Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Rant About Respect (and Customer Loyalty Programs)

If you’re like me, you love yourself a good loyalty program or other reward for being a faithful customer. Shoppers Drug Mart and Chapters both have excellent ones: they’re not skimpy, they give us something we value (discounts or free things from their stores), and they make us feel like they’re thanking us for our repeat business. The opposite—the meagre and offbase incentive program—is not only ineffective, it is insulting and is one step toward customers not wanting to patronize a business.

The other day, I was working out at the gym and out of desperate boredom (I was on a cardio machine placed unfortunately in front of a TV switched to a fishing show) turned to the signage on the wall beside me. Expressed there were two astounding offers. To paraphrase:

“We are now partnering with [coffee chain]. If you refer a friend to our gym, you will receive one full complimentary latte.�

As if this weren’t enough:

“Leave your business card in the jar at the front desk and enter to win the monthly draw for a coffee upgrade [to the next size].�

So let me get this straight. I get my friend to sign up with you and provide you hundreds of dollars a year and you will give me four dollars in coffee and milk at a coffee shop I don’t even go to. Um, nope. Next: I give you my personal contact information to receive countless badly written enticements to give you more money in my already cluttered email box, and I will receive two ounces more coffee, worth several cents, at the coffee shop I don’t even go to. Hmm. As exciting as it sounds, I’m going to have to say no there, too.

WTF?!!

What bozo came up with these tactics? Who do they think I am? I literally felt a bit dirty and oppressed when I finished reading the offers. My no-frills gym I previously appreciated because it is basic and chill all of a sudden seemed tawdry and geared to bargain shoppers. I make a concerted effort to remember my iPhone now when I go so I can avert my eyes from the TVs and anything that might be posted within my sight line.

It been said ad nauseam, but still: consumers have endless options when it comes to where they will spend their money. Convenience goes a long way—making it easier for them to spend their money with you than with someone else—but so does respect. Respect may in fact be the essential ingredient to any customer rewards program.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

How to Love Writing Lists (Bulleted and Numbered)

Lists: we love to read them (especially when reading online) but sometimes hate to make them ourselves because we worry about whether we’re using the right style and punctuation. I’m here to simplify things and make lists something to look forward to writing.

First things first: lists replace proper sentences—and so relieve yourself of the nagging sense that you have to treat them like sentences. Lists’ main task is to make words pop and ideas easy to absorb. The most important thing to achieve with them is to make them simple and uncluttered by punctuation, and to let them breathe via a little white space.

Always include a lead-in sentence or phrase to start a list, followed by a colon, then a line of white space.

Here’s an example of the simplest kind of list you could make (notice lowercased first words and no punctuation at the end of the list items):

Remember to pack:

• an umbrella
• shorts
• sunscreen
• diapers
• wipes
• snack food

Now let’s step it up a notch and imagine your list items are going to be longer phrases/sentences. In this case, cap the first word and stick a period at the end of each list item:

There were several reasons for the decision:

• The budget wouldn’t allow for additional labourers in the summer.
• The Board was uncomfortable contracting out the work to a second firm.
• The building plans had yet to be finalized.

Happily, numbered lists (whether list items are short or long) follow the same reasoning as the second example above: cap the first word and stick a period at the end of each list item. Therefore ...

When I asked him to prioritize his wish list, he provided me the following:

1. A five-year plan that would see him debt free in 2015.
2. A cottage in the surrounding area.
3. Two vacations a year.

All of this is based on The Chicago Manual of Style guidelines. There are other ways of doing lists, but I say keep it simple and consistent (which the above guidelines are) and you’ll be more likely to both use lists and make them attractive and helpful to the reader.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

How to Make Your Writing More Readable

How readable is your writing? Wikipedia defines “readability” as the ease with which your text can be read and understood, and says that it depends on various factors such as “speed of perception,” “perceptibility at a distance,” “perceptibility in peripheral vision,” “visibility,” “the reflex blink technique,” “rate of work” (e.g., speed of reading), “eye movements,” and “fatigue in reading.” Most of these factors depend on things other than writing (such as font, number of words used, and line length), but I’d say one involves how you actually write: the “rate of work.” It is easier for readers to relax into writing when they aren’t tripped up by grammar problems and style inconsistencies. When they relax, their “rate of work” goes down. They don’t work—they enjoy and absorb.

