Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Monday, September 21, 2009
Help Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee
You can go to www.hungeractioncenter.org to help Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee win a truck load of food from Kraft foods. Please take some time to help feed the hungry. You are able to make a difference in just five minutes.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Service is KEY to Customer Service
Good day everyone! Welcome to my post for the WIN Firm regarding marketing and our actual examples of strategies/tactics we use. I realize most of you following this blog have probably been inundated with media regarding Health Care Reform, and recently, Kanye West. Wow! We have seen a lot lately, and there still is plenty to come. I want to take time out for a moment and shed light on an important subject today, customer service.
Our firm is working on a promotion to help a local Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, win a tractor trailer truck load of food from Kraft. Being a cause-oriented marketing firm, we are always excited to help the less fortunate, and love partnering with organizations that do their part, whether they be non-profit or for-profit. Where am I going with this story? I'll explain.
Today, a colleague of mine went to Verizon Wireless in Johnson City, TN to see about obtaining a few wireless air cards that Second Harvest would use for an upcoming event. Now, I realize that most event marketing decisions come from corporate, but small event decisions are often made on the local level, especially if they do not involve money. We first thought of Verizon because they are the Food Bank's cell phone company. However, despite Verizon's crafty commercials depicting a wonderful cell service, their customer service is absolutely terrible, at least locally anyways. My colleague reported back to me that in our attempt to use air cards from the local Verizon store in Johnson City, the store manager would not even speak to him; rather, had an employee tell him "corporate handles events." My colleague did not even have a chance to explain what exactly we were doing, but was hurried out the door. Wow! That is EXCELLENT service, right!
What does this experience tell me? It tells me that corporate structure must have problems as well for Verizon if the local manager had zero skills in customer service. Why? As person who oversees projects with colleagues working on them, I take full responsibility of how each project is handled because it is a direct reflection of how I lead. Yes, leadership is key, and customer service starts from the top and works its way down. I wander how much emphasis is placed on training customer service for Verizon Wireless.
How does this lack of service relate to marketing? It is the foundation of marketing. Marketing is about managing a perception by communicating effectively with people. When your customer service is awful, your company is perceived as being awful. In this case, our company will most likely not ever use Verizon for our business needs thanks to one lousy manager in our local store. What can be learned from all of this? Think about how you treat people, because your advertising budget will not change someone's perception of you following a bad experience.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Our firm is working on a promotion to help a local Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, win a tractor trailer truck load of food from Kraft. Being a cause-oriented marketing firm, we are always excited to help the less fortunate, and love partnering with organizations that do their part, whether they be non-profit or for-profit. Where am I going with this story? I'll explain.
Today, a colleague of mine went to Verizon Wireless in Johnson City, TN to see about obtaining a few wireless air cards that Second Harvest would use for an upcoming event. Now, I realize that most event marketing decisions come from corporate, but small event decisions are often made on the local level, especially if they do not involve money. We first thought of Verizon because they are the Food Bank's cell phone company. However, despite Verizon's crafty commercials depicting a wonderful cell service, their customer service is absolutely terrible, at least locally anyways. My colleague reported back to me that in our attempt to use air cards from the local Verizon store in Johnson City, the store manager would not even speak to him; rather, had an employee tell him "corporate handles events." My colleague did not even have a chance to explain what exactly we were doing, but was hurried out the door. Wow! That is EXCELLENT service, right!
What does this experience tell me? It tells me that corporate structure must have problems as well for Verizon if the local manager had zero skills in customer service. Why? As person who oversees projects with colleagues working on them, I take full responsibility of how each project is handled because it is a direct reflection of how I lead. Yes, leadership is key, and customer service starts from the top and works its way down. I wander how much emphasis is placed on training customer service for Verizon Wireless.
How does this lack of service relate to marketing? It is the foundation of marketing. Marketing is about managing a perception by communicating effectively with people. When your customer service is awful, your company is perceived as being awful. In this case, our company will most likely not ever use Verizon for our business needs thanks to one lousy manager in our local store. What can be learned from all of this? Think about how you treat people, because your advertising budget will not change someone's perception of you following a bad experience.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Monday, September 14, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Working to Help the Hungry
Good day everybody! Welcome to another post from the WIN Firm brought to you by me, Chris Teague. Today's post is especially important for us at the WIN Firm! We are taking time out to recognize the importance of helping those that are less fortunate than us. I want to tell you a story about one of our clients, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee and partner, Feeding America. This story is not about our firm today; rather, it is about our client doing an AMAZING job helping hungry residents in our Northeast Tennessee community and the country as well. We at the WIN Firm would like to introduce you to Roger's Story.
Roger, a child that lives in Bristol, TN, participates in Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee's Food for Kids program through the Bristol City Schools. Roger’s mother was laid-off from her job and faced some challenging situations that included the difficult choice many parents in our region and country must make, whether to pay for utilities or food. Roger’s mother chose to provide food for her son and pay for the utilities to the best of her abilities, but soon found herself behind in paying the bills. As money decreased, Roger’s mother was forced to leave the apartment she lived in and move into a tent. Roger’s only shelter at night came from a nylon piece of fabric and the only food he ate was for lunch at school. Roger’s situation was discovered by his school and action was taken to enroll him into Food for Kids. Thanks to Second Harvest and Feeding America, Roger was able to immediately receive food from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee to take home, so that his mother would not have to make the choice between feeding Roger and using her limited income to find housing for her family. Roger’s story is unique, but many children in our region and America suffer from malnutrition because of their impoverished living conditions.
Please take a moment to support the hungry. We at the WIN Firm make sure our work goes to raise awareness for issues that touch our lives. You too can help be the voice for our country's hungry, impoverished residents. We at the WIN Firm invite you to go to www.hungeractioncenter.org, sign up to be a voice for hunger support, and help feed the less fortunate people around you. As a perk, there is a contest that helps your local food bank. When you take action on hungeractioncenter.org, minutes are logged for your work and counted. The food banks that accumulate the most minutes by the end of September win a free tractor trailer load of food for their community. Please help us!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
"We create ideas that WIN."
Roger, a child that lives in Bristol, TN, participates in Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee's Food for Kids program through the Bristol City Schools. Roger’s mother was laid-off from her job and faced some challenging situations that included the difficult choice many parents in our region and country must make, whether to pay for utilities or food. Roger’s mother chose to provide food for her son and pay for the utilities to the best of her abilities, but soon found herself behind in paying the bills. As money decreased, Roger’s mother was forced to leave the apartment she lived in and move into a tent. Roger’s only shelter at night came from a nylon piece of fabric and the only food he ate was for lunch at school. Roger’s situation was discovered by his school and action was taken to enroll him into Food for Kids. Thanks to Second Harvest and Feeding America, Roger was able to immediately receive food from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee to take home, so that his mother would not have to make the choice between feeding Roger and using her limited income to find housing for her family. Roger’s story is unique, but many children in our region and America suffer from malnutrition because of their impoverished living conditions.
Please take a moment to support the hungry. We at the WIN Firm make sure our work goes to raise awareness for issues that touch our lives. You too can help be the voice for our country's hungry, impoverished residents. We at the WIN Firm invite you to go to www.hungeractioncenter.org, sign up to be a voice for hunger support, and help feed the less fortunate people around you. As a perk, there is a contest that helps your local food bank. When you take action on hungeractioncenter.org, minutes are logged for your work and counted. The food banks that accumulate the most minutes by the end of September win a free tractor trailer load of food for their community. Please help us!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
"We create ideas that WIN."
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