34 and...change!

A year and a half later, after having written 34 posts on Etiquette, Communication, Networking and Personal Branding, and after taking a necessary break due to personal and business reasons, INTERNATIONAL ETIQUETTE SOLUTIONS, INC. (aka IES) is officially starting a new chapter! Thus, the E if for Etiquette Blog is also affected.

How so?

IES is filling a need.

The Service Industry has called asking for Help! Customer Service Agents, Retail Clerks, Restaurant Staff, Airline Personnel and many other Hospitality and Tourism Agents want to benefit from the training IES can offer them.

The philosophy is simple.

IES leaves the technicalities of the job to the company. Molding around the company's culture, strongly respecting and preserving its internal marketing efforts, IES creates a short training program that tackles the SOFT SKILLS.

Soft Skills?

• It's not what you say, but HOW you say it.
• It's not just because you talk with your hands, but HOW you use your hands to talk.
• It's not how you feel inside, but how to EXPRESS your empathy through words and gestures.
• It's not a matter of you listening better, but of you listening with your eyes.
• It's not about meeting a customer's or guest's needs, rather, it's about exceeding them.
• It's not just about making a 1st good impression, but about creating amazing, everlasting memories.

IES has started dedicating itself to the Service Industry entirely.

Expected benefits of IES' Training?

Better communication skills, resulting in
Higher motivational levels at the job, resulting in
Increased levels of job satisfaction, resulting in
Stronger appreciation for the employer, resulting in
Enhanced commitment to one's job, resulting in
Decreased turnover and absenteism, resulting in
More loyalty towards fellow colleagues, superiors and company, resulting in
Easier problem elimination, resulting in
Heightened customer and guest satisfaction, resulting in
Continuous desire to exceed customers' and guests' needs, resulting in
Overall better bottom line results

THE EMPLOYEES WIN.
THE CUSTOMERS WIN.
THE COMPANY WINS.

Your Business Card

Today I received a question related to the contents of a business card. The person who asked me the question is currently enrolled in an international gastronomic institution, and, being a student yet meeting many different people, her main concern was "What should my business card say?".

Below are some of my ideas on Business Cards:

• Business Cards represent you. If you are lucky enough to be able to create your own, keep this is mind. Therefore, they can aid or harm your personal branding efforts.
• Business Cards may be printed on both sides, but one side should contain all the main contact information, while the other side can have a design, a quote or your business logo. Don't make the receiver have to switch sides all the time, possibly overlooking important information.
• Business Cards should have a professional look. They should follow the standard business card size, so that people may easily store them in card holders, wallets etc. They should be printed on high quality stock. This is NOT where you want to save money. Save money on other things, but not on something that so heavily represents you and/or your business. You want to make the best of impressions, regardless of what you do or whom you work for.
• Business Cards should only contain web site addresses if there is a way of contacting you through the web site. This means, business cards are not advertising cards. They are a representation of who you are, what you do and how you can be contacted.
• While online social networks are "in" and (I believe) here to stay, I would not include "find me on Twitter!" or ""I'm on Facebook!" on the card. This is almost a given, if you own your own business or are eager to network with people. Tell people instead, should they ask about your online presence. Also, instead, include these directly on your web site or your blog. You may only include your blog address if your blog represents what you do and has your contact information on it as well. If it's a personal/family blog, I would not include it in the business card. Again, you are creating and/or maintaining a professional image here.
• Some people may choose to carry 2 or even 3 Business Cards! People who travel internationally, may have their business cards printed exactly the same way but in different languages! This is a great idea! Other people, may prefer to have a professional card and a "social card". The issue I find with this, is the following (an you may disagree!): When a friend passes your social card on to a potential future employer, for example, meaning nothing but good ("Oh, you should meet my friend Carla! She is a wonderful freelance writer and so creative. She speaks 3 languages and travels all over the world!"), the business owner and editor of that cool magazine obtains Carla's contact info through her friend and the card is very casual: It has a too casual e-mail address (pretty_writerbabe1985 @ funmail.com, as an example), no clear statement of what she does, just her name and a sentence below which says "Living free with an open mind!", it has her personal blog address, Twitter information and 2 overlapping head shots of her at the beach and in the snow. Fun card, but it doesn't transmit professionalism. Your friend was trying to help her out by referring her to a potential freelance position, however, all she had was her "social card" that was passed on to friends, new friends and social acquaintances. Keep in mind, you never know where it could end up, and that's why I would rather have only 1 card that transmits the idea of who I am, what I do and how I can be contacted in a simple, professional way for everybody.

