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In the kickoff episode of our new show 'Growth Marketing for Martians' Angela Murphy from JustPositionIt! joins us to answer questions about meaningful business growth.
All these queries were submitted by marketing managers, c-level admins, and business owners.
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Angela Murphy is a business and marketing strategist who is the founder of JustPositionIt, and Ang's Writing Lab, and Ang's Marketing Boutique.
With more than 15 years of experience in the business world, Angela is responsible for crafting over 2,000+ headlines, 80+ video scripts, 1,000+ emails, 30+ catalogs, and 500+ collateral pieces. She lives and breathes business growth!
About a month ago, Rizen sent out a survey to a networking group that we're a part of that's specifically for administrators and c-level suite individuals.
We asked them, "What are some challenges or things that you want to be able to do better in your job and your position?" We got about 15 responses from that group. We whittled that down and we have five questions we answered during the podcast.
We have everything from social media, startups to law firms, to restaurant chains, to IT. What we're going to discuss today can really be cross-industrial.
Jeff Lambert: (02:55)
our first question comes from Susan. She's a CEO for a medical equipment supplier. And her question is, "What are some modern ways I can get my team to enhance and improve the customer experience?" That always seems to be something that I think a lot of us are concerned about. We know the customer has changed in the past 20 years and it's changing even more so now. So do you have any advice on how Susan could go about beginning this process?
Angela Murphy: (03:25)
I do. And that's such a great question. One of the things that I would recommend is to think about everywhere, where your customers can experience for you and your brand. Let's take the telephone, for example. How about every time someone calls into your company, you have a specific phrase that you say, "Hi, it's a great day at XYZ company. How can I help you?" Every single time you have people calling into your company, say that phrase, and then you can start to develop good feelings, good customer experience, and a good brand.
Angela Murphy: (03:55)
Something else I think too is improve your response times. And I know that that sounds so simple, but I think it's something that's really important that can help people to have a better experience with them, with the firm. For sure.
Jeff Lambert: (04:10)
You bring that last one up, Angela. I think we've all been there. Whether you're on a website and they have a, chat feature and you send a quick message, or you get a phone number and you call them up, you want to act in the moment. We're used to that microwave experience where if I'm ready to buy, I want to do it now. And you have to be available to help me with that. Or I'm going to move on to a competitor.
Angela Murphy: (04:31)
Exactly. And make it easy for people to contact you. How many times have you been to a website and you're digging and digging for a telephone number, and then you start to think to yourself, "Maybe they don't even really want me to contact them." So make it easy. Chat feature, emails. There's ways that we can make it easy for the customer. Yes.
Jeff Lambert: (04:48)
Absolutely. I would agree completely on that. Angela. So Susan, when you hear this question, think about the branding overall. Angela, just going back to that first point you made, what do you think the importance is of that, of having that unified, "Hey, how you doing?" That greeting, that salutation. Why is that important to go across the entire company?
Angela Murphy: (05:09)
Because it starts to establish your brand. It starts to allow people to identify your company as someone that's special. And another thing is it's consistent. If you're consistent and people know what to expect from you and your firm, that's really where you can start to boost brand loyalty.
Jeff Lambert: (05:32)
Pedro is a CFO at a social media startup, and he has the question, he's on a tight budget. He had mentioned in his email, he's trying to do a lot with a little. Being a startup, I think that's always the case. He's asking the question, "How do I effectively manage an in house creative team?"
Angela Murphy: (05:53)
So when you talk about teams and building one thing I would say that I would have him consider is to establish really clear roles and responsibilities. There are some departments and companies who like to have people who would be what I would call utility players, where they want people to be able to jump in and do other people's jobs.
But I think if you're a small firm, give people really clear, distinct roles. And that way they can have something to own and take pride in. And I think that you'll see even in increased productivity, if they actually have something to own.
Jeff Lambert: (06:32)
I like that. Is there a way that you would recommend to improve communication in that in house team? Should it be email inboxes, have you seen better ways for companies to be able to manage getting everybody on the same page? In terms of, "I understand your roles and responsibilities", like you said, "but this is how we're going to communicate with one another."
