Davis & Company's blog

“You talk. We listen.”

Getting feedback is hard: You need to encourage people to participate in a survey, write a review, or share their opinion in some other way.

So it’s astounding to me how often companies waste this hard-earned feedback. They fail to share survey results. Miss the chance to make changes. And sometimes, even when they make improvements, they don’t make the connection between what people said and what the company did as a result.

That’s why this recent effort by Stop & Shop caught my eye. A regional supermarket (a division of global giant Ahold) with 385 stores located in the Northeast, Stop & Shop is repositioning itself to better compete in the tough supermarket business.

How? By listening to customers’ needs. “You talk. We listen.” is the headline of the mailer Stop & Shop sent to customers.

“You’ve been depending on us for over 90 years to help feed your family,” Stop & Shop writes. “And we’ve worked hard to give you what you need. But as times change, needs change.”

So the supermarket embarked upon a customer listening program—which includes an online community called Grocery Advisory Board (G.A.B.)—to find out what customers need.

As a result, Stop & Shop is changing in three ways:

“You told us you wanted lower prices, so we lowered prices on thousands of items.”
“You told us you were concerned about the environment. We made reusable shopping bags available for sale. We even give you 5 cents back for each bag you reuse."
“You told us you need help getting dinner ready. We created an expanded menu of prepared foods to help with dinner.”

I love the simple language, the emphasis on “you” and the very clear connection between what customers said they need and what Stop & Shop is doing as a result.

You, too, could take this approach: to report on action taken as a result of a survey or focus group, or even as a response to a review or comment.

This is not necessarily easy to do, but it’s very compelling and effective. (For more on what Stop & Shop is doing, see this article in MediaPost —free signup required.)

How about a video contest?

Many of our clients wonder, “How can we use Web. 2.0 on our intranet without breaking the bank, terrifying our lawyers or letting the inmates run the asylum?”

Here’s a simple idea: Run a contest in which you invite employees to create their own videos to support a theme or answer a specific question.

For inspiration, here are two video contests created for marketing purposes—one involving employees, one aimed at loyal customers. Although not exactly apples-to-apples, the ideas could be easily leveraged for internal communication purposes.

Olympic Spirit of McDonald’s Video Contest
To highlight its Olympic Champion Crew, which includes 1,400 McDonald's employees who have been selected to travel to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games to serve at the venue restaurants, McDonald's has created an online video contest. Members of the Olympic Champion Crew were invited to submit videos demonstrating their Olympic spirit in just five words. The top 25 videos have been posted at osom.mcdonalds.com , where visitors voted for their favorites. The winning videos will be announced in Beijing.

What would you do for a Klondike bar?
The parent company of Klondike ice cream bars, Unilever, has created a contest in which fans were invited to submit videos that support the ad theme, “What would you do for a Klondike bar?” klondikecontest.com has received 500 video uploads, which, after more than 123,000 votes were cast, were narrowed to four finalists. Visitors to the site can not only participate by voting, but can also create a custom Klondike Gram to send to their friends.

What makes these contests successful? They support the brand, of course, and they have specific parameters (especially the McDonald’s contest), so participants know what to do. Plus, these contests are wonderfully inclusive, since you don’t need to make a video to participate—simply vote for your favorite.

Why not give the video contest idea a try? (And for more ideas on using social media to improve your intranet, sign up for my colleague Julie Weissbach's October 7 web workshop .)

Curb your enthusiasm

He’s just been named president of the division. He got the job because he’s smart and hard-working and—let’s face it—a major pain in the butt. He’s relentless; the man never sleeps. And when he latches onto an issue, he’s like a terrier with a towel—won’t let go, no matter what.

Naturally, the newly appointed president wants to communicate with the organization. He needs to share his vision. Do some straight talking about what needs improvement. Get everybody fired up, engaged, on board, on the same page. Banish complacency. Embrace the values.

Never mind that the organization is only mildly interested in what the guy has to say. Don’t get me wrong: They’re fascinated about what he’s going to do. But people in this organization weren’t born yesterday. They know that talk is cheap—that senior managers exercise their vocal chords a lot, and that only some of those words turn into action. So they’d rather wait until the “talk” turns into “walk” before they sign on.

