Making Up For Your Mistakes

When Jet Blue, an amazingly successful US airline left

Keep Ahead At The Keepmoat!

Andy is presenting at the new Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster at an event organised by Business Link South Yorkshire on 27th March.

The ‘Compete Or Get Beat’

Bank on the cost of upsetting just one customer

The estimated 1 million people who have downloaded standard letters from websites such as moneysavingexpert.com to claim their illegal bank charges back is further evidence if any was needed of the shift of power to consumers, and the influence of ‘word of mouse’.

From the protest of just one single law student who, back in 2004, was unhappy about being charged

Success In Spain!

Just back from delivering the keynote speech at the Annual Growers Conference for Mack Multiples, one of the country

Seven Steps To ‘Remarkable’ Service

Came across this great article yesterday.

Some of it is a ‘bit American’, but there’s some great stuff in there.

I’m sure you’ll get something out of it.

With (Y)our Compliments

How to irritate and annoy your customers part 1 – send them a ‘complimentary’ gift, and make them pay for it!

A friend recently received this ice scraper in the post

The Joy Of Text!

Just back from a visit to Sheffield Enterprise Agency SENTA.

Chief Executive Sandra Edwards told me about the simple use of text messaging to remind people about upcoming appointments, confirmation of booking on training courses and other personal messages to customers.

Feedback shows that customers value the personal touch and appointment attendance is up significantly. Simple stuff, but it works.

Ever thought of using alternative ways to engage with your customers?

Power To The People!

Fancy getting the best seat on your next plane journey? Check out SeatGuru to see a website that compares seats and facilities on airlines around the world. Thinking of a romantic weekend away and need a hotel? Get the opinions of other

Performing At Parkdean!

Just back from a great couple of days at Parkdean Holidays Annual Management Conference – a fantastic bunch of people.

Part of the Conference involved teams of people ‘demonstrating’ the values of the business via sketches, songs, even a poem! It was great to see individuals throwing themselves into this and using their creativity, imagination, passion and sense of fun – if they perform to only 10% of that in their daily jobs, no wonder they’re such a successful business.

For those that were there – ‘Well Done’.

Here are the slides from my presentation, and here’s a paper I wrote called ‘Vision, Values and Victors’ which you might find useful.

For those that weren’t there – How would your team demonstrate your Values? Why not get them to do it. Have a ‘fun’ session, and get them to stretch their imaginations. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Contact me if you want any help doing it.

If David Cameron Was A Business

Business, like politics, is about ‘TRUST’. People buy from people and businesses they trust.

That means businesses that acknowledge it when they get things wrong, that don’t hide, and show respect for their customers by being up front and honest.

Now, I don’t care whether Cameron took drugs when he was 15, but I am intrigued by his reluctance to admit something that happened so long ago when he was young! Surely an admission demonstrates ‘he’s human’ (some would even say it gives him ‘street cred’ with some of the electorate) and that he ‘made mistakes’ (who hasn’t?).

A company that admits mistakes when things go wrong certainly goes up in my estimation.

This isn’t a political rant. It’s a marketing one.

When it seems quite clear that your competitors seem to be lacking in the ‘trust’ department, then that’s an opportunity – but only if you take it. David Cameron has a great opportunity to build trust with his ‘prospective customers’. I’ll be interested to see if he takes it!

So, a question: disregarding his politics for a minute, if David Cameron was a business, would you buy from him?

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