What weird things would you want to know about a vendor?
December 28, 2009 8:28 AM Subscribe
What sorts of "getting to know you" questions would be most helpful to you in determining whether a vendor is a good fit for you?
I run a smallish company in the special events industry, and we place a great deal of emphasis on making close personal connections with our clients. Our website currently has short bios and photos of each team member, but at the moment they are coming across as very dry and "corporate." We'd like them to be a little more fun, interesting, maybe a little edgy -- something to make a handful of (mostly) guys in their late 20s to late 30s stand out from one another and from all the other people out there who provide the same service. We want our prospective clients to be able to browse these bios and get a sense for which of our staff members would be the best fit for their needs, personality-wise.
A few notes:
- We already list the boring stuff like hometown, college, major, general employment history, family status, some basic hobbies, etc.
- We're in the entertainment field, so we are already listing their 10-20 favorite bands/artists.
- We need to be able to appeal to a pretty diverse clientele, though most of our clients do share some traits: mid 20s to mid 30s, upper middle class professionals, college educated and savvy consumers.
- Again, we want the bios to be as fun and interesting (and dare I say cool) as possible, but not totally frivolous or Myspace quiz-like, and also not too controversial or totally polarizing. For example, we'd probably want to stay away from anything too religious or political. Our clients don't always get a choice of which particular person to work with so we need to make sure that none of the bios alienate anyone.
- The bios will most likely be written in a list/Q-and-A format, not paragraphs.
Thanks for any ideas!
I run a smallish company in the special events industry, and we place a great deal of emphasis on making close personal connections with our clients. Our website currently has short bios and photos of each team member, but at the moment they are coming across as very dry and "corporate." We'd like them to be a little more fun, interesting, maybe a little edgy -- something to make a handful of (mostly) guys in their late 20s to late 30s stand out from one another and from all the other people out there who provide the same service. We want our prospective clients to be able to browse these bios and get a sense for which of our staff members would be the best fit for their needs, personality-wise.
A few notes:
- We already list the boring stuff like hometown, college, major, general employment history, family status, some basic hobbies, etc.
- We're in the entertainment field, so we are already listing their 10-20 favorite bands/artists.
- We need to be able to appeal to a pretty diverse clientele, though most of our clients do share some traits: mid 20s to mid 30s, upper middle class professionals, college educated and savvy consumers.
- Again, we want the bios to be as fun and interesting (and dare I say cool) as possible, but not totally frivolous or Myspace quiz-like, and also not too controversial or totally polarizing. For example, we'd probably want to stay away from anything too religious or political. Our clients don't always get a choice of which particular person to work with so we need to make sure that none of the bios alienate anyone.
- The bios will most likely be written in a list/Q-and-A format, not paragraphs.
Thanks for any ideas!
Questions you might add:
What have you done in your career that you are most proud of?
What do you look for in a client? (Then again, maybe not.)
Another suggestion: add a blog to the site, where everyone can link to announcements of performances / other things they're interested in. This might also give your visitors a reason to come back to your site, and it might also attract an audience of its own.
posted by rjs at 8:35 AM on December 28, 2009
What have you done in your career that you are most proud of?
What do you look for in a client? (Then again, maybe not.)
Another suggestion: add a blog to the site, where everyone can link to announcements of performances / other things they're interested in. This might also give your visitors a reason to come back to your site, and it might also attract an audience of its own.
posted by rjs at 8:35 AM on December 28, 2009
While I get where you are going with this, anything beyond what you have -
hometown, college, major, general employment history, family status, some basic hobbies, etc. / their 10-20 favorite bands/artists
is bound to get a little Myspace-quizzy. I don't think there is much more that is appropriate or illuminating to put on these biographies. What you could try is a set of (lighthearted) work related questions - best day at work? Greatest challenge? Why do you love working for xxx company? etc. There is a bit more relevance there and you could highlight/promote the way your company operates while also being conversational/cool and allowing your staff to express themselves.