Of course, the president doesn’t know this about the organization. (Anyway, he’s not a very good listener.) So he feels compelled to COMMUNICATE. He creates a five-point strategy and a six-pillar set of principles. He embarks upon a road trip, in which he meets with managers for 90 minutes and holds 60-minute employee town halls, during which he talks for 50 minutes and answers questions for 10. He is interviewed for the company newsletter. He starts a monthly e-mail letter that reiterates (for 1,000 words) his key messages. Proud of himself for being so cutting edge, he starts a blog.

Whew! What’s the effect of all this hot air? Actually, it’s the opposite of what’s intended. Overwhelmed by so much rhetoric, people in the organization pull back. They hold still and become watchful. They’re skeptical: “Can the guy really do all he says?” “Doesn’t he know what he’s up against?”

Some people might share these concerns with the president, but for two problems: One, he doesn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise. And two, it would seem disloyal to express anything mildly negative. The president seems so certain about his perspective that there’s no room for other viewpoints.

Hmmm. So what’s the lesson? What I would say to the president (actually, I did, but he didn’t listen) is: Slow down just a bit. Take a breath. Don’t get so far ahead of yourself, the changes you’ve put in motion, and the organization. Let actions speak for themselves—after all, they’re so much more powerful (and credible) than words.

And, most difficult of all: Stop talking. You may be the smartest guy in the room, but you don’t have all the answers.

Have you ever met anybody like this guy? What advice would you give?

Are you doing it in the middle of the night?

This survey is too much fun not to share: AOL has announced the results of its fourth annual e-mail addiction survey—and, as you might expect, nearly half of survey respondents say they’re hooked on e-mail.

What’s more, people report that they’re checking e-mail in the strangest places, at all hours of day and night:

In bed in their pajamas: 67%
From the bathroom: 59% (up from 53% last year) 
While driving: 50% (up from 37% last year) 
In a bar or club: 39% • In a business meeting: 38% 
During happy hour: 34% 
While on a date: 25% 
From church: 15% (up from 12% last year)

Remember that admitting you have a problem is the first step toward rehabilitation . . .

¿Hablamos español?

I’m at it again, continuing my obsession with demographics, which was fueled by a supplement in this week’s issue of Advertising Age that contains insightful statistics about the U.S. Hispanic population, including:

The total U.S. population in 2007 was 301,621,157, of which 45,504,311 are Hispanics. (These and all other figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau.)

By 2020, the Hispanic population is projected to grow to 59 million. By 2050, the Hispanic population will increase to 102 million, comprising 24% of the population.

Sixty-seven percent of U.S. Hispanics have origins in Mexico, followed by 9% from Central America, 8% from Puerto Rico, 5% from South America, 4% from Cuba, 3% from the Dominican Republic, and 4% other.

Where U.S. Hispanics live
The largest market is Los Angeles, with 8.5 million Hispanics, who comprise 48% of the total population.

Next is New York, with 4.4 million Hispanics, 21% of the total population.

Rounding out the top 5, Miami has 2.15 million Hispanics (49% of the total population), closely followed by Houston (2 million, 34%), and Chicago (1.97 million, 20%).

Most people know that cities like Albuquerque (45%) and Dallas (25%) have a substantial proportion of Hispanic residents. But you might not realize that markets like San Francisco (23%), Denver (20.8%), and Washington, D.C.(11%) are also home to considerable numbers of Hispanics

Major markets with the highest percentage of Hispanics? Three in Texas: McAllen (1.15 million, comprising 96.5% of the population), followed by El Paso (817,200, 85.9%), and San Antonio (1.25 million, 54.6%).

What percentage of your workforce is Hispanic? And, just as importantly, are you doing what you need to do (including translating) to reach and engage these employees?

Mayor Bloomberg, my translation role model

Many of our clients struggle with the challenge of when and how to translate communication from English to other languages spoken by employees. The fact is, translation is difficult and expensive. As a result, far too many companies avoid the issue, delegating the problem to local management and hoping that translation is occurring.

