1186: How an Internal Podcast Can Improve Culture & Customer Experience w/ Mark Montgomery

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.519 Are you struggling to come up with original content weekend and week out? Start 2 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:09.189 a podcast, interview your ideal clients, let them talk about what they care 3 00:00:09.230 --> 00:00:14.830 about most and never run out of content ideas again. Learn more at sweetphish 4 00:00:14.910 --> 00:00:23.940 MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B TOB 5 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:28.179 leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vannerd truck and 6 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:32.020 Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. 7 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:37.450 That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most 8 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:41.570 of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing 9 00:00:41.649 --> 00:00:46.609 strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing BB companies in 10 00:00:46.649 --> 00:00:49.969 the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet fish 11 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.479 media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of the 12 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.439 CO hosts of the show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, 13 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.280 you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. Will share the 14 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.549 ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. 15 00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:15.469 Just getting well maybe let's get into the show. Welcome back to be tob 16 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:19.140 growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet fish media. I'm joined today by Mark 17 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:23.140 Montgomery. He is the chief marketing officer at Crane. Where mark has it 18 00:01:23.219 --> 00:01:25.859 going today, sir? Good Good Morning, Logan. Thanks for having me. 19 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:30.060 Absolutely you and I were just having a great conversation about customer experience. 20 00:01:30.099 --> 00:01:34.370 We're going to be talking your uniquely positioned, I think, to touch on 21 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:38.129 this hot topic for a lot of organizations today. Before we do that, 22 00:01:38.209 --> 00:01:41.450 they'll mark, as we do with all our guests, and want to give 23 00:01:41.450 --> 00:01:44.530 you the opportunity to give us a little bit of background on yourself, in 24 00:01:44.569 --> 00:01:47.239 a little bit of context, what you and the team at cranewareer up to 25 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.799 these days. Thank you appreciate that. I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, 26 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:55.879 on the chief marking officer at Craneware PLC, and I've been in the healthcare 27 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:00.400 it and healthcare software industry as an operational and strategic executive for most of my 28 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:05.510 career and I'm excited to be a part of crane, where I've been here 29 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:10.389 just over six years, and craneweares a unique company. We we service providers 30 00:02:10.710 --> 00:02:16.300 healthcare providers in the US to help them improve their margins and their operational efficiency 31 00:02:16.419 --> 00:02:22.699 so they can invest in turn that that margin back into their care support and 32 00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:27.860 their care strategies to better serve their communities. The Way Crane where does that 33 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:31.210 is we provide software and solutions, which would basically software and services that allow 34 00:02:31.729 --> 00:02:37.650 health providers, so hospitals and health systems, of which we partner with about 35 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.689 fifteen hundred of those throughout the US, and we allow them to identify and 36 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:46.960 address risk related to their financial and operational performance. And as my role as 37 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:53.599 chief marketing officer, I have a unique opportunity here to to manage the and 38 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:58.789 help lead our teams across the entire customer experience. So the traditional marketing functions, 39 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:04.870 branding, a Lee generation, customer acquisition, employee education and customer education, 40 00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:08.229 those types of activities. But then also we have the customer experience and 41 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:14.979 customer management teams that report into our chief marketing role, and that is imagine 42 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:23.020 post contract, everything from implementation, training, support, success and renewal. 43 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:29.250 The entire customer life cycle experience really is the responsibility of our teams in assuring 44 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:32.610 that we're creating the right branding and messages before they become a customer and then 45 00:03:34.009 --> 00:03:37.370 create the optimal experience for them once they are a customer. Yeah, I 46 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:40.250 love it. So, as we introduce to your official role as chief marketing 47 00:03:40.409 --> 00:03:44.879 officer there at crane where, but you mentioned to me it's almost like you 48 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:51.120 are a chief markets officer because you've got operations, customer experience even some other 49 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:55.990 market facing roles outside of just marketing, messaging, branding to mention coming up 50 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:00.469 to your role. Do you see that as a trend with marketing leaders? 