We all have our preferences regarding style and “what’s right,” but no one has a problem with reading a writer who’s chosen a certain style and is committing to it. That’s what this post is about.

One: Choose a Capitalization Style

At Turner-Riggs, we choose “up” style capitalization except for the odd cases we choose “down” style (the latter which involves capping only the first word of the title). With “up” style capping (preferred by The Chicago Manual of Style), whether or not we capitalize a word in a title depends on its part of speech. The basic rules are as follows*:

• Capitalize the first and last word in a title, regardless of part of speech
• Capitalize all nouns (baby, country, picture), pronouns (you, she, it), verbs (walk, think, dream), adjectives (sweet, large, perfect), adverbs (immediately, quietly), and subordinating conjunctions (as, because, although)
• Lowercase “to” as part of an infinitive
• Lowercase all articles (a, the), prepositions (to, at, in), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or)—other than those of four letters or longer (e.g., with would be With).

If “up” style feels like too much work for you and/or you’re not familiar enough with parts of speech, choose “down” style.

Two: Spell Words the Same Way All the Time

Stick to spelling certain words in a specific way—including how you spell depending on what country you’re from. If you’re writing for a Canadian audience, here are some of the rules:

Canadian spelling does not involve changing the American /-ize/ to the British /-ise/. Canadians are /-ize/ people (e.g., recognize). Exceptions (of course there are—we are talking about the English language!): All words ending in /-cise/, /-prise/ and /-vise/ (e.g., comprise, excise, supervise, televise).

More Canadian spelling:

• Behaviour, favourite
• Centre, theatre
• Chanel, channelled, channelling
• Counsel, counselled, counselling, counsellor
• Enrol, enrolled, enrolling, enrollment
• Focus, focussed, focussing**
• Gauge
• Glamour but glamorous, humour but humorous, rancour but rancorous, vigour but vigorous
• Travel, travelled, travelling, traveller

And more:

• A licence (noun) but to license (verb)
• A soccer practice but to practise one’s verbs
• One’s spirits sank, not sunk

Three: Don’t Use a Hyphen to Separate Ideas—Choose Either an En-Dash or an Em-Dash

Using two hyphens in a row to signify an em-dash looks rough, and using a hyphen for a dash looks amateur.

I like the em-dash with no spaces, myself (e.g., “He didn’t want to—and didn’t think he should have to—eat with them every night.”) It’s formed on Macs by pressing Shift, Option, Hyphen (-)—or of course you could insert it via Symbols found in Insert on the top control bar of your screen.

But some people like en-dashes with a space (e.g., “He didn’t want to – and didn’t think he should have to – eat with them every night.”) It’s formed on Macs by pressing Option, Hyphen (-), or again via Symbols.

Next week I’ll post a little something on lists (bulleted and numbered). Choosing a consistent style here is important, too.

If you ever want a thorough style guide for your organization, you can contact me at knockknock@turner-riggs.com

*From http://www.dailywritingtips.com/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles/
**Some people have trouble with that double “s”—including me. It’s kind of ugly and Gollumesque. Luckily, we are permitted to drop it if we are consistent: focus, focused, focusing. But again, choose one style and stay with it.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Little Things Count

How are you talking to your clients? Not when you’re vying for work from them, not when you’re in meetings, not at fancy dinners with wine flowing, but when you have to do the mundane, ickier tasks involved with keeping a business viable ... like billing, or reminders of invoices unpaid, or notices of fee hikes or deadlines missed. The small, possibly petty stuff we all hate but which falls into all our lives regardless.

