How important is Customer Service to your Business?

Do you maximise the experience for every customer?

Does your company ‘wow’ existing and potential customers?

What would your customers say about you?

Everyone can have similar products or a service, what they can’t replicate is your people! What other companies can’t reproduce is how you treat your customers and how your customers feel when doing business with you! Your staff and how they make your customers feel are your competitive edge! Take care of your staff and they will take care of your customers!

Businesses that are serious about creating a culture ofexceptional customer service start at the top. Leaders walk the talk, they embody what they want the company to represent. Awareness to customer service is essential, even if somebody doesn’t directly interact with customers; they still have a huge part to play.

Don’t let there be inconsistency, it will lose you customers! Customers become frustrated when they get mixed messages. Don’t settle for second rate service as you wouldn’t consider yourself a second rate business would you?

I specialise in helping companies to get the most out of their staff, overcome any challenges they face and clearly defining a strategy for the future and achieving the results you want. If you feel that customer service is holding you back from growth then get in touch and we can discuss how NOW is the right time to get the help needed to blow your targets away and reach heights you could only dream of.

Any challenge can be overcome!

Live your life, you only get one!

My mantra or saying if you will is ‘Live well, Laugh often and Live with passion!’, now I have bad days and problems like anyone else but I don’t let them consume or rule me. I wanted to share with you some of the things that remind me to keep positive and remain focused on my goals, hopefully they will inspire you to!

1. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY

You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

 

2. YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS

You are enrolled in a full time school called Life. Each day in school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid.

 

3. THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS

Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The ‘failed’ experiments are as much part of the process as the experiments that ultimately ‘work’.

 

4. A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL IT IS LEARNED

A lesson is presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you go on to the next lesson.

 

5. LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END

There is no part of life that does not contain a lesson. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

 

6. ‘THERE’ IS NO BETTER THAN ‘HERE’

When your ‘there’ has become ‘here’ – you will simply obtain another ‘there’ that will, again, look better than ‘here’.

 

7. OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRRORS OF YOU

You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love/hate about yourself.

 

8. WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU

You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

 

9. YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE OF YOU

All you need do is look, listen and trust.

Business Networking and Building Relationships

I  launched this week a new 4networking group Nantwich (Cheshire) based at the superb Wychwood park Hotel, it was a great meeting and a successful morning. I love connecting with people and making introductions, you can not underestimate the power of relationships in business; Robert Kiyosaki wrote in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” that most people go to work at a job that they don’t like and smart people build networks.”

Can you survive in business today without doing some form of business networking? The old say comes to mind “it’s not what you, know but who you know”. I know my success in business IS due to the relationships I have built with colleagues, strategic partners and clients. I have joined various networking groups in the past and attended many events, both industry specific and open groups, if you go in with an open mind and be open to opportunities, you just never know who you’re going to meet!

I have been rewarded both in financial and non-monetery terms, I get so much more from networking than just business referrals, although that’s why we all go in the first place! People who understand networking will tell you “it works, just try it!”. Here are some tips so  you approach business networking the right way!

• Be Patient, it takes time to build relationships. 4N’s ethos is MEET-LIKE-KNOW-TRUST, until you have reached the trust stage people are unlikely to refer you to their valued clients. Of course there are cases where a visitor has attended a meeting and picked up a 20k contract but this isn’t the norm. So how long does it take? This depends on your personality, your business and the groups/events you attend. If networking isn’t working for you do not question networking, ask yourself what you are doing wrong?

• Go in with the attitude ‘who can I help today?’ not ‘who can buy my products?’. I have witnessed people walk into a networking events and just try to sell to the people in the room, they are missing the bigger picture. Once people trust you, they become your extended sales force, so much more powerful than a one of sale!

• Go beyond your industry and never assume anything! Connect with people on a variety of levels from a wide range of industries, you can never second guess who people know and how they could help you.

• Develop the habit of introducing people. Connecting like-minded people is a powerful way to enhance your network. Stealing the BNI networking groups phrase ‘Givers Gain’!

• Follow up! Don’t forget to follow-up after networking events to deepen relationships.

Share any networking tips below! You can join me at the 4Networking Group Nantwich on Thursday 27th September, the group meets every 2 weeks be great to see you along!

Inspiration, Commitment & Drive meet Mark Colbourne!

Hi All

I am just delighted this week for my friend winning GOLD at the Para Olympics games London 2012, if ever you needed inspiration to succeed just look at the personal journeys many of the Para-Olympic athletes who against all the odds have followed their dreams!

 

Winning a sliver medal on Thursday and gold on Friday marks an amazing turnaround in his life. Would you believe that only 3 years ago he was involved in a devastating paragliding accident that resulted in 5 months in hospital with a broken back. He admitted during his darkest moments he believed his life was over, it just goes to show his strength of character to come back and win Olympic gold! Due to nerve damage he still has no feeling in his legs, only his quads, which have powered him around the velodrome to glory.

Mark was a former ruby player and all round sports nut so to break his back was just devastating, after his accident he tried a number of sports before he found cycling, just going to show that if you don’t succeed at first keep trying until it clicks! For Mark it was cycling, although at first he was using stabilizers; in a remarkably short space of time, a lot of dedication, hard work and sheer determination he was soon competing on the world stage.

Mark has an amazing story and I hope it will inspire a lot of people, he is one of the good guys and deserves every bit of success, Mark says:

“I am not sure what my story says other than if you face adversity head on, if you stay positive, you never know what door will open for you.”

I hope that you agree with me that his story illustrates with commitment, focus and a positive mental attitude anything can be achieved! Well done Mark!