51 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:04.629 Is it kind of just the nature of your organization that it kind of emerged 52 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:09.069 that way? Yeah, I think it's a good question and it probably is 53 00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:13.219 unique, just depending on what the strategy and the life cycle of a specific 54 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:17.699 organization may be. At Crane where, that marketing officer role is responsible for 55 00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:21.740 really three major areas, the typical marketing and branding that we talked about, 56 00:04:21.819 --> 00:04:29.850 the corporate development to identify and cultivate merger and acquisition opportunities or Business Partnership opportunities 57 00:04:29.850 --> 00:04:32.209 that may be out there, and then the third area is the one I've 58 00:04:32.209 --> 00:04:35.170 talked about, that customer experience. Some people will say, well, that 59 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:41.160 just seems very unique. That you'd have marketing and and the customer management under 60 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:46.279 the same umbrella, reporting up to the leadership team, and it is unique 61 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:48.759 and I think the value, however, of it is is the fact that 62 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:53.509 you get a three hundred and sixty around that customer experience, in that market 63 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:57.870 experience to be able to from everything that you typically do in that customer acquisition 64 00:04:57.990 --> 00:05:04.430 strategy and process around branding, messaging, value, proposition, uniqueness and lead 65 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:10.819 generation, which were all in part of all the way through delivering those solutions 66 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:15.980 and the experience and and identifying the value returned and the return on value, 67 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:19.139 that return on investment that the customers receiving. So I would suggest to those 68 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:23.089 that are that are in marketing. I'll give you an example of how it 69 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:27.290 works, but I would suggest that if you don't have that whole life cycle 70 00:05:27.329 --> 00:05:30.569 of the customer, that's fine, because many companies and organizations don't organize that 71 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:33.569 way. Sure, but be really good friends with the person on the other 72 00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:39.680 side and the people those teams, because they are delivering back content for the 73 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:46.240 customer acquisition side that you want one so we can use our our successful customers 74 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:51.430 to create webinars, educational sessions, white papers, social media posts, reference 75 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:56.990 ability for perspective customers and we take those stories. They we invite them to 76 00:05:57.029 --> 00:06:01.990 come and speak at our customer user experience groups and our financial performance summit and 77 00:06:02.149 --> 00:06:08.220 we take those those story points in those content pieces and we put them back 78 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:12.579 into our marketing pieces so we can then continue to brand and differentiate and show 79 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:15.500 value for potential customers coming in. So it's a nice life cycle that we 80 00:06:15.540 --> 00:06:19.569 can build and the key is I've got really good people in all those areas 81 00:06:19.649 --> 00:06:27.009 that organize and run these or operations that are interested in the success of the 82 00:06:27.050 --> 00:06:30.529 company and then also are an interested in the success of helping one another in 83 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:34.399 their specific roles. MM. I love what you said they're about. If 84 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:40.800 you are a marketing leader that doesn't have operations and customer success rolling up into 85 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:45.439 your functional area, you know like you're fortunate to have here mark become good 86 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:47.790 friends with those leaders. It sounds like what you guys have been able to 87 00:06:47.910 --> 00:06:51.509 do is have that shared vision of you know, when we work together, 88 00:06:51.910 --> 00:06:56.670 we're all going to be more successful. I'm glad you touched on, you 89 00:06:56.750 --> 00:07:00.819 know, this feedback loop from customer success and operations telling the stories, pulling 90 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:05.579 out the key nuggets, the wins for your customers that your company is partially 91 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:11.420 responsible for, and feeding that back to the market facing teams, marketing and 92 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:15.810 sales. Any advice for folks on how to tactically do that, you know, 93 00:07:15.970 --> 00:07:20.050 if the lines of communication aren't necessarily open between presale and post sale within 94 00:07:20.449 --> 00:07:26.529 their organizations today? Yeah, it's a good question and I think it starts 95 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:30.000 with culture and what the company's about. You know, leaderships roll. I 96 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:35.399 like to describe leadership's role as the ability to create and communicate the vision of 97 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:40.600 what the organization is trying to do and then enable the organization to go pursue 98 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.870 it. That's what really leadership is about and that starts creating your culture. 