customer service

A novel way to target clients.*

You may think it odd to discuss an online tank game in a business blog.

Yet this product holds the Guinness World Record for player (read ‘customer’) engagement.

A feat achieved in its first year.

If we captured clients like this crew, we’d be sunning ourselves in the Bahamas right now.

Plus, it’s Russian!

So let’s take a look … Read more

Thank you to William Shakespeare for the above title (sorry I just couldn’t help myself). In an earlier post on the The Pulse I banged on about the importance of asking questions when meeting and discussing issues with clients and pitching for new business. Now we visit the other side of the communication coin – listening.

Listening is perhaps the most important skill any accountant or professional adviser can bring to a discussion with a client, potential client, staff member, government department, supplier and so on. When you listen … really listen … to the other party some quite amazing things begin to happen. Here are just three to think about: Read more

Does this idea have legs?

Our bricks-and-mortar (B&M) retail stores are in strife.

Prices high. Service poor. Wages stagnant. Jobs gone.

But there may be an answer …

Ethical shopping!

Radio days

Years ago if you wanted, say, a radio cassette recorder, you could make a day of it.

Travel to a certain road with a string of electrical stores. Read more

Who do you think we are?

Customers.

They’re our world.

Without them, we’re nothing – and our business folds.

Small wonder there’s so many names for these pivotal people.

But are some terms better than others?

Let’s see.

Good

Customer is nice and generic.

You can’t really go wrong here. Read more

Into the jaws of Death. Into the mouth of Hell.

So there she was, my new dentist.

She had a kind, wise face that spoke experience.

I offered my hand with relief. ‘Hi, Sue!’

She shook her head. ‘No; I’m Kath. Sue will be with us shortly. We’re in Surgery 2.’

Shock & awe

The word ‘surgery’ rattled in my head as I entered and scanned the room.

Each wall boasted signed paintings of decisive military engagements. Perhaps Sue was my kind of woman …

When she arrived, it was a shock. Read more

With the busy lives that we lead it can be so easy to fall into the trap of going hell for leather at work and simply not paying complete attention to what we are doing.

Here’s an example of what can happen when you don’t concentrate properly when replying to emails at work…

Minutes ago, I sent a quick note out to my database to advise when tickets would be on sale for an upcoming event.  Read more

One of my favourite maxims is  – “If you want a better answer … ask a better question.”  I love it so much it appears in the header graphic of my own blog . If you don’t believe me, just look up whatdoclientsreallywant.com.

Clients are impressed by accountants and advisers that ask questions they weren’t expecting or that they haven’t been asked before. It shows preparedness on the part of the questioner that he/she has invested time and effort in understanding the clients business and circumstances.

One of the best questions one can ask is “why?” If asked in the right way, the question of “why” can uncover a treasure trove of insights. There is a school of thought that claims that asking “why” at least 3 times in the one meeting or conversation can uncover the root cause or motivation behind any aspect of business activity undertaken by people both internal and external to an organisation. Read more

Everything you need, plus much much MORE!

Either there’s a plot, or I’m losing it.

I feel increasingly pressured to consume more than I want or need.

Could you please check the facts to see if I’m dreaming?

Tissue of lies

Something odd has happened to tissue boxes.

Instead of one tissue coming out when I pull, I get two or even three. Read more

Accounting practices need marketing just as much as anyone else. Marketing isn’t, as many people imagine, just about advertising and trying to help the sales team make a sale. And yes it may eventually come to that, but marketing in the truest form, the very foundation of it, lies with the customer. It is understanding what your customer’s points of pain are, what they need (not necessarily “want” in the words of Steve Jobs) and then creating a solution. It doesn’t end there. You need to ensure that the solution is delivered in the right way, the easiest way for your customer to access – deliver the optimum customer experience. You also need to consider how what you are offering is going to differ from what everyone else in the market offers. What is going to make you unique? Why should they buy ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is) from you? There are then decisions on how to price the product, where to distribute it and only then do you start the work of promoting it. Read more

Well, my local grocer did their dash on Friday.

Eighteen months of loyal patronage down the drain.

Seems they don’t trust me as far as they can spit.

Bugger that for a joke!

Frank interest

We first met this crowd here.

Since they opened, I’ve shopped there at least 200 times. Read more