posted by fire&wings at 8:36 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]
hometown, college, major, general employment history, family status, some basic hobbies, etc. / their 10-20 favorite bands/artists
is bound to get a little Myspace-quizzy. I don't think there is much more that is appropriate or illuminating to put on these biographies. What you could try is a set of (lighthearted) work related questions - best day at work? Greatest challenge? Why do you love working for xxx company? etc. There is a bit more relevance there and you could highlight/promote the way your company operates while also being conversational/cool and allowing your staff to express themselves.
posted by fire&wings at 8:36 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]
Less is more - you want a few carefully chosen soundbites about each team member that are pertinent to your market offering and give a flavour of the sort of people your are. Only a few key points that allow the customer to work out if you sound like the sort of people they want to do business with...the actual relationship building happens between them and the people they deal with once you have direct contact - all you want to do on your homepage is give a potential customer an indication of the sort of people you are that makes them want to call you.
So maybe the three most favourite bands not 10-20, the one favourite hobby and you want the best event they ever organised and what they are most proud of perhaps...you probably want to go easy on most of the bio stuff...your customer base as you describe it is likely to be time poor and will not want to spend hours ploughing through details of team members they'll never deal with...
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:02 AM on December 28, 2009
So maybe the three most favourite bands not 10-20, the one favourite hobby and you want the best event they ever organised and what they are most proud of perhaps...you probably want to go easy on most of the bio stuff...your customer base as you describe it is likely to be time poor and will not want to spend hours ploughing through details of team members they'll never deal with...
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:02 AM on December 28, 2009
Response by poster: Sorry for being a little vague...if it affects anyone's answers, these team members are actually wedding DJs, and our business model requires that the DJ be very closely involved with the clients throughout their wedding planning (as opposed to just showing up on the wedding day). They aren't actually organizing anything much or doing anything too creative -- we just want something to differentiate the guys a bit, provide an "ice breaker" of sorts for their first client meeting, and make them stand out as real human beings.
posted by justonegirl at 9:07 AM on December 28, 2009
posted by justonegirl at 9:07 AM on December 28, 2009
Word that best describes you
Person most interested in meeting
First choice for a new career
Favorite quote
Most influential book
Favorite web sites
Favorite cause
Favorite movie
Favorite music
Most treasured possession
Favorite restaurant
Favorite vacation spot
Favorite way to spend free time
Some of these you already have. Also, people are bound to put Jesus, the Bible, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, etc. in there, so it can get political/religious but that would be their option.
posted by peep at 9:10 AM on December 28, 2009
Person most interested in meeting
First choice for a new career
Favorite quote
Most influential book
Favorite web sites
Favorite cause
Favorite movie
Favorite music
Most treasured possession
Favorite restaurant
Favorite vacation spot
Favorite way to spend free time
Some of these you already have. Also, people are bound to put Jesus, the Bible, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, etc. in there, so it can get political/religious but that would be their option.
posted by peep at 9:10 AM on December 28, 2009
Have you thought about making Facebook pages for your DJs?
posted by PercussivePaul at 9:10 AM on December 28, 2009
posted by PercussivePaul at 9:10 AM on December 28, 2009
I would rather see quotations from past clients about working with that particular person, e.g. "Jane made our night! She was cheerful and responsive and even got great-uncle Stan on the dance floor!"
posted by heatherann at 10:03 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by heatherann at 10:03 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]
For a DJ, I'd scrap the suggestions I made earlier. I'd also ditch much of what you already have. Hometown, college, major, general employment history, family status, some basic hobbies... none of this tells me how someone works, and for the most part, it's boring. Frankly, I don't care about a DJ's favorite bands; I just want to know that a DJ can do what I want them to do, whether that's getting people to dance, or providing background music.
