Outreach Intent - The Key to Fundraising through Your Website
While it’s true that your website is the information center for your organization, and the way you let the world know about your programs and efforts, you may be missing out on one of the most powerful fundraising opportunities available.Design and content – is that all there is to an effective website? The answer is a resounding NO. If you are under the misconception that your website is simply there to let people know your non-profit exists and how to contact you, like an ad, think again. Your website may be one of the strongest ways to reach out to potential donors, not only in your city, but across the country! Unless you focus on your site as a true resource and tool for your organization, you may be missing out on thousands of dollars in funding.When considering the design and content of your website consider your “outreach intent”. Simply stated, outreach intent is the overall messaging of your website in relation to return visits and fundraising potential.In order to maximize your fundraising potential through your website, take a few minutes to review your website with this important Outreach Intent Checkup:Know who is visiting your website and how often. This may think only your webmaster needs to bother with these statistics, but the fact is everyone in your organization needs to know what is happening with your visitors. Test your team – ask around your office, and even nationally, how often those people within your organization visit your own website. You may be astounded.Do you have an online fundraising Marketplace? Make it visible! Imagine having a sure way to raise funds online. Now hide it on your website so no one can find it. What good is it? It’s like looking for a needle in haystack. Remember, people DO want to help you with donations! Review the design of your site and make sure your buttons and”calls-to-action” are prominently displayed on your site and displayed on every page. NOT only on the fundraising and “support us” page.Remind your supporters about your website features – often! Like with any kind of advertising or promotions, you need to remind your supporters about your website and why it is important to visit often. Remind them via your newsletter, promotional handout materials, and posters everywhere. Remember, if it goes out to your supporters, it should have your web address on it.Make your site a true online destination people want to visit again and again. Finally, take a good look at your website and ask yourself, “Would I re

How I Can Tell When You Are Not Serious About Customer Service
Is your Company or Corporation really serious about customer service? If you are and just kidding yourself do not expect the customer to develop schizophrenia like you and simply not notice the reality of the situation. As a customer I know and you should know I know, you know? How I can tell when you are not serious about Customer Service?Believe it or not it is not very difficult to spot fake customer service. You can tell by the body language of the employees at the counter. You can tell by the voice of those on the telephone from the company. You can tell by the faces of customers leaving the business after purchasing. And eventually you can hear it on the street, because poor customer service spreads like wildfire, 10 times faster than positive word-of-mouth advertising. A little customer service goes a long way.The fact is that you can fake many things in life and probably in business too, but one thing you cannot fake is good customer service. Now, many people cannot describe what exactly good customer service is. But rest assured they know lousy customer service when it occurs. So, please consider this in 2006.

Attention! Using Projects For Guiding Change - Small Versus Large Organizations
There are many similarities between large companies on one hand and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) on the other hand. Many concepts that may have been developed for large organizations are applicable for small businesses.Large organization could benefit from (forgotten) methods that are used by small businesses (and vice versa). Especially when dealing with change.The choice of setting up a project to guide a change -– for example -- will be the most preferable option for large organization, whereas smaller organization will prefer to manage changes through the line organization.Yet both kinds of organizations could learn from each other in this area. Smaller organizations – which are normally less organized in the sense of professionalism – may benefit from setting up projects to manage the various types of alterations. For large organization, the default choice for setting up a project could be reconsidered in favor of managing the change by line management. Attention is one aspect that influences such a choice. A project – especially in the beginning – will emphasize the change and will therefore increase the commitment for it. The change benefits from this attention. Yet when the project experiences its first difficulties, the commitment diminishes and the attention decreases, endangering the project (change).Expertise is another element which supports the project choice over the line management. If you organize a change, you may need different kinds of expertise’s that are not present in the (specific part of the) line organization. So again you may prefer to setup a project to bundle these different set of expertise, but this is more of a knowledge management problem that could be solved by the line instead.Where Small businesses will benefit from (change) lessons learned by large organization, this last category will benefit from managing like Small businesses.Attention –- the spotlights that are focused on the change -- could be seen as the hinge between both types of companies when dealing with change; large organization can do with less projects (less attention) and small business probably with more.© 2006 Hans Bool