99 00:07:45.430 --> 00:07:47.829 And, to answer your question, when everybody's aligned to what that vision is 100 00:07:47.990 --> 00:07:54.310 and you're empowered and able to go pursue it, then org charts and titles 101 00:07:54.430 --> 00:08:00.899 become way less important and doing what's right for the customer and for the stakeholders 102 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:05.060 involved in the organization becomes the right thing to do. I love our culture 103 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.420 here at Crane, where I think it's fantastic and it's based on a couple 104 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:11.620 of principles, and I would say these these can cross over in any organizations, 105 00:08:11.699 --> 00:08:15.810 and you may call it something different, but it's really around these three 106 00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:18.689 areas. At the base of the pyramid or the bottom of the foundation, 107 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:20.889 it's values. Right. What is your value statements? What are your what 108 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:24.689 are your code of conduct? What are your sort of expectations for you and 109 00:08:24.769 --> 00:08:28.480 your team to treat each other and to treat your customers and to treat your 110 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.679 suppliers? At the top of that, then, once you have a good 111 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.919 foundation and you have the right moral fabric in the right value system, it's 112 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.679 what is the vision of the company, and that's what I talked about earliers, 113 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:43.909 is a common vision that everyone can understand, articulate and and buy into. 114 00:08:45.429 --> 00:08:48.149 And then, finally, in the in between there you have what I 115 00:08:48.190 --> 00:08:52.909 call velocity. That's all the operations, that's selling, that's acquiring customers, 116 00:08:54.149 --> 00:08:58.500 you know, selling your goods and services, your products, getting them satisfied 117 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:03.139 with those, and then finding ways and opportunities to grow your business. And 118 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:05.899 velocity includes how well you run. You know, your HR function runs, 119 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:11.409 your your technology runs, how well you're your finance department runs. All those 120 00:09:11.450 --> 00:09:16.009 things are part of velocity and if you have the right foundation with values and 121 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:20.049 you have a vision that everybody buys into. In the velocity part becomes the 122 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:22.570 day to day and the year to year. That becomes very important and that's 123 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:26.919 what drives the culture. And finally, I would say this cross functional you 124 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:31.120 know, in the communicating when you're working across organizational boundaries, if you will, 125 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.039 if people understand the vision, they understand the plan, which is that 126 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.509 velocity plan, your your tactical plan, and they know their individual role and 127 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:43.669 how it rolls up into that, that's where the magic happens and it's certainly 128 00:09:43.710 --> 00:09:48.950 we've all been in places where it's work really well and we've all probably been 129 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:50.750 in moments in our careers, if you've been around or will be around for 130 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:54.580 a little while, where it just doesn't seem to be all quite working at 131 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:58.259 the same time, and it's really because you're trying to a line to the 132 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.899 that vision, to execute the plan and then to know what what the individual 133 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:07.450 role is. And that's how I think we crane. We're try to rally 134 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:11.450 the organization. I you know, I was telling you earlier we're a unique 135 00:10:11.450 --> 00:10:16.409 company and that we're founded and headquartered in the UK and Edinburgh, Scotland. 