Business Cards are a personal choice, and you are the one who will actually decide what goes on it (if your company doesn't provide you with one or if you are self-employed). The tips above are my opinions on how to keep business cards professional and straight to the point for all receivers.

The most important information on your business card includes the following:

• Your name as you want to be known by.
• Your title (my next Blog post will be entirely on "titles" for business cards - coming soon!)
• Your complete mailing address or physical business address
• Your contact telephone number and fax number (if you have one)
• Your e-mail address (if you are a business owner, PLEASE, do NOT use a gmail/hotmail/yahoo etc address. You need to have a professional domain for your email. I have free emails and love using them, but not for business. If you are not a business owner, but a student, use your institution's/school's email address. If this is not available, and that's the only excuse I find, create a professional free email account with your 1st and last name, and not any cute nicknames and numbers, in case you cannot afford to buy your own domain)
• Your web site address (if you can be contacted through it)
• Your company's/ institution's name (and logo)

In the example of the person sending me her question: This is what I would do:

Julie Sousa

International Gastronomy Student

ABC School of Gastronomy

123 School Street, Famous City, Famous Country

Tel.: 123-456-7890 (this should be your cell phone, and watch now for your voice mail greeting and ring tone)

E-mail: julie.sousa @ gastronomyschool.com

Blog: TheGastronomyIJournal.blogABC . com

InternEtiquette - Part II

Good day, everybody! It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Orlando, Florida!

Continuing the mission of spreading good manners and kindness in our online world, today's focus is on:

• Enhancing your online written communication to avoid possible conflict
• Watching the content you post; mind your readers!

To start, let's have a look at an example: I am writing to you, whether it is via e-mail, instant messenger, blog comments section, Facebook, Orkut or any other social medium: "I think you did the right thing" You probably know what I am making reference to when I write this to you, however, you don't really know how I am telling you this. Am I confident in my words? Am I rather skeptic? Maybe I am happy? Notice that I didn't use punctuation in the sentence on purpose. You don't know how many e-mails I receive with no punctuation. It's almost like a written nightmare. Without punctuation, you run the risk of total misinterpretation. Let's not get into grammar coaching here, but I cannot emphasize enough how important commas, exclamation and question marks or periods are. I was perplexed when a high school counselor e-mailed me an email with no greeting and closing note, and no use of punctuation! Uff! Enhancing your words with adjectives, adverbs punctuation and "visual words" helps your reader understand how you are expressing yourself in your written delivery. It helps your reader "listen to your voice" when he/she reads your mail.

"I honestly think you did the right thing, without a doubt in my mind!" conveys the full idea: What you want to say and how you want to say it.

Instead of replying to an e-mail by writing: "That's a good start. Keep it up.", write: "I think the first ideas you showed in your table are a wonderful way to start the project. It gives it dimension. Keep up the good work you demonstrated in that table and the bullet points below. Let's bring more content to it, though." People can't read what your entire thoughts are, and while assuming is something we just have to do on a daily basis anyway, if you are expecting a 2-way communication to be truly effective, make sure you enhance your written e-mail communication.

Time should never be an issue here. It takes just a few more seconds to add words, explanations, "smiley faces" and question marks. In addition, by taking 1 additional minute to write it out, you'll be saving time later on not having to explain what you meant in the first place.

Once I wrote an e-mail to a training manager. It had about 2 small paragraphs with a few questions and thoughts I had. The answer I received was (and I will never forget my reaction to it): "Call me as soon as you can." Was he upset? Was he in a huge hurry? Was he at least somewhat happy about what I had sent him? I was confused by the too short and almost rude answer. I didn't know what to make of it. On the phone, soon after, our conversation was delightful! Had he sent an enhanced e-mail, he would have been able to communicate with me much more efficiently and avoid any misinterpretation!

Second topic: Watch the content you post! I read a comment someone posted about certain presentations being "so lame". Not only did this person insult all the other classmates who share the same social medium online and who were actually presenting on that day, but the content posted created a "did you see what So&So wrote?!" type of online gossip. Now, that is something we all don't have time for. A friend of mine decided to blog about her "dumb colleagues who think they know it all" and wrote a paragraph about one certain lady. The lady ended up reading it, and my friend's reputation was drastically affected. Negatively, needless to say. She had to apologize by blogging about it. Another one commented on a certain holiday being "so fake and consumption driven" and "a waste and ridiculous", not taking into consideration that others in his own tight circle celebrate it all the way, and love it. What are you trying to do to yourself, I ask? I never advocate against critique, however, it can always be done in a kinder way. There is no doubt about that.

