Brad Worthley is a acclaimed customer service trainer whose client list includes Macys, Nordstrom, McDonalds, Alaska Airlines and Western Union, as well as small and medium organizations from a variety of industries. His mission? To help organizations create service cultures: A place where employees love to work and customers love to do business.

Brad equips companies with dynamic customer service and leadership essentials. Brad’s research shows that it is easy to change people, but unless the leadership has undergone specialized training on how to manage a service culture, the employees will revert back to their old ways within 90 days.

• Eliminate office politics
• Increase employee retention
• Increase employee performance
• Increase customer retention
• Increase sales
• Increase profits

Renowned for captivating his audiences, many have referred to his lively presentations as “shows”.

• Brad keeps seminar participants entertained while helping them retain the information they learn.
• He is a master storyteller and delivers his powerful message from the customer’s perspective.

Thanks to the Willapa Harbor Chamber of Commerce and the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau, you can attend a Brad Worthley seminar in  your own back yard on April 11th.  In fact, you can even afford to bring–or send–your front line employees!  These two organizations are subsidizing the cost of the workshop, making it only $10 each – INCLUDING LUNCH!  If you’re a member of the Willapa Harbor Chamber (details), it’s only $5!  You can’t beat that.

You want a sweeter deal still? Okay, how’s this?  Pacific Transit will take care of transportation to South Bend if only 15 Peninsulans register to take them up on the deal by April 1st.  Free transportation, free lunch, and only $5-10 for a speaker one would typically pay $50 to see?  Come on!

Register: Contact the Willapa Harbor Chamber at 360-942-5419 or info@willapaharbor.org

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Brad Worthley Coming To South Bend Apr 11

They all believe in protecting their customers’ personal information and are sponsoring a community “Shred-It” event:

Saturday, April 16th

10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Outside the Astoria Branch of Clatsop Community Bank

10th & Commercial Streets – Astoria

Suggested Donation of $5 per ‘banker’s box’ or large bag

Click the image for a closer look.

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Shred-A-Thon!

–World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame

Thanks, Kay & Sharon.  YOU have no idea how motivated we are by praise!

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Happy Customers Make For Happy Beachdogs

We use our own site a fair amount to test what we think we know about the search engines.  Having recently reached placement we felt pretty good about, we confirmed for ourselves that our current process for achieving and holding rank was solid.  So what would happen if the only thing we changed was to simply stop tending our blog?  After all, it happens to our clients; they do everything right, get a solid site designed and built, push on the flywheel of promotion until the machine is whizzing along…and then something happens.  Crisis.  Emergency.  Busy season.  Staff changes.  So what happens if you just STOP?

A lot!

The first thing we noticed was a steep drop-off of our Facebook fan activity. You social networkers are a fickle bunch!   We expected that; social networking is about building relationships.  Without our giving you meaningful substance, It isn’t surprising you forgot about us.  Businesses should be forgotten if they stop giving you something you want and/or need.  We responded by posting directly to our Facebook page and those stats went back up, but not as high as when our blog is also pushing posts to our wall.  You effectively told us you want our meatier content as well as our more amusing observations and anecdotes when it comes to Facebook.

But what about our website stats? We had a drop in return visitors; there wasn’t anything new for folks to read so they stopped coming to look for it.  We had a slight drop in new visitors; I would expect that to continue to decline if we don’t start posting again since new visitors largely come to us from sharing of our posts by our customers and fans/friends.  The ‘stickiness’, or amount of time people spend on our site per visit, actually increased.  Were you looking for something interesting to read, since there wasn’t that something new?

The most important thing we learned is that our most engaged customers noticed we were gone–and told us so.    While I could make a pithy statement about you being the people we write for, I’ll refrain from stroking your ego while saying exactly that.  You ARE who we write for because you most align with our mission and core values.  By being engaged, you’re more fun to work with, you get more results from our joint efforts, and you make more profit for both your company and ours. We write for you because you put our words to work and we both reap the rewards.

To those of you who missed us: Thank You!

To those of you who didn’t: Why not?  Are you ready to up your engagement level and let us help you improve return on investment (I’m just sayin’…grin)?  Or maybe there are topics you’d be more interested in having us write about?  If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Keleigh

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We’re baaaaaack….!

Una Boyle (left) & Chris Goodwin meet at beachdog.com to plan LBPVB Membership Drive 2011

Una became Executive Director of the LBPVB just about the same time Keleigh started beachdog.com.  Neither can believe how far both organizations have come–or that they’ve been at the business of promoting the Peninsula together for 13 years!

Chris is now the Data Coordinator for LBPVB, and an excellent one at that.  She and our very own Karl, who created the LBPVB databases, work together throughout the year to fine tune and improve both process and product.

While membership runs for the calendar year, the Visitors Bureau will run their 2011 membership drive from the Monday following Rod Run  (September 13th) through the end of the month.  Why so early?

Because of the Beach Vacation Planner.  We’re proudly producing the Planner again this year.  In order to get it produced, produced, printed and perfectly in the hands of those who begin vacation planning at the first of the year, we need all the member information the first week of October.

