How good is your customer service?

Now this video is a bit old school yet the lessons are timeless. Press play and there might be some great tips there on how to improve your customer services.

5 lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.

Now before you wonder what relevancy does this email below have to do with business, a lot. Although this email has been doing the cyber circuit for a while now, it is still a positive message to be shared. What this email will highlight are these themes:
- respect for people like all your stakeholders (staff, customers, suppliers, partners, creditors, shareholders etc),
- respect for yourself,
- having faith (which we all need in business to succeed),
- paying attention to the details,
- show charity all day every day,
- give more than what is expected,
- going the extra mile,
- and always expect the unexpected,

Have a read and let it simmer. Then work out how you can make a person's day by doing something positive without expecting anything in return. In business, that could be sending your customer to your competition if you don't have what they need, tipping your courier person, giving them a coffee or some food, sharing a smile, complimenting a customer on how they look, what they're wearing, writing a positive message or quote on your shop window or website and more.

Read below:

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor
gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student
and had breezed through the questions until I read
the last one:

'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?'

Surely this was some kind of joke.. I had seen the
cleaning woman several times. She was tall,
dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question
blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if
the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

'Absolutely,' said the professor. 'In your careers,
you will meet many people. All are significant. They
deserve your attention and care, even if all you do
is smile and say 'hello.'

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her
name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:3 0 p.m., an older African American
woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway
trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had
broken down and she desperately needed a ride.
Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally
unheard of in those conflict-filled 60s.. The man
took her to safety, helped her get assistance and
put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his
address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a
knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a
giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A
special note was attached..

It read:
'Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway
the other night. The rain drenched not only my
clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.
Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying
husband's bedside just before he passed away... God
bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving
others.'

Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,
a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and
sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

'How much is an ice cream sundae?' he asked.

'Fifty cents,' replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and
studied the coins in it.

'Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?' he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the
waitress was growing impatient.

'Thirty-five cents,' she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

'I'll have the plain ice cream,' he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on
the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice
cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress
came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the
table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,
were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had
to have enough left to leave her a tip.


4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a
roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if
anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the
king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by
and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the
King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did
anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of
vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the
peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the
stone to the side of the road. After much pushing
and straining, he finally succeeded. After the
peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed
a purse lying in the road where the boulder had
been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note
from the King indicating that the gold was for the
person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The
peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a
hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who
was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only
chance of recovery appeared to be a blood
transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had
miraculously survived the same disease and had
developed the antibodies needed to combat the
illness.. The doctor explained the situation to her
little brother, and asked the little boy if he would
be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a
deep breath and saying, 'Yes I'll do it if it will
save her.' As the transfusion progressed, he lay in
bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,
seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his
face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a
trembling voice, 'Will I start to die right away'.

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the
doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his
sister all of his blood in order to save her but he had chosen to save her anyway.

Hugging always brings a smile to one's face...

.....but be careful. You wouldn't want to do this to a stranger in your place of business as a lot of people like their personal space and may take it as an offence. You may try giving away a free hug to people on a public accessway. Much safer ;-)

Have you hugged a total stranger before? Watch the video below to see how one Australian wanted to make a difference. This is a project that started over a year ago and the creator was also interviewed on the Oprah Show.

I know this doesn't have much to do with business but hey...hugging has everything to do with life.....and besides, its FREE! Reach out and give a hug. ;-)

Smile and the world smiles with you!

What is the power of a smile? A smile shows your friendly, warm, approachable, positive, trustworthy, welcoming, helpful, accessible, you have a good attitude, inviting, responsive, very cordial etc etc.

You try this test with yourself, smile at anyone you see on the street and see how many people smile back. In business, a smile does wonders. It makes your customers feel welcome, it alleviates the tension of their buying decision because they know they can approach you for advice/help. A smile breaks the ice and creates an overall positive customer experience. This positive customer experience is what you as a business owner wants to achieve.