Brand Aid: How to Sell Yourself
When David was a small boy his father asked him, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” David thought about it for a minute and answered, “I don’t know what I want to be, but I know that I DON’T want to be a salesman.” “That’s too bad,” his father responded. “Because, whatever you WANT to be, you HAVE to be a salesman.”It is so true. You are always selling. You sell your products, your services, your ideas and most importantly, you sell yourself. No matter what you do for a living, you are a salesperson.So what will help you succeed in this world of “sales”? Let’s take a look at how branding can help you sell yourself more successfully.What is a brand? It is simply the emotional reaction and attachment that a customer has to their total experience with a company, product or service. Judgments about brand are created in the hearts and minds of customers.Corporations understand the importance of branding. In this very competitive marketplace, it is more critical than ever that they differentiate themselves from their competition. Success depends on being visible; standing out and rising above the crowd. Managing their brand allows companies to grab attention and gain a hold on the hearts and minds of their customers.But, you may be thinking, how can you maximize your brand as an individual? How can you harness the power of brand, to help you stand out from the crowd—to demonstrate the value you add? A personal brand provides you the same benefits as a corporate brand. Your brand is what you represent; what you stand for in the hearts and minds of others. It is not posing, pretending or posturing. It is about who you are every day consistently, and who you are working to become.As you attempt to manage your personal brand, remember that we all make split second decisions about the world and the people with whom we come in contact. While you are taking in data and forming opinions about the people around you, they are doing the same. The way you dress, what your business card says, your tone of voice, your body language, your work ethic and the words you use, form mini impressions in the hearts and minds of others. These impressions are brand touchpoints, and collectively they form your brand image. You need to remain aware of and responsive to how your everyday actions create the impressions others have of you, so you can constantly shape your brand to maximize your value.Regardless of where you are in the development of your image, there are five areas that you need to focus

The ABCs of Customer Recovery
This week I present 26 little ideas to help you respond to complaints and difficult customers with much more ease….the ABC’s of Customer Recovery.A ct as if every lost customer’s sales come out of your paycheck.Believe the best of customers. Don’t make the mistake of assuming most customers are out to simply get something for nothing. The truth is, less than 1% of customers contact companies with ulterior motives in mind.C ommunicate with diplomacy and tact when you final answer is “no” and when explaining company policy.D on’t tell a customer she is wrong. Telling a customer they are wrong never makes them want to agree with you. It only pushes them more forcefully into their original position.E mpathize with unhappy customers and allow this empathy to season your responses.F ind a way to say “yes” to customers. Instead of saying “no” or telling the customer what you can’t do, think critically about what you actually can do.G ive a token item such a coupon as a concrete form of apology.H ave a sense of urgency. Demonstrate with your words and speed of response that getting to the bottom of the problem is just as important to you as it is to your customer.I nvolve customers in the problem resolution process. Sometimes it’s very helpful to simply ask, “How do you see us resolving this?”Jot down the customer’s name and details of the problem they are describing so you don’t have to ask the customer to repeat information.K eep customers apprised of your timetable and progress toward resolving their problems.L isten with the intent to truly understand your customer, not with the intent to interrupt, reply, or correct.M onitor your customer service calls to ensure your tone is friendly, helpful and willing.N egotiate resolutions that balance both the interests of your company and your customer.Open the door with unhappy customers with open-ended questions. Make your questions demonstrate a sincere interest in better understanding the customer’s problem or experience.P ut yourself in the customer’s shoes. How would you feel if the exact same problem happened to you?Q uickly apologize. Apologize both when the company is at fault and even when the customer is responsible for the error. An apology goes a long way in creating calm, diffusing anger and regaining goodwill.R ecogniz

Emerging Role of the Business Analyst
Software application development has only been around since the late 1970s. Compared to other industries and professions the software industry is still very young. Ever since organizations began to use computers to support their business tasks, the people who create and maintain those “systems” have become more and more sophisticated and specialized. This specialization is necessary because as computer systems become more and more complex, no one person can know how to do everything.One of the “specialties” to arise is the Business Analyst. Although some organizations have used this title in non-IT areas of the business, it is an appropriate description for the role that functions as the bridge between people in business and IT. The use of the word “Business” is a constant reminder that any application software developed by an organization should further improve its business operations, either by increasing revenue, reducing costs, or increasing service level to the customers.History of the Business Analyst RoleIn the 1980s when the software development life cycle was well accepted as a necessary step, people doing this work typically came from a technical background and were working in the IT organization. They understood the software development process and often had programming experience. They used textual requirements along with ANSI flowcharts, dataflow diagrams, database diagrams, and prototypes. The biggest complaint about software development was the length of time required to develop a system that didn’t always meet the business needs. Business people had become accustomed to sophisticated software and wanted it better and faster.In response to the demand for speed, a class of development tools referred to as CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) were invented. These tools were designed to capture requirements and use them to manage a software development project from beginning to end. They required a strict adherence to a methodology, involved a long learning curve, and often alienated the business community from the development process due to the unfamiliar symbols used in the diagrams.As IT teams struggled to learn to use CASE tools, PCs (personal computers) began to appear in large numbers on desktops around the organization. Suddenly anyone could be a computer programmer, designer and user. IT teams were still perfecting their management of a central mainframe computer and then suddenly had hundreds of independent computers to manage. Client-server technologies em