Customer Service or not?

One of my pet hates has always been the lack of Customer Service in the independent sector as well as the Nationals.
Poor customer service can break your business and in the current economic climate we don't need something as basic as good customer service to slip.
I believe customer service if demonstrated and trained from the top should come as automatically as opening up in a morning.
Politeness costs nothing and serving in the service/hospitality industry is part of the job role.
My mantra has always been 'Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself' so it justs makes me wonder how complacent we are becoming.
Customer feedback is not something to be feared but something to work with. It defines the areas of your business that need looking at to improve the experience of your clientele.
Perhaps you just need to stress the importance of customer service when you induct new staff, perhaps existing staff need a refresher on dealing with the customer.
Rewarding staff is a good way to generate excellence; its amazing the difference it can make by just presenting a Certificate to the Employee of the Month can make. Other staff members are automatically going to step up to the mark. Maybe the Employee of the Month could provide hints and tips for the Company Newsletter?
Your staff members are your reputation, their level of service can affect the balance in your till in the future, perhaps this could be the difference between staying in business or not.
What do you think?

Why do you Network?

The dynamics of Networking is changing. The businesses that used to Nework to find new business are looking for more than this.
Nowadays, I am finding that they want to learn something specific to help their business grow. It might be tax related, or advice on marketing or a plethora of other things that as a group leader we have to source the information and pre-empt the thought process, continually striving to keep ahead.
For me this is where providing added value to the Membership comes in and is something that is continually worked on.

As a networker, what do you want to get out of a meeting for your money? What drives you to attend meetings? What makes a meeting complete for you?

Customer Service

Yesterday I was pleased and surprised that a local chain of grocery stores contacted me and told me that one of their staff had been disciplined after I had complained on Twitter about her rudeness.
I had passed a comment; they got in touch, took details of my complaint and promised to get back to me. When they did it was telling me they had dealt with it and also will be looking at their staff training in that particular branch.
The most pleasing part of this being that they are on the look out for mentions of their business and are not frightened of making contact and addressing issues.

Are you as open to this form of customer service? Do you need to be more alert as to what your customers are saying about you? Are their steps you can take quickly and easily to be as on the ball as they are?

If it helps to keep customers happy and talking about you in a positive light perhaps its worth taking a couple of minutes to review your systems?

Time Management & Blogging

Recently time has been a little limited and one of the things that has gone by the wayside has been this Blog
This is something that I will be putting to rights in the future as I am acutely aware of the benefits of blogging for business and raising awareness of the work of The Rural Meeting Place.
Using a Blog, promoting it through Facebook and Twitter as well as LinkedIn and your website can show potential clients the range of your knowledge and expertise.
With a range of consultants and business advisors in the market place it is essential to show the world what you are capable of and the approach that you take to business. I know this is the same in all professions; so show your knowledge and pen a few words on a regular basis to help promote your business.
So, I apologise for my tardiness and promise to resume blogging regularly about the A-Z of promoting your business and many other random business thoughts that come to mind.

K is for.............Keep Talking and K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid)

Keep Talking.................to everyone about your business, how you can help and above all else to remind people that you are still here.
Clients/Customers will welcome a quick call, e-mail or letter from you as a reminder that you are still operating. Fitting in with the 80/20 rule this could be your lucky contact. For sales people it is important to remember that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.
When was the last time you picked up the phone to your best and your worst customers? A quick courtesy call will bring you to the forefront of their minds and wouldn't it be great if that call ended up with an order?
You could even be brave and ask them if they know of anyone else who would be interested in your product or service.......you don't get if you don't ask!

K.I.S.S or as we call it in a sales environment Keep It Simple Stupid.........so many people are tempted to go chapter and verse on a product or service with features, benefits, pain relief etc etc (In other words everything they have heard other people talking about) and overloading the prospect who walks away not really knowing what you were there for. Sometimes this can result in you losing a 'sale' because you have actually talked them out of buying or even missed the signal to buy.
I find a quick overview chat is good and then asking questions and allowing the prospect to ask questions that you can then answer using the knowledge that you have stored.

I remind you of an occassion that many people have heard about when I was working with a company and we were looking for sponsorship. The poor Commercial Manager was up against the wall, needing sponsorship, and spent half the day giving chapter and verse to answerphone machines and wondering why these people were not calling him back or not available to take his call. What would you have done in their position?
It demonstrates that you only need to give enough information to whet the appetite and then you get the second chance to go in for the sale but if you give everything in the first place, the brain overloads and they then have the opportunity of not taking your call and having to say no! Resulting in you getting despondent and the prospect being wary of speaking to you at any time.

