You don’t get to choose what happens to your local economy because of Covid, but you are responsible for guiding your team to success in 2023. We’re here to help you succeed by elevating your company’s brand on the trusted Diamond Certified Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise® platform.

I’m pleased to announce a big upgrade in the Diamond Certified package for local companies. This year, we’re increasing the power of Diamond Certified through massive multimedia campaigns by illuminating your company’s stories and job successes and giving you access to tools for improved communication with prospective customers.

Four Things We Should Absolutely Do This Year
In this evolving environment, some company owners face too much demand while others face too little. You may need your team to implement a new strategy that changes the way you’ve been operating or focus on optimizing execution with fewer staff. Write these four things in your to-do list or calendar, and every month, commit to taking actions that advance the goal of each of them. Think how strong your company will be by year’s end.

  1. Get ongoing feedback from prospects and customers. You’ll use this to constantly improve operations and provide positive coaching to your team members.
  2. Improve your systems that lead to better customer satisfaction and referrals. These include providing timely follow-ups using the customer’s preferred communication channel (phone, email, text, Zoom) and adding a good surprise to customer interactions.
  3. Get Diamond Certified status to build prospect and customer confidence. It’s important to remind customers that despite the “strange times,” your team is delivering with a high Diamond Certified standard and is here to help them. Your quality remains high and your team takes pride in helping customers understand the best solutions for their needs.
  4. Become antifragile by gaining from the big stressors of Covid lockdowns. Like a weight trainer shocks their system to grow stronger muscles, respond to these operating difficulties by improving your company and deliver for your customers better than ever.

Newspapers Put Diamond Certified Directory on Front of Local Sections!
Now, online readers of the biggest local newspapers have placed the front door of the digital Diamond Certified Directory smack dab on the front of their Local sections. Readers simply click once and they’re into the Diamond Certified website industry category pages based on the geographic location of their newspaper. Get Diamond Certified and within seconds, they can find and contact you from your Diamond Certified Company Report! Go to dccert.org/grow now to start.

These newspapers are no small potatoes—we have SFGate.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Marin Independent Journal, Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, East Bay Times, Hayward Daily Review, Monterey Herald, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Vacaville Reporter and Vallejo Times-Herald. In addition to their web editions, we’re running full-page print ads each month in each newspaper, which includes our popular list of local companies rated Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise…and yes, get Diamond Certified and you’re on the list!

BIG BOOSTS! The Biggest Diamond Certified Media Campaigns in Our History!
In the last quarter, Greg has been on a relentless quest to double the value of  Diamond Certified’s status in the Bay Area by increasing the awareness and demand for companies rated Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise. He brought big cash to each negotiation and ended up with a fantastic TV, radio, newspaper, social media, and web promotion plan throughout 2021.

In addition to our ongoing promotions, every quarter we’ll pulse giant-sized multimedia campaigns to break through the awareness threshold needed to gain attention and stick in the minds of consumers. There’s a reason everyone around here calls these the BIG BOOSTS! It’s the difference you feel between a light touch on the arm and a firm pinch. You should take advantage of these campaigns by getting Diamond Certified. We’ll give you  brochures, eBrochures, labels, signs and Expert reprints to build your company with Quality Customers.

We Live and Breathe Stories. Your Stories are Amplified!
To confidently choose your company, potential customers need to absorb your team’s compelling story. Some need a story based on mostly quantitative data, while others are attracted to the qualitative narratives of people. It’s why your web-based Diamond Certified Company Report will present your prospects with both hard data (in the form of a ratings dashboard, animated charts and a capabilities table) and evocative narratives (in the form of essential articles, a video profile, Expert Contributor profiles, tips and a photo gallery).

Get Diamond Certified and you’ll also get the new Company Stories feature and a new 2- to 5-minute video interview feature titled 5 Helpful Answers. We’ll post both of these on your web-based Company Report and help you add them to your company’s website if you wish. Your Company Stories feature is a mix of project and staff photos set to music with scribbles or type added to certain scenes to make them pop with extra emphasis. To create your 5 Helpful Answers video, we’ll conduct a short Zoom interview and ask you 10 questions about your company and life. We’ll pick the best five and add some music and pizzazz to show both your expertise and approachability—a real person who cares about their customers. These are two more big reasons you should get Diamond Certified.