The print run is now at 75,000 copies which largely go off-peninsula, a lure piece to help people choose our beach as a vacation destination.  All LBPVB members receive a business listing in the guide and are eligible to buy full-color display ad space.

Ads are incredibly low-priced.  In fact, our fellows who produce similar guides in other communities tell us we’re nuts to sell ads so inexpensively.  Our distribution model is more targeted than many and our cost per impression is less than .008¢!  We’re able to make display ads inexpensive because the LBPVB and the City of Long Beach subsidize the guide.  Talk about a benefit of membership!

So watch for your renewal invoice on September 14th if you’re already a member of the LBPVB and be sure to get it back on time so you’re not left out of the Planner.  If your business is not a member, NOW is the time to stop in and change that!  If you’re interested in display ad space, contact Keith (keith@beachdog.com or 360-642-4431).

Once all the member information is verified for the Beach Vacation Planner, we start updating member information on funbeach.com, which is the most valuable marketing avenue Peninsula business owners can buy.  And, listing on the site is FREE for members, with links and other add-on advertising opportunities remaining INSANELY inexpensive by industry standards.

Don’t miss out!  Join or renew with the LBPVB today!

You can reach LBPVB at 360-642-2400 or:

• Executive Director Una Boyle  una@funbeach.com
• Assistant to the Director  vicki@funbeach.com
• Member Services:  chris@funbeach.com
• Volunteer Services:  joanne@funbeach.com
• Visitor Services:  ask@funbeach.com

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Hands Down, The MOST VALUABLE Marketing Peninsula Businesses Can Buy

Here it is, in blackline, grayscale and full color:

Next came the business and appointment cards, conveniently dual-purposed as one, two-sided card:

Finally, their rate card, which is really fun at 5 inches square instead of a traditional brochure shape.

J.D.’s signs recently finished interpreting our art for a sign and it looks GREAT!  You can see it yourself on Pacific Highway, in front of Marsh’s Free Museum in downtown Long Beach.  Esteem is on the north side of Marsh’s.

Congratulations on the successful launch of your new Salon & Spa, Jami & Tessah!

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Esteem Salon & Spa

Recently taking on a partner and naming the company Affordable Roofing & Construction, John stopped by a couple of months ago and asked me to design a business card that could double as a logo.  He knew he wanted to use the color blue and had a sketch of a letter ‘A’ turned into a house.  No problem!  I gave John a draftsman-like font and added a chimney to the A, using white for the main field color and blue stripes to give it color ‘pop’ and strength, while limiting the palette for less expensive reproduction.  Once John and his partner had signed off on the art, I put it on a CD in multiple file formats so he could use the art with other vendors.  Within weeks, I was seeing the look on trucks and signs all over the Peninsula, and hanging over their shop door in Ocean Park.

Most recently, I created a 2-part carbonless, consecutively numbered quote/work order form for the company.   It’s gratifying when clients let me show them how they can save money by first brainstorming without thought of budget and then putting the parts together in a way that makes best use of their resources and in an order that makes sense.  Because John told me about the variety of projects he had in mind before we started, that he had the time and inclination to work with vendors himself, and that he wanted to keep the cash flow as tight as possible, his art developed in a way that best leveraged his resources to meet his goals.

By letting one shop (ours) give him art for other vendors, he keeps his art production costs in check as multiple graphic designers aren’t starting from scratch.

By starting with a logo, and getting clear about its important elements (in this case, the font, colors and stripes), John was able to keep his brand consistent as he quickly moved through a variety of collateral projects.  In other words, he got more bang for his buck because he was smart–not with deep pockets.

Way to brand on a budget, Affordable Roofing & Construction!

–Keleigh

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Case Study: Branding on a Budget

We do our best to meet people where they want to be met in the marketing process.  Take the two brochures, below.

The one on the left, Willapa Harbor Scenic Highway 101 Willapa Heritage Corridor, was a project of Raymond High School senior Mitchell Hatfield.  He did a great job designing the brochure.  Keleigh helped him get the work from Publisher into a format an offset printer could use, then offered subsidized pricing to get them printed by the Willapa Harbor Chamber of Commerce and Dennis Company.  Pick up a copy at either the Willapa Harbor Chamber office or the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau and see if you can find all of the 400+ steel sculptures in the area!

The Astoria-Warrenton Chamber designed a brochure or their upcoming Ambassadors & Greeters Convention and just needed someone to take their art and quickly turn it into a short run of tri-fold brochures at a good price.  Done and done!

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Are you a DIY brochure designer?

Have you been to the Lost Roo yet?  After much anticipation, the restaurant opened earlier this summer.  Reviews have been great! Just as the new restaurant was seating its first patrons, we launched their new website.

Of course, Kanga & Joey’s page are popular here at beachdog.com, but site statistics tell us the rest of you prefer looking at the menu.

Go for a beer and a game, or for a great meal with the family.  You’ll be glad you did!

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Do you Roo?

“Are you sure she said I could do anything I want?” Keleigh asked Sue after reading the job jacket.

Gay loved the results.  What do you think?

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Meet Dave & Gay Weston