I ask because I was prompted to ask myself the same question the other day, when a letter arrived in the mail from my doctor. I am notorious for missing appointments ... I seem to have too many online calendars with bits recorded here and there—plus I never seem to check them—and I had missed one with this doctor. Instead of the usual “You are a moral degenerate and we will make you pay” letter I could have been sent, I received something quite different.

It said,

“Dear Ms. Turner,

We notice you missed your appointment on November 3, 2012. We hope that you are well and that nothing unfortunate occurred that caused you to miss the date. We look forward to rescheduling with you, but we must also advise you that in the future, we will have to charge you for the appointment unless your absence is a result of an emergency. We hope you understand and sincerely hope everything is okay. Please call us with any questions or to let us know of any changes in your health.”

I almost called just to find out who wrote the letter to let him or her know how excellent it was. It wasn’t my doctor, but the effect of the letter was to make me like him more. And to vow never to be late for an appointment again, let alone miss one without explanation.

How’s that for effectiveness? I was thoroughly chastened, yet grateful for it. My doctor now has a less problematic patient, and his operations will run more smoothly. The letter made me realize how random (and rare) courtesy and humanity are undervalued business advantages that we could all afford to think of as much as possible in our own practice.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Friday Wisdom (and Sanity)

Hugh McGuire featured a great poster in his Tumblr blog wayyy back in the summer (hello ... minus 6° C today in Ottawa!?) that Craig sent to me just this week. The advice is from Ira Glass.

I’m clawing my way back from maternity leave and it can be tough to believe I still have a brain sometimes. Or at least the kind of brain I need to switch on again (because maternity leave brain is a multitasking wonder). I’ve always been impatient, but I wonder if our culture of hyper-immediacy diminishes still further our capacity for practice and resolve. The long game still matters, and a little calm and time to put first a toe in, then a foot, and so on is probably okay when it comes to getting back to whatever important work you’re/I’m doing.

Of course, this poster is really for people more immersed in creative arts than me, so for all you writers and artists out there, this one’s for you (via Hugh ... and Ira).

Monday, August 08, 2011

Market Research On Poetry? Really?

Isn’t it time someone did a little market research about poetry?

We thought so too.

The ways in which readers find new books of poetry have been changing for years. We’re working with the Literary Press Group, with support from the Ontario Arts Council, to try and learn more about how readers find and choose the books they read. Even better, we’d like to hear from readers about how they would like to be able to find books.

This link will take you to our survey. If you’re a poetry reader, we’d love to hear from you. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. If you wish, you can enter to win special prize packages of recent Canadian poetry titles. Please note the survey closes on Friday, August 19.

If you’re a blogger, editor, author, association member, or anyone else with an interest in helping to spread the word, we encourage you to pass the link along through a blog post, Twitter or Facebook post, or other mention. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at anytime for additional information or if there’s anything we can do to help out.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Family and Friends

Lots has been going on here at Turner-Riggs headquarters. For one, you may know that we have a new intern: Georgia Kate Riggs was born early at just over five pounds in ... February. Your thank-you card is coming if you sent us something! Thank you!

Though she is amazingly gentle and as low impact as a baby can be, Georgia’s arrival was (a) early and (b) coupled with spinal surgery for me. And we have a three-year-old. And I wasn’t done work. And I needed to get my driver’s license. It was all a bit crazy, truth be told.

I finally went on mat leave in April while Craig continues to drive the bus (have you checked out Canadian Bookshelf yet? It’s still developing, but it’s already a thing of beauty. More on that in another post).

Before I went, though, we had the great opportunity to work with Elizabeth Hay on her new website, timed to sync with the launch of her bestselling new novel and one of the season’s major releases, Alone in the Classroom. We worked on the site with our friend Don Aker from AgencyZed, and hired the design talent of Aires Almeida at Operativ. We built it in WordPress with some special AgencyZed sauce added in.