I really like heatherann's suggestion of getting quotes from clients. You might consider a *short* bio, quotes from clients, and quotes from the DJs about how they like to help clients come up with the perfect playlist.
posted by runningwithscissors at 10:49 AM on December 28, 2009
I really like heatherann's suggestion of getting quotes from clients. You might consider a *short* bio, quotes from clients, and quotes from the DJs about how they like to help clients come up with the perfect playlist.
posted by runningwithscissors at 10:49 AM on December 28, 2009
Just remember to limit the amount of information, and make sure the information is focused and targeted for a specific message. There may be no need to list everything from hometown to college major, etc - it's information overload and weakens the overall message.
Identify your value proposition - what do clients care about? Then pick and choose the data or information that reinforces your value proposition.
Basically, as I said, avoid information overload.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:56 AM on December 28, 2009
Identify your value proposition - what do clients care about? Then pick and choose the data or information that reinforces your value proposition.
Basically, as I said, avoid information overload.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:56 AM on December 28, 2009
I'm pulling this out of my ass, but (piggybacking on heatherann and runningwithscissors) I suggest having anyone other than the person you're profiling make up the bio. Even letting one coworker describe another (respectfully, of course) could be quite intriguing.
Personally, I love finding out what other people think of me, particularly hearing the traits that stick out for them. I was completely surprised to find out, for example, that someone's impersonation of me involves lots of finger-wriggling, in sort of a "diabolical plan" kind of way. My priorities and the things I find interesting are usually very different from the things seen by my boyfriend, deskmate or boss, and that's a good thing.
The added benefit of this is that even just having your coworkers describe you is a great way to envision how clients might see you as a team member and collaborator. "Steve is quiet but has a great sense of humor that helps smooth things over during crunch time." "You wouldn't think that Jeff's encyclopedic knowledge of movie monsters would make a big difference in event planning, but we always have something to talk about -- and our last clients loved playing with the Hulk fists that we put on every table." Then you can not only come up with an interesting profile, but get some insights about yourself (big or small) that can help you work better and have fun in and out of the office.
posted by Madamina at 11:29 AM on December 28, 2009
Personally, I love finding out what other people think of me, particularly hearing the traits that stick out for them. I was completely surprised to find out, for example, that someone's impersonation of me involves lots of finger-wriggling, in sort of a "diabolical plan" kind of way. My priorities and the things I find interesting are usually very different from the things seen by my boyfriend, deskmate or boss, and that's a good thing.
The added benefit of this is that even just having your coworkers describe you is a great way to envision how clients might see you as a team member and collaborator. "Steve is quiet but has a great sense of humor that helps smooth things over during crunch time." "You wouldn't think that Jeff's encyclopedic knowledge of movie monsters would make a big difference in event planning, but we always have something to talk about -- and our last clients loved playing with the Hulk fists that we put on every table." Then you can not only come up with an interesting profile, but get some insights about yourself (big or small) that can help you work better and have fun in and out of the office.
posted by Madamina at 11:29 AM on December 28, 2009
What about having each of the DJs present their dream playlist or playlists - that will help potential clients decide which of the DJs sounds like they'd be the best fit (and include any specialties they may have - for example, I looked specifically for a DJ that knew a little about bollywood/bhangra. Also, maybe include client testimonials or fun pictures of the DJ performing.
posted by echo0720 at 3:14 PM on December 28, 2009
posted by echo0720 at 3:14 PM on December 28, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
- Tell me about the best event you've organized.
- If you had $___ and free rein, what kind of event would you create?
- What kind of client is the best fit for you?
Can you cut the list of favorite bands/artists to five or so? I'm not going to sit and read a list of favorite artists, because I don't have the time and it's not that interesting (unless you mean "artists" in the painter/sculptor sense -- that would provide clients a sense of the organizer's aesthetic). A list of artists doesn't really tell me how someone works and that's what I'd want to know.
posted by runningwithscissors at 8:34 AM on December 28, 2009