Written by: Vernon Johnson, CLTel
The phone rang at 4:58 on a Friday afternoon. Stacey Lester’s day at CLtel ended at 5. She answered it.
Around her, people shut off lights and headed out for the weekend. Stacey stayed at her desk and helped a customer solve a problem. She wasn’t watching the clock. She was focused on the person on the other end of the phone. I happened to be there and noticed it.
Nobody had planned the moment. Stacey certainly wasn’t thinking about whether or not it would make a good social media post. She was doing her job the way she believed it should be done. We eventually shared what happened as a story about CLtel. Had I walked out the door two minutes earlier, we probably never would have told it.
That experience changed the way I think about finding stories. As marketers, we spend a lot of time figuring out what to say next. We plan campaigns, look for new ideas and stare at content calendars wondering what we’re going to put in that empty box next Tuesday.
But some of the best evidence of what makes a business different can be easy to miss when you work there every day. It becomes normal. Of course Stacey answered the phone. Yes, she stayed late to finish the job. And, it’s not uncommon for an employee to remember a customer’s name.
But the customer may not think it’s normal at all. That’s one reason CLtel chose to be the presenting sponsor of the first North Iowa Marketing Summit.
I’m especially looking forward to Lauren Ready’s “What’s Your Untold Story” workshop. Asking better questions and learning how to recognize a story when it’s happening are useful skills for any business, especially when marketing is only one of the many things competing for your attention.
The rest of the Summit will get into the practical work of creating content, choosing channels, using marketing technology and figuring out how to put it all to work.
That matters because North Iowa businesses already have plenty to talk about. The harder part can be recognizing which everyday actions actually mean something to a customer, and then telling those stories well.
That’s what I hope people take away from the Summit. Because most businesses probably already have what I call their own 4:58. Pay attention. You might catch yours.