For us, in addition to the usual priority of developing a site that really felt right to Liz in terms of look and feel, we wanted to see how much we could play with WordPress to make it accommodate features an author would appreciate. Turns out a lot: we were pleasantly surprised by how flexible and extendible WordPress is. We were able to provide automatic linking to event and news items for Liz, to incorporate some nice display widgets for covers and FAQs, and to whittle down the back end of the administration so it’s nice and easy for her to change or add things herself whenever she feels like it.

She’s happy, we’re happy, and it was a dream to work with not only an author I have admired for years but also a lovely, warm woman we now consider a friend.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Blogging Basics

Got a resolution to start a company blog or just be better at updating it? Here are a few tips to help you with your goal.

Tip #1: Write for your audiences.

The first thing to do is figure out who you want to target in your blog. Once you’ve narrowed down and listed each audience, ask questions like:

* What information might help them in their lives/work?
* What kind of expertise can we share with them that matches up with their needs?
* How much time do they have to read the blog? (The answer is probably not much—so think about that in terms of frequency and length of post.)
* What kind of information would they find unhelpful? (Two likely answers are overly product-pushing posts or posts that don’t relate to their needs.)

Tip #2: Define what goals you want your blog to achieve.

For example:

* Interact with current customers
* Gain new customers
* Increase sales
* Increase word-of-mouth
* Keep products top-of-mind
* Build brand image
* Increase brand loyalty and equity

Knowing your goals will help you determine your content strategy.

Tip #3: Define a personality for your blog, and write in that voice.

The rest of your site is likely all about making sales, so don’t go overboard in this area in your blog. You don’t want to come across as a mercenary salesperson hitting your audiences over the head with product after product push. Words that come to mind for a possible personality for the blog are:

* Friend
* Peer
* Ally
* Helper
* Expert

If, through your blog, you help your audiences do their jobs better and feel knowledgeable, they will be more disposed to buying your products, in large part because they will trust you and like you. This doesn’t mean you can’t highlight products you think are wonderful for your audiences—it means do this softly and in the context of other helpful information. Don’t make every post product-related.

Tip #4: Engage your audiences when possible through interactivity.

Think about incentives and the ways in which you’d like your audiences to engage with your content (e.g., discounts, contests, promotions). It’s fine to have the bulk of posts concentrate on good content alone, but try to regularly include ways your audiences can participate (and “win” though doing so). Make sure to repeat such incentives or contests on social platforms like Twitter and Facebook (if you’re up and running on these potentially helpful sites).

Tip #5: Tie your blog to overall business strategy and the social actions you want to inspire.

Think about seasons and cycles when designing content. Think about the products you really want to highlight. If you want to gain fans and followers, design a contest with great prizes and make a condition of entering “liking” your company on FB or following on Twitter. If you want to inspire a commenting culture on the blog, make your audience comment on a post to enter the contest.

Tip #6: Write out a Blog Blueprint—including your thoughts on Tips #1-5.

Keep this handy when writing each and every post. It’ll keep you on track for content—you’ll be ahead of the game in ensuring you make your blog helpful and attractive to your target audiences.

Friday, January 07, 2011

What a 2010 and Here’s to 2011

Turner-Riggs had our busiest year ever in 2010; beyond busy, it was the most fun we’ve ever had in this racket! Two huge reasons for this were the scope and challenge of the files we worked on, and even more, the excellent relationships and collaboration we enjoyed with our clients and colleagues.

Without you, it would literally be Turner and Riggs facing each other every day slogging through the to-dos. We’d have to talk to each other cordially and make water cooler jokes. As it is, we still face each other but mercifully the view and silence is interrupted by our deep engagement with you on our laptops and on our phone calls. And you often call Riggs away to far-off places, providing still more relief.

In short, you complete us.

Seriously, there is not one client, colleague, or partner we don’t appreciate from the last year—you make us work harder, better, and with great interest. We thank you and look forward to lots more collaboration in 2011.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Till the New Year

Photo credit: Scott Clark

Hello friends, clients, and colleagues,

Hopefully just like yours, our office will be closed officially Monday, December 20th, and back up and running Monday, January 3. We’ll kick off the holiday with our toddler’s Montessori Christmas concert tomorrow, which will most certainly be derailed by the just-announced participation of our former babysitter (and ECE student) who so terrifies said toddler he goes hysterical every time he spots her in our neighborhood. It should be good.

