You received a Holiday e-card from me today. It was a team effort, —– and me, and it gets my wow because it was started and completed fast! We’ve not always been good at “fast.”
Here’s our “wow” for this week: —–, I am sending you this “WOW!” because you did exactly what was needed to get this out on time, hurdling obstacles in this quick race.
Why is this “wow!”? At the last minute, Thursday, I decided to create a holiday video. I had confidence that we could get this done fast. And we did! But we were faced with many hurdles, most of which —- ended up having to jump over….
It started with me… I couldn’t figure out how to put together the light kit I purchased. I really wanted this to be my sincere, personal-yet-professional message. I also wanted it to be festive…… so I set up near a lighted Christmas tree. I was rushed to get it done between interruptions. I forgot to slow down, pause and smile at the start to get a decent first frame. After uploading to the computer and the ftp, I also converted to a smaller size. Unfortunately the sound didn’t come through on the smaller format…
So…—– then had to deal with this video as-is. There was no time to do anything else. Since I’m his “customer” he wanted to make the video better for me (and of me). But he found he didn’t have the right software; he couldn’t edit the first frame or lighting of the video. What he did was brilliant. He did some fancy design work on the card to put a better frame there and make it lighter. Then he placed a link from the card design to the video, so that the video actually plays from a page of one of our websites.
Voila! The video was uploaded by me on my Thursday night and the finished card was ready to email by Saturday morning. My bet is we’ll do it same-day for the next video!
Why is it important? You may be thinking, “What is so important about a card for the holidays?” Well, the card isn’t really my point here, but it is important as it aligns with two strategic objectives: customer engagement and service excellence. Maybe annual cards won’t be as important when I finally get one or more newsletters going. For now, it is one of the few ways we touch past customers, partners and others so that they remember us, and so that they know they are remembered by us.
My main point with this, if you didn’t catch it, is putting content – a quality message (or could be a product, etc) and on time delivery of it – above perfection. Often perfection is for our own egos. Excellence is not perfection. When we focus and are driven to do what our “community” (customers, partners, employees, etc.) will appreciate most, then we really have mastered the concepts of s-p-e-e-d, engagement and excellence. —– had this focus for the holiday card.
Congrats —–!