It doesn’t matter whether you are a single channel company or multichannel business; there is a problem with operations. Marketing is cool. If you are a marketing person, almost everyone thinks that you are cool. Of course, they’re probably thinking Super Bowl ads and supermodels when you actually do data analysis, but you get the cool job award.
It’s different for operations people. When they say they work in operations, hot, dusty warehouses, stacked CSR workstations, and freezing computer rooms come to mind. There’s no cool factor.
The problem is that many operations people have accepted everyone’s perception that working in operations is not cool as reality. It’s not. While marketing has the glitz and glamour, operations people get to bond with the customers. And, that’s beyond cool. It’s awesome.
If you are an operations person and want to up your coolness factor, here are a few tips to make it happen:
- Change your perspective. Working in operations is cool, but if you don’t believe it, no one will. Lose the “if only” thoughts about being like marketing. Respect is earned. If you are acting like a second-class department citizen, you will be treated like one.
- Change everyone else’s perspective by relating what you do to customer satisfaction and retention. Marketing attracts customers, operations keep them coming back. Include customer metrics with your daily reports. You have a vital role in making them happy.
- Reach out to the marketing team. The best growth and profitability comes when marketing and operations work together with common goals. Acquisition is marketing’s game. Loyalty is yours. When they go hand-in-hand, everyone wins.
- Be patient. You are changing a paradigm firmly established in the business world. People resist change. Allow them time to adjust. (But don’t stop providing motivation.)
If you like this post, please share it with your community. You may also like these:
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- Are your multichannel growth strategies missing the mark? (Part Two)
- How to Stay Out of the Inventory Management Money Pit
Ask Debra!
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As a veteran of many marketing program design and launch cycles, you couldn’t be more right. Most program success is based on operations and marketing working together seamlessly. Companies who bring in operations at the end to execute a program (vs. including operations in the design phase) face an uphill battle to overcome simple issues that could have been fixed at the beginning.
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