That’s why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is my role model. Yesterday he announced an executive order requiring that city agencies offer services in the six most common languages spoken in New York City: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.

We all know that New York is a multicultural city, but it’s surprising how many New Yorkers struggle with speaking English; by Mayor Bloomberg’s count, 1.8 million (out of 8 million) residents have little or no proficiency in English. And, nearly one-half of all New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, with 25 percent of residents speaking a primary language other than English.

Having these demographic facts at his fingertips no doubt helped Mayor Bloomberg and his team make the decision to sign the order.

Here’s my question: Do you have similar demographic information about your employees? Could you draw a pie chart illustrating the major languages spoken by employees? Could you say with certainty how many employees struggle with English, and how many are proficient in English but don’t speak it as their native language?

Are you using this data to inform your translation strategy?

Want to compunicate?

No, it’s not a typo . . . it’s a new word, a verb, that’s been coined to describe this situation: “To chat with someone when you are in the same room, each on separate computers, and you talk via Instant Messenger instead of speaking to them out loud, in person.”

The new list, compiled by advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt, and reported in MediaPost, is interesting in that many of the words refer to communication of some kind.

Take, for instance:

Info Snacking: v. - Wasting time at work by surfing the Web.

Blacking Out: v. - To turn off any device that people can reach you with (cell phone, two-way, computer, home phone, morse code, etc.) in order to avoid someone.

Dotcomrade: n. - A friend or acquaintance that you met online but have never met in person.

Or, the scariest word of all:

Defriend: v. - To remove somebody from your established list of contacts, considered the ultimate snub on social network.

Gotta go, to check out my Googleganger.

English as a second language

I’m a recovering English major. Although I know way too much about literature, and still spend most of my spare time reading, I’m trying to cut back. Really, I can quit anytime.

Well, maybe not, but I do try to keep in mind that most employees are not avid readers. Their idea of a perfect vacation is not a beach and a book. They don’t include “read Anna Karenina” on their “100 Things To Do Before I Die” list, they don’t care about “increasing their word power,” and they don’t go around bemoaning the death of literacy.

Words are just tools to employees—not something to craft, argue over, or negotiate approval of.

And, if Michael Erard is correct in his July Wired column, those words are about to undergo a significant shift. Mr. Erard’s prediction is that as non-native English speakers take over the language, English will morph into something quite different, the way that Latin became the foundation of French, Italian, Spanish and other languages.

The facts are these: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will use English. Already, most conversations in English are between non-native speakers who use English as a common language.

Mr. Erard adds this surprising fact: An estimated 300 million Chinese—roughly equivalent to the total U.S. population—read and write English. But because many of these Chinese don’t get much practice speaking the language, a new dialect is emerging that he calls “Chinglish”—English sprinkled with Chinese grammar, idioms and pronunciation.

Will this be the death of English? Mr. Erard argues that just the opposite will be true: English will bear “unusual fruit” and become a part of many other languages, a global tongue called “Panglish.”

While purists may fret that English is being corrupted , everyone else in the world will just keep talking. And isn’t that what language is for?

High school yearbook

	My son just graduated from high school and, a few days before graduation, brought home his yearbook. This was unlike any yearbook I had ever encountered, but was completely in tune with what the Millennial generation expects from communication:
(click image to enlarge)	Visual. There is almost no text in the entire yearbook—the messages are conveyed almost entirely through photos and art.
(click image to enlarge)	Photoshop. And speaking of photos, the yearbook staff made liberal use of Photoshop, using basic shots and their wild imaginations to create collages and fantastic images.
(click image to enlarge)	Fun. The Class of 2008 didn’t take themselves too seriously (I’m proud to report that my son was voted “Class Clown”) and if they could make light of a topic, they took the opportunity to do so.
(click image to enlarge)	Cultural references. These Millennials are steeped in popular culture, and they co-opt television shows, music and movies to make their own statement.
(click image to enlarge)	Community. My son and his friends cried at graduation (he’ll appreciate me writing this) because they realized that their close-knit social network will never be the same. This generation is all about bonding, and the yearbook reflects that.
	Does your internal communication have these characteristics? If not, how are you going to communicate with the Millennials?

