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I often forget to let a company know what great service I have received. It seems to be human nature to complain about bad service but what do we do when we get great service? I have just dropped an email to Charlie Brown thanking them for going out of their way to help me locate a dress. It might seem like a small thing (you are yet to see my fab new dress!) but great customer service really can turn a bad day into a good one. I am of course not talking about the standard level of service you “should” receive, I am talking about the “going above and beyond” kind of stuff.
Customer service roles are hard work! I know, I was in retail for years throughout high school and university. Times are tough, budgets are high and the pressure to make the sale is greater than ever. Remember that next time you visit a business and someone does something that makes your day a happy one! Say thanks and give someone a boost or “fill their bucket” ( from “How full is your bucket” which, by the way is a great read!).
p.s I still intend on pointing out crappy service too! Old habits die hard…..
Gold Coast
Suncorp have just announced Small Business Grants for Queensland businesses recovering from the floods. I have heard a lot of people say how lucky Gold Coasters were as we were not affected. While that is true – thankfully the flood did not reach us, many Gold Coast businesses have felt the effects of the flood on their small business. I know of many that have lost contracts or have been unable to secure supplies from other Queensland businesses.
The awful image of tens of thousands of dollars of damaged stock
Lets help all Queenslanders get back on their feet, please share this blog or the link to Suncorp to those you think might need some help! Why not visit the site and vote for someone you think deserves a break! I come from a wholesale giftware background so I have voted for Red Frog Imports. You can nominate someone you think is deserving – with so many businesses feeling the impact it’s not hard to do!
What a great initiative from Suncorp.
Click here to vote or nominate a business:
Suncorp Back to Business Grant
Gold Coast
I have just started going to Bikram Yoga with the goal of sweating it through at least 3 classes per week. My first class was a horrible shock! No dimmed lights and relaxing music, no calm hippy type wandering around telling me to zone out and find my inner peace…. No, it was all lights on with no time for day dreaming.
The room is heated to 38 – 40 degrees Celsius and it smells like feet. I have a short attention span when it comes to exercise (hence my less than athletic physique) so I almost shed a tear when I heard my Yogi (not sure if that is correct Yoga Instructor terminology but I like it) say “for the next 90 minutes your focus will be on your practice!” The look on my face was no doubt price-less – 90 minutes???? Huh?? Did I really sign up for that?
I was told that Bikram was addictive, I have many other addictions – diet coke, wine, chocolate and shoes but exercise? I can’t say I am totally addicted yet but I am getting there. Here is why:
1) I am not allowed to speak for 90 minutes – my jaw gets a rest as do the ears of others – win-win situation
2) I am discouraged from being competitive – its all about ME! I have even stopped peaking around the room at other people (hot guy with no shirt excluded – we all need some eye candy sometimes)
3) I sweat so much I glow! My skin looks amazing the next day
4) I don’t have to run to get my heart rate up – running is for flat chested girls
5) I am so involved in trying to balance and stretch and breath that I can not think about ANYTHING else. My brain is worry and stress free for 90 minutes
For me Bikram Yoga is giving me a bit of work/life balance back. I know it sounds a little “cheese ball” but I am empowered and feel bullet proof after a class.
What do you do to keep the work/life balance in check?
p.s that is not me in the photo but I will (one day) put a photo up!
I spent a couple of hours this morning with Kellie Bennett from Go Get Em Girlz where we discussed the difficulties of growing a small business into something not so small. She asked me about the challenges I had faced and how I overcame them.
My analogy (and yes, it is a bit “out there”) is that I treat my business like my baby. It requires a constant input of cash that far exceeds what I had anticipated, it keeps me up at night and leaves me feeling a little tired. There are lots of people who want to give advice (some great, some not so great) which I have to choose to take or leave. I am constantly thinking of ways to ensure my baby is getting all that it needs to grow.
So why do we do it? For the same reason people have kids is the best answer I can give to that question. As challenging as it is, it is even more rewarding to watch something you invest so much into thrive. It gives me a constant source of rewards and just when I want to give my baby up for adoption, something amazing happens and I love it even more than I did the day before.
I was asked many times in the first six months of business “when are you going to get a real job?”. It was incredibly offensive but only drove my desire to succeed even more. Now I (mentally) give those people a rude hand gesture! It made me want to ask when they were going to get a baby that didn’t puke, poop and scream all the time – that however is a socially unacceptable question!
So here is my advice to those of you trying to “grow your baby” – be prepared for the negatives and use them as the drivers for your success. Celebrate small wins with those who do support you (and if you look in the right places you will find plenty who will support you).
