Jason Fried, CEO of 37 Signals recently implemented CEO office hours available to the public to ask him specific questions every Tuesday and Thursday from 3PM-5PM CST.

When I clicked on Jason Fried’s tweet it linked me to a web page that explains his CEO office hours to the public…

Should you, even if you don’t have as many customers as 37 Signals, implement your own virtual open door Q & A policy?

If your answer is YES, I have some experience and recommendations to share with you before you begin to answer the phone and talk to people.

Here is what I like about Jason’s open Q & A approach & I’ll also share with you what we’ve learned in the different ways we have setup similar Q & A services for our clients.

Here is what I like about Jason Fried’s CEO Virtual Open Door Policy:

• Making himself available (Really Available). Most leaders, especially of larger companies like 37 Signals, knowingly or unknowingly make themselves unavailable to direct conversation with prospects & customers. One-way communication directives like speeches & tele-presentations don’t constitute open, non-agenda, dialogue.
• Q & A format. People crave the opportunity to ask their desired question vs. being told stuff that can generate questions, but not having the opportunity to ask here and now.
• 1-on-1 conversation. More difficult to manage, but much more intimate for Jason to have a first come-first serve call-in limited to just Jason and the caller. The caller asking the question will feel more appreciated and allow more open and perhaps honest conversation to take place between just two people vs. a group of people.
• A set date & time schedule. Jason will have an easier time managing by having a set day(s) and time. Every Tuesday & Thursday from 3-5 PM.
• Simple guidelines on what type of questions he feels would be most helpful and a requested time duration for each call.
• Process for responding to callers unable to reach Jason via phone. Callers will want to speak with you directly on the phone if you offer Q & A office hours. From experience, I can tell you they will get frustrated if they can’t reach you after repeated efforts. They will not understand they are competing, first come-first serve, with other callers for your time. Jason is wise in telling people to drop him an email and submit their question and he will respond as quickly as possible. In my experience, a timely email response is more personal than a live phone call conversation after repeated attempts.
  

Here are some helpful guidance in establishing an open virtual Q & A policy for your clients and ourselves:

• Access to your most FAQ. 1) Develop a list of your most FAQ and record yourself answering those questions. You type out the question for all to see and then you audio record your response using a tool like Audio Acrobat for all to hear. Now publish online for everyone to access. This does not replace your open Q & A process, rather complimenting your open door policy. There will be some people, for whatever reason, that will not call you to ask their most important question-your FAQ can answer the question they wanted to ask but couldn’t. 2) You will also be able to minimize answering the same questions over and over again by equipping people to review those most FAQ.
• Prepare for the stupid questions. Consider in advance how you should process and respond to the stupid questions you will receive.
• Develop a tactful & non-cheesy way of capturing customer testimonials and case studies. Many people will have a question they want you to answer & then tell you how your product or service has made a difference to them. Why not develop a tactful way of asking and gaining their permission to share their experience with others (1st person testimonial + case study). Once again, I mentioned Audio Acrobat earlier for recording and distributing audio recordings-establish a free audio acrobat telephone number and have people share their experience by calling the number and leaving a message, just like they would a voice mail. Audio Acrobat stores the recording of this testimonial enabling you to upload on your site for all to hear.
• Long haul commitment. People don’t understand when you announce you are no longer offering CEO Office Hours, so you better be sure you’re willing to commit your time on this initiative for the long term.
• Re-visit the primary reason why you are doing CEO Office Hours. Even the most caring of leaders are going to face burn-out by having Q & A office hours 2 x week. What is your primary reason for spending this time with your prospects, customers, & critics?
• In the beginning, don’t be over-generous with your availability. Jason, in my experience, is offering too much time (2 hours a day x 2 days) on a split day schedule for his Q & A office hours. I’ve interviewed Jason before and have followed how much he cares about staying in touch with his customers, but in my experience, consistently allocating 4 hours a week on two separate week days is logistically too challenging for a CEO of a company the size of 37 Signals. In the beginning of such an undertaking, start with 2 available hours on only one set weekday such as every Thursday. People will remember and not understand if you have to reschedule or cancel open office hours because of the demands of your CEO position. So start with 2 hours a week and respond to the overflow questions via email.

I hope Jason’s idea coupled with our experience in having a CEO virtual open office hours helps you determine if you should implement in your business.

We would like to give you a complimentary consultation where we listen to your greatest challenges in producing and delivering content that your ideal clients want to share?

We promise to not be lame and try to sell you stuff you don’t need when we talk.

37 Signals Features Our Blog Post

Today, those cool kids from 37 Signals featured our latest blog post.

You can see it here.

Click on icons below and learn more about Backpack for your internal project management and intranet and Basecamp for your client project management.

Let’s say you are working on a project for a client. The project consists of stuff you need to share and get done with your team and you also have stuff you need to share with your client. The two should always be separate.

Think of Backpack as your small business intranet where you share, store, secure, and discuss everything that is important for your team to accomplish a client engagement.

You can add any combination of notes, to-dos, files, photos, and dividers to a page. Pages just take seconds to create and can be used to organize, share, and discuss anything. See photo below and view the easy setup visual.

Backpack Page Created in Seconds

For example, we are currently working on multiple client engagements. We have an office located in Greater NYC area and one in Portland. Occasionally we have specialty contractors from different parts of country. We needed a shared system enabling each person to access, share, and store information vital to the client project success.

I’ll share a brief overview of how we use Backpack within minutes of partnering with a new client.

When Company-X partners with The Strategic Incubator, a process is set in motion:

• We establish a Backpack page of Company X. It takes us about 10 seconds and then we click one button to send an automatic email and text message notifying selected members of our team that we have a new project page.
• Each team member gets to work adding to the to-do list, notes section, and the writeboard section to brainstorm some preliminary creative ideas.

Before Backpack, we would pick-up the phone and receive a work status a few times a day.

Now, we just open our shared and secured Backpack URL site from any computer and in seconds I can see exactly what our individuals are doing.

Work Status

What if I’m on the road and I did not have immediate access to my Mac laptop?

No worries, because Backpack is a web application and I can access our business account from anywhere and from any computer.

Here are some more ideas of how you can use Backpack for your own fast business:

• Market research page. Everyone collects and places shared market research on one page.
• Media kit. You can place all of your media coverage over time on one page and then share with anyone-including the press.
• Meeting prep notes. Stop wasting time trying to brief one another on an upcoming. Post it on your Backpack page and there will be no excuses for everyone to be prepared.
  
• Standard Operating Procedures. Think of all the times you may have prepared a document, a proposal, or a document that you will use over and over again. Why not keep an on-going page of documents and protocol so you no longer have to repeat.
• Most frequently asked questions. Keep a list of your most frequently asked questions in one place and then email to anyone you like for quick and easy client support.
• Shared calendar. We know where and what we are doing at all times. Backpack makes it a snap to share a master online calendar.
• Share design ideas. Have an idea for a certain graphic for one of our client seminars? Upload it and share with everyone.
• Professional education notes. Let’s say one of our team members attends a meeting. That night before happy hour, he can update and share the important stuff with everyone.

All of this sounds like it should be really expensive right?

How does $24 dollars per month sound? We thought the same thing… This is a no-brainer price.

If you decide you want to learn more about Backpack as your fast business intranet and internal project manager, I will share the Backpack home page with you and you can determine if it’s what you need.

If you decide you need, please consider letting us know in the comment section below how you are using and like for your own business.