Mitre 10 Mega

Have you ever been in a store half an hour before closing time and you feel hurried along?

I was looking for a solution to repair scratches on our wooden floors. I knew a big store like Mitre 10 Mega would be the place to go.

In a matter of minutes a friendly staff asked if I needed help. I explained what I was looking for he said he wasn't the expert the guy who was has gone home.

In a few minutes the staff member said it didn't look like they had anything. I perservered, after all I've traveled a fair way to get here. I found what I was looking for. I saw the staff member on the way to the checkout and told him I found the tube, he wanted to know where so I took him to the aisle.

When I got to the checkout I noticed the packaging was falling apart so I asked if I could exchange it with another one. The response was..."hurry we're closing in 5 minutes".

Some ideas:

• I say this quite a lot and will always say it, training and company culture has everything to do with how your staff delivers great customer service everytime!
  

Involving the Floor Manager to remind staff members about the importance of delivering great customer service everytime is crucial. Remind your people every morning how much you value them before the doors open (this takes 5 minutes). It's a great excuse to rally together and speak to each other before the day starts. You'd be surprised how much fuel this adds to your team.

Besides, you've paid thousands of dollars to bring the customers through your doors so don't forget to major on the customers. You'd be amazed how a smile and a polite team can increase your sales

• Sorry it's not my department I don't know if I can help you

Help the customer anyway (the customer doesn't need to know the internal story I just need someone who can help me) If you don't know, ask someone who can! Tell the customer what you can do not what you can't!

• Hurry we close in 5 minutes
  

I don't need to say anymore please don't say this, let your customer exchange the goods and wait for them.

That's me for this week. Whatever your industry go out there and makes your customers day!

I hope I catch you delivery great service if I don't, we'll share some ideas on how to improve them. Let's make the world of customer service a great one!

Photo courtesy snil

McDonald quick to upsize but....

I went to order breakfast this morning at McDonalds. And I asked if I could have everything on a breakfast combo except the sausages. I don't eat sausages I wanted cereal instead and I mentioned that I'll pay the difference. The girl behind the counter spoke to her manager about it. And she said no we can't do that but I could choose what hot drink I wanted.


What McDonalds do very well

• McDonalds talks about nutrition, they promote lite choices on their menus which is fantastic!
  
• They talk about catering to "individual tastes and dietary needs" on their website
• They talk about constantly reviewing their food
• Excellent, so far so good
  

Wouldn't it be great if....

• They followed through on what the say
  
• They understood what the definition of the word "individual" means
• They followed through and actually cater to customers dietary needs

Suggestions....

• Train your frontline people including your Managers to provide customer service that supports your external brand and marketing messages. (You don't want to be a bucket with thousands of little holes)
• Give your staff empowerment to think outside the square sometimes
  
• Your frontline people can make or break your business whether you're a giant like McDonalds or Mr B selling fish & chips down the road
• Everyone in your company should be singing from the same page if they don't it's a bad song and no one sticks around
• Do not underestimate customer service
  
• You spend so much time and money working on the visuals, words, the creative brief, the ads, the website. So think delivery
  
• McDonalds has a nice website, nice pictures, nice words but they forget how the customer should be treated when they walk through your doors
• Providing excellent customer service builds a lasting customer brand experience and it's the cherrie on that beautiful cake you took so long to bake
  

I'd be interested to hear your feedback or thoughts. Is McDonald in this space? This is another reason why brands should have an online presence because this is where the conversation is happening.

Photo credit: Dr Max

Have you experienced bad or good customer service? I'd love to hear from you.

You deserve what you get.....

A friend made a tasty Korean stir fry for us tonight. And as we enjoyed the meal and discussed all sorts of issues about business we just couldn't escape talking about the good and bad customer service/relationships we've experienced lately.

I don't know whether this subject follows me or I it but I can't seem to get away from it. That's why I'm excited to be here!

The companies that we discussed ranged from small to medium businesses and large firms. What amazed me the most were the stories (positive and negative) we easily recited as if they happened seconds before we met.

Conclusion before I go to bed: You may think that when you provide crappy service we've forgotten about it, tonight proved we had memories like elephants.

Better to spend energy and creative thinking on making a positive impression than a wrong one Marie Young

Photo courtesy of MReece

Redirected

I got carried away with setting up all sorts of blogs, I've decided to blog directly from the iJump website.

