Category: Blog

The subject of customer service is a huge topic to cover. The most important question to consider in such a short space as this is: – Do your customers have the best possible experience when dealing with your company?

Customer service is not something that you just turn on and off. It is the continual result of the philosophy and attitude of the company and its entire staff.  It comes from the top down.  The key managers need to be continually and totally customer focused and this needs to permeate down through all levels of the staff structure.

Specific meetings need to be held within management to establish whether or not the customers are getting the best possible service. Ideas generated from these meetings should then be filtered down through all levels and training should be put in place to ensure that each member of staff knows how to give the customer the best possible service related to their specific role within the company.

All staff, at whatever level, and whether normally in direct contact with your customers or not, should possess the same attitude towards customer service. This is particularly important with those staff who are generally not used to dealing with customers. At the end of the day, the customer is King, or Queen, and all staff should have the attitude that their own regular daily activity is second to the needs of the customer. In other words, the customer is not a nuisance!

Good customer service means different things to different people.  The key, however, is attention to detail. Be careful not to overlook the smallest of details. Spell names correctly, write addresses accurately – even if your correspondence is being sent via email as opposed to the Royal mail. Customers won’t notice if you get it all right, but they sure will notice if you make the smallest of errors!

On your business premises – how are your customers being greeted?  Again, attention to detail is the key. How are your members of staff greeting your customers? Does the staff appearance reflect how you would like your customers to view your business? If your factory area is, by its nature, dirty, how clean is the reception area for visitors? Make sure there is a clean and welcoming area for guests. Keep your dirty staff out!

Keep a focus on the small things. They are just as important, if not more, than the large things.

A good exercise might be to ask yourself – how would I like to be treated if I were a customer visiting my business? Take a drive and park a short distance from your business, and then walk back to it. How does it appear on approach? How easy is access? Who greets you, and how? Are we simple to use? What is your overall impression, and what improvements could be made?

And why not ask your customers? After all, they hold the key to your success.

Find out exactly how people feel when dealing with you as a company. What is their customer experience? Use this information because, at every point, you need to be providing excellent customer service.

As we have mentioned, the subject of customer service is a huge topic to cover. We all know that word of mouth, whether a good word or a bad word, can have a profound effect on the reputation of your business. So how about giving your customers the ‘WOW!’ factor as part of their customer experience?

Customers nowadays expect to receive good service. They won’t talk about this. But you can guarantee that they will talk if they get bad service! If at all possible, create a Wow! experience that your customers will not forget. ip information Be creative and give them a special experience that they will want to talk about over and over because they were so impressed by your service.

Here is a short story related by a client recently, by way of example:

She pulled up in her car at the Ritz Hotel. The valet approached, greeted her, asked her name, and then took possession of her keys in order to park her car.

Moments later, the client walked up to the reception desk where she was greeted by the receptionist by name.  In that short space of time, the valet had relayed the clients name to the receptionist. The fact that the receptionist new her name when she approached the desk was definitely an unexpected pleasure. The client went on to repeat this story on numerous occasions.

To her, this represented the WoW! factor.

So, go ahead and use your imagination to create this WoW! factor experience for your customers.

As an example, a property firm owner could WoW! new home owners by leaving a card and some flowers to welcome them into their new home? A car valeting firm could leave a free air freshener in a car after a full valet. A suit hire firm could leave a card in the inside pocket of the suit hired offering a free tie on the next suit hire.

However you choose to WoW! your customers, you can guarantee that the word will certainly get around.

Are you getting results from your social media activities that forward your business, your sales, and ultimately, your profits? Or are you merely wasting your time?

Social media, by way of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., can be very time consuming. And, as a business owner, your time is at a premium. At the same time, social media has the potential of being very rewarding if dealt with wisely. But how are you spending your energies? And do you have a social media strategy? Lots of business owners spend many valuable hours on social media but don’t necessarily get results. You have to change your outlook.

Get yourself a presence

Through your normal networking channels – networking groups, trade shows, day to day contact with customers and other business owners, anyone you meet! – connect with them via social media and ‘get yourself a presence’.

