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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday : July 8 – Can we get a little help here?
A funny thing happened on the way to the supposed post-pandemic Armageddon…
The economy rebounded. Not evenly across the board, but in leaps and bounds in many areas–including some that were not expected to bounce back so quickly, such as travel.
In spite of the higher than normal unemployment rate, companies everywhere are saying they can’t find enough people to staff their restaurants or storefronts or warehouses or offices. Many lower-wage entry-level jobs are going unfilled.
Some businesses appear to be managing quite well while others struggle. What’s the difference? Those businesses who are treating their people well–in terms of compensation, working conditions, and benefits–are more likely to be fully staffed.
But there’s another element. People want to be proud of their workplace. They want to feel a connection to the mission of the organization. They want to feel like their efforts are appreciated, that they are empowered to help customers, and that they can make even a small difference in people’s lives.
Maybe that’s why in an environment where as many as 1 in 4 employees are actively looking for new jobs, the retention rate for people who staff the Genius Bar is nearly 90%.
Time for employers to understand they help themselves when they take good care of the help.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday : July 1, 2021 – Total Collapse
Last Thursday night, a 12-story condominium building in Surfside, Florida collapsed into a massive pile of concrete and debris. While more than 100 people were rescued, 18 are now declared dead and nearly 150 are still missing and unlikely to be found alive.
Hundreds of first responders, including specialized search and rescue teams from as far away as Mexico and Israel, immediately sprung into action to try and locate survivors. Unfortunately, they’ve found none so far. Given the way the building collapsed, it’s unlikely the bodies of all of those who perished will be recovered and identified.
The world looked on in horror. We’ve seen the anger, frustration, and grief of the families as they wait for news. Search and rescue have been hampered by the state of the debris, fires burning underneath, and weather conditions.
How could this happen? It will likely take years for the final reports to come in, but already we’re hearing about inspections that warned of deteriorating conditions, water continuously pooling in the basement, shaking from construction across the street, and more.
There WERE warnings signs–but they were ignored by those who should have taken action. The residents whose lives were at stake were not aware of the severity of the situation.
This is not the first time a structure has collapsed because of structural decay, nor will it be the last. We know that many buildings, bridges, and overpasses are way past their expected useful life. We know these need to be re-engineered or replaced. It’s just that we have chosen not to pay attention to the problem.
What’s happened in Surfside is something that cannot be ignored. We need to use what we’ve learned here to revise building codes and inspect buildings in danger.
There’s a multibillion dollar infrastructure bill before Congress now. We need to encourage our legislators to put aside partisan differences and do what’s needed to shore up our crumbling bridges, overpasses, and other structures.
When the condo building fell last week, it didn’t differentiate between Republicans and Democrats, citizens and immigrants. Let’s make sure those who perished under 12 feet of concrete did not die in vain.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday : June 24: Absolutely. Positively. Not
Back in 1979, Fedex (then called Federal Express) released an ad campaign that told us to count on their service to get packages to us overnight: Absolutely. Positively.
For decades, we counted on Fedex to get priority items where they wanted to be. And Fedex delivered–when we expected them to. Absolutely. Positive.
Fast forward to 2021. Yes, the volume of packages grew dramatically during the pandemic, but one would expect a company whose entire business is based on delivery to figure out how to address this new market opportunity. But through April, the on-time delivery record for Fedex was only 87%, vs. 95% for UPS.
We ordered a package two weeks ago that was supposed to arrive in 2 days. When it didn’t show up, we pulled up the tracking number and tried to find the package. Over the next week, we saw Processing, Out for Delivery, then Pending–but still no package. Today, the sender notified us the package had been returned to them, without ever getting to us.
The worst part is the shipper was only a few miles from us. Had we known this would happen, we could have driven there and picked this up ourselves two weeks ago.
A 13% failure rate is too high for a company that considers themselves an essential service. It’s definitely not acceptable for someone who built their entire brand around on-time delivery. The pandemic is no excuse. If UPS could figure this out, why not Fedex?
Here’s the problem: When you make an ongoing brand promise to customers, they expect you to follow through–especially when you’ve been at this for more than 40 years and it’s the keystone of your business.
Make sure you are delivering on the promises you make to customers. All the time. Absolutely. Positively.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 17, 2021: Overheating
The western half of the United States is in the middle of an extreme heat wave. Temperature records are being broken across the country.
The situation is exacerbated by the extensive drought conditions faced by most of this area. Lakes and dams are at record low levels; dried grass and plants are like tinder. In CA, warnings have gone out about fire danger, as well as the need to conserve power to avoid blackouts.
This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. One of the impacts of climate change is we see more and more extreme weather events–from record-breaking heat to stronger hurricanes, tornadoes, and even massive snow storms.
We know all this, yet there is a limited number of actions currently being taken to mitigate this. We cut back dried vegetation to avoid fires and ask people to turn up their thermostats, but those are temporary measures. The bigger actions–such as reinforcing the power grid, building fire resistant structures, adding additional energy sources–require more thought, more work, and more investment. Yet that’s where the greatest returns will be.
There’s a Chinese proverb that says a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Getting more people who take that initial step makes the journey easier for everyone. It’s time to recruit as many people as we can to take the first big steps to deal with this issue–before a little overheating turns into a massive conflagration.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com