I awoke the other night at 2 am just in time to turn the clock back one hour and, in that one motion, my whole psyche turned towards a new marketing season of the year. Suddenly, I began to wonder if this feeling was mine alone or if other people felt that as well.
In between football “time outs” on Sunday, I called some friends and some clients and asked them how the “clock turn back affected them. Surprisingly, very few said anything beyond, “it will be darker, earlier, yuk; I hate it when it gets dark at 4:30 pm, depressing.” Those that did expound on turning back the clock talked about “how close the holidays were; pretty soon it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then New Years and then we start all over…seems like it’s just running on the tread mill all over again”. That sounded even more depressing!
I, on the other hand, felt kind of euphoric, almost magical that the happy season of food, family, fun and lots of bowling was about to happen and I started to think about my clients and if they were working the plans we had finished up in September and October and even some of the plans we did in July as well. So I called them to find out about their BVL fund-raising marketing programs for Veterans Day, for Thanksgiving weekend, for Christmas week, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve?
Gratified as I was that many of them were right on their plans, I began to worry if their staff was on the same page so I called several of them back and spoke to the person who answered the phone about Thanksgiving specials, and Veterans’ Day programs. Maybe it was too early, but sadly, many of those who answered the phone did not know what their programs were going to be for these holidays.
I called those clients back and reminded them of the urgency of having a quick meeting and a review of their programs and to test their staff every week by having a friend call every other day or so to ask questions about the programs they will be hosting, especially about answering questions about holiday parties. It wasn’t about finding them doing something wrong. It was about impressing upon them that part of their job was to have the information required to answer any and all questions that customers might have.
My clients appreciated my efforts.
I hope you will do the same with your employees and test them about the programs you are offering…especially since you have a whole extra hour to do so.
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