136 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:22.559 Yet virtually one hundred percent of our customers are revenues and are operating margins come 137 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:28.919 from US based healthcare providers. So we're working across multiple time zones and ocean, 138 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:33.240 two very unique cultures, but we all have to rally around the same 139 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:37.149 vision and the same plan and that creates a lot of great opportunities and some 140 00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:43.350 some occasional challenges, but some really great opportunities for us to try to align 141 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:46.830 everybody and keep the messaging clear. Yeah, absolutely, I want to circle 142 00:10:46.909 --> 00:10:50.620 back to that consistent message, especially since you have some experience, as you 143 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:56.659 mentioned, managing a team and influencing the culture across two distinct cultures, to 144 00:10:56.820 --> 00:10:58.899 different countries, different time zones. So I want to come back to that. 145 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:03.620 But you mentioned something there, Mark, I want to hang out on 146 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:07.169 for a second. You mentioned, you know, defining that the company's vision 147 00:11:07.330 --> 00:11:11.250 is being that foundation for folks who are interested to dig a little bit deeper. 148 00:11:11.250 --> 00:11:15.769 Actually, just yesterday we had Garrett Justice from lucid on and we talked 149 00:11:15.769 --> 00:11:20.080 about a resource for looking at answering some of those core questions for your company, 150 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:24.200 a book called the advantage from Patrick Lindsey ony that I definitely recommend. 151 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:28.279 So you may want to check that out. Mark, you kind of said 152 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:31.950 in passing there something about finance and you know, since we're talking about customer 153 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:37.710 experience, in how your culture can affect customer experience, how you can build 154 00:11:37.710 --> 00:11:43.710 a culture that is connected and views the entire customer journey to improve that experience 155 00:11:43.750 --> 00:11:46.909 for your customers. You mentioned something about finance and I think we talk a 156 00:11:46.950 --> 00:11:48.779 lot about, you know, sales and marketing alignment. Okay, what's the 157 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:52.659 experience for the customer from the time that they, you know, see an 158 00:11:52.700 --> 00:11:56.059 ad or consume some content from marketing and then have a conversation with sales? 159 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:00.820 But we tend not to think about well, how did they receive an invoice 160 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:05.250 right? What those sort of operational things. Those are part of the customer 161 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:07.169 experience. Can you speak to that maybe a little bit some of the areas 162 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:11.889 that you guys have have realized maybe impact the customer experience that aren't normally part 163 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:18.279 of the conversation? Certainly, and you know for US listeners, as a 164 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.840 customer we're in the healthcare industry when we work with providers, but as the 165 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.799 unique thing as we're all patients to we all have and want access to medical 166 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:31.789 care and we understand sometimes the experience as a patient in the healthcare system can 167 00:12:31.830 --> 00:12:37.629 be sometimes confusing right, whether it be financial or clinical or whatever. I 168 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:41.669 we could have a whole episode on it. Another show for shows exactly. 169 00:12:41.789 --> 00:12:46.100 But the US healthcare system is incredibly unique in that it provides fantastic care, 170 00:12:46.139 --> 00:12:50.019 yet it has these economic challenges for people getting access to it, the cost, 171 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:54.340 understanding what the cost etc. So we try to take that same same 172 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:58.570 knowledge to apply to our customers to make it as easy as possible for them 173 00:12:58.610 --> 00:13:03.210 to do business with crane where. We're a publicly traded company, so financial 174 00:13:03.250 --> 00:13:07.330 performance is a big part of our success and but it's always, I would 175 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:09.450 say, a lagging indicator. Right, if you do the right things, 176 00:13:09.490 --> 00:13:11.690 if you have the right value and envision and you're executing and rallying the team 177 00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:16.600 to that cause, then your financial results are going to be the lagging indicator 178 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.200 the outputs of that focus. So we try to make sure all the experience 179 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.960 that we do with our customers, how we communicate with them, how we 180 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:30.149 treat them, and their experience and Brandon Crane where is certainly favorable and we 181 00:13:30.230 --> 00:13:35.429 have literally world class net promoter scores. We have other specific product areas where 182 00:13:35.429 --> 00:13:41.389 we measure through third party independent organizations that we rank in some some world class 183 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:46.580 scoring in terms of customer success, customer loyalty and customer experience. But your 184 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:50.139 eye, even down to the invoice, the way they they handle on accounts 185 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:54.419 receivable or accounts payable question, whatever it might be, is certainly important to 186 00:13:54.779 --> 00:14:00.169 to the entire customer experience. It's story time, and this growth story is 187 00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:03.649 about search engine marketing. Okay, so the story revolves around e sub, 188 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:11.799 a project management SASS company specifically for subcontractors. Even though you sub had incredible 189 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:16.679 customer attention, they struggled with growth. Being in Niche Service, they discovered 190 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:22.200 that there was little demand expressed for their solutions within search engines. To take 191 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:26.629 on this challenge, E sub hired directive, consulting the BB search marketing agency. 