Have a great week!

Left behind

Getting things done by David Allen.

Do you ever get overwhelmed by your To Do List before the day actually arrives?
Or am I the only one?

As I read this book I can't help but feel it's highlighting all my current to do tasks and outstanding projects (oops) in big red capital letters. It's making me feel anxious and sort of guilty like a kid being found out.

But what's really happening is that I am being confronted with the reality of what I can potentially accomplish today or not. I know when I truly focus on something the possibilities are HUGE. I know we've heard this before.

In the last 24 hours I have created my avatar on Second Life, replied to a lot of business people around the world through Ecademy (so excited about it! but it's been on my one day to do list for a while) and do my day to day tasks.

Where do I find the time? This book will show you how to tackle these things below. Like anything in life we've got to apply effort (sorry :( no magic potion but stick at it and I'm sure you'll notice your unleashed creative potential for an uncluttered mind).

1.Do it now
2.Delegate it
3.Defer it
4 Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
5.Plan and unstick projects
6.Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety and being overwhelmed
7. Feel fine about what you're not doing

You become what you think!

Ecademy

When was the last time you wanted to work on your business or take time out to do a "vital" to do? I'm going to boast because I did it today!

I decided to work from home, tune out completely and sign up to a very cool global business network website Ecademy.

I'm passionate and curious about social networking and how it's evolving and transforming the way we communicate and do business online. As I was setting up my profile on Ecademy, Mustapha Amnay Bouga from Casablanca read my profile along with 2 other people. I sent a message to say Hi. A bit later we exchanged skype address, we found out about each other's businesses and he introduced me to another kiwi business owner here in Auckland. Crazy? Apparently Normal!

They say there's 6 degrees of separation between us and other people. Is it less online do you think? This website has the potential to connect your business to other like minded business people. I joined today for the first time. Great feeling!

If you invest the time I totally and absolutely recommend it. It's free and it's global. Why wouldn't you?

Do me a favour. If you sign up, drop me a line and I'll make sure to say Hi.
Visit ecademy

Human touch

We were at the Media Relations conference held by Conferenz last week. They kindly put us up for the night at the Duxton Hotel. The next day we decided to check out and try the Booklovers bed and breakfast in Mt Victoria because we love books.

We arrived fuming at the taxi driver for almost driving us to Haitaitai instead of Mt Victoria despite desperate efforts to spell the street name 3 times, repeating the street address etc (? go figure). We were cold, tired and it was getting late we just wanted to get warm.

Once we opened the door, we were greeted by this sanctuary. I instantly knew we made the right decision; the taxi experience was already a distant memory.

Jane Tolerton (owner, author, journalist, talented lady) has thought of everything down to the little details: home made chocolate chip cookies in jars placed along the hallways (which i loved and needed at the time) extra tubs of milk, assorted teas and coffee were available in and outside the rooms. It was just wonderful.

In the morning Jane had the table set out so nicely for a choice of a cooked breakfast, continental breakfast, muffins... you name we had it.

Everywhere you looked was yesteryear in the best possible way. Over the 2 days we met the other guests. We exchanged stories, took photos, they even dropped Simon and I off in town for our morning appointment. Jane could write a book about the interesting people she's had breakfast with. You never know who you'll be talking to.

I can go on and on and you obviously can tell that I really enjoyed staying at the Booklovers b&b. I was telling everyone I came across in Wellington that if you love books then you've got to sample the warm and generous hospitality Jane offers.

What a difference! The Duxton Hotel and Jane's booklovers bed and breakfast.

Why do you think I'm raving about booklovers instead of the Duxton? If you've noticed, I haven't said anything negative about the Duxton hotel. But I believe the booklovers had the "the human touch!".

At the end of our stay we exchanged business cards, took photos of each other and I ended up borrowing a wonderful book called Life's a Pitch by Stephen Bayley & Roger Mavity. I will always stay at booklovers bed & breakfast. It shouldn't be a best kept secret!

A young English man once came to live in the community led by Ghandi. When assigned to clean toilets, he protested, "Don't you know who I am? I have great things to do." Ghandi replied, "I know you can do great things; what I don't know is if you can do little things."

The next time you offer your clients customer experience, look for ways to "WOW" them. It's often the little things that matter the most.