J ........... is for Journal (Blog)

This is another way of showing your knowledge and encouraging people to use you and/or your business. It is also another place to keep information that you do not necessarily want to put in your website content, whether this is because of the volume of information that you have compiled or because they are your thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the view of your Company. If this is the case please make sure that you show this somewhere prominent in the Journal/Blog

This is also a way of showing your expertise in a your specific area of expertise and can help potential customers/clients make up their mind about using your business for their specific needs.

Have you got Ten Top Tips that you can share? Do you have a view on new industry news that you can share with your readers?

All of this is information that your readers will be interested in hearing and will make you stand out from your competitors.

You can also link it back to pages on your website to show more information etc and thus increasing the the chances of your potential viewers finding more out about your Business.

I is for Information

I is for Information

Everybody likes to think that they have learned something from you for free so give some information to show that you know what you are talking about but do not be tempted to give too much away as you will always be looked upon as the one to go to for advice without payment. Learn to know when to say ‘OK shall we formalise this and put a date in the diary when we can talk about rates/fees’

Always have information available for your prospective clients/customers. This can be in any format but should be available to hand over if requested or suitable. If its on your website, ensure that its up to date and relevant.

H is for ...........Handouts

Even if you only design them yourself and print them off, ensure that you have something in the form of a handout describing what you can provide, how you can be contacted, any offers that you have etc , ready to give away when you meet new people. When you create them yourself, you can, at least change the content and tailor it so that it is topical for the audience that you are encountering. For a large event when you know you will be dispensing numerous copies it would be worth investing in professional design and print quality.
As with Business cards it is always useful to have some close at hand at all times as you never know when they will be useful and you don't want to miss the opportunity for being remembered by a potential client.

G is for Growth & Graphics

Growth
As your business grows your public awareness will increase. Are you ready for this? Are there any areas of your business that need firming up? Before you incorporate growth ensure that the grassroots of your business are in sound shape. Have you got sufficient staff to deal with growth? Are your systems in place? Have you got contingency plans for this growth should you need to outsource? If you carry stock, do you have space, availability and consistent suppliers? If you make the product yourself can you cope with the increase in demand? If not have you made contingency plans?


Graphics
All of your graphics should be consistent throughout your business promotion. Too many businesses have totally different graphics for their advertising which makes it difficult for a potential client/customer to relate to your business. When we say repetition builds reputation it helps to have a likeness reapeated to be able to recognise it. Do not send out conflicting messages as it only takes a short while to confuse but a long time to draw back all that could potentially be lost by sending out these cross messages.

F is for ...............Flyers & Free Listings

Flyers should always be kept in your handbag, diary, folder, car boot and anywhere else that is easily accessible. You never know when you could be asked for your information and what a missed opportunity it is if you do not have it at hand to give to your potential customer. I would imagine that your competitors have an ample supply close at hand especially for this situation.

Free Listings fall into the same category as Directories. This is just a simple Google search and a little time spent filing details and keeping them regularly updated with contact details and where necessary a photograph or logo.

'E' is for..........

Exhibitions need not be expensive to attend and you will find many local ones could even be free to you.
If you are attending ensure that all the info and Point of Sale material that you use is up to date and plentiful to use as handouts.
Return on this investment may not be immediate but will help to build your reputation when combined with the other promotional tactics that you employ.

Expert.

Become an expert in your field. Become recognised by responding to queries on social networking sites, to radio, newspaper & magazine requests and soon the media will be approaching you when they have questions. Send topical articles in to business publications, which address relevant topics to your industry and when you have built a rapport with the journalists and editors they will start to contact you for responses to the issues that arise.

Editorial space is not difficult to achieve if you send relevant press releases to newspapers, magazines and trade press on a timely basis. It is always worth remembering that if you have nothing worth saying, don’t bother.
Recently, through a social networking site, a colleague of mine made contact over a shared interest and a few days later was asked to send some product samples to this same lady who was an editor to a fashion magazine, which subsequently reviewed the items and gained the client a considerable amount of page space. For the sake of spending a little time it is amazing what can be gained!

D is for Directories

There are many free Directories on the internet that you can list your business on to raise your business profile.
Do a search for your area of interest or industry and include your details but remember to keep a list and keep it updated.
Social networks are also a good point at which to promote your business. Again keep a list and ensure that it is updated regularly with contact details and updates of services that you offer.

