Some folks have been very kind about the various business posts I’ve thrown up here, so I’m continuing the theme. 

Many people don’t know this, but a long time ago in a country far away, I was a customer service rep for a large software company.  There’s a funny story there that I’ll share another time.  I also ran a Customer Service department in one of my previous jobs. 

So here’s my $0.02 on how things should work.  Easy for me to say, as we are in the earliest stages of customer acquisition, so I know all of our customers by name.

Contact!

Learn!

The Customer is always right, even when they are wrong

Escalation Procedures

Prioritization Based on "Open" Problem Status

Prioritization Based on Amount Spent

Categories: Old Posts
552 Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/08/31/my-002-on-customer-service/My+%240.02+on+Customer+Service...2007-08-31+23%3A59%3A00NickN

Last time I talked about the who and why of talking to the press.  Let’s get on with the “how”.

The key thing, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is to figure out exactly what you want to say. 

You have a story to tell.  Figure out what it is and stay on it.  Before you talk to the journalist, make sure you practice.  Go through every point in your head and do it multiple times.  A press interview is no different to a pitch or other kind of presentation, and it always pays to practice.

Make bullet point notes for yourself and follow them.  Don’t get drawn off-topic and don’t get flustered.  It’s okay to say “we’re not interested in promoting that aspect of our business just yet”, or “we’re more focused on what’s ahead for us as a company” or something else appropriate.  Do not lose your cool – even the nicest journalist doesn’t take kindly to being yelled at.

Remember, your story helps them keep and attract readers, but they are doing you a favor by covering your news.

If you do get off-topic, circle back the first chance you get and stick to your outline. 

You also want to prioritize the bullet points and get a clear idea of how long the interview will last.  There’s nothing worse than running out of time only to realize that you didn’t cover the most important point you wanted to make.

Bear in mind that journalists are mostly regular people.  Some like to talk more than others, and most are pretty easy going.  Assuming you took my previous advice and have a good story to tell, they’ll be happy to talk with you.  Sometimes they will err on the side of what they believe to be a good story, but most won’t take a negative stance or “dig for dirt” unless there is a better story in there.

If your company has some wacky history (I’ve had my share of those), and the journalist digs in that direction, just be firm and polite and stay on target.

Again, as I said previously, read pieces that the journalist has written.  If they are consistently and overly negative, don’t seek or take the interview.

Sometimes what appeals to the journalist isn’t what you wanted to focus
on.  As long as it’s not negative or majorly off-topic, be flexible.
Don’t be overly stubborn – if the journalist isn’t biting on a minor
detail (“but we’re the first calendaring app entirely written in
python”) let it go.  As long as you got your main points across, it’s
all good.

Quite often, your story may work better within a broader article rather
than a stand-alone piece.  That’s okay too.  While being the only one
in the spotlight is great, you will almost definitely reach a broader
audience in an article that features other companies.

Again, focus on what you’re trying to achieve.  If the interview no longer serves your purpose, politely withdraw.

Respect their time – if you agree to be available at a certain time, make sure you’re free of interruptions.  If it’s a short interview, get to the point quickly.

What next? 
You’ve picked your targets, told your story and the interview is done.  What happens next?

Again, it’s critical to make sure you’re on the same page and have realistic expectations. 

It is reasonable to ask to see the piece before it is made public.  Some journalists are okay with this, some aren’t.  It’s more common for this to be agreed to with print publications – it’s so much more expensive to make corrections when something ends up in physical form.

It is categorically not okay to expect to be able to do a wholesale edit on the article, or to attempt to change the journalist’s opinions as expressed in the article. 

You can request corrections to factual errors, such as incorrect names or clearly factually incorrect information (“we raised money from VC Firm A” when it was actually Firm B).  But just as you would be insulted if an outsider told you how to do your job, you should not expect a journalist to change the article because there’s something you don’t like about it.

For example, Allan at TechJournal South does not typically let companies preview a piece before it goes out on their site, but he will quickly and diligently make any necessary corrections to factual errors.

I, for one, think that is perfectly fine.

Once everything is wrapped, there’s often some delay before it is released in to the wild.  Blogs can turn stories around in minutes.  Daily newspapers can turn a story around in a day or so.  A glossy magazine doing a feature article may have a lead time of 3+ months.

