#NYXPO 2014: It's not just about the swag

In May, look for the Small Business Expo

The Javits Center is a lavish venue. Its large spaces and long corridors make it feel like the stadium for business it was built to be.

Each year, the New York Business Expo and Conference brings thousands of visitors and aisles and aisles of booths to the Javits.

NYXPO needs to fill the hall with visitors in order to make it worthwhile for exhibitors to take booths. The incentive to attendees, along with the chance to see what's new in the marketplace, are lots of informational sessions. The fori for data-- much of them very well-curated-- give exhibitors a chance to shine and attendees a chance to learn.

This year, SCORE offered free business consultations to a wide public. Their well-received services are free to business owners at anytime, but how convenient to consult here whilst touring the halls.

Facebook sessions were held in the main floor, and sales consultants gave mini seminars in curtained off theatre-like spaces. Breakout sessions on how to network and how to market on line were in separate rooms off the main space.

I volunteered for a pitch from a number of willing representatives including one from Anerican Express Open, and a Queens-based promo company. The number of print services has proliferated even in this day when so much is done by email. PrintGiant was just one of many who offered design (including web design) and printing of business cards and flyers.

Internet marketing and digital displays, as well as more general offers to consult, combine and create, were at the booths around the floor. New York Life and MetLife showed a presence along with Verizon FIOS (but no Time Warner Cable this time around.)

Bookmark this page, and look to attend next year: http://www.newyorkbusinessexpo.com/
See also What I Learned At The Fair on this site.

Loyal employees, loyal customers

"Faradarmani" by Mohs Rahman -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34058264@N02/4328981283/?deletedcomment=1.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via
Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Faradarmani.gif#mediaviewer/File:Faradarmani.gif

Offer your employees partnership in your company's success.

I'm not suggesting you give them an ownership share. I .
mean you should share financially by way of a bonus for a job well done.

Employees have a lot to lose when the company doesn't succeed.

Raise their awareness and sense of pride in what they do by giving them something to work for in making the company do well.

Whistleblowers on tour

The "American Whistleblower Tour" made a stop at Baruxh College on October 21st for a presentation that packed the house, and just plain rocked!

"Fox-40-whistle" by Lkmorlan - Own work. Licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Fox-40-whistle.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Fox-40-whistle.jpg

 Organized by Baruch and the Government Accountability Project, founded by Louis Clark, who was also one of the panelists, the "tour" showcases "Essential Voices for Accountability."

Those who step up to report issues within their companies that seem illegal or harmful or fraudulent are often ostracized for their ethical actions.

They are also most often an essential part of the solution.


On the dais along with Mr. Clark were:

•  Jon Oberg who found and reported irregularities in a government student loan program which was costing taxpayers. His action ended the payments, prospectively saving billions of dollars. 
• Sherron Watkins' high-profile exposure of Enron's accounting irregularities led to, but did not cause, the company's meltdown. Enron, of course, was doomed by the aggressive fraud of its management team.
• Jordan A. Thomas, an attorney with Labaton Sucharow LLP representing whistleblowers who report on violations of federal securities laws.
• Jennifer m. Pacella, Assistant Professor of Law at Baruch's CZicklin School of Business, acting as moderator, 

One thing that struck me from Ms. Watkins' remarks was that not blowing the whistle on her company was devastating to those caught in the net of its activities. In fact, by not reporting on the financial scam that the company's manager perpretrated her colleagues faced indictments along with the masterminds of the fraud. She said she was naive to think that Enron's CEO Ken Lay would support her in trying to get to the bottom of the problem at the firm.

The other thing that should really be clear makes no sense at all: For the most part, a whistleblower will not be hired by anyone in corporate America. That is despite the fact that they have demonstrated a passionate concern for the welfare of the companies for which they work; they have done the right thing, and behaved ethically; All of this would make them ideal employees in any sensible universe. It would seem that any company that behaves in an above-board manner would be glad to have employees such as these.

The problem appears to be that their behavior is an embarrassment to the rest of the workplace. As Ms. Watkins put it, whistleblowers like her also have "spoken truth to power." This might seem threatening even for a company whose practices, unlike Enron's, are forthright. Even companies whose management is legitimate and therefore need not worry that their employees will tattle to the Feds, feel uncomfortable around those who have blown the whistle.

For a video of the program, click here. To read more comments on this by TB,  visit here.

Can you fix it?

I call it "remedial custoemr service." And you should avoid having to practice it if you can.

Once your customer has an unhappy experience, can you fix it? What should you do? You want happy customers, of course. The bad experience may not be anyone's fault. You should definitely try to fix that.

By Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me
using this image's Commons talk page or my English Wikipedia talk
page; I'll know about it a lot faster)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

As I said, the poor quality of the experience could be simply due to unmet expectations. Your customer wanted more, or different, than your company could provide.

This falls under the nobody's fault rubric. It's there with a situation created because the customer was in a bad mood or having a bad day. (The chronically hard-to-please is another story all together and likely irremediable.)