C is for Conferences & Cold Calling

Conferences are a good way of promoting your business to your potential consumers and a way of you showing off your knowledge to them. It does not have to be a big, swanky affair as a short 2 hour session with networking before/after will be just as effective and could convey more information than an event that has been ‘padded out’ to fill a time slot.
Being a guest speaker at a Conference is a great profile builder that you can link to for future reference & to show to your potential consumer/client.

Cold Calling is like marmite, you either love it or you hate it, but sometimes it has to be done to increase your sales/awareness potential.
To do this effectively always make sure you are in the right frame of mind and do short, regular sessions. One good trick is to end on a high. So a sale or an invitation to send info is always a good place to stop (not the first one though!)
Know what you want to achieve before you pick up the phone, there is nothing worse than being bombarded with information and being expected to make a commitment. You can always return with alternative information at a later date.
You might just want to use the phone call to find out who is the right person to post information to or whom to e-mail and then build up to selling by phone at a later date when you have built your confidence. If you get the chance to sell though, do it, don’t waste the opportunity or your competitor might be the next caller and they will reap the benefits of being pro-active and on the ball.
If you commit to sending information/samples, do it or the only memory your potential client will have of your company is one that does not deliver, so make notes and refer back to them.

B is for Business Cards & Blogs

Business Cards say a lot about you and your business so it pays to take time to design them to give as much as information as possible without looking like an advertising bill board.

It is essential to include all the ways that you wish to be contacted in whether that’s phone, e-mail, skype or through one of your Social media formats.

Have you included your website? Your logo? Did you want to include a picture of yourself?

Have you taken care with the size of the card? I recently over heard someone complaining that they had been given a card, made by vistaprint, that was slightly larger than the norm and that it didn’t fit in their card holder!

There are also arguments for and against printing on the back of cards. Some people like to use all the space available and others like to leave the back clear for contacts to write notes. What is your view on this?

Blogs are a good way of showing your knowledge and sharing trade information and can be linked to from your website and vice versa. If you have information you want to share that you do not want to have on pages of your website this is a good idea to use to invite people to have their say on information or thoughts that you are sharing. Perhaps you want an area that can be used to pass around some ideas or perhaps you want to use the arena to test out the idea of an E-book by starting a précis or overview of a chapter. Whatever you want to use it for always bear in mind that it is a forward facing element of your business so do not incorporate anything controversial, inflammatory or anything that you will regret later.

A is for Advertising and AIDA

At some point in time we all need to Advertise our business through one format or another. Some forms of advertising are free as in promotion through a Blog, Twitter and other means of Social Media or editorial and Press releases, and other forms have to be paid for.
When investing in advertising it is essential to know what you want to achieve through your advertisement.
Have you got a special offer that can be sold through a one off advertisement?
Do you need to raise the customers/clients awareness to a product or service that they do not buy on a daily basis or is your product a high value item which again needs you to build your reputation through repetition?
How will you know that the advertisement is successful?
What will you put in place to monitor your Return on Investment?
Simple tricks like adding a different name to the advertisement will help you monitor your responses.
Do you know your target audience?
Where will you advertise?
How will you advertise?
When will you advertise?
These are all questions you need to address before you commit your advertising budget.

In future weeks we will address different forms of advertising on an individual basis as they appear in the alphabet. If, however, you want to know more before we reach them, drop me an e-mail and we can have a chat business@theruralmeetingplace.com

AIDA:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

These are four key points to address when drawing people in to your business through any format. Whatever your product or service, this will apply to you and can be adapted to fit.

Imagine your potential client/customer is ready to invest in what you have on offer, what do you need to do next? Follow the steps below and you will be on the way to drawing them in to your sales zone.

Draw their attention to your product/service by creating an interest in what you have to offer, create a desire and make them want your product/service and then offer a call to action by way of inviting them to buy now, call, e-mail, sign up, book or just log on in the easiest way possible.

The choice is yours,but, you do not want them to slip through the net and go to your competitor before they commit themselves, so make it as easy as possible for this potential customer/client to buy your product.

Happy promoting and look out for B is for..................

The Rural Meeting Place A-Z of Promoting your Business

Over the next few weeks we will be blogging alphabetically about promoting your business with hints and tips of what you can do and perhaps for very little financial investment.
Business promotion is essential to keep your name in the Market Place and remind people that you are still here and ready to do business.
Many SME's do not have a marketing budget but it helps to have a marketing plan in place. When you get the phone call about cheap adverts etc you need to know what you want to achieve and where you want to be doing it from.
However you promote your business you want to be sure of achieving a Return On Investment (ROI) whether that be on your expenditure or on your time invested.
So, watch this space, for some ideas and please feel free to chip in with a few of your own.

