Dave's place

This post is from an email I recieved. It made me think the core message was bigger when you really think about it, that I wanted to share it with you.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is…”Customer service is not a department, it’s an attitude.”

How true it is! As much as we try to complicate what great service is
…it’s really pretty simple: It is giving more than the customer expects
…consistently. You notice I said simple, not easy. There is a big difference.

Today, I’d like to share a chapter I titled: “A Crash Course on Customer Service.”

=================================================================================
Excerpt from
Customer Love,
by Mac Anderson

The 10 phrases from my friends at Walk the Talk are an illuminating
reminder of how uncomplicated it is to make customers feel loved.
People don’t care how much you know, (or what you sell, or what type
of service you provide) until they know how much you care!

The 10 most important words:
“I apologize for our mistake. Let me make it right.”

When something goes wrong, most people merely want to be heard
and acknowledged. So listen, apologize, then ask what you can do
to make it right.

The 9 most important words:
“Thank you for your business. Please come back again.”
Repeat customers cost less than new customers and
are often more loyal.

The 8 most important words:
“I’m not sure, but I will find out.”
It’s ok if you don’t know the answer; it’s not ok to make the customer
keep searching for it. That’s your job.

The 7 most important words:
“What else can I do for you?”
Be prepared to go the extra mile, there is less competition there.

The 6 most important words:
“What is most convenient for you?”
Your customers will be pleasantly surprised when you ask what’s
convenient for them.

The 5 most important words:
“How may I serve you?”
This question reinforces your role in the relationship. Play that
role the best you can.

The 4 most important words:
“How did we do?”
Feedback is critical! Your customers have a unique perspective
and they appreciate being asked.

The 3 most important words:
“Glad you’re here!”
Customers who feel welcome spend more time, more money
and are more likely to return.

The 2 most important words:
“Thank you.”
Basic manners… but how often do you get thanked when you’re
the customer?

The MOST important word:
“Yes.”
Become a yes person.

This is from an email I recieved from simpletruths.com

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watch kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erractic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask: How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,
do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time
To call and say "Hi"?

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.

Hear the music
Before the song is over.

(click image to view on amazon!)

This is my current book. I mentioned it to a friend of mine called Kari, and low and behold guess what he said? “Really? I’m reading the same book at the moment!”. Now honestly, How often does that happen?

This book is pure inspiration. Its as if its a guide step-by-step of how to create a lifestyle you choose by design. You will be walked page-by-page throught the tasks and mindset required to realise your own dreams and lifestyle hopes.

If you only implemented one of the tasks outlined in the book. I personally am conviced you will get back the cost of the book in spades. The book is very well compiled and your personal development can be measured on a chapter-by-chapter level.

My rating for this book is 100% again!! This is one for your personal library. I will for sure return back to this book for many future rereads.

I just finished this book by the social media and winelibrary.tv guru himself Gary Vaynerchuk.

This is honestly an amazing book. Gary has a down to earth direct writing style, that is 100% authentic. If you watch any of the winelibrary.tv shows, you will see that gary does not know how to be, or act any other way other than authentic. Even if that means playing with his toy dolls during a wine tasting, to get a point across. He explains his passion, and how you can do the same.

The format goes along the lines of detailing his families journey and struggle to the US from Belarus. Then his father starting the family discount wine store business, eventually with gary at the head, turning it into a $50+ million dollar a year money machine / cash cow.

If your wanting to know how to monetize social media in your own life for your own business. This is the place to start and finish your education. Very actionable howto instructions for sites such as Facebook, Twitter and youtube. Plus a huge amount of insider tricks and tips, that he has implemented time and time again.

My review of this book results in a 100% must have!!!!

(Click to open in amazon directly!!)

Telling a story on a label.

I’m writing this blog post based on inspiration I got from reading the blog of Seth Godin.

A label can tell you a lot, and at the same time, tell you absolutely nothing. Here is a 75Euro per box, vitamin and nutritional product. Functionally identical to an 8Euro packet of conventional joint inflammation pills. So whats the extra 67Euro for?

Let’s assume people that do buy this product are not stupid. What are they paying the additional 67Euro for? A story, A feeling, A souvenir of a shopping experience or just perhaps a little bit of self pampering and over indulgence.

