Search
Recommended Products
Here is a strange phenomenon - well, strange at first glance. I have noticed that whenever I am behind someone who clearly cannot handle their car very well, or get "cut up" by someone whose driving technique is about as subtle as a brick, when they apply the brakes they have only one brake light working. At a rough "guestimate", I would say that this holds true around 90 to 95% of the time. In fact, having just one brake light working is such a good predictor of poor driving that if I find myself behind someone with just one brake light working I hold well back. A few days ago I saw a car sort of dither at a junction, then lurch forward in front of me, then weave from side to side as he turned right (a task which he seemed to find inordinately difficult). I predicted that he would have only one brake light working. As it turned out, I was wrong. But one of his brake lights showed as white, rather than red - and his car had a dent in the side and a dent at the rear. In other words, even though my prediction was not 100% accurate, it was pretty close. Now, let's turn our attention to schools. Here in the UK, the self-evaluation form (SEF) recommended by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) consists of 25 pages for primary or elementary schools, and 27 pages for secondary or high schools. For Local Authorities, the guidance for the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) consists of 45 pages of guidance and dozens of measurements covering all walks of life. For example, one measurement is the tonnage of waste per head of population, with the accompanying notes: In consultation with DEFRA, the thresholds for this PI have been calculated as averages plus or minus one standard deviation (approximately 50), rather than as lower and upper quartiles. Lower threshold: 455kg/ head (collection only authorities) 575kg/ head (disposal only authorities) 555kg/ head (joint collection/ disposal authorities). ze stali nierdzewnej wirówka do miodu odporne na rdzę books bars Upper threshold: 355kg/ head (collection only authorities) 485kg/ head (disposal only authorities) 455kg/ head (joint collection/ disposal authorities). No change In my view, this kind of minute tick-boxing is ludicrous, because everyone knows what a good school looks like, and everyone knows what a good Local Authority feels like. What needs to happen is that someone should devise a set of meta metrics: measures that almost invariably enable you to make accurate judgements and predictions, like the single brake light. Starting with schools, there are a number of virtually infallible predictors of whether a school is good or bad: The attitude of the receptionist: tone of voice, form of greeting, how long you are kept waiting before being seen to etc. The plushness of the reception area: huge potted plants, expensive-looking paintings on the walls and notices reading "No children allowed beyond this point" are all indicators of a school that has forgotten what its reason for existence is. Attitude of staff towards children: aggressive posturing, shouting, finger-wagging or just plain curtness, by several staff, all suggest a school that has lost control and, again, has forgotten what it's there for. Old, tatty or lack of children's work on walls indicates either the same, or that the school was built through a Private Finance Initiative which stipulated that nothing must ever be put up on walls. Based on these suggestions, an inspection team should walk into a school completely unannounced, walk around for 10 minutes, and then come to an initial professional evaluation (IPE). The rest of the day (it shouldn't take longer than that) should be spent gathering data to prove or disprove the IPE, before arriving at a Final Professional Evaluation (FPE). Moving on to Local Authorities, once again there are extremely accurate predictors of overall effectiveness: 1. Phone calls which are answered within 5 rings, after which you are put on hold for 20 minutes, is indicative of an LA that has set performance targets whilst losing sight of the fact that targets should only be a means to an end, not ends in themselves. 2. Phone calls in which you are taken through a long and complicated menu system, at the end of which a voice says "Sorry, we are closed, please try again tomorrow between 10 and 12:30" are indicative of an LA that has never come across the idea of customer-focused. 3. If different parts of the LA don't communicate with each other, you will find yourself giving your name and address 5 times to different departments. That should tell you a lot about the LA's likely ability to ensure that nobody, eg children at risk, fall through the gaps between services. 4. If the streets of the LA are knee deep in rubbish, shops are derelict, and there is a general pall of depression, either there is a severe economic decline or the LA's spending priorities are somewhat suspect. Based on these suggestions, inspectors of Local Authorities could conduct the inspection fairly accurately over the telephone. In fact, phoning the LA pretending to be a new in the area and a parent looking for a suitable school will enable an assessment to be made straight away against criteria 1 - 3. Now, clearly these suggestions are rather sweeping and made tongue-in-cheek. However, one or more of these sets of characteristics is often found in a poor school or a poor Local Authority. Like the missing brake light, they are not causal factors, but their existence should cause us to be on our guard.
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds Many individuals are fascinated by hummingbirds. So much so, that they will do anything in their power to attract these petite creatures to their yards. So what is the best way to attract these wee feathered friends? Here are...
Music as it is Defined
There have been many varied definitions of music, dependent on the writer's idea of, or appreciation for, music. One man's music is another man's noise. And he defines accordingly. One says Nevin is music and Bach is noise. One declares Mozart to...
Painting Philosophy of Peruvian Artist
Life I paint with an emphasis on expressing LIFE (the spirit and the soul) which is the expression of my love for the natural world and its creatures. From the heart of my Incan cultural comes my love and respect for nature. I honor my love...
Preparing to sell your home
If you're thinking of selling your home and you look around wondering, "Where to start?" Here's a list of some things buyers will look at and ways to improve your home's appeal. First of all, let me tell you that I'm a Realtor in...
This Old Business...
Not long ago I was asked to come out and take a look at a business that had been around for about 10 years... but the owner was frustrated with the amount of money he was making. Here is the story of a natural food retail store located in New...
 