192 00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:33.870 After refining targeting, pre qualifying clicks with an add copied and developing custom 193 00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:39.220 landing pages, directive was able to increase e subs marketing qualified leads by seventy 194 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:43.820 one percent while decreasing their cost per lead by sixty five percent. I have 195 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:48.179 a hunch that directive can get these kind of results through too. So head 196 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:54.649 over to directive consultingcom and request a totally free custom proposal. That's directive consultingcom. 197 00:14:56.250 --> 00:15:00.850 All right, let's get back to this interview. Let's circle back to 198 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:05.850 what you were talking about mark with that consistent message. You know, as 199 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:09.679 you and I were chatting offline, you echoed something I've heard from from other 200 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:15.679 marketing leaders and you know that's the CMO or the marketers marketing leaders dream is 201 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:20.399 to have everybody in the organization understand the mission, the vision, the value 202 00:15:20.470 --> 00:15:26.629 prop of the company and be able to communicate that well, communicate that consistently. 203 00:15:26.990 --> 00:15:31.149 So with some of the the opportunities that you guys have, with different 204 00:15:31.149 --> 00:15:35.429 cultures, different time zones, a distributed team, what are some of the 205 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:39.500 ways that you tackle on a regular basis, because it's not something that you 206 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:43.539 just we've arrived of now everyone can communicate the value prop across the organization, 207 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:48.419 because that changes. People Change. Can you speak to some of the things 208 00:15:48.460 --> 00:15:52.929 that you've done tactically and you maybe have it empowered your team to do to 209 00:15:52.409 --> 00:15:54.929 try and get better there? I think none of us are ever, you 210 00:15:56.009 --> 00:15:58.610 know, a hundred percent, but some of the ways that you have helped 211 00:15:58.649 --> 00:16:03.929 to improve that at crane where that other marketing leaders might be able to learn 212 00:16:03.929 --> 00:16:07.320 from I think it's a great question and it's a difficult challenge because as as 213 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.720 a marketer, as a anyone who leads marketing or is involved marketing, I 214 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:14.399 think one of your goals, is you may not ever get asked this, 215 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.840 but it's really one of your goals, is you want everybody in the company 216 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:22.750 to have the same answer to the questions of what does your company do, 217 00:16:22.429 --> 00:16:26.269 how do you do it and why are you different? Right? And if 218 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:30.509 you haven't answered those three questions and haven't socialized those answers across your organization, 219 00:16:30.549 --> 00:16:33.860 I think it's a great challenge and opportunity for you to do that because you 220 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:38.019 want regardless of the role, whether it be an individual contributor a chief executive 221 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:45.019 or your sales team, your Customer Management Team and engineering team, your product 222 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:48.210 functions, whatever they are, you want them to have that same answer. 223 00:16:48.330 --> 00:16:52.929 So we try to do that through constant communication. At course we have obviously 224 00:16:52.970 --> 00:16:59.049 cultural and time zone challenges. We have a great internal web based program that 225 00:16:59.210 --> 00:17:02.879 we we communicate with across organization. It's an Internet, it's our we call 226 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.480 it core, and we have the ability to post success stories, internal and 227 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.000 external customer success stories. There, we can post announcements upcoming events, but 228 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:15.789 we can also continue to brand ourselves through that opportunity. We've now just moved 229 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:19.990 that into a mobile application, so everybody has a subset of that content on 230 00:17:21.069 --> 00:17:22.269 their phone, because we're always looking at our phone. So we now have 231 00:17:22.349 --> 00:17:27.230 the ability to communicate through that. We create a strategic theme program every year 232 00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:32.220 where we announce here's the top four or five headline objectives that we want to 233 00:17:32.220 --> 00:17:36.099 accomplish as a company, and we create a printed document like a