Angela Murphy: (06:50)
I think one thing that you may want to do is have, even if it's a small... have an organizational chart so that everyone knows what everyone else's role is. And another thing is, have ongoing meetings. It doesn't have to be necessarily weekly, but maybe have a monthly meeting, get everyone together and talk about all the projects. And I think that's a great way to establish camaraderie and then have people actually talk about the things that they're doing in their role. I think that would be helpful.
Jeff Lambert: (08:56)
This question comes from Luis. Louis, he's the head attorney at a law firm right here in Miami, actually. And he's asking the question, you're right, we just jumped into this. I got a little bit ahead of myself. "How do I improve the culture of my company?"
Angela Murphy: (09:50)
So I think when it comes to culture, it always comes from the top down. I've seen several organizations try to change, or shift culture. And one of the ways that you can do that is through communications Email your employees, let them know what's happening inside of the company.
What the goals are, talk to them about new product development. Keep them informed so that they feel part of the family. And also what you can do is ask them questions, survey your employees, get their opinions about different things. Just so that they can feel heard and understood and valued and appreciated, for sure.
Jeff Lambert: (10:32)
Yeah. That's got to go such a long way, especially for younger members of a company. I think it really matters to have input.
Angela Murphy: (10:39)
Yes, yes, absolutely right. Millennials want to be heard, for sure.
Jeff Lambert: (10:42)
Absolutely. I'm a borderline millennial, so I can identify with that just a little bit.
And I would encourage our listeners to go back to episode 49. We talked to Dr. Wendy Guess, who is from FIU and she's a specialist in survey design. And she talked a little bit about tools that you can use to create and analyze really good customer feedback, but it would apply for inter-company feedback as well, I would assume.
Jeff Lambert: (11:15)
This is from Julie. Julie is an owner of a local restaurant chain, the name withheld. But she asked the question, and again, this is on a tight budget situation. She wants to scale her marketing efforts. Where would you start in terms of being able to maximize the horsepower on the marketing greatly increasing the cost?
Angela Murphy: (11:56)
So I think have her take a look at the resources that she does have. So she has maybe say two people working for her. Have them do more. Let's do more with less, but don't just say, "I'd like you to do more." Make it conversational and say, "Here are some of the things that I'm trying to achieve because of the things that are happening in the economy, we can't hire right now." Maybe she's on a hiring freeze.
And talk to your employees and say, "Here's what I would like to do. I would like to write more blog posts a month. I would like to update the website." Whatever your goals are, talk to your team about it, and then ask of your team who would like to take that on. Give them an opportunity to take on additional responsibilities that you want to do for your firm. Just make it conversational and tell them and ask them what you're looking for.
Jeff Lambert: (12:47)
You may be surprised at the answer too. A lot of times, these are the people that are plugged into the customer feedback and they might say, "We're doing four blog posts a month, but we're writing a thousand words. Maybe we should do more digestible content that people will read."
Jeff Lambert: (15:05)
Jim, if you're listening to this, I'm not trying to put a label on you, but it sounded like maybe you wanted to update your skill set a little bit.
So his question was, "What resources are available to continue my own professional development as an administrator." So do you have any go-to sites, individuals, just overall resources where if I look at my own skills and say, "I've got to update how I run my team, my department, my office", where can I go to do that?
Angela Murphy: (15:31)
Right. Well, one thing that's coming to mind is LinkedIn. I believe LinkedIn has a learning platform called LinkedIn Learning. They have tons of resources out there if you're trying to go deeper on a particular topic and broaden your knowledge, that would be one place where I would definitely suggest that he visit.
Jeff Lambert: (16:03)
I think they're a great option. They have everything from how to create a video to improving your management skills depending on your industry.
And I would add to that Angela, a site that my company uses quite a bit that I think is great for, again, updating your skill sets, whether it's just trying to understand more of what your different departments are doing, or how to just be a better manager in general.
CXL is excellent. CXL Institute. CX. It's a subscription based platform where you have access to so many different courses and many degrees. And I think that would fit the bill as well, just as much as LinkedIn learning.
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