Google
Word Of Mouth Marketing Examples (Part Three)

In Part Three of this word of mouth marketing series of articles I've included some down to earth examples of techniques used by ordinary businesses to get extraordinary results.

Use local media to talk up your events The UK 2005 Farm Market of the Year can be found in the village of Orton in Cumbria. All the produce sold at this accredited farmers market is from a 50-mile radius. And up to 45 local farmers, growers and producers share their fresh produce and their knowledge with customers on the second Saturday of each month come rain, hail or shine.

At least that's the promise.

On 8th of January 2005 they weren't able to live up to that promise. The north west of England was hit by storms and suffered severe flooding. Market manager, Jane Brook, turned this negative into a positive by sending a news release to her local paper titled "We've Broken Our Promise". And this was the headline that the paper picked up, going on to emphasise the points Jane made about all stalls being set up prior to 9.30am and there right up to the 2.30pm closing time, with information on the special events and happenings at the next monthly market. A newsworthy angle that got people talking and helped bring them back to the markets. Check out www.ortonfarmers.co.uk. It's an impressive site with lots of examples of how they build customer relationships.

More lessons from the farm Following the constant doom and gloom reporting about foot and mouth disease, the British public were extremely cautious about going near farms. In fact, they thought they were endangering farmer's livelihoods by going anywhere near their livestock.

Richard Simkin at Essington Fruit Farm, a thriving Farm Shop and café/restaurant decided on a novel approach to get the public talking and more importantly get them beck to his business. Always one to let his local newspaper know of any good photo opportunities, he informed them of a new breed of pigs 'Porkus Lignus' resident at Essington Farm. It turned out that these were wooden pigs Richard set up in the field closest to his farm. It made for a great photo and accompanying article and more importantly brought a bit of fun and a lot of people back to Richard's farm.

Richards 'local newspaper' in the English midlands has a circulation of a quarter of a million. As a result of the publicity, business trebled overnight (back to pre-foot and mouth levels) and stayed that way because everyone who returned just had to tell family and friends about the resilient 'Porkus Lignus' at Essington Fruit Farm.

With Britain in election mode recently, Richard got tongues wagging again by painting the pigs with the party colours (blue for Tory, red for Labour etc) and giving them names - Laboar, Conservapig, Pigeral Democrat etc. He made biscuits also with the party colours and sold them for 25p. As people bought them, they registered their vote which was monitored on the Swineometer, a play on the Swingometer used on the UK TV election coverage.

Miss Maud's coffee shops did something similar in Australia for many years with their 'coffee bean poll' whereby everyone purchasing a coffee in each of their Perth outlets was given a coffee bean to drop into a long glass tube of whichever party they thought would win. They then arranged for a prestigious firm of accountants (bean counters) to man the tally room! This certainly gave customers something to talk about and the media really picked up on it....especially when four state and federal elections in a row they proved to be a more accurate predictor of the result than the national polls.

Sally Jackson of The Pink Pig Organic Farm Shop and Restaurant near Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire has, instead of a normal DL brochure, a pink cut out pig, about 14cm x 17cm, with opening times, restaurant hours, map and contact details on it. This simple idea is memorable, reinforces their brand, and gets talked about. Not the sort of thing you would throw out without showing someone.

