The "IT" Factor

Well, here I am: sitting in the Memphis, Tn airport on a balmy Wednesday evening in June. Just finished a 2 day trip with 6 appointments, 500 miles on the rental, great weather, Arkansas rice paddies left and right.

Thanks to the wonders of portable GPS and the Interstate system, I was able to literally "fall" from one appointment into the other: on time, well received product presentations, pleasant audience etc..

Beat up but happy, I am leaning back as I learn that the plane is late. Bunches of grumbling going on, talk about missing connections etc. Since Atlanta is my final destination, I decide that there is nothing I can do about it, so let's get back to work.

About 30 minutes past the scheduled departure time, the 717 arrives and travelers stream out of the jetway. Last person to exit is...the pilot. Dons his hat, and with a booming voice full of confidence addresses the waiting crowd. He proceeds to apologize, explains the delay (weather) and promises a 20 minute turnaround. He gets a standing ovation as he returns back to the cockpit.

I personally believe that any airline who can turn around a 137 passenger airplane in 20 minutes, that airline clearly "gets it". To get there, you probably saw the drill: have the passengers pass on their garbage to the center of the aisle and all it takes is for a willing attendant to pass by with a plastic bag full of airline logos (guerilla marketing?) to collect it. Heck, they would be chatting the time away anyway..so why not get productive here.

But for a pilot to be proactive, address his unhappy passengers before they board and turn them into a pleased crowd after a 3 minute speech, well that guy clearly "gets it" too.

And on top of that, he made sure we were updated throughout the flight so that no one would start bothering the attendants - who only had 20 minutes to bring drinks and snacks to 137 people - and they would be most productive.

Reflecting on our Mastercast business, I made some mental notes.

• Are we getting "IT" when we deal with unhappy customers?
  
• Are we proactive when the engineered composites we produce during the hot summer time seem to have a mind of their own?
  
• Do we call the customer ahead of time or does he have to call us? Is the entire office on message or were they confused about what to communicate?
• Are we looking outside the traditional box of customers to find Mastercast business in other areas?

You got "IT"? By the way, the "It Factor" book is great! Go get "IT"

--
Dirk De Vuyst

ICPA President
Intl Marble Industries, Inc
304 Bell Park Drive
Woodstock GA 30188
tel 770 928 2252 ext 223
fax 770 874 7540

Promoting MasterCast products

Well, we finally did it. Entering the 21st Century information highway, our industry association, the ICPA has a blog to promote the new brand name for our engineered composite products, share views, educate members and customers alike etc..

The main reason for this blog is to get your new websites up in the "organic" ranking with the various search engines. In layman terms, it works like this. The web robots for the various search engines (the important ones are Yahoo, MSN, GOOGLE and ASK) "crawl" the web in search for new information that may indicate "relevance". The more often they encounter f.i. the word MasterCast in a 3 to 5 word sentence, the more important that word appears to them.

Let's say that a consumer googles "mastercast in anytown, USA"; a couple of months prior, you subjected your website to some simple SEO (Search Engine Optimization) exercise. You made sure you optimized each page for the search terms that your customer would use. Your keyword sentences and metatags includes "mastercast" and "anytown".

Your company's listing is now likely to show on the first page of the search results. It has been proven that customers rarely venture beyond page 2 of the search listing and likely will click on what they find on the first page. If your link appears on that first page, you are likely to get a call from a new lead. Now it is up to you to convert the lead to a sale.

How can a blog like this one promote our new brand name? This blog has it own unique domain name, very similar to your company's website. The more we write about our products in this blog and mention the important keywords, the more relevant these words become in the internet world. That will benefit the industry as a whole!

Welcome to "PR in the 21st Century"

Looking forward to your contributions.

Dirk De Vuyst

ICPA President
Intl Marble Industries, Inc
304 Bell Park Drive
Woodstock GA 30188
tel 770 928 2252 ext 223
fax 770 874 7540