How blogging for 30 days in a row leads to international acclaim

360 Convos rocketed into the international scene with a featured
post on Renbor Sales Solutions' blog, a Toronto, Canada Corp.

When I embarked on my 30 Days of Consecutive Blog Posts I had no idea where I would end up. The disciplined effort to blog everyday led to local, national, and even international attention. One of the places I landed was Toronto, Canada as a featured contributor on The Pipeline, the blog of Renbor Sales Solutions, Inc.

Thank you Tibor Shanto.

People south of Canada tuned in, too. In the last two weeks alone, I received pageviews from 33 of the 50 United States: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New York.

Do it. Figure out which ones are missing :-)

During that same time, 360 Convos also pulled in viewers from around the world including: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Some of the posts took on a life of their own and appeared in other places . . .

Dining for Women, a national giving circle empowering women in the developing world, featured the blog post: Can a good dinner change the world?

The City of Gresham picked up a post on customer service for their intranet site, which gave me the opportunity to create the post: City shares good ideas (mine).

The Customer Collective, an “editorially independent, moderated blogging community for elite sales and marketing executives,” featured four posts:

1. Interupted Internet Access Causes Depression
2. Confessions of a Social Media Strategist [A LinkedIn Nightmare?]
3. The Genius of Google +1 vs Retweeting: Casting Your Online Vote
4. Google Analytics Confirm Declines in Website Visits

Porter Anderson, a former CNN journalist, shared his laptop power with me at a Writers Conference, tweeted and emailed a link to 800 other attendees of  Words Motivate.

BlogHer.com, which boasts a following of 23 million women, featured a post I wrote on a visit to the Clark County Fair, Families Disrupted by Technology.

Canadian Sales Trainer Tibor Shanto, a favorite Twitter friend @Renbor, featured one of my posts on his blog: When the customer can't be consoled...

TOP 25. The lovely Paula G, career editor for BlogHer, promoted 360 Convos as one of the 25 Career and Business Women Bloggers Worth Reading.

Today, marks the 38th consecutive post. Don't ask me if I'll keep going. I'm still deciding.

In the meantime, I'd like to quote another Twitter friend, Jeremiah Owyang. He summed up a mutual experience on his blog when he wrote, “Even the smallest thing will lead to something bigger.”

Blogging creates its own form of energy and sends you places you hadn't imagined.

Where has your blog taken you??

38 CONSECUTIVE POST

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If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

1.

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

2.

Tips for blogging everyday

3.

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

4.

How blogging is like throwing stones

5.

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

City shares good ideas (mine)

Sitting at an old metal desk, you shift uncomfortably in the tired orange chair with frayed threads. You glance sporadically at the clock anxious for the sweep of the hands to signal break time. Finally, the slim points of metal click into place. Ir's time. With joyful glee you push away, land your feet firmly on the floor, and ready to dash to the door to meet friends and fill your lungs with fresh air.

The phone rings.

You squeeze your eyes shut and hang in the limbo between should I or should I not. You sigh, grab the hefty receiver and give your best 'happy to talk to you, but make it snappy' greeting.

It's not someone you know. It's not someone you ever want to know. It's a customer who's been transferred three times too many and they are p.o'ed.

The customer is also stuck in repeat mode. As soon as they dump their load of gripe, they back it up and take another run at it, three or four times.

The coffee break with your buddies is a distant dream. If you can get off the phone in 20 minutes you'll be lucky. If you are able to replace the phone in it's cradle without slamming it will be a sign of extreme self-control.

But you have to be nice.

It's your job.

How do you handle the situation? 360 Convos wrote about how one employee handled a difficult phone call in the post, When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee. The City of Gresham picked up the post and shared it on their intranet site. The paragraph below is what they posted.

If you've been in public service long enough you've probably spoken to a resident or two. If you've spoken to a resident or two you've probably been on the receiving end of a difficult phone call or two. You know, the call where no matter what you say nothing seems to help the situation or satisfy the resident. Check out this great blog post from 360 Convos about how to handle a challenging customer phone call.

It's pretty cool when a business scouts for good ideas. It's even motivating to know a government entity looks for ways to give better service.

Kudos, City of Gresham and Laura Bridges!

Screenshot of city's intranet post that links to 360 Convos.

20 CONSECUTIVE POSTS

When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee

UPDATE II: Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. featured this post on their website The Pipeline. Thanks, Tibor Shanto, for sharing!

UPDATE I: City of Gresham shared this post on their intranet site, as reported here. Thanks, Laura, for sharing!

"I can hear the frustration in your voice," said Sarah, to an upset customer. "And I'm not sure what else to say."

Sarah, a sales representative who worked for me, plopped down in my office to relate a frustrating phone call she had just concluded with one of our customers, Darren.

The experience had left her drained, and she needed to update me, in case Darren decided to take the conversation up a notch and call me. Sarah also needed to process the experience and troubleshoot if she could have done something different, done something better, uncovered the trigger that drove the customer to phone in the first place.

It was an exasperating experience.

As I listened to the retelling, I wondered how the customer kept up his griping gyrations in the face of such calm and respectful treatment. Sarah was a pro. She didn't give up and she didn't go for platitudes that often annoy.

But she couldn't get Darren past generic grievances.

There are times when we would like to move a conversation out of complaint mode and straight into resolution. We're presented with a problem. We believe we have an answer. We want to offer our input and reach resolution, but the other party isn't quite there, yet.

This exchange wasn't even at the 'here is the problem' stage.

On each issue the customer raised, Sarah acknowledged how he felt and offered feedback to illustrate she understood his concerns. Momentarily, he would calm, but the most consistent piece of the conversation was the customer rejecting any piece of information that Sarah offered that might reassure him.

"Every time I responded he escalated," Sarah sighed.

Sarah found herself stumped. Our company was doing what we said we would do, but the customer wasn't happy. Unsure what the customer really wanted she felt almost out of options.

"Please help me understand what you need from me," Sarah asked.

Darren didn't really have an answer.

Now, it was time to put the issue back in his lap. Very gently she asked, "What would you like to do at this point?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then the customer replied, "I'm not sure."

We don't always get the outcome we're hoping for.

Desperate to reach some sort of conclusion, Sarah asked, 'Have we covered all the things you want to cover?'"

Then they hit pay dirt.

"I don't mean to come across harshly or abusive to you, I'm very concerned about what I've spent my money on," said Darren.

Sarah scrambled to calculate how she should respond, but before she could take a breath, Darren said, "Have a nice day."

Some problems we can't solve. The customer wanted something he couldn't easily articulate. But he wanted something. He expected something. The something to combat how the competition had changed, combat how his business model had changed, how our business model had changed. He wanted the illusive 'something' that would make things perfect in an imperfect world.

But most of all he wanted someone to listen.

I learned a few things from this discussion. When I'm knee deep in a conversation that's coming fast and furious and I feel like I'm not understanding what is being asked of me, I'll pose a couple of questions. They can be a quick quip when the other person takes a breath, such as, "Is there a question in there?" Or, if I'm completely confused, I may ask,  "Are you asking me to do something?"

That's the pivotal moment when I learn what their hopeful outcome is.

If I hear, "I just need to vent."I know exactly where we are in our exchange and what my role is. It's their way of saying, "Please listen to me."

Who is someone you can always count on to listen to you?

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