The Big Sheep in North Devon isn't just a farm, it's a theme park devoted to sheep. If you think that's bizarre...your right, but it has proved to be phenomenally successful for the zany, effervescent Rick Turner. He has sheep racing, sheep shearing, duck trialling with championship sheepdogs, an undercover ewe-topia entertainment centre and lots more fun on the farm events and experiences. One of the many talking points is the currency at The Big Sheep. You change your money for very realistic looking Euro notes ('ewero'- get it?) to


spend during your day out. Of course most people want to hold onto some 'euros' as souvenirs. Which encourages them to go back next holidays or to pass them onto friends heading down to Devon. It's an ongoing reminder and great conversation prompter about The Big Sheep. Check out www.thebigsheep.co.uk.

Quiet ways of getting people to talk about you Yvonne McNeil, runs the legendary 'Food For Thought' coffee shop on the main street of Masterton in New Zealand. In the lead up to Christmas her staff make occasional trips along both sides of the street checking the parking meters. If any have or are about to run out they feed a couple of 20 cents into the meter and issue their own ticket on the car windscreen which says:

"Oh no, just before the parking meter attendant was about to issue you a ticket we fed your meter. We hope that our small deposit into your parking meter saved you from a parking ticket before Christmas. - Merry Christmas from Yvonne and the Team at Food For Thought."

I heard this example on Winston Marsh's excellent Business Marketing audio magazine some time ago, and on the same edition Hank Petrusma of Petrusma First National Real Estate in Hobart gave this wonderful example. (Contact Terrific Trading if you would like to know more about 'Business Marketing').

At Petrusma Real Estate they scan the community newspaper and when they see a school student has won an award or a couple have an important anniversary they send a congratulatory card. Hank gave the example of a young lady going to Sydney as part of a choir. When they read about this they sent her a congratulatory note and a cheque for $50 towards her expenses. For an important wedding anniversary they send flowers and a card saying that they just wanted to add their congratulations from all the team at Petrusma Real Estate. Wow, would that get talked about?

At Tom O'Toole's Beechworth Bakery, July is their quietest month. So, they take this opportunity to offer school tours for children from surrounding areas. Now, we all know that children talk....and it works. Within one month of the tour one in four children will have returned with their parents. Just imagine how much that will be worth if the experience turns that child and their family into life long advocates for, and customers of, Beechworth Bakery.

Linda Cleaver of Langsford House, a lovely historic B&B in York, Western Australia as well as the romantic historic charm of the setting has a poodle/Maltese cross, Monty that is often befriended by guests and is notable for his bowtie.

Now, there are a number of B&Bs in and around York and when people tell friends about 'that lovely place they stayed" they can't always recall the name. That's alright at Langsford House though. Linda received a call from a lady who said "This may be a funny question, but my friend stayed at this lovely B&B in York and can't remember the name of it. Do you have a poodle with a bowtie?" "That would be Monty the Marketing Manager," said Linda as she took the booking.

Lancelin, an hour or so up the coast from Perth, is a popular spot for windsurfing and snorkelling. Trish and Trev run Lancelin Lodge and accommodate many backpackers. They also have a dog which often befriends their guests and takes them to the best surfing spots. Backpackers compare notes with fellow travellers about places visited, what there is to do and where to stay. Backpackers also tend to be well educated and like to read so Lancelin Lodge provides them with colourful bookmarks with photographs of young guests at the beach, wind surfing scenes and of course their dog. On the reverse of each beautifully photographed scene are all the contact details and a list of facilities at Lancelin Lodge. Brochures would probably be mislaid or tossed out but bookmarks are useful mementos. A great way of being memorable and prompting word of mouth.

Wooden pigs, pink cut out pigs, bookmarks, a poodle with a bowtie or 20 cents in a parking meter. It doesn't take much to get people talking about you and once they do they start to recall and tell others about the things that really impressed them about the experience.

What will you do or do again to get people talking about your business? I'd love to share your examples with your fellow readers. Now, that's word of mouth!

About the author:

Jurek Leon is a speaker, trainer and consultant. To subscribe to Jurek's FREE monthly email newsletter go to the Free Articles section of his website www.terrifictrading.com