When the piece hits, whatever the venue, make sure you get a copy.  And make sure you keep an archive of all the coverage you get.  This is especially applicable to online coverage – you’d be surprised how often online articles go missing.

One last thing… If you do have a press disaster on your hands, react, don’t hide.  It is unlikely to go away and it will definitely NOT go away if you handle it badly.  Beware the Streisand Effect! You have been warned…

But that’s about all there is to it.  Just like many other aspects of business, it is not rocket science.  You just need a little planning and an idea of your goal.

So in summary:

1. Figure out who you are trying to reach
2. Identify your story
3. Tell your story
4. Keep copies of the results

Good luck!

Categories: Old Posts
54No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/08/30/talking-to-the-press-part-2/Talking+to+the+Press%2C+Part+2...2007-08-31+00%3A50%3A00NickN

On many, many occasions I’ve heard horror stories from fellow entrepreneurs about their experiences with the press.

Most journalists are decent enough folks that just need a good story.  For example, since moving to RTP, I’ve worked with Allan Maurer at TechJournal South and Anne Krishnan of the News and Observer.  Both have been professional, capable and a pleasure to work with.

For the record, I consider Bloggers to be Journalists.  Old Media snobs should get off their high horse on this one.  Sure, some bloggers suck, but so do some journalists.  Moving along…

The problems entrepreneurs experience are more often the result of mistakes by the entrepreneur than negative intentions on the part of the journalist.  It’s back to assumptions being the mother of all “screwups”.

So with that in mind, here are some thoughts on working with the press.  I guess I’ll be splitting this up into two posts as it’s getting pretty long already.

Let’s start with WHY and WHO.  I’ll address what and how in part two

So why do you want coverage?  Who is the target audience? 

WHY
“Why” is a big deal.  Don’t even contact the press unless you have a good story (or are laying the groundwork for a good story).  And a good story is one that someone other than you or your Mom will find interesting.

Remember: The journalist’s primary job is to tell interesting stories that will get the attention of readers.  For example, we recently had a small article in TechJournal South.  I called Allan because we had made progress with fund-raising, added some well know individuals to our board, and are entering beta with our first product.  That’s a lot of positive news that makes for a good short story.  I wouldn’t have called him just to highlight that we were almost ready to start our external beta program.

I wanted the news out there for several reasons:

a)    We’re talking to a number of investors locally and nationally.  Some of them read TechJournal South, so it’s a good way to remind them who we are and stay on their minds.
b)    There are some investors we’re not talking to, but will be talking to soon.  Again, this helps build some mindshare.
c)    We’re very grateful to our board members and wanted to say thank you in a public venue.
d)    We will soon be looking for additional beta sites within the local community – this helps lay some groundwork for that too.

So the “why” was pretty clear this time around.

WHO

There are two sides to “who”. Who are you going to work with and who is your story aimed at.  There is no point trying to target potential investors with a story if it doesn’t appear somewhere they’re likely to see it.  No matter what your story, the audience dictates which journalists you talk to.

There are some media outlets that cover many bases, like TechCrunch.  In the world of tech, investors, customers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and software engineers ALL read TechCrunch..

Figure out who you want to talk to, but before you talk to a particular journalist, read some of what they’ve written.  If their articles seem overly negative, dirt digging or otherwise unnecessarily unfavorable, don’t take the interview.  Bear in mind that some companies actually deserve bad press, but if the journalist seems to repeatedly emphasize the worst, avoid them.

In today’s world of millions of media outlets, if there’s a journalist you don’t want to talk to, you don’t have to.  Ten years ago, you needed the magazines that your customers or partners might read.  Today, there are so many ways for your target to get information that it is no longer as critical.

Back in the days of Black and White TV and MS-DOS, I worked for a company in the Computer Aided Design software space.  There were two primary magazines that almost everyone we wanted to reach would read: Catalyst and Cadence (the former has long since acquired the latter).  If you weren’t on good terms with both magazines, you were in trouble.

But now, with blogs and online advertising, there are many many outlets for your story that will still reach your customers.

SUMMARY

Rule #1:  Figure out what your story is and be objective about whether it is really news-worthy.

