Are You Failing Your Employer by Resisting Measurement?
by Merry Elrick, CBC

A recent Wall Street Journal Europe article claims, "Many marketing managers are failing their employers." ("Ambidextrous Marketing" by John A. Quelch, October 12, 2005) The reason? According to the author, right-brained marketers lack quantitative skills, show little interest in the bottom line, and resist being held accountable.

This is not the kind of article you want your CEO to read.

Yet many marketers are stretched too thin to develop the type of quantitative rigor that belies these accusations. Creating an atmosphere of accountability requires time and budget many marketers don't have, yet that is what they are charged with today. And they'd better include ROI metrics, because that's really the only measure CEOs care about.

So how's a marketer to foster ROI accountability? Here are ten basic steps:

by Jack Pyle

Four years of Gallup Organization polls say consumers believe service quality in the U.S. has fallen and will continue to fall. Brand loyalty has been declining for years. The biggest gripes of customers are failure to do work correctly, slowness, high cost and employees who are unqualified, indifferent or even rude.

Some typical examples of poor service:

1. Government agencies that emphasize paperwork rather than personal service. And many federal offices have almost incomprehensible voice mail systems.
   
   
2. Hospitals whose first concern seems to be patients' finances rather than healing.
   
   
3. Car dealers who are only open for sales and service when their customer have to be at work.

The goal of organizations should be to provide value to the customer. But in most organizations, rules and policies are more important than customer needs.

Jack Pyle helps organizations build trust by improving face-to-face communication. The purpose of this redesigned website (www.facetofacematters.com) was to offer a 24/7/365 Internet storefront for Mason-based Face-to-Face Matters. Among the resources this site offers are details on the company's services and information about Face-to-Face Matters, including Jack Pyle's biography and contact information. Jack states, “Matt, you built me a fantastic website. I had very high expectations, and you exceeded them. The responses from people who have seen it have been tremendous. Working together we created a site with personality and great content, just what I was hoping for. You also delivered it quickly, which was another of my needs. I would recommend you without hesitation to anyone who wants a great representation for their business on the World Wide Web.” Thanks for the kind words, Jack.