Saturday, October 27, 2007
Making a Change
Today I'd like reintroduce you to my friend's website: Open Road Missions. Paul is doing some good work out there with "a way to hope and healing." Paul took a step out and changed his life. There will be many days of hope for people that look for even the smallest of goodness.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Customer Loyalty
I read an article recently in Executive Travel Magazine that spoke to the idea of why you should care about customer loyalty. It offered eight areas that you should look at when it comes to your customers.
Thinking about customer loyalty is not just a business owners concern but should be a concern of anyone that with people. It could be through your church, your civic organization and even you as an employee should care.
There is a discussion in the article Keeping The Customer, which gives you some points to ponder. It reveals the age-old business 80/20 rule is still valid, not only for business but for most any organization (volunteer or other). This rule says that 80% of your revenue (or volunteerism) is generated by 20% of your customers.
Keeping those 20% loyal and happy is important to the health of your organization. But think of the potential which exists within the other 80%. Don't neglect that other untapped area.
So how do we do this...build customer loyalty. The article provides the following 8 ways;
1. Develop employee loyalty first - customers can tell when your own employees are not happy.
2. Invite customer criticism - it may hurt, but you will learn quite a bit.
3. Increase responsiveness - don't let issues linger, the longer you wait, the more people will leave.
4. Work to win back lost customers - they may have left, but showing you want them and giving them reason to return will go a long way in winning customers back.
5. Equip your front line employees - give them the ability to make decisions, to get a answer up front for the customer.
6. Use multiple channels of service - offering various methods of contact; automated-phone, real-person phone, email, website all with the same level of service wins people over.
7. Protect your most loyal customers - that 80/20 rule, create enhanced service levels for those 20%, protecting your most loyal customers protects 80% of your revenue.
8. Observe your customer's buying behavior - how and why do customers come to you with there business or organization.
The author, Jill Griffin says the key rule of loyalty is, "serve your employees first, so they, in turn, can serve your customers." Loyalty doesn't happen in an instant, it builds over time. Very hard to earn but easy to lose.
Thinking about customer loyalty is not just a business owners concern but should be a concern of anyone that with people. It could be through your church, your civic organization and even you as an employee should care.
There is a discussion in the article Keeping The Customer, which gives you some points to ponder. It reveals the age-old business 80/20 rule is still valid, not only for business but for most any organization (volunteer or other). This rule says that 80% of your revenue (or volunteerism) is generated by 20% of your customers.
Keeping those 20% loyal and happy is important to the health of your organization. But think of the potential which exists within the other 80%. Don't neglect that other untapped area.
So how do we do this...build customer loyalty. The article provides the following 8 ways;
1. Develop employee loyalty first - customers can tell when your own employees are not happy.
2. Invite customer criticism - it may hurt, but you will learn quite a bit.
3. Increase responsiveness - don't let issues linger, the longer you wait, the more people will leave.
4. Work to win back lost customers - they may have left, but showing you want them and giving them reason to return will go a long way in winning customers back.
5. Equip your front line employees - give them the ability to make decisions, to get a answer up front for the customer.
6. Use multiple channels of service - offering various methods of contact; automated-phone, real-person phone, email, website all with the same level of service wins people over.
7. Protect your most loyal customers - that 80/20 rule, create enhanced service levels for those 20%, protecting your most loyal customers protects 80% of your revenue.
8. Observe your customer's buying behavior - how and why do customers come to you with there business or organization.
The author, Jill Griffin says the key rule of loyalty is, "serve your employees first, so they, in turn, can serve your customers." Loyalty doesn't happen in an instant, it builds over time. Very hard to earn but easy to lose.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
A New Way To Live
Generate a vibe on Sunday, generate some good feelings with people around you. It can be a day that starts a whole new way of life for you. Take a positive approach to dealing with people and believe in the goodness each of us have inside.
So many times we only see the negative, the complaining or the thought that all of life is against us. It is very much like the everyday news, always dwelling on the bad news. The daily grind of political back biting, criminal activity, cheating, accidents, deaths and just about anything that has greater sensation.
Our nature is to be drawn to "the accident" scene as opposed to the nice person handing out flowers on the street corner. Yet a daily grind of the negative tends to place us in a negative mood. We do know that living this way can eventually drag us down.
So do something about it, make a change for your life and those around you. It can start with a smile, it can be opening a door, but it all begins with you. It begins by simply deciding to live in a more positive way. So generate a new vibe tomorrow, generate a positive one.
So many times we only see the negative, the complaining or the thought that all of life is against us. It is very much like the everyday news, always dwelling on the bad news. The daily grind of political back biting, criminal activity, cheating, accidents, deaths and just about anything that has greater sensation.
Our nature is to be drawn to "the accident" scene as opposed to the nice person handing out flowers on the street corner. Yet a daily grind of the negative tends to place us in a negative mood. We do know that living this way can eventually drag us down.
So do something about it, make a change for your life and those around you. It can start with a smile, it can be opening a door, but it all begins with you. It begins by simply deciding to live in a more positive way. So generate a new vibe tomorrow, generate a positive one.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Reflect Upon Your Life
"I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me." - Anna Quindlen
Your mind is a like a camera and all that you do in life. Every moment is being captured and stored like millions of pictures through your life time. It is a collective reflection of many different images and experiences.
As your life grows older, those memories become a full picture album that you review from time to time. Are these pictures that you are proud of? Are they ones that could be shared with others?
The picture of reflection comes from Alain Briot
Your life can be changed by you. If you look through the album of your memories, you can see where your life has been, what it has been like and where you want it to be. Reflection upon those images will give you the knowledge to change your life.
Your mind is a like a camera and all that you do in life. Every moment is being captured and stored like millions of pictures through your life time. It is a collective reflection of many different images and experiences.
As your life grows older, those memories become a full picture album that you review from time to time. Are these pictures that you are proud of? Are they ones that could be shared with others?
The picture of reflection comes from Alain Briot
Your life can be changed by you. If you look through the album of your memories, you can see where your life has been, what it has been like and where you want it to be. Reflection upon those images will give you the knowledge to change your life.
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