Remember, nothing is ever totally deleted in our world wide web.

Definitely talk the talk, walk the walk, do as you preach!

Unfortunately, I must say, it has happened quite often that I personally sent an e-mail to someone in the business world, without ever receiving an answer back. Many of them have been compliments and questions, and none of them have been about pitching services. Ever. The most ironic thing is that the majority of my e-mail recipients have clearly stated "E-mail me anytime! I'm here to answer your questions! Or call me!". None of them were celebrities.

Maybe I should have called, because e-mail didn't work.
Some of the people I am referring to are in a business similar to mine. You would think that at least these people apparently practicing good manners would understand the value of contacting someone back when they receive mail.

Hm.

Sometimes we can't contact someone back as soon as we wished, but to let weeks and even months go by is just a shame. Professionals should know better. There is a sense of urgency that is lost, but that can be recovered.

How can you ensure you don't end up in a person's short-term memory, "leave it for later" folder, mails, calls and ultimately "forgot who you were" junk box?

• Persistence
• Social grace
• Content quality
• Added value
• Understanding

Follow up with an e-mail or call if you don't hear from the person after 48h. If you still don't hear anything and you really need to reach the person, you may want to try calling instead of e-mailing. Don't give up, but never push.
Always be friendly, polite, smile when you speak and write, and mind your word choice.
Be straight to the point. If the person is known to be busy, be short and efficient in your communication style. Remember, people like to be associated to those they feel they have something in common with. Your content has to be appealing and self-explanatory as to why you are contacting them.
Offer value to them. I will talk about VALUE in my next post. (think about what it means to you in the meantime).
Understand circumstances change daily, hourly. Understand how you are approaching them, and re-evaluate it. Understand some people, unfortunately, are not good communicators.

"Hear it and live it" in order to judge it!

My husband, always having others' needs and likes in mind, was kind enough to record a short news piece on Nightline for me. The feature was on Dunkin' Donuts boom versus Starbucks' "stagnation", so to say.

I've always admired Starbucks' as a company. I particularly like the fact that, while being in the coffee business, they are actually selling something quite less tangible: the "have coffee in a living-room experience", which happens to be accompanied by lattes and frapuccinos. I first entered a Starbucks in 1999, and immediately was sold on the concept and the coffee. Years went by and I still remember how a friend of mine and I developed a market analysis to take Starbucks abroad to Montevideo, Uruguay. The project was for college, and we excelled in it. It was a fun project. I was thrilled when my sister proudly announced "Starbucks arrived in Brazil!!!" (last year!), and during my time at the Marriott, there was hardly a day on which I did not get something from our Starbucks lobby cafe. (sigh!...)

It took me by surprise that Dunkin' Donuts opened 800 stores last year and is expecting growth of 5% this year. Starbucks does not seem to be experiencing the same boom. In fact, many stores are closing and baristas are losing their jobs. Given the current economic and financial situation, this taught me a good lesson in customer loyalty and effective marketing. You see, I took the time to visit a Dunkin' Donuts store today, and was pleasently surprised by the variety of drinks, food (including healthy options!), good customer service and employee knowledge. It was great to see an "anytime breakfast" menu and impressive to learn the store is open 24/7! I sat there for a moment and analyzed the environment: the dining room does not compare to Starbucks. The ambience is totally different. The product is different. I briefly thought that Nighltine was a bit off when comparing Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, simply focusing on the fact that both serve coffee products. But that's the only thing they have in common.

The product they are marketing is different. It is two different things, like apples and oranges. Both are good. But not comparable, really. I believe it's actually not fair to compare both. I am happy to have taken the time to watch it on TiVo, and to have gone to Dunkin' Donuts today. I will be back. I was pleased with everything. I will not leave Starbucks behind, though. I go to Starbucks to experience the atmosphere, the "we share something unique" type of community feeling when you spend some time in there, and the coffee drinks.

The fact that Dunkin' Donuts is experiencing success is because they are marketing correctly. Starbucks' "we sell you an experience" might not be enough in these times, and its momentum has been lost a little. Dunkin' has competitive prices, fast service, appealing marketing campaigns and strong celebrity endorsements. It has created a menu that satifies our hunger and that works well for various age groups, tastes and needs. Loyal tenants don't give it up for anything, and newcomers like what they see. It is accessible, efficient and basic.

Simply put, it efficiently fits the time and circumstance we are living in today.

This was my "hear it and live it experience" of the day. I'm looking forward to reading/hearing your comments!