To tell you the truth, I’m getting pretty full of these podcasting “Ps.” Luckily, there are only a couple left, so I’ll finish them up so I can move on to something else like – oh, I don’t know – carrots?

Once you’ve started producing your podcasts, you’ll need to “Publish” them so they’re available for listening. Publishing consists of three main steps:

1. Host: Your podcasts need to be available for downloading via the Internet. You can either host them on your own website or use a podcast hosting service.
2. Feed: Set up an RSS feed so that everyone who subscribes to your feed will automatically receive new podcasts as you make them available. The easiest way to set up a feed is through a service provider.
3. Read: Your listeners will need a podcast reader (iTunes, for example) to subscribe to your feed and download the podcasts. They’ll also need a media player (RealPlayer or an iPod, for example) to listen to the podcasts.

Of course, publishing your podcasts doesn’t do any good unless your audience knows about them. “Promote” your podcasts by advertising them through your company’s website, blog, emails, department meetings, client meetings, direct mailers, etc. Explain what the podcasts are about and how your audience will benefit from them. Many potential listeners may be new to podcasting, so give them instructions for subscribing and listening to your podcasts.

To keep your audience listening, you need to continually “Perfect” your podcasts. The best way is to talk to your audience and get their feedback. First, you’ll need to find out who’s listening. Track downloads of your podcasts for statistics on traffic and subscriptions. Use the same communication channels for promoting your podcasts to solicit feedback on who’s listening. Once you know who’s listening, ask them what they like and don’t like about your podcasts and get their ideas for making them better. Encourage a conversation among your audience by setting up a blog or online forum to facilitate a dialog around your podcasts. You may get more out of it than just ideas for making your podcasts better.

In this series of blogs, I’ve covered 8 “Ps” in podcasting: the Popularity, Pros, and Possibilities of podcasting and ideas for Planning, Producing, Publishing, Promoting, and Perfecting your podcasts. The final “Point” (sorry, I couldn’t resist one last “P”) is that ReadyTalk provides a turnkey podcasting solution with everything you need to create and publish your podcasts. It’s easy to use and comes standard with every ReadyTalk account – the perfect solution for beginners.

So give podcasting a try. It’ll be good for you.

Technorati Tags: B2B, Customer Service, Human Resource, Marketing, Podcasting, Public Relations, Sales, Social Media

In previous blogs, I’ve been discussing the “Ps” in podcasting. The first “P” was the “Popularity” of podcasting, The second “P” was the “Pros” for companies to podcast. The third “P” of the peas in a pod metaphor I’m hacking to death here is the “Possibilities” for business podcasts. It isn’t exactly enough for a meal yet, but hey, I’m getting there.

You can blog about anything or nothing, and many people do. The same is true for podcasting. But if you want people to actually listen to your podcasts, you need to make sure they provide useful information or are entertaining to your audience – preferably both. That’s not always possible, of course. Podcasting your earnings reports isn’t going get too many yuks from the financial community (at least we hope not), but they’ll find them useful.

One way to come up with podcasting ideas is to analyze all the types of communications you use inside your company and with your customers. Some of these may be suitable for podcasting, or even be more effectively delivered as podcasts. This exercise may also generate some completely new ideas for communication that are uniquely suited for podcasting. Here are some possibilities to get you thinking:

Corporate:

• Financial updates such as quarterly earnings reports
• Business news such as company announcements, industry news and trends
• Internal company announcements, newsletters
• Management fireside chats

Sales and Marketing:

• Product news, such as new features and release schedules
• Product promotions and discounts
• Account management status and updates for customers and clients
• Interviews with industry experts
• Whitepapers
• Research paper summaries

Human Resoures:

• HR training courses
• HR initiative announcements
• Policies and procedures
• Management tips and best practices
• Employee commentaries

Customer Support:

• Product usage tips and best practices
• Problem reports, status and workarounds
• Product training

Another way to come up with business podcasting ideas is to go to iTunes and listen to some business podcasts. And talk to other companies to find out what they’re podcasting. You’ll have a bowlful of possibilities before you know it.

Are you doing business podcasting? I’d love to hear what you’re podcasting and how it’s going.

Technorati Tags: B2B, Customer Service, Human Resource, Marketing, Podcasting, Podcasts, Public Relations, Sales, Social Media

The other day I made a phone call to our internet provider trying to fix our connection. After going through the routine questions with the operator, I was transfered to support. After about a half hour of trying to fix the problem, the non-native speaker told me to call back in an hour and then they could fix the problem. I did as was directed and sure enough, when I called back the shifts had changed and I had to go through the whole procedure again. What a bunch of bologna!

Companies in every industry are delivering these miserable experiences every day. Many companies are losing business by frustrating their customers over and over again. What they don’t realize, is that there is money to be made when you make your customers happy. Happy customers are loyal, they are repeat customers and they drive your marketing for you. How is your company making its customers happy?

I recently viewed a slide show online about how to make happiness your business model. This slide show explained not only why it was important to make your customers happy, but how to make them happy. Outlined below are the pillars of happiness every customer desires.

• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness
• self-esteem or set point

Not only do companies need to create happiness, but they need to know what works against it. Below are the barriers of happiness.

• Fear
• Confusion
• Loneliness
• Lack of control

When a company offers these pillars of happiness and avoids the barriers they will thrive in their industry.

One industry that has set the bar incredibly low for producing happy customers is the airline industry. However, Southwest airlines has turned these unhappy customers into an opportunity to make money by making them happy. SouthWest has applied the pillars of happiness and has avoided the barriers. Their customers truly do “feel free to move about the country.”

What is your company doing to generate happy customers? What can you do better to create a happy environment for your customers?

If your company company wants to make more money, then just focus on making people happy.

Check out Happiness as Your Business Model to learn about these pillars of happiness and its barriers.

Technorati Tags: SouthWest, Marketing, Customer Service

Today, the biggest differentiator between competitors seems to be coming down to service. As companies grow, processes and structure are put into place that standardizes how employees interact with customers. I can understand the reasoning behind this:

• Structure training
• Protect the company from potential issues
• Allow employees to be measured equally
• Set customer expectations
• Provide structure to what employees can and can’t do

It’s the last one on that list that is concerning. How are employees expected to go above and beyond when there are restrictions being placed on them? This impacts your customers and incidentally the bottom line. Allow employees to have some enjoyment and creativity in what they do. Come to a consensus on what decisions will not negatively affect the company financially, create an unsafe environment, or set the stage for a lawsuit. More then often you will find that employees truly want to help customers … so let them.

Brian Carroll has another great post about the value of current customers., At ReadyTalk, our business model is based on exceptional customer service and support with a streamlined product that is easy to use and extremely stable. Given our exceptional service model, we understand the value of our current customers.

Take a look at some of these statistics:

• For every customer who bothers to complain, there are 26 others who remain silent.
• The average “wronged” customer will tell 8 to 16 people.
• 91% of unhappy customers will never purchase services from you again.
• It costs about five times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to keep an old one.

With statistics like these it is amazing that more companies don’t put more energy into keeping their current customers. Remember this: The magazine that gives new subscribers gifts while ignoring subscribers that have been reading their magazine for years. Even as a child, upon hearing these offers, something felt wrong to me.

At ReadyTalk, we not only have lead nurturing programs but we also are working on implementing a customer nurturing program. The objectives of this program are to build loyalty among our current customers, promote stickiness through programs and get them to use more of our products and services.

I would love to hear from you if you have implemented such a program or are thinking about it.

Technorati Tags: customer retention, loyalty, Brian Carroll, customer nurturing