Rule #2: Know who your audience is and pick the right outlets for the story

Rule #3: If you don’t like the publication or the journalist, pass on the interview.  Unless you’re the mysterious third founder of Google, they probably have plenty of other folks to talk to.  But unless you’re convinced you want to burn that bridge forever, handle it carefully and don’t expect to waltz right in the next time you want to talk to them.

I’ll get to how to proceed from here in the next installment… Coming soon…

Categories: Old Posts
53No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/08/29/dancing-with-the-devil%e2%80%a6-aka-talking-to-the-press/Dancing+with+the+Devil%E2%80%A6+aka+Talking+to+the+Press2007-08-30+01%3A08%3A00NickN

Another one for the Dead Technology file…

The heady days of group cooperation that facilitated the purchase of a ZX-81 had their seed somewhere in the late ’70’s.  And that seed’s name was BigTrak.  Pristine white (UK version) and chock full of coolness, fresh from a Jetson’s-esque robot-filled future. 

Bask in the glow and feast your eyes on the mobile armageddon on wheels that changed the world: BigTrak

Man.  Dig those crazy retro 70’s stripes!  At the time, I think I would have donated body parts to medical science to have my room painted the same way.  <sigh>.

Now it is possible that you just weren’t cool enough to own one of these.  Or perhaps you’re just too darn young.  But BigTrak could steamroller Aibo’s skinny canine butt any day of the week.

As The Wikipedia notes:

"It was a six-wheeled tank
with a front-mounted blue "photon beam" headlamp, and a keypad on top.
The toy could remember up to 16 commands which it then executed in
sequence (such as "go forward 5 lengths", "pause", "turn 30 degrees right", "fire phaser" and so on."

Got that?  A tank, people! Photon beams and everything!  What’s not to love!  And we haven’t even gotten to the kicking electronic steamroller-from-the-future noise Bigtrak made with every move.

Wiser souls than me have assembled more info on the BigTrak than I remember, but here are some more highlights:

"Let Big Trak’s electronic memory treat you to an absolutely spectacular performance. Just punch in your program of
commands and watch Big Trak carry them out: moving forward, backward, left and right, up to 99 length units! Order Big Trak
to picot into a sharp or wide-angled turn, full circle, or even beyond that. Big Trak can lurk silently before continuing
on its course, and can fire either a single shot or a volley from its "photon" cannon. Send Big Trak out of the room,
around furniture and other obstacles, and back again! Easy enough for kids to learn, but so much fun, even adults won’t be
able to resist. One 9 volt transistor battery and four 1.5 volt "D" size batteries."

Aww.  They even called it a "transistor battery".  Cute.  And 99 length units?  How charmingly analog (and terribly far).

The amazing this is that this toy delivered on the hype.  Sure, ours didn’t quite get it’s turn angles right, or the delay times, or even the distances, but it could be told to sally forth down the hallway, tool around the kitchen, zap an undeserving relative with it’s Photon Beam and return home.  As long as you didn’t miscalculate or exceed the maximum number of steps (and that’s just CRAZY talk).

I have no idea where BigTrak is now.  Off in some kind of space-age 100-length heaven from the future.

But thanks to the magic of the Internets, you can click the clip below to see this beast in action. 

Bon Voyage, BigTrak.  Bee-boo-bee-boo-bee-boo…

Categories: Old Posts
52No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/08/28/aibos-got-nuthin-on-bigtrak/Aibo%27s+got+nuthin%27+on+BigTrak...2007-08-29+01%3A42%3A00NickN

When I’m interviewing, I don’t tend to stick to a rigorous format — I like to get to know the person and assess them within the scope of the three key points I mentioned in a previous post:

A) Can the candidate do the job?

B) Will the candidate do the job?

C) Will the candidate fit in with the rest of the team/company

But sometimes it helps to have a list of useful interview questions to fall back on.  This is something I’ve
compiled from several different sources over the years.  To be quite
candid, I don’t recall where all of it came from, so apologies in
advance to those that contributed along the way.

So here are 26 sample interview questions, along with bullets to
guide you as to what areas specifically to explore. Not all questions
are appropriate for all positions, but this list should get you well on
the way to finding out about a candidate and whether they are a fit for
the open position.

Categories: Old Posts
51No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/08/27/more-on-hiring-and-interviewing/More+on+Hiring+and+Interviewing...2007-08-28+00%3A38%3A00NickN