Sun May 01, 2005
How To Lose My Business
Yesterday I set out for one of our local malls in search of a new wristwatch. Yes, there are any number of things that I'd rather do than go shopping, such as getting a root canal, being beaten senseless by a band of malicious midgets, or even getting a hair cut. But, the back of my previous watch literally fell off last week as I was heading out the door to Las Vegas, and the cheap-o emergency replacement I picked up at the drug store was far from satisfactory.
I'm a bit persnickety when it comes to watches. Not that I'm into expensive watches mind you, but I'm particular. For instance, for over ten years I wore the exact same Casio watch--a goofy looking model with a calculator built in that despite being butt-ugly was incredibly useful for the kind of work I was doing at the time. For the past 4 years or so I've had a perfectly nice Timex that stands up to the abuse that I tend to dish out to items like watches, reading glasses, and sunglasses. Since I'm so hard on them spending a lot of money just doesn't make sense. When I inevitably scratch the face, break the band, or even run down the battery I'd rather just toss the old one and pick up a replacement.
That was my plan yesterday, but my somewhat fashion-conscious wife convinced me that maybe the time had come for me to get a "good" watch. Oh, OK. Maybe something with a stainless steel band that would hold up to salt water and not fade in sunlight might be a good idea. With no bands of midgets about to administer a beating it was off to the mall instead.
And so I wandered the mall, looking at watches, choking at price tags that seemed patently ridiculous. $500 for a watch?! Come on man. I have a lot better uses for $500 than to be able to tell what time it is.
Finally, I found some nice watches at a major retailer that were on clearance. (Major Retailer may go unnamed here except to note that the name begins and ends with an "S" and has its headquarters in Chicago.) Really, these were pretty nice Swiss-made watches, and at 60% off not too ridiculously priced. Assuming one of them fit and wasn't too heavy Sears (oops) has themselves a sale.
Not being one to frequent the malls I assumed that the transaction would take place in the usual manner. A nice salesperson would greet me, ask if I needed help, show me the item I wished to buy, and if all was to my liking I would turn over my debit card and close the deal. That's how retail sales work, right?
Apparently not. Apparently the procedure is much different, at least at this particular Sears store, the one on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. (Ooops. There I go again.)
At this particular Sears store, the one in the Palm Beach Mall (Dang! I keep slipping!), there is a finely tuned dance between salesperson and customer that goes something like this:
1. Customer: Stand at the counter in front of the items you wish to examine.
2. Salesgirl: Ignore the customer. Avoid making eye contact at all costs.
3. Customer: Wait patiently for 5 minutes of so. Try to catch the salesgirl's eye.
4. Salesgirl: Hide behind the kiosk. Appear busy. Avoid eye contact.
5. Customer: Clear throat after 5 minutes or so. Several times.
6. Salesgirl: Scurry out of the kiosk to the other side of the counter. Put some stuff away. Avoid eye contact.
7. Customer: "Excuse me? Could I look at one of these watches please?"
8. Salesgirl: Sigh loudly. Continue working at kiosk.
9. Customer: "Um, miss? Could I look at one of these watches please?"
10. Salesgirl: Sigh even more loudly. Mumble something that the customer can not make out. Continue working at kiosk.
11. Customer: "Ma'am? Could I see one of these watches please?"
12. Salesgirl: Resign yourself to the fact that this boob is not going to go away on his own. Shuffle over to where he is standing. Screw your face into a mixture of disdain and displeasure at having been forced--against your will!-- to walk 15 feet to tend to his needs. Mumble "Can I help you" in such a way that the customer immediately understands that providing "help" is the furthest thing from your mind.
13. Customer: Take in the salesgirl's attitude and facial expression in one instant and say, "You know, I was thinking of buying a watch. But since you obviously can't be bothered to wait on me, and since your attitude towards me is that I'm a nuisance, I think I'll take my hard-earned money elsewhere."
14. Salesgirl: Sigh. Roll eyes. "Whatever". Like you care.
15. Customer: Stomp out of the store. Vow never to step foot into that particular Sears store again.
16. Customer: Head across the street to Target and buy another Timex from a friendly salesgirl who actually wants to be helpful.
Why Businesses, and School Administrators, Don't Blog
Earlier this week I was contacted by a freelance writer who is working on an article about why school administrator don't blog. His question was simple. Why aren't more school district and school administrators blogging? For fear that tipping my hand here will drastically cut into the magazine's sales (as my many loyal readers might choose not to buy the magazine after reading the response here) I won't go into any great detail on my answer. But, the question is one that I've thought about in a more global sense lately.