like a 234 00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:38.339 customer brochure, and we create that and give that to every employee, whether 235 00:17:38.339 --> 00:17:41.779 they're there at the beginning of year or they join us throughout the year and 236 00:17:42.059 --> 00:17:45.769 and on that. On that document we get to do a little a little 237 00:17:47.130 --> 00:17:49.970 marketing and we we list the answer to those three questions that I just described 238 00:17:51.329 --> 00:17:52.690 on there as well. We talk about what we do, we talk about 239 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:56.650 some of our key quotes, some of our key thoughts and and messages that 240 00:17:56.730 --> 00:18:00.519 we want to stay on message with. So we do it digitally, we 241 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:03.519 do it verbally and we do it literally in print, and we do it 242 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.960 as often as we can to try to keep everybody in line with them with 243 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:10.400 the message. That makes a lot of sense, marky. You know, 244 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:14.390 when you look at marketings, roll to not only help the the market and 245 00:18:14.470 --> 00:18:18.349 your perspective, customers understand what you do, how you do it, why 246 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:22.990 you're different, but making sure that that you do that same thing internally. 247 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:26.750 You have to apply the principles of good marketing, clear messaging. You've got 248 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:29.299 to do it in a variety of channels, which you guys are doing in 249 00:18:29.619 --> 00:18:33.819 print and on mobile. You know, it reminds me of something I took 250 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:37.500 away from the four disciplines of execution, a great operational book that we went 251 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:41.220 through as a team here at sweet fish, and it talks about you need 252 00:18:41.259 --> 00:18:45.170 a visible scorecard that people can look to. You know, you're not so 253 00:18:45.289 --> 00:18:48.529 much talking about metrics, but they the objectives and those things, keeping those 254 00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:52.609 in front of people, invisible through the mobile APP, for that's connected to 255 00:18:52.650 --> 00:18:56.400 your intranet and those printed pieces. So I can definitely see how those are 256 00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:00.480 valuable and how folks can, you know, put their own spin on that 257 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:03.720 and and use what you're saying. They're as we were chatting a little bit 258 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:07.799 offline. You've mentioned, Mark that you guys have an internal podcast or an 259 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:14.670 internal communications system that you're using some audio or video to be able to keep 260 00:19:14.710 --> 00:19:17.990 everybody in the loop. Can you speak to that project a little bit, 261 00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:21.470 how it came about and how maybe that has helped, because I think maybe 262 00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:26.619 some folks could take some ideas from that strategy of internal communications, getting everybody 263 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:30.940 on the same page, which again, you know, increases and improves the 264 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:33.299 customer experience, which you guys are obviously doing a great job at. Sure 265 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:37.500 will. We just this past year of have been the process of celebrating our 266 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:42.369 twenty anniversary. So we had actually a cranwhere celebrate event where we brought the 267 00:19:42.450 --> 00:19:47.890 entire company together for several days to be able to share successes, look at 268 00:19:47.930 --> 00:19:51.730 our history but, more importantly, share our vision for the future and create 269 00:19:51.809 --> 00:19:56.720 team building and relationships that would last well into the next several years. And 270 00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:59.920 as part of that, the run up to that we were do doing podcast, 271 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:03.039 we call them cranewere conversations, where we would take individuals and regardless of 272 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:07.750 the role, and just give them ten to twelve minutes of a podcast to 273 00:20:07.269 --> 00:20:11.230 introduce themselves, talk about their personal and professional interest their background. What craneware 274 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:15.990 means to them etc. So Post that event we've extended that and continue that 275 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:21.700 with what we now call cranewhere conversations, which are a combination of podcast with 276 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:27.660 individuals, and then once a quarter we also do a live recorded Webinar with 277 00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:32.779 three or four guests where we just talked about their their role in the company, 278 00:20:33.140 --> 00:20:37.170 what their excitement about being part of cranewhere is and a little bit about 279 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:41.569 their personal life and their career. So it creates a way to connect people 280 00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:44.170 that we work with on a daily basis. We play send emails, we 281 00:20:44.250 --> 00:20:47.369 get on a skype call, we have to ask them a favor. I 282 00:20:47.369 --> 00:20:48.890 always