

eBooks to read

Pages of note

Useful resources

Recent Posts

Categories