Fill the auditorium first. If a theatre seats 5000 and only 5 seats are full, then your audience is only 5. Your performance is only hitting 5 people. So fill your theatre!

Build your followers

Talk to people. Link in with everyone at every opportunity. A lot of people have a Twitter account but don’t utilise it – find those that do and hone in on them. Create an interest and express an interest. People love to be noticed. Give encouragement via #following opportunities. Folks tend to follow those who are giving them praise and paying them attention (genuine praise of course).

Get real

Once you’ve initiated social media conversations, try to establish ‘real’ conversations. You’ve got to get creating appointments. The only way to do this is to talk to people. Use the phone, or Skype, or arrange to meet for a coffee and an informal chat. Find ways to talk to and meet the network that you have created.

And then – look at how you can work with these people. They might become a great source of leads, or indeed, they might even buy!

It’s a win, win if you do it right!

As a small to medium sized enterprise, have you thought much about supporting a charity and how it can help your business? And if so, what is your strategy? Do you have one?

Firstly, it makes more sense to build a relationship with a particular cause rather than making ad hoc donations. Choosing a local cause is a good place to start. And a charity or organisation that relates in some way to your area of business, or to your personal interests, also makes sense. If you work in the area of art prints, for example, you may wish to lend your support to local artists.

Local fund raising events can provide excellent business networking opportunities. Maybe investing in a whole table at a fund raising dinner and inviting customers and people you’d like to do business with to be part of your table. If they are unable to attend, at the least you have started communications.

It’s not only through donating money that you can offer support. Your business expertise can be of valuable support. For example, schools will often invite local business owners to come and speak to the children, offering an insight into various career opportunities. This could be developed into mentoring programs or school visit taster days to your business premises.

Have you thought of involving your employees in ways which support local charitable organisations? Serving food at the local homeless hostel or offering support to special needs schools are ways in which local businesses can support their local good causes. The added benefit is the building of team morale among your employees, as well as allowing them to feel that they are working for a worthwhile company.

Maybe you could offer support to members of staff who do voluntary work for local charities. For instance, they could use the office printer for small projects, or make use of one of the office meeting rooms for a meeting or event. email secure server Perhaps you could give one day off a year so that they can attend and support a charity event. Think carefully about the time and resources that you can afford as a small company. You can still make a huge difference in small ways.

It is important to find ways in which to let people know what you are doing to help your community, but to do this in a way that doesn’t come across as boastful. Make use of your social media channels, your website and your local media to make people aware, and promote your choice of charity or organisation through these channels as well. Track what you do, let people know what you do, and encourage them to help support your cause.

It makes sense to support your local charity, even if you are a small business. As well as making you feel good, it raises your visibility and enhances your reputation. So plan your strategy and lend support.

If ‘sales’ is one of those areas that you feel uncomfortable with and just don’t like to do, then it is highly probable that you aren’t allocating any time to it.

As small business owners, you will have many responsibilities and often not the extra staff to delegate those jobs to. So you become the accountant, the admin staff, the service provider, and the expert on legal matters, marketing and sales- amongst other responsibilities. Sales will often get pushed back and neglected in favour of other more enjoyable areas of your business.

It is important, therefore, that you allocate time in your diary each week for your sales activities. It need only be a short amount of time, but by allocating that time you will ensure that something gets done.

The sales activity starts with your prospects. There is no point in generating prospects through your marketing activities if you then neglect to follow those leads up. By allocating the time to your sales process you will increase your sales, thereby increasing business and profits.

It is vital that you get your sales process in place so that you then maximise the time allocated to it. It needs to be the most effective that it can be in the short time allocated.

Plan out your sales process and have a definite strategy in place. From your list of prospects, allocate time to making contact, introducing yourself, sending out information about your business, making an appointment, attending the appointment, doing your research, writing a proposal, and so on. Set aside an amount of time for each part of the process, log your activities, and see them through to the close of the sale.