If you have an online business, you smile using positive language in your emails by making your email sound like its from a real person and not a generic mechanistic spiel. Take a template reply and customise it. Ask how people how they are, tell them to have a great day, say you look forward to matching their face with a name one day, tell your customers they have a beautiful name (if they have one that you like), ask your customers if they would like you to call to make it more personable and there are many more friendly compliments and questions.

If you have an internet business, you can smile through your website by having people smiling in your graphics, use colour to create a warm feeling to your site and use language in your copy to relate to your customers.

Ohhh and here's a nice trick to try when you're hiring people to sell your business, smile at the potential job candidate when you first meet them. Try not to look like the boss or get someone you trust to do it. Then watch their reaction. If they smile back at you, then the chances are this candidate will smile at your customers. If they don't smile back, then imagine if you were a customer? Not good.

So get smiling my friends!!

Join our discussion here for your opinions on smiling.

How to advertise without advertising

Watch this video to see how to advertise without advertising and creating buzz without buzzing. This is the most effective way to create viral campaigns and to get WOM (word of mouth) buzzing. Build from the ground up, ensure it is unique, add a dash of humour, record it, let everyone you know know about it and watch your brand exposure explode.

So how can you advertise your products/services without advertising? Watch here.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. You think?

One thing that really grates me is when I walk inside a store and there is rubbish on the counter, on the floor next to the counter, the doorway, or the entrance. You may have the best products or services in town but if you’re place of business is dirty, you increase the chances of me going to your competition who are clean. This also applies to websites. ‘Rubbish’ on websites I would consider as too many clicks, unnecessary content, bad design, misinformation, no contact details, and bad graphics.

Being ‘clean’ and spotless is another area where businesses can compete against their competitors. You have to treat the premises of your business like Singapore - a no litter, 100% sparkling clean policy. If you see rubbish, clean it up. On websites, you may want someone independent to audit your website to clean up your ‘online rubbish’. It’s really great when your customers see you cleaning too because it shows you care for your business which in turn means great products.

There are numerous examples of businesses who sell exactly the same product, yet one product just seems better than the other. This is where everything outside the product itself comes to the fore. It could be cleanliness, friendly staff, location, opening hours or display could make the difference between a purchase and non-purchase.

Be clean if you know what I mean....and that includes the back of the shop. You never know that your client may inadvertently go 'to the back'. Ohhh and this includes your toilet! There is definitely no excuse for a dirty toilet.

It's all in the 'shin'- InnovaTION, ImitaTION, ExecuTION, CaptivaTION, ConsumpTION, DominaTION

In any market, there are innovators, who want to create an entirely new market space or revolutionise a current one like Red Bull with their energy drinks, Apple Inc. with the iPods and iPhones, Elvis Presley with Rock & Roll, Toyota with their hybrid vehicles, Google with PPC (pay per click advertising), Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone, Paypal with its internet payment gateway, the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby, Microsoft with its Windows operating system, McDonald’s, or Southwest Airlines with budget travel.

When you are an innovator, your future market will be created by you and shaped by how you create and develop it. Most things are different yet the principles of growing a business are still the same. Your marketing challenges are different because you have no direct competitors. Your business development is slightly different because you have to constantly monitor the market place to build on your barriers of entry. The harder it is for your potential competitors to enter your market space, the easier it will be for you to keep building on capturing more market share. Your maintenance and building of your new market requires absolute precision in the delivery and development of your product/service brand.

Constantly assessing and reassessing how the market reacts to your new innovative product/service will ensure your competitive advantage is maintained as long as you religiously improve your new product/service. Never stop innovating and improving your product/service because it can always be better. You won’t find Apple stagnant in their innovation, you won’t find the NZ All Blacks team stop improving how they play the game of rugby, you won’t find McDonald’s not looking for new markets to build a signature restaurant, you won’t find Toyota giving up their lead so easy in the hybrid car market, or Southwest Airlines not finding newer locations to service or better ways to improve their customer service.

Like in nature, business is a game of the fittest, the smartest, the most proactive, the most adaptable and flexible. Keep your game tight, your scoreboard ticking over with runs (cashflow) and you will improve your odds of being highly competitive in your market space.