What Was “Old, Stale, and so 1990s” Is New Again!

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Submitted by Skip Henk, EDP, President/CEO of Xplor International
February 24, 2015

The roar from our members had finally reached a crescendo that it was time to do something. I find Inaction under the guise of “not enough time” could no longer be an excuse.

And so it goes for www.xplor.org

The “Ah-hah” Moment

Over the last two years I have received comments about our website. Comments such as: “The site looks old”, “you need to be mobile friendly”, “stale”, “so 1990’s” to name just a few. BUT we were busy, did not have enough time and really could not deal with it at the time. (A bit short sighted)

The “ah-hah” moment came when one of our members called me and flat out told me she was frustrated with the site and would not recommend any of her colleagues or friends to visit the site.

That simple phone call hit home. When your own member would not recommend your site your credibility is called into play and the logical assumption is you are not acting in the best interest of your members, whether intentional or not.

“For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent.” Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs”

Your Website Is the Face of Your Company

A company website is many times the “first impression” one will have of your company. Since many people opt first to go to a company website to get information your website design needs to meet their needs. (Not yours) If the design of your website is unappealing, information is not readily available or hard to find, you most likely will lose a potential customer (or member).

• According to business2business community: (46%) of people say a website’s design is their number one criterion for determining the credibility of a company.

• “94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website.” – ironpaper.com

Getting it Done

Like any project you have to commit, come up with a plan, allocate resources and execute. An organization must also realize its limitations and sometimes look outside for a solution.

That is what we did. We committed and incorporated outside resources into the plan. Turning things over is a difficult thing for most organizations but looking back me getting out of the way was the best thing that could have happened.

Our Marketing Coordinator was tasked with getting it done. He worked with Deborah Corn of Print Media Center, who coordinated the project with our web designer, Elementary Digital.

A Statement of Work was created, reviewed and agreed to. Work began and as much as I would like to take you through the process, I received occasional updates and assurances things were going well, and continued to stay off to the side.

The site was launched last week, they still are doing a bit of tweaking, but I feel Xplor has arrived and our “face” to the industry is new, fresh, intuitive and serves our membership.

Things to Think About

• Listen to your customers, they know what they want (and what they don’t)
• No excuses, short-term savings equals long term loss. Commit.
• Get people involved that do it for a living, you don’t have to do it all
• Spend time on the Statement of Work. What the end product will be.
• Do your homework, there are a lot of web designers. They are not all created equal.
• Do it … and enjoy the results

Your plan needs to be forward thinking and include not only viewing on a PC but tablets and mobile devices.

“Only 22% of marketers say they’re ahead of the curve when it comes to responsive design. 29% say they have “average” experience level, 23% say they’re behind the times, and 4% say they’re hopeless. (Source: eMarketer)”

Special Thanks to Deborah Corn at PrintMediaCentr, Andy Holland of Elementary Digital, and Chad Henk of Xplor for making what was old, new again.

And a big thank you to you for stopping by! We would love to hear your comments on the new site! Sound away!

The ALS Challenge … Creating a Movement

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If anyone ever doubted the power of social media you only have to look at the success of the ALS Ice bucket challenge. To date they have raised $79.7 million dollars significantly more (over 4x) than the $19.4 million in total contributions the ALS association received during the year that ended January 31, 2013.

Watching this phenomena unfold reminds me of a Ted video I watched four years ago on “How to Start a Movement”  A movement takes a leader, the first follower, second follower, more followers (more people less risky) … and it must be public.

The ALS challenge has all the components a leader, early participants and tens of thousands of followers. But is there more to it? Why did this turn into a social media bonanza?

ALS is no doubt a great cause but there are a lot of great causes. However, this campaign was the perfect storm. Take a great cause, couple it with a interactive media that reaches 500+M people, throw in the opportunity to do something a bit off the wall AND share it with your friends …. you have a movement. Successful marketing is about creating a movement. No matter what the channel(s)

Has your company created a marketing movement?

Since Xplor International is the association for the electronic document industry AND we think ALS is a great cause we are going to donate $5.00US to each of the first 300 people (up to $1500) who share their ALS video on the Xplor International Facebook Page – have some fun and help raise more money for ALS!

Here is my ALS challenge video: Screen Shot 2014-08-26 at 12.48.11 PM

Donate to ALS: http://www.alsa.org/

Until next time …. Get wet!

 

Describing The World B.G. (Before Google) Can Seem Unbelievable!