Let’s dissect:

[Front side]

1. First off the bat, we can remove the UPS courier door-to-door delivery service charge. 67Euro – 13Euro = 54Euro. The product is in a class of its own. In that, it comes to you direct by personal courier. Rather than sitting on a shelf in a shop or pharmacy waiting for someone to grab it and take it home. Already the experience is at a different level of sophistication.

2. The packaging of the single serving. Unique, eye catching, and interesting enough to spark a conversation about. Easily anyone can see this is a product of a modern, future focused business. You just want to touch it, hold it in your hand, unable to stop yourself from squeezing its soft gel contents between your thumb and fore finger.

3. Citrus fruit flavor. Ideas of the exotic and romantic. Lines of citrus trees in an orchard, with rows and rows of green silence and peaceful stillness and calm. The added refreshing qualities of a summers day and children laughing and smiling.

[Backside]

4. Social responsibility. Giving back to some of the poorest and most in-need people, on the planet. Helping children in africa get life changing eye correction surgery. Allowing a future to a whole generation, who can prosper and provide for themselves and there communities. Or, paying for cleft pallet surgery in Thailand, for children born with this disfiguring birth defect. The resulting transformations in self confidence, and social acceptance effects entire families. Simple outpatient procedures, we take for granted in the west. Bring life and meaning to so many.

5. The money making machine. Suspension Gel Technology logo. This is a revolutionary patented technology, which is changing the entire delivery system of the vitamin and nutritional industry. Simple to understand and easily accepted by the future customers of the world, “children”. Ask any one who has tried to give a pill to a kid, and watch them swallow it. The faces children make, before, during and after taking a tablet tells the whole story. Suspension Gel Technology is so easy, you can even spread it on bread. Just rip and sip! simple and as fun as you want to make it.

6. Glucosamine AND Chondroitin in the same gel. This might not mean much to the average person. But in the world of joint and pain relief solutions. These natural extracts from shark and bovine, aid in fast reparation of cartilage damage, and re-hydration of the cell membrane. The result being, less bone on bone painful friction.

7. Take one packet daily for a productive pain-free life. Escape the torture of joint pain with a simple action of rip and sip. Five seconds later, the gel is already at work inside your body. Your free to do the rest of the activities you have planned. Individually packaged daily serving. Convenient, portable and available on the go.

In todays post I thought I would share with you some of the funnier stories that have occured during the last 5-6 years of trading in Finland.  Names have been ommitted to protect the innocent

The case of the granny porn fetish

This is one of a number of stories which revolve around the theme of pornography on a hard drive.  So lets set the scene… I had a number of employees at this time. Mostly young girls as it just so happens. My company receives a call from the main buildings reception that a customer is waiting. One of the girls from the office goes down to meet the customer as the process usually was. She returns a short while later with the customers hard drive which the customer wanted to deliver personally.

So the drive was logged into the system, tagged and analysed. Things at this point were not nearly as interesting as you will soon discover. The price quote was sent to the customer, and a fast reply of continue with the recovery was received.

Within a short while the office got very quiet. I mean spooky, ghost town quiet. I was in another adjacent room and the odd silence sparked my curiousity. I go into the main office area to see two of the employees huddled around a recovery work station. If I said they looked guilty of something its an underestimation. I asked was everything OK and they both in unison replied “Yep, fine every things fine” with huge blushing faces. I asked them what are they working on. When one of them said, “Hmm not really sure, but its really odd looking porn pictures”. I was automatically thinking the worse and thinking hard core, or most worse case it could be kiddy porn.

It turns out to be fetish old people porn. With old ladies and old men hard at it earning some extra pension money.  I was speechless but used to these sorts of files being on customers drives. So being professional I told the girls to do the recovery if they are not too bothered with the images and videos. Of course the girls insisted each file had to be opened to check it was not corrupted.

But this is not the best part of the story.

The data was fully recovered for the customer and an invoice created and data set back to him. The customer promptly paid his invoice, and we assumed that was it, case closed. Within a short time however the customer was  calling and really annoyed and insulted. He was complaining about the data we returned to him, and how disgusting it was and he will inform the authorities etc…  The girls who did the recovery were already pleading there innocence to me and defending every action they did and that no mistakes had occurred.

Now the funny part! It turns out the customer prior to coming to us for data recovery. Had visited a local computer repair center. Somehow through some mix-up the customers hard drive had been mixed with another customers. This guy was completely innocent and eventually we did recover his real data which turned out to be nothing more interesting than his dissertation files, and some research images.