Customer Service and Brands

Hi all! How are you all doing? Well I hope.

Its been a pretty hectic couple of weeks here with lots of late nights and early mornings due to various client commitments.  So much so I had to take Friday off (well almost all day off!) yeah I know me taking the best part of a day off but I was starting to burn out and if I didn't catch up on my sleep I knew what would come next - the dreaded tonsillitis and then being forced to take time off when clients are needing me! Not good and very poor customer service!

So this got me to thinking how far do most companies go to ensure consistancy in their customer service and also their brand? 


Now for me its not a problem because I am my own brand and I do all my customer service, but how does the other businesses I work with and promote reflect upon my own.  I was made to have to look very closely at this over the past few weeks and have been trying to get clients to see that doing things themselves does not only reflect poorly on their brand but also what I do.  And yes I can see that other factors can be an issue in these things but are you really willing to put a top quality brand at risk for the sake of a couple of hours of my work?  My answer would be no and thankfully the majority of my clients say the same (I asked them!) but my problem lies with do I continue to work with clients that put their brand at risk and ultimately mine?


Well lets look at all aspects of this.


A huge part of what I do for clients is marketing, promotion and the administration associated with that.  And for the majority of my clients its a case of that they know the value to their business in the work that I do but for two companies (lets call them x & y) they seem to be a little short sighted. But this can apply to any service you utilise so I'm putting this out to you and hoping to get some feedback!


When working with both X & Y I'm doing general admin, producing marketing materials, product development etc and when its working boy is it working but with both this last month has been hard work and when one of my other clients handed me a leaflet saying please tell me you didn't produce this my ears pricked up.


So what is important in your branding?


Consistency and quality! In absolutely everything that your company produces from a £50 steak dinner to your business cards, compliment slips and flyers everything should ooze quality and be consistent.  If you have company colours - always always always use the correct code for them! dont substitute with oh thats near enough! Near enough isn't good enough! You wouldn't accept a lock from the locksmith that near enough secures your premises!


So keep fonts, colours, logos, paper quality, finish the same in everything you do to keep your brand consistent with the level of quality your product or service has.


Now what about customer service? I'm very lucky that all my clients have excellent customer service and never quibble on it.  But someone said to me this week what constitutes good or excellent customer service?


This got me thinking.


Lets miss out good and strive for excellence!


Excellent customer service comes from building relationships with your customer.  This means building a rapport in the few minutes you have with a new customer to encourage them to come back and allow you to build a lasting trust with your customer.  So how do you do this?


Talk to them! They are humans like you and me!  They want to be treated with respect and made to feel like they are your only focus!


Always be polite! And yes this isn't easy with some customers but it a necessary part of building a reputation for excellent customer service.


Smile! Smiling automatically draws people to you and makes you more welcoming and friendly.  This is especially important on the telephone.  People cant read your body language on the phone but can hear a smile in your voice.


Never get distracted when you are dealing with a customer making them your sole focus means that they will feel special and go away feeling so.


Always endeavour to go that extra mile.  Add value to the service some how.  Now this can be easier in a retail environment by giving hints and tips with products, or samples etc but when you are in my line of business it is not so easy. So what do I do? I use social media to help raise the profile of my clients, Twitter is the best tool to acheive this.  Most of my clients are on twitter so I can tweet that I'm there or what promotions that they have on or events etc. Yes this takes some of my time but adds value to the service I provide and gives some free marketing to my clients. 


Now I'm not saying that I'm an expert in customer service but I always endeavour to do my best for a client and the feedback I get is on the whole indicative that I am achieving my target and exceeding theirs! I do however consistently review with clients that they are happy with the service I'm providing and we can adjust as necessary - assuming they give me the feedback I need.


So lets see if we can pick up the branding and customer service gauntlet and strive to exceed expectations!

Planning ahead

Christmas is nearly here! Whatever way you look at it it’s only a month and a half or 8 weeks or 51 days away today (Thursday). And whether you love or hate the season there is a way to survive unscathed.  I used to have this love hate relationship with Christmas (well the commercial aspect) and after some re thinking it’s now a love -love relationship that Christmas and I have (well except for glitter – I hate glitter!)

I realised very quickly that if I applied my “business head” to Christmas then we could exist together much more happily.  Now I’d just like to clarify that everything in this piece relates to the commercial aspect of Christmas and in no way should deflect from the real meaning of the season , according to your belief, and now we have that cleared up I’ll continue.

In my normal day to day life I run my business that helps other businesses and individuals to streamline their lives and pick up the slack – doing admin, sorting out suppliers, organising events etc.  But when it came to Christmas a couple of years ago and I found myself in a situation where I had to embrace the commercial aspect of the season – I froze and went into full blown panic!

