Worcester Business Journal

20 Worcester Business Journal | December 10, 2018 | wbjournal.com 10 T H I NG S I know about . . . … Engaging the immigrant business community By Jasmine J. Ortiz Jasmine J. Ortiz is a project manager and realtor associate at Keller Williams Commercial's Coastal Lakes and Government Services Group in Worcester. 10) Engage your diverse employees. Take inventory of the communities and ethnic cultural neighborhoods your employees represent. 9) Encourage cross-cultural business development opportunities. It's the best time to engage your workforce in sponsoring and participating in cross-cultural exchanges with other businesses. 8) Shift your mindset. As a community's cultural, racial or ethnic identity shifts, so do its values. What may be an important purchase for one group, may not be as important to your present group. 7) Leave money talk at the door. Cultures and ethnic groups see money very differently, and speaking of money can be taboo in an informal matter. First build relationships before talking about money. 6) Hospitality goes a long way. It is important to give a friendly or generous reception to business owners of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Most will receive you in a generous or friendly way, and have the expectation it will be reciprocated. 5) Language barriers should not deter engagement. It is a plus if you have a multilingual workforce, but companies dominanted by monolingual English speakers should still press forward. At first there will be some apprehension from employees, but with experience, the language barriers will seem to lessen. 4) Access to financial capital. Building business partnerships are key; and one way of doing this is supporting immigrants with access to capital. 3) Expressing your company's mission. When a company embraces diversity in its mission and business practices, it is much more successful in gaining trust and respect from their local immigrant business owners. 2) Being authentic in your Why. Business thought leaders emphasize the importance of identifying one's Why as an individual's purpose, but a company's Why can determine how authentic they are perceived by ethnically and culturally diverse immigrant business owners. 1) Be flexible. Immigrant business owners value the flexibility of time that self-employment brings, especially to spend with family and friends. Companies wishing to engage these business owners with their products, events or community partnerships should keep this in mind. K N O W H O W The impact of online reviews 10 1: P E E R L E A R N I N G B uilding a positive online reputation takes time, effort, and unfortunately can be damaged in minutes. Over the last few years, the popularity of online reviews has risen sharply. ese reviews help customers decide where to eat, where to shop, what cities to visit, and who to do business with. Up to 85 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Your business' reputation is dependent upon word of mouth, but also the reviews, comments, and overall conversations customers post about their experience. Don't be surprised if you already have reviews. People begin reviewing when they want to, not when you're ready. Managing those reviews are important. To push your business to the next level, dive into your online presence and follow these strategies to make establishing and maintaining your online presence a priority. Cultivate a positive online reputation You must first spread awareness of your business. e best way to do this is through the creation and execution of a strategic marketing plan. Over time, you will organically build a reputation, and when it feels appropriate, partner with your customers, asking them to review your business. Engage with them through social media or face-to-face aer they have a great experience with your business. A disguised opportunity awaits you when a customer has a negative experience; this is your chance to shine. By resolving situations like a hero, you're likely to score better, detailed reviews. Grow your online reputation Engage with all reviewers, especially when the reviews are negative. It is always valuable to reply and discuss the situation. You may be surprised to learn you can resolve it. It is vital for the reviewer to feel heard, regardless of what they said. With four- and five-star reviews, a simple expression of privately shared thanks will suffice. For reviews with three or less, privately reach out to create dialogue asking more about the situation. Always manage these conversations privately because that builds trust, loyalty, and credibility. It's not necessarily what happened; it's how you respond that counts. Leave your ego at home, don't get defensive, and seek to understand and help. Put your customer first, and you'll always win. Maintain your positive repuration Building and maintaining your reputation is easy if you always prioritize building and maintaining customer relationships and open communication between you. e better you treat people, and the better you solve problems, the easier it will be to maintain a positive reputation. Remember, it oen includes content creation, social media management, and responding to reviews. I advise carving out time in your schedule each day to work on online reputation. If you're unable to focus on this, I advise you to hire an expert. Bottom line Whether you or someone else does it, I can't stress enough how important establishing and maintaining your online reputation is. At the end of the day, online reviews can make or break your business. BY LAURA DIBENEDETTO Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal B usiness training sessions, whether for cybersecurity policy, new technology, sales practices or customer service, can be hosted by soware companies, corporate leaders or outsourced experts. But sometimes, as a manager, those experts are right under your nose. Here are a few thoughts on peer-to-peer learning. Peer learning motivates. When top performers share with lower performers how they handle certain situations, it motivates the lower performers to step up their game, says SalesLo.com. "Consider it a form of positive peer pressure. Or better yet, peer production … group improvement resulting from peer-production promotes a healthy sales organization where growth is encouraged." Peer learning should be an organized effort. An organized framework with all team members onboard, including upper leadership, will help promote user engagement and create accountability. "Show your executives why peer learning is effective and worthwhile through data and research," says Karen Minicozzi at Forbes.com. She advises setting up a governance committee; processes by which employees can create content to share, such as videos, which are aligned with broader company objectives; and assign a committee or person to identify company experts. Peer learning generates other benefits, such as building employees' leadership skills by delivering and accepting feedback. "Because feedback flows in both directions, participants … think from the perspective of their peer, consider where each is coming from, and try to get specific about what will be most helpful and constructive. is doesn't happen as oen when a boss delivers one-way feedback to employees," write Kelly Palmer and David Blake at Harvard Business Review. All these benefits help productivity and the company overall. W Laura DiBenedetto is the CEO of Vision Advertising, a Worcester marketing firm established in 1999. Reach her at 508-414-4266. W W

• Cover