think it's better if you have to ask somebody a favor, which we're 283 00:20:48.890 --> 00:20:52.000 inevitably going to have to ask somebody in our company of favor or help, 284 00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:56.200 because the situation all rise, it's better to have some type of connection with 285 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:00.279 them before you have to start reaching out for those favors. And these are 286 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:02.799 just ways that we can do that. We can cross the ocean, we 287 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.470 can cross the time zone difference in the culture differences by connecting the company through 288 00:21:07.549 --> 00:21:11.950 these conversations. And once you know someone's story it's much easier to understand who 289 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:15.589 they are, what they are and you're human nature says it's much more willing 290 00:21:15.630 --> 00:21:18.779 to want to to work with them as a team member going forward. So 291 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:22.539 those are some of the things we've done to continue that culture of conversation and 292 00:21:22.619 --> 00:21:25.660 connect I love that, mark. I mean, as we've talked about, 293 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:29.980 you know, culture is going to impact the customer experience. We obviously hear 294 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:33.130 at sweetfish talk a lot about why podcasts work to help you connect with your 295 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:37.250 customers. I think you make a great case here in how you can build 296 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:41.369 connections between your team members, especially if you are distributed. On that note, 297 00:21:41.410 --> 00:21:47.920 if anybody listening to this works in or leads a distributed team or a 298 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:52.079 team with multiple locations, you may want to check out the distributed podcast. 299 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:53.799 I forget the name of the host and who puts that on, but the 300 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:59.240 if you search apple podcast or your your podcast player for distributed it's not one 301 00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:02.670 we're involved with, but it's one, as a remote team here at sweet 302 00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:04.950 fish, that several of our team members have gotten value from and one of 303 00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:08.309 the things I heard in a recent episode really echoes what you were saying here, 304 00:22:08.430 --> 00:22:12.509 mark, is that when you work remotely and and you know your messaging, 305 00:22:12.950 --> 00:22:18.099 slack and email with your coworkers. When you only know them digitally, 306 00:22:18.500 --> 00:22:21.420 you kind of have this mental picture of them that may or may not be 307 00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:26.059 a hundred percent accurate and you don't necessarily have that same connection. So anyway, 308 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:30.609 if you have a remoter distributed team, that you can build stronger connections, 309 00:22:30.009 --> 00:22:34.569 more understanding across your employee base, the stronger culture that you're going to 310 00:22:34.609 --> 00:22:40.170 have and leading back to today's topic of customer experience, it's going to ripple 311 00:22:40.289 --> 00:22:42.730 out to to your customers as well. So I love the way that we 312 00:22:42.849 --> 00:22:47.839 wrapped up on that today, mark with some good tactical advice for folks. 313 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.880 Mark I, anybody listening to this would like to stay connected with you or 314 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:56.480 reach out ask any follow up questions. Marketing leader may be intrigued by some 315 00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:59.390 of the things that you're talking about here and would like to pick your brain 316 00:22:59.430 --> 00:23:00.950 a bit. What's the best way for them to connect with you or reach 317 00:23:00.990 --> 00:23:07.750 out? Certainly you can find me at cranwhere I'm on our website. You 318 00:23:07.789 --> 00:23:11.900 can follow our company on twitter at at cranware. On linkedin we have a 319 00:23:11.940 --> 00:23:15.539 page, a community page. I'm also on Linkedin at Mark Montgomery. I 320 00:23:15.579 --> 00:23:21.299 also have my own twitter. It's at cranwere CMO, and happy to DM 321 00:23:21.380 --> 00:23:25.380 or interact with anybody there and happy to share ideas and learn ideas of things 322 00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:27.450 that you guys may be doing. That would certainly be helpful for us. 323 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:32.730 But appreciative for the time today. Going to appreciate the opportunity to to spend 324 00:23:32.809 --> 00:23:36.609 some time and share with everybody. Absolutely mark, I really appreciate you sharing 325 00:23:37.009 --> 00:23:41.009 your unique perspective chatting, marketing and customer experience today. Thank you so much 326 00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:47.240 for being on the show. You're welcome. Thank you. We totally get 327 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:49.960 it. We publish a ton of content on this podcast and it can be 328 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.920 a lot to keep up with. That's why we've started the BOB growth big 329 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:59.430 three, a no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an 330 00:23:59.509 --> 00:24:04.069 entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Phish Mediacom Big Three. 331 00:24:04.390 --> 00:24:07.750 That sweet PHISH MEDIACOM Big Three