Archives for the 'Finance & Accounting' Category
Did you say something BAD about me?
We often feature customer service here and the importance of getting it right – never more so than dealing with a customer complaint. Or even preventing a problem turning into a complaint… so I thought I’d share this with you…
Background
A land line went down here the other day and I was having real hassle getting through to the telecomm provider to report it.
- The recorded service I got through to (using a cable line) said it couldn’t run the test on the faulty line as it was busy… and suggested I call back…
- The form on the website accepted all the details I inputted then wouldn’t process…
- When I finally got through to a human being, English wasn’t her first language and she insisted on trying the web route again on my behalf – only to discover it wouldn’t register the fault…
I was eventually transferred to someone in the UK who manually logged the necessary information and started the process of sorting it out. From then on, I must admit in all fairness, it all happened pretty quickly.
Meanwhile, the interesting bit
Half an hour into this malarkey I was really getting hacked off, so I tweeted about it on Twitter, naming the company. Within about a further 20 minutes I had a direct tweet from its Care team inviting me to email them the info and they’d get on the case!
I did email them and thanked them for spotting my dilemma and offering to help. I also suggested they get the ‘powers that be’ at their (blue chip) company to phone in with problems/ use the website to try and solve them and see how they get on see how they like the experience.
Even when I received a follow up call the next day to check that everything was okay I still felt that they were playing catch up from a customer service viewpoint:
The competent human interaction should be there right from the first contact.
Now a question for You
What happens when a customer phones your company with a complaint?
PS: You Plc coming soon – Customer service happened to be more topical for me right now 
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Are 12 of you ready to up your game?
As you can see by the side bar, we’ve been concentrating on helping people who are finding themselves out of a job get the best possible perspective on how to handle their predicament and get themselves back earning.
So apologies to the thousands of you who visit this site and read our blogs if you feel we’ve been neglecting you over the last couple of months!
We really appreciate all of you yet are currently looking to work directly with 12 special people. Are you one of those 12?
Many people who come to us want things in their business and their lives to be better. They’re genuine and they mean it but often not enough to put the effort into making it happen: That’s mind, body and soul.
How many times do you think, just before sleep takes over: “Wow! Today was awesome!”?
So try this equation:
Self esteem = Reality
__________
Expectation
If your reality isn’t what you want it to be, just a little way off, or nowhere near, do you say: “I deserve more than this and so do the people I care about” and up your game? Or do you lower your expectations?
We’re looking for 12 people who are determined to up their game – are you one of them?
If you believe you are, give us a call on +44 (0)20 7209 1284 business hours GMT
Are 12 of you ready to up your game?Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Avoid Business Growing Pains
We all know people who’ve lost or nearly lost their business.
We hear how they’ve been “stitched up” by rogues or, at the very least, let down by incompetents whom they’ve charged with responsibility for sales, marketing, financial, legal or IT issues and it’s all gone horribly wrong.
So how did they allow this to happen? Well, in hindsight they’ve obviously made the wrong choice(s). Brilliant. We know that in hindsight we all have 20:20 vision. So how do we get the 20:20 before we get to the potential disaster?
The two obvious ways are:
- You buy in the expertise you need from somebody proven to actually be able to do the job well (outsourced or employed)
- You learn how to do it yourself from a reputable source
Yet there are two potential flaws in this (somewhat flippant) answer.
The first assumes that you know at the very least what questions to ask and what answers to expect in order to ascertain whether an individual claiming expertise in any of the essential areas is actually any good at what he/ she does and whether you would be getting value for money in the service you’re paying for.
The second presumes you know where to go, whom to go to, have the time and can make the commitment to learn how to perform these functions to the best of your ability and to the credit and success of your company.
Once again good old common sense has an often sadly ignored role in this. What about a middle ground where you could pool teaching and learning skills, gradually building mutual trust and without anybody spending huge amounts of money 
?
Networking groups abound yet they seem to be set up with the prime reason (if not sole purpose) to introduce and refer business rather than trading skills and services.
You may have tried networking and love or hate your experiences of it. It doesn’t really matter for our purposes here because, regardless, you will know at least some people whom you trust and who can either help you directly or put you in contact with someone who can.
- Start inviting people who are each as good in their field as you are in yours to come and talk to each other
- Ask how willing they are to help each other
- Find out what additional help they in turn need and build a group that ultimately can fulfil all, or at least most of your collective business skills needs
It’s a good idea to agree a unit value for each function – an hourly, daily or part-day rate is usually favourite. Then barter time where possible either to perform the function for each other or use that time (where practical) to teach/ show how to do it. I prefer the latter for reasons I’ll go into further down the line.
Introduce members gradually and monitor the value of their contributions. Some may turn out to be mainly “takers”: They’ll pay for the services on offer that they need rather than really enter into the spirit of the group. And that may be perfectly acceptable until somebody else comes along and wants to join who does what they do but wants to give, too. You just have to decide as you go along what’s in the best interests of the group.
Try it out and let me know how you get on .
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