There have been some thoughtful pieces lately around the edges of this story--or lack of a story. Depending on which blog you read the whole blogging revolution is either marks the end of the main stream media, a terrific way to build communities, or simply another way to market products. (That whole mainstream media thing has even spawned its own derisive acronym--MSM--to describe traditional journalism that is headed pell mell into the dustbin of history. Gee. I'm sure gonna miss The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor.)
For the mainstream readers of the world blogs remain a mystery. Sure, it's news to the news gatherers and early adopters, but to the vast majority of folks who are content to open up Google and look for information on their own, the whole notion of creating and maintaining subscriptions is foreign and just a little too geekishly weird for them to bother with. That will likely change as the methods for tracking blogs and RSS feeds improve and are incorporated into tools (i.e. browsers and mainstream services and corporate portals) so that the average Joe and Jane can take advantage of that information source. In time blogs, and RSS, will hit the big time and more and more people will become comfortable with having information gathered for them rather than having to go out and find it. As blogging continues to ooze its way into the public consciousness the question of who should be blogging is a valid one.
Let's start then with a look at business blogging. There are more than a few parallels between the business and education world after all. Two recent articles took a look at blogging as a business model and provided some insights valuable to school administrators.
Graeme Thickens leads off his article titled Enough With the Blogging Already with this:
We've had a near-continuous stream of blog-hype in our faces for quite some time. Both online and traditional media just can’t seem to dish up enough of it. But if you, like me, have about had your fill, you'll agree it’s time to do a reality check. In all the cacophony of this breathless blog exhuberance, there remains one largely unspoken truth: Business just isn’t jumping up and down about it.
Sure, many of the bloggers themselves could be considered small businesses. But most are tiny, often one-person shops, such as independent contractors, consultants, freelancers and the unemployed. You wouldn’t be wrong if you assumed that most of these people either (a) have too much time on their hands, or (b) are always looking for another attention-getting promotional vehicle so they can get some paying work.
From there we get a list of 10 reasons why businesses don't blog--from the valid (lack of time) to the inane (businesses don't do passion). Great, a company that's dispassionate about their product is sure to gain lots of market share. And the idea that businesses "already do a good job of communicating"? Methinks not.
The telling correlation for education is found down in the comments to the article where Steve Nelson writes:
You have a nice list of objections, from the perspective of the business. Where's the perspective of the customer? If customer requirements and expectations are evolving faster than (or different from) your list of "business likes this, business doesn't like that", your list loses relevance. If customers like business participation in blogging, that holds a lot more water to me than a list of what businesses don't like.
And to me this is where education blogs may or may not gain traction as an official yet informal means of communicating with their customers--the parents. If parents come to expect that principals and district-level administrators provide a means for communicating that is personal and immediate, that is subscribable and archived, then blogs that tell the story of what is happening in schools right now may gain some traction.
A different perspective is offered by Business Week magazine in Blogs Will Change Your Business.
Most of you are sick to death of blogs. Don't even want to hear about these millions of online journals that link together into a vast network. And yes, there's plenty out there not to like. Self-obsession, politics of hate, and the same hunger for fame that has people lining up to trade punches on The Jerry Springer Show. Name just about anything that's sick in our society today, and it's on parade in the blogs. On lots of them, even the writing stinks.
Here's the key point from this excellent article: "Companies over the past few centuries have gotten used to shaping their message. Now they're losing control of it."
Can schools afford to lose control over their message? Can school administrators ignore the critical mass of information that will ultimately be published about what's happening in education? More importantly, will schools be able to relate the successes and exciting things that are happening in their classrooms each and every day or will they allow others to tell their stories for them?
Imagine an infinite number of Letters to the Editor available for parents to write about what goes on in your school. Don't you just love Letters to the Editor? What? You don't? Well, imagine that those letters are being written and published each and every day by a growing number of bloggers, and that it's only a matter of time before you're the one being taken to task because little Johnny's teacher gave him a D when he should have gotten an A. When your dress code is dissected and discussed in detail unimaginable. When your policies are aired for all the world to read. And that it's done without any editorial review by your local newspaper or any rules. That is the potential firestorm of information that may await you.
For now blogs are newsworthy in the same way that the very early Internet was. Critical mass has not been reached, but it seems evident that in the coming few years blogs, and perhaps most importantly, the syndication of information that allows others to be notified when you have something new to say, will gain more and more notice as just another way of gathering information.
Will your school or school district be ready? The time to prepare is now. At the very least administrators should start reading and subscribing to education-related blogs and creating search agents to track information about their schools and districts. There's an awful lot happening out there and if you're unaware then it's likely that one day you'll wake up and find that a discussion has been taking place about you without your participation.
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