Wishing you much more serenity that we will achieve this holiday, and just as much laughter and joy,

Kiley and Craig

p.s. No, that poor boy in the pic is not ours.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Grinchy Grouchy Weekly Geekly Final Five

Photo credit: Mel1st

I’ve been feeling all warm and fuzzy this week so it’s time to nip it in the bud and get all rigid and unforgiving with a final installment of the regular column I’ve updated so fastidiously (!) all year: Weekly Geek. I’m going to answer five queries I hear all the time, sometimes from across the room, so I can forevermore just whip this URL over to the questioner. Without further ado:

When do I use ...

Every day vs. everyday: Use every day very literally, as in “It rained every day that week.” Use everyday as an adjective to describe a mundane or common occurrence: “It was an everyday sort of meeting—no VIPs in attendance, nothing major on the agenda, and nothing I couldn’t back out of.”

Any time vs. anytime: Similarly, use any time literally, as in “Is there any time for us to grab a quick bite?” Meanwhile, equate anytime with whenever: “Call me anytime.”

I am deathly afraid of being rapped on the knuckles if I don’t put two spaces after a period ...

Don’t be, unless you’re in school and they insist on it in the style guide they’re using. You won’t find that double space anywhere in a published article, book, or work written by a professional writer. Trust them. Personally, I wince when I see that gaping space and find it hard to make it to the next sentence.

What’s the difference between or and nor?

If you have neither in the sentence, use nor (think two n’s). If you have either in the sentence, use or.

What do I do with periods and commas when I’ve got meddlesome quotation marks to deal with?

Put them INSIDE the quotation marks, Craig, if you live in North America—which you do (e.g., Her colleague mumbled “tyrant,” then fled from the room ...). Putting them outside is a British thing.

Toward or towards?

This is another NA/British thing. Toward is North American and towards is British.

Ho ho ho! There, it’s out. Now I’m loose as a goose and at one with the universe.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Talking About My Gasperation: A Fix for The Giller Dilemma

By now most of us have heard that Johanna Skibsrud’s Giller win this week for The Sentimentalists has provoked heated controversy. Countless Tweets and blog posts have offered opinions on whether or not Skibsrud’s publisher Gaspereau Press is right to limit the available copies for sale to those they can produce by hand—roughly 1,000 copies per week—in their in-house print shop. The company has reportedly rejected offers from other publishers to collaborate on a commercial printing that would put more copies in stores more quickly.

The debate goes something like this: those who commend Gaspereau’s stand applaud the press for its commitment to high standards and craftsmanship; those who don’t criticize the publisher for failing to seize and leverage the rarest of moments for one of its authors. (See Tasha Kheiriddin’s recent National Post column and Nic Boshart’s accompanying comment for an illustration of both points of view.)

The argument is fuelled, especially within the book trade, by the knowledge that the opportunity provided by the “Giller effect” (the term used to describe how a win like Skibsrud’s can massively increase sales) can be fleeting. The spotlight is on Skibsrud and her book right now, but readers are fickle, Christmas is coming, and the shelves are loaded with readily available alternatives to The Sentimentalists. For Skibsrud, right now is an incredible but shrinking window of opportunity that won’t be served entirely by the always-on eBook edition.

Here’s an idea for the hopper: why not continue to print the handmade editions for which Gaspereau is so justifiably famous and collaborate with another publisher or printer to put a second, commercially printed edition into the market quickly? Maybe even attach a modest premium to the price for Gaspereau’s handmade editions, and/or look at other manageable enhancements (signed by author, anyone?) for those beautiful handmade books. This would respect (even highlight) the publisher’s commitment to craft and further differentiate the value of its original edition for readers who want it, while also allowing the press to meet its responsibilities to its author and her would-be readers by ensuring the book is more readily available across the country.