This Christmas was not a success! We had no sprouts, bread sauce or kilted sausages with our dinner – all crimes worthy of the firing squad in my family!  I was determined that the following year would be better.  Having relayed this tale of woe to a colleague post Christmas she was shocked! She said but this is what you do for a living! Just do it at home!

The light had switched on and I decided to apply my business strengths to Christmas and the following year we had a roaring successful Christmas dinner and even had some kilted sausages left (unheard of with my lot!!) So anyway enough of my babble I’m going to share with you how you can make Christmas more enjoyable, stress free and even relaxing for you!

Step one

 Planning is the key! Get yourself a note book or planning app or whatever you prefer but this has got to have plenty room in it to write.

Step Two

Start today! It’s never too soon to start planning an event.  Event planners will have been planning for Christmas for more than a year so let us normal folks start today 8 weeks is a good time to start.

Step Three

 Decide do you want low key intimate family affair or are you going all out bells and tinsel everywhere all singing and dancing.  This may sound daft but it will make a difference.

Step Four

 Go grab a cuppa and sit down with your notebook and pen.

Step Five

Lists! Lists for everything! You will need all of these believe me. Cards list, gifts list, food, guest list, responsibilities to name but a few.

Step Six

Grab another cuppa and relax!

Now that’s all covered lets speak about planning again.  What do you want from the season? Do you want to be the one who makes all their own Christmas food by hand from scratch or are you quite happy to take the short cuts and buy things in? There is no right or wrong to this. The choice is entirely yours.  Having now done both I’m firmly of the opinion that buying an M&S uniced cake and icing and decorating it myself with shop bought icing is definitely the way forward!!

Brainstorm all the things you want to do in the back of your note book and cost and time them out.  A homemade Christmas cake is quite expensive for ingredients and should really be made by now (according to the Christmas Queen we all know as Delia) but the decision is yours.  Whatever you decide to do stick to it!

Now you have all your ideas time to implement them.  But first write that Christmas Card List – Lick your green frog, get the horrible bit done and then the fun can begin.

Go out collect all the Christmas Gift Guides, food guides etc that you can find this will make the decision process easier.  Yes I hear you saying but the internet is there.  And yes for some people that is great – personally I find the brochures and catalogues easier to use but whatever suits you!

Now you’ve done all your market research and ooh’d and ahh’d over the delicious turkey dinner from one or the Berry Scrumptious fabulous new range of truffles (which are to die for!) and taken your notes in your notebook, you can set your budget and begin. 

Budget is irrelevant whether you want to do everything for £50 or £5000 the principal is the same.  Budget and allocate and never ever over spend.  Now we have the whole budget let’s allocate it. Decide on a per head amount for gifts and dinner.  Write out your Gift list names and allocate their budget.  You can then as you go along allocate the gifts to be bought.  Soon you will have a full gift list.  But remember and note everything down as soon as you decide it makes for less “oh what was that again” moments.

Same principal applies to the food shopping.  Decide what you want to buy for and the budget for each part.  Are you doing a Christmas Eve function, full Christmas Dinner and Boxing Day too? What about all the accompaniments? Mince pies, nuts, sweets, nibbles etc  Brain storm everything before deciding and writing the list by event of what each course will consist of then transferring it to a shopping list. Don’t forget the refreshments too!

Your guest list is a strange one as you generally know who will be coming and at what point but if you plan for every eventuality you can also update your other lists accordingly.  This year you will be organised when Aunt Betty turns up on Boxing Day with a gift in hand and you can return one and wipe the smug smile off her face!  Speaking of gifts make sure you have a back up supply ready wrapped for any unexpected gifts/visitors etc.  I like to make these food gifts as if not used we can use later!

So you now have a card, gift and food list.  All you need to do is make your shopping lists and away you go.  Personally I will make these into lists by shop and pick a Monday early December and go do the cards and gifts and non perishable food then leave the fresh food 'til 23^rd December.

Now the allocation of responsibilities, you can’t do everything yourself so don’t even try to! It’s a family event so get the family involved. Whether its peeling the spuds or keeping the sweetie bowl topped up or drinks flowing - everyone can get involved.  It takes the strain off you and allows you to enjoy Christmas too. Remember and give someone else the job of battery supplies especially if you have kids!  Make this list very clear and stick it on the fridge so no one can dispute their responsibilities!

I’ve published a time scale for countdown to Christmas that you may want to take a look at here www.karinmcgivern.co.uk/christmas.html

But hopefully now you feel a little more confident about tackling Christmas head on and being able to enjoy it along with everyone else and not feel too stressed out.