Finally, even if you don’t consider yourself a ‘salesman’, you are. Your role is to identify and meet a need. By asking the right questions and listening, you will ensure that your prospect is genuine and save yourself a lot of wasted time.

 

A client recently complained to me that networking was proving to be a waste of time. They had tried a few different approaches – speed networking events, trade shows and group meetings, but they just weren’t seeing any results for all their efforts.

I explained to them that there are three critical things that you need to take on board when you plan your networking strategy:

1)      Networking is not just attending events.

You won’t enjoy many benefits from your networking if you only interact with people hoping to sell your product or service to them. You need to approach networking events with the intention of making contacts who are interested in reciprocally supporting one another to find new clients. Collect business cards and follow up your initial contact at the networking event with connections through social media, or fire off an e-mail to say that you were glad to meet and look forward to networking with them in the future.

2)      Expect to help others before expecting them to help you.

You need to expect to actively look for useful leads and contacts to pass on to your network before you should expect them to start passing referrals to you. It might take a little while for results to come through, but in the end, with networking, you get out what you put in.

3)      Network with the right people.

Think about who else your customers might buy from and what else they might buy. For example, if you sell wedding dresses, your customers are also likely to be shopping for a photographer and jewellery. If your customer is getting a new website designed, then they might also be looking for a copywriter. Seek out people from whom your customers might also purchase without any conflict of interests on either side. Attend the events that they attend, make contacts, build relationships; new prospects and warm referrals will soon be coming your way.

Whether your marketing material is an advert in a magazine, a website or a triple-fold flyer, there are some basic principles that remain true about your marketing content, whatever format you use. Here are my top tips

1)      First and foremost, make sure you’ve told people what you’re selling, what they can expect if they buy from you, and how you’ll solve their problems or fulfil their desires. This should make up ¾ of your content. If this interests them, they will read on. This should be more prominent even than your company name – if someone is interested in what you can offer, they’ll look closer to find out who you are.

2)      Marketing is not about you or your business – it’s about what you offer. Don’t make the first thing you tell people how many years you’ve been trading or how great your work is. After all, when you go to see a doctor, do you ask them what grade they got in their finals or who they’ve successfully cured in the past? Or is the only thought in your head about what they’re going to do to make you better? Only do the ‘about us’ bit once you’ve already got their attention.

3)      Include a call to action – tell people what you want them to do, ‘call me’, ‘e-mail to book an appointment’, and so on.

4)      And critically… make it easy for them to contact you! All your contact details need to stand out, be clearly visible and easy to find. No difficult-to-make-out fonts, no small type, and all the details: phone number, e-mail, address if appropriate. Don’t assume that all potential customers will be happy to e-mail you  or fill out a contact form – some may still prefer to speak to you

We held a Marketing Training Morning at Wolverhampton Novotel yesterday. Many thanks to all who attended – we hope you found it enjoyable and useful. We will be running another marketing training session in six months – full details will be released in due course. In the meantime, here is a selection of the feedback that we received:

 “I liked it that the advice was personalised to my business”

“the training was hands on and left me with a plan of action”

“It helped me to be definite about our unique selling point and what our key message is”

“it got me to think about where else my customers shop”

“I liked the interaction with the other attendees”

“one of the best parts was hearing from other business people with the same issues”

“the training was enjoyable and held my attention”

Our next training morning is on the subject of ‘Sales – helping you to close more deals’ and will be held at Wolverhampton Novotel on June 2^nd, costing £45 plus VAT per person. E-mail Doug@exec-tc.com to book your place.

Business Coaching is not waving a magic wand and making business owners’ problems disappear. Like all forms of coaching and training, it is about equipping clients with business skills, or enhancing them, so that they know what they need to do to make their business work for them now and for the future. Here is an example:

On the video from the night of our book launch, you will see Mel Riley, a friend and occasional client, describing what resulted from a Free Business Review that I did with her a couple of years ago. As is often the case, I talked to Mel a great deal about what her life goals were: what she would wish for if wishes could be granted. Mel’s wish was modest: she wanted to achieve a healthy work/life balance, with both time and money readily available for fun and relaxation, kept in balance with her work helping and supporting her clients, which is also very important to her. Knowing that, I was able to identify what business practices could be changed to help her to achieve this.