It’s important to point out that I don’t actually have kids so really don’t have anything to compare with but you get the gist right? Until I do have my own I will be dedicating my attention to my business – so there!
p.s The gorgeous baby Zoe is the apple of her Aunties eye! The photo was taken on one of the few occasion that she threw a tanti. And for the record Zoe’s mummy did once call to suggest that I come relieve her from the crying before Zoe found herself in a box on the front lawn with a sign “free to a good home”.
Last Friday I had the pleasure of being invited by Price Waterhouse Coopers as a guest to the Business Chicks breakfast in Brisbane. Not only was I spoilt to a delish breakfast and a goodie bag stocked with everything from Republica Coffee through to Napoleon products I got to hear Li Cunxin speak. For those of you who don’t know who Li is, he is Mao’s Last Dancer.
Meeting Li - Mao's Last Dancer
What I enjoyed most about Li’s amazing story was his lack of apologies for his success. He did what he had to do to succeed without wavering when things got tough. I didn’t expect to need tissues but his story was quite heart breaking. Li kept the room captivated with his amazing story and just as I was trying to conceal the welling tears (oh I think I have something in my eye!) he punctuated his story with jokes to lighten the mood. It reminded us all that even through the hardest times you need to remember the things that made you laugh or smile.
I had a brief moment of reliving my dreams of being a “Prima Ballerina” but sadly at 13 I grew boobs and that put an end to that!
I also had the chance to meet Emma Isaacs, the CEO of Business Chicks. Make sure to check out her fantastic site that gives us “Chicks” a way to network and support each others businesses.
Thanks to Natalie Alaimo who listened to me talk for
two hours straight (1 hour on the drive there, 1 hour on the drive back). I even got some free Social Media tips from her (amazing what you can get if you trap someone in a small space for a couple of hours).
Gold Coast, Australia
If you read my last blog post (and I hope you did!) you will have read about KPI’s! Now I want you to ask yourself if you know where your leads come from? I am slightly obsessive about this as it is a great indication of what works and what doesn’t. The majority of my leads come from referrals. The best way to ensure that this continues (apart from being my lovely self) is to thank the people who take the time and make the effort to refer me!
No doubt your leads come from a variety of sources. Advertising, social media, referrals, telemarketing…. the list is endless. The key is not only knowing where they come from but what your conversion rate from each source is. If you find you get hundreds of leads from telemarketing but very few of these convert to a sale, is this really the best place to invest your time and your money? Kristian Reiss commented on my last post about “lead” and “lag” indicators. This is a lag indicator. It tells you what happened!
Knowing your lead conversions will also give you a “lead” indicator, allowing you to forecast how many leads you need to reach your financial targets. If you convert half of all leads to a sale your conversion rate is 50%. If you want to double your sales then you had better look at how to double your leads and therefore double your conversions. This is a slightly simplistic view but highlights that KPI’s, leads, lags, indicators and all of those other fancy words are not really that scary at all.
The first step is to grab a pen and paper and start to record where those leads come from. Ask the question every time you talk to a customer or client. If you are web based add a “where did you hear about us” box for your customers to complete. Not everyone will remember, some people may have seen or heard from you in multiple ways – it doesn’t matter! Just remember to ask, record the info then take them time to analyse the results. You may be surprised!
Have a great day and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog!
Every week I speak to small business owners looking to better understand their business. A common theme with all is the lack of understand of KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators. KPI’s are a measure of accomplishment and provide the basis for allowing you to more easily forecast trends.
The five most basic KPI’s that can help your business are:
- The number of leads that come into your business – don’t forget to record where the leads come from!
- Conversion rate of leads
- The average dollar sale
- The number of transactions
- Total Sales
There are plenty more we could add to this list but lets not get excited yet! The KPI’s listed about are a starting point for you to understand the ebbs and flows in your business and to allow you to determine changes you could make to increase your bottom line.
Of course there is little point in having KPI’s in place if no one knows about them. Make sure your staff are aware of their existence! This is not a tool for putting pressure on already stressed staff – it is a tool for you all to better understand your business.
KPI’s are a great starting point for introducing an Incentive program into your business. I will break down the list above and describe how they can help your business in the coming weeks so make sure your signed up to receive my blog posts if you would like to learn more.
Have a great (and productive) end to your week!