This is a case where you'll want to soothe and smooth out the occurrence. Here are a couple of ways to do that:

One possibility is to offer to have the coveted item in stock and on hold for this customer the next time. Extend the courtesy of a call when you have it. Make it available at a small discount to accommodate the trouble of a second trip. If the customer was looking for a service your company could not offer, help him/her find someone who can assist them.

Let's say, however, that this was not a blameless poor experience, but that one of your staff was unhelpful.  This lead to a dissatisfied patron.

Can you fix this?

If the customer complains, you are obligated to try to make things better for him and for you. Have someone else help out, or work with him/her yourself. Offer to serve this client whenever s/he comes in. The extra attention should make up for he slip in service experienced.

Then be sure to train your staff to be friendly, courteous and solicitous of yor customers!

The above were just two examples of No Fault and At Fault calls for "remedial customer service." Let me tell you this real life story in which the fix failed, and why.

A couple of times a year, I treat myself to a tourist's breakfast in New York's theater district. It's expensive and enough of a meal to keep me going all day. The service is genuinely good, the eggs hot, the coffee plentiful, and it comes with a generous pour of grapefruit juice. The sausage, however, is a patty. which is usually fine. On one occasion, I decided to mix it up. The bacon turned out to be greasy and tough to chew. To add to that disappointment, they were also out of grapefruite juice.

I mentoned my letdown to the manager who took my credit card. He did the right thing-- apologized, gave me his card. "Ask for next time you come in, please."

On my next visit, I waited fifteen minutes at the table. When I left the restaurant after twenty minutes had passed, the manager was still chatting (and flirting) with a waitress at the back bar.

I should probably send the manager a note of gratitude. I had a very pleasant and much less expensive meal on the other side of the street. I am unlikely to ever return to the restaurant.

A lot of your customers, however, do come back regardless of their experience. Many of your customers won't complain when they are unhappy. Some of them won't come back. Others will if it's convenient for them. You won't have their trust or loyalty.

An Expo for Small Businesses #MKTNY

Photo by Kerem Baran, Co-founder of Boomset

If you're in business, what you don't know about selling, marketing, advertising and social media could probably fill less than a 1/4 tsp. (See What I Learned At The Fair on this blog.)

Nonetheless, it never hurts to be reminded of the fundamentals of these skills. #MKTNY on May 29th at the Metropolitan Pavillion offered a slew of excellent reminders.

There were breakout sessions galore at Market Expo New York during the 10 to 5 time span. Especially fascinating and informative were the LNKD and G+ primers, which gave pointers even a seasoned user like myself needs. The Facebook sponsored Social Media Theater, where these short sessions took place, was a theater in name and seating arrangements only. It lacked a wall, or even a curtain to keep out the din of the exhibit floor. Sponsors and exhibitors were crammed into the inadequately small exhibit area, making circulation on the floor an intimate experience of bumping into fellow attendees.

Good luck to those attendees who arrived in time promptly at 10 in the hope of catching the 10:30 breakouts! The sign-in process, like the size of the Pavillion conference spaces, was inadequate, despite the best efforts of a friendly staff. Each ticket was scanned to create the nametag and the long line meant that even with extra hands manning Ipads and laptops to help move it along, very few of us were in the hall by 10:30.

Spoiled as many of us are by the expansive spaces of hotel conference set-ups or the Javits Center, #MKTNY proved disappointing. Not having enough room to fully circulate among the tables probably short-changed the exhibitors as well.

One last nit to pick-- the floor plan in the glossy program guide did not match the actual layout of the Metropolitan Pavillion. Nevermind, the hall was small enough so you didn't really need a map to find your way around.

On the plus side, there were plenty of experts to offer a hand to the resource-strapped small business owner.
SEO consultants, like #MaishaWalker, #JoeApfelbaum and #JenniferSchulman were there to share tips. Sales trainers, Time Warner for Business, SCORE, and even a photographer were also available.

Small space, small business, big schedule and an on-site registration fee of relatively small change at $50 meant that New York Market Expo was a good deal.

This was the first year for this event, and likely next time it will be better organized.

What I Learned At The Fair

The St Louis World's Fair introduced the world to the tea bag, and iced tea, popularized the waffle cone, showed the first full cast of a blue whale, and, after it closed,  sent its exhibits to museums all over the country.

Picture via Wikimedia Commons  (in the public domain)

Most of the expos you'll visit these days will not offer the innovations and variety found at the 1904 event, originally put together to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase (1803)and officially titled the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

The Market New York Expo at the Metropolitan Pavillion on West 18th Street, New York, NY was bound to be a less formidable affair. 

And, of course, it was. (See the commentary, on this site, here.)
.

Using databases to help you serve your customer better

By Arbeck (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Knowing your buyers is one step towards cementing a great relationship.

The more you know about the people who like your products or services, the better you can serve them.

There may be things they want that you could offer but never thought to. Ask. Use the survey as another route to giving a great customer experience.


For more, see the FM articile on Data Mining by Tamara Beck:
http://connect.forwardmetrics.com/customer-service/mining-your-data-its-a-customer-service-thing.html