Like many business owners, Mel suffered from excessive modesty and was relying solely on word-of-mouth for marketing, rather than promoting her counselling services actively, not liking to be pushy. Together, we looked at areas of her market place that could be developed. Mel had worked in schools in the past and knew this arena, so I managed to persuade her to introduce herself to the local schools by sending letters with her flyers. This resulted in two schools taking her on.

I also had to persuade Mel to review her pricing structure to reflect of the wealth of experience and expertise that she offers to her clients. Again, like many, she was undervaluing herself for fear of pricing herself out of the market – in fact, by not placing yourself at the bottom of your market, you are giving your customers an indication that they are paying for quality services or goods.

Armed with this advice, Mel had picked up new clients in a matter of weeks, and was well on her way to making her wishes come true. She’s proven to be a keen and diligent pupil, and I’m proud to have facilitated the great things that she’s achieved.

Here is the story in her own words:

“I am self-employed and I suddenly lost one of my contracts due to funding cuts and felt much panic. I knew I had to do something but I didn’t really know what that something was.  A friend suggested using a business coach who was in her network group and gave me his number.

 I called Doug for a free consultation, and, if I am honest, I didn’t expect to like him. I was expecting someone pushy, who would give me the hard sell. I was convinced I would just have the free consultation and send him on his way. When Doug turned up, I found I couldn’t have been more wrong. Doug listened and understood where I was coming from. The morning flew by and before long I had a big to do list.  I had found the something I needed and just knowing I was doing something pro-active made me feel much better. cloud hosting info  I had a plan to get this show back on the road, I am a woman who likes a plan. Some of the ideas Doug gave me, and some were my own that I had not put into practice. 

 Using a business coach gives you the following

 1) Support and understanding that makes you feel less alone.

2) A coach can give you fresh ideas that you might not have thought of

3) Can help increase your confidence to get your ideas off the ground.

4) It makes you accountable so you don’t put things off or avoid them.

5) A business coach can keep you motivated or get you back on track.

 I have not only gained a business coach but a good friend. He has more than paid for himself and I would thoroughly encourage anyone who is struggling to invest in some support. There is no obligation to keep Doug and you can send him packing after your free review, but I suspect, just like me, you may decide to keep him.”

Mel Riley

Psychotherapist in Private Practice

 

One of the most common misconceptions that I come across with business owners is the tendency to muddle up marketing and sales. ‘Marketing’ is finding people who are interested in buying your product or service. ‘Sales’ is actually getting them to buy – closing the deal.  Activities that people might think of as Sales, such as cold-calling or door-knocking, are, in many cases, marketing activities, for example, if the desired outcome of the phone-call is to make an appointment for a company representative to visit and put a proposal together. It isn’t ‘sales’ unless you’re actually seeking the prospective customer’s agreement to buy.

Why is this distinction important? It is imperative that business owners think about their marketing in its own right, rather than thinking that it will happen automatically as part of their sales process. For example, if you’re not getting enough business, hiring a new salesperson might not be the right answer if you’re expecting them to seek out new prospects – for that, you need someone with marketing ability. Likewise, the person who is skilled at finding you interested people might not be the best person to close the deal with them. Some are talented in both areas, some are not.

The process of finding people who are interested in buying what you offer needs to be considered separately from the procedure of getting them to buy, although the two are naturally linked. It is important to understand that Marketing does not deliver customers. domain list . Marketing makes people aware of your product or service, delivers you people who want to know more, and, critically, if you’re getting your marketing right, it should only deliver people with a serious interest in you.

To find out more about how to get your Marketing right, you can attend our training morning on Monday February 17^th at Wolverhampton Novotel. E-mail Doug@exec-tc.com for details. You can also check out the ‘Sales’ and ‘Marketing’ Advice Sheets on our website.

Source material, Getting Down to Business by Doug D’Aubrey and Matthew Chuck.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles, freedigitalphotos.net