Melanie Miller
Small Fish Business Coaching
Knowing when to say no to client is as important as know when to say yes! I was speaking with a member of my BNI group this week who has a cleaning business. Her business is moving forward in leaps and bounds. This is a good thing, actually a great thing. The problem is that she is still in the process of planning what she wants her cleaning business to “look like”. She is not yet sure of how much growth she would like – does she want to keep this to a small business employing herself and a couple of other cleaners as she does now? Does she want to expand to a point where she has a team of staff, an office and all of the responsibilities that go with that?
A current client asked her to tender for a big job this week. There are of course no guarantees that she would have in fact won the contract, however she had a big decision to make. Should she throw her had in the ring and deal with the enormity of the job if she did win the tender? It was a big decision clouded with the input of many others who were telling her to “go for it”. Her final decision was brave and well thought out. When considering the potential damage she could do to the strong relationship she has with her client, she decided to decline the offer to submit a tender. A conversation with her client to explain she was thankful for the opportunity but could not foresee a way to fulfil the contract to her high standards was all it took to further cement her client relationship.
Sometimes saying No is difficult. The repercussions if you say Yes and can’t fulfil your clients needs will be much worse. This dilemma also highlights the need to plan, plan, plan! If you didn’t hear me the first time, I said p.l.a.n! Knowing what your business will look like in the future is paramount to achieving your goals. Don’t let your business drive you, drive your business – keep your hands firmly on the wheel!
Melanie Miller
Small Fish Business Coaching
Molly the wonder dog!
I had an interesting discussion with one of my clients about a Christmas card she had received from her gym. I am sure the gym thought the card would give their clients the “warm fuzzies” we all love in marketing. What it did was the exact opposite.
How did they get it so wrong?
They sent the exact same card as they had in previous years (I am all for bulk discounts but this is pushing it a little far)
The card lacked any kind of personalisation (Yes, they probably do have 1000’s of people to mail to but that is just plain rude)
The card had an inclosed “Thank you” voucher – please find encloses a voucher for a free visit to our gym for one of your friends or family members (we already have your cash so why would we send YOU a gift!)
The card had essentially nothing to do with thanking clients for supporting their business in 2010. It was merely a blanket marketing campaign. The thank you gift was not well thought out and to be honest I would be offended if one of my friends passed me a free voucher for visit to the gym at Christmas. Yes, I may look like a fattened up Christmas turkey at the moment but I consider it padding to stop the wrinkles setting in.
If you sent out Christmas cards this year did you think about the message it was sending about you and your business? What about the cards you received? If your like me, you may have pulled lots of cards out of the mail box that simply got lost in the Christmas haze.
Why not consider choosing another time of the year to send a card to your clients/customers. Maybe Valentines, Easter or the start of Spring would work better for your business?
Melanie Milller
Small Fish Business Coaching
Are you still behaving like an employee even though you have leapt into the world of self-employment? It took me sometime to get my head around being my own boss so I can only assume others feel the same way?
My first week consisted of re-arranging my pens and putting nice labels on my files. My office looked very “officey” and I felt quite chuffed with myself, however I achieved nothing. The question is how to do you shift your mind-set from employee to self-employed?
1) Have a plan!
If you wait around for someone else to tell you what to do you could be waiting a very long time. Ideally you would have formulated a plan before you told your boss where he/she could stick their job. If you don’t have a plan, you had better write one today!
2) Be accountable
No one will notice if you sneak off for a three-hour lunch break, and its fine to do that once in a while. Taking large chunks out of your day regularly to attend to non-business related tasks will cost you time and profits. Finding an accountability buddy can be useful as long as you stick to an agenda and to-do list, or you could get yourself a business coach!
3) Manage your time effectively
Record how you spend your time to see where you are slacking off. There is a great tool on the Small Fish website for tracking time. If you are booking appointments, book them back-to-back with no time in-between. This stops the potential for a 1-hour meeting turning into a 3-hour chat session.
4) Switch into “work mode” even when you are at home
Turn the T.V off, lock the kids and the dog outside and ignore the washing up. Working from a home office can be challenging. My rules include getting dressed for work everyday. Jammies are not acceptable at the office, nor should they be when working from home.
5) Remember to switch off
Decide what hours are appropriate and try to stick to them. This is difficult in the start up phase where the excitement and pressure of it all can have you banging out emails at 1.00am. Keep doing this and you will soon burn out. If possible, ensure your work area has a door and close it when you need to. Giving yourself down time is essential to keeping your sanity in check.
Melanie Miller
Small Fish Business Coaching
Business Coaching Gold Coast 