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The other day my son and I were having a discussion about the similarities between dolphin and mahi mahi. It came to a point in the conversation where he asked me a question and I quickly had to admit I did not know the answer, a real downer for a father. Immediately he took out his cell phone and “Googled” it getting an almost instantaneous answer to his question.
Looking at me quizzically he asked “what did people do before google?” I smiled and said “you went to the library or if you were fortunate enough looked it up in your home encyclopedias. “ (His eyes began to cross)

He was 16 when “the last entry for Encyclopedia Britannica in book form” was announced. However I was excited to share my knowledge of life before Google as I went into my story about how after high school I sold the Encyclopedia Britannica’s. How expensive they were and that you received a beautiful wood bookcase when you bought them. And, every year you could purchase the update volume to keep your information current. I also laughed at how short my career was with one sale, to my parents. (I still have the books in my attic)

At this point he was in full “are you kidding” mode, eyes crossed and asking questions like; What if it was not in the encyclopedia? (You go to the library) What if it is something trivial that you don’t want to spend the time to look up? (Then you didn’t.)

Our discussion shifted to the “value” of Google. Being antagonistic I took the diametrically opposite opinion of my son. He claimed Google gave people instant access to information allowing people instant knowledge, very good points. I however argued Google can be inaccurate in many cases unlike an encyclopedia. It is contributing to the demise of face to face social interaction. It over complicates our lives introducing minutia in an already complicated world. Case in point, did learning about the difference between dolphin and mahi mahi change your life?

As far as the difference between a dolphin and mahi mahi.

The common English name of dolphin causes much confusion. This fish is not related to the marine mammals also known as dolphins (family Delphinidae). Additionally, two species of dolphinfish exist, the common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) and the pompano dolphin (Coryphaena equiselis). Both these species are commonly marketed by their Pacific name, mahi-mahi.

Don’t believe me? Google it!

 

Not a cloud in the sky…

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At Xploration™14 in March we had several sessions on the cloud. Fortunately I was able to attend a couple of them and came back with more questions than answers as to how vulnerable Xplor would be if the cloud suddenly disappeared.

My conclusion to my brief sixty second assessment, we would be in deep trouble depending on the length of the outage and the ability of our provider to get us back up. Xplor’s email system is in the cloud as well as our event registration, website and members hub, which is just about all of Xplor.  We backup our database but if the rest goes down it is still a really big  problem.

Wozniak Agrees?

In further researching I read an interesting article the other day by Steve Wozniak regarding the cloud that made me think. In the article he stated “The more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we’re going to have control over it. With the cloud, you don’t own anything. You already signed it away.”  Read the article.

The term that really caught my attention was “You already signed it away.”  Yes, that is what we often do when we check that terms and conditions box in addition to absolving the provider of most if not all liability.

The Need to Ask Questions

What if your cloud provider goes out of business, is a victim of hackers or cyber terrorists. What are their safeguards? How do you get back up and running?  How do you recover? What is their liability?

Xplor as an organization is going to be asking the three vendors that control our “clouds” these questions.

So how does your organization handle the cloud and the people you entrust with your information?

What if there was not a cloud in the sky? I am curious to hear your views.

 

 

Are We Sacrificing Sales For Convenience?

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A Mobile App or The Hot Dog Guy

One of the big joys in my life is attending sporting events whether it  baseball, football, hockey, arena football. There are some things I love and I hate about the experience.

Baseball• I LOVE to sit in the stands, do the wave, eat a hot dog and drink a beer
• I HATE to have to get up and stand in line for a hotdog and a beer
• I LOVE to sit in my seat and buy a hotdog and beer from one of the vendors
• I HATE when they pass my hotdog down the row and 10 people have their hands on it
• I LOVE not getting out of my seat, so I get over it them passing my hot dog

Throw the Hot Dog Guy Out

What if you had a mobile app that allowed you to sit in your seat key in your section and seat number and order whatever you want and it will be delivered to you right where you sit?  Payment is automatic, including the tip and posted to your account. No fuss no muss.

You don’t have to wait for a vendor to come by to remind you that you need another beverage or that your daughter wants cotton candy.

Would you download such an app? Well it’s currently being tested at Yankee Stadium in New York in Section 130 and is also being used in stadiums in Ireland and Australia. It seems just a matter of time to invade the US sports scene unless fans reject it …. which we should.  Click here to check out the whole story

Enough is Enough!

I know I said I hated to get up and stand in line but that is why they have the hot dog and beer vendors. These folks are going to lose their job. And what about the cotton candy guy making me look like a hero when she says “Daddy can I have some cotton candy, pleeeeaaaasseee” and she gives me a kiss on the cheek.

What are the owners thinking? How would I know I needed that second beverage, that bag of peanuts or a second hotdog if those wonderful vendors did not remind.

In my mind they are making a mistake and are going to lose money.  Am I going to download the app? I don’t think so. Are you?

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