Above all, why not put the focus back where it belongs? On Skibsrud’s and Gaspereau’s fantastic achievement in writing and publishing a very fine book. And on many more readers discovering it than either of them could ever have dreamed.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Faces and Voices Still Matter

As we all pour hours of our time into Tweeting, Facebooking, and optimizing our websites, it’s worth remembering that we—and our companies—are still basically human. A slick and chatty personality on the web is wasted if you can’t back it up by being courteous and friendly when it comes to the good old traditions of face-to-face contact and phone conversations. Done well, such personal—arguably more intimate—brand touchpoint opportunities can inspire otherwise hard-won trial and loyalty.

Three recent interactions with local companies prompted this post:

Company: Three Bakers and a Bike (1281a Wellington St, Ottawa, 613-729-6236, no website I could find)

Experience: With negative time left to pick up stuff for my son’s birthday party, I was dismayed and panicked to learn at the Three Bakers’ cash register that I couldn’t pay with a credit card for the gorgeous cupcakes I had ordered. Cramming my hands into my pockets, I found a $10 bill amid 500 other crumpled bits of paper—not enough to cover the cost. Before I could check my socks or ask to wash dishes, the owner calmly took my $10 and wondered if I might come back sometime to cover the rest of the bill.

She had never met me before. I thought of her with every bite of delicious cupcake at the party, rushed back the next day to pay her the outstanding amount, and now visit Three Bakers and a Bike whenever I need dessert.

Company: Flowers Talk (1305 Wellington St, Ottawa, 613-321-0592, website under repair)

Experience: My mom’s been fighting a flu for a while. I haven’t been able to go chicken-soup-and-magazine her since our son’s just come off a bad virus (nothing like sick kids when you’re self-employed!) and I’m pregnant and trying desperately to avoid coming down with something this season.

I called Flowers Talk and spoke to a lovely woman who helped me pick out a bouquet and then lingered with me on the phone to perfect the message for the card—double-checking spelling and asking me if it would be okay to add “love” with my name at the end (it was). She so obviously cared about my gesture coming off right, and made sure she could do everything she could at her end to ensure that. Sending flowers is a pretty personal thing, and they get that at Flowers Talk.

Company: Town Restaurant (296 Elgin St, Ottawa, 613-695-8696)

Experience: With a great old friend coming into town for the night, we were excited to get out and try a new restaurant—and had heard Town is pretty special. Sadly, it was a Friday when I called to make reservations and they were booked solid. This didn’t stop the woman on the phone from patiently answering my questions about the menu, checking if we might be okay with bar seating, and getting us onto a cancellation list so she could call me if space unexpectedly opened up. She made me really want to try Town another time—and we will. Contrast that to the couple of other hot spots I called where the people I spoke with who triumphantly declared they were full for the evening and then raced off the phone.

As much as I love a good brand experience on the web, I gotta say that these three offline interactions have stuck with me in a uniquely resonant way.

Friday, October 29, 2010

So (See Last Post) Let’s Watch Some Already!

It’s Friday. It’s Hallowe’en (soon). Yesterday’s post, and the one we did for Canadian Bookshelf that mentioned Big Night, made me jones for some movie action. Too busy for back-to-back High Fidelity/Big Night in their entirety, but not too busy to indulge in a couple of scenes here. Which I’ll keep going to whenever my brain stops today. Enjoy!

High Fidelity—Monday Tape

Big Night—Risotto and Spaghetti?!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Canada Reads Top 40 List and How It Circuitously Made Us Want to Reread/Rewatch High Fidelity

We just posted a little piece on Canadian Bookshelf that wondered how we can stretch our memories for great Canadian books ... Why is it we have a longer recall of amazing movies? Maybe the visual impression gets locked in our brains more easily ... Thoughts?

Go to CBC’s site to help them whittle down their list of 40 to 10.