Inspiration (?)

I read a lot of weird stuff, about topics that are directly or tangentially related to communication. Sometimes all that content comes together to form a complete and elegant perspective. Other times, the flotsam and jetsam just sits there, like junk at the edge of the pier.

I bring you some of it, messy as it may be, hoping it will strike a chord and inspire you:

Women think differently. I can hear all the guys out there saying, “No, duh,” but this is actually useful: Scientists are beginning to prove that the women in your audience actually process communication differently than men do, according to this blog. Maybe that’s why all those facts you’re sending aren’t getting through?

Mobile (phone) marketing is coming. I am trying to keep up with the field of mobile marketing, because there will come a day (mark my words) when all employees will have a handheld PDA/phone/camera/whatever device and we’ll have to communicate to them. In this most recent column, David Koretz, a guru in this field, makes some provocative predictions. (Free registration required).

People don’t notice smaller packages, just higher prices. “Half gallon” ice cream containers are downsizing again—from 1.75 to 1.5 quarts. Lots of other makers of packaged goods are following suit, according to an article in USA Today, in an attempt to raise prices without appearing to do so. (So if you downsized your publication/website/other vehicle, would anyone notice?)

12% of Fortune 500 companies have a blog. Many communicators I talk to are still nervous about leveraging social media like blogging for internal communication. Yet increasingly even large corporations are embracing social media externally, according to B&B. Data you can use to make a case?

Town halls: “A great conversation”

I’ve been thinking a lot about town hall meetings these days, since I’m preparing for a web workshop on the topic. Apparently, Sen. John McCain also has town halls on his mind, as evidenced by his invitation earlier this week to Sen. Barack Obama, asking him to participate a series of 10 such sessions.

Why does McCain endorse town halls? Because he believes they offer a forum for the presidential candidates to engage in real dialogue (not packaged or spun). Wrote McCain in his letter to Obama, “What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bits and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections.”

McCain cited a 1963 agreement between President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Barry Goldwater for “flying together from town to town and debating each other face-to-face on the same stage.” (Kennedy was assassinated before the campaign began and the town halls could commence.)

How does this relate to the kinds of town halls that we get involved with: internal forums where senior leaders share information and engage in dialogue with employees?

Here’s the connection. Just by using the term “town hall,” you create high expectations for participation. Town halls are connected to the roots of democracy (invented by the Greeks and Romans). And in the United States, town halls have long been symbolic of the ability of ordinary people to speak freely.

So, if your town halls are static and one-way, you have two problems. The smaller problem is that 45 minutes of PowerPoint followed by listless Q&A is a boring way to spend an hour. The second, and more significant, problem is that employees’ expectations about their involvement are not being met, which means a missed chance to engage people.

Next time you’re planning a town hall, think about the potential of the format. And, remember what John McCain said this week: “The town hall . . . is the most effective way for democracy to function.”

And Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe agreed, “Town halls (allow) a great conversation to take place.”

Ban the “and”

As part of a communication measurement project, a colleague and I asked to review the company’s employee engagement survey to see if it contained any communication questions.

The survey did, indeed, ask about communication. But before I could focus on that, I was immediately distracted by another issue. Overall, the survey contained many questions with significant flaws: unclear, difficult to answer, poorly written. The most obvious problem was the proliferation of “and” questions—those that ask about more than one topic in a single question. Here’s a sample:

1. “Employees and supervisors are held accountable for quality.”

2. “Communication from leaders is meaningful and effective.”

3. “Changes in communication from leaders and managers occur as a result of my feedback.”

4. “Managers in my group communicate goals, strategies and performance to employees.”

5. “Employees are encouraged to communicate their opinions and ideas to their managers.”

(Note: All questions are statement questions that ask employees to indicate their agreement according to the five-point Likert Scale, from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.)

