4-25-10 Get the Buzz

Sometimes real life gets in the way of a regular post. I know, I know… I should plan ahead for these things. But hey, I’m retired, I don’t HAVE to plan ahead anymore!

I had the opportunity to attend our state’s credit union association annual conference the last couple of days. I met a lot of great people, heard some really great speakers, and managed to pick up a couple of ideas for this blog.

As an aside (and a non-paid advertisement), if you don’t have a relationship with a credit union, I highly recommend it. And it isn’t just me. Many of today’s financial experts are saying that you should move your money to a credit union. Wny? They are member-owned and therefore VERY member-centric. And if you are in the borrowing phase of your life, they are actually lending money at very competitive rates (unlike many banks). And they aren’t just for individuals -- many credit unions help business members as well.

One of the speakers for this conference talked a little bit about creating value and how to get the word out about the value you (or your company) creates. He had an interesting statistic -- 1 out of a group of 10 people influences the other 9 people in that group. That creates buzz. And the buzz generates loyalty.

Of course, for a credit union, that means that we want our members to generate buzz (and loyalty) for the products and services that are offered.

But what does it mean for the executive? Well frankly, there are a couple of ways that you can go with this?

Of course, the obvious route concerns creating buzz for your product or service. You can see this in everything from a high tech company like Apple to a coffee house like Starbucks. But you can also see it (if you really look) in unlikely places, like a school. Yea, I really mean a school. Now I’m not a parent, but even I’m not oblivious to those local high schools that have a buzz going -- either because of their academic program or their sports program.

Think that just because you aren’t the “marketing guy” that you don’t have any responsibility for creating buzz? Wrong. No matter where you are in a company or organization, you have responsibility for contributing to the buzz. Think about Toyota. Over the past, oh, 50 years or so they have created quite a bit of buzz, which has resulted in astounding customer loyalty -- despite their current difficulties. And it wasn’t just one person creating that buzz. They had an entire company working on it.

A second route that you might consider that concerns generating buzz is within your employment practices. Is your company or organization the “in” place to work? If it is, then congratulations, you’ve created employment buzz. High tech companies are particularly good at this. Think of places like Google or Intel or Apple or even Microsoft. Their employees are absolutely rabid about where they work and what they do. And I believe that this is translatable to any other company or organization. And the fact is that you really do need this employment buzz so that you can entice the cream of the crop to come to work for your organization. AND so that you can retain the valuable employees that you already have.

So how do you create employment buzz? Well, being the highest paying organization around doesn’t hurt. But not every company can do that. There are other ways. You can offer perks that your employees value -- like a gym, or a concierge service, or gourmet food in your cafes, or on-site daycare. Heck the list goes on and on. The key is to figure out what your employees (or prospective employees) value and then tailor your programs. Yea, it costs a little more to do this. But think about what you will save in recruiting and other costs.

So create some buzz --- and benefit from the loyalty (either customer or employee) that it creates.

Cheers!