How to be a great receptionist

I love how Seth can point out ways to be excellent even in what is considered to be one of the most entry-level jobs! (Original article here)

Being a pretty good receptionist is easy. You’re basically a low-tech security guard in nice clothes. Sit at the desk and make sure that visitors don’t steal the furniture or go behind the magic door unescorted.

But what if you wanted to be a great receptionist?

I’d start with understanding that in addition to keeping unescorted guests away from the magic door, a receptionist can have a huge impact on the marketing of an organization. If someone is visiting your office, they’ve come for a reason. To sell something, to buy something, to interview or be interviewed. No matter what, there’s some sort of negotiation involved. If the receptionist can change the mindset of the guest, good things happen (or, if it goes poorly, bad things).

Think the job acceptance rate goes up if the first impression is a memorable one? Think the tax auditor might be a little more friendly if her greeting was cheerful?

So, a great receptionist starts by acting like Vice President, Reception. I’d argue for a small budget to be spent on a bowl of M&Ms or the occasional Heath Bar for a grumpy visitor. If you wanted to be really amazing, how about baking a batch of cookies every few days? I’d ask the entire organization for updates as to who is coming in each day… “Welcome Mr. Mitchell. How was your flight in from Tucson?”

Is there a TV in reception? Why not hook up some old Three Stooges DVDs?

Why do I need to ask where to find the men’s room? Perhaps you could have a little sign.

And in the downtime between visitors, what a great chance to surf the web for recent positive news about your company. You can print it out in a little binder that I can read while I’m waiting. Or consider the idea of creating a collage of local organizations your fellow employees have helped with their volunteer work.

One amazing receptionist I met specialized in giving sotto voce commentary on the person you were going to meet. She’d tell you inside dope that would make you feel prepared before you walked in. “Did you know that Don had a new grandchild enter the family last week? She’s adorable. Her name is Betty.”

In addition to greeting guests, internal marketing can be a focus as well. Every single employee who passes your desk on the way in can learn something about a fellow worker–if you’re willing to spend the time to do it, they’ll spend the time to read it.

Either that, or you could just work on being grumpy and barking, “name and ID please.”

7 Insights to Better Creatives

From Improving Your Creative Life for Tomorrow Starts Today, by American Copywriter:

Some of the stuff that has been floating around in my brain the past few weeks.

1. If you have to revise a concept, the copy or a layout more than three times, you need to kill the idea.
   I cannot express this enough. David Lubars said it best. When you go shopping for a suit with your significant other, there are a lot of racks with a lot of different suits on them in a lot of different stores. When you like a suit and your wife doesn’t, you don’t just cut off the right pant leg or splash yellow paint on the jacket (revisions). Instead, you put the suit back on the rack and find another you can both agree on. As Dr. Lubars concluded, “There’s a suit out there you and the client can agree on.” Don’t stop until you find it. Just know you’re going to have to embrace murder along the way.
2. Do research first, not last.
   Too often, we create concepts out of thin air based on poorly written briefs or for ill-conceived projects. So start with research, do benefit testing, interview consumers of the product, watch them at home, whatever. Hey, the CW/AD team will always come up with something. Let’s start respecting them, ourselves and everybody’s precious time more. Respect each other enough to try to do it right the first time versus wasting two weeks concepting a project without the proper insights or account planning. It’s two weeks you will never, ever get back to spend with your family.
3. Ask for more mandatories.
   If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Creatives are very literal people. If we can’t use blue or have to use the word “Crisp Crumb Coating” just tell us. We’re professionals, we’ll deal with it. What we hate a lot more is when we’re not told that orange and blue are out because one client hates the Florida Gators (true story) or that another one hates the word “administrate” because it reminds her of the word “menstruate” (Again, and sadly, true.) When we can, let’s move this stuff from the creative review to the kickoff meeting.
4. Tell the truth.
   For deadlines, client craziness and general ad insanity, simply tell the truth. Creatives aren’t children so don’t treat them as such. If it’s due Friday, don’t tell them Thursday because you know they’ll be late. Tell them Friday and then praise them by saying, “And I know you’ll get it done because you guys rule!” Why? Because, even though they aren’t children, they still like to be praised in the same way my 5-year-old does. Further, stop cheerleading all the goddamn time. When the assignment sucks or the deadline is awful, don’t say things like, “We know the timeline isn’t ideal.” Say, “Sorry this timeline is so shitty, we couldn’t do anything about it.” That lets them know you’re on their team and not the clients’.
5. And creatives, tell the truth about your ability to get the job done.
   If you don’t have enough time or are too busy or whatever, tell the AE or traffic. EARLY. Don’t wait until an hour before the review to tell somebody. That’s BS. Man up and ask the AEs for more time. And AEs, man up and ask the client for more time. It was once said that, “There’s never enough time to do it right but there’s always enough time to do it over.” Write that one down and tack it to the wall. It’s truer today the way advertising works than it ever has been. And my personal experience has proved time and time again that, aside from the Super Bowl, virtually every deadline (including media placements and insertions) are arbitrary. There is ALWAYS a day or two in there you can give back to the creatives if they need it.
6. Stop when it’s time to stop.
   My stopping time is 5. I get up, close the laptop and go home to see my kids. Now, many nights I’m back online after I get them to bed, but my time to stop is 5. Always has been. After a day of this, I just cannot muster the strength or creativity to keep on going until midnight. Now, like all of you, I have worked all night when I’ve had to, but I don’t believe in it. Great ideas are more likely to come after a good night’s sleep than during some caffeine-fueled all-night concepting circle jerk. That’s where you write those terrible, illegible notes to yourself that – in the fluorescent half-light of an office at 3:30 am – seemed destined to be One Show worthy but stink worse than goose poop. So stop when it’s time to stop and pick it up later. If you don’t have enough time, see #5 and ask for it.
7. Don’t blame the creatives for not caring after round of revisions 13.
   Are you kidding? If your spouse asked you – no demanded – that you rearrange the living room furniture 13 times over the course of two days, stopping whatever else you were doing each and every time to do so because it “had to be done right now!” you would quickly stop giving a shit about where the couch and overstuffed chair were. In fact, you’d probably throw him/her and your cadre of Pottery Barn tchotchkes out the freaking window. So don’t blame the creatives when this happens. Man, it’s human nature to stop caring.

   Besides, you should have killed that concept 10 rounds ago.

Helping the Perfect Improve

Seth Godin points out an interesting insight into targeting one’s audience:

Most people in the US can’t cook. So you would think that reaching out to the masses with entry-level cooking instruction would be a smart business move.

In fact, as the Food Network and cookbook publishers have demonstrated over and over again, you’re way better off helping the perfect improve. You’ll also sell a lot more management consulting to well run companies, high end stereos to people with good stereos and yes, church services to the already well behaved.

I wonder why, though?

Could it be that the “perfect” arrived there because they originally sought “perfection” – while those who are not “perfect” will probably never seek “perfection” anyway? Hence, if you think there is a great “market potential” for the “unconverted,” chances are it’s a dead market anyway. So, those who “get it” will want to “get it” some more, while those who didn’t get it probably never will.

Obviously, it is always easier to “preach to the choir/converted” than it is to get someone “saved” (to borrow some evangelistic/church parlance).

But how do you “convert” the “unconverted”?

How The Top Self-Branders Sell Themselves

Here is an interesting article on personal branding, with regards to some of the most popular business/marketing/communications/branding bloggers right now.

From ValleyWag:  How The Top Self-Branders Sell Themselves

When I Grow Up…

I saw this many years ago… it’s still good. Heh.