What’s the problem? “And” questions violate an essential rule of survey questions: To be specific so that respondents can provide a precise and unequivocal answer. As a result, “and” questions create a potential conflict where one part of the question may be true, and another not true.

For example, in question 1, employees may be held accountable, but supervisors may not. And, in question 4, managers may always communicate goals, but only occasionally strategies and never performance.

When faced with an “and” question, respondents tend to split the difference—choosing the neutral or “sometimes” response to manage their confusion. This leads to data that’s at best inconclusive, and at worst misleading.

So, please, write questions that only contain one concept per question. Ban the “and.”

Don’t fear the YouTube

I spoke at a conference last week, and one of the other speakers was asked whether her company is using social media as part of its employee communication program.

“Our CEO has a blog,” she replied. “And we thought about a YouTube-type site, but, quite frankly, we’re nervous about doing something like that.”

This is a typical reaction from my colleagues these days: Since a blog is fairly controllable, it seems like a safe way to dip your toe in the social media water. But You Tube? That’s the Wild West. Wide open. Lawless. Scary.

There’s no doubt that freedom can be risky. As evidence, check out Social Media Influence’s YouTube Corporate Top 10 list , which analyzes the most significant videos to impact top brands. Although some companies are successfully leveraging YouTube, there’s always a chance of getting stung (check out Disney’s worst nightmare, The Internet is for Porn).

Here’s the irony: It’s the edgy, subversive nature of YouTube that makes it so appealing. YouTube is the opposite of safe, boring, corporate. As a result, it gets billions of hits. According to comScore, a digital research firm, U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during March, a 13 percent gain over the previous month and a 63 percent increase over March 2007. Thirty-eight percent of those views were on You Tube, with the others spread out among dozens of sites (including Fox, Yahoo! And Time Warner).

The bottom line? Unless your intranet site is getting this kind of traffic, you can’t ignore the YouTube phenomenon. (Don't fear . . .)

Food for thought

I love demographic information because the more you know about who you’re trying to reach, the more effectively you can communicate.

And I love behavioral data even more, because you gain even greater insights by studying what people do. After all, that old cliché rings true: Actions speak louder than words.

That’s why I collect behavioral data on topics that might, at first (or even second) glance, have nothing to do with communication. First, the data helps me think about how people are wired and what motivates them. And second, this stuff stimulates my creativity—sometimes it holds the key to solving a tough communication problem by pushing me outside my usual box.

Here’s some fascinating information about what people eat for breakfast. And, since I’m in a hungry mood, I’ll share some other food-related behavioral data with you next week.

Kid breakfast items remain constant over decades
Do your kids eat the same breakfast foods you ate when you were a child? According to a study conducted annually for the past 22 years, the chances are good that they’re eating the exact breakfast you did.

Conducted by the NPD Group, the study finds that the top 10 breakfast items for kids under age six have remained the same for decades: cold cereal, a glass of milk, and fruit juice, followed by toast, eggs, pancakes, fruit, hot cereal and bacon. The one change in today’s list is the appearance of waffles, which has pushed out fruit drinks from the list.

The list has remained constant, according to the NPD Group’s research, because mothers’ needs have also remained consistent: Stretched for time, they choose items that are quick and easy to prepare.

What do adults eat for breakfast? According to the 2006 NPD report, the list is very similar, except, of course, for the addition of coffee. (The list includes cold cereal, milk, juice, bread, etc.) But the difference between adults and kids can be summed up in one word: routine. “Familiarity” is a key reason adults choose their breakfast foods.

In other words, we eat what we do in the morning because we’ve always done it that way, stretching way back to childhood.

It makes me wonder whether familiarity and routine also play a role in employees’ communication preferences. Food for thought?

Want to improve your intranet site?

All you need to do is watch a music video . . . as long as it’s a rap video created by the Poetic Prophet, the alter ego of online marketer Charles Lewis.

Although the advice is geared toward Internet sites (especially commerce sites), there are great tips for anyone who wants to make a web site cleaner, clearer and more searchable. Check it out—Design Coding—and you’ll see what I mean.