Foundational to their approach are the 10 Core Values. Take some time on your own to dive into them, but today I wanted to touch on #1: Deliver Wow Through Service.

Service seems to be a dying art in America. I can remember my first job in high school working for The Finish Line. At the time, they had less than 50 stores and the four original founders were still actively involved. I can remember being intimidated that one of them came to the store for a visit. That day, he helped me unload a truck full of shoes. I was terrified! But, I learned he was a terrific guy and that listening to him would teach me a lot.  The Finish Line stressed product knowledge and excellent customer service back then.

Today, I rarely see the type of service they preached in retail stores (sadly, even at the Finish Line). Zappos is different! Much different. So different, they shouldn’t even call it customer service. Calling Zappos is like calling a good friend for a quick favor. There is a peacful, playful, interchange that makes you forget your handling a transaction. And that’s the magic!

Here is how they describe delivering Wow:

WOW is such a short, simple word, but it really encompasses a lot of things. To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means doing something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don’t want our people to be average. We expect every employee to deliver WOW.

Insert nonprofit for company and either donor, client, or volunteer for customer.  Are you delivering Wow to your stakeholders? How would it transform your organization? How would it reenergize your career, your team, your organization?   How much more fun would work be?

Please share your feedback on Delivering Wow.

Thanks for taking the Trolley.

You don’t need to.

There are people with money out there right now – looking to donate that money to charities and non-profit managers who need and deserve it.  These philanthropists are becoming more intelligent and doing a lot of research using the web in recent years.  They are researching via search, looking for local companies that are making the most impact in their own back yard and those who are using resources effectively.

Are you in their search engine results?

Many charities with an online presence don’t realize that having a website isn’t an expense, it’s actually a gateway between donations and you.  It’s an investment.  Did you know that there are over 1,500 searches every month for indy charity, indianapolis charity, or indianapolis charities?

Spending a lot of money on a website without any search analysis and search engine optimization is like buying a beautiful office and putting it in the middle of the desert.  No one knows where you are and no one knows how to find you.

People are looking for companies like you right now to donate money, time and resources.  Developing a beautiful web presence and spending $10k+ on a cool website aren’t going to help you… but spending a modest amount on a standard website or even better – a blog, that’s optimized for keywords that will bring you traffic, will result in an incredible return on investment for your organization.

Don’t invest in a web presence without first checking the credentials of your web design company.  Find out how their other sites are performing when it comes to search engines… not how many awards they’ve won.  Ensure that part of your web marketing package is providing effective keyword research and lays out a web strategy that shoots you to the top of the search engine results page for those terms.

Talk to social media and blogging experts about how they can help you acquire donations through the web.  If you don’t know anyone that can help, please contact me and I’ll send you a free e-book on Search Engine Optimization and Blogging.

Utilize social networks to publicize your efforts – right here in Indiana, we have Smaller Indiana, a wonderful social network of Indiana professionals and creatives who pay a lot of attention to non-profits as well as arts and culture.  Networks like Smaller Indiana can provide you an inexhaustible supply of donors and volunteers – use them! (Disclosure: I’m a co-founder along with Pat Coyle.)

We’ve started the page off with a Twitter theme.  Three white papers and your choice of Tweet Deck or Twirl as free downloads to manage your nonprofit’s Twitter account more effectively.