Out with the old and in with the new.

With a New Year fast approaching it is time to stand back and view business with a critical eye; it is something that I have done over the last few weeks and it has occassioned me to come up with some plans for next year. No vast changes in the way of operating but a few additions that will enhance the service that Members receive.
Networking Masterclasses will be run on an occassional basis in order that new members can themselves learn but also so that existing members can be sure that the new members know what is expected at a network meeting.
To help deliver the Business Link contract that we have received we will be holding a series of men only and ladies only meetings to see how business is different for the opposite sexes. What makes business tick for you? What pains are you going through? What help would you like and who do you think could provide it?
We shall also be holding a series of business focussed seminars to help with our Marketing and to promote word of mouth awareness and also to introduce you to the expertise of some of our members.

So, have you taken any steps to take a critical look at your business and what if anything will you be doing differently for 2010 ?

Networking Master Classes by The Rural Meeting Place

The Rural Meeting Place has added another product to its portfolio for its Members to access, the Networking Masterclass.
Over the last few months more people have started to network but have been unsure of how to go about the process to bring the best returns for their business, so we decided to help with an hours Masterclass before a network meeting. The first event proved to be a success and drew people together who had not networked before and who were apprehensive about the whole idea of networking.
We went through the process of the people who throw business cards around like confetti expecting them to stick somewhere and wondering why they get no business from an event and stop attending, to those that work the room naturally and carry with them a host of potential contacts for those they engage with by means of their own extended network.
The pleasing part of the Masterclass was when one of the attendees said 'Its all about relationships'
We also had the benefit of having a successful networker come along to tell people how he has made networking work for him and his Utilities Business.
The Masterclass is held before a regular network meeting and then gives people a chance to try out their new found skills at a live meeting whilst things are still fresh in their minds.
These events will now be held regularly so that new Members to the Rural Meeting Place can quickly start to discover how to market their business effectively through networking.

Developments on Twitter

Since I last blogged about Twitter things have developed quite quickly. Who would have thought that I would join forces with my Web Site designers to go on and do Seminars on using Twitter for business? I will talk about the benefits of this at a later date.
I find that having had success through this mode of Social Media I can confidently encourage others to use it as well. By success, I mean that businesses have signed up to www.theruralmeetingplace.com as members, others have come along to meetings and also I have been able to promote the products that I have available to a larger audience. Success in the means of a much increased profile and all for a short time each day.
Joining conversations on Twitter and learning about the people that you follow and who are following you is just a form of online networking. Some of what you say is interesting to some of your followers just as in the same way you are not always interested in what all the people you are following say all the time.
I find it very useful to tailor my Tweeting to the time of day I am online. Lets face it , at 11 o'clock on a saturday night are you going to take any notice of details of a networking meeting on wednesday lunch time? No, neither would I be, but, you might have a conversation about a TV program that was on or a book that I am reading.
Twitter is a good form of networking and is an arena where it pays to let your true personality shine through after all we all do business with people we like and whom we have interests in common.
Follow me on Twitter if you wish @carolermp say hello and mention that you saw the Blog.

Effective Tweeting

Last week I gave an over view of Twitter for Profile which I will take further in this Blog. After spending time viewing what was happening in the Twitterverse I decided to put some plans into action. I decided that I wanted to use it as a social and business tool for www.theruralmeetingplace.com
Initially I set about finding people in my catchment area to 'Follow' in the hope that some of them would follow me back to enable me to have an audience to speak to as well as to have an arena for conversation with the people and businesses that I was following.
To achieve this audience I set about viewing the followers of people whose Tweets I enjoyed and selecting those that I thought I would enjoy following. One quick click and the base of 'Followings' started to grow.
I found that there were some very interesting conversations happening and that people were posting some very relevant Links to articles, websites etc so as well as having some Social Discourse I was actually learning at the same time. When people started 'Following' me and responding to my Tweets that just increased the conversational possibilities which in turn increased the possibilities for me to highlight the role of The Rural Meeting Place. Some people are interested in joining, some in the Events that are listed in the Calendar and some in the Marketing opportunities that the site can offer and some were interested in chatting generally and becoming friends on a social level.
All in All this is a long term Marketing strategy for The Rural Meeting Place and the other accounts that I am setting up